Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

need help...thinking next October...

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

We have used smallworldvacations.com twice. If you would like to know who to contact, send me an fm

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

Have been countless times, never used an agent, I always just book directly on the disney website. You can price everything out there on your own. disboards.com is a great resource.

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

I booked it myself on the disney website...and then any changes I made I called the customer services!

Make sure you try to get a code of either % off room rate or Free dining! DEF worth it!

I became addicted to Disboards...and learned a lot from "mom/dad pros" on there as to where to eat, how to schedule my week there with what parks etc! Everything I did was bec of that site! and it was all good advice!

Make sure you figure out 180 days before your 1st day and call/go online that morning to get your meal ressies! They book fast..esp the good ones!

Mousesavers and allears are also great websites!

Good luck!

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

We found the best price through southwestvacations.com

I spent weeks pricing it through various sites/promos and this was the best one overall!

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

I found your old post on this and just copy and pasted my response from there... if you have any other questions let me know!!

Decide when you want to go. I always like early fall because it's never crowded and it's not ridiculously hot out but you still have pool weather. Also this is when the do the International Food and Wine festival at Epcot!!

Then, try to figure out what park you think you'll be spending the most time in and look at the resorts closest. Although they all offer transportation I'm always a fan of spending less time going to and from. And then just what you're looking for out of the resort....

If you're traveling with kids and looking to save some $$ you may want to try something like the All Star Resorts.

If you want something a more high end with kids I would suggest the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Something middle of the road that is a great value are the moderate resorts. I've stayed at both the Caribbean Beach and Port Orleans. Both are family friendly but also good for just couples.

If you're looking for something high end I would try the Polynesian or the Grand Floridian.

Some of my favorite places to stay are the Swan and Dolphin or the Boardwalk. From both you can walk to Epcot or Hollywood Studios (The Beach Club is over there too). It's so convenient and then if you want to get to the Magic Kingdom you can walk through Epcot and take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. The nice thing about the Swan and Dolphin is that it is also a Sheraton so we've used points and gotten upgrades since DH used to stay at Sheratons when he was traveling for work.

I would also suggest getting a park hopper pass and looking into the meal plan option. Both are well worth it!

I have gone to Disney every year for the past 10 years (will be back in January for their Marathon weekend) and several of times as a kid so if you have any questions I would be more than happy to help!

You don't need a TA for Disney. FInd cheap airfare (JetBlue is always good for JFK to MCO) and then just call Disney and they can walk you through everything. They even provide transportation to and from the airport and resorts.

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

Why wouldn't you use a travel agent to book Disney?

It's free to you, we continuously search for discounts even after your vacation is booked, we do all dining reservations and tours and Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and other event reservations for you, we'll provide you with a park planner showing you the best parks for each day and coordinate your dining to it, and then a day-by-day itinerary with a touring plan customized just for your family and your own particular wants.

If you want to do some of it yourself - say you really enjoy figuring out your dining and booking it yourself, no problem! Just send us your reservation information and we'll add it to your park planner and itinerary.

Using a travel agent isn't for everyone - some people prefer to maintain absolute control over their vacation planning - but for many families, they'd rather leave the work to us while they enjoy the fun!

- Kimberly
Mouse Tales Travel
LIFamilies Travel sponsor

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

I will add more to this later, but you can definitely use a travel agent. I've done it both ways. My one piece of advice is if you use a travel agent definitely use one who is a Disney specialist.

Even though I know everything I need to know to book a Disney trip, I booked my upcoming trip through the same TA who did my honeymoon and while she was pretty knowledgeable about Sandals, I know 10x more than she does about Disney and it's been a nightmare. I had a much better experience booking with a Disney specialist travel agent.

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

The above advice is good. I would add that Disney's magical Express (service to/from airport) is not available at the Swan/Dolphin as far as I know. So you'd have to pay for it through an outside company.

October is a great time to go. Maybe our favorite. We're planning to go one of the last weeks of October next year.

During October you have 2 great events - Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party and the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT. Food and Wine has some outside events like the Swan and Dolphn food and wine classic and he party for the senses that might interest you.

I think the Halloween party gets more crowded the closer you get to Halloween and often sells out on Halloween, so I would consider that in choosing a week. Also, Oct 1, 2012 is Epcot's 30th. Not sure they're going to do anything about it, but it's a consideration. Either you'll want to be there for it, or you'll want to avoid potential crowds.

Once you decide when to go, you can next decide how long to stay. Our first trip was just 4 nights and we did get to every park, though I'm nuts and did 3 nighttime shows out first day. Now we typically do 7 nights. I think that's a good amount of time, but it depends on your budget, time off from work, and how much you want to do. For example, do you want to spend a night at the party for the senses, and another night just crusing food and wine? Will you attend the halloween party> if so, you'll also need to be at MK another night to see the electrical parade. Will you want to do mini golf, disneyquest, or the waterparks? How much time do you spend at DTD?

