How far out do you start planning?

[acln]

I’m currently pregnant with baby number 2, and I’m already dying to start planning his first trip! DH and I are talking about going during either February or April school vacation weeks in 2020, so about 2 years from now. I’ve already started to try to get rough estimates on cost for a family of 4, list things we haven’t done yet, look at crowd calendars for those times of the year, etc. I’m not crazy for thinking about this stuff already right?! (If I asked my husband it would be yes, he loves Disney almost as much as I do but he’s super laid back about planning and such haha)
For our past two trips I booked everything around 6 months prior and spent that entire time until we left on here/mde/etc. working on the details. So I feel a little silly thinking so much about a trip I can’t even book for quite a while, I just miss WDW so much!

So, what do you typically do?

 

[ottawamom]

I'm going in May this year but I'm already planning our next trip for 2022. We have a large group going then and I need to put together a rough budget and start putting money aside. Flights, rooms, food and tickets for 7 add up.

No you're not crazy.

 

[Surgie2]

We reserved room only at 499 days in advance because we need 3 rooms and want a specific resort so I didn't want to take a chance on waiting (even though 499 days in advance was not necessary - our room type for our days has been sold out for awhile). We are now down to 42 days - yay! Not crazy at all to advance plan. It's given me plenty of time to pour over these boards and get tons of great advice.

 

[shan981]

We are going in November and it will be our first "big" trip. We've just done 1-3 days in the past. I've been planning since last November so about a year. But I'm already in the preliminary stages of planning our NEXT trip for our twins' 5th birthday in January 2022. So no, I don't think you're crazy. Planning is half the fun, right?

 

[lovethattink]

When I plan a vacation, I go against the norm. Since we are locals, it's a "staycation" and we focus on the resort. Most of our time will be spent at the resort.

I book whichever resort we can get the best deal. Usually a moderate or value. Sometimes there is only a small price difference between the two. A couple years ago when I was pricing, it was $149 for a mod amed $121 for a value. This last time, the difference was more substantial, so we went with a value for $104 a night. I missed the AP discount window, so we have a lesser discount.

I make FP+ at 60 days out. Usually, for attractions we can't normally get at our AP 30 day window. And I make them for evening when it's cooler.

We've been priced out of TS. So I no longer make ADR. I use to make them as soon as my time frame opened.

I tend to book bounceback room only rates, then keep an eye out as discounts come up that can be applied.

 

[acln]

We are going in November and it will be our first "big" trip. We've just done 1-3 days in the past. I've been planning since last November so about a year. But I'm already in the preliminary stages of planning our NEXT trip for our twins' 5th birthday in January 2022. So no, I don't think you're crazy. Planning is half the fun, right?

Yes planning is definitely part of the fun! Plus, with the new toy story land opening this year and Star Wars land coming soon I guess it’ll be good for me to be on top of all the latest news and trip reports from people on here.

 

[myheartisinFlorida]

I have 77 days until we are back "home" but we started planning before the end of our last vacation in June 2017

 

[GillianP1301]

We go the same time each year, so as soon as I'm home from one trip I start the plans on the next. I don't do at on a year out, but I get my planning calendar setup and pencil in a rough idea of where I'll be on each day and start to think about what ADRs I'll want to book. I get really serious about 7 - 8 months out and that's when I start to solidfy my dining plans in preparation for the 180 window. Right now, I'm 5 months out and my plan is pretty much set and I'm just waiting on a few last minute things to open up for booking to confirm the plan complete (dessert parties).

 

[Lovetherodent]

As soon as I book it, I start to plan!

 

[Klayfish]

For us, we're talking about two potentially different things here.

1. When do you start to plan the dates you will return, where will you stay?

2. When do you actually create plans for the trip in question 1 above?

In other words, if you're conceptually planning a 2020 trip, you may just be picking dates and the hotel you want to stay at. However, you may not start to pick restaurants, rides, shows, etc...until sometime in 2019.

I'm always "dreaming" about my question #1 above. Our AP expires at the end of June and we're not renewing. It's just daydreaming, but we've already talked about when we might go back. 2020?

