Disney Vacation Planning

How to Plan a Magical Disney World Vacation Without Really Trying.

Nancy Disney Vacation Planning 0 Comment
A recurring theme of mine, especially on this blog is:

If you are going to visit Walt Disney World, especially if it is your first trip, you have got to have a PLAN.

Yes………. if you are planning a Disney World vacation, you Really Have To Plan.

“But I am not a planner!” I know you are saying this. =)”How am I supposed to know what everyone will want to do when we get there?”

Well that little plan can be the difference between magic and misery for your group. So to help you out, here are a few very basic (and often VERY overlooked) tips to get you started in your Plan:

·         Before you leave, have the kids make a list for each park about what they absolutely, positively, can’t-go-back-home-without-seeing attractions. Make sure you make those rides and shows a priority each day. When going to a park, make sure you get to those first thing, and make full use of Disney’s FastPass for those with longer lines.

·         Look at a map before you arrive. The Disney website has maps that you can download for free. Do it. Look at them and become familiar with the various sections of each park and where your “must do’s” are located before you walk through the gates.

·         Know the park hours and take good advantage of them. Go early before the crowds arrive. You’ll be glad you did! Don’t expect to have lots of happy campers in the middle of the afternoon in July in Florida.

·         Know the weather forecast before you leave home and pack accordingly. Believe it or not, it is not always sunny in Florida and yes it can get cold enough in January to need a winter coat. Really!

·         Check to see if any rides will be closed while you are there. It happens. If one of your child’s must-sees will be out of commission, tell them ahead of time, to avoid a Magic Kingdom meltdown.

·         Take a mid-day break and go back to your hotel for a swim and/or nap. If you have little ones it is critical. It is critical for big ones too!

Planning a Disney World vacation takes time and effort. But the results will be worth it!

New Prices, New Resort Hotel, and New Ticket Promotion (sort of): A Big News Week at Walt Disney World for Vacation Planning

Nancy Discounted Disney World Tickets, Disney Vacation Planning, Saving Money on Accommodations 0 Comment

This was a big week, news-wise, at Walt Disney World. Good news, not-so-good news, and a couple of ways to possibly save some money on your next Disney vacation.

Let’s start with the “bad” news: as expected, Disney World ticket prices went up on Sunday, August 3. The Magic Your Way one-day, one-park base ticket now costs $79 for adults and $68 for children 3-9, which raised park passes by $4 adult and $5 child. The price for Annual Passes and Annual Pass renewals also went up as well……however, and this brings me to some “good” news: Disney has made the Annual Pass good for 15 months, which is a definite way to get more for your money if you are a frequent Disney visitor, and somewhat balances that price increase for Annual Passholders. You can read more information about the increase here: Walt Disney World rolls out Passholder renewal offer — 15 months for price of 12. Of course, you can still get discounted Disney tickets by visiting a reputable online ticket broker.

In other Disney news, not necessarily Disney World related, Disney Cruise Line has a super promotion for some of their Disney Mediterranean cruises next April and May. Kids 17 and under sail free on most 10- and 11-night Mediterranean cruises, April 24 – May 26, 2010: they must be with two full-fare guests in the same stateroom, and this offer is only for certain stateroom categories.While a Disney Cruise is not cheap, it is a truly magical experience, and if you have been thinking about doing something like this…especially to take advantage of the chance for your children to see another part of the world…then don’t miss out on this great promotion. Contact your travel agent for details!

Lastly, the “good news” (if you are interested in really neat architecture and design) is that the newest property in the Disney Vacation Club, Bay Lake Tower, officially opened on Tuesday, August 4. Adjacent to the Contemporary Resort, it shares the same contemporary theming, along with a fabulous location right outside of the Magic Kingdom. You can see some photos here and here as well. Pretty cool, isn’t it? It may not be the best way to have an affordable Disney family vacation…but if you can ever splurge, well being right next door to Cinderella’s Castle is the way to go! =)

Have a magical day!!

