Planning a trip to Disney World is not for the weak. There are a lot of choices to make on where to stay, how to get there, where to eat; its enough to make your head spin. The nice thing is that there are lots of options that can be tailored to most budgets. Here is a great place to start in planning your Disney World trip.

Set a budget

This may seem like a step you could skip but trust me you should at least have ball park figure of how much you can spend and you can make your other choices based on this. If you are traveling with kids under 3 your cost is going to be less than if you are traveling with kids or teens. Also knowing if you are planning visit again in the future or if this will be a “once in a lifetime” trip will affect your choices.

Pick your travel date

Once you have an idea of how much you can/want to spend you can start building your vacation. You may be limited to when you can travel if you have school aged children but be warned that the times of the year when kids are out of school are some of the most crowded and expensive times to travel (think summer, Christmas vacation and Spring break). Disney also host special events through out the year like Mickeys not so scary Halloween party and Very Merry Christmas party-these are both special ticket events meaning more $$. Epcot also host several festivals through the year; Food and Wine, Flower and Garden, Festival of the Arts and Festival of the Holidays.

 

How will you get there?

Driving can have it advantages. It can save you money verses cost of a plane ticket, you can travel off site to eat or grocery shop and you have a little more wiggle room during your vacation. Disney World resorts currently do not charge a fee for parking vehicles overnight but there are resorts off property that do so be sure to factor this into your final budget. Also driving around Disney can be a bit crazy, there are lots of drivers who are also visiting from out of town so you can imagine it can be a bit hectic. I would strongly suggest a good GPS if you are planning to drive around Disney/Orlando. If you fly one of the perks of staying at a Disney resort is free transportation to and from the airport via the Magical Express. Since the Magical Express went away our family just uses Uber to get to and from the airport. Mears also runs bus service similar to the old Magical Express. We do occasionally rent cars; I have picked up from both the Orlando airport and the Swan/Dolphin resort near Epcot also had a car rental place.

Choose your hotel

There are plenty of options when it comes to places to stay during your vacation. Disney has over 25 hotels on property and range in level from value, moderate and deluxe which is perfect for a variety of budgets plus you will have additional perks for staying on property like Extra Magic Hours, use of magical express, booking dining and Lightning lanes before other park guests and more. If you are staying on property at Disney resort you should think about how much time you plan to spend in the room vs time at the theme parks. When we first started visiting we would stay at the less expensive resorts because the only time we are in our room is to sleep and shower but now that my kids are older they want to play more in the pools and enjoy the resort. If you plan to be in the room a lot or at the hotel pool then I would suggest booking a moderate or deluxe resort as the pools are nicer and rooms are bigger. The room sizes at the value and moderate resorts are on the smaller side and sleep 4-5 plus a baby. If you are traveling more than 5 you will have to decide if you want to get more than 1 room or a larger room such as the 2 bedroom villas at the deluxe resorts (these will set you back quite a bit of money) or the family suites at Art of Animation.

Value room at Pop Century vs moderate room at Port Orleans Riverside

Another thing to remember is the closer the hotel is to the theme park the more you will pay per night for your room. The most expensive resorts on property are the 3 resorts that surround the Magic Kingdom, these resorts are also on the monorail loop that has access to both Magic Kingdom and Epcot parks.

If you are looking for a bigger savings you will find most of the national chains have hotels near Disney, the closest are across from Disney Springs and can even offer free shuttles to the theme parks. If you are traveling with bigger party or multiple families you may want to rent a house or condo. You will get more space for your dollar and also have the option of cooking meals to save on dining out.

Choose your theme park tickets

The cost of your park tickets may be one of your bigger expenses. The price of a 1 day ticket is probably the most expensive option so stear away from it if you can. The more days you purchase the cheaper your per day price will be, Disney has done away with the no expiration date tickets and most must be used within 14 days of first use. When you purchase your tickets you have the option of the base ticket which is admission to 1 park per day. You can upgrade to the Park Hopper which will offers admission to any of the 4 parks in the same day; you have the option to visit 1 park or all 4 if you wish. If you want to really go all out you can upgrade to the Park Hopper Plus tickets which give you admission to all 4 parks on the same day and also the option to visit either of the 2 waters parks, a round of golf at Disney’s golden oak, a round of mini golf or to the ESPN world of sports.

Our family has always added the Park Hopper to our tickets, we always stay on site so we can take advantage of the Extra Magic hours and usually spend half our day at 1 park and the other half in a different park. This is also nice because we don’t have to worry about where we want to eat or which park to book our fastpasses in. The flexibility is what makes it worth it. Now if you are working with a small budget you should just stick to the basic tickets and just make sure you book fastpasses and any dining reservations to either the theme park you plan to visit that day or one of the hotel restaurants.

Do you want to add the dining plan

If you are planning to eat most of your meals inside Disney this may be worth looking into. The dining plan is where you are paying for your meals up front with the possibility of saving a bit of money. Depending on where you plan to eat while visiting you could save some money or you could loose money by purchasing this. If you are booking your trip during a free dining promotion you will just need to decided which plan you want to go with and pay the difference. There are 3 different plans:

• The Quick service plan will give you 1 resort refillable mug and 2 quick service meals and 2 snacks per person per night of your trip. This plan cost around $53 per adult and $22 per child (3-9) per day.
• The standard Dining plan will give you 1 refillable mug and 1 quick service meal, 1 table service meal and 2 snacks per person per day. This plan cost around $76 per adult and $26 per child per day.
• The Deluxe dining plan will give you 1 refillable mug, 3 either quick service or table service meals and 2 snacks per person per day. The plan cost $117 per adult and $40 per child per day.

The table service meals can cost between 1 and 2 credits so the only reason you would need the deluxe plan is if you are wanting to eat at the 2 table credit every day. We have both purchased the dining plan and traveled during free dining. While it may not be a huge bargain savings purchasing the plan out right we do enjoy being able to go out for dinner and not worry about what we order based on the price.

You are ready to book your vacation!

Once you have all the above decided the next step is to book your trip. If possible it’s best to book your trip at least 6 months out to have best chance of getting your preferred resort and give yourself plenty of time plan and book fastpasses, dining reservations or purchase special event tickets.

Planning a Disney vacation can be overwhelming and time consuming but the end result will be worth it! If you still have questions about planning your Disney vacation feel free to ask us, just submit your question in our ask DFT box found on the bottom right of this page and we will do our best to respond.