newbie questions- first visit to Disney World

[shaynaatl]

We are planning on taking our kids (8 and 5) to Disney World over Columbus Day weekend in Oct. We are planning on 5 nights.

A few questions:

1) How do you decide on self-planning vs using a travel agent? I normally love planning vacations, but I know Disney is a different animal. Do Disney travel agents actually save you any money on rooms/tix, or is it more of a convenience thing? 

2) We are looking to stay on-resort for this first visit. Polynesian is sold out for that weekend, but Contemporary and Grand Floridian have some rooms. If I book myself, is it fine to just book the rooms for now, and worry about park tickets later? It looks like the hotels have flexible cancellation policies, but the theme parks do not. 

3) How would you split 4 full days between the various parks? Would you plan on parks all 4 days, or should we throw a pool/relaxation day in there?

Thanks for any insight!

[sent]

1) I planned our last 3 trips myself because I also like to plan vacations. I read a lot on disboards and other places. This upcoming 4th trip, I am using a travel agent for the first time because my particular hotel & ticket combo is less expensive directly through Disney. If it had not been cheaper or even the same price, I would have probably stuck with doing it myself.

2) I think you can book the rooms now and worry about tickets later since Columbus Day is very far away at this point.

3) I'd probably do a park each day so you can get a taste of everything. If you know there may be more Disney trips in the future, then I would probably cut Hollywood Studios but I'm not into Star Wars if that is important for you. We only did Epcot and MK on our first trip for 2 reasons - 1) I knew we would be back 2) DD was only 3.5 then and mega into Princesses and characters in general so MK & Epcot were the best places for that.

[nicolewi]

We went to Disney in March, 2019. I felt like I earned a PhD in Disney planning from that trip, but everything has changed (the entire world has changed!), so it's hard to give you advice. We used a travel agent initially to help book the main stuff, but I did tons of research on my own to choose everything and in the end was re-arranging everything on my own. I think it's worth starting with an agent b/c they might have a lot of advice they can share. I don't understand how anything works now! But when we went, my kids were 4, 6, 8 and 10. We did long days at the park and loved it. Partly we could do that b/c it was March and not like beastly hot out. We also had the dining plan at the time and for us, that worked great. We used meals as planned breaks and picked some really fun experiences.

We stayed at Art of Animation and LOVED It--did you consider that? It's just so great for kids. Plus now they have the sky glider, which they were just building when we were there.

I don't know how park tickets work now with reservations for park days.

Each park has cool & unique things to offer and I would prefer to do all four, but with your kids' ages, maybe you'd like to do two days at Magic Kingdom??? If your kids like Star Wars definitely don't skip Hollywood Studios! If I had to skip one, I'd skip Animal Kingdom. At Epcot, I'd be very strategic about priorities b/c it's such a big area to cover.

I knew my kids loved the park experiences and didn't want to spend a whole day doing the pool. We would have liked more pool time, but we were able to fit in some chunks before and after parks and that worked out okay.

[mrsslocombe]

I just got back from WDW (stayed at Art of Animation-highly recommend the family suites).

1. I haven't found that travel agents have better prices (it seems the same to me doing it myself vs. an agent) but it is more convenient. Something happens and you need to switch dates? They handle it. Decide you want to switch to a different resort? they do it for you. The agent doesn't cost you anything, so it's worth contacting one and getting package info.

2. Yes you can just book the hotel for now and add on tickets later. You can also buy tickets and wait to make your park reservations, we only make the reservations about a month out.


3. I'd do two days at MK, 1 Epcot, 1 HS and skip Animal Kingdom, personally. Without park hopper tickets I think AK is not the best use of a day. Unless you really want pool time, in which case you could do AK in the morning and then spend the rest of the day at the pool. Be careful booking your MK day (s) as you will be there during Halloween and some days it closes early for the Halloween Party.

I'm not a huge fan of Contemporary or Grand Floridian, have you looked at Beach/Yacht/Boardwalk? They have better pools and it's nice being able to walk to Epcot and HS (though the walk to HS is a hike. There's also a boat). The Contemporary walk to MK is nice though.

You will get in to the parks 30 minutes early as a WDW Resort guest-we arrived 45 minutes before that time, were let in to the parks right away, and were even allowed to get in line and sometimes start riding stuff before that opening time.

[sent]

Feb 8, 2022 1:18:20 GMT -5 mrsslocombe said:

I just got back from WDW (stayed at Art of Animation-highly recommend the family suites).

1. I haven't found that travel agents have better prices (it seems the same to me doing it myself vs. an agent) but it is more convenient. Something happens and you need to switch dates? They handle it. Decide you want to switch to a different resort? they do it for you. The agent doesn't cost you anything, so it's worth contacting one and getting package info.

