Making a year-plus wait for a WDW trip fun!

[singingpixie]

Looks like $-wise, neither mom nor I can take our girls-trip to WDW this august for free dining. The good news? She thinks it sounds like a ton of fun and we should try to save up and do it at the same time (end of august for my birthday and before she goes back to school) next year! Honestly, it's fine with me to wait because I'd rather not feel guilty about it $-wise, and it gives us lots of time to plan and dream and other fun stuff.

I've always been the disney planning freak since I was 9 and we were planning our first family trip. Mom didn't get to go on that trip because my grandpa got sick, but he insisted we all go- so my mom hasn't been to WDW since my 26-year-old cousin was in diapers. I spend some time on the DIS and other planning sites at least every couple days, and have had to stop buying the guides every year because they don't have enough new information (and sometimes they're frustratingly out of date).

My mom knows a fair bit from planning that trip years ago and knowing people who have gone, but definitely hasn't gotten into it as much as I have, just because she hasn't been since before Epcot. She is a fair bit like I am personality-wise though (ok.... more than a fair bit. Honestly, I'm kind of a clone except I'm definitely not a size 4 like she is ) so I have a feeling she'd get into the planning. She's a busy person though, and we live 3 states apart, so we don't have all the time in the world to devote to planning- I want to involve her in the fun stuff but not overwhelm her and make it seem like a chore.

What would you do in the 16 or so months until the trip to build the anticipation? What books should I buy to both read? How would you handle things like dining reservations? What have you done when you're planning a trip way in advance to make the passage of time part of the joy of the trip?

 

[ziggystardust]

I haven't really been to Disney since last March for my birthday and that was just a long weekend trip, before that it was September for the first free dining. The plan was to wait a while b/c my DBF (now exDBF) and I had both gotten new jobs and we wanted to save some money. So we decided on waiting until the food and wine festival this coming October. Now that we broke up in Feb those plans were out the window.

Luckily I have reconnected with a friend that is as crazy for disney as I am (ok maybe not as crazy) and now the plans are back on. Its going to be weird since the last 4 yrs (we were together 6 but for some reason didn't get there at first) have been trips with my DBF but I can't wait.

Anyway - back to your question. If you do too much too soon, you'll get sick of it. What I've done is compare historic prices to find out the best deals. Made lists to see if buying APs would be worth it. Read people's trip reports and feel like you're there. You get frustrated when you can't see airline prices that far in advance though. I say concentrate of saving money, plan that. Make goal dates for yourself and when you reach them- go buy some disney dollars or something. It helps if you have someone (or someplace like the Dis) to talk about your plans. That always helps me.

 

[bekkiz]

Well, allearsnet.com is a fabulous website for long distance planning. When I was helping my mom and sister plan their trip, I'd get on the phone with them and look through pictures of the resorts, menus etc. They have great slideshows of the resorts, and it's really fun.

Also, there's a few Live365.com radio stations that play disney music and rides and stuff. I love having that in the background when I cook or clean...or plan my trip!

I suppose it's a bit like planning a wedding, in terms of timeline. Decide on your dates, look for airfare, pick your resort, pick your restaurants etc. The only problem can be 16 months is a really long time, and it can get a little tiring waiting. I might wait until the 12 or 10 month mark to really start planning...but then again...it might be fun to be excited for that long

Have fun!