For the second part, actually doing nitty-gritty planning for a booked trip, we start to plan that around 35-40 days out. I've mentioned this in other threads, but it's true...around 40 days out, DW and I will go to Dunkin Donuts and get a cup of coffee. We'll have an 8x11 sheet of paper with us. By time we're done the coffee, which is about 45 minutes, we're completely done "planning" our 2+ week trip. It's easy for us. We stay offsite, pack our own food, don't do dessert parties or such, can't do EMH, have zero interest in doing rope drop, and are very much wing it style people. So our planning only consists of deciding which park we'll go to for the first 7 days because that's all the FP+ we can make anyway. The only decision making is if we're doing an AM in the park or PM, we rarely spend all day and night in one park. So we may say Monday is MK morning, which would leave the evening for us to "freestyle"...basically do whatever we feel like doing. Then Tuesday is Epcot PM, which leaves the AM to do whatever we feel like. From there, day 8 and beyond are decided on the fly.

 

[Tomh]

I begin the planning process generally about a year out. When we get home from our trip this August, I will start slowly working on plans for next August.

 

[DisneyPrincess1984]

We like to imagine or have a flexible plan of when our next trip is before we leave the current trip we're on. When we were waiting in line for buses at MK on our final night back in 2016, my dad and I both looked at each other and said: "2019?" In 2017 we determined we were aiming for the first week of December next year. Just two days ago, we discussed resorts and how many nights to stay. I am also pregnant - and we are discussing a trip with that little one in 2021 or 2022.

For us, leaving Disney is hard. We love anticipating it, being excited about it and planning for it. So we don't like to leave "home" without talking about when we will come back again.

 

[kniquy]

I’m not crazy for thinking about this stuff already right?!

You sound like me and your husband very much like mine. When we took our older boys for their last trip in Dec 2014 for NYE (our in laws offered to watch our then 18 month old DD) we were already talking about taking the family when DD was close to 5 -- so that brings us to current day and we are going in April. so in a way we started planning over 3 years out. Of course we didn't really talk about details much but to keep the momentum we were always looking at youtube videos of rides, shows dining reviews to help us get an idea of what we must do on our trip. The real planning started 11 months out when i booked a 2 BR at Kidani (we are DVC so we could book our room them) then at our 7 month mark i changed part of our time to Poly. During our summer trip with the in laws we started talking and hashing out the dining reservations we want and again talking about our ride priorities, how many days at each park. Then 6 months out I made the dining reservations. At 100 days out we made a disney countdown chain and we rip one off after dinner every night- I feel since we started this the time has flown by. Having the dining pretty much set (I usually try to grab a few too many reservations and then cancel what i don't need). At 60 days our FP selection help to nail down our park times and cancel any unneeded ADR. Can't forget selecting our MB colors!!! Now we are just at 3 weeks from our trip -- I almost feel lost because everything in our planning is pretty much done. I will check as we get closer for any changes to park times (which did happen last week), any changes to show times and in another week I will start looking at the weather forecast to help figure out how we should pack.

I think what really helps get through the time by watching youtube videos -- tim tracker is great. He has been doing many resort tours which has been fun to watch as it almost makes you feel like you are there. Listening to the Dis-unplugged podcast helps keep update on changes that might be occurring or new things being offered. I think once baby number 2 comes you will be so busy with them that it will help keep your mind off of things. Plus once they get a little older and you figure out their routine then it will help with figuring out your pattern for your days -- knowing when they need to eat/snack/nap/bed time will totally dictate how your trip goes. Even with my 4 yo DD I initially planned way too much and have scaled back on things to make it more relaxed - knowing that she could go,go, go but that she will hit a wall and turn into a monster so i have tried to plan it around how she is doing.

 

[Gussie Granger 1969]

I never stop planning because things are always changing. I go in spurts on researching. Our next trip is Feb 2019. I will research some days, some I won't. I learn new things every time I come on these boards (I go on others too). Actual planning and booking will be 180 days out.