Great Free Tools for Planning Affordable Disney Family Vacations

Nancy Disney Vacation Planning 0 Comment

I have been talking about the need to do advance planning to help make your Disney vacation a successful and happy time for everyone in your family. I have typically used a number of resources that are my favorites for the best way to plan a Disney vacation, and I wanted to talk about a couple today that are absolutely FREE to use!

But first, let’s talk about the anticipation factor. If there was ever a vacation that has HUGE expectations from a family…especially the children…it would be trip to Walt Disney World. Probably the best example of this is that wonderful commercial that Walt Disney World was running a couple of years ago, where the kids…and the parents…are talking the night before they leave for their Disney vacation…the “I’m too excited to sleep” commercial. If you have seen it, you know which one I am talking about: guaranteed to bring a smile every time! =)

My point in this is that, anticipating….knowing what to expect, and visualizing it all…is certainly half the fun of planning a trip! It makes the time spent waiting for the vacation to arrive, go a bit faster too! (You know: the “When to we go?” questions.)

This anticipation is helped then by learning about the destination…learning what things will be like, and what to expect. This “learning” part is kind of important, because it helps channel all that excitement into becoming aware and prepared. Which of course leads to happy vacations!

So, in addition to the reading you are doing =), I have a couple of really FUN suggestions. First, hop over to disneyworld.com and order your FREE Vacation Planning dvd. It will arrive in your mailbox in no time, and you and your family will have a blast watching and learning. Many of us, especially children, learn visually, so SEEING everything will help everyone get a great feel for what to expect. Plus, as the excitement builds, everyone gets to watch the darn thing over and over and over…..

Now in addition to this, just the other day, I received an email from Disney with another really cool FREE tool. You can now plan your own, personalized Disney vacation video. You can choose the events, activities, and locations that interest YOUR family the most. It’s a blast to create, and even more fun to watch. Create your online video and then enjoy the anticipation and excitement of waiting for…and learning about…your Disney vacation!

And don’t forget, I have more ideas, tips, suggestions, or resources for planning affordable Disney family vacations as well.

Have a magical day!

The Best Way to See Disney World…and Have Fun While Doing It!

Nancy Disney Vacation Planning 0 Comment


When friends and family have asked me about my advice for the best way to plan a Disney vacation, I usually start by asking them if they have discussed as a family, what exactly they want to see while in Disney World. In my opinion, this is absolutely where everyone needs to start!
Why? Because the success of a family trip to Walt Disney World, perhaps more than any other kind of vacation, is related to how much fun people are having, especially little ones! This is an on-the-go vacation, without a lot of rest or downtime (unless you specifically plan for it, but more on that later).

People get hot, people get tired, people get cranky. And by “people” I don’t just mean children, ‘cause adults get hot, tired, and cranky too!

And this is just not the way the “happiest place on Earth” was meant to be!
So if ya wanna have fun, you’re gonna have to work at it a bit before you go. Believe me when I say this: deciding to just “wing it” when you get there is more than likely to result in some crankiness along the way! And over our past 10 or so family trips to Disney, we have certainly witnessed many situations where folks could have used a little extra pixie dust to get them through the day!
We planned our first family trip when our daughter was seven. It was a great age for a first Disney World trip: she was old enough to deal with the rigors of touring 4 parks without needing a stroller, but young enough to still believe in the “magic” of it all. And she was also at a great age to help me plan! Which, I realized very quickly as I started to do my research into this trip, was going to be an important key to the overall success.

Why? Well because….

We were traveling in July, which is the hottest, most humid time of the year in Florida, and I knew it would be crowded. I could see that there was NO way that we would last at the parks every day, from early morning till close at night…. with a cold-weather-loving-husband and a seven-year-old… without a break…
And because of this, I realized that there would be rides or attractions that we might not get to see….and choices that we were going to have to make. And the person that would probably care most about those choices was….you guessed it….our daughter. Because nothing guarantees crankiness (or for that matter, a downright meltdown right in the middle of the Magic Kingdom) than a 7 year old who is heartbroken because we were not going to be able to see the ONE THING that she just HAD to see.
So rather than me trying to guess what I thought would be important to her, I got a great Walt Disney World vacation planner that was geared towards a kid’s point of view, and then we read it together. Again and again. In fact, it became one of her favorite books. She highlighted what she liked, read the other kids’ points of view, and made her own lists. Then we got together as a family and went over everything. We prioritized: what was most important to each of us in each park, and what could we live without? With this list in hand, I was able to put together a touring plan of sorts, specifically geared towards what our family wanted to do. And then figure out how to do it all and still remain un-cranky.
Did it work? You bet it did. Lots of fun and magical moments, and we pretty much got to see everything on our “Must Do” list.

