What's the order in which you plan your trip?

[kmoore7]

First and foremost,welcome to your new obsession I will put a different spin on things. We only flew once,that was because MIL went with us. We have driven every trip since. So I can't help with planning airfare. I can say that once we are there, I never see my car again till the day we leave. We have been all over the calendar on when we go,it all depends on when we WANT to go.June twice,October for MNSSHP,August and last July 4th. As far as crowds,we are a family of seven,so we are our own crowd wherever we go,so that's not a major issue with us. One tip I learned here,plan on doing rope drop at MK the day after they are open late. We always do Hoppers and plan on at least five park days. It's been a while since our kids were that young,so I won't give advice on Epcot at that age. The most important piece of advice I have is,stay flexible, stay calm, and HAVE FUN WITH YOUR FAMILY!!!

 

[misse320]

For me, planning always started with a layout of what park on what day. This is the first year that I've really tried to plan based on a crowd calendar. I usually just try and decide what early morning and late nights we want, then plan around that. I made a rookie mistake my first year and had us out late in MK with very early ADR at Akershus the next morning. That was a bad day! Over the years we have come to learn that as a family, we are more night owls than early risers and I schedule things accordingly.


EPCOT has been a favorite for my kids since they were 2 years old. People always underestimate how much there is in EPCOT for kids. They love KidCot and getting passports stamped in each country. Another thing my kids really enjoyed in EPCOT is getting a smashed penny in each country. They collected them! What other Disney souvenir can you get for $.51? Most of our favorite rides are in EPCOT too. We always need multiple days for that park in every trip.

 

[wisblue]

The new book co authored by Josh of easywdw seems to be a perfect resource for someone planning a first trip. I haven't seen the book itself, but just from the TOC it seems to be structured just the way one would want it for laying out what decisions to make in what order.

 

[nooneshome]

1. Convince DW to go on another WDW trip. She won't be going back anytime soon due to health conditions and growing disinterest. This step now becomes convincing DD and maybe some of her friends to make a trip. DD will go in a heartbeat.

2. Getting the right deal. Now that she is out of school it should be easier to get one that fits our available times. We have some old tickets so all we need is a room only discount for our next trip. I want to go during the Christmas holiday decorations time. The week before or after Thanksgiving.

3. Book the trip.

4. Plan our park days. I usually use Josh's recommendations but will deviate if needed.

5. Plan our ADR. We only get one so this is easy.

6. Plan out our touring plans and FP+ strategy. I need to rethink my original strategy if DW is not going. DD did A&E last trip but I would like to do it with her if available.

7. Get FP+s.

8. Sometime a couple weeks from our trip get out my Disney trip box and start getting the things we will need for our trip.

9. A couple nights before our trip get down our luggage and start to get our clothes ready.

10. Leave. Because we drive there is no worry about airline stuff.


Of course throughout this whole process I am reading the DIS every day for updates and little trip reminders. I truly enjoy planning our trips and reading the DIS.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

First I pick my dates based on what I want to do when I go and when I can go.

Then I book my room - I tend to do room only although I won't be renewing my AP when it expires this year for a year or two so I may book packages instead then.

Then I start watching flights getting an idea of costs - this upcoming trip I'd planned to drive but then got a SW flight for 49.00 each way. I booked it fast.

Usually in between I go to the easywdw.com website and start planning my days so when it comes time to book my ADR's I've picked which park for which day and am all ready to go. I don't do ADR's every day of my trip.

I watch the boards looking for anything strange that comes up like parks closing early for companies, christmas parade tapings, ect. in case I need to make adjustments.

Then I'm all ready to book my FP+ when the window opens. Then I can start thinking about a touring plan for each park and which characters I want to meet.
I also decide around this time if I want to book Memory maker based on the amount of pictures I'm going to do. Sometimes I get it, sometimes I don't.

I like to plan my trips and this way has worked for me in the past. Have fun finding your way!

Forgot to mention Epcot - when my kids were your kids ages they loved World Showcase and The Seas building. World showcase we always colored whatever item was in the kidcot station and had fun getting it stamped while we went around the WS, we also would get the smashed pennies and different candies in each country for the kids to try. Once we did the Epcot passport stamps - I think my oldest was 8 that time. They loved all the aquarium in The Seas building and now Disney has added info stations to that sometimes which was not there when my kids were little.

