How far ahead do you book your WDW resort?

[Maikel Schipper]

We've booked our trip for late April in August.

 

[CNYMickeyFan]

We are planning to visit WDW in 2020, possibly May or Oct/Nov. I know WDW will get quite busy after SWGE opens and I am wondering when I should book our resort? We will likely stay at POR, POFQ or if finances are tight, then POP. Thanks, everyone!

As soon as you can, especially for POR and POFQ

 

[Miffy]

Except for bounceback, we never book until the discounts are out. In 20 years, I have yet to pay rack rate.

 

[Patches Lee]

Usually book a June trip as soon as packages are released at full price within budget. Then keep an eye out for discounts, this past one we were able to upgrade from CBR to Poly and stay within budget. For the amount out time we spend at once it's easier to secure a stay the earlier we do it.

 

[SteveH]

We booked at 499 days for our Feb 2020 trip. We're not planning on any discounts being available, but if some show up that will be great. We don't go every year so we booked POFQ based on other factors than just price. We can always make change too, so we're not locked in.

 

[AliceandPete]

We just booked onsite yesterday at 200 days out. Pickings were SLIM. I ended up going with a TA who had some standard view rooms at POR for the first six nights of our trip. That leaves me with two nights to fill. POR only had expensive view Royal Rooms left . Nope. Of all the values, only Allstar Sports preferred was left. Since I’m trying to stay on budget I booked them. I will stalk the website and try to move to another value or a lower cost POR room. It’s Food and Wine plus the F&W race weekend, plus Star Wars and the last MNSSHP’s. So it’s a busy weekend. But for there to be only one value resort with only preferred rooms left, and two mods of allllll those rooms was surprising.
So my tip is it looks like if you know what you want, you book as soon as you can.

 

[soccermom54]

I booked our October stay at the Dolphin in March and our December stay at FQ in March. A great senior rate popped up the day I was looking at the Dolphin and I booked it on the spot. The December FQ is at rack rate but I got the resort we wanted on the days we wanted and that is ok. Maybe a discount will pop up for FQ but I am not holding my breath.

 

[JennyDrake]

1 year then I look for discounts and apply them or change resorts to get the discounts

DITTO. I go 3x/year (work tales me to Orlando, then I stay n play with The Mouse).

 

[Karl66]

We've booked anywhere between 11 months and 45 minutes before departing. It all depends.

 

[VAfamily1998]

The most "advanced" I've ever booked was about 7 months. It was a long weekend in the beginning of December 2018, mostly just to see the Christmas stuff. We stayed at BWI in a "garden view" room, did a full day in Epcot (including the Candlelight Processional) and a MVMCP. Everything was "PLANNED" in advance.

The least was about 3 weeks. It was a 5 night trip with my husband and two youngest kids (we have 4, but the older two were on a trip with my parents.) We stayed at Coronado Springs, visited all 4 parks and just had a magical leisurely time without much advance planning.

On average, I probably book about 4 months in advance. Usually by the time I book, the 180+ ADR date has already passed, but the 60+ FP date hasn't come up yet.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

My first trip, I booked 6 months in advance. I began planning my second trip as soon as I got home from my first trip, so 12 months in advance. The 3rd trip was 6 months in advance. My 4th trip was about 2 months in advance and this year's trip was about 3 months in advance.

I do like to plan "potential" trips at any given time. It's kind of a hobby, like playing a favorite video game. That way, when all the stars align, it is possible to put together a trip in only a few months. This year, I literally had to wait until March to get confirmation of the last day of school. We used 8 snow days! Ugh! It all worked out and and my trip is planned!

 

[marmar]

I have started booking so I can make ADRs at 180 days. We like to Dine with an Imagineer. And that always fills fast. In fact this time at 180 days I still couldn’t get my first choice day.

 

[dansdad]

I have started booking so I can make ADRs at 180 days. We like to Dine with an Imagineer. And that always fills fast. In fact this time at 180 days I still couldn’t get my first choice day.

You don't need a resort reservation to make ADRs at 180 days out.

 

[bozley0621]

My average is probably 5 months. I’ve booked a trip for the half-marathon as little as six weeks out and our trip this October was booked the earliest at over a year away.

 

[TammyLynn33]

We booked for April in July

 

[Trinity88]

I'm impatiently waiting for 2020 packages to come out. I'd book now for Jan/Feb 2020 if I could, but I don't want a room only.

 

[kylenne]

I'm impatiently waiting for 2020 packages to come out. I'd book now for Jan/Feb 2020 if I could, but I don't want a room only.

Same here. In my case it’s because that’s when our TA has the agency exclusive rates available—they have to wait for Disney to release the packages first.

The shortest I ever did it was a month out, and I was freaking out the whole time, since we were offsite too. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t up to me for that trip. I prefer to plan all my travel several months in advance; we booked for Oct 2018 in Dec 2017.

 

[Rach3975]

I think a lot depends on how flexible you can be with your dates and resort. We need to stay in the family suites at AoA or ASMu. For our first two trips our dates were slightly flexible; we could move them a day in either direction, but not more than that due to school breaks. We booked 3 and 4 months in advance. Some things were sold out and we had to move our dates one day to find any availability on our most recent trip, but we did still manage to make it all work.

Our next trip is in Nov. It's our first (and probably only) trip without the kids, so we're going whether or not there are discounts. If we wait, it may never happen (for childcare reasons). We decided to take this trip 11 months out, so we booked right away. Our room type (king bed rooms at POFQ) has been gone for a while. If a good enough discount is released closer to our dates, we might change resorts and room types for it. But this way if we get stuck paying rack rates, at least we know we'll get exactly what we wanted.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We normally book a bounceback when we're already at Disney so that's often a year in advance. If not booking a BB we tend to book as soon as we know we want to go. If a discount comes out we re-book but our favourite resort can fill up so we book and then hope to re-book with a discount later.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Waiting for the DVC home resort to open 11 months prior to our trip in 2020. We stay only a day or two before going on a DCL cruise. What is SWGE and when is the opening date?