Disney World Ultimate Vacation Planning for Beginners – Made Easy! PART 3

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Planning a Disney World Itinerary

A trip to Disney World in Orlando is the epitome of a family vacation that nearly all kids and parents dream of. It is indeed the most magical place on Earth and the ultimate memory-making location for families of all ages. In short, a family trip to Disney World is AMAZING…but we also know that it can be very overwhelming for beginners. There is such an immense amount of very detailed information on the web for every little facet of planning, that first-timers can get quickly bogged down and overwhelmed.

So if you are just getting started planning your first family vacation to Disney World, we’ve put together this 4-part blog series for all the Disney basics (with a few little-known tips mixed in) to get you started off on the right foot. With some experience under our belt we’ve figured this Disney thing out and want to share that basic knowledge with you!

I am by no means a Disney expert, but have learned a thing or two planning seven Disney trips. I’m also not a Disney travel agent, so I am coming at this sharing my very unbiased opinions.

I’ve broken this series into 4 parts:

• Part 1: Basic Disney World Planning Advice You Need to Know – Answering Typical Beginner Questions
• Part 2: Building Your Disney World Vacation Package
• Part 3: Planning Your Disney World Vacation Itinerary
• Part 4: Tips While on Your Disney World Vacation

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using a link. Please see my disclaimer for more details.

Our Own Disney Planning Experience

When Josh and I first started talking about taking our two oldest boys to Disney for the first time in 2016, I had NO idea how much there was to it. But all the information was so interesting to me and I wanted to plan the perfect trip, so I got in the weeds. Quite deep in the weeds, actually. Weeds that had lots and lots of little rabbit holes that consumed more of my time than I care to admit.

But here’s the thing: you don’t have to know everything about Disney to have a great trip. You can plan an amazing and memorable vacation with as little or as much detail as you want. So that’s what we’re here to do: give you all the “need to knows” and then you can research certain aspects further if you’d like. In this blog series I’ll also clue you in on some of my “cheats” that help us get the most bang for our buck when we “do Disney”.

By the way, for the sake of this post we are going to assume that you WANT to plan Disney all yourself (like me, a control freak). But if you’re not a control freak like me, I would highly recommend getting yourself a Disney Planner. These people are the Disney experts and their services are completely FREE! They take care of all the details for you, from booking your trip to snagging those dining reservations. Then you can just head to the parks with your kiddos and bask in all of their hard work.

If an expert planning your Disney vacation sounds amazing, let me introduce you to a Disney planner friend of mine! Meet Jessica.

If you are like me and want to do it all yourself…read on!

Planning your Disney World Vacation Itinerary

Disney Park Planning

As mentioned in a previous blog in this series, Touring Plans has some really awesome tools to help you plan your best trip. Touring Plans has been a lifesaver on ALL of our previous Disney trips. These people eat, sleep, and breathe Disney World and spend their days figuring out how to make YOUR trip as great as possible. I would highly recommend purchasing a subscription as you get started planning your Disney trip – it’s under $20 for an annual subscription!

First, you can put in your vacation dates and they will give a 1-10 crowd prediction for each park each day (1 being low crowds and low wait times, 10 being super busy with long wait times). I have used this religiously every trip to plan which days we will go to each park.

It’s also a great tool if you’re not sure when you want to visit Disney World. You can scan through various months of the year to find lower crowd times. (Hint: Christmas Day and the week between Christmas and New Years is the absolute BUSIEST time of year.)

Once you pretty well know what days you will visit each park, you can use their touring plans to plan out your day. You can build your own from scratch or use one of their templates, and add or subtract attractions, dining, start and end times, etc. Hit “optimize” and magically Touring Plans gives you a step-by-step plan for your day using their supreme knowledge of all things Disney and how crowds move through attractions during the day. Their goal is to help you experience more of Disney with less waiting in lines.

We have used their touring plans on each trip and I am a firm believer that these folks really know what they’re talking about. Of course, you’ll need to make tweaks during the day, but follow their general lead and you’ll get a lot more out of your park days.

Disney Dining

We are foodies. And because Disney has such awesome dining options, some of our trip is dedicated and planned around what we will eat! In six trips we’ve hit a lot of different restaurants, but also had many repeats of our favorites.

One post back in the series (Part 2) we covered some of the dining plan basics. While Disney has indicated the dining plan will be available sometime in the future, it’s still unavailable due to COVID changes at Disney World.