And nobody got cranky!

Having a Walt Disney World Vacation Planner: True Confessions of a Disney Addict

Nancy Disney Travel Guide, Disney Vacation Planning , 0 Comment

I can so clearly remember planning our first vacation to Walt Disney World with my own family. Having been once, 25 years before as a girl, I only vaguely knew that Disney World was BIG. And it would be CROWDED. And we were going in July, so it was going to be HOT. And since we just knew that we were probably not ever going to visit again, it was important to SEE IT ALL.

This trip was A BIG DEAL.

Oh dear.

As I began to think it all through, I pretty quickly became overwhelmed. After all, having a successful vacation with all of that in mind, is a tall order. My Mommy reputation was clearly on the line. And so was my Planner-in-Chief reputation. So, like any good general, I prepared for battle. This was serious business!

I poured over the Walt Disney World website. I ordered the free vacation video that Disney World offered (which they still do by the way, only now it’s a DVD). I read every newspaper and magazine article I saw, cut them out and put them in my expanding file, and then read them again. I went to the library, where I found, oh joy of joys, books on Disney World!! Checked out the ones that appeared to offer valuable information, and then went out and bought the ones that I liked the best. I actually bought one for our daughter as well, so that she could also get an idea of what to expect. Had to start training the next generation of vacation planners early. =)

(You might wonder why I didn’t just surf the net. Well, this was 1998, and doing a Google search was just not an integral part of our life at that point, as it is now. I was still doing things the “old fashioned way”, lol…I read books.)

In any event, two interesting things occurred from all of this research:

  1. I realized that the more I knew, the more I needed to know.
  2. And I also realized that we needed a PLAN.

It was evident from reading the advice of those wise souls who had been there before me, that a Disney World vacation was like no other. There was not going to be any relaxing on this trip! We could not just “go with the flow” (well we could, but were likely to end up frustrated, hot, and cranky if we did). I realized that truly the best way to plan a Disney vacation absolutely involved knowing waaaaayyy before we walked onto Main Street USA, what we wanted to see, when we wanted to see it, and how much we were going to pay for it.

So, I became Disney obsessed. I admit it. My family really thought I had taken leave of my senses. It was all I talked about for months. Looking back, I am amazed that they didn’t say, “Hey, never mind, we don’t really need to go to Disney World”. I am sure that they thought I was over the edge.

Until we got there. And I whipped out the daily planner I had created for us, showing what rides and attractions everyone wanted to see. I knew when the parks opened, when we could go early or stay late, where to go for some peaceful, air-conditioned moments, where to eat, where NOT to eat, etc. etc. etc.

The trip was a success. We all had an absolute blast, and the Planner-in-Chief was thanked time and time again. And we began to think about going back again. Which we have done, more than 10 times since. Yup, we’re all Disney fanatics now.

The moral of this story? Well, I would have to say, do your research, and have a plan. You will NOT regret having a plan.

Now some folks are like me and looove to do hours and hours of reading and researching. And the internet can be a big help to folks like me, since there is always something new to learn!

But not everyone has that kind of time, and I get that. Which is one reason why I started The Affordable Mouse, to help folks plan affordable Disney vacations, by having the very best money-saving tips and ideas in one place. If you don’t have the time to scour the internet, staying up until 3 a.m. reading message boards, and drilling down through Disney vacation planning websites that have hundreds of pages, that’s ok. I am doing that part for you.

And don’t worry, I love doing it. As my husband says, I am happiest planning a Disney trip. If not mine, then others. =)