Hello Kristen,
Thanks for stopping by planDisney with your question. These next couple of months will fly by, and soon you'll find yourself in the middle of
The World's Most Magical Celebration!
All guests need to make a
theme park reservation for each day they plan to visit a Walt Disney World theme park. However, in order to make your reservations, you will need to
purchase your tickets first. Tickets can always be upgraded, so I recommend purchasing one park per day passes for as many days as you think you will need. That will allow you to start planning out your itinerary and reserving your park days. Then, if you decide you want to upgrade to add the
Park Hopper Option to your tickets you can.
You will be able to make dining reservations 60 days in advance, even if you haven't purchased park tickets or made theme park reservations. Just remember that if you make a reservation for a restaurant inside a park, like
Space 220 Restaurant in EPCOT, you will need to have a theme park reservation and park ticket to dine in that location.
Since you'll be visiting in August, you might want to consider chilling out by adding a day at
Typhoon Lagoon into your plans. You don't need to have a reservation for the water parks, so this is something else you can wait to add as your vacation gets closer.
Hope this helps. Have a magical vacation!
Diane