Disney World Trip Planning

[jstevens30]

We are trying to plan a vacation for next Summer, 2012 with a party of 5. Two parent, two adult kids and one minor child. Not sure whether to buy a package with air, hotel an parks or try to price out individually for the best deal. Please help. This would be our second trip to Disney World as we went when our children were smaller. Thank you.

 

[Marionnette]

We are trying to plan a vacation for next Summer, 2012 with a party of 5. Two parent, two adult kids and one minor child. Not sure whether to buy a package with air, hotel an parks or try to price out individually for the best deal. Please help. This would be our second trip to Disney World as we went when our children were smaller. Thank you.

I never purchase a package with air included. It gives you less flexibility if you need to make changes.

There's really no way to tell if a package is a better deal for you. Disney will not come out with summer room discounts until much later in the spring. The same goes for any summer package deals. Until those offers are made available, your best way to estimate the cost of your trip is to go to Disney's website and plan it out. The cost that you get will be the maximum you will pay. Any discounts that come out later would only decrease the total amount.

 

[connie1042]

I always start with my dates. Then I check airfare. We are military, so we have gotten a discount the last few years. I have planed other trips for friends, and the first thing I ask is when they want to go. Then resort choice. You have 5 people, so you will have to go with 2 value rooms, or value suites, POR, which would be very tight for 4 adults and 1 minor. You could do FW cabins, rent DVC points or deluxe. I would start there and see what you come up with. Do you have a Disney Visa. Discounts are sometimes given through them. After you have an idea on your dates and resort, you can start looking at airfare. If you are flexible, fly on off days. Decide if the dinning plan would be a good fit. Do you want to sit down everyday for a nice meal? In the summer, it is nice to do a table service, just to get out of the heat. Go on the WDW site and put everything in, and see what you come up with. If you are going in June, your 180 ADR window should be sometime in Dec. So if you want a certain restaurant, you should think about booking it at 180 days. If a discount comes out and you are already booked, you can call Disney, and if it is available, they will apply the discount to your reservation. Good luck with your planning. I alway get our airfare on our own. Then I can choose the airline and flight time, and price. We are going in May and our hours came out today, so I have gone through several sheets of paper, changing and rearranging park days and restaurants. I have to make dinning reservations on Nov. 18th.