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Planning a Disney vacation is practically a job

Nerdyone

Nerdyone

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,723
My family hasn't gone on a vacation (outside of camping) for at least 5 years. We decided that we are going to go Disney World this year and it's been super stressful.

First, you have to pick the right time to go. If you don't want crowds then there are only a few times of year that are good. Then you have to consider the weather. August is hot as hell and rains. December can get cold and there is only one good week

Then, you have to pick your restaurants 6 months prior to your stay. If you want to avoid lines, you have to pick your rides 2 months prior to your stay.

I have a spreadsheet to plan this all out along with a pivot table to make sure we hit every park and ride.

I know I'm nuts to go through all of this but I want to ensure we have a good time. Also, the cost is nuts.
 
BDS

BDS

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,845
Rain at Disney World isn't a big deal because the majority of the attractions are indoors, under covered areas, or otherwise still accessible in rain. Bring ponchos. It has rained many times while I was there and has never been a huge deal.

Making restaurant reservations is only necessary if you plan on eating at the fancier restaurants. You only get a few Fastpasses so picking which rides on which days is largely an arbitrary exercise; just pick whichever ones you want to do most.

How many days are you staying? And are you staying at a Disney resort?
 
100%TrophyMaster

100%TrophyMaster

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,929
I just went around New Years (terrible time to go crowd wise) but we still had a great time. I actually like all the planning that goes into it. Most restaurants are usually pretty easy to get into if you download the Disney app and check availability online. There are always people cancelling and moving reservations around within the week. Fast passes are a must though. Screw waiting in line for more than an hour.
 
Vic Damone Jr.

Vic Damone Jr.

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,591
Not to mention tickets are expensive as fuck. I planning a trip their and to stay at a Disney resort but it got too expensive and the Disney resorts don't even seem that special. They're lacking something magical in the design when I hear the name Disney.
 
CitizenVectron

CitizenVectron

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,407
How accommodating is Disney for people w/ disabilities? My spouse has MS and can't stand in line for hours or walk for hours. Can disabled people get a sort of fast-paced?
 
SOBOSLDR

SOBOSLDR

Member
Nov 27, 2017
566
I don't know why people go to Disney parks, I have only been to Disney land, but the coasters were tame, and lines long. Other theme parks are usually better. We went to Knotts afterward and it was much better experience, same with basically any six flags I have been too. Does Disney world have a water park too? Are people that in love with Mickey? Like I don't get it.
 
TheIlliterati

TheIlliterati

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,782
Going in October is the best time. Kids back in school, weather cooled off. Of course it means your kids have to miss, but that rocks for them.
 
OP
OP
Nerdyone

Nerdyone

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,723
SOBOSLDR said:
I don't know why people go to Disney parks, I have only been to Disney land, but the coasters were tame, and lines long. Other theme parks are usually better. We went to Knotts afterward and it was much better experience, same with basically any six flags I have been too. Does Disney world have a water park too? Are people that in love with Mickey? Like I don't get it.
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The water parks are amazing. We also like how clean and nice it is
 
PanzerKraken

PanzerKraken

Member
Nov 1, 2017
15,014
Unless you are a local, I don't see how having a vacation at Disneyis any fun. It's insanely expensive and so much work for mostly waiting in long lines in the heat
 
WillRobBanks

WillRobBanks

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
419
Agreed. It's my hobby and I love doing it. But we go at least once a year so we already have a rough idea of what we'd like to repeat and what we'd like to try new.

It's probably overwhelming for a first visit.

Best tip no matter when you go is to get there at least 20 minutes before park open. You'll do more in the first 90 minutes ride-wise than the rest of the day.
 
One Eyed Willy

One Eyed Willy

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,324
I'll be honest, planning in great detail like this is fun as hell. I love the thrill of trying to be as efficient as possible when I travel, by front loading all the effort and planning. Then when I get there I let things happen organically but I have some unspoken plan that I "CAN" choose to deviate from or not. Regardless I'm armed with data and information, which is better than just showing up and convincing yourself that "just go with it" is better. Data always wins.

In comparison, whenever I travel, don't plan ahead and "go with it" with no plan.. I always have regrets and wished I had known about things before. So my advice from one manic planner to the next, just pour yourself a couple beers and get it done my dude. Enjoy the manic episode and do it for your kids.
 
Lexad

Lexad

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,046
CitizenVectron said:
How accommodating is Disney for people w/ disabilities? My spouse has MS and can't stand in line for hours or walk for hours. Can disabled people get a sort of fast-paced?
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It depends on the ride but I remember some like Big Thunder Mountain definitely just letting you load at the exit when my grandmother was in a wheelchair.
 
demosthenes

demosthenes

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,604
Girlfriend and I went last April and it was nowhere near this hard. Sure you can't eat at any restaurant but the ones we ate at were great, especially at epcot. We did all the rides we wanted to and only downloaded the app like 4 weeks before going. Maybe it's more difficult with a full family
 
Lexad

Lexad

Member
Nov 4, 2017
3,046
WillRobBanks said:
Agreed. It's my hobby and I love doing it. But we go at least once a year so we already have a rough idea of what we'd like to repeat and what we'd like to try new.

