First time Disney

I feel like you need a Ph.D. to plan a trip to Disney I'm completely clueless and it seems so over whelming. We want to go in October 2017. We want to stay inside Disney. Where do I start?

First time Disney

I would start with narrowing down and picking which hotel you want to stay at. Then you really just wait until the dates become bookable and then you start looking into where you would like to dine. Try to have all that settled by the 6 month mark so you do it as soon as it opens.

Re: First time Disney

Re: First time Disney

I felt that way too, but between the tips on here & some Facebook groups it made planning a breeze! We had the best time!

First time Disney

I believe you can get a free planning dvd from Disney. It's a good place to start just to get an idea of the different hotels, parks, etc. And try not to get overwhelmed. I feel like Disney is as simple or as complicated as you make it. You can go crazy and plan every last detail but you absolutely don't have to.

Re: First time Disney

Re: First time Disney

First time Disney

Just follow along with the prompts on the disney site- You pick your hotel first, and then you pick your park tickets and meal plan. What's nice about disney is that you get a bracelet to wear on your trip, and your meal plan, park tickets, fast pass, etc is all connected in that one bracelet. Anytime you have a meal/snack, you scan the bracelet. Makes it easier for families so they don't have to travel with their cards/money everywhere they go. If you want to buy something in the gift shop, the bracelet it linked to your credit card on file at the hotel.

When you book the meal plan online, you can make your reservations at the nicer restaurants ahead of time. Disney then provides a whole itinerary for you and will send you notifications to your phone to remind you each day which park you are going to, what restaurants you'll be eating at, etc. For example, you might have a reservation for breakfast with the characters in the morning, no reservations in the afternoon (get lunch anywhere in the park you're at), and then maybe dinner in cinderella's castle that evening. They break it all down for you as you go, so it's not as overwhelming as you may think. they are VERY organized

First time Disney

What everyone else said.

I always book early with Disney direct. I put $200 down to hold it. You have until 30days before to pay it completely off. What's good about that is 3m before your trip there's ALWAYS a discount of some type. That's when you can modify and take that credit. It reduces your amount owed. So I make payments to about 2/3rds my total and let it hang until that discount. You can modify bigger or smaller up until you pay it off. I always include the deluxe dining so we get 3 sit down meals and 2 snacks a day. It takes the stress of eating off of us completely. Since we buy trinkets EARLY before we go to Disney there's no need for shopping for much. No need for food or snack money. Just tips and some small stuff. So truly all inclusive. Sitting down to eat where ever and when ever we want. We book one meal a day.

I'm going beginning of Nov, late Oct. Dining reservations will open up April for me. With the Mickey Mouse Not So Scary Halloween Tickets going on sale beginning of May.

I booked in January! LOL

Re: First time Disney

First time Disney

yup! what everybody else said... its still early- so i would just start looking at the hotels disney has (there are a bunch!) and decide which one works for you. i'm sure on youtube you can find "tours" of all the hotels that people have posted.... the same thing with ride videos- to help you decide which rides you think you're kids might like, etc.... you can also order the free planning DVD to watch and get an idea about what is at each park so you can get an idea.
so- decide on hotel soon, then book that. Then start looking at which days you want to go to which park. Easywdw.com has an awesome crowd calendar that gives the predicted crowd levels for the days you'll be there-- AND also makes suggestions on which park to visit on which day (based on park hours or special events gong on at a certain park that day) once you decide what day you're gonna be in what park.... start looking at restaurants you might want to eat at. 6 months before you leave, you can go on and make your meal reservations. we usually just do one sit down meal a day. and DON"T PANIC if there are no reservations for the ones you want.... just keep checking, because people have until the day before to cancel them. So people go on at 6 months out and start booking up meals... then change plans and cancel some of their meal reservations.
THEN about 2 months before, you can go on and do your FastPasses (that let you skip the lines for certain rides or characters). you can pick 3 rides a day to do that for... AND once you use up those 3, you can make another one on the Disney app on your phone (or go to a kiosk in the park).
its a little overwhelming- but you get used to it For your first trip, you might want to boo with a Disney travel agent. They don't cost any you any extra...and they'll help talk you through all the options (which meals are good, etc) AND they can go on for you and make your meal reservations and fast passes for you if you want them to

Re: First time Disney

I don't know why people make it sound so scary...
I love October. It is low season (and often rainy so bring ponchos). You don't have to go nuts on Fast pass.
Crowds are not bad & hotels and resorts have great deals.
I stay out of parks for hotel because we always score something with free breakfast & you get a much better stay for your $.
Love the Mickey not so scary party. We arrive at 3-4 after naps at the park, dress up, pay less admission & each time we've gone there have been no lines (last time was about 1 year ago).
We go to universal too because it mixes things up a bit. We do Magic Kingdom one more time & we are good. Would also try legoland this time around.
We now have 3 kids. Last we went, there were 2 (2.5 &4). We went without a stroller & it was very easy. The park isn't that big & we took it a section at a time.
We did not like Disney eating (Epcot international food pales in comparison to NYC & we did try "Be our guest", which was pretty, but with mediocre food). We do it while in park, but eat outside when we are done (lots of nice restaurants in the area).
Don't forget to see the parades (the electric light parade is spectacular & doesn't run every night in Sept Oct)
Disney can be done in n a relaxed manner. It's a vacation & should be fun!

Re: First time Disney

I never went to Disney as a kid. My first time was aling with my kids at age 26. I totally felt overwhelmed too! The best thing I did? I chose not to buy into the hype. I had a friend give me a BOOK on planning Disney. I chose not to open it. I did what felt right for us.

I booked fast passes as they interested us. I admit sometimes we were running across the park because this Disney noob didn't know how far apart the rides were. It honestly added to the fun.

I highly recommend the Disney app. I monitored it religiously. It allowed us to get to the rides we didn't have FP for with minimal waits.

The only thing I'd do differently is allow more time for dining reservations. 3 months out it took some serious maneuvering to end up only getting some of the reservations we wanted.