Thoughts on rebooking for next summer?

[Scooley01]

Howdy all,

My husband and I were originally booked fairly last-minute (90ish days out) for our honeymoon in May at Pop. Obviously that didn't go according to plan! We rebooked for early July, thinking things would be better, but that wasn't meant to be, either. We finally completely canceled a few days ago, and we're just waiting on refunds now. We both teach high school, so we don't have much vacation time during the year. Currently, we are thinking we'll just go next summer, but I've got a few questions rattling around in my brain.

1) Obviously no one knows for certain yet, but we're really hoping the WDW experience has returned to mostly normal a year from now. Ideally we want to go when it's safe enough to not wear masks. We also want fireworks, parades, fast pass, ADR, character interactions, etc. Are there any projections/predictions about what level of safety/normalcy can be expected next summer?

2) Now that we're planning a lot further in advance, when would be the best time to actually book something for next summer? I know room rates and discounts obviously aren't available this far out, so when would be ideal for making those plans?

3) We definitely want to stay at Pop, and since we have a whole extra year to save money, we can afford to make the trip a little bigger. What would you say the ideal trip length would be to try and do as much as possible in the parks, while not killing ourselves with rope-drop every day?

Anything else we should be thinking about while we're planning version 3.0 of this honeymoon? Thanks in advance!

 

[e_yerger]

Howdy all,

My husband and I were originally booked fairly last-minute (90ish days out) for our honeymoon in May at Pop. Obviously that didn't go according to plan! We rebooked for early July, thinking things would be better, but that wasn't meant to be, either. We finally completely canceled a few days ago, and we're just waiting on refunds now. We both teach high school, so we don't have much vacation time during the year. Currently, we are thinking we'll just go next summer, but I've got a few questions rattling around in my brain.

1) Obviously no one knows for certain yet, but we're really hoping the WDW experience has returned to mostly normal a year from now. Ideally we want to go when it's safe enough to not wear masks. We also want fireworks, parades, fast pass, ADR, character interactions, etc. Are there any projections/predictions about what level of safety/normalcy can be expected next summer?

2) Now that we're planning a lot further in advance, when would be the best time to actually book something for next summer? I know room rates and discounts obviously aren't available this far out, so when would be ideal for making those plans?

3) We definitely want to stay at Pop, and since we have a whole extra year to save money, we can afford to make the trip a little bigger. What would you say the ideal trip length would be to try and do as much as possible in the parks, while not killing ourselves with rope-drop every day?

Anything else we should be thinking about while we're planning version 3.0 of this honeymoon? Thanks in advance!

Book as soon as they open and it’s available to book. I’d suggest putting a request into Dreams Unlimited Travel and have an agent book for you on opening day. They’ll watch for discounts if they come out for your travel dates.

I’d suggest a week at Disney - fly in early on a Sun and out in the evening on Sat. Gives you an extra day before & after your trip to get ready & unwind at home. Plan for one “rest” day in the middle of the trip for pool time & disney springs!

 

[nkereina]

1) Obviously no one knows for certain yet, but we're really hoping the WDW experience has returned to mostly normal a year from now. Ideally we want to go when it's safe enough to not wear masks. We also want fireworks, parades, fast pass, ADR, character interactions, etc. Are there any projections/predictions about what level of safety/normalcy can be expected next summer?

All the rumors and speculation I have seen have the current restrictions/changes in place through the end of the year. I'm sure the situation will remain fluid, and Disney will extend as needed.

2) Now that we're planning a lot further in advance, when would be the best time to actually book something for next summer? I know room rates and discounts obviously aren't available this far out, so when would be ideal for making those plans?

I would book as soon as you're able to. Usually you can book a little more than a year out for room only, but I know new reservations are tabled right now while Disney sorts everything out. But, once those open back up, I would recommend booking. If things are looking more normal by next year, I would expect it to be quite busy with other people re-scheduling from this year, as well as people wanting to visit for the 50th anniversary.

3) We definitely want to stay at Pop, and since we have a whole extra year to save money, we can afford to make the trip a little bigger. What would you say the ideal trip length would be to try and do as much as possible in the parks, while not killing ourselves with rope-drop every day?

We always do a minimum of 7 days. It gives us a day to dedicate to each of the 4 parks, a rest/pool/Disney Springs day, and then 2 extra days/half days (depending on flight times) to visit MK or DHS or Epcot again because it generally takes us more than one day to see and do everything there. Our last two trips have been for 10 days, which was a great length of time for us because we were content with going to the parks for a few hours, taking a break to use the pool in the afternoon, and just overall not feeling rushed or like we need to be maximizing our park time. Traveling in the summer months, you'll want as much flexibility as possible because rain often puts a damper on things, and with the heat/humidity, you'll be needing frequent breaks.

 

[sponica]

Reservations for next year should be available by the 28th.

Depending on where you teach and what your "summer" is, even though August is miserably hot, it has lower crowds because the southern tier starts going back to school.

Oddly the trip where I thought we did the "most" was a 3 or 4 day park trip in January one year and it's probably tied with my trip in August.

I do think the 7 to 10 day range gives you enough time to have "lower key" days if you want them, like pool in the morning and then epcot for dinner or something like that.

 

[happymommy]

I second looking at August! Some of my favorite trips have been the last week or two of August (but I also don’t know your schedule; my kids whom I took never started school until after Labor Day, which was nice as many kids were already back at school, so the parks were so quiet compared to our spring or winter trips). Also, August may be hot, but it’s hot at home, and it’s actually been cool in the evenings (and I had heard from locals that August is cooler than July). Of course weather is not predictable! We did get afternoon showers, but they don’t last long. One of my favorite trips was 15 nights the last two weeks; we stayed off site, but had a great time. And I do love Pop! After many deluxe resorts, I discovered I loved it there! The food court offered so much that deluxe didn’t as far as options for a dinner after parks (we don’t stay out too late, and we’d grab dinner to go on the way back to the room).

PS: Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials!

 

[Scooley01]

We can't do August, unfortunately. School here (north Texas) starts beginning of August, which means teachers usually go back towards the tail end of July.

 

[sponica]

We can't do August, unfortunately. School here (north Texas) starts beginning of August, which means teachers usually go back towards the tail end of July.

Is the first half of June an option? The northern tier is still in school.

 

[Scooley01]

Is the first half of June an option? The northern tier is still in school.

Yes! Late May/Early June was our original plan this year. The hope was to have our trip before it got too hot or too crowded.