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