Hello Jeanette!
How exciting that you are finally making your dream trip come true! And to bring your grandson along to celebrate his birthday sounds like the perfect way to experience all the magic together. Let’s see if I can get you started in the right direction!
I highly recommend you stay at a
Disney Resort Collection Hotel. Saying inside the magic makes our trips even more enjoyable and convenient. With a younger child, sometimes taking an afternoon break to nap or hit the pool is the best way to avoid complete vacation exhaustion. With the included resort transportation, it’s easy to hop a bus, boat, Monorail, or Disney Skyliner back to your resort so you can recharge. You’ll also get early entry to every theme park, every day of the week, offering you a jump start over Guests staying off-site. And if you book a car service or Mears Connect bus service from the airport to your resort, you can skip the car rental and overnight parking fees entirely! I still see some wonderful resorts available for your timeframe, but they will fill quickly so don’t wait too long to book!
Book your
tickets along with your Disney Resort Collection Room to create a vacation Package. Because the more days you visit the parks, the less you pay on a per-day basis, I recommend staying a bit longer, and slowing down to really enjoy and savor the parks. Ideally, 5 park days allows you to visit each park once, with a second day at Magic Kingdom to enjoy all that it has to offer. You can add
Park Hopper to your ticket if you’d like to visit more than one park in a day, but if you are trying to keep the budget a bit tighter, this can be skipped and still have a lovely vacation. Once you have your tickets, be sure to make
Disney Park Pass Reservations as soon as possible. Both are required to enter a theme park.
Capture all the magical moments with your grandson by adding
Memory Maker to your package. With Memory Maker, you’ll receive unlimited digital downloads of all the PhotoPass photos you have taken on your trip, including on-ride photos! I always like to make a photo book of our trips when we return so we can look back and relive those wonderful memories.
Make
Advance Dining Reservations as soon as possible. Booking for early January just opened. Guests may book 60 days in advance of the day they wish to dine, and those at a Disney Resort Collection Hotel can book their entire stay beginning 60 days before check-in. If you’d like to enjoy a character meal or special dining experience, these reservations book very quickly. Book now, as you can always make changes or cancel later. Waiting to book even a few days likely means you will not find availability at the most popular locations.
If you want to go the extra mile, check out the
Enchanting Extras Collection. You’ll find dessert parties, reservations to build a droid at Galaxy’s Edge, fireworks dessert cruises, and even the ability to deliver a birthday surprise to your Disney Resort Collection Hotel room!
Jeanette, I hope this helps give you an idea of the next steps. And feel free to submit more questions as you plan. We love talking Disney and are here to help!
- Kate