When is the earliest you start really planning for your trip?

[megster1123]

The only thing about planning early that I felt kind of shot me in the foot was airfare. I saw a great deal, grabbed it....and then a month or so later Free Dining was announced and we missed it by 2 days. Had I not purchased airfare I probably would have adjusted the resort dates back two days and snagged free dining.

 

[isabellea]

Already planning my March 2017 trip!

 

[mawatcha]

we are planning on a trip September 2017, when is the earliest I can really start planning it out? When do you guys start planning your trips?

I also start planning as soon as decision to go is made. It definitely gets more real once a resort and/or flights are booked. Something I'm not stoked about is taking an 18-month break from January '17 - October '18, it's only tentative right now but I'm not sure I can wait that long! May have to use marathon weekend as an excuse for a Jan trip to WDW, before Oct trip to DLR.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

We begin planning for our September trips in April/May.

 

[DLBDS]

we are planning on a trip September 2017, when is the earliest I can really start planning it out? When do you guys start planning your trips?

I think I started planning for our first WDW 1-1/2 years before we went. I've been quite a few times since then but with all of the constant changes and updates these days I feel I have to start planning now for my June 2017 stay. Good thing too. I'm tossing around the idea of staying Club Level at the WL and just learned a couple of days ago about the renovations going on with the lounge there. Honestly, I don't think it's ever too early to start planning for a WDW visit. I feel like I've been taking continuing-ed classes ( ) the past couple of years just to keep up with all the changes/updates!

 

[verleniahall]

We are goign in DEC of 17 and have already started picking parks/restaruants on our "disney plannign days"+

 

[cvjpirate]

My Daughter is planing her trip for 2019 but normally we plan a year in advance.

 

[Parker Clan]

We start planning as soon as we book our trip, usually 8 months before. It's fun to go back every few months and update things on our itinerary. Makes the time go by!

 

[Kiersten]

We started talking about our trip for December/January 2017 back in March and booked our trip last month with the travel agent. So 8/9 months out! Now we are at 7 months but we haven't planned a daily itinerary yet. We've had a lot of bad things at home to deal with so that's kind of taken a back burner. Plane tickets, park tickets, and resort rooms are booked though!

 

[Kona65]

we are planning on a trip September 2017, when is the earliest I can really start planning it out? When do you guys start planning your trips?

With all of the new changes that Disney has come up with, we start planning two years in advance. Not Kidding.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I start the second I book my resort. Once I set a date and decide on a resort planning begins, first by checking out historical data in regards to hard Party events, fireworks schedules and touring groups that may traditionally visit during that time. I check out restaurants, and park days, and make a loose plan. I routinely visit the boards to catch up with any changes that may have occurred since my last visit, and by 180 days out I am pretty good to go.

This.

I'm also constantly reading the DIS since things change so much. But I don't really start planning our park days until I book.

We went in 2011 and went back August 2015. A four year gap. I started reading the DIS regularly in October 2013. Then booked my resort November 2014. During the reading time I came across travel agent deals that helped me decide where to book. Once the resort was booked I was in full planning mode.

 

[karly05]

I will start seriously planning for next year when the 2017 resort rates come out and I can start crunching numbers. When EasyWDW puts up their crowd calendars, I'll start figuring out parks/days.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Well, since I started trying to price out hypothetical May 2017 trips by looking at August pricing ... Um, now. But it's hard to do much that's real before they release the rack rates.

 

[Nancyg56]

Well, since I started trying to price out hypothetical May 2017 trips by looking at August pricing ... Um, now. But it's hard to do much that's real before they release the rack rates.

You can narrow down where you want to stay based on this years rates. It's not perfect, but you can get a decent idea of how the rates fluctuate from resort to resort.

 

[Zhoen]

We "scheduled" our next trip (for youngest DD's 10th birthday) on the way home from our LAST trip (which was her first, and for her 5th birthday.) We're going next June after school lets out, and I've just started my "serious" planning ie- chose dates and started the strawman itinerary.

Last trip I spent about 18 months on it, this trip, it's more like 13 months, and only because that's how far out the rentals open up on the condos, and we want a good selection. It's also how far out you can book the auto-train, though we're not doing that, because the cost is simply not worth it this time, so we'll be doing the long-haul drive. I feel a little behind the curve with all the changes, but luckily I've got the good folks of the DIS to clue me in...

My parents are taking their RV to Fort Wilderness and are waiting for the dates to unlock, which will be very soon, and also about a year out.

I can't tell you yet which park we're going to on which dates, but I can tell you what/where we'll be eating the day we go to certain parks... Once the reservations are locked in and we have an idea of park hours, and EMHs (we don't use them being offsite, but my parents might, meanwhile I want to dodge the crowds, if possible) then we'll try to firm up which days we are going to which parks, so that we are ready to try for our ADRs at 180 days out.

Meanwhile I have a mental list of things to acquire in the next year. I had great success last time with finding useful stuff (a lot of it NEW) at yard and rummage sales... that helped me add a lot of magic and still be in our budget.
I just bought one of those "photo boxes" from the craft store (Frozen themed) and have started the "gathering" process. I'm also not above putting stuff for the trip on my Christmas wish list or giving trip-things as Christmas gifts. ;D I've started actually clicking on the MyPoints emails and doing swagbucks half-heartedly. I'm not going to "work" at it, but I can probably get $25 out of each of them by next year... that's free snacks...

I agree with what so many others have said. The planning is a big part of the fun!

 

[dkrauss]

Depends what you mean by really planning..................we're going in November with my brother and his family.....ADR's are all booked........planning a 4 parks in 1 day event.......initial planning this one started LAST summer (July 2015)............rooms booked in Dec 2015. We're planning 2 trips for 2017.......August with just my wife and I at Wilderness Lodge................and Oct with her family at the Beach Club


I also have a plan on the board that's 1,825 days (give or take 10 or 20) away

Doug

 

[Tomh]

For me, planning in earnest starts at about 6 and a half months out, which is when I start looking for park hours to be posted. Once park hours are posted, then I figure out what parks for what days, which sets me up for making my ADR's. That is where it all begins

 

[Pesky]

Never too early! I probably started planning about 18 months out. First it was figuring out when we would go (roughly). Then, as we also rent DVC points, we had to figure out the where in order to book those ahead of time. That switched around quite a bit as the trip moved around a bit due to DH's work schedule and DH and I were lobbying for our preferred resorts (wait, how did DH win that battle?). Finally we settled on our choices and then, 11 months out (bit less than that it worked out), we booked the hotels. Next DH went ahead and cashed in some points for our airline tickets. It just snowballs from there. I did order our WDW tickets early and managed to avoid that price hike. Didn't make it in time for USO sadly.

 

[DisneyArie]

My family and I will be taking our first Disney vacation this September. I started really really planning about a year ago. I wanted to really research everything, know what types of things I wanted to experience, and put together a savings plan. It seems like it wouldn't require much thought, but my biggest decision was the resort choice (2nd biggest was ADRs). I think I watched dozens of videos of just about every resort at WDW. Then, I priced them as well as tickets for September just to get a general idea of cost. This helped a lot with budgeting.

Happy planning

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I'm always planning, but realistically I don't really start doing official planning until about a year out from when I want to go.