I've found the same, the agents don't have better prices for the Disney owned hotel packages. But for the handful of not-Disney owned hotels that pop up when you search vacation packages on Disney, I found this one time the Disney package was actually cheaper than doing the hotel + tickets separately. So I figured I may as well have the local agent in my town book it, give her the business, and have her try to get the restaurant reservations I want. 

[freshsqueezed]

We went last year. We did not use a travel agent because they couldn’t compare to the deals we could get through the Costco travel
Packages. If you join a Facebook group or 2 you will learn so much that you’ll become an expert yourself.

We stayed on property. I very much echo the sentiment of looking in Beach/Yacht Club or Boardwalk area.

[Patsy Baloney]

As a “I LOVE THE PARKS” person, I would do a park per day. A lot of people think AK isn’t worth it, but there’s so much to see! So many animals and walking trails, the train, the animation class, the great rides. We also try to fit in Disney Springs time for shopping/snacking - usually our arrival day.

I’ve planned a few trips to Disney myself. It’s just in my nature, so I never sought out an agent. We’ve stayed at Art of Animation before the Skyliner opened, Boardwalk and Old Key West. Our next trip we’re going to try out Pop Century for the Skyliner.

With kids 8 and 5, I would follow their interests heavily, because they’re just going to have a ball. Some of the best help I’ve found in planning has been through Facebook groups. There are so many out there - for the month you’re going, for a hotel you may be interested in, for any special travel arrangements you may need (scooter user, disability services, , etc.) and Disney systems like Genie+ and Lighting Lane. Annual Passholder groups are also great to check out because they tend to know about special extras - merchandise, experiences, restaurants and shows.

I hope you all have a great time! I think there’s just something so magical about that place.

[jaycee]

Feb 7, 2022 15:13:23 GMT -5 shaynaatl said:

1) How do you decide on self-planning vs using a travel agent? 

I taught myself and loved the process.  Disboards is a great forum for disney questions.  Ask here, too.  I purchased a guide book when we went the first time and wrote in in, circled what we wanted to do, etc.  I recommend Birnbaum's book.  A paper book will give you just the overview, map, etc.

2) If I book myself, is it fine to just book the rooms for now, and worry about park tickets later? 

Yes

3) How would you split 4 full days between the various parks? Would you plan on parks all 4 days, or should we throw a pool/relaxation day in there?

Look carefully at the price breakdown for 4 park tickets vs. 3 park tickets.  It probably isn't more than 10% or 15% more per ticket.  For that reason, we purchase a park ticket for every day that we are there.  We do not do rope drop to fireworks but we will enter the parks every day, even if it is for just two rides and a meal.  If you are going to stay at one of the resorts you mentioned, you'll have super easy access to the parks.

Our family loves magic kingdom so this is how we would split the time.
First day - magic kingdom
Second - Hollywood studios
Third - animal kingdom and epcot
Fourth - magic kingdom

[frlcb]

We just got back and spent 3 full days there. I would absolutely use a travel planner if for no other reason than they literally handle everything. We were supposed to go over MLK weekend and my son tested positive as we were about to leave and my travel planner changed everything for us to a date 3 weeks later within 30 minutes, and got us money back. It just took all the guess work out of everything.

We did one full day MK, half day AK and Epcot, and a half day HS and Epcot. We loved AK, the pandora avatar ride was all of our favorite, and also the Dino coaster. I wouldn't skip it. I like Epcot but it was SO crowded, worse than the other parks, and I am glad we had a park hopper so we were still able to do all the rides we wanted at all the parks, even with Epcot over two days.

Definitely get Genie + and pay for the lightning lanes. We never waited more than 15 minutes for a ride and some of them had 2-3 hour waits.

[nsl]

1) I love researching vacations, so we've almost always planned the trips ourselves. That said, we go at least once every 2-3 years and at this point I'm not sure what a vacation planner could do that wouldn't be just as easy for me to plan/research myself. The one time we did use a travel agent was during the Fast Pass+ era when getting your FP reservations the second your window opened was important, and there was no way either H or I would have been able to do it on a workday. Reading good Disney blogs really helps if you want to DIY--I recommend the Disney Tourist Blog in particular.

2) Yes, book hotel rooms now and wait a bit for your tickets. You can definitely move ticket dates around (you can even redeem expired tickets), but you have to call customer service to do it and it's a giant PITA.

3) I would either throw in a pool day or plan at least 1-2 half-days in the parks with kids those ages. Disney is overwhelming, and the biggest mistake I've made when planning our trips is not accounting for the downtime our kids and my H need when it gets to be too much. In terms of how to spend your days, I'd probably do a full day plus a half day in Magic Kingdom, a day at Hollywood Studios, and a day at either Animal Kingdom or Epcot depending on your kids' interests. Epcot is my favorite park as an adult, and my kids enjoy it more and more every trip, but there's a lot of construction there now and much of it (like World Showcase) is really geared toward an older audience.