It's probably overwhelming for a first visit.

Best tip no matter when you go is to get there at least 20 minutes before park open. You'll do more in the first 90 minutes ride-wise than the rest of the day.
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This is my family and yeah show up a little early. IT may seem like you are waiting just to get in but you can knock out so much before the rest of the park gets crowded 2 hours later.
 
kyle mechlachlan

kyle mechlachlan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,298
I went last year in late March and it was a perfect time. It wasn't too cold or too hot. Crowds were fine. Planning wasn't really hard tbh. Though I bet it's harder for an entire family (was just my SO and I). IMO just focus on picking the parks you want to go to first then focus on what to do in the parks. Don't plan for things for the entire day because you'll get tired quicker than you think. Pack as much stuff as you can in the morning.
 
BDS

BDS

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,845
On a related note, is there interest in a Disney World OT for people planning vacations there? We get threads about this subject fairly frequently so it might be helpful to have an FAQ and other resources for new visitors.
 
Minthara

Minthara

Freelance Market Director
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
7,940
Montreal
I just went to Disney World this past October (and got married while in Florida) and I can tell you that it isn't as bad as it looks. Don't stress over the Fast Pass and the restaurants. Your hotel will have solid food, and you can hotel hop (my wife and I did) to get a large variety of food. Only reserve the restaurants that are important to you and your family (we only reserved 3 restaurants for our entire week there, and one of those was a large reservation for our quasi-reception dinner).

As for Fast Pass, use it for the rides that are important to you, but don't feel the anxiety that you need to stick to them like the holy grail. My wife and I reserved all our Fast Passes as well, and what we realized was that unless it is a highly trafficked ride, Fast Pass is entirely pointless. Some Fast Pass lines were actually longer than the non-Fast Pass line while we were there. We ended up cancelling quite a few of our fast passes because the line was short and we didn't want to wait for a time to get in queue because we were already at the ride.

If you want the rare rides, it's better to plan around Magic Hours instead if you are staying in a Disney hotel. For instance, when we wanted to do Flight of Passage, we didn't bother with a Fast Pass, instead we got up at 6 Am, had breakfast and took the first bus over to Animal Kingdom. They open the park at 8 technically for hotel guests but doors were actually open at 7:30, so we made our way over to Flight of Passage, which is by far the longest line in the whole park. We waited a max of 30 mins and then we had our entire day free to do the rest of the rides while all the normal people were showing up at 8 and 9 to get in the line we had already done.

TLDR: prioritize what you really want to do ride wise, but don't feel bound to it. If you are staying at a Disney resort, leverage Magic Hours to your advantage.

Also I highly recommend Disney in October around Halloween. Just avoid the actual park on Halloween day (take a pool day) and enjoy the food festival that is also there every year at that time in Epcot.

Edit: to add to the above: we did basically every ride in every park, so our strategy worked very well for us.
 
PersonAndStuff

PersonAndStuff

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,264
You may be overthinking it a bit. If you can get the timeoff, a Tuesday and Wednesday in Spring or Fall will do just fine. I haven't been in a bot though.
 
Mr Paptimus

Mr Paptimus

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,232
CitizenVectron said:
How accommodating is Disney for people w/ disabilities? My spouse has MS and can't stand in line for hours or walk for hours. Can disabled people get a sort of fast-paced?
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I'd like to know this as well. My mom wants to take her grandson to Disney World but she has some issues with her legs which means she can't walk or stand for very long. She has to use a littleScooter Most of the time. How possible would it be for her to get around Disney World? I know they used to have a program or people could get on Rides faster, I thought I heard they cancel that out to people abused it well.

Is anyone have any experience with this? I'd Appreciate hearing your experiences.
 
Zackat

Zackat

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,021
CitizenVectron said:
How accommodating is Disney for people w/ disabilities? My spouse has MS and can't stand in line for hours or walk for hours. Can disabled people get a sort of fast-paced?
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Yes, there is an assistance/disability pass that makes you able to get a return time for one ride at a time. You go through the fast pass line. Once you go on the ride you can get another for a different ride. Typically the return time is about an hour after you ask for it.
 
teruterubozu

teruterubozu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,896
The Disney park app is key when you're there. You can see how long the lines are at each ride in real time. Plus you can change fast passes on the fly (a limited number per day).
 
peteykirch

peteykirch

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,834
CitizenVectron said:
How accommodating is Disney for people w/ disabilities? My spouse has MS and can't stand in line for hours or walk for hours. Can disabled people get a sort of fast-paced?
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You get a guest assistance card (GAC). The way it works is if you go up to a ride, and the stand by time is 30 minutes. They give you a card to come back in 30 minutes and you go through the Fast Pass + line which usually has super minimal waits. Long gone are the days where people with disabilities would get to skip to the front of the line since Disney found people were abusing this by hiring handicapped "tour guides" who then would pretend their family.
 
