How far out do you start planning?

[TillyDe]

My grandson was born in January 2012. I started then planning his first trip for May 2017. He had a blast. We are now planning his second trip - June 2019. It is never to early to start planning.

 

[friedela]

Haha, your post made me smile. We just got back from our first trip and I planned it a year in advance. Every spare moment was spent on MDE, lol. The Disney depression hit me hard when we got back and the trip was over. lol. I almost didn't know what to do with myself! We are also planning on going in 2020 and this time I won't start planning until probably 6 months out. We'll keep an eye on flights and deals but diving full into planning? I'll wait a bit longer next time.

 

[PSUGuy]

We go during Food&Wine and stay at Board Walk on rented DVC points. To get a DVC room during that popular time for adults you pretty much have to book 11 months out so as soon as we get back from one trip we're booking the room for next year. Once that's done I start looking for a rental car and put South West's fare opening on my calendar, also I book a park, sleep and fly hotel near PHL, usually Sheraton Four Points. This year our AP will cover our Oct trip as it did our Nov 2017 trip but in 2019 I'll buy a 9 day hopper from UT so I can book FP+ choices 60 days out then we upgrade to APs the first day there. So... for our Oct 2018 trip the room is half paid for, the AP covers park entrance, PhotoPass etc., we have a Dollar car rental, I booked and paid for our flights from SW and I booked Sheraton Four Points. We may hit Raglan Road on our first Sat there and I'll book FP choices inAug.

Bill From PA

 

[acln]

The Disney depression hit me hard when we got back and the trip was over. lol.

Ah yes, Disney depression is the perfect term for what I’m feeling right now! The first 3ish months of this pregnancy I was very sick so I wasn’t even thinking about our recent Disney trip and missing it much. But now that I’m in my second trimester and have gotten my energy back I’m like “okay we’re going back soon right?!?!”

 

[kniquy]

I tend to plan our days mostly go go go.

that was my mistake when initially planning our trip -- No way is my DD4 going to handle getting up at 4am, heading to the airport, her first flight, and then hitting Epcot until close -- so that is where i really didn't plan anything for past 8pm and if she is doing well we will keep going, if not one or all of us will head back to get her to bed. I think with your next trip, I'm guessing your DD will be 7-8 -- she will definitely have the stamina to do a lot more -- so there will be trade offs of one parent going back with the little one while the other stays to watch the nighttime fireworks with the older one. You might get lucky and have a baby that is really chill and can nap any time in the stroller. You really never know what kind of baby you will get -- my twins were great as little ones - took great naps and pretty much stayed on a schedule. My DD would nap 30 minutes at a time and really didn't have a good schedule -- so very different. You will be able to plan ADR, but you might want to do an early dinner at 4pm after they have had a nap -- avoiding the meltdown times. Or you might be changing things on the fly -- so say you try one character meal and your baby totally freaks out -- well that might mean cancelling other character meals that might scare him/her -- so plan some back up plans for the what if unknown situations. You will have to look into the rider swap system so that neither adult misses out on certain rides.

 

[LMA712014]

We’re hoping to return in late 2019/early 2020. I’m already ballparking budgets and trying to save as much for the trip as possible via Swagbucks, etc.

 

[loves to dive]

Depends on what you consider planning. Looking at what is new, I do all the time. Actual planning, I might book my resort 60 days out or even 3 weeks out. That is the extent of my planning unless my son doesn't have a current AP then I'll buy his tickets about 30 days out. We have a trip coming up May 7 which I booked in late February, which is rare. I haven't bought his tickets yet, I have an AP which I keep current. I don't book FPs or ADRs in advance, although when I get around to buying my son's tickets, I might go ahead and see if I can get a FOP FP but that's it for planning for me. I do plan on going during F&W but have no idea even what month right now. I'm leaning toward going when Swan/Dolphin has their food and wine event but who knows.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I’m currently pregnant with baby number 2, and I’m already dying to start planning his first trip! DH and I are talking about going during either February or April school vacation weeks in 2020, so about 2 years from now. I’ve already started to try to get rough estimates on cost for a family of 4, list things we haven’t done yet, look at crowd calendars for those times of the year, etc. I’m not crazy for thinking about this stuff already right?! (If I asked my husband it would be yes, he loves Disney almost as much as I do but he’s super laid back about planning and such haha)
For our past two trips I booked everything around 6 months prior and spent that entire time until we left on here/mde/etc. working on the details. So I feel a little silly thinking so much about a trip I can’t even book for quite a while, I just miss WDW so much!

So, what do you typically do?

