Hey Howdy Hey Paula and welcome to planDisney!
There is so much to be excited for just thinking about planning a trip to Walt Disney World Resort but finding a place to start can be really tough. Hakuna Mata Paula! Sit back and relax and let's talk about where to start planning the most Magical vacation your family will enjoy!
I few starting tips I like to give to people early in planning their trip to Walt Disney World are timing, budget and length of stay. Try to figure out the "perfect" time for you all to visit Disney that works best for your work schedules and your kid's schedules. Next, try to figure out how many days you would like to stay in Disney. Finally, try to figure out a general range of a budget that you would like to stick to. Just having an idea with these three items can make planning your trip a whole heck of a lot easier. Now that you have an idea for the big three, let's now get into some more of the details.
After you have an idea of the length of your stay and the time of year, finding the right resort is the next step.
Disney Resort Collection has many hotel categories and options for you and three-tiered pricing options to help narrow it down. Disney has hotel accommodations from
Value,
Moderate and
Deluxe which have a wide range of amenities. Make sure to find rooms that are large enough to accommodate your party of 6, I would highly advise checking out the Family Suites at
Disney's Art of Animation Resort. There are also
More Great Accommodations and other
Good Neighbor Hotels very close to Disney property with Disney's seal of approval for quality service and offerings. Many of them also have perks that you would enjoy as if you were staying at a Disney Resorts Collection hotel such as with
Early Theme Park Entry so be sure to keep an eye out for those as well.
After you have your resort picked out, you are ready to look into
Theme Parks. If this is your first time in Disney, I would suggest a 1 Park Per Day ticket option. All four Disney Theme Parks have so much to offer that one day might not be enough to see and experience everything on your "must-do" list, so take your time in each park!
So now you should have worked through your hotel, park tickets, length of stay and budget. Sounds like we are ready for the next layer, your experiences in the parks and resort! From here I would look into
Genie+, dining reservations and coming up with your "must-do" list of your top experiences in each park you want to try.
Planning a trip to Walt Disney World may seem like a lot but there are so many options and it is a ton of fun to do. If you need more details, Disney does have a lot of
free planning videos to help you out. I would also suggest looking into a Disney Authorized Vacation Planner to help. These experienced travel agents can be your guide to the Magic all at no additional cost to you! Of course, you also have your whole family of planDisney experts you can keep coming back to with any questions you have!
Have fun planning your trip and let us know if you have further questions!
Nick