My Husband and I are talking about planning a trip to Walt Disney World in 2 years?

Question

My Husband and I are talking about in two years on our wedding anniversary planning a trip for just the two of us to Walt Disney World in Orlando. How much should we save up? Should we sign up for all the extras, should we plan it ourselves or go through a travel agent? We've always been the kind to start planning early, and we like control, but on the other hand, our vacations have been little and a Walt Disney World vacation is big, so wouldn't a travel agent be better? We're still young, we've been married four years. Any advice on planning such a big trip? And any advice for going to Walt Disney World?

Answer 1

well in two years the prices may go up a little for the price of tickets but i don't think much else will change so i'll try to give you a run down of what i think you should do.

-stay on disney property.

i'd stay at the pop century resort. its $82 per night. and its awesome there.

-i'd go to magic kingdom for 2 days, epcot for 2 days, hollywood studios for 1 day, skip animal kingdom unless you really like the zoo cuz that about all it adds up to is a glorified zoo with a few rides.

have 2 pool days where you just hang at the hotle and them maybe go to downtown disney to walk around, do some shopping, and eat.

so you really want to stay at disney world for about 7 days.

-i'd pick just the base ticket option cuz if you go to the parks in the amount of days i said you really won't need to go back and forth between parks. and i do recommend going to the parks for the amount of days i said cuz if you only go to one for each day and then get the park hopper option you wouldn't get to see as much. trust me i've there many times.

a base ticket will cost $75 per person for the first day then the price of a ticket goes down when start buying more.

it will cost about $220 per person for a 5 day base ticket.

-i'd get the dining option where you get

1snack per day

1 table service meal per day

1 quick service meal per day.

and i'd bring something for breakfst from home like a box of cerial or what ever and then buy the refillable mug which costs $12 a piece and you can reuse it over and over at your hotel for your stay.

this way it works out well for food.

breakfast-cerial with milk from the refillable mug then put juice or what ever you want in the mug to drink aloong with eating your cerial.

lunch-either your table service meal or your quick service meal

snack-you can get a drink like pop, water, chocolate milk, or chips, or a pretzel or a ice cream. there are many choices.

dinner-what ever meal you didn't use for lunch.

it really works out well and you are never hungry.

the meal plan costs $38 per person per day.

i'm not sure how you plan to get there but i'm going to assume you are flying. if that is the case if you stay on disney property there is no need to rent a car. disney picks you up at the airport for free and brings you back to the airport for free. and disney also has free bus transportation from your hotle to all over disney from the parks, to the water parks, to downtown disney.

its conveinent and the buses usually run every 20 minutes. so never a super long wait.

it really doesn't matter if you go through a travel agent like AAA or just book it directly through disney.

personally i would go to the disney world website and play around to see exactly what options you want and get a price for the trip. there is no obligation to book the trip after you price it and you can customize everything from:

hotel

ticket options

dining plan

flight

free disney transportation

right on the website.

and then you can print out the info and take it to a travel agent if you'd like and they can see if they can get you any discounts. then they can use your info to book your trip.

but be aware they are doing it the same exact way you did on the computer. they go to the same website and just plug in the info just as you did.

so i'd go to the disney world website just to at least check it out.

just fill in the info on the left hand side and get startted.

*note that you probably won't be able to book it for summer 2010 but you should be able to get a rough idea by putting your info in for summer 2009.

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw/ind...

oh and don't forget about souvenier money.

i'd bring $150-$200 per person for the time you will be there.

Answer 2

My main advice is to use an itinerary and touring plans service.  This one thing has made all the difference for our family when traveling to Disney World.  We were like you, it had been years since we had been to Disney World and all of our vacations had been simple, like trips to the beach and such.  When I started looking at Disney, I was really overwhelmed.  I figured out what resort we wanted, but I was having a hard time deciding on tickets and dining.  Custom Mouse Plans created our itinerary and told me exactly what tickets to get.  They also made our dining reservations and told me which dining plan was the best for our family.  The touring plans were amazing.  We rode everything without waiting more than 10 minutes for any ride!  They made the whole process so much easier.

Answer 3

5k should cover you for the week. Including airfare.  Start searching the web for different packages. There are some great sites with lots of hints and money saving ideas.  Hotels in the park are expensive.  Entrance fees run about 100 each per park.  Unless you eat fast food your restaurant bill will also be high, but if you are saving for this trip and have two years, then do it all.  

Answer 4

Just make sure you do your research.  I am married and am now living in TX, originally from IL.  We own a motorhome, so when we go to WDW we drive, and stay in Fort Wilderness.  I love the outdoorsy feel, and for the second time even in my life our next vacation there we will be staying in Wilderness Cabins rather than our motorhome.  The cabins are pricier than some of the WDW hotels, but while you do have neighbors, you do not have people right next to you, below or above you.  I would love to give you all the advice I have, but I'm afraid it would turn into a novel.  We are 28, and this will only be my hubby's 3rd time there, so I am the expert on planning the vacation in this household.

My advice is just to plan, plan, plan.  Research the hotels and decide if you want to pay more to be on the monorail loop, or quite a bit less and just have to use the WDW busses.  Both are free and convenient.  They run continuously throughout the day.  My next advice is to figure out how many days you want to spend in the park and if you plan to go back to WDW again.  The more days in the parks you buy, the cheaper per day it is, plus you can add a no expiration option so unused days never expire.  We are purchasing 2- 10 day hoppers with no expiration and it will cost us around $1000 plus tax.  It seems kind of high, but we know we will go back, and then we have our tickets paid for already.  Next tip is to consider the dining plan, but refer to www.allears.net.  They have menus and prices on there for all WDW restaurants.  Each time we go to WDW we figure out if the dining will be worth it, and for us it never is.  But we go go go until we have to stop.  Then we sit down, eat and go go go again.  We eat one meal during the late afternoon and then a snack in the evening, so buying a dining plan would never be worth it for us.

I have a few excel spreadsheets I have worked on for our next vacation (I am an organized Disney planner :)  ) and would be happy to e-mail them to you if you like.  Just send me a message and let me know.

Oh, you can buy Birnbaums WDW book, that will help with your planning, give you descriptions of the rides, temperatures, busy times etc.  I buy one every timw we go just because I am so excited, despite knowing all of the above. Or check out the www.allears.net.  It's free and gives you much of the same information.

Answer 5

As far as saving, it really depends on how exravaggant you want to go. I would save about about $5,000 if you really want to go all out. If you have a mall near you, the Disney Store does have information about packages.

Also, www.Disney.com has all you need from info about the parks, to hotel and transporation to overall costs.

A travel agent, is not the best route. With the internet you can do all the research you need on your own.

What you need to keep in mind is what you want to do. Are you going for five, seven or ten days? The parks are enormous and do take up a whole day. If you go during the hot months, many people go to the park early, and than go to one of the water parks or the hotel  pool after lunch to cool off and than back to the parks at night.

My best advice is to visit disney.com and plan things out.  

Answer 6

I planned our first few trips by myself and did a great job using the Disney web site.  Then I found the greatest group to work with.  Check out www.buildabettermousetrip.com they do it all and give great advice.  They can make all arrangements for you.