New to boards/Planning trip for May 2011

[southern_redhead]

Hi, I've lurked for a bit but never posted. My family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids) are planning a trip to DW for late May 2011. Tentative plans are 2 rooms at the Port Orleans resort for 10 days. We will be there over both my birthday and our second sons 12th birthday so we plan to celebrate those days but not sure how yet. I am wondering if most of you book directly on the disney site or do you go through an agency? If an agency who is recommended. Also, this trip is CASH (lol) and I will be paying for it out of my paycheck.I am wondering if I can book now and pay as I go or must I wait until I have it saved and pay it when booking? If that's the case we will have to move the trip to October of 2011 as I won't have all the money until May and October would be our next break (could only do 7 days though as we can't take the extra time out of school.) And, last questions for this post, we plan to do the dining plan - is that booked through an agency if you use one AND will I have to go through the agency or deal directly with Disney to book reservations?

I have LOTS more questions but that should get me off and running My other questions would probably be better suited to individual boards anyway. Thanks in advance for reading/answering my post. I'm really excited to have found these boards to help us maximize our Disney experience!

~ Leanne

 

[2mtsa2ro]

We booked our first trip in 2005 through AAA. I hadn't discovered the Disboards, so I had no idea where to start with the planning. Our trips since then, we have booked directly through Disney and have been able to get 'pay for 4 nights, get 3 nights free' in 2009 and 'free dining' for our upcoming trip. I am a control freak plus I enjoy the planning, so I don't use an agency anymore. I like knowing that I can be on the phone at 7am to try to get the best shot at my ADR instead of hoping that my agent is working on it. Although, even if you use an agency, you should still be able to make your own ADRs online and/or over the phone. I'm not sure about the benefits of using an agent but I'm sure someone else will tell us soon.
As far as payment, it's a $200 deposit when you book and the balance is due to Disney 45 days before your trip. We are big on paying cash too, but we recently got an offer for $200 Disney gift card for opening an account, also, for every $100 we charge on the card, we get $1 for Disney. For us, it was worth it to start using the card and paying it off every month so we don't incur interest charges, in exchange for a few Disney perks!
Have fun planning your trip, you've found the best resource!

 

[Metro West]

 

[southern_redhead]

Thank you for the welcomes. Thanks, also, for the information, Mary (my DD is also named Mary!) That is good to know about booking directly with Disney. I am a control freak too LOL So when you book do you do a "package" deal with dining plan/lodging/tickets all together or do you book each thing on it's own?

~Leanne

 

[2mtsa2ro]

You can add to your reservation up to 48 hours before check-in. Getting the hotel you want is probably the priority. When I book, I go ahead and pick my dining plan and figure out how many days we will be going to the parks. It's still too early for you to book, but you can play with the system at disneyworld.com to see the different prices and figure out what will work best for you, sometimes just changing your check-in by a day can make $100s of difference because of the season you fall into. You can start making your ADRs (advance dining reservations) 190 days before you check-in. You will want to keep an eye on the special offers because you do have to call and ask for the offer, even if you are already booked, this just happened with free dining last week, one phone call saved us almost $500!
Ask anything, there is bound to be a Diser out there who knows the answer!

 

[ItsDisney]

To the Dis Boards

 

[magicaldisney]

 

[Disn3y]

 

[Disneydonnam]

Welcome

 

[jpmandan]

Welcome to the DIS.
We will be at POFQ May 29th June 7th. There will be about 20+/- family and friends with us. Look for the LIME GREEN MICKEY HEADs in our room windows. We use TourGuideMiKE.com it helps with the planing.'Ohana at the Polynesian Resort is an AWSOME place to eat, we will be dining there twice this trip. Have fun.

 

[Happiest mommy]

 

[francis6306]

Welcome aboard!

I was hoping to go in May of 2011... but I changed my mind and now we'll be there in December with a couple of friends! May is actually all of my families birthdays! Me 3, DH 16 and my DD 30! Make sure you tell the hotel when you check in about the birthdays... and tell ALL the castmembers. Sometimes you get lucky and a little pixie dust is sprinkled so I hear...

I booked everything myself, and by researching on this site and using my BFF Shelley (who I am going with) I picked the restuarants... although, we're doing more character meals since we have a 2 and 4 year old on our trip!

 

[gme6662]

welcome to the boards. good luck