Table Service Dining Reservations

Typically, dining reservations for table service (sit down and order) restaurants open up 180 days (six months) before your check-in date. Due to COVID changes, that is currently pulled up to only 60 days prior to check-in. You can start booking reservations online at 6am or over the phone at 7am on the day your dining reservations open up.

And as crazy as this sounds to newbie Disney planners, some of the more popular restaurants fill up very fast – like within minutes fast. So my advice if you are eyeing some of the popular places is to calculate the date and set an alarm on your phone to get up and get logged into your Disney account by 6am. If you have the Touring Plans subscription with your trip plugged in, they will have your dining reservation day noted on your account.

Note that you can reserve up to 10 days of your trip’s dining on the first date you are eligible. In other words, it’s all based on your check-in date and you don’t have to wait to book Day 2, 3, etc. of your trip.

I do have a few suggestions based on our previous experiences with table service dining:

1. I wouldn’t recommend booking ALL meals as table service restaurants. While we are foodies, eating at table service restaurants DOES take time. I made the mistake our first trip booking table service restaurants at resorts in the middle of our park days. I haven’t done that since, because by the time we took transportation to and from the resort and back to the park it just ate up too much of our park day.
2. But DO try some restaurants at other resorts! There are SO many great dining options at the various resorts, and it’s a great way to get the opportunity to check out theming at resorts you aren’t staying at. Our favorite times to do this are dinner on our check-in day, during our “rest” day, or a late breakfast on our check-out day.
3. You CAN actually double book meals if you aren’t sure where you will be to give you options (shhh! I didn’t tell you that!). You just have to make them at least 2 hours apart. For example, you could book an 11am lunch at one place, a 1pm lunch at another place, and then cancel the one you don’t end up using later on. Beware: You MUST cancel the unused reservation at least 24 hours before the reservation time or you will be charged a no-show fee!
4. And about that no-show charge thing: as long as part of your party makes it to the reservation, you will not be charged. We’ve had instances in the past with large groups where we split up and some didn’t end up making it to dinner. But that’s ok as long as part of your party shows!
5. Have a plan before your reservation window opens, and back that plan up with a Plan B if some of your choices aren’t available.
6. Use the Touring Plans Reservation Finder! Here’s another great tip if you are unable to snag a specific reservation: with a Touring plan subscription, you can actually have them look for reservations for you! Just put in the restaurant you’re looking for with a date and time block. If the reservation becomes available, you can choose to get an email or text. Be quick, though! The reservation probably won’t stay open for long!

Here are what I would consider our favorite table service restaurants at Disney World (in no particular order). We’ve eaten at each of these restaurants at least twice because we loved them so much:

1. Yak and Yeti – Animal Kingdom park: Nepalese food – this restaurant is our absolute favorite in all of Disney World!
2. Boma Flavors of Africa (currently closed) – African buffet at Animal Kingdom Lodge (breakfast and dinner are equally great!)
3. Kona Cafe – Polynesian Village resort (you can get sushi here!)
4. ‘Ohana – Polynesian Village resort: Polynesian family style
5. San Angel Inn Restaurant – Epcot World Showcase: Mexican
6. Tusker House – Animal Kingdom park: African buffet with character meet-and-greets (currently family style due to COVID)
7. Sanaa – Animal Kingdom Lodge: African with views of savannah animals outside!
8. Chef Mickeys – Contemporary Resort: American with character meet-and-greets (Mickey and friends make a really fun atmosphere for the kids)

Quick Service Dining

Quick Service is similar to fast food where you order at a counter. But don’t expect Disney quick service to be like most theme parks – the food here is actually REALLY GOOD!

With exception to ONE restaurant (more on that below), quick service restaurants do NOT take reservations. However, many of them do have the option for mobile ordering. We’ve used mobile ordering a few times and it’s really handy. While you’re waiting in line at an attraction you can select an arrival window on your My Disney Experience app, put in your order, head to the restaurant, and tell them you’re there on your app. It eliminates waiting in line!

