Hey everyone, it's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD.
Currently it is September of 2020, which would normally mean
I would be in pretty intense planning mode right now for my next trip to Walt
Disney World Today's video is going to be more of a
chat and less informational, but stay tuned if you want to pontificate about
future travel plans with me and perhaps commiserate a little bit.
For easily over a year now I have known that I wanted to go to Walt Disney World
in September of 2021. There were several factors that went into this specific
timing. First, my partner and I normally go every
other year and those happen to be in odd numbered years. So I knew
2021 would be a Disney year for us. Second,
I am pretty dang intolerant of the intense heat and humidity, especially in
central Florida in the summers, so when we think about going about
Disney World we really only ever consider September through February or
maybe March. And even September is pushing it a
little bit. We have done theme parks during September and it is still
hot. It's definitely not fall, but it's not nearly as miserable as
July for example. Also recently we've been going in November or December and I
really love that time of year in Florida-- the weather is generally speaking very
palatable-- it's super beautiful and the parks are all dressed up for the
holidays, which is fun. But I would like to experience the parks
without being so holiday overlaid for once.
Don't get me wrong, I love the holiday decor, but all of my recent pictures in
the parks have all the holiday decor in every single park. I just want to get
some magic shots that maybe aren't Christmas themed for once.
Three, the biggest factor for me is the upcoming 50th anniversary. So Walt Disney
World, which was Magic Kingdom at the time,
opened on October 1st, 1971, making October 1st
of 2021 the 50th anniversary. Now we don't know what all the plans for
the 50th anniversary will be and we can't necessarily predict attendance
ever, but I would bet that a lot of people
are going to be heading down to Walt Disney World for the 50th.
I'm sure that all the planned activities and festivities and events and special
treats etc. are going to be spectacular and I think that would be
super fun. At the same time, I know for me that I have
pretty bad crowd anxiety so if I can avoid events where I know
loads of people will be there all at one time I do want to do that.
And we don't know how long the 50th celebration anniversary is going to last.
It could be that by January of 2022 or February
maybe all those crowds will have died down, but we just don't know. So the
safest bet in my opinion is to go before the 50th anniversary, so September. And
the last couple considerations for a September 2021 trip for us
is that (1) September does contain the lowest
DVC point season for 2021; so September 1st through 19th will be the least
amount of points you would need to spend if you are DVC in order to stay.
And (2) also I've never been to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and I am
pretty interested in doing that. Easily over a year ago when I started
sketching out our potential 2021 trip I also knew at that time that our 2019
trip was not going to be very long. We really just didn't have the vacation
days to spend on our 2019 trip. We ended up doing
four full park days; so one day at each park and then we also had
basically an extra half day and we spent that at the Magic Kingdom.
Even way back when before that 2019 trip, since I knew it would be shorter, I also
knew I wanted our 2021 trip to be on the longer side.
The general sketch that's been ruminating in my head for probably a
year and a half or longer now was something like
a 10 to 14 total night trip. Realistically it'll probably have to be
on the lower end of that due to work constraints, but somewhere between 6
and 10 work days, and then those two weekends encompassing as well.
I have been imagining two days at Universal at the beginning--both my
partner and I really enjoy thrill rides; we love roller coasters so Universal is
a good pit stop for us. And then the rest of the time would be
at Disney World. And I imagined that this would be something like
two to four nights at either a value or moderate resort,
and then for the rest of the time I would split it up into two trips and
each of those we would have rented DVC points.
So three total hotels: one being directly through Disney--either a value
or moderate--and then the other two would have been DVC villas where we rented out
points. I did have roughly in mind what I wanted
the DVC villas to be, but since we're renting out points we don't have total
control of the process and so I obviously wanted to be relatively
flexible with that. But ideally that first stint would have been BoardWalk or
Beach Club, and the second part would have been a Magic Kingdom resort--ideally
Bay Lake Tower or the Polynesian, but I would be open to the others as well.
