Planning a budget, making reservations, planning transportation – so many variables play into planning a Disney theme park family vacation. This week we asked our Parenting Panel: How far in advance do you start planning your Disney vacations?
Chris Salata, also known as GusMan, is a Disney-inspired author and photographer, and loves to help people get the most out of their Disney vacation. Chris writes:
Disney trip planning has changed quite a bit over the past decade. There are many different components that now need to be considered in order to really have the best trip possible. Granted, you don't need to plan as much as some others may, but many would say that the times of last minute planning is all but gone with the wind.
For my family, especially being Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members, we start our planning process about 12 months out. This is because we tend to get our room set up at our home resort at the 11-month time frame. However, even when we book non-DVC resorts, we still book as soon as we know when we want to go, even if there are no offers available at that time. This is because I believe it is best to have a room of your own choosing, rather than worrying if you can get a room later. Any special offers can be added on later, pending availability and other restrictions. We simply keep our eyes open throughout the planning process and act when needed.
Once we know when we want to go, we determine how we are going to get there around the nine month mark. Lately, we have made the 1,200-plus mile journey by car, so we start figuring out which days we would leave and where we would stop along the way and back. If our journey requires us to fly due to time constraints, this is when we start looking into flight times and costs. We may not necessarily purchase tickets at this time, but investigating now puts it on the radar. It's also a good time to make sure that we are financially set for the trip as once you buy the plane tickets, you pretty much just sunk your money in something where you can't get it back.
At the seven-month mark, we determine the kinds of dining that we wish to include in our trip. Because the dining plan does not really work well for our family, we have some added flexibility as to how to plan this out. At the same time, planning at this point really helps us when we hit the 180-day mark, which is when you are eligible to make the actual Advance Dining Reservations (ADR). At the 180-day mark, in most cases, those reservations can be made. This is even more important if you are on the dining plan.
About five months from our trip, if not a bit sooner, we purchase our plane tickets, if conditions merit. Once we do, we tend to not keep going back and seeing if prices went down, etc. There are some things that are worth trying to save some money, but this is like the lodging – sometimes its better to just have the arrangements in hand than not have arrangements at all.
About three months out, if we are driving, I start making sure that our truck is ready to make the trip. This might seem like a lot of time to prepare a vehicle, but it gives me enough time to work out any issues that might come up. It also gives me time to take a small road trip beforehand to make sure that everything is in top notch mechanical condition. That may seem excessive, but one time I bought new tires three days before a trip. Everything seemed fine going home. However, once we got on the highway on our way to Florida, there was a solid vibration at 70 mph. Turns out, there was a flaw in one of the tires. Now, things are scheduled with enough time for adjustments.
At 60 days, FastPass selections are made. We also purchase Memory Maker at this time. I submit for a new Disney Rewards card if needed. I usually double check all reservations and print out a lot of things just in case there is a technology breakdown.
At 30 days, we start packing. For us, its a slow process, starting with non-clothing items. As we get closer to the time of departure, we keep a close eye on the Weather Channel and fine tune our clothing options.
In the last 30 days, it is a mad dash for the starting line. Planning out all the different things that need to happen at the last minute. From lawn mowing and bill paying, to stopping the mail and making sure the pets are taken care of, it is all in preparation for our time away from home.
I really wish I can say that this is an all-inclusive list of planning items. Truth be told, many of the planning items come from dealing with different past experiences. While many of what I listed above seems like a lot of coordination, it is very reasonable over a period of time. The important part is that you prepare in a manner that helps you the best way possible.
Mary Kraemer is an avid Disney fan and a co-owner at EscapadeAdventures, who loves to travel with her husband and children to Disney destinations as often as possible. Mary writes:
This is a tricky question because I have different answers, depending on whether the trip is to the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort (WDW), or the Disney Cruise Line (DCL) because my schedule is very different for each of these vacations. And my perspective is very different because I plan Disney vacations all the time.
Ideally, the best time to start planning a DCL vacation is when new itineraries are released, because that’s the time when pricing is the least expensive. DCL sailings are unique in that there are few discounted offers and the rule of thumb is as the ship capacity fills, rates go up. If you already have a reservation when an offer is released, your vacation can be repriced, as long as you haven’t paid in full. How far in advance are new itineraries released? Expect to anticipate your vacation for 12-18 months, but the wait is worth it.