 

[KenHutch]

Our 5th trip (staying AKL) isn't until June but I am already talking to Swan/Dolphin about our 2021 trip. You can never start planning early enough. Now my excuse is since Disney had driven me offsite with parking fees I have to do more planning (part of job is Project Manager).

 

[DisneyPrincess1984]

You sound like me and your husband very much like mine. When we took our older boys for their last trip in Dec 2014 for NYE (our in laws offered to watch our then 18 month old DD) we were already talking about taking the family when DD was close to 5 -- so that brings us to current day and we are going in April. so in a way we started planning over 3 years out. Of course we didn't really talk about details much but to keep the momentum we were always looking at youtube videos of rides, shows dining reviews to help us get an idea of what we must do on our trip. The real planning started 11 months out when i booked a 2 BR at Kidani (we are DVC so we could book our room them) then at our 7 month mark i changed part of our time to Poly. During our summer trip with the in laws we started talking and hashing out the dining reservations we want and again talking about our ride priorities, how many days at each park. Then 6 months out I made the dining reservations. At 100 days out we made a disney countdown chain and we rip one off after dinner every night- I feel since we started this the time has flown by. Having the dining pretty much set (I usually try to grab a few too many reservations and then cancel what i don't need). At 60 days our FP selection help to nail down our park times and cancel any unneeded ADR. Can't forget selecting our MB colors!!! Now we are just at 3 weeks from our trip -- I almost feel lost because everything in our planning is pretty much done. I will check as we get closer for any changes to park times (which did happen last week), any changes to show times and in another week I will start looking at the weather forecast to help figure out how we should pack.

I think what really helps get through the time by watching youtube videos -- tim tracker is great. He has been doing many resort tours which has been fun to watch as it almost makes you feel like you are there. Listening to the Dis-unplugged podcast helps keep update on changes that might be occurring or new things being offered. I think once baby number 2 comes you will be so busy with them that it will help keep your mind off of things. Plus once they get a little older and you figure out their routine then it will help with figuring out your pattern for your days -- knowing when they need to eat/snack/nap/bed time will totally dictate how your trip goes. Even with my 4 yo DD I initially planned way too much and have scaled back on things to make it more relaxed - knowing that she could go,go, go but that she will hit a wall and turn into a monster so i have tried to plan it around how she is doing.

We watch a lot of YouTube videos, too! Usually when we start going through serious withdrawals. It helps to pass the time in between and makes us feel like we are almost there.

 

[Thiago Acquaviva]

We always start planning around 6 months+ before

 

[acln]

I think once baby number 2 comes you will be so busy with them that it will help keep your mind off of things. Plus once they get a little older and you figure out their routine then it will help with figuring out your pattern for your days -- knowing when they need to eat/snack/nap/bed time will totally dictate how your trip goes. Even with my 4 yo DD I initially planned way too much and have scaled back on things to make it more relaxed - knowing that she could go,go, go but that she will hit a wall and turn into a monster so i have tried to plan it around how she is doing.

This is one thing I’m a bit nervous about once I get to the nitty gritty planning stage. DD was 5 when we took her for the first time and she did great doing full 12-14 hour days without breaks. DS will be around 2 1/2 for this next trip so I know I’ll have to be *extra* flexible, not get too committed to a bunch of adrs, and maybe plan breaks in the days for naps. I tend to plan our days mostly go go go. But we’re thinking of doing 5 full parks days again so even with breaks and taking it a little slower we should still be able to do plenty!

 

[AFwifelife]

We can think of dates that far out that would be good but for the actual planning, I wait until a bit closer to the date. Right now our furthest out trip that’s on the schedule is in January for Marathon weekend. Haven’t planned much more than securing the condo. I definitely get more serious when we get to the 190 day mark to figure out which ADRs we are wanting then start to shape my days based on what I get.

 

[King of Naboombu]

When we arrive home from the last trip!! haha

My actual touring plans starts about 8 months out. But at 1+ years it is good to at least start by circle some dates and price out where to stay and other known costs. There will be price increases and new promotions so the cost estimate is really just for rough idea of how much you may want to spend.