How far in advance did you book your trip?

[tink_2304]

We are expecting our 1st in late September and are hoping to head to WDW in the beginning of March. We have not booked anything yet because of all the unknowns but we are in the process of planning. How far in advance do you book your vacations? Should we wait until after the baby is born?

 

[yankebabie]

We booked our June trip last September on BB offer

 

[ToddlerMom311]

If you are thinking about renting DVC points like we did, then you have to book it very early - as early as 11 months is best. Otherwise you are probably okay waiting until 6 months out when you can take advantage of the disney promotions and book dining reservations.

 

[Klayfish]

Depends on what you want to do. Stay on site or off? If you're on site, I can't offer much advice as we stay off. If you are OK staying off site, you can literally book the night before you go...endless choices. We do it very early because we want to pick our favorite places, but there are always good places available. Once we have our place picked, the only other planning we do is FP+, which we do 30 days out. Even that can be done with very short notice...you won't get a FP+ for 7DMT or FEA, but you'll still get a very good selection otherwise.

Congrats!!!!

 

[Willow1213]

We generally travel in late May and book in the September time frame. I have booked as early as 11 months when we rented DVC points previously. That vacation we had a special event and a very specific resort request. When my son was born, we booked is first trip while I was home on Maternity Leave, but it was our normal time frame.

2018 packages won't even be available until July (ish) so I would feel comfortable waiting until after your baby arrives.

 

[Surgie]

No harm in booking now if you want a specific resort. You can reserve room only at 499 days in advance by phone, not online. If you decide you want to switch to a package you can convert your reservation later. You can also have future discounts applied to your reservation. We are going in May 2018 and already have booked our rooms, but we want a specific resort and need three rooms so we wanted to reserve early.

 

[Lurkerin]

We booked in February for November. Because we didn't want the standard rooms at a smaller resort to be gone. Garden would have pushed us out of our price range.

If important, you would want to book a little over 6 months in advance so you could get the best ADRs available.

 

[loves to dive]

We always stay on site and usually I book my room about 2 to 3 months out, then I've been known to change it two or three times after that if I find a better price, I changed one for Swan 2 days before the trip. I don't book FPs any more in advance than a day and book ADRs the day of.

 

[Mousemommy1]

It really depends. I usually have a resort in mind and just wait until I have a price I'm happy with (usually with a discount). Sometimes it's a year out, sometimes less. I booked our upcoming August trip this past October.

 

[ndjen04]

We booked our September '17 trip back in June of last year. Gave us plenty of time to plan/save/etc. Still waiting on fall discounts to see if any will apply, but nice to have the resort booked ahead of time.

 

[caliope]

We are expecting our 1st in late September and are hoping to head to WDW in the beginning of March. We have not booked anything yet because of all the unknowns but we are in the process of planning. How far in advance do you book your vacations? Should we wait until after the baby is born?

We just did an early March trip that we booked in December as a bounce back. We stayed on site at the resort we wanted and did everything we hoped to do. So, for that trip, it was 3 months ahead. On other trips, we've booked 11 months ahead. It really depends on your goals.

 

[Tinkerfan2005]

We booked our November trip in early August. I wanted to book it in April, but I had to convince DH. We did everything we wanted and stayed where we wanted too.

 

[Dis703]

The farthest in advance I have booked a trip was 6 months and that was to take advantage of the dining reservation +10 after I wasn't finding a reservation I really wanted. Most of the time it's probably around 3 months out but I've booked as little as 1 week out as well.

 

[gr8leg8]

We fly southwest, so I have to wait until their booking windows open.

 

[Hikergirl]

Last trip was September, I booked it in April.

 

[Sabathamk]

our first trip was booked about 3 months in advance. Our last one was one month. Literally decided to try for the free dining plan, got it, and all within one month. I was rushing around like mad at home trying to do all the things I wanted before another trip, haha. We don't do dining reservations, though. I just cannot justify the price.

 

[Scse1029]

We always stay off site but I tend to book 6-9 months out because of flight costs for a family of 5 and the fact that you want to book your ADRs at the 6 month mark to get times/ restaurants you want.

 

[holden]

We own DVC, so we book 11 months in advance.

 

[jtopp]

we usually book 8-9 months in advance. That being said, our best vacation was booked and planned in less then 3 days-Airfare, hotel, passes etc. it all depends on your needs at e time. Good luck.

 

[DrPhysics]

We book 11 months in advance if we rent DCV points at hardish-to-book resorts. It's also nice to have plenty of time to plan restaurants and park itineraries. For resorts that aren't as busy, and lower rental point costs, we book 6-7 mo out.