Is it crazy to plan only now to go to Disney World ending of february beginning of March?

[CamBry]

I got approved for vacation the end of february/beginning of March. I last minute decided i want to go to Disney World with my husband. We want to do this before we have kids because this has been a bucket list thing for me! i have never been. I was told about this page from reddit!

1. i want to know if this is enough time to plan a trip to visit the disney world? I have no idea what its all about but i read there is like 4 different parks.
2. I didnt even look at tickets yet, but i heard some people plan their trip a year or more in advance and hotels may be booked? Is it too late for me?
3. Is it best to stay at hotels on their premises or off?
4. How much should i budget for? (i have a lot in savings so its not too much of an issue but i do still want to be practical).
5. Is the weather ok during february/March? I am from Hawaii so i am used to tropical weather, maybe not as intense though.
6. I also want to visit universal studios, how far is it from disney world?
7. Ahh i have so many questions so sorry. But i think this is where ill start for now.

Thank you for your help!

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

You have plenty of time to plan. Why not begin by getting some quotes from the travel agency that owns this forum, Dreams Unlimited or Small World Vacations or TouringPlans and go from there? They can book WDW and UOR hotels for you, help you choose the tickets that would best suit you and they have a wealth of knowledge to share. You can easily visit WDW and UOR in one trip as they are only a few miles from each other.

 

[CamBry]

Ohh do people usually use travel agency to just help you plan everything for Disney world and universal studios? That would make sense because there’s so much to organize . Do they charge an additional fee for their service?

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

Ohh do people usually use travel agency to just help you plan everything for Disney world and universal studios? That would make sense because there’s so much to organize . Do they charge an additional fee for their service?

Some travellers use TA and some don’t. For a first trip it is something I would recommend, but make sure that you use one of the above or another TA that specialises in Disney holidays. The services they provide are free of charge.

 

[DebLovesPooh]

I would also recommend the above travel agencies if it’s your first trip, you’re not familiar with all of the details of planning a trip, and you’re visiting both Disney and Universal. You will be in good hands, they can readily answer all of your questions, guide you through all of the planning, and change whatever you need changed for you.

That way, instead of spending your time researching how to plan something, you can research what you want to do, where you want to go, and where you want to eat. You can tell your travel agent all of those things and they can try to make it all happen!

 

[EpcotPhoenician]

I've booked trips 2 weeks prior to the first night. A few months is plenty of time.

 

[NotTheBatesMotel]

That’s plenty of time! I’m here now and booked this trip literally 2 days before we left. I definitely agree with the above travel agency recommendations for your first trip! It can take hours to reach Disney on the phone and travel agents can handle all of that for you and the ones listed don’t charge you fees.

 

[wiggy500]

1. It's absolutely enough time.
2. If you decide to stay on site there may be some hotels not available, but I would think there would be plenty of options. Sometimes the availability will change with on site hotels if you check back on a different day. If you stay off site there will be a lot of options even at the last minute.
3. Well, if cost is no object on-site is much more convenient, with easy transportation to anywhere within Disney World. There are also perks like being able to enter a park earlier or stay in a park later. But the cost of on-site hotels range from expensive too ridiculously expensive. It can save a lot of money to stay off-site, but then you're going to be less able to rely on Disney's complementary transportation.
4. The budget is going to vary based on what approach you take with the hotel. You could go to Disney's and Universal's websites to see how much tickets will be on your dates. Expect over $100 per day to enter the parks. It's nice to have a rest day built in as there is a lot of walking involved.
5. I went there that time of year in 2020. I think it's as good a time of year as any weather-wise. It certainly could be cold for you. Layers help as it can go from chilly in the morning to hot in the afternoon to chilly at night.
6. I'll leave it to someone else to give you a precise answer, but Universal and Disney World are not exactly next door, but it would be easy enough to be staying at one and drive or taxi to the other.

Personally I like planning a vacation and turning myself into an expert on where I'm going, so I wouldn't use a travel agent. If you keep asking questions they will get answered on here, so it's kind of like having an army of experts helping you. Also if you google something like "beginner's guide to Walt Disney World" that could steer you to some helpful websites.

 

[_19disnA]

You need to make hotel & park reservations ahead of time, but I have no idea what others spend months doing prior to their Disney trip. Where you stay depends on your budget, preferences and which park(s) you plan to visit. If you have never been to Disney you will spend a lot of time talking to a travel agent to explain your plans/preferences/etc. so not sure there is any value in that. Much of Disney you have to experience for yourself to know what you like/don't like.

Most of what you are asking is covered in numerous other threads on here so you can look around and find most of those things already discussed in the past.

 

[Miffy]

I got approved for vacation the end of february/beginning of March. I last minute decided i want to go to Disney World with my husband. We want to do this before we have kids because this has been a bucket list thing for me! i have never been. I was told about this page from reddit!

1. i want to know if this is enough time to plan a trip to visit the disney world? I have no idea what its all about but i read there is like 4 different parks.
2. I didnt even look at tickets yet, but i heard some people plan their trip a year or more in advance and hotels may be booked? Is it too late for me?
3. Is it best to stay at hotels on their premises or off?
4. How much should i budget for? (i have a lot in savings so its not too much of an issue but i do still want to be practical).
5. Is the weather ok during february/March? I am from Hawaii so i am used to tropical weather, maybe not as intense though.
6. I also want to visit universal studios, how far is it from disney world?
7. Ahh i have so many questions so sorry. But i think this is where ill start for now.

Thank you for your help!

