Hi Yakima,
Welcome to planDisney!
First, let me celebrate you for planning a visit to the Walt Disney World® Resort in advance! Given your anticipated arrival date, you should have enough time to get your plans finalized. I will give you a few suggestions to help you get started. Know also that you can always
call to speak with a cast member to get assistance with actually booking a
vacation package with a resort hotel and theme park tickets.
Since you have already selected dates, decide first how you will travel. My family prefers to fly, so once I know our dates, I start tracking flight prices. We also consider the
Disney Resorts Collection hotels and prioritize our resort hotel possibilities. Then, I start checking the
Special Offers to see if there are any offers available for the dates of our trip. Be sure to also decide how many days you want to visit the theme parks. I suggest
Standard 1 Park Per Day Tickets for four days so that you can visit each theme park at least once.
I book our vacation package as soon as I can, about a year to six months prior to arrival. Then, I make sure that vacation package is linked in
My Disney Experience. I make note of our
advanced dining reservation booking window. Before that booking window opens, we decide on the
dining locations we want to visit and we select at least one
Enchanting Extras Collection experience. I always make our initial reservations on the first day our booking window opens. As we get closer to the arrival date, I may modify, cancel, or make new reservations.
If we are flying to Orlando, once I have our vacation package booked, I start to consider how we are getting from the airport to the resort hotel. In the past, we have taken MEARS Transportation or we have used a ride share service like Lyft or Uber. When we have used MEARS Transportation, it has typically taken about an hour or a little over an hour (it could take longer) to get to the resort so we use a ride share service if we are more pressed for time. On the return trip to the airport, MEARS Transportation has typically picked us up about three hours in advance of our flight. For this reason, when using MEARS Transportation, I never choose a return flight leaving before 2:00 p.m. We like to eat one last breakfast at Disney before heading back to the airport!
Yakima, I hope this helps you get started. I do have a few additional tips. When selection dining locations, I highly recommend reservations for
character dining experiences. Topolino's Terrace - Flavors of the Riviera (breakfast), Cinderella's Royal Table, Tusker House Restaurant, and 1900 Park Fare are a few of our favorites. When selecting your dining locations, keep in mind your daily activities. Consider travel time to and from each location, especially if a location is not in a theme park!
Magic and memories,
Donyell