Hello there, Disney Fans of Loudoun! Its time for our new feature, Frequently Asked Questions about Disney, with our focus today on planning your next trip to Walt Disney World in Florida.
As veterans of over fifty trips to Disney Attractions, we have learned a lot about planning a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW), and we want to share with you ideas each month about how to make your visit an enjoyable one to Orlando.
Q:
How should I plan in advance my trip to WDW?
A:
For starters, the most important thing you can do is to establish which park or attraction that you want to visit on a given day. While it is possible to visit as many as four parks in a day, this is not a realistic goal for most visitors, and this should definitely be avoided.
More importantly, unless you have a car, visiting all the parks would be almost impossible, and would result in a lot of frustration as you try and ride or see all the things in a given park. It is our suggestion to focus on one park per day, and obtain fast passes for the three attractions in your selected park that interest you. (Fastpass + is a new service from Disney that allows you to reserve a time so that you can immediately walk up to and experience the attraction.)
Second, plan on taking a break sometime in the day, and if possible, make a dining reservation for that time so that you can find a place to relax away from the crowds and plan your next steps.
Often times, first time visitors to WDW are overwhelmed by the options at each park and need some time to acclimate to the area. Planning a stop will allow you to figure out if your plan needs to be adjusted, which you can easily do on the Disney App available for all brands of smartphones. Either way, planning in some downtime will allow you to give each traveler a chance to rest up for the next ride or attraction that you are planning to visit.
Finally, if you are staying in a Disney resort, take advantage of the pre-planning window that Disney gives to those guests staying on property. This benefit allows you to select attractions through Fast Pass sixty days in advance of arrival (versus thirty days for outside guests) and to obtain dining reservations 180 days in advance of your selected date.
It should be noted that some restaurants literally “sell out” at 180 days because of their extreme popularity (e.g. “Be Our Guest” in Magic Kingdom) and so you want to make those reservations as far in advance as possible, especially if your visit is during the summer or spring break, when WDW is at its busiest.
In conclusion, visiting Walt Disney World can be enjoyable with the right planning, and that planing starts with choosing your park, the dining and your attractions/rides, in that order. If you do that, you will be ahead of 80% of the people who visit WDW each year.
Good luck! We Will See You Around the World Real Soon!
Travel Agent Note: Using a travel agent doesn’t have to be an expensive experience. Recently, we helped a client plan their trip to Orlando over spring break, and through a variety of tools that we have at our disposal, we helped them plan the ideal itinerary for each day. This included booking accommodations, pre-purchasing dining through the Disney Dining Plan, obtaining park tickets, and finally coordinating the entire trip including fast pass selections. We can assist you in the same way and save you time and it won’t cost you more than the usual packages from Disney. Contact us today for a no-obligation quote, and free guide to Walt Disney World!
