Hey everyone, it's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD!
Planning a trip to Walt Disney World can be completely overwhelming and stressful.
I have definitely been there myself. There are so many steps and details to
consider. If you are feeling frazzled by this process let me walk you through how
I go about it, and maybe that'll help you out!
So here are the basics of how I plan a trip to Walt Disney World.
Step one for me is always start saving money. Whenever I decide I think I've got
a Walt Disney World trip upcoming I start putting away money for that trip.
Even if you do Disney relatively inexpensive, park tickets just
are expensive. Step two is figure out when you can go
logistically, and I mean working around your current schedule with school,
other pre-planned events, big work events, that you're going to have to go to and
absolutely can't miss. This is after all a vacation and so you
do need to figure out when you can go that works with your day-to-day schedule.
Now if that's pretty wide open for you you may have the luxury of deciding
approximately what time of year you want to go.
For example, I personally never want to go in the summer. The heat and the
humidity is just too much for me. I much prefer going in the fall or winter.
So once you've worked around your logistic scheduling constraints then
you can start to pick around preference about what time you would rather go.
The next thing to consider are if there are any scheduled Walt Disney World
events that you would really like to attend.
By this I mean things like Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, the Very Merry
Christmas Party, or maybe there's a specific festival at EPCOT that you
really want to check out. Very often these events are offered
seasonally, so then you'll want to plan your vacation around that season when
these events tend to take place. And then once you've narrowed down your
options based on that if you still have options this is when I like to consult
crowd calendars. These are not official through Disney;
you will find these on third party websites, but they can be extremely
helpful in trying to figure out when crowds
might be lighter at the parks. Note that there's really never a time
when the parks are empty. Even a light crowd season is going to be relatively
busy, but there's a big difference between
going in the middle of September after Labor Day--after folks are already
back in school--versus Christmas week for example. So in
particular if large crowds are something you want to
avoid I would definitely consult a crowd calendar.
Step 3 is deciding roughly where you want to stay. I would normally narrow it
down to just a couple of options at this point.
And then I like to start tracking the prices of those places and eventually
book them. If you are staying on Disney vacation
club points, whether they are your own or you are renting them,
that window opens up 11 months in advance--so almost an entire year you can
book your accommodations. If you are planning on staying on
property and you want to dine at popular locations it would be in your best
interest to have your hotel booked before the six month mark. As I'm filming
this right now we are sort of in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, so
advanced dining reservations actually aren't opening up until
sixty, 60, days in advance. But typically this happens 180 days in advance, and I'm
going to assume at some point Walt Disney World will revert to that system.
So if you want to snag some hard to get reservations having your on property
hotel booked before that 180 days in advance mark
will allow you to book dining for your entire vacation.
And if dining reservations don't particularly matter to you but Fast
Passes do then you will want to have your on property reservation booked at
least 60 days in advance in order to make those FastPasses
60 days in advance. If you're planning on staying off property it doesn't matter
as much when you book your hotel. I personally just like to track prices
and then book when it drops to a certain price that I feel comfortable booking.
And during this time, well in advance of my trip when I'm tracking hotel prices,
this is typically also when I track flight prices. So obviously if you're
driving down to Walt Disney World you don't need to worry about this, but I do
fly down to Walt Disney World. And so I typically keep track of what my
various flight options are and how much those cost.
Now I don't often book my airfare until about six weeks out, but I do like to
have that sort of longer term data of the pricing to figure out what is or is
not a good price. Step four is in my opinion the hardest,
and this is basically you want to roughly sketch out your vacation.
By this I mean which parks are you visiting on which days, and what are you
hoping to get done on those days, like where are you
hoping to eat, what are you hoping to ride, etc.
None of this is set in stone, it's just a rough sketch, but it will help you figure
out everything else you need to do. If you're buying base ticket theme park
admission, meaning you don't have the park hopper option,
this step is may be a little bit simpler because you really only have to plan for
one park a day and you don't have to consider switching
parks necessarily in the middle of the day.
Of course confining yourself to one park a day also means confining yourself to
only those parks options and the resort options,
but you won't have to worry about oh food in Magic Kingdom as well as
food in EPCOT. During this step I tend to consult various crowd calendars in order
to pick which parks I'll be attending what days,
and this is true whether or not I have a park hopper. With base tickets, like I
said, it makes it a little bit more straightforward but
even with park hoppers I will still consult the crowd calendars, think
about what park in the morning I want to attend and what park in the evening I
want to attend. You'll also sort of have to prioritize
during this time. So if there is a specific ride you
definitely want to ride I will usually slot that ride
and that park day later in my vacation. This logic really only helps if you are
staying on property. The idea being that the very first day
of your vacation when you start to book your FastPasses
you will have all those extra days to try to book that thing that you really
want to do on your last couple of days. And a lot of
other guest staying on property won't have that booking window yet because it's not
60 or 30 days in advance of this last day of your vacation.
And the same logic also applies to dining. If there is a dining location
that you really want to do and it's a hard to snag reservation
when I'm sketching out my vacation in step four I will usually imagine that
day to be sort of towards the end of my vacation.
Part of this is also personal philosophy. For me I like to leave the things that I
am looking forward to the most until last in the vacation.
