diff --git a/go/vt/vtgate/planbuilder/ddl.go b/go/vt/vtgate/planbuilder/ddl.go
index d61a8997ced..f0627c8723c 100644
--- a/go/vt/vtgate/planbuilder/ddl.go
+++ b/go/vt/vtgate/planbuilder/ddl.go
@@ -24,10 +24,11 @@ const (
 // This is why we return a compound primitive (DDL) which contains fully populated primitives (Send & OnlineDDL),
 // and which chooses which of the two to invoke at runtime.
 func buildGeneralDDLPlan(sql string, ddlStatement sqlparser.DDLStatement, vschema ContextVSchema) (engine.Primitive, error) {
-	normalDDLPlan, onlineDDLPlan, err := buildDDLPlans(sql, ddlStatement, vschema)
 	if vschema.Destination() != nil {
 		return buildByPassDDLPlan(sql, vschema)
 	}
+
+	normalDDLPlan, onlineDDLPlan, err := buildDDLPlans(sql, ddlStatement, vschema)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}