Walt Disney World, Orlando - Planning Your Trip
Planning a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW) can seem overwhelming at first. When I started planning the trip for my family I naively thought the planning process consisted of booking a hotel, flight and buying attraction tickets. I quickly realized this was not a simple trip to plan. Thankfully, there are many resources available to help travelers in need. This article will provide you with the basics to get started.
Decide Your Budget
When planning any family trip, a good place to start is your budget. The nice thing about WDW is that it can fit into almost any budget. You can be thrifty with your trip or luxurious and both trips will be an experience you will never forget. If it is your first trip to WDW and your budget allows for it, I would recommend staying in a WDW resort. While staying outside the WDW resort complex can save some money, this article will focus on staying within the WDW resort complex.
Walt Disney World offers three different levels for their resorts to meet everyone's budget; Value, Moderate and Deluxe. Similar to their names, the cheapest accommodation is the Value resort and the most expensive is the Deluxe. As you move up in price what the resorts have to offer also increases. For example, Deluxe resorts generally have more eating options, including fine dining restaurants, bigger rooms, more pools and better amenities. But, from what I have seen, service at WDW is never compromised whether you stay at a Deluxe or a Value resort.
In addition to the different levels for their resorts, WDW has defined four seasons for their theme parks; Value, Regular, Peak and Holiday. Value season is the cheapest for park tickets and resort prices, but is generally during times when the weather is cooler or when taking a vacation for the family is difficult (i.e., beginning of school). Holiday season is during holidays like Christmas, New Years, winter break, etc. I would not recommend going during these times as the parks will be overcrowded and not as enjoyable.
When to Go
Your budget and vacation schedule may determine when to go, but if you have some flexibility I would recommend going in April. We visited WDW then and it was not overcrowded while the weather was beautiful. Another alternative would be in late August or November when prices dip again.
How Long to Go For
While you will not see everything in WDW in one trip, I would still recommend going for at least one week. I believe ten days would be ideal; but one week is sufficient to give you a good flavour for what's there and to experience the four major theme parks.
What to Do
In terms of what to do on your trip, I could get into all the details of what the parks have to offer, but there is no better resource than the WDW site itself. At this point, I recommend you go onto their site and start reading through all the information given there on the theme parks and things to do. Another great resource WDW offers is a planning DVD that can be ordered for free from their site. While very basic, it provides a wonderful introduction to the four theme parks, Disney downtown, the boardwalk and other fun things at WDW. It's a great way to get the family excited about the trip and to give the kids a preview of what's to come.
Now it is time to sit down with your family and discuss what everyone might want to see or do. Some things were very clear to me when I sat down with my kids. We had to see everything Star Wars, Toy Story, Cars movie, Monsters Inc., and Power Rangers related. I wanted to see Cinderella's castle and go on the safari in Animal Kingdom and my husband, in addition to Star Wars attractions, wanted to eat some good food (not a big surprise).
By the end of this planning phase you should have determined the following:
Your trip budget,
When you plan to go and how long your vacation will be, and
Have an idea of what you want to experience at Walt Disney World.
Coming up next; "Booking Flights, Accommodations, and Meal Plans".
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