Congrats on baby #2!! How exciting!! No you aren't crazy, I do the same thing- I am a natural planner and enjoy all the aspects of planning the trip down to the nitty gritty details. I love it and it's what I enjoy! Planning timeframes for us vary since we don't have to buy plane tickets and we drive down so we end up planning usually no more than 6 months out due to my husband's work schedule and our girls' school/extracurricular activities. Our sweet spot is usually 4 months out and most recently when we went down earlier this month, we did it with 2 days planning, got a room and pretty good FP+ too. But really who am I kidding , I'm always planning so it's a perpetual process! I also contemplated a bounce back while we were there in March for later this year but the times in November were not part of the offer (likely because of free dining dates). We are looking at November 25-Dec 1 this year and will likely book it but may end up cancelling as we have some potential European travel plans for June 2019 and will need to save up. Now if I can manage some amazing deal for both trips, then maybe we can swing both but tickets to Europe are insane!! If I book the November trip, this will be the furthest out I've ever booked a Disney trip.

 

[MikeNamez]

Most of the time about 60 days ahead of going (Besides flights) ... Some rare occasions ill do the Room 181 days out and park ticket 61 days out.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

At least a year...

 

[Mitre10]

I'm brainstorming for March 2020 now. Considering resorts, renting DVC, learning about all the new things that will be around then. Trying to imagine the crowd intensity of Star Wars land

 

[acln]

Wow pregnancy brain must really be getting to me. We’re thinking the earliest we would go with the new baby is once he’s at least two, I just realized that would be Feb or April in 2021 not 2020! Ugh even farther away! I know I’ll be plenty busy with a new little one and possibly buying a new house so the time will fly by...but still!

 

[Tiki_Sara]

We reserved room only at 499 days in advance because we need 3 rooms and want a specific resort so I didn't want to take a chance on waiting (even though 499 days in advance was not necessary - our room type for our days has been sold out for awhile). We are now down to 42 days - yay! Not crazy at all to advance plan. It's given me plenty of time to pour over these boards and get tons of great advice.

Hi, can I ask how you reserved your room this far in advance? I’ve been looking at the Disney website and it only allows us to book a room up until December 2018. Very likely this is something I am doing wrong somewhere so if you could point me in the right direction, that would be amazing!

 

[AFwifelife]

Hi, can I ask how you reserved your room this far in advance? I’ve been looking at the Disney website and it only allows us to book a room up until December 2018. Very likely this is something I am doing wrong somewhere so if you could point me in the right direction, that would be amazing!

You have to call

 

[Tiki_Sara]

You have to call

Thank you, I’m on it right now!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

It really depends.

This next trip has been "in the works" since DD was a baby. I always thought of doing a mother daughter trip and here we are. About two years ago I thought "hmmmm DS goes on his senior trip in 2018. I should use that as the excuse to go with just DD." At about 18 months out I started researching where we should stay. At 12 months out I set up a rental with a DVC owner right here on the DIS. At 11.5 months out she started walking a reservation at BWV for Jersey Week. At 11 months out we were booked. I'm not going to make many ADR's. Maybe just 3 (HDDR is DD's request, BOG lunch and one dessert party). We will do QS or same day ADR's. DD is much more laid back, likes to try new things and goes with the flow pretty well so I really don't need or want to have much planned. I'll decide which park on which day when hours are released and book FP+ at 60 days out. That's pretty much it.

I continually check the DIS for anything new and anything developing. That's a constant for me.

Our first two onsite stays I obsessively planned. ADR's everyday, park hours, etc. We had a great time both times. Then our 3rd trip was a very last minute trip. I made ADR's about 30 days out and got everything we wanted, even CRT. It was our best trip by far. Last trip was my SO's first trip and I did a lot of planning. For MY family of 4 it's easier to have all meals, even QS, planned or I get the whole "well I want to eat here. But I want to eat there. Can't we eat there tomorrow? Blah, blah, blah." So when we go as a unit it's so much easier to have that planned.

(NO I'm not anti boy. I offered my son a mother son trip to anywhere within the continental USA and he said no thanks. He's also been to Disney more than DD since he's the oldest. He's not upset at all.)

 

[SquashBanana]

I start planning our next trip on the drive home on the last day of our current trip. It has been difficult this time around because we're not sure about (1) SWGE opening date and (2) the height of my 4 yo daughter in summer 2019. Realistically, we're going Summer 2020 because SWGE will be open and my daughter will be tall enough to ride everything. We're going to MNSSHP this year to "get our fix" until 2020. I've already started intensively planning for just that one night, haha.

 

[Tiki_Sara]

We started planning our 2019 trip whilst we were still on our 2018 (and first) trip

 

[disneylover102]

I plan as far ahead as there’s a chance we could go.

 

[mamamelody2]

I like to have a solid year.
I think the planning and anticipation are a big part of the fun!