And to finish things off I had been imagining that that middle stint, so our
first DVC rented villa, we would add the dining
plan on to. There are several more expensive dining
experiences that my partner and I have not done yet, basically because
I can't swallow that kind of check at the end of the meal. And I know the
dining plan is incredibly expensive, but there's something psychologically about
paying for the dining plan and then planning out what we're going to order
and making sure we're really getting our money's worth versus
just ordering what we normally would-- which would be
far less and far less extravagant--and paying for that out of pocket.
And in particular split stays that incorporate a DVC portion
make adding the dining plan to just a couple of nights pretty easy.
In my head this BoardWalk or whichever DVC villa that we would be staying in
the middle of our vacation would only probably be two nights, so two nights of
the dining plan wouldn't be too bad and we would have those three days to use up
all the credits. This general plan has been ruminating in
my mind obviously very loosely for quite a long time.
Now that we are a year out from when basically I want to be in Walt Disney
World, typically now I would be locking things down more.
So my partner and I would be looking at our work schedules and figuring out our
vacation allotments in order to really nail down those dates more.
From there I would take over most the planning where I'm deciding more or less
which parks we want to do on which days, which park in the morning,
which park in the evening, ideally what fast passes we want slotted on what days,
and same with dining reservations. Then once that 11 month window opened up
we would be submitting a request to rent DVC points.
However, things have obviously changed a little bit both because the coronavirus
pandemic but also we do have a pending resale Disney Vacation Club contract.
Let's set the pending DVC contract aside and focus a little more on the pandemic
aspects right now. Normally I would rent DVC points without
any hesitation; we've done it before, it's a process that I trust, it's a
process that I like, and you save a ton of money compared to just
booking that room through Disney directly. However, renting DVC points is
incredibly inflexible. If you book a hotel you can typically cancel that
pretty dang soon up until you check in; if you rent DVC points that is
absolutely not the case. There is at least one DVC point rental company I
know of where you can purchase an additional protection plan
in order to get some of your money back depending on when you cancel,
but that is an additional price for each reservation and also of course you're
not going to get 100% of your money back. So if you rent DVC points you really are
locking yourself into that vacation. Again, normally I'm totally fine with
that restriction, but given the current global health pandemic I just don't feel
comfortable enough to lock up potentially thousands of dollars
in a Disney Vacation Club a rental right now--a year out from when I actually want
to be at Disney World. I think things are too uncertain right now for me to say
absolutely 100% this time next year i will be in Walt Disney World.
I personally just want to leave more flexibility in my travel plans at this
time. One of the most flexible options is to
book a vacation package directly through Disney.
I went over vacation packages in a previous video that I will link to in
the description below, or you can click the card in this corner.
But ultimately vacation packages are a pretty good way to book both your hotels
as well as your park tickets with some pretty high degree of flexibility. The
cancellation policy for a package is not as generous as the cancellation policy
for just a hotel because those tickets are included,
but there's really no other way to buy tickets and then be able to later cancel
them--at least to my knowledge; if I'm wrong
please let me know in the comments down below.
If we were to go this route we obviously wouldn't be renting DVC points, and I
don't really think the DVC villas are worth the cash rate.
So then we would likely scale our accommodations down a notch; so the first
two to four nights would probably be in a value like Pop Century,
and then the rest of the vacation-- whether it's one hotel or two--
would probably be in a moderate. Maybe if we split it up into two the last two
nights or so we could do in a deluxe, but even that some of those
are like $600 a night and I don't really know if it's worth it
for me personally. The simplest thing of course would be just to book a vacation
package at the same hotel for the entire length of the time we would be at Walt
Disney World. but that doesn't appeal to me a ton, and
so it's probably not a route that I will go down. And
honestly if we end up going this route I probably will work with a Disney travel
agent. That's not something that I've done before because I feel very on top
of planning. Obviously, I'm a detail oriented person, but in this case it
would be nice to have a backup person to help me out as the climate changes and
as everything changes in general. Circling back to our pending DVC
contract... if that closes and the contract becomes
ours it won't close in time for the exact 11 month booking window,
but it definitely will close before the seven month booking window. So I'm
hopeful we would be able to book something at my home resort,
Bay Lake Tower, with relative ease... we'll see.
