Disney Planning

I've had some people ask about the planning of our trip so I thought I'd share some of my experience. I'll do a breakdown of our personal days in other posts because we had way too much fun. However, this is just some planning tips. 

Disclaimer: We have been talking about this trip since we took her the first time in 2013. We had this trip booked online a year before the trip was scheduled. You can book a trip 499 days out, however, you can't make dinner reservations until the 180 day out mark and Fast Passes at the 60 (I think) day out mark. I'm a crazy person and I had reminders on my phone. The earlier you book, the more time you have to pay it off.

We were a group of 9 and I did 100% of the planning up until the 180 day out mark when I was unable to add days to a reservation and I struggled to get the dining reservations I wanted. I was overwhelmed and discouraged and I gave it all to a Disney Travel Agent. She rebooked things and took over the planning. I still made some dining changes because I'm a control freak but everything else she handled. I didn't have to get up at 6am to schedule Fast Passes. When I wanted something changed - she changed it. She handled the stroller rental, when we decided to fly last minute she called to add our Magical Express information, and when we were done and my prepaid Memory Maker wasn't working, she called IT and had it fixed. And she cost me nothing. If you are new to Disney and feel overwhelmed with the amount of planning and sorting and such - hire a Disney travel agent. If you are going in a large group - hire a Disney travel agent. If you have been a million times - you probably aren't reading this. ;) I am very thankful for Chrissy with Magically Ever After Travel. 

My top two recommendations on booking a trip: Stay in a Disney resort and pay for a meal plan.

Resorts: Staying at a Disney resort means you have transportation from the resort to all of the parks every day. If you fly in, it also means you have a ride from the airport to the resort and back again at the end of your stay. It's BRILLIANT. When you shop in the parks, you can have things sent back to your resort. And when you stay on site, you also get to stay in the park for Extra Magic Hours. For example, on Wednesday of our trip we were in Magic Kingdom which closes at 9pm. However, it was an Extra Magic Hour night which meant we could stay in the park and ride rides for an extra 2 hours. It was wonderful. It was much cooler and MUCH less crowded. We got to ride several things with Alice without having to stand in line. It was probably my most favorite part of the trip.

I would also recommend researching the resorts you want to stay at. If you can budget it, I would recommend a Moderate or a Deluxe resort. The service is just amazing. For this trip, we stayed at Art of Animation which is a Value/Moderate option that offers family style rooms for larger groups. This is a great option for families with lots of kids. We chose this resort because it is heavily Disney themed. We stayed in the Little Mermaid standard rooms and we were surrounded by Little Mermaid things. Alice LOVED it. We walked through The Lion King area every day. If you have a kid that loves Cars, Finding Nemo, The Lion King or The Little Mermaid - this is your place. If it's not a huge deal - stay someplace else. Because it is geared toward families - it always seemed packed. The pool by our section, which is the farthest from everything and required a lot of walking, was never too crowded and we actually went swimming twice! I've gone to Disney 5 times and this is the first time I've stepped into a pool. It was so wonderfully refreshing. 

Dining Plan: Disney offers several dining plan options to those staying on site. You must be staying in a Disney resort to be eligible for the Dining Plan. We went with the mid range one which meant we each had 2 snacks (this is anything from a bottle of water to a small container of fried rice), 1 quick service meal (this is grab and go counter service) and 1 table service (sit down meal) a day. That's a lot of food. Being on the meal plan means you don't worry too much about what stuff costs and you are more likely to try some of the FABULOUS table service options because price isn't a problem. When you look at the cost of a meal, which will be anything from $80 - 150 per person, it's nice to know it's already paid for. When you are paying out of pocket, choosing the cheapest thing on the menu might be priority. However, with the meal plan, the steak is the same price as the chicken. 

For this trip, I wanted unique dining experiences. I spent weeks on the website looking over menus and trying to decide where to eat. Our table service meals were fantastic. I'll go into more detail in the day breakdowns.  

Extra Tips

Stroller rental: Last time we traveled to Disney, we brought our own stroller. She has grown out of that stroller and we didn't want to travel with it. I don't like the Disney strollers. They are hard plastic with limited storage and I knew she wouldn't nap in it. There are companies that rent strollers and that's what we did. Our travel agent uses Kingdom Strollers and they were great. They dropped the stroller off at the resort and picked it back up after we left. It cost us $65 for the week. We ended up with a very expensive jogging stroller that Alice had zero issue with napping in. She could easily get in and out and it was the smartest money we spent on the trip. It was a bit bulky on bus rides. If you are going alone with a kid, it might be too much to handle. We were able to manage because there were so many of us and my Beloved always had stroller duty. But if it's just one adult and a tired kid, renting from Disney might be the best option. Their strollers get turned into the park each night before you leave.

Fast Passes: This process is overwhelming. And it was totally worth handing over to our agent. The one thing I would change is the timing of some. We missed a few Fast Pass times because our table services ran longer than we planned. If you plan a lunch table service - don't plan a fast pass until at least 3 hours after. And you will need Fast Passes. Some rides have crazy long lines. 

Pre Buy the Memory Maker: Disney has photographers EVERYWHERE. They snap your picture, scan your band (if you are staying on site) and the picture goes into your Photo Pass. When you buy the Memory Maker, all of those photos are yours. You can download them as much as you want and you own them. If you don't buy it, you will have to pay for each individual picture you want to buy. This is lame. 

I had detailed schedules because I'm a nut and I also provided everyone with pocket sized, laminated versions with our timed events (meals, fast passes) for each day along with the park hours and our groups contact numbers. While we had a lot planned together, I scheduled free time because that is a lot of togetherness.

Pack what you know your kid needs: I packed everything I could think of. I packed bath toys for a little bit of norm in the room. I packed bedtime stories because maintaining some bit of routine makes a HUGE difference. Alice HATES loud noises - I made sure to have her headphones. These made all the difference in her enjoyment level of almost everything we did. She is also not a fan of hand dyers. I packed Ziploc bags with dry rags to use, just in case. The restrooms are all equipped with paper towels so that wasn't necessary, however, we ended up using them for sweat because everything was near or on the surface of the sun. I packed the only princess dress she will wear just in case she saw another little girl in one and wanted to wear one. This did not happen but had I left it at home - it would have. 

I also focused on things I thought she would like. It's the first time traveling with a kid in mind and I had to refocus. Usually we're all about the rides, however, I knew she wouldn't be a huge fan of those so I focused more on the shows. She LOVED the shows. And if we got to something and she said she didn't want to - we didn't make her. 

Notes for next time: We will not travel in such a large group. It makes things logistically more complicated.  

We were there for 7 days and had park tickets for 5. I'm not sure we will go for that long again and if we do, I will schedule a day without park tickets. A break would have been nice. We did split the day and return to the resort a few afternoons which helped a lot. And other days, Alice napped in her stroller which was good for her. But by the end of the week of constantly going, we were all spent.

While we were the for a long time, there is a TON of stuff we missed simply because of the crowd and time restraints. 

We managed to go during an extremely hot and uncomfortably crowded time of year. When we return, it will probably be during the fall or winter and we will have to write a nice note to Alice's teachers about why she is missing school. 

Had it just been the three of us, I'm not sure I would have used a travel agent, however, knowing what I know now, I might call her the next time we plan a trip to Disney because she made it that easy.

Next up is Day 1!!

Until next time.....