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How Early Should I Book my Walt Disney World Vacation?

March 16, 2016March 16, 2016 dis/dom 2 Comments

“How early should I book my Walt Disney Vacation” is one of the most often asked questions I get as a Disney travel agent, especially by those who have never been to Disney, or have only been a few times. They often read on the internet half truths or complete falsities which confuse them. And while there is no perfect answer as to when you should book your Disney World vacation, there are some facts you should know and understand. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments below and I will answer:

Some facts about booking a Walt Disney World vacation:

Walt Disney World will allow you to book a room only reservation up to 499 days in advance, nearly a year and a half.
Walt Disney World releases their room rates and packages in one year chunks, usually sometime in July for the following year. For 2017 rates and packages, we should see them sometime later this Summer.
If you book a room only reservation for a time when the rates have yet to be released, Disney will estimate a price for you. Once rates are released, Disney will then update the rate you booked at to the correct rate.
You cannot book a package for a time when rates and packages are not yet made available. So, if you want to travel next January, even if we are within 499 days, your only option is to book a room only reservation, you will have to wait until July, or whenever Disney decides to release 2017 packages, to book a package.
Room only reservations cannot be converted into packages. So, if you book a room only reservation way in advance, and think you will just convert it to a package when they become available, you cannot, you will have to cancel your initial reservation and start over.
Any money you have paid on your Disney package reservation is fully refundable up until the final balance is due, which is currently 30 days before travel. For Disney World room only reservation, as long as you cancel more than 5 days before arrival you will receive your deposit back.

Some other facts about Walt Disney World that effect booking your vacation:

For guests with an existing room only or package reservation, dining reservations can be made for your entire stay 180 days before your check-in date. You can see a handy date calculator here: Important Walt Disney World dates
For guests with an existing package reservation, fast pass plus reservations can be made for your entire stay 60 days before check-in.
Disney World typically releases discounts for their resorts well in advance of your stay. Many discounts are released 4 -5 months before arrival, some others are released a bit closer to your travel dates. Usually, discounts can be applied to existing reservations. At Mouseketrips, that is a free service we provide to our customers, we check every discount that is released to make sure you get the absolute best deal possible.
Discounts are usually very strict when it comes to travel dates. They have a definite start and stop date, and those dates cannot be “fudged” to fit with your plans. Try to keep your travel schedule as flexible as possible until you know exactly what the discount dates are going to be for your travel time.

So, when should I book my Walt Disney World vacation?

I have always been a proponent of booking your Disney vacation as early as possible. I have only seen negative things happen to people who decide to wait. If possible, make sure you get your reservation booked at least 180 days out so you can get your dining reservations done as soon as they are made available. There isn’t really any benefit to booking too far in advance of the 180 day point, unless you know when you want to go and just want to get it done, then do it when you can. It is always nice to know your vacation planning has already started.

A recent scientific study proved that vacations adds to your overall happiness, but is also showed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. Why wait until the last minute to get that super happiness boost?

There isn’t any reason to wait to see what discount is going to be released for your travel dates, as those discounts should be able to be applied to your reservation once released. If there are any problems with discounts or availability, your travel agent should be able to provide options for you. We have found that guests decide to wait for discounts often miss them by a few days or weeks, which means they then miss out on much of the availability of the discounted rooms.

If you are inside of 180 days, get booked ASAP to get that dining done now.

When do you typically book your Disney World vacation?

Do I Need to Rent a Car at Walt Disney World

March 15, 2016May 13, 2019 dis/dom Leave a comment

For years when I would visit Walt Disney World, I would rent a car at the Orlando International airport and drive my family to our Disney resort. For the most part, the car would sit in the parking lot, though we would use it to drive to the grocery store or maybe Sea World. I then had several trips in a row when the car never left the parking lot. The only other real option at the time was to hire a town car service or use Mears airport transfers, but renting a car was pretty cheap, and it was nice to have the car in case of emergency.

When Disney launched the Magical Express in 2005, which offers free transportation for Walt Disney World Resort guests from MCO to Walt Disney World and back, it solved many of my problems. Free transportation to Disney that was a quick and easy process. I have only rented a car on one subsequent Disney World vacation.

But, the Magical Express is not for everyone. There are still situations where you may need to rent a car.

You should probably rent a car at Disney World if:

You are flying into any other airport than MCO. Some people opt to fly into Sanford airport, or even TPA in Tampa, and the Magical Express does not service those airports
You are planning on doing other area attractions in addition to Disney. While Universal, Sea World, Legoland and others are technically in the Orlando area, they are not very close to Disney. Getting back and forth can be expensive without a car. If you are doing maybe one day at Universal, consider a town car company for that trip, but multiple days, a rental car will be the most efficient for you. Remember to figure in the parking costs at the other parks when figuring out if a rental car works for you.
You are planning on visiting a far away attraction such as Cape Canaveral or one of the beaches.
You want the freedom from Disney transportation. Many people just want to drive their own cars to the parks, and don’t want to worry about lines for the Disney buses.

You should probably not rent a car at Disney World if:

You are just doing Disney World. Disney transportation is mostly efficient, and more importantly, free.
You want to save money.
You may want to go offsite for one or two days, and a town car company is cheaper than renting a car for the entire stay.

Things to remember:

Parking at all Walt Disney World resorts is not free. Walt Disney World now charges for parking at all of it’s resorts. Parking is current $13 at Value Resorts, $19 at Moderate Resorts and $24 at Deluxe and Deluxe Villa Resorts per night of your stay
Currently, if you are staying at a Walt Disney World resort, parking at the Disney theme parks is free.
Most rental car locations are outside of MCO, requiring a bus ride just to get to their building to rent a car.
There are toll roads between MCO and Walt Disney World, as well as possibly between Walt Disney World and other attractions.
There is an Alamo rental car counter on Walt Disney World property, as well as rental car counters at many Downtown Disney hotels if you want to just rent a car for a day or two.

Do you rent a car while at Disney World?

It was all Started by a Mouse

March 14, 2016March 14, 2016 dis/dom Leave a comment

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse. – Walt Disney

Whether you are a Disney fan or not, surely you have heard this quote by Walt Disney. Now technically, it was all started by a rabbit (Oswald), which Walt lost in a contract dispute. This loss then forced the creation of a new character, Mickey Mouse. Imagine a world with no Mickey Mouse!

During Walt’s lifetime, he went from drawing advertisements to cartoon shorts to full length movies to opening Disneyland and even starting the ambitious Walt Disney World. That is an embarrassingly short summation of all that Walt accomplished. Today, the Walt Disney Company is worth roughly 163 BILLION dollars! I am sure if Walt were still alive, he would wonder at what his small animation company had become.

Walt started with a mouse, a simple drawing. Walt didn’t wait around for someone to hand him greatness. He had faith in his vision, worked incredibly hard and took some crazy chances. He even had some major disappointments along the way that didn’t slow him down.

I hope we can all learn from Walt’s lessons, and while it is extremely likely we may never have the success of Walt Disney, let’s hope we can have half the fun he did during his life.