Top 3 Must pre-plan things for family Disney trip

[georgiaroots]

These are my priorities:
#1 - Book the room
#2 - Dining Reservations
#3 - Extra Activities
If you are trying to get a room in October, things fill up quickly. Disney offers free dining sometimes, and the cheaper rooms are sold out. Look at last years posts to see which resorts (and rooms) got free dining. Those are all gone already. BLT will be hard to get unless you are a DVC member.We are going in Oct. and I've been watching. Also, you can't make dining reservations if you don't have a room. Dining reservations for Oct. 1 begin on April 1. There are so many things to learn about Disney it's hard to keep up!

I am trying to rent points to book at BLT. It looks like I have to wait until the 7-month check-in window (which will be Sat) before those DVC members with a different home resort to book there so that is what I am waiting on. Can you direct me to the link about the resorts that had free dining last year. I don't know much about that program, but would love to do some quick research just in case. I know you said the ones that got it last year are gone already, but just would still be interested to see.

 

[tink'smom2B]

I am trying to rent points to book at BLT. It looks like I have to wait until the 7-month check-in window (which will be Sat) before those DVC members with a different home resort to book there so that is what I am waiting on. Can you direct me to the link about the resorts that had free dining last year. I don't know much about that program, but would love to do some quick research just in case. I know you said the ones that got it last year are gone already, but just would still be interested to see.

I think this is what you are looking for:
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

Keep in mind that DVC rooms booked on points never get free dining which is often during that part of the year.

 

[georgiaroots]

I think this is what you are looking for:
http://www.mousesavers.com/historical-information-on-walt-disney-world-resort-discounts/

Keep in mind that DVC rooms booked on points never get free dining which is often during that part of the year.

Oh, good to know. My alternate was booking the contemporary hotel if I didn't get a room at BLT. Is the Contemporary generally included? Of course, it may not even be offered during my visit anyway so I won't plan based on that, but just curious. I stayed there during a company sales meeting and thought it was nice, but didn't know the rooms accommodated 5 until recently looking it up on the Disney site. So not it is an option for us.

 

[monique5]

You are off to a great start. You can book dining reservations without having a resort booked. Only difference is resort guests can make dining reservations @ 180D + 10. This means 180D prior to arrival to 10 nights of stay. If no resort, you would call everyday starting @ 180D mark for each day of your stay. Also, if getting dining plan, book package/ dining plan if renting points. You link reservation # to dining reservation for TS meals without paying, just CC guarantee. You can also sign up for the MDE account without having a reservation.

 

[OceanAnnie]

1. Pre order Photo Pass. It's a good savings. Love Photo Pass! It was so worth it for us. So nice to have everyone in the pictures. Nice photo enhancements with characters too. If you love family pictures consider getting a family sitting through Photo Pass. You can get it for 20 or 30 min increments. I treasure ours.

2. We have done dining with all out ADRs and catch a meal when we were ready. Pros and cons to each. Loved both ways actually. For the ages of your kids, you can't beat the dining plan for character meals. That's the main reason we did it the times we did. The restaurants we liked were; Chef Mickey's- high energy for the kids. They loved it! The characters do a napkin dance with all the kids. Really cute. Cinderella's royal table. Park Fare. We also liked California Grill and Narcosse's. You can see the fireworks from both of those restaurants if you time it right. The kids loved that. Coral Reef was special to us. My son celebrated his birthday there. We made surprise arrangements for a scuba diver to hold up a personalized Happy Birthday sign while he was in the tank and we had a cake delivered too. Oh. If you don't get the reservation you want, don't give up! I took the Disney dining number with me and called while I was there and it worked. People cancel all the time.

3. Get some souvenirs from home to tuck away. Seriously. You can get all kinds of Disney stuff at the dollar tree. I got a bunch of glow necklaces and brackets for the kids. Laid them out on the bed before we left for the park at night. They were happy. Rain ponchos. Small pack of antibacterial hand wipes. All kinds of trip stuff can be found there and Target dollar spot.

You guys are going to have so much fun!