A Disney World vacation does require some planning from hotel rooms, dining to reserving park rides. Even though our family goes regularly, there are still a lot of places to eat, sleep, and ride that we have not yet experienced. Therefore my husband and I always try to pick out a couple of restaurants and rides/experiences together 6 months out or at least 60 days out. We pulled together some tips to help you draft your strategy and enjoy the planning process.
ADVANCED DINING RESERVATIONS (ADRs):
We like to visually draft our plan out using Trello. It allows us to quickly drop and drag changes as we need. Since dining reservations are reserved 180 days your plans may not completely align at the end. Places like Cinderella’s Royal Table and Be our Guest are in high demand, therefore you’ll need to schedule those 180 days out for a good time. If we select to eat at a place like that that usually is the day we’ll plan to be at that specific park.
[Tip#1] If you don’t get the reservation you want keep trying until the day of the reservation.
[Tip #2] Since you will not be able to schedule your Fast Pass until 30-60 days, make a couple of reservations. Although you can, it’s
Make a Snack List
Disney is not like any other theme parks. The food itself is an experience! So check out bloggers like the Disney Food Blog (Disneyfoodblog.com) or Oh My Disney (Onmy.disney.com/food). There are tons of sources out there, just google “Disney food” and you’ll have a plethora of information to read through.
SHAMELESS PLUG: You can even check out the snack and food reviews, I’ve done over the year, just go to Categories and select Food.
Fast Pass
SHAMELESS PLUG: Check out my updated Fast Pass 101:
What do Pack?
There are several checklists out there and I would highly recommend going through them and check them by season. Florida is a very humid and raining state in the summer so be prepared! Some blogs I would recommend:
- WDWprepschool.com
- Disneytouristblog.com
- smartmousetravel.com
SHAMELESS PLUG: Lastly, I would check out my blog for the following posts:
Overall, enjoy the planning process and if you’re feeling stress, just contact a Disney travel agent and they can take care of everything! And with that, we hope you’re having a magical day!