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Five Easy Steps for Planning a Walt Disney World Vacation

• by Shannon Albert
• on December 1st, 2010
• 1 Comment

My love of Disney trips is well documented so I often get asked to help plan other people’s trips for them. The amount of information a traveler has to digest can seem overwhelming at first but by following these five steps, your trip plans will be well under way.

1. Choose the dates you want to travel

When choosing the dates for your trip, keep in mind that peak travel times are not only the busiest times but also the most expensive times to go. Peak travel times include Christmas, spring break and summer. Weather and special events in the parks are other considerations to keep in mind when selecting your dates.

Check out this crowd calendar which is the best free resource you’ll find anywhere. You may also use the questionnaire-style app on the site to help decide which week works best for you.

2. Select a hotel

There are many on-site hotels that vary in location, amenities and price. There are a few perks that come with being an on-site guest which include extra hours in the parks, bus transportation from the airport and the ability to use a Disney Dining Plan. Off-site hotels are also an option and many provide a generous amount of space at an affordable price.

Use Disney’s own hotel comparison tool by checking the hotels you’d like to see in a comparison.

For helpful information on choosing an off-site hotel, refer to the info on Mousesavers.com to give you hotel recommendations as well as ways to save money.

3. Pick which parks you want to visit each day of your trip

Although many Walt Disney World travelers want to improvise their travel plans, reservations must be made ahead of time for several activities. People who don’t plan and don’t make reservations in advance will likely miss out on many activities.

For each day of your trip, pick which park or parks you want to visit. Your park choice will depend on many things. Read a couple of books about traveling to Walt Disney World to help make this decision. You may also want to subscribe to one of the itinerary planning sites. These sites tell you the parks that will be busiest each day of your trip and can help you make your daily plans.

You might like these suggested itineraries or, my favorite, a subscription to tourguidemike.com which will help you decide which parks to visit on which days.

4. Make dining choices

It may seem crazy but reservations for dining at Walt Disney World can be made up to six months in advance. Some dining choices absolutely must be made at the six month mark due to their popularity. Choose dining based on personal taste, your planned location on that day, price and reviews.

For information Disney dining options, read the Allears.net information which has menus, reviews, how to book reservations, an explanation of the dining plan options and how to deal with special dietary needs.

5. Identify special activities you’d like to do

Walt Disney World has so many activity choices that a visitor could go every year and have a completely different experience than the previous time. You should research special activities to find out what your group is interested in doing. Some options include tours, special shows, makeovers, water sports and specialty cruises. Most special activities can and should be booked ahead of time.

I’m not sure one complete list of all Disney World activities exists but this Mousesavers.com list contains a pretty exhaustive list and includes information on how to get discounts.

My favorite Walt Disney World planning resources
Though I’ve mentioned many of the best sites in this post, I wanted to include a list of the basic resources I use when planning trips. One interesting note is that Disney’s own site is not one of the sites I frequent very often.

Discounts: Mousesavers.com
General info: Allears.net
Free planning info: YourFirstVisit.net
Paid planning info: TourGuideMike.com
Disney World forum: DisBoards.com
Best maps: Passporter (maps are contained inside the book. Look for yearly clearance sales when the books can be purchased for just a few dollars.) or Disney (maps are free and can be customized online)
Best planning book: The Unofficial Guide Walt Disney World
Best book for kids: Birnbaum’s Walt Disney World for Kids

Hopefully this information will give you a great start on planning your trip and make the details seem less confusing. Do you have any other tips? Or maybe you have a question? Please leave it in the comments and I’ll be sure to get an answer for you.

Shannon Albert

Shannon loves to share awesome, fun and hopefully useful info that she's collected and to connect with other travel freaks. She loves the planning part of travel as much as the traveling itself. Shannon's background includes working as a web developer and as a digital producer for an advertising agency. She lives in Texas with her husband, 2 kids and dog. New York City is her favorite city. Her blog is shannonalbert.com.