First Steps to Planning a Walt Disney World Vacation

Congratulations! You have decided to start planning a Disney vacation aka a trip to the happiest place on earth. Now what? Whether you are a first time visitor or a seasoned professional, the steps to planning your trip are the same.

Decide Your Budget

Before you can plan any vacation, the best suggestion I can give is to figure out what you want to realistically can spend.  This is important to do at the very beginning because once you start looking at videos, pictures, and suggestions, it is easy to get caught up in the magic of what you would like and can lead to disappointment later when you realize you cannot afford it. It is like the old rule for wedding dress shopping – never try on a dress you can’t afford, you will inevitably fall in love with that one. If you know you can’t afford a two-week stay at a Deluxe resort complete with club service, don’t look up what it includes.

When making your budget make sure you factor in the following:

• Transportation to Walt Disney World
• Accommodations
• Transportation at Walt Disney World
• Meals
• Souvenirs
• Extra Magic

There are so many ways to save for a Disney vacation from discounted tickets, to hotels, to extra activities that I will be making an entirely different post to cover all of the ways you can make your budget work for you.

Learn as much as you can

Walt Disney World is a vacation that takes planning and you can never have too much information. They are constantly updating, renovating, and adding new experiences so even if you have visited previously, chances are things have changed since your last trip. My personal favorite travel books are the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and Birnbaum’s. They are updated each year to bring you the most current content and they also offer a book about planning a trip for the kids! You can click the covers below to check them out for yourself.

 

Another great source of information is youtube. There are so many Disney review channels that it is hard to pick a favorite. There are some dedicated to food, some first-hand experiences, some talk about history, and many more that cover everything else!

Read blogs! This should seem like an obvious idea considering you are already reading one, but learning what others have done right or sometimes more importantly what they did wrong on their last trip can help you avoid making the same mistakes. Whether you are unsure if a certain hotel is right for you, don’t know what restaurant to try, or what you need to bring with you into the parks, there is definitely someone who has tried it before and can help you with your decision.

Disney’s website is also a great source of information (who would have thought?). Besides the entire website that you will become very familiar with over your entire trip, they also offer free planning videos to help you get ready for the magic. These are great for kids (and adults) to get excited about all that Disney has to offer!

Decide when you want to go

Now that you know what there is to do at Disney World (a lot) it is time to decide when is the best time for your family to visit. This might be an easy or hard decision based on your family. Some people only have a certain time of year they can take a vacation, while others have the entire calendar to pick from. If you have the option of deciding when you can go, be sure to check out a crowd calendar (Undercover Tourist, WDW Prep School, and Dad’s Guide to WDW have some great ones) to see when are the least and most crowded times.

You should also take all of Walt Disney World’s events into consideration as well. Some of the past events have been:

• Epcot’s International Festival of the Arts
• Epcot’s International Flower and Garden Festival
• Star Wars: Galactic Nights
• Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
• Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival
• Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
• Epcot’s International Festival of the Holidays
• Various Themed Marathon Weekends

Every year these events are subject to change (although typically the ones that are especially popular usually just get additional days and content) so be sure to check out the dates for the year you are going if any of these sound interesting for your family!

Decide how long you want to go

If you ask most Disney fans how long they would like to spend in Disney, the answer you will get is “forever.” While this is clearly ideal, it is wildly unlikely unless you plan on making a major life decision. Assuming you are not considering relocating, deciding how many days you need for Disney can be a difficult decision. The first thing you need to realize is you cannot do everything so do not base your decision on how many days you will need to see all there is to see. You can’t do it and you will tire your family out trying to accomplish everything.

Sometimes you can interchange this with deciding what you want to do in Disney, but typically it is easier to decide the length first. In my experience, if you don’t establish how many days you will be there first you can get overwhelmed with how much there is to do and then realize you cannot afford the trip that would require you to be there that long.

The important thing to remember is no matter how long you are there, the length isn’t what is important, it is the memories you are making with your family. I promise you, they will be just as magical if you are there 3 days or 10 days.

Decide what you want to do

When it comes to deciding what you want to do on your vacation, it can be an exciting, but overwhelming question. Decide with your family what rides, restaurants, and other experiences are most important to them. If you know this before you begin your planning it can help with deciding on a hotel or what parks you need to spend more time in. While Epcot is a huge park, you might find that your family is more interested in spending time at a resort pool than exploring the world showcase.

There is so much that goes into planning a Disney vacation, but these will be the first steps that you do to make sure you have the most magical trip you can!

Are you ready to keep planning? Check out everything you need to know before you go when planning for Disney.