Hi Linda,
It's so lovely to see you stopping by planDisney with a great question! I am always delighted to greet a fellow North Carolinian!
My family loves visiting during
The Holidays at Walt Disney World Resort and we just returned from another fabulous trip. You can certainly start planning now. If you have not done so already, review the options within the
Disney Resorts Collection. For the holiday season, my family prefers to stay at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. The decorations are gorgeous! We also love having access to
Walt Disney World® Monorail Transportation and being able to walk to Magic Kingdom from this resort hotel.
Once you know which resort hotels might be best for you and any family or friends traveling with you, do some comparison pricing for
vacation packages. When selecting a vacation package, you will also have to choose the type of theme park ticket and number of theme park ticket days. My family has done
Standard 1 Park Per Day tickets and
Tickets with the Park Hopper® Option. If you have little ones with you, the Standard 1 Park Per Day tickets should work. Once our girls got older, it was much easier to park hop!
Once you book your vacation package, make sure you have a
My Disney Experience account. After you receive the email with your vacation package confirmation number, you need to link that confirmation number to your My Disney Experience account. To do so, just log into your account, go to My Plans, click on Add More Plans, and then select
Link Reservations and Purchases.
Once your vacation package is linked, you need to make Disney Park Pass system reservations for each day that you have valid theme park admission. Although you are planning early, I do stress that you need to make those park pass reservations! During our visit, there was one day when there was no park pass availability for any park and other days when several parks had no additional park pass availability.
Once you start planning, I think you will get the hang of it! Make a note of the
advanced dining reservation booking window. Currently, we can make
dining reservations 60 days in advance. And, take a look at the
Enchanting Extras Collection. Many experiences need to be booked in advance. We have young Jedi in our family who had to visit Savi's Workshop and Droid Depot. So, we booked those experiences 60-days in advance.
Linda, the excellent news is that you are starting to plan early! Choose a resort hotel that has the amenities you prefer and fits within your budget. And then start thinking about other experiences you might enjoy. We cannot wait to welcome you to the magic!
Magic and memories,
Donyell