Here are some of our family’s favorite quick service restaurants at Disney:

1. Aloha Isle – Magic Kingdom: This isn’t a stop for food, but for the VERY popular pineapple DOLE WHIPS! I made sure it was top of the list so you don’t miss this recommendation. My favorite is the Dole Whip float. Get one. Just trust me. This gem is right next to the Magic Carpets ride and a MUST STOP on every trip…at least once 🙂
2. Columbia Harbour House (temporarily closed) – Magic Kingdom: This is Josh’s hands down favorite quick service meal serving mostly seafood with old New England decor. We like to take our order upstairs to cool off for a bit – it’s usually very low occupancy on the second floor.
3. Satu’li Canteen – Animal Kingdom: We really like this dining option in the Pandora area of the park. The food presentation is really different (you’re in another world, after all) and tastes great too! Here you build-your-own rice or noodle bowl.
4. Woody’s Lunchbox – Hollywood Studios: American food conveniently located in the Toy Story Land area with outdoor seating.
5. Be Our Guest (currently not open for quick service) – Magic Kingdom: Unfortunately, the quick service option is unavailable due to COVID changes, but I still want to leave it on the list in case it opens back up for quick service dining. This is one of our favorite quick service meals for breakfast or lunch. The fare is French inspired, the rooms are elaborately decorated, and you get to eat in the Beast’s castle! And here’s the exception I mentioned above: this restaurant does take reservations. AND it’s one of the very first reservations to book up so be fast on your reservation day!

Disney Attraction Planning

Planning Attractions for Your Days in the Parks

This may sound a little over the top (and maybe it is), but on each of our trips I’ve planned out which attractions we will visit at each park in order. It’s really helped us make sure we hit all the rides and shows we want with minimized wait times.

I mentioned above that a Touring Plans subscription allows you to plan out your day with their pre-made touring plans for each park. First, you will pick the touring plan you think suits your family. Within the touring plan, select the day you will visit the park and adjust the times you expect to arrive and leave. Then, you can add/subtract attractions, dining plans, rest breaks, etc. into the plan. Lastly, you are ready to “optimize” and the plan will give you an order to minimize walking and wait times.

The touring plan estimates how long the waits will be for each attractions, walking times between attractions, etc. The plan will tell you if you have excess time in your day or if you are trying to squeeze too much in. Save your plan once you’re happy with it!

Once in the park, you can use their Lines app on your phone to view and adjust your touring plans. Check off attractions as you go, and it will continue to optimize/adjust the plan during the day in real-time!

FastPass+ Reservations

FastPass+ is another feature that COVID has caused Disney to suspend. So I’m not going to go into a lot of detail, but rather let you know what it was pre-COVID. If and when FastPass+ again becomes available, I plan to update this information.

What is it? FastPass+ was an attraction reservation system that allowed guests to skip lines for up to 3 attractions per day. The FastPass reservations opened up 60 days prior to your check-in date for resort guests. Non-resort guests with tickets could book their reservations 30 days in advance.

How did it work? In your My Disney Experience account you could select a one-hour time block for up to 3 attractions per day to skip waiting in line. Anytime during your one-hour reservation window, you could enter a special line at the attraction to skip the “stand by” wait times. While there may still be a short wait with other FastPassers, it was typically very quick.

While Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom didn’t have any particular restrictions, Hollywood Studios and Epcot had a tiered system where you could only select one of the most popular rides, plus 2 less popular attractions.

Note: There were limits on how many reservations could be made, so like dining, some of the more popular rides booked up quickly and were unavailable to reserve.

Best Disney World Attractions

Here are some of our family’s favorite Disney World attractions by park:

Magic Kingdom:

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• The Haunted Mansion
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Splash Mountain

Epcot:

• Test Track
• Soarin’
• Frozen Ever After (haven’t actually ridden but wanted to put it on the list because it’s really popular)

Hollywood Studios:

• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Slinky Dog Dash
• Toy Story Mania!
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Star Wars Rise of the Resistance (this is another ride we haven’t experienced–and I’m still sore about that! BUT it is supposedly the most amazing attraction in all of Disney so wanted to make sure it was on the list)

Animal Kingdom:

• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Na’vi River Journey
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• The Boneyard – our boys LOVE this and always want to spend a lot of time in this really cool playground
• Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• Festival of the Lion King – not a ride, but an amazing show
• Finding Nemo – The Musical (currently closed)

Next Steps to Planning a Trip to Disney World

Congratulations! You’ve learned all the basics to planning a great Disney World vacation for your family. In the next and last post of the series, I’ll share some personal tips I’ve learned over the last few years that I think will help add to your Disney World Experience. Just click the link below to continue!

Share this with friends and family who are planning a trip to Disney World!

Have you been to Disney? Drop a comment below with your favorite planning tips!