Deciding to go on a trip to a Disney Park can be a huge decision. Not only is it a considerable financial commitment, it can be incredibly overwhelming navigating the dining, parks, attractions, and resorts. While in an ideal world a fairy godmother could wave her wand and plan it all for you, we hope this post can give you a few concrete tips to get you started and ease the stress of planning your Disney vacation.

Anyone else tear up at the sight of the entrance to the Magic Kingdom? Just us? Neat.

DINING

The moment you decide to go to a Disney Park you need to hop onto the Disney Website and make your dining reservations. Dining reservations open up 180 days in advance of your stay, and if you’ve made the decision to go in less than that time it’s even more crucial. Big ticket meals such as Cinderella’s Castle, The California Grill, or any of the new Star Wars restaurants get booked almost as soon as that 180 day window opens up. You don’t need a ticket or a resort reservation to make a dining reservation; all you need is a credit card to hold your spot!

Note: Don’t go overboard on your reservations. This takes away from the spontaneity of your trip! It can also get expensive. Consider doing at least one nice sit down breakfast, lunch, and dinner spread out over the course of your trip. This way you know you’ll have a chance to rest and relax at least a few points during your trip. While some complain about the price of a Disney meal, they also tend to be fairly big serving sizes. Trying to eat three sit-down meals a day would simply be too much, especially if you’re trying to ride Space Mountain.

RESORTS

Now that you know what you’ll be eating, let’s figure out where you’ll stay. Disney resorts are categorized by price.

We have stayed at ALL levels of Disney Hotels. It is important to consider a few things while picking the perfect hotel for you and your travel companions.

How much time are you going to spend in your hotel room? If you plan on being away from the hotel from dawn until dusk you might want to go with a value resort.
How old is your body? There is QUITE a difference in mattress comfort level between an All-Star Resort and the Grand Floridian. If bed discomfort will keep you from enjoying your days in the parks you might want to consider staying at a slightly more expensive resort.
Is there a specific park you want to be near? On one trip our focus was attending the Food and Wine Festival. Because of this we stayed at the Yacht Club for easy Epcot accessibility. We could walk over to the park straight into the World Showcase and walk home at the end of the night without the hassle of bus travel. The same can be said for monorail travel. Have little kids and know you’re going to spend most of your time at Magic Kingdom? You might want to consider the ease of a Magic Kingdom resort where all you have is a short monorail ride between you and your room for nap time.

TICKETS

Of course you can’t go to a Disney Park without park tickets! If you’re staying at a Disney Resort it’s crucial that you book your park tickets at least 60 days before your trip so that you can book your fast passes. However, before we get into that it’s important you understand the different type of tickets you can purchase for your trip.

Single Park Ticket: Only have a day to spend in the parks and know you want to spend all day at the Magic Kingdom? This is your best and most cost effective option.
Park Hopper Ticket: Going for multiple days? Utilize the park hopper option to get the most bang for your buck. Not only does this allow you to travel to multiple parks per day, it is also less expensive than buying two single park tickets.
Mid Day Magic Ticket: This is a LIMITED OPTION for the Fall of 2019. This ticket begins at 12 noon every day and is only offered for a limited time only.

FAST PASSES

Once you have your tickets you can book your Fast Pass options! Note: If staying at a Disney property you can book your fast passes up to 60 days ahead of your visit. Not staying on Disney property? Your Fast Pass booking experience starts 30 days prior to your visit.

The most frequent question we get about fast passes is, “How much do they cost?” The good news is (for the time being at least) is that they are free! The bad news is you can only initially make three fast passes per day. These passes cannot be spread out throughout multiple parks. This means you need to decide ahead of time where you want to start/end your day depending on what time of day you are trying to get Fast Passes. We suggest trying to get all of your Fast Passes for the morning, that way you are free to try to make additional fast pass reservations throughout the day. Additionally some parks such as Hollywood Studios tier their fast passes, making it so you can only book one big attraction (Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog, Rock n’ Roller Coaster) while having to use your other two passes on shows or less popular attractions.

KEEPING THE MAGIC

While all of our above tips will ensure your trip has smoother sailing than Moana on her way to Te’Fiti, it’s important to remember to allow for unplanned magic. You never know when the line for Peter Pan is only going to be 20 minutes or you come across a delightful show in the World Showcase. One way we allow for spontaneity is to have each member of our group pick ONE dream. Yes, just one. No matter what else we do on the trip we always make sure to accomplish those dreams. A dream can be as small as wanting a Dole Whip to as big as riding the new Star Wars ride. No request is too extreme when it comes to a Disney Parks dream.

Our dreams last trip included riding the Slinky Dog Coaster, getting a boozy Dole Whip at the Polynesian, eating gluten free beignets, and trying the adorable Hei Hei cone!

We hope this post helped you with any of your Disney planning woes. Have more questions? Email us at thepixiedustpals@gmail.com!