Not all personality types love Disney World trips as much as others, so I have advice today on tailoring your plans for various personalities.
I also have news and a quick tip of the day regarding refillable mugs.
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These are notes from this episode. There's much more info included in the audio so be sure to listen to the episode for a better explanation.
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Myers-Briggs type indicators and Disney World trips
First, you'll need to determine the personalities of everybody in your family. You can take a short quiz or longer version to help figure that out.
Planning by types:
- EJ types (ESTJ, ENFJ, ENTJ and ESFJ) are the most likely to enjoy the typical Disney World trips that include being around lots of people and having a structure in place.
- IJ types (INFJ, ISFJ, INTJ, and ISTJ) are likely to enjoy the structure of Disney World trips but not the crowds, so good touring plans to avoid crowds plus afternoon breaks will be helpful for allowing these types to recharge and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
- IP types (INFP, INTP, ISTP, and ISFP) are the least likely to enjoy a typical Disney World trip because they will often feel boxed in by all of the plans. A trip with more spontaneity and freedom will be more appealing to IPs. See podcast episode 87 on doing Disney World without a lot of advanced planning for help with that.
- EP types (ENFP, ESFP, ENTP, and ESFP) are more about the journey than the destination and will likely enjoy learning about things as they plan and taking their time getting to Orlando (perhaps on a road trip or by train).
News
- The Great Movie Ride has had a few updates including signage and the pre-show
- Food and Wine Festival has had some details announced recently, including the Eat to the Beat concert lineup. See my Food and Wine Festival overview for 2015 for more info.
- Harambe Market in the Africa section of Animal Kingdom has opened. See the complete list of Animal Kingdom dining options for more info.
- Rapid Fill refillable mugs have had the pricing change recently. The 1, 2 and 3 day options have gone away and the length-of-stay pricing is now $16.49 instead of $17.99.
Quick tip of the day
A listener named Lisa emailed me with this tip: take your refillable mugs to the food court to fill them up, and then return to your room and pour them into the disposable cups in your room and take the disposable cups to the parks with you. This will keep you from having to carry around your refillable mugs all day.
Have a quick tip of your own? Call it in at https://www.speakpipe.com/WDWPrepToGo
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Hi Shannon,
I LOVED this episode! As someone who holds an MS in Counseling I just want to say, major props for doing premarital counseling and for having your children do this assessment!!!
I fell in love with the MBTI-II during my graduate program (I’m an ISFJ). The fact that it’s based off of 30+ years of research makes it so reliable and applicable to every (or almost every) facet of life. I’m the planner for my husband’s and my trip in April 2016 and the fact that we’re both I’s was a huge factor in deciding when to schedule our trip. In our experience, a lot of people (E’s) just don’t get how emotionally and physically draining being around people can be, thank you for bringing awareness to it! We’re not “wrong,” “bad,” or “wimpy” (yes, someone did call me that!) for finding crowds and loads of stimuli exhausting, we’re just different! 🙂
The idea behind this podcast (plan in accordance with what people in your group like) is a good one, but it’s unfortunate that you choose to base it on Myers-Briggs, which has pretty conclusively been shown to be completely made up and entirely without scientific validity. It’s like planning your WDW trip based on astrology signs.
Even more than trip planning, I would be extremely wary of telling young people to take one of these personality quizzes, out of fear that they will give the results more credibility than deserved (which is none at all) and then put themselves inside that artificial box as they start to think about their futures. I would just stick to planning based on specific and objective criteria, like “hate to wake up early” or “afraid of roller coasters.”
Shannon, this is great! Like you, I’m an ESTJ and I loved planning our Feb ’15 trip and all the structure it gave us. I told friends I didn’t remember putting so much planning into something since I planned my wedding almost 20 years ago, and I loved every minute of it. We were there during a slow to moderate time so the crowds weren’t much of a problem (relatively speaking) but I think I could have easily handled more. My husband really liked the structure but pushed for afternoon breaks. This is a good reminder to make sure everyone has a say in what you do so no one gets too stressed out.
One thing about taking the refillable mugs into the parks… If you are eating at table service for one of your meals… I have always made sure to ask for one more refill of my drink before we leave the restaurant. Then i just dump it into my refillable mug and take it with me.
Hi Shannon, just a comment on the crowds,we went May 3 to May 9 to WDW.The crowd calendars
all said low to moderate crowds, let me tell you the place was very crowded, lots of school
groups and a lot of European people. The calendars said mostly, 4 out of 10, I would hate to see what 8 or 9 out of 10 looks like.
Hi, Barbara –
There really aren’t times when the parks are super empty so busy is relative. I was there a week after you and it was definitely moderate crowds. It’s so much worse during busy times.
I was at Disneyland earlier this year and it was a slow day. We waited less than 15 minutes to ride most attractions. My friend was there the same day (we found out later) and complained that it was miserable and crowded. Turns out he hadn’t been in 2o years so he didn’t realize that what he experienced was actually “light” crowds.
I’ve personally experienced wait times of 3 hours or more when Cars Land opened and decades ago when Indiana Jones was new, and also on New Years Eve…so I know heavy (Level 10) crowds when I see them. Those that have never done a Disney park may not quite know the difference between the crowd levels and therefore are disappointed when their expectations aren’t met.
It might be a fun post to tell people what “Light,” “Moderate” and “Heavy” crowds look like in reality. I’m getting a feeling that people see light crowds and expect to walk on to all attractions. It might also help to drive your point home of getting there early, taking a break, and going back out.
Thanks for all you do.
Turns out I’m INTJ which I wasn’t really expecting….. but I gotta say, your description of how to structure a WDW trip for IJ types is absolutely spot on! Thanks for such an usual approach to trip planning. I will save this info for when we travel with people that have totally different personality types than ours!
*UNusual approach! oops