Sheep Herding At Disney: Using A Special Section In My Planner

Two weeks ago, we announced to our 4 and 7 year old children that we had booked two days at a working sheep farm for vacation.  Feeling bad about deceiving your kids with Santa?  Don't.  My husband and I are clearly the meanest parents on the planet (at least according to our 7 year old, as he marches in the humid Louisiana sunshine to train for "sheep herding" trip).  

The truth?  Next week, we are going to Disney World for the very first time in the kids' lives!

We didn't know if we could swing Disney this year, budget-wise or time-wise, but the answer ended up being yes.  With school and other obligations, we realized that we would have to book the trip at the last minute (3 weeks in advance) and we would have to suck up the cost.  Since booking the trip, we have been obsessively planning.

(I suspect my friends might be about to stage an intervention.  It won't work.  {sticks out tongue}  Seriously, they love me, but they don't understand just how much planning soothes my nerves!)

First things first.  I got out my planner and created a section just for Disney.

Understand, I have a great working system of a capture page in the front of the planner, a weekly spread, and a monthly spread, so I was not going to mess with that. If you have a system that works, use it!

The Disney section is only for extra stuff.  Usually, stuff like that would go in the project or files section, but I knew I would be using the Disney notes too much in the next three weeks to justify hiding it in those parts of the planner.  A special section is justified anytime you are working on a major project.  (I would do the same if I was buying a new house or having a baby.  Anything huge!) (Yes, I did just equate a trip to Disney with having a baby.)

While researching Disney, I discovered that I needed to buy quite a few things. Apparently, I need a backpack filled with water bottles with filters, hand sanitizer, and cheap ponchos.  Who knew?  I have a separate coupon planner that I use for grocery and shopping lists, so for now, anything the internet said I NEEDED to have went on my capture page.  (Shush it.  Needed, people.  They said I NEEDED it.)

Obviously, the dates and times of specific Disney-related events (check-in at the resort, opening time of the park of the day, and meal reservation times) went on my monthly page.

Tasks, as usual, went on my weekly pages.  We had to buy and download the touringplans app, where I had to enter parks and reservations while my husband entered the attractions we hoped to see.  (Division of labor is a fabulous thing.)  There are maps to be acquired and printed.  Tinkerbell care packages to be put together.  All of those tasks went inside of my regular set-up so that nothing slips through the cracks.

Would there be anything left for the Disney section of the planner?  Why, of course!

There is an agenda (to help my husband and me enter the right info in the touring app).

A list of park hours is handy.

I made a checklist for when we arrive at the park, since there were too many things to do to fit everything on my weekly pages.  Things like requesting wake-up calls (in a character's voice), giving the Tinkerbell gift to the boys (filled with stuff like autograph books and glow sticks for nighttime parades), and plugging in the charger for the computers and phones in the room made this list.  I won't forget to check this list because I noted "@resort: checklist" in my weekly pages.

I also made lists of everything that I am packing (using the internet and my master packing list as guides).  I divided these lists by the container that the stuff would be packed in (e.g., my suitcase, kids' suitcase, backpack, thermal tote, car).  These lists will also come in handy for making sure we don't leave anything at the resort.

I went ahead and started packing whenever I could, in a designated area in my kitchen. I just check it off whenever I pack the item.

I made a log for use in the Disney parks themselves.  It gives me a place to check off when we eat an extra meal or snack on the Disney Dining Plan and reminds me to apply sunblock, take a picture of the kids, take pictures of our parking spots, and write phone numbers on the kids' bellies in sharpie markers everyday.

Since we paid for the Disney Dining Plan, I made individual lists for each park of our families likely favorite things to eat that are covered by the dining plan.  

I have decided that my planner is not going into the park, so I don't lose it, so I purchased this plastic, sort of waterproof container to bring only the pages that I need to the park each day in my backpack.  Note the Mickey colored binder clips!

Yes, I understand that this post can be used as evidence that I am obsessed.  But all this planning means that, when we check in at Walt Disney World, I can relax and enjoy.

The kids are going to go wild when they realize there is no actual sheep herding farm.  We aren't telling them until we arrive at the gates.

Etcetera.