1. Yes. This is enough time to plan a trip. There are exactly four parks: Magic Kingdom (which is the park most people think of as Disney World), Epcot, Disney Hollywood Studios (that's where the Star Wars area is, among other things), and Animal Kingdom (where the Pandora area is--and a lot of animals and fantastic atmosphere).

2. Sure, people plan way ahead. But people also plan not-so-far-ahead. If you want to get an idea of what's available at the moment and what it would cost, go to the official Walt Disney World site and look up resort reservations for your intended travel dates. Keep in mind that just because something isn't available the day you look, it doesn't mean that it will continue to be unavailable.

3. Since you've never been, I'd highly advise, if you can afford it, to stay onsite at WDW. There are hotels in many price ranges. It is just so much easier to stay onsite. Don't complicate things by staying offsite and having to rent a car or use rideshares for everything you do. WDW has pretty decent onsite transportation to and from the parks and your resort.

Also, as far as being onsite goes--many of the WDW resorts have wonderful theming and that adds to the whole "I'm at Disney" experience.

4. How much you should budget for is a more difficult question to answer. How long will you be there? If you can swing it, try to be a week, minimum, just at WDW (not counting Universal) because all four parks are large, there's a ton of walking, and WDW is a huge property. It's not like going to Disneyland in California, where there are only two parks and they're right next door to each other. You will probably want to go to at least one or two of the parks more than once and you will definitely need time to rest unless you're used to walking several miles a day.

Another consideration is what kind of ticket medium to buy. There are park hopper tickets, so you can go from one park to another--these are more expensive than one-park-per-day tickets.

You should start with how much you want to spend, see what things cost--easy to do online--and consider what's important to you. Do you want fine dining? A high-end resort? Do you want to just go, go, go in the parks all day, eat at quick-service locations, and collapse at a not-so-pricey hotel at night?

You could spend a heckuva lot of money for a WDW vacation, but you don't have to. It's all up to you, to an extent, but ticket prices, for example, are relatively fixed. There are ticket discounters out there--please be careful about using some of them--but even at a discount, park tickets are never cheap.

I can't really pin down a price. Go to the WDW website and make a pretend booking, without getting to the screen where you pay for things. You'll see how much a particular resort plus tickets would cost you.

5. The weather in Feb/March can be cold. I've been there at that time and had to wear my winter coat every single day. I've also been there at that time and it's been warm. A total toss-up. Come prepared with layers, as a PP suggested. It may be too cold to use your resort's pool, for example, or it may be hot. Or it could be raining a lot. I've had that happen as well.

6. Universal is about 9 miles away from WDW. I admit that I've never yet been to Universal. There is a LOT to do at WDW. I've been numerous times and there are many things I still haven't done. If you have maybe 10 days to devote to this trip, not counting travel days, you can probably get in a lot at both places.

I hope this is of some help to you. After you have a certain number of posts on this board, you can have private conversations with members. Feel free to send me one if you need more info. I'm happy to help.

 

[CynBeth]

We 3 adults are going on a 12 day Universal and Disney trip very soon. We have never used a TA always book everything on our own. This will be our first time staying on Universal property for a few days. We have always stayed at a Disney hotel we try to experience a different resort each time alternating between a moderate and a deluxe. There are many choices so many great themes. I would look on the Disney website and see what interests you and what is available. The deluxe resorts are closer to certain parks so you can walk or take a boat or monorail and then a bus to other parks. For AKL only buses. Some of the moderate and value have bus only but certain ones have the Skyliner to Epcot and DHS. If you can you should have 2 days at each of the 4 parks. You can make dining reservations 60 days out for table service restaurants. There is also Genie+ that takes the place of Fastpass+ where you can pay $15 a person a day to book an attraction at 7 am every day it will give you a time and then book another when you finish, etc and there is also an option to pay extra for 2 top tier rides at each park that you can select a time for at 7 am the day of but you do not need Genie+ for that. You can purchase tickets with it added for your entire trip or if you do not think you need it for every day can add it the day of at 7 am only for certain days. Right now if you want to visit more than 1 park in a day you have to add park hopper but you have to check in at your first park and then can’t go to your second park until 2 pm so you would need to decide if you want to do that or not.

Most people say to do Disney first and then Universal because it could be a let down with the rides but with the schedule we wanted we are doing our time at Universal before Disney. With Universal if you stay at either Portofino Bay, Hard Rock, or Royal Pacific your tickets include early entry and an unlimited express pass which means you go in a special line for rides that offer it as many times as you want and for the Jimmy Fallon ride do not have to arrange the virtual que. We did a 2 day park to park pass so we can take the Hogwarts express between the 2 Harry Potter areas at Universal Studios and Island of Adventure. It actually is a savings to stay at one of those 3 and have all of that included than to stay at one of their other resorts and have to add the express pass to tickets on your own. There is boat transportation to the parks or about a 15 to 20 min walk. We are renting a car because we are also doing a day at Sea World and years ago we added things up between the cost of transportation to and from the airport plus a day at SW and another day at Universal or Kennedy Space Center or Busch Gardens in Tampa it cost either about the same or less if we were to use other transportation I can’t remember and with the car we like the freedom of going what time we want and coming back what time we want. Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any questions and you can also PM me when you are able to. Good luck and happy planning!

 

[fabfemmeboy]

A few months is plenty of time, especially now that people aren't picking FP months in advance and can't do dining res 6 months out. We never used to plan more than a month or two before the trip and always had a fantastic time.

 

[CamBry]

Thank you! As I am doing more research it seems doable even though things are so different now.