When to start planning for October 2017 trip

[andera42]

It seems so far away, but I am planning a trip for October 2017 with my two teens and my two grandkids 4yo and 6 yo. And 4 adults. When should I start planning? Reservations for hotel?

 

[geekbri]

Andera,
My wife and I went to Disneyworld for our Honeymoon Oct2015. It looks like I booked our trip on April 23, 2015. I ended up booking BEFORE they announced any discounts. Once they mailed us a discount I called a travel rep directly and they were able to apply the discount to the trip I had already booked. It ended up getting us 30% off of a theme park view room!

You can book your dining reservations up to 180 days in advance (and I recommend doing this for certain resturants. In my experience Cindarellas Royal table, Be our guest dinner reservation, and I find Sci Fi Diner in Hollywood books up quick as well).

If you are staying at a disney resort you can book your fast passes up to 60 days in advance.

What I usually end up doing is that once I have selected the days I am going, I sketch out a rough plan of what days I would like to go to what parks. Once I have done that, I find out which rides I like and list those for the days and where I'd like to eat. Then once you're at 180 days you try you book those dining reservations ASAP!

I hope this helped. If you are banking on specific discounts a lot of people don't book until they arrive. I usually try to book as early as I can and then get them to apply the discount to it later. Note you shouldn't do that if you aren't willing to pay the full price as there is not assured they will do it. It could also be they will apply the discount but will want to shift your hotel or your room type. Usually they are pretty accommodating if you are already booked! You do NOT have to pay off your entire trip when you book, you just have to put a deposit.

 

[AshleeH]

We are going in October of this year and just actively started planning a month ago. But you can always get an idea of what restaurants you want, where you want to stay and when that window opens up for you to book. Whether you want to book room only and upgrade to a package later or wait and book it all at once. If you want to do a Halloween Party (or two, in our case). You can also look at the week you're wanting to go and get a rough idea of what the schedule might look like for park hours. Of course this is very likely to change, but it's a good jumping off point.

 

[PaintsWindColors]

You can book a hotel reservation 500 days in advance by calling directly. It's never too early to start planning!

 

[MrsHull]

It is never too early to start dreaming. As soon as we decide we are going to go, I rough up an idea of a budget because we like to have all the cost saved up in advance. Right now, we are looking at sometime between Oct 2017 and Feb 2018 and are actively saving for our trip.

 

[obxshark]

I would very much consider using a good travel agent, such as Dreams Unlimited (affiliated with the Disboards). They will keep track of any discounts you may qualify for, book your dinner ADR's, make FP+, the whole nine yards. And all at no cost to you. Also, get yourself a good guide book, such as the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (a new addition comes out each year), utilize this and other web page/boards/FB pages, and have a blast planning your big trip. You're going to have an amazing time!

 

[jmsaj]

I've already started the planning for Dec 1-10, 2017.....

 

[ITALIANNYC]

delete

 

[gwek]

How far out you plan depends on what's important to you.

I've already started planning for our November 2017 trip... and our November 2019 trip!

As has been noted, there are a few benchmark dates you'll want to consider. Counting backwards, the big dates are 60 days out (when you can book your FastPasses) and 180 days out (when you can book dining --and premium restaurants will go quickly). I like to have my hotel reservations made at least a few weeks prior to the 180 day mark so the dining reservations can be easily linked.

Assuming that seems reasonable to you, the next questions are "How much do you now about Disney?" and "How much of a say do you want to give other members of your party?" There are so many hotels that it can take a week or two to read up on all of them and get your head around things - even longer if you're going to educate others.

If I were in your shoes, I would probably look to book my hotel in March, which means I'd want to know the exact dates if the trip as well as the hotel I'm booking early in the month. Perhaps I'd get Disney guide books as Christmas presents for those who might participate in the decision making, then set up some time a month or two later to talk and finalize things.

But I'm super-organized about the Disney planning. If you have some flexibility around hotel and dining, you can probably start planning 3-4 months out with minimal trouble.

Good luck! Have fun!

 

[andera42]

Thanks for your advice. Lots of great info to think about. I was actually going to have a sit down Disney planning meeting with my daughter in law just to get us on the same page choosing our resort and find out what is most important to her so we can combine our lists of must do and must see. She will have the 6 and 4 YO so she will probably have different expectations

 

[crazy4wdw]

I made my reservations for my October 2016 trip this past January. Depending on your arrival date, you'll be able to make your ADR's in April 2017. You want to be sure that you have your resort reservations confirmed before the 180 day mark prior to your arrival date. You'll be able to make FP+ reservations in July 2017, again depending on your arrival date.

Happy Planning!

 

[StirlingSilver83]

I usually start planning our trips a year out...although for our trip in march 2017 I started planning it I think in November 2015, lol