I'm not new to the boards and have been to DL many times. We are trying to plan a DW vacation. Honestly I don't even know where to begin. It all seems so overwhelming. So many parks, so many hotels, not sure about transportation once we are there, free dining (don't even know what this is...).
Which thread should I go to to get a general plan of attack in planning?
Since 2005, Disney has been offering the Free Dining promo for Magic Your way packages with a 3 night minimum and a 14 day maximum (Basic Dining Plan; 1 TS, 1 CS, 1 Snack per person per night) during the last part of August until the end of September, give or take a few days. The free dining offer is usually announced during the first week of April. The first couple of days it will only be open to Disney Visa holders and then will open up to the general public. The booking dates for this year for the general public were August 24 through September 20 (but you could book up to 14 days past that date and still receive the FD promo) and you had to book by June 22 to receive the FD offer.
Free Dining has been a brilliant plan on the part of Disney to fill the crowds during what was previously their slowest season, and hurrican season to boot. And then having the bounceback for free food while the free diners are there in the parks, on their Disney high, well I would call that pure marketing genius.
As for planning, first pick your dates. We use the crowd calender from touringplans.com which is the companion website to The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World. We like to avoid crowds as much as possible and the crowd calender has always been very accurate for us.
Second, pick your resort. We have stayed at all levels of resorts at Disney, and they are all really nice. It's just what you want to spend. We have 4 young children so we usually get two rooms at the value resort and it works out great for us. All-Star Movies is our favorite right now. We get a good deal and all of the Disney perks for staying on-site. The value resorts start off at about $84.00 per night, moderates start at about $150 and I think the Deluxes start at about $230 per night.
Third is decide if you want the
Disney Dining plan. We always get the basic dining plan and we love it. We always do at least one sit-down/table service meal per day so it save us money - we will save almost $500.00 with in on our December trip. If you only do fast food or eat in your room a lot, then the
DDP would not be a good choice for your family. It's only $39.00 per day per adult and $10.00 per day per child. There is just no way I could feed any one of my kids for $10.00 per day without the DDP.
Make your ADRs (advance dining reservations) as soon as you can - at the 180 day window if possible. The character meals will book up first. We use the UG crowd calender to pick which days we will be in which parks, so then I can choose restaurants that coincide with our park choice for that day.
I always call directly and book with Disney. It's very easy really and that way I "own" my reservation and don't have to wait for a TA to make changes or apply codes that come out.
Hope this info helps.
You're going to Disney World!
