Hello Tania! I am happy to help a fellow resident of Pennsylvania with making plans for their first visit to the Most Magical Place on Earth!
For starters, you should go to the Walt Disney World Resort website and create your
My Disney Experience account. From parks, to hotel, to restaurants, this account will help you keep track of all of your reservations! You’ll then want to choose your dates of travel! I encourage Guests to check the “
Special Offers” page of the website! This area is updated with new money-saving deals throughout the year!
Next, you’ll want to select a hotel in the
Disney Resorts Collection! There are resorts in the value, moderate, and deluxe categories. Not only will prices vary by the level of the hotel, but they will also vary based upon the time of year you’re visiting. Less busy times are less expensive, while the busiest seasons are more expensive. I would love to make a few recommendations! In the value category, I recommend staying in the “most Disney” hotel which is Disney’s Art of Animation Resort! In the moderate category, I recommend either Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort or Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort. Finally, in the deluxe category, I recommend Disney’s Yacht Club, Disney’s Riviera Resort, or Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa! One of the benefits of staying at a deluxe hotel is the opportunity to spend extra time in the parks after official park closing time! This benefit is set to begin later this year!
Another fun step of planning your vacation is deciding which parks you want to visit and on which days you’ll visit them! You might want to visit all four Disney Parks or maybe just some of them. I encourage you to visit the page for each park on the Walt Disney World Resort website. This will help you to get a good feeling for which parks you want to visit.
Finally, start taking a look at the
Disney Dining experiences located throughout the resort hotels and the parks! You will definitely want to visit at least one or two during your vacation! Advanced dining reservations can be made up to 60-days prior to your vacation arrival date!
So, Tania, I'm sure that each of these fun planning steps probably invites more questions! That’s what we’re here to help with! I hope you’ll take these initial planning steps and come back with more questions!
Hakuna Matata! Jonathan