Cruxist

Cruxist

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
3,820
Man, I sometimes forget how skewed my idea of a Disney trip is. I get up in Florida living an hour away from Orlando. Theme park visits were a not-uncommon weekend idea during high school and college. Nobody ever thought about restaurants or any of that stuff, it was just all park junk food like big pretzels, popcorn, ice cream, etc. we all knew where cheap burgers were or we'd hit up a mcdonalds or chick fil a before leaving.

Honestly, I'm a little sad that I never experienced the whole Disney "experience". Its a weird theme park outlier but it's such a goal for families. Plus I relish planning all those things and would get a massive kick out of setting everything up.
 
Braaier

Braaier

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
13,237
You're going in August? Yikes! Terribly hot and humid and stupid busy. The worst time to go.
 
peteykirch

peteykirch

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,834
Also the biggest thing you can do with the Disney App is to always refresh the Fast Pass selections. You'll be amazed what comes up with availability. Was able to score day of fast passes for Flight of Passage 3 times in one day. We tend to go during Labor Day week where crowds are low, but if you keep refreshing the page you should find some pretty good things.

Also another smart thing to do, is once you use your first fast pass, go into the app and then try to move up your following reservations.
 

ChrizzSTARR

Avenger
Jan 7, 2018
153
I went in January and it was still super hot, so I can't imagine there's a bad time of year to go to Florida.

My wife and I also didn't have kids at the time which made things easier.

We did everything through Disney except flight; hotel, meal plan, rides all in one of their packages. After calculating costs, it wasn't any costlier than had we hand picked every option, so I would recommend doing that.
 
peteykirch

peteykirch

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,834
Braaier said:
You're going in August? Yikes! Terribly hot and humid and stupid busy. The worst time to go.
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WRONG WRONG WRONG

Statistically the last couple years at Disney, August has turned into one of the slower months.

Go to easywdw.com he has research to back it up that July and August were slower than notoriously "slow" months like January and February.

But yes, it is ridiculous hot and humid though.
 
modernlifeisANDY

modernlifeisANDY

Member
Oct 25, 2017
796
We went with a group of 16 a few years ago. It was a lot of planning but it really wasn't too crazy. We booked all our fast passes without too many issues, same as our restaurant reservations. We went in early August.
 
TeenageFBI

TeenageFBI

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,242
The trick to enjoying Disney World is buying Citrus Swirls. Lots of them.
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,034
Nerdyone said:
My family hasn't gone on a vacation (outside of camping) for at least 5 years. We decided that we are going to go Disney World this year and it's been super stressful.

First, you have to pick the right time to go. If you don't want crowds then there are only a few times of year that are good. Then you have to consider the weather. August is hot as hell and rains. December can get cold and there is only one good week

Then, you have to pick your restaurants 6 months prior to your stay. If you want to avoid lines, you have to pick your rides 2 months prior to your stay.

I have a spreadsheet to plan this all out along with a pivot table to make sure we hit every park and ride.

I know I'm nuts to go through all of this but I want to ensure we have a good time. Also, the cost is nuts.
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"December can get cold"

I promise that Orlando cold is not actual cold. It's Diet Cold.
 
Braaier

Braaier

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
13,237
peteykirch said:
WRONG WRONG WRONG

Statistically the last couple years at Disney, August has turned into one of the slower months.

Go to easywdw.com he has research to back it up that July and August were slower than notoriously "slow" months like January and February.

But yes, it is ridiculous hot and humid though.
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Meh. I go all the time. It's always busy. There's no real slow time. End of August is probably slower. Beginning is still really crowded.

Nowadays I usually just do my three fast passes and leave to avoid any lines.
 
OP
OP
Nerdyone

Nerdyone

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,723
I've been on the phone with Disney for over an hour trying to get my reservation worked out. We ended up with 7 nights at the boardwalk with park passes and dining for $4k. Not a bad deal
 
AkumaNiko

AkumaNiko

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,437
I think the first time we booked a disney vacation for 3, it was rough, but back then, they were still using the paper fast pass system. But the more you do it, the easier it gets.

Remember, fast passes and dinner reservations open up at 7am EST on day 60 and 6 months
 
Kito

Kito

Member
Nov 6, 2017
3,157
You don't have to wait in a single line if you stack your first 3 Fastpasses each day for the morning, as you get an additional Fastpass after each consecutive use. I've taken guests through every ride in the Magic Kingdom with Fastpasses for every one.

Here's something I posted in another thread you may find useful:

If you haven't already done so, download the My Disney Experience App and reserve your Fastpasses.

If the popular rides are sold out, keep refreshing. If you refresh enough, lots of new times and previously unavailable rides will pop back up for you. The easiest way to refresh is to just tap the Morning button (or any of the time slots), then check to see what's changed from there.

The ones to look our for are Seven Dwarves Mine Trains (MK), Flight of Passage (AK), Slinky Dog Dash (HS), and Frozen/Test Track (Epcot).

Also, the earlier you burn through your first 3 Fastpasses, the better, as you can then get one at a time back to back after each use for the rest of the day. Plan right, and you can Fastpass your way though all the rides.

Tag me or PM me if you have additional questions or need any help! I love doing this kind of stuff, haha. (I live down the street from Magic Kingdom.)
 
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