The magic number for a WDW vacation is 180 days (six months) before arrival. Why? Because that’s the date when dining reservations can be booked for your vacation dates. Is it so important to book dining that far in advance? Yes, actually, at Walt Disney World, it is—if you have specific locations where you want to dine, such as a character meal at Chef Mickey’s or dinner at Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom (the latter reservations disappear nearly instantly). So, backtrack a little bit from the 180-day mark, and start your planning at least two weeks before that point, so you can decide on the resort you want and have your deposited reservation set up in My Disney Experience App.
You might ask…but what if there are no discounts for WDW for my travel dates if I book that far in advance? Well, reservations can be repriced after deposit (but before final payment), and a good travel agent will do this for you. But beware if you opt for a package through an online or “Big Box” travel seller because they likely will not reprice for you after booking.
In addition, I strongly recommend a Disney Visa for WDW planning, because often, new offers are released to Disney Visa cardholders before the general public, and if you have a reservation already deposited with a Disney Visa, or you want to make a new reservation with one, you’ll have the best selection of rooms at the discounted rate. Disney limits the number of rooms at participating resorts with any offer, and if the allotment is sold out by Disney Visa cardholders before it gets to the general public on-sale…well, it’s just not available.
The fever for dining reservations doesn’t drive Disneyland bookings quite as hard as it does for WDW, and Disneyland’s dining reservations open 60 days in advance of arrival. However, for special dining options, such as World of Color or Fantasmic dining packages, I always recommend having deposited reservations in place before the 60-day mark. If you want to visit during an especially popular time, such as Christmas to New Years, Thanksgiving, or Easter week, it’s best to make reservations as early as possible (at least several months in advance).
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry, his wife, Diane, Samantha (15), and twins Casey and Alex (12), live on Long Island and are all major Disney and Walt Disney World fans. Chris writes:
As Disney fans I’m quite sure we’re always plotting the next trip in our heads. It starts the day we come home. Sometimes, it even starts while we’re in Walt Disney World. How many times have you completed the following sentence while walking around a park or resort? “Next time we come here we’ll…” It happens all the time. When it comes down to the actual nuts and bolts of planning out a trip, however, we surprisingly don’t plan that far out.
We typically wait for Disney to offer up one of their room-only discount packages. They have been releasing them like clockwork for many years now. Once the discount is posted…usually right here on MousePlanet’s weekly update…the seed is firmly planted in my head and I can start crunching numbers.
This has been the pattern for the last several years. We have gone on a shorter trip in late August, or for a long weekend in September or October on a Disney offered deal. We’ve gotten as much as 40 percent off a Deluxe room operating this way. Translate that to Disney's Polynesian Village Resort for under $300 a night or, most recently, Disney's Yacht Club Resort for around $250 a night. That’s not cheap, but, all things considered, it’s a great deal for those resorts.
That said, we have typically been able to throw our trips together relatively quickly. In the 11 years that we’ve been taking our family trips to Disney we have never booked any longer than, I would say, four months out. Looking back at my files and old e-mail folders, it’s more like three months out. That may sound preposterous to readers who are DVC members and can book trips 10 months out, or those of you that book Cinderella’s Royal Table at six months out. But, we prefer it that way. I have no interest in booking dinner reservations six months ahead of my trip. My wife runs her own business and it’s pretty difficult for her to plan anything that far in advance. We just can’t do it, and we’ve been pretty happy with our results.
Two years ago, my Walt Disney World trip for my two sons and me for 8 days in mid-August was only finalized in mid-June. So, it obviously can be done. I bought my park tickets at my local AAA Travel office just a few days before we left. We didn’t get into Cinderella’s Royal Table or Le Cellier, but we were able to score plenty of good dining reservations, surprisingly decent airfare and the rooms we wanted at Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort, all within a two-month window.
It’s also not as financially pressing booking this way. When you book a room-only reservation with Disney, you only have to put down a deposit for one night in advance, and you can still cancel or change details at five days out. Full payment is due upon arrival. Full payment with a Disney Travel package is due 45 days before arrival, and any changes within those 45 days are subject to fees. To me, waiting for a room-only discount and booking this way offers affordability and flexibility, and it delays me from emptying my bank account until actual trip time.
The one wrinkle that surfaced on our last trip this past September was due to FastPass+. We got the usual good Disney room-only deal booking a few months out, as always. As usual we waited to buy our park tickets until just a week or so out at AAA and realized, of course, once we linked our tickets on My Disney Experience, that it was pretty difficult to get several of the FastPasses we really wanted. Next time, I’ll still wait for a good Disney deal, but I’ll probably buy the park tickets earlier and link them online earlier in order to get more of the FastPasses that we really want. However, I’m still not booking anything that far out. Trust me, once I’m at Walt Disney World, we’ll be just as happy as the family next to us that’s been booked for 10 months.
It's your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
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