Plan Often

This next tip should be a no brainer, but far too often, once the Advance Dining Reservations or ADR’s are made, people sit back and forget that there is still much planning to do!  Start planning those touring plans, which will vary wildly depending on the make-up of your traveling party.  Have a toddler who loves Disney Junior, be thyself at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in a hurry.  Have a teen/tween that is fascinated with exotic international locales?  Get yourself over to EPCOT and tour those countries!  This idea of plan often also ties into the countdown app on my phone, it allows us the chance to talk with Rylee about what she wants to do, versus what we can skip (Everest is still not her style.)  Overall, you want to be checking in with the Walt  Disney World website, for any ride closures, refurbs or other things that may impact your visit.  Going in the summer?  It’s gonna be hot, and it will rain every day.  Trust us…it will rain on your parade.  You have two choices you can hide out or head out.  If you need to hide out, we’ll post another blog later about the best places to do that.  If you’re more adventurous, head out into that rain if it’s safe.  Get your ponchos on and get wet heading to your next adventure.  If the weather is so bad that they close rides, head indoors to those shows, but get there fast, everyone else has that same idea!  At around 80 days, start deciding which rides you MUST do and check to see if they have a Fastpass.  Fastpass is Disney’s way of getting you out of the lines (and into the stores) faster.  It is a free service, lumped nicely in with the ticket prices.  Right now, you get three per day at any ONE park you choose.  Look at those park maps often.  You get to make Fastpass choices at 60 days.  Do this.  I promise you, it will make your break your trip.  During this time, you can also begin to customize your Magic Bands.  Don’t forget to get this done at least 40 days prior to your trip, so they can get them sent out to you.  There are few things harder than trying to decide in a sea of grey bands, which one is yours.  We usually color code ours, I am usually red, Rissy is green or blue and the Princess is almost always pink.   You’re almost ready to go! 

This is the time when parents often start to get a clearer picture of how your child is going to be while you travel.  About 60 days out, make the decision about whether or not your Littles are going to need a stroller.  The Princess can keep up with us, pretty well now and we go all day.  When she was 6, we got a stroller (Orlando Stroller Rentals is our fave) but ended up just pushing the bags around.  When my niece went at the same age, she needed the stroller, and would have really not enjoyed most of the trip if she’d been forced to walk.  Keep in mind, you’re going to walk—a lot!  Our friends who travel with us had a pedometer on the last trip.  We’d gone 7 miles by 5 PM, and we were headed back to the park for more fun.  SEVEN MILES.  It’s Walt Disney WORLD, and you’ll sometimes feel like you’ve walked from Maine to Mount St. Helen’s once the day is done.  Remember though, how we tour may just not be right for your family.  Don’t push it.  “When in doubt, head on out” is a common motto I tell people going to the World.  Yes, you’ve paid a fortune to be here, YES, it is the trip of a lifetime, but NO ONE wants to be that family who has just had a member go down due to meltdown.  It happens more often than we care to count, and I’ve seen just as many adults lose it as toddlers.  It isn’t pretty, and it isn’t fun.

You can head off the Hangry Harry’s by providing plenty of rest times, as many snack breaks as you need.  We often try to do our “big” table service as a late lunch because it gives us a nice, cool place to sit for a while and just not be in the heat.  You can schedule your ADR’s any way you’d like, but remember that when you dine at Disney, you’re not at the local Sonic, it’s going to cost you more than you think.   But that is another whole blog post in itself.  See y’all next week.  If you have any questions, head over to our Facebook page, Mrs. Mrs. And Our Little Princess and post them up, we’d love to hear from you!  

You’ve Decided to Go to Walt Disney World…Now What?

Getting to surprise your kiddos with a Walt Disney World vacation is one
of the greatest joys.

First Things First—Congratulations! 

 I don’t think we’ve ever booked a trip to Walt Disney World that we’ve regretted. Not one time. That being said, these trips are expensive, y’all! You can get some great deals, but don’t kid yourself these trips are at least $2000 for our family of three. Now, this price can go up exponentially depending on where you stay, how you play and how you want to eat. We’ve only stayed off WDW property one time, and we agree that it isn’t something we’d be interested in trying on again. The entire WDW resort, she is our home. My best advice to people pondering a trip to the Mouse House is to “Plan early, Plan Often, and Save as much as you can.” So, let’s break that down. Plan Early This is the first mistake most families make. They decide they want to take a Disney World Vacation, and they decide in March that they want to go in May. NOPE. Do NOT do this unless you are a seasoned planner. We consider three of our WDW visits to be “Trips of a Lifetime.” Those trips, were planned over years, with the final 8 months being the day to day planning phase. If this is your only trip to Walt Disney World, and you want to actually vacation and not be frustrated by things you COULD have done, SHOULD have done and DID NOT do…then listen to me right here. Plan early.

How early, you ask? At least 8 months. That means, if you want to go in June, 2016, you had better have decided in August, 2015, and be starting to decide where you want to stay and for how long. At 180 days, (yes, SIX MONTHS) you can choose where you eat. YES, you WANT to do this. There isn’t anything worse (IMO) than watching all of the pretty little princesses heading up to Cinderella’s Castle to eat with the Princesses, and having to tell your child that you cannot do that. I’ve seen little girls in tears right there at the check-In stand, so get those reservations first y’all. You’ll want to have checked out websites like Allears.net and Theme Park Tourist to find your faves. You can also post up on our FB page and we’ll fill you in on what ours are.

 This is a good time to discuss whether or not you want to find a Certified Disney Vacation Planner (Travel agent) or just call Walt Disney World Vacation Planning and have them help you. There are pros and cons to both, and we have traveled both ways successfully.

 Pro’s to using the Pros 

 One of the greatest advantages of using a Certified Disney Planner Vacation Planner is experience. Most of the agents we have used have gone on many WDW vacations in the past, as well as on Disney Cruise Line and have the advantage of knowing first –hand what to expect. They receive special notification of discounts before the rest of us, and generally have an “in.” Probably the best thing about having a travel agent working for you is that they do get paid, but not by you. You do not pay for Disney Travel planning. This also gives you a single person contact for all of your Disney Planning needs, as well as a point of contact for any issues that may arise during your vacation. When we have used travel agents in the past, I have been super pleased with how hard they all worked to find us new discounts, long after we had booked our trip. They did all of our Advanced Dining Reservations, as well as making our Fastpass+ reservations. It was pretty much a “turn-key” vacation.

Cons to Using the Pros 

The first “issue” that comes to mind is the single point of contact might be on vacation. We ran into this issue while trying to change some last minute dining reservations. She was on vacation for nearly a week, and once you book with anyone else, you cannot call directly to the main reservations line (407)WDW-DISNEY, and make any changes. They will invite you to call your travel agent. This became an even bigger issue as we got closer to the trip, and learned that we had forgotten to add the Memory Maker (more on this later) option to our vacation. It was frustrating that we were not able to just pick up the phone and talk “Disney” with someone.

 We hope this has been helpful to get you started on planning your first Magical Walt Disney World vacation. Check back on Friday for more on this topic. ~~Kristi