Tips to get started on planning a family holiday to Walt Disney World
Planning a holiday to Walt Disney World in Orlando can be great fun, and it’s become one of my favourite conversation topics. Here are a few tips to get families started on holiday planning:
1. Download the My Disney Experience app
The My Disney Experience app will be your go-to app for managing your Disney itinerary, linking hotel reservations with dining reservations, FastPass+ selections and other experiences. It also features opening hours, a photo section and wait times. You’ll have everything you need in one place. I used this app both before travelling and during our holiday last year, and if you’re planning a holiday to Walt Disney World it is worth downloading it straightaway and setting up your account.
2. Learn about the booking windows
To make the most of a Walt Disney World family holiday, I would recommend planning the trip early, as dining reservations can be made up to 180 days in advance and FastPass+ selections can be made up to 30 days in advance – or up to 60 days in advance if you’re staying in a Walt Disney World resort hotel. The priority should be making a hotel booking before the 180-day booking window opens if you’re planning to stay in a Walt Disney World resort hotel, as guests staying on property can book dining reservations for the duration of their trip (up to 10 days) when the 180-day booking window opens for their arrival date. For this to work, your hotel booking must be linked to your My Disney Experience account, and when booking your hotel on the UK Disney site I noticed last year that it took around a week to link the booking to the account. In my case, this meant that we lost out of the opportunity to book meals for day 2, 3 and 4 of our trip early, as I had made the hotel booking only a few days before the 180-window opened. I booked park tickets closer to the travel date, but long before the 60-day window opened to make sure my tickets were also linked.
3. Watch YouTube videos
I think YouTube is a great place to start when planning a Walt Disney World holiday. For a quick intro to hotel options, I like the short hotel videos on the official YouTube channel for DisneyParks. For dining and general advice, my favourite channel is DFB, and in addition, I regularly watch TPM Vids videos about rides and the Disney FastPass+ system. I enjoy involving the children, particularly in terms of finding out what rides they might want to prioritise for the FastPass+ selections.
4. Research offline with the annual Birnbaum’s Guide
Today marks the release of Birnbaum’s Guide Walt Disney World 2019, and for anyone who likes researching offline I would recommend buying this guidebook. Each year Disney Editions publishes Birnbaum’s Official Guidebooks relating to the Disney Parks, and these are trusted guides for up to date information on attractions, events and rides. Since dining reservations and FastPass+ selections can be made long before a holiday, many will enjoy reading up on this before visiting to make the most of a Walt Disney World family holiday. I started reading Birnbaum’s 2018 Walt Disney World (Disney Editions, £16.99) in October, and I’ve been going through it with a highlighter pen. We’ve also bought Birnbaum’s 2018 Walt Disney World for Kids (Disney Editions, £10.99), which is brilliant for involving children in the holiday planning. It’s been fun reading the comments about rides from children. I’m sure I’ll be ordering the 2019 books soon!
5. Consider a subscription to TouringPlans
To decide on when to travel, the TouringPlans crowd calendar can be a useful holiday planning tool, and by subscribing to the service holidaymakers also have access to tools for optimising and evaluating daily plans in the parks. Before the 180-day advanced dining reservation booking window opens, I use TouringPlans to plan what park to visit on what day, and later on, I will use the tools to create personalised touring plans by selecting dates, times, rides, attractions, breaks and meals. TouringPlans generates a plan for what to do when, and advises on what rides would be the most beneficial to FastPass. The result is a detailed plan with walk times, expected wait times, ride durations and free time. During our time in the parks, we used the TouringPlans app with posted and expected wait times.
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