First of all, welcome to the wonderful world of Walt Disney World vacation planning! It can be very overwhelming but it's also a lot of fun.
Disney actually has a special program called Magical Gatherings. Here is the link:
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/experience/experienceLanding?id=MagicalGatheringsExperiencePage
I think the Magical Gatherings would be great for you guys since there are 20 of you. Check out the official word at the link above because there are some tools there to help you plan and to share the planning with the other people in your party.
I would also recommend that you register on the Disney World site. They will email you special offers, newsletters, etc. I check the Disney World website at least once a week to see if there are any new special offers. The way to do this is go to
www.disneyworld.com. Click on Tickets & Reservations. On the next screen, you'll see Special Offers on the lefthand side. Click there and you can see what is available at that point in time. Keep checking back to see if anything new pops up.
You've already become a disboard member so that's great. Everybody here on the boards keep one another updated on offers they have found. We love helping each other out! Just watch the Codes & Rates threads to see what other people have posted.
I, personally, like to book my
Disney vacations directly through Disney Travel Company. I've never booked through a
travel agent or
AAA although many people do and have had great results. I just like having control over my own vacation. If you book through an agent, you MUST go through the agent to make any changes or ask any questions. You can't talk to Disney directly about your vacation.
I always go to the Disney World website to book the vacation. I find the resort I want, decide which package I want and get a price quote. Then, I pick up the phone and call 407-W-DISNEY to book. I just like talking to a live person when booking so that I can ask any questions I want to ask and I can make special requests (like which building I would like or if we want upstairs or downstairs, etc.). I keep the online quote screen in front of me while talking to the operator just so I know the price is the same.
If you don't know which resort to choose, look through the threads here and post any questions you have. Everybody will be glad to help you out. Keep in mind though that everybody has their favorite resort and they will sing it's praises to high Heaven. Our favorite is the Caribbean Beach Resort but some don't like it because it is a large resort. You'll also find others who just can't stand a resort.
To help you choose a resort, I would also suggest you go to
www.allearsnet.com. Click on Accommodations and scroll down. On the left hand side, you'll see a column listing the resorts. There are fact sheets, slide shows, pictures and comments for each and every resort. It should help you greatly!
If you find a special offer and you have already booked your room, you can call Disney travel at the number above and tell them what you have found. They can make changes to your reservation for you. I've never ever had a problem doing this. One year, Disney ran a promotion for free ticket upgrades and I had already booked the vacation and had been paying on it for months. I simply called Disney, told them the offer I found on their site and they applied the offer to my existing reservation. It saved me almost $400.00!!!!!
If you book a package through Disney, you will be required to pay a $200.00 deposit within fourteen days from the date you book the package. After that, you can begin making payments on the reservation. The only requirements are that your payments be $20.00 or more and you have the reservation paid for 45 days prior to your arrival date. It's like having a Disney vacation on layaway!
If you book a room only reservation, you will be required to pay a deposit equal to your first night's stay. You must pay the balance in full upon arrival. You may be able to make payments by phone but I don't think you can make them online.
We just came back from a spur of the moment week long vacation and we didn't book the
Disney Dining Plan. I knew that we didn't have enough time to make dining reservations so we just ate wherever whenever. I have never gotten so tired of fast food in my entire life!!!! I swore I would never go back to Disney without the dining plan again!
Since there are so many of you, it might be nice for you to purchase the "basic" Disney Dining plan and sit down to a nice meal together every evening. The basic Dining Plan allows you to have one counter service meal per day (that's where you just walk into a fast food type restaurant, place your order at the counter and then find a table), one snack per day (most places anything under $4 is considered a snack option) and one table service meal per day (you make a dining reservation, are seated at a table and waited on by a waiter/waitress). There are also other dining plans available where you can add wine to your plan or two counter service meals per day with a snack and refillable mug or the deluxe plan. You can find more information about all the dining plans on the Disney website.
With a counter service meal, you will get an entree (for example...burger and fries, chicken strips and fries, turkey wrap with grapes), a dessert and a non-alcoholic drink. With a snack, it's basically anything under $4.00. With a table service meal, you get an entree, non-alcoholic drink and a desert. You are required to pay the tip.
Disney doesn't care when or how you use the meal credits. You can use them for breakfast, noon or dinner. You can use them all in one day (virtually impossible to do but you could), you can skip a day, you can take two table service meals and use them for a dinner show.
We aren't breakfast people 'cause we want to get up and at the parks early so we use our counter service for lunch, our snack credits mid-afternoon and our table service credit for dinner.
To see if the dining plan would work for you (For example, I am going to use the basic Disney Dining Plan), do the following:
1) Get a notebook and assign each day of your stay a page. For example, page one will be September 1st, page two will be September 2nd, page three will be September 3rd and so on. Since there are so many of you, you may need more pages per day.
2) For each day, make three columns: COUNTER SERVICE, SNACK and TABLE SERVICE.
3) Next, check out the menus at
www.allearsnet.com. Click on Dining and scroll down to Menus. Click on Menus and every Disney restaurant menu will be listed.
4) With the menus before you and your notebook in hand, choose where you will eat your counter service meal on Day 1. Select what you would order (keeping in mind that you are just getting an example not deciding for sure) and write down the price in your column. Do this for each person in your party. For snack, I wouldn't bother looking at the menus...I would just write down $3.00 to $4.00 'cause you really don't know what snack you'll want. Next, choose where you want to eat your table service meal and do the same thing you did for the counter service meal. Don't forget to write down prices!
5) When you have all your days completed, tally up your figures. Don't forget to add in tax and to calculate your out of pocket tip expenses.
Keep in mind that you can order ANYTHING off the menus but alcoholic beverages and appetizers aren't included in the basic plan.
I believe (I can't believe I don't remember the exact price) the basic dining plan is $39.00 per day per person age 10 and above and about $14 or $15 per day for ages 3 to 9. Check the Disney website first but I am pretty sure those prices are about right. I always just get a quote with the plan and then a quote without the plan and subtract the difference to see what the plan is costing me.
Take your total from your chart and the total cost of the dining plan (easiest to just get a quote with the plan and then without the plan to see what you would be paying for the dining plan) and see if the dining plan would work for you. It has always worked out the better for us. We are also more apt to eat at different restaurants and eat a variety of foods. It's so nice to sit down together at the end of the day and just talk about what we did that day.
Again, always check the Disney website for special offers. Always watch the Codes & Rates boards.
I know that I have rambled on a bit but I was trying to put in any and all information that I thought would help you out even the slightest bit.
If you have more questions, post them!
