Thinking about a Nov. trip to Disney

[Kelsey'sMom]

We are pretty sure we are going to head back to Disney World this November, the last time we went was Nov. of 2003! I need to know where to start? What do I book first, plane tickets? Hotel reservations? ADR's? We live in Northern Cape Breton and have to decide where to fly out of, Halifax, or driving to Portland Maine? Where do you look to find the best prices for flights. Also, we received a PIN from Disney for free dining good until Aug. do you think there will be some kind of deal in the fall, and what are the chances of me getting it again? I have lots of questions, and I will be looking for some advice while we plan this great family vacation.

 

[Tower]

We are pretty sure we are going to head back to Disney World this November, the last time we went was Nov. of 2003! I need to know where to start? What do I book first, plane tickets? Hotel reservations? ADR's? We live in Northern Cape Breton and have to decide where to fly out of, Halifax, or driving to Portland Maine? Where do you look to find the best prices for flights. Also, we received a PIN from Disney for free dining good until Aug. do you think there will be some kind of deal in the fall, and what are the chances of me getting it again? I have lots of questions, and I will be looking for some advice while we plan this great family vacation.

Hey Kelsey's Mom! We just booked our flights last night a November trip to Orlando! We're kind of holding back now on resorts as we're still hoping for a PIN code of some sort for free dining. When I called Disney, they had nothing on record . Just the same, as our banner states, we're hoping to hit POR.
ADR's you can do any time, and I'd recommend do that soon so you can get the date/time you want. We haven't totally got our activities for the time we're their yet down pat so we haven't done any ADR's yet.
Hope we both get some kind of dining PIN. It would help our pocketbooks a great deal.
The main reason for Nov for us is DW's birthday falls right in the middle of the trip and Disney does treat a birthday girl right
Maybe we'll see you at the parks!

 

[Kat&Dom]

Hi Kelsey's Mom,

I would book your flights first, then accomodation. Once your dates are pretty much set in stone, I would book your ADR's - which I think is coming up pretty quick in May for November.

If you collect Airmiles, you can redeem them for your Disney tickets.

We are also going to Disney November 16-25. We got a great flight deal out of Calgary on Delta for $361 CAD with all taxes included.

Have a great trip!

 

[Brandilovesdisney]

I typically book flights first because you can save alot of money by changing dates sometimes by +1 or -1. Then book your hotel reservation - I don't wait for a pin code because that can be added onto your reservation later. You can get a feel for what days (or weeks) will have free dining by looking as previous years - Disney is either going to have it or they aren't so be prepared just in case they don't (or they decrease the number of days for the offer).
Then book your ADR's at the 180 mark - some restaurants will go fast - like Le Cellier, Cinderella's Castle. Have fun planning!

 

[MedicGoofy]

I'm obviously in the minority here. I have had my disney vaca booked for months. We are going in November, the trip has been paid off and we are yet to book flights. Doesn't matter, Nov has not opened up yet. Airtran has JUST as of 2 days ago, opened up Nov and Southwest and Jetblue have not. So, flights can't be booked.

For me, we went when the PIN was good. It was offered the week of Nov 13-19th for 35% off. We wanted each night there discounted. If not, we would loose the pin. So why book a reservation around fligts. You can save more through Disney with the pin. Book the trip, get the discount on the full trip, and if you pay a little more on flying a sunday rather than a tuesday, big deal. We have saved hundreds with our pin. You wont save hundreds depending on the day you fly.

As it stands, we are only looking at paying $250 round trip. Not bad. Not gonna complain. The money we saved with our pin will well pay for the flight.

I hope the pin works out well for the dates that you book for your flights.

Have a good trip!!!! November is an awesome time to go

 

[Kelsey'sMom]

Thanks for the information. I'm waiting for Jet Blue flights to come out for November, still haven't decided where to fly from. Where does everyone look for best flight information and do you buy them through the airline's websites or sites like expedia?

 

[Kat&Dom]

Thanks for the information. I'm waiting for Jet Blue flights to come out for November, still haven't decided where to fly from. Where does everyone look for best flight information and do you buy them through the airline's websites or sites like expedia?

I usually look up the flights on sites like expedia because it gives so many different airlines so I know which airline that has the best deal. I like booking directly on the airlines website so that I have more choices on times.

Have a wonderful trip

 

[restful urchin]

HI,
I am going mid Nov. I have the 35% off pin for Nov 13-19. I'm going to add to the trip by booking for a few days early or after. Whether we go early or stay later will depend on airfare . I kind of figure that from Edmonton there are occsional good deals out there but not many. It' just expensive.

 

[Tinkershelly]

For what it's worth, here's my process for booking our upcoming fall trip to WDW.

The first thing we do is book our time off work. In my case that has to be done in January. We wanted to be at WDW for the 40th anniversary (the weekend of Oct. 1) and we need to be in PEI for Thanksgiving weekend (the following weekend) so that is what dictated our travel dates.

At 180 days I booked the dining reservations, based on available park hours and Extra Magic Hours evenings. Yes, I did book dining before hotel and flights!

Now I'm looking for a WDW promotion, specifically I'm looking for the usual fall free dining promotion. I'm hoping this will come out in the next couple of weeks, certainly by early May if they follow the pattern of the past couple of years.

By July I'll be looking for flights. The best prices will be if you can fly on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday (avoiding the weekends) and make the reservation on a Tuesday. Because of our situation we can travel one way mid-week but must travel the other way on the weekend so our flights may be a bit more expensive but there's no help for it right now and I realize that.

We prefer to fly through a US connection on a US carrier, and we have been getting the best flight times and prices with Continental. We fly out of Halifax, through Newark, early morning to arrive in Orlando by early afternoon. Departing Orlando mid-afternoon arriving in Halifax very late evening. Last year this cost us $459.01 Canadian per person, all fees included. We thought that was a good price. I booked it at 12am Wednesday morning (11pm Tuesday night in New York) July 27 for a Dec. 1st departure.

When we have our flights booked I'll get the travel agent to add that information to our Disney package reservation and arrange for Magical Express.

This is a very long message but I hope it gives you an idea of what we have found to be a good process.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

Where does everyone look for best flight information and do you buy them through the airline's websites or sites like expedia?

I always start with matrix.itasoftware.com to find flights and prices, then I jump to the airlines website and book the flights.