That way you're still building up the excitement the entire time you're there.
If you are planning this super far in advance, say 11 months or even further
sometimes, note that often Disney hasn't released
things like extra morning magic hours or even park hours for the dates of your
trip. So you will need step four to stay relatively flexible until you are
further down the line in your planning. For example, once extra morning magic
hours are announced I usually do have to rejigger my plans a little bit.
If I have park hoppers I like to go to Magic Kingdom on the mornings where
there are morning extra magic hours and get there
super early. I love Magic Kingdom in the morning; I think it's a great morning
park. And then when i'm taking my midday break
after Magic Kingdom I almost never go back, and I will park hop somewhere else.
But even if you have base tickets you might want to pay attention to those
extra magic hours time slots and the various parks they're at on any given
day, and if you want to avoid crowds the
canonical advice would be don't go to that park on that day. So
overall to sketch out my general vacation I consult crowd calendars, I
look at the extra magic hour schedule, and then also I just take in my general
preference for what I want to do and if I'm park hopping which parks I
prefer in the morning versus which parks I prefer in the evening.
So like I said step four is a lot, it's very big, it's overwhelming.
If you're traveling with a party definitely get their input, maybe try to
have them help you out and take some of the burden off you the planner.
And then step five is deciding with a pretty high degree of confidence where
you want to dine, and then for any table service
restaurants your dining booking day will come and you will book those table
service restaurants. Step six is similar but now it's for
FastPasses. So you'll prioritize which FastPasses you're really going to try
to get, and then when your booking window opens
up to book those FastPasses you will go ahead and do that.
So after step six is done a vast majority of your planning should be done
and you can pretty much relax. At this point I do tend to fine tune
things. I will start to try to shift reservations up or down maybe a
half hour depending on what's going on in the day,
and also if I wasn't able to snag an advanced dining reservation or a Fast
Pass I really really wanted I will continue to check that
multiple times a day and try to make those reservations. This does not always
work out, but you would be surprised how often it will
work out. For example, on my last trip to Walt Disney World I went with my partner
and two of our friends. All of us really wanted to go to Oga's
Cantina but none of us were able to snag a reservation for four people
at all, like at any time of day--we would have gone first thing in the morning
honestly. And so all four of us agreed to just
casually check for reservations when we had a few moments to spare.
We would look either on the app on our phones or online at DisneyWorld.com
and one day, not that long before our trip, my friend did manage to snag a
really great reservation; it was for all four of us and I think it was around 7 pm.
People are constantly adjusting their plans when they're going to Walt Disney
World and so you never really know when dining reservations or FastPasses that
were previously occupied are now freed up and for you to take.
Step seven for me tends to be booking transportation so my flights to and from
Orlando. I almost never do this more than 60 days
in advance, but it's very, very important that you do finish this
step. So even though you're very consumed in the details of your Disney time,
don't forget that you do have to get to Orlando and get back home.
And if you're using Disney's Magical Express bus once you've booked your
flights you'll want to go ahead and update all that information.
And throughout this entire process if I'm being diligent I am keeping an eye
on that Disney specials page and looking for any
new room discounts or free dining package, or anything like that.
And if those come up after I've already booked some stuff I will see if I can
get those to apply to my reservation. Often you'll have to call Disney to do
this, or if you don't really want to handle that you can definitely work with
a Disney specific travel agent. I have never worked with a travel agent
myself, not yet anyway, I'm considering doing it for my upcoming trip,
basically just because um I really like being in control of
everything. But if all this sounds like a lot and it's really
overwhelming and you want someone else there to help you out and back you up
definitely a travel agent is a good option.
And then step eight is really relax and enjoy. Typically once I'm around
30 days out from my vacation I stop tinkering with things.
Even if it's not 100 percent everything you ever wanted it's still going to be an amazing
vacation, and at some point it is just worth it for me to
stop and accept how it's going to be and be happy with that than to be constantly
refreshing and checking the app for new FastPasses or new dining reservations.
So at some point you need to just stop, relax, and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
And that is basically how I go through planning a Walt Disney World vacation!
It is absolutely a lot of steps, but I do tend to start
pretty dang early--so it's a lot spread out over a very long period of time.
It doesn't feel too bad to me, and honestly the part where you're sort of
figuring out what your vacation will be, deciding where to go on what days, what
you want to eat, what FastPasses you're hoping to get,
i think that that's really fun. And often if I'm overwhelmed with work or another
aspect of my life I will take 20 or 30 minutes away to think about my
upcoming Disney trip and do some planning. For me it's
exciting to think about upcoming trips, and also that planning time really does
pay off in the end--like I said I then get to enjoy all the fruits of my
labor once I'm on vacation. If you found this information helpful I
hope you consider liking the video. If you're a returning viewer and
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whenever I post new videos. If you want to chat about anything
Disney leave a comment down below, or you can find me on other platforms like
Twitter and Instagram @PixieDustPhD. What part of the Disney
planning process do you enjoy the most, and what part do you dread the most?
Is there anything you do during your planning that I didn't talk about that
you think would be helpful for other people to know?
Leave a comment down below! I hope the rest of your day is super magical, and
we'll see you next time at Pixie Dust PhD!