How early is too early to plan? (Planning timeline)

[halfpintpeggy]

Oh! And another good DVC rental site (besides David's) is DVC Rental Store...we actually prefer them.

 

[chelynnah]

Thank you so much, Hootch, these resources look like just what I needed!

Anyone have opinions on touring plans? My family usually prefers to keep things unstructured except for meal reservations, but can touring plans give us just a general idea of what directions to go when instead of a tight schedule?

Absolutely. We like to play relatively by ear, but I made touring plans and tweaked them, and we did follow a couple because the timing worked. Others we just let go after a few things. I didn't check them too much while we were in the parks, but they were handy for planning before. The best tool was the lines app that you can get with touring plans. Much more accurate wait times than Disney's published times.

 

[Tahariel]

We booked our holiday for this September last June; flights followed promptly 11 months before holiday and since then I've just been planning, writing lists and dreaming about the upcoming holiday (as well as booking ADRs not too long ago). So I will fully agree, never ever ever too early

 

[quagmire0]

We stay offsite. So the minute I know we're planning on doing a Disney vacation, I start right away. I started for this upcoming trip in June way back in February of 2015. Bought tickets first, because we can use those at any time and they usually don't get any cheaper. Next, I booked the condo about a year in advance. Booked the airfare in December of 2015 (same day they became available on Southwest's site). In between all that I read these forums obsessively, read the new Unofficial Guide, subscribed to touringplans.com, decided on restaurants, made car reservations (and constantly monitored for lower fares) and made ADRs. FP+'s are next week. So, essentially 16 months of planning.

 

[Jasmine86]

After asking a few questions and examining our schedule, I think our best and earliest time to go to WDW (given a new baby on the way) will be a year and a half from now. So how early is too early to plan versus just read and get ideas? Things seem to be changing all the time at Disney these days. Can someone recommend a good timeline for actually booking things? About all that I've picked up on is that we need to make our reservations 180 days in advance.

Thanks so much!

(PS If there's a "Planning for Dummies FAQ" somewhere that covers the times we should look for airfare, look for free Disney Dining, book rooms, etc, please point me in that direction. I'm a newbie to this!)

I've already booked a room only res for the week of May in 2017 about a month ago...it's never too early