Disney 101- What to Know Before You Go

Planning a Disney vacation can be stressful, especially if you don’t know the basics. I’ve been booking trips for my family and friends for years now and there are a few “must know” details that will make the trip less stressful and more enjoyable for everyone in your party.To begin, you need to do some amount of pre-trip planning. You can do it yourself or you can book with a Disney Travel agent (like me) who will do the work for you, all for free. If you choose to go it alone, make sure you are aware of the planning basics that will need to be done before you leave for your trip.

Dining

The first thing you will need to understand and plan for is the dining process in Disney. Disney offers 2 dining option in the parks and hotels. Quick Service is Disney’s version of a fast food style restaurant. Here you walk up to a counter, make your order and take your food to any open seat. These locations never use or require a reservation. They offer a variety of food options in quick service from flat breads, burgers, tacos, B.B.Q., salads, sandwiches, and much more depending on the park you are in. Each menu offers adult and child menus and many have allergy friendly options too. The other type of dining at Disney is called Table Service. This is a traditional, sit down waitress style dining room option. These locations will almost always require a reservation. And most of those reservations need to be made well in advance of your trip. Reservations are open 180 days before your arrival date and for popular options like Cinderella’s Royal Table or Be our Guest Dinner, these options book very quickly! To make sure you get the choices you want for sit down meals (these also include character meet and greet meals) it is highly recommended that you book at 180 days out.

Meal plan or no meal plan?

If you like an more all-inclusive feel to you vacation, than Disney offers several different dining plans for you. Each plan incorporates a number and type of meals and snacks into each day of your trip. To many, this is a big time and stress saver. Knowing that all of your meals have been paid for before you have even left for your vacation makes the time in the parks a little less financially stressful when someone asks “can I have a snack?”. Some of the dining plans offer only quick service meals, others offer both or only table service credit. To take full advantage of your plan, depending on the type you opt for, you may need to book at least one (or more) sit down meals per day. If you are not the plan ahead type, this may not be the best option for you. To know what choice is better for your family, you need to consider how often you will eat, and what style meal you will want. If that is too hard to do in advance, then the meal plan is not for you. It is also not always a money saving option. If you are looking to stay within a specific budget, food is one area where adjustments can be made to fit your groups needs.

Ticket options

Disney offers 3 different types of park tickets, each with a different level of service and price.

A 1-Park per Day ticket will allow you to enter one park of your choice for that day. You can leave and come back, but you can only visit one park per day.

A Park Hopper ticket allows you to “hop” between parks in any given day. You can start your day in the Magic Kingdom, and then finish the night at Epcot. If your enjoy. A

A Park Hopper Plus. This allows you to go between any of the 4 theme parks, and certain number of visits to a water park or other Disney Fun locations (like ESPN Zone or Golf or mini golf) per day.

FastPass

Fastpass is Disney’s version of ride reservations. You select a one hour window of time to arrive at your ride or choice, with an expedited line for that ride. Some rides are more in demand for a FastPass, while other seldom require a shorter wait line. To begin, each guest in your party is given 3 FastPasses per day. Review my recommendations for FastPass options here. After you have used those original 3, you may book an additional pass, use it and then book another, for the rest of the day. If you stay onsite at a Disney property Hotel, you can book your FastPass reservations 60 days prior to your check in date. If you are stating off site, your FastPass selections can be made at 30 days out. Like dining, the reservations for the popular rides book very quickly, so its recommended that you log on to the My Disney Experience App promptly at 7 am est. to book your selections. If you are using a Disney Travel agent (like me!), they will likely book these FastPass options for you.

Park Hours

Each Park will operate varying hours depending on the day of the week. Some parks will offer Extra Magic Hours in either the morning, or at night. These “extra hours” are available for only to Disney Property Hotel Guests and gives you a “head start” on the crowds that morning for shorter wait times. All park hours can be found on Disney’s website months in advance for proper itinerary planning.

Resort Types

Disney offers over 24 hotels on their property and those hotels are categorized into 3 groups. Value, Moderate and Deluxe. As I’m sure you can guess, the title of those categories will tell you a little about the properties within them. All Disney hotels offer the same high standard of guest services, comfortable rooms and amenities, pools, on-site dining options, free transportation to and from the parks, and a lot of Disney magic. The differences will be seen in general room size, property layout/size, water slides and hot tubs, and dining options (from quick service only, to both quick service and table service options) Value resorts have smaller rooms, with large family themed pools (without water slides or hot tubs) and offer only food court style food. Moderate resorts offer slightly larger rooms, some that can sleep 5, pools with water slides and hot tubs and both food court style and sit down dining options. Deluxe hotels offer the larger rooms, pools with water slides and hot tubs, high end décor, and most offer additional forms of transportation in addition to the shuttles (monorail, boats or even walking entrances to a park). For a detailed description of each Disney hotel, click here.

Value Options: The All Star Hotels: (All Star Music, All Star Movies, All Star Sports), Disney’s Art of Animation, and POP Century.

Moderate Options: Caribbean Beach Resort, Port Orleans French Quarter, Port Orleans Riverside, Coronado Springs and The Cabins at Fort Wilderness.

Deluxe Options: Grand Floridian, Polynesian, Contemporary, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom, and Wilderness Lodge.

All resort levels offer rooms that can accommodate 5 or more guests, and Deluxe hotels also offer villa options with 2 and 3 bedroom suites.

Payments

Disney has several options for booking and paying for your vacation, and all allow for some flexibility with your payments. Each option offers different benefits, and pricing can depend on promotional offers available at the time. You can book your vacation in any of the following ways:

A room only option. You can book your stay at any Disney hotel location, (up to 499 days in advance by phone) and lock in your rate and reservation with a payment of one nights rate a deposit. Final payment can be made any time, all the way until check in, when final payment is due. If your plans change, your deposit on a room only reservation can be 100% refunded as long as you cancel 5 days prior to the arrival date.

The more traditional way of booking a Disney trip is as a vacation package. A package is defined simply as a room and ticket booking. There are several benefits to booking as a vacation package. First, Disney will usually be offering some kind of promotion or special, including anything from a free dining plan to rate discounts as an incentive to book a vacation package. To me however, the biggest advantage is the payment arrangement Disney offers. Vacation packages can be book over a year in advance and require only a $200 deposit to hold your reservations. Even better, Disney gives you from the time of booking up until 30 days before your arrival to pay your balance. No interest charged, no price changes, no obligation. If you decide to cancel your trip, you will get a full refund of your $200 deposit as long as your cancel before the 30 day mark.

Magical Express

If you are staying on site at a Disney Hotel, and are flying into or out of Orlando International airport, you can travel to and from your hotel for free on Disney’s Magical Express service. These large buses (think greyhound style) will pick you up when your flight arrives, handle your bags and drive you in comfort to your hotel, all as part of your Disney hotel stay. Better yet, as you sit back and let someone else drive you, you can your family will have a fun “Welcome to Disney” video playing for you on the many TV’s in the bus. (and FYI- the buses all have bathroom too!) When its time to go home, (sorry, you will have to leave at some point!) The Magical Express will pick you up at your hotel and drop you at your airline’s terminal. Depending on your airline and hotel, you can even check your bags and print your boarding passes all from the hotel Airline Check in service, skipping the wait at the airport!

Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Don't panic! A Disney vacation requires a bit of knowledge and planning. Working with a professional Disney Vacation Planner can remove all of that stress and work for you. Contact me today for more information about this free service.