 

[DisMJ]

All of these responses have been SO helpful! I will check out all of the links that were provided!

After discussing more with DH, we have decided to go in November now. Probably good that I didn't get TOO far into the planning process. Originally I planned on skipping Animal Kingdom this trip so figured 5 full days was plenty, especially with DH who does not enjoy being away from home. Plus, AK does not appeal to me in the same way as the other parks, but with people that I have talked to, they said it was one of their kids favorites. I was not even going to mention it to my kids!

Originally I was thinking 2 days at MK, 2 days at Epcot, 1 at DHS, but I like the idea of splitting one of those days at Epcot... maybe I should suck it up and do the safari at AK in the morning?

The restaurants I would like to go to for sure are Akershus breakfast, Ohana character breakfast, Ohana supper, Kona Cafe for breakfast, Starring Rolls, WPE - Marketplace and Earl of Sandwich.

Will read, read, read... thanks again everyone!!!

 

[kaybird]

After we have picked a week, I have a spreadsheet with the EMH hours and parks listed. I base our ADR's on what park we are likely to be in, or a quick hop to another location. Then I put the ADR's on the spreadsheet, and add the FP+. It really is not much planning, and I keep the spreadsheet for each trip, and just add new dates and locations.

 

[SplashMo]

If you stick to five days and not go to six

2 MK days
2 Epcot Days
1 DHS day
1 AK Day (three hours on last day) Of course this is six days but taking advantage of the travel day to slip in 3 hours at AK.

Staying strictly to five days.

2 MK days
1.5 Epcot Days
1 DHS day
0.5 AK Day (Morning rope drop without FP+, Hop to EP with FP+ for SOARIN, illuminations. Perhaps ride TT single rider line).

The partial 6th day is cheaper then the five day with hoppers.

 

[SplashMo]

Or partial sixth day with hoppers:

2.5 MK days
1.5 Epcot Days
1 DHS day
1 AK Day (three hours on last day) Of course this is six days but taking advantage of the travel day to slip in 3 hours at AK.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

We plan the dates of our vacation first, then worry how we're getting there, but with my fiancee's and my sister's schedules, when we're going is less flexible than for a single family.

After we get our dates nailed down, we begin planning park days by avoiding parks with morning EMH. I stay with my parents so we can't take advantage of it. Being rope drop people morning EMH puts a huge dent in our plans. I rarely look at crowd calendars as I generally know if it's going to be busy or not, and more than anything they seem to be based off common sense; if MK has morning EMH, for example, it will be marked as a park to avoid on the crowd calendars.

Once we figure out the EMH shuffle, a tentative plan of park days begins to emerge. If there is anything that must be planned well in advance, a Wishes Dessert Party, for example, then that day is decided upon and set in stone, especially after the reservation is booked. We usually go for 10-12 days so there will emerge five or six days that are set in stone, and days that can be shuffled around a bit if we need to switch for a hard to get ADR.

It's a given that we will spend at least two days in MK, two at Epcot, and usually just one day each at HS, AK, Disney Springs, and seasonally, Typhoon Lagoon. We are strongly against park hopping so that cuts down on the planning. It's also a given that we will visit Seaworld and do a more cultural day trip somewhere around Florida. So essentially at this point, knowing what we like to do and what we have to avoid, the vacation practically plans itself.

As far as days that can be shuffled, there's still always a main plan with park days mapped out and several contigency plans, so even the shuffling is planned out to a T.

I mess with ADRs all the way up until I go, though. Not staying on site means I have to work harder to secure some of my ressies.

If it's a ridiculously busy time of year (Christmas, 4th of July, etc.) I will also plan out ride by ride, each day in the parks, especially MK.

 

[Mindy Kurz]

I book my ADR's exactly 6 months before we plan to go..even before we make our room reservations. We go in the spring and they usually don't put the specials out until end of December, beginning of January. I book the room and park tickets at that time (so we can book our fastpasses 60 days in advance). I book the dining plan 4 days before we go so that I don't have to pay for that 45 days in advance, and I add the park hopper and water park option when we get there. After I book by room, I start looking for the best deal on flights..