Our pending contract is for 90 points at Bay Lake Tower and the first points we'll
get will be August of 2021. A week long stay in a standard view
studio during the lowest DVC season of 2021 at Bay Lake Tower cost 97 points.
So I could borrow a few of the 2022 points in order to book a full week,
and if we wanted to book more days, I could borrow more points.
However, once you move points out of their use year
effectively that's it--you can't move them back. As is probably clear by now I
am nervous about the global pandemic general public health,
my personal health, situation even as far out into September of next year.
So I don't know that I would want to be plucking points from 2022 to use them in
2021 when I don't feel certain that I will be
going in September 2021. So if we do get that contract instead of
booking as long of a stay as I hopefully want to do,
I will probably just book a stay that will get us at or under 90 points--so I'm
not touching points from the next use year.
And then we would have until our banking deadline, which this is an August use
year contract so our banking deadline would be March
31st, in order to decide if we really want to go in September
or if we want to go ahead and bank those points into the next use year.
By mid-march if we feel good about the situation and that we definitely will be
going to Walt Disney World in September then we will keep that reservation as is.
From there I'll just look to see what other resorts have
availability to tack on to the beginning or the end of our current Bay Lake Tower
reservation. It's almost certainly going to be at a
different resort, but that's fine. And then I could borrow points from 2022 in
order to book that. Who knows if there will be DVC villa
availability; I'm kind of guessing there might not be that soon to a vacation--if
we were looking in March to be going in September--but I could join wait lists,
and also if that doesn't work out we could always tack nights on probably
to the beginning at a hotel either on or off site.
That's some of the logistics I'm working out in my brain right now, but of course
there are other considerations as well. Right now the experience of the parks is
pretty different, and I am hopeful that that will have
changed a year from now, but let's do a quick run through as a thought exercise.
Previously I have mentioned that meeting characters as well as seeing Happily
Ever After are very important to me. That is quintessential
Walt Disney World and I don't really understand a Disney vacation without
those. Right now there are no character meet and greets and there are no
nighttime spectaculars. So if that is still looking like it will be true
next September I probably would cancel. Personally, I would rather wait and go
sometime in 2022 in order to have those experiences that I desire.
Also currently you have to wear a mask while you're in the parks. And I am very
pro that, I always wear a mask when I leave my
apartment. I totally get it and I'm so happy Disney World is doing that.
That being said I do have concerns about the logistics around eating and drinking
while in the parks then. I know currently you are allowed to eat and drink if you
are stationary, and there are lots of tables set up and
spread out where you can pull over and stop
in order to take your mask off and eat and drink. However, I don't think
I would feel comfortable doing that, and Walt Disney World is so massive it's not
like I could easily just run into my hotel room in order to eat
or to grab a drink. Plus it's really important to stay hydrated throughout
the day at Walt Disney World. The amount of water I normally consume
is quite high. So it doesn't seem feasible to me to go to Walt Disney
World and go to the parks with the intent
of keeping my mask on the entire time I'm outside my hotel room.
I have a pretty strong drive right now to only eat and drink when I deem it
really genuinely safe, so for the most part that is
inside of my apartment. I hope this feeling will evolve over time, but my
overarching point is that if we are still in a place where masks are required
outside I don't know that I'm going to feel
comfortable taking it off to eat and drink in the parks,
and there really isn't a good alternative--especially for drinking, for
consuming water--when you're in the parks because your
hotel room is not going to be super close.