Next decision - where to stay.

This depends mostly on budget and what kind of Disney tourist you are. If you have a big budget and you like to relax at the pool and enjoy a full service restaurant right at your own hotel, plus you want to be closer to the action, choose a Deluxe. However, if you're like me, and budget is an issue, plus you're going to wear yourself out so much at the parks that you'll barely see the hotel room before passing out, a Value is a good bet. All Star Music has and Art of Animation will have family suites. All Star Music and Pop Century are my choices in the value category.

For something in between, of course there are moderate resorts. They are nice, but you don't get MUCH more than you get at a value, so you have to consider whether it's worth it. We really enjoyed Port Orleans French Quarter when we once got a great passholder deal on it, but we wouldn't go back there again at rack rate.

Depending on the length of your trip, where you're staying and when you plan to return, consider an annual pass. They are worth it if you're coming back within a year or if your trip is longer than 13 days. However, if you are looking at a Deluxe resort, the 40% discount you get from one person getting an annual pass might more than make up for the additional cost even without the other factors. Plus you get discounts at lunch at EPCOT and you can buy tables in wonderland for Dining.

NEXT decision- tickets. For a long trip or if you plan to return, the annual pass is the way to go. Other than that, the tickets become more complicated. One thing to know is that the longer you stay, the cheaper the ticket is. On touringplans.com there is a pretty good ticket calculator. You don't necessarily need tickets for every day of your trip. Some people don't get tickets for arrival and/or departure days and use those days at downtown disney or to enjoy a character meal at a hotel or the hotel pool. Especially if you aren't park hopping (I always park hop), you can also choose not to get a park ticket on the day of the Halloween party. Tickets to the event are about $60 and let you enter Magic Kingdom at 4pm. You can use that morning to recover from an extra magic hour the night before, or to take a nice swim and have a nice leisurely character meal at Chef Mickey's before getting all ready in costume before hitting the parks for a full 8 hours of touring for your $60.

NEXT decision - Dining plan or no? I'd suggest reading the articles on this. It all depends on how you like to vacation. If you're always on the go and prefer to grab meals on the go when you feel like it, or you don't always eat big full meals, DDP is not for you. If you like to plan your meals in advance and savor them, and you like that break in your day, you can enjoy the dining plan. For in between, there's the QS dining plan. We've done it both ways, with and without the dining plan. We enjoyed the Dining Plan when we had it. We saved all of our desserts as snack or breakfast for the next day and used our snack credits for small plates at food and wine and it worked out well, but this was our second trip in under a year, so we weren't rushing around to see everything. this time we decided not to do the dining plan. I still made 4 ADRs for the trip, but we can be more relaxed and graze. The food at Disney is actually very good if you know where to look, so the dining plan was a great adventure for us in that way.

NEXT decision - what to do on what days. I always start with the nightly calendar. The nighttimeshows are not to be missed. Wishes and MSEP at MK, IllumiNations at EPCOT and Fantasmic! at DHS. Fantasmic! and Wishes/MSEP do not run every night, so I always want to make sure that I have one night planned to see each of those shows, PLUS a night for the Halloween party. NEXT priority are any ADRs you have for dinner. Try to fit them in with what ese you're doing, so an EPCOT dinner before IllumiNAtions works, but maybe you want to watch Wishes from California Grill AND from the park.

Next consideration is Extra Magic Hours. Evening EMH are usually not too crowded and lots of fun. I love riding rides in the dark. Morning EMH- there are 2 ways to approach this.

1) Get to to the park with the Extra Magic hours BEFORE the EMH start, tour there for a few hours and then hop somewhere else

2) if you can't get to the EMH park before it opens, avoid it like the plague. That park sees higher crowds all day. It's a funny thing to observe at the hotel bus stops. Let's say Animal kingdom opens for EMH at 8, and to the public at 9, at 10am you will still see that that bus has the longest line. In addition to the people who were there for the EMH, there are a lot of resort guests who choose the park to go to for the day based on EMH and even if they don't make it for EMH or even rope drop, they still go to that park, so it's really crowded.

I HIGHLY recommend the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and touringplans.com. They are both GREAT resources.

Especially if you haven't gone in awhile, it's also great to work with a Disney specialist travel agent. NOT as magical to work with a non Disney specialist

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

I want to add that you should out your name into their system either by going online or calling to order a DVD. Once you're in the system you'll receive offers by mail. You can even call periodically to see if there is a pin cod associated with your account. This time my PIN code is actually cheaper than the AP discount. Who knew?

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

Re: Booking a trip to Disney...where to start????

We just got back and it was so much fun. Look into renting a time share too. Save yourself a bit of money and at least eat breakfast there every morning. Wyndham Bonnet Creek has a shuttle to all the Disney parks.