Next there currently is no dining plan offered. As I previously mentioned I had
imagined that this vacation would include a small stint with the dining
plan. We definitely could get a lot of value
out of it, more than we pay for it--I have done that math--
as long as we were able to snag the dining reservations that I'm dreaming of.
These are experiences that we've been putting off for a while, primarily for
money reasons, and I would like to experience them, but I don't think it's a
deal breaker for me because I can always just leave it on my to-do
list for our next trip to Walt Disney World.
Another current factor is that there is no park hopping and you are required to
make park reservations. I personally don't view park hopping as
an absolute necessity, particularly if your trip is a little bit on the shorter
side. My last trip actually where we did
basically four and a half days we just had base tickets and that worked out
really well. Because I've imagined this trip to be
longer though I have imagined park hopping.
I do like Magic Kingdom a lot more in the morning than in the night--although I
do need to see Happily Ever After at least once--
and I like EPCOT a lot more at night than I like it in the morning. So for a
longer trip I was planning on breaking the days up where each day would have a
morning park and an evening park. If we were to have eight or more days
worth of tickets I don't know how I would feel about being locked into one
single park for that entire time. Lack of park hopping probably isn't
quite a deal breaker, but I may shorten my trip if that ends up being the case.
As far as park reservation goes, that's obviously another factor that you have
to plan for, which is a little bit annoying, but I feel confident I would be
able to manage it. The last very big thing I'd like to
discuss is FastPass. So currently there is no FastPass.
That being said right now park capacity is so low that you really don't need
FastPass. I would be legitimately shocked if park
capacity remained relatively low all the way a year from now, and I know
that FastPass does absolutely slow the standby line down--I
totally get that--but with whatever the park capacity is a
year from now I feel like it's not going to be as attractive to not have FastPass
because you will be waiting in much longer standby lines I would guess.
For how expensive a Walt Disney World trip is I really do like FastPass. I
think it's a really nice way to know for sure iIm going to at least get to ride
these three things on one day, these three things on the next day, etc.
Not having access to FastPass reservations I wouldn't say is 100%
a deal breaker for me, but it would be a pretty dang serious consideration.
I really don't like waiting in lines and my partner is even less patient than I
am. And since we were last there in November
2019 there are a few key new openings that we definitely will
want to hit up, but having to wait in a three-hour line in order to experience
those is less than attractive. Overall I am kind of bummed right now
because this is a time period where I assumed I would be really intensely
planning our trip and figuring out which parks we'd want to go to and which Fast
Passes and dining reservations we'd want to snag.
Plus if we were going to purchase the dining plan for that small chunk of our
trip, I would be planning on some really cool
dining experiences for us. But instead I'm just kind of waiting in
limbo. I am trying to remain pretty level-headed and not get my hopes too
far up, but also not be too negative about
the entire situation. Frankly though the high hopes during the
planning phase of any vacation is one of my favorite parts, and I really am
missing that serotonin rush. For now we will wait to see what happens
with that pending DVC contract. If we end up getting it then we're
probably going to book something that stays within that 90 point range.
If that DVC contract doesn't go through and Disney claims it during right of
first refusal, well then we'll probably end up doing
some sort of vacation package; and I don't really feel any rush or impetus to
book that right away. A vacation package is certainly not
something you need to book a full year in advance.
I hope you enjoyed getting this peek into my brain and thought process
surrounding the early stages of planning for my Walt
Disney World trip. It's definitely more complicated now that
times are so plastic. If you did enjoy this video please give it a like and
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If you want to chat about Disney planning, or really anything Disney World,
Disney Vacation Club, or similar, leave a comment down below, or you can find me
over on Twitter and Instagram @PixieDustPhD. How is your Walt Disney
World trip planning going? Do you have any clear deal breakers or not?
And if you have any tips or tricks on injecting that vacation planning
serotonin into your system please do let me know down in the
comments down below. I hope the rest of your day is absolutely wonderful, and
we'll see you real soon at Pixie Dust PhD!