Building a Disney World Vacation Package
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!
Building Your Disney World Vacation Package
Disney World Resort Hotels
Disney currently has over 25 resorts on the property ranging from budget-friendly to luxurious. Bottom line: Look into the options based on your family’s style and budget, but you really can’t go wrong staying on Disney World property.
Why you should stay on Disney property
I recommend staying on Disney property during your vacation for a few reasons:
- Easy, free transportation between the resorts, parks, and Disney Springs shopping.
- You will be able to take advantage of onsite perks. For example, Disney is allowing guests staying on property early access to each of the parks beginning October 2021! The extra 30 minutes in the morning at any of the parks with lower crowds will make a big difference for how many attractions you can squeeze in during the day.
- The resorts are beautifully themed to add to your family’s magical experience. It just feels so much more “Disney” at the resorts than at an offsite hotel.
- For deluxe resort or deluxe villa guests, Disney is also offering extended evening hours at select parks on select days beginning sometime in October 2021. This means that guests staying at the higher end resorts will have extra time in the parks with lower crowds on some evenings.
Disney resort categories
As mentioned previously, Disney breaks down their resorts into four categories:
- Value Resorts
- Moderate Resorts
- Deluxe Resorts
- Villas
In general, as you move up from value to deluxe and villas, you will see an increase in amenities offered (dining options, pool features, transportation methods to the parks, etc.). Room sizes also increase as you move through the categories. It’s also notable that the theming turns from a fun, colorful, kid-like atmosphere in the value resorts to a more sophisticated look in the deluxe/villa options.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule. For example, Art of Animation has family suites that are larger to accommodate up to six guests so though it is considered a value resort, total room size is larger than some other higher end resorts.
For more detailed information on the differences in resort types, check out this article from Touring Plans.
Our family favorite resort
So far in our Disney travels we have stayed at all three of the main resort types at least once: Art of Animation (value), Caribbean Beach (moderate), Port Orleans Riverside (moderate) and Contemporary (deluxe). But we have also visited a wide variety of other resorts for their dining options.
While I did enjoy all of the extra amenities at the moderate and deluxe hotels we’ve visited (especially the proximity of the Contemporary to Magic Kingdom), our family favorite resort overall has been Art of Animation. We just love the amazing theming throughout the property (our boys have LOVED the Cars rooms!). It’s just a really fun atmosphere, has really neat pools, and has also provided us the added benefit of enough room for our parents when we’ve traveled as an extended family.
The family suites allow up to six guests and have two separate bathrooms! (Keep in mind the maximum room occupancies do NOT include one child under 3. So we’ve had up to seven in the family suites before and had plenty of room.)
That said, now that Disney is implementing the extended evening hours for deluxe resorts and villas, I will probably start heavily weighing cost and benefit on future Disney World trips. An extra hour or two in the parks when only guests for a handful of resorts can stay will be a really big benefit for making the most of our vacation.
Disney Theme Parks
As you are planning your Disney World vacation, you’ll want to determine how many days you will spend in the parks. You will need a ticket for each day. Typically we purchase tickets for our total night stay minus one or two days so we can schedule in “rest days” to swim at our resort, check out other resorts, or shop for souvenirs at Disney Springs.
Note: children under 3 do not need a ticket.
You will also need to decide if you plan to park hop (visit more than one park each day), because that is a special add-on to your ticket for an additional fee. In your package you cannot mix ticket types, so you will either have to pay for the park hopper for each day or bypass that option altogether.
Another type of ticket adds in water park admissions into your park package.
COVID changes: Before COVID changed some things at Disney, you did not have to schedule which day you went to the parks. With your ticket linked to your reservation, you just showed up to the park of your choice each day. However, as of now you must also reserve your spot at a particular park for a particular day. This is to help Disney manage crowds, and there are some days where parks sell out so you’ll want to make your park reservations early.
The other change due to COVID is that park hopper is not as flexible as it used to be. Now you must make your reservation for the first park you will visit that day, and then you can “hop” to the second park without a reservation at 2pm or later assuming their capacity at that time allows for more guests.
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom is the park most everyone thinks about when they think Disney World. The view of Cinderella’s castle from Main Street is iconic. It’s the park with the most attractions, and for that reason you may want to plan more than one day there. If your stay doesn’t allow for two full days at Magic Kingdom you might consider getting the Park Hopper tickets and pairing your second day at Magic Kingdom with another park (say Epcot that is large in size but doesn’t have as many attractions).
Magic Kingdom has many rides for families of all ages, including lots of options for even the littlest guests. If someone was only able to visit one park, this one would be my suggestion.
Epcot
Epcot is probably the second most well known park, with its iconic view being Spaceship Earth, an 18-story geosphere. Epcot is also educational, as half of the park is World Showcase, a walking loop that allows you to “visit” 11 countries (pavilions).
All cards on the table and because I promised to be honest: this is our least favorite park at Disney World and one we’ve decided to totally skip on a couple of our shorter trips. Some of the attractions seem a little dated, and for families with young kids there just aren’t a lot of attractions they can ride period. There are a few gems in the park, though. We really enjoy Soarin’ and Test Track, although they do have minimum height restrictions. If you have a Frozen fan in the family, you’ll probably want to check out the very popular Frozen Ever After.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios may have become my family’s favorite park in recent years. With the addition of Toy Story Land and Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, Hollywood Studios has really stepped up the game of an immersive theme park experience. So if you or your kiddos are big fans of Star Wars, Toy Story, Disney Jr, and a variety of other movies/shows you’ll definitely want to head here one day.
That said, we did get a little frustrated with this park on our last visit. Our hearts were set on riding Rise of the Resistance based on all the amazing reviews. I was ready on my phone the second the reservations opened up (twice during the day), and we were unable to snag a spot either time 🙁
I will say – the Star Wars area is AWESOME. But if you go into it assuming you’ll be able to get on the most popular attraction at Disney, you may leave disappointed.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Animal Kingdom is another must-do park in my opinion. While it does have animals (Kilimanjaro Safari is really cool!), don’t assume it’s just a zoo. There are lots of amazing shows and rides here. In our trips we’ve actually spent very little time viewing the animals and more time going to shows and riding attractions throughout the park. One of the best areas of the park is another really immersive area that makes you feel like you’re really in another world – Pandora, based on the movie Avatar.
The park to me has a large Lion King type feel, which was one of me and my sisters’ absolute favorite Disney movies growing up 🙂
Animal Kingdom also has what Josh and I consider the BEST restaurant on the whole Disney World property (just a teaser for the dining reservations section in the next post!)
Other park options
Disney also has two water parks and two miniature golf courses. Our family has never been to either water park, but did play one mini golf course on one of our trips on our checkout day to kill some time.
To be blunt, we have enough water park and mini golf options near home that doing this at Disney never really excited us. But it’s also unfair for me to give a review of somewhere I’ve never been. So I’ll just leave it at: if your family really enjoys these types of attractions or is looking to kill extra time, you might check them out!
As far as the mini golf, besides it having Disney theming I just sort of thought it was your run-of-the-mill mini golf course. Nothing too special. (See, I told you this blog is my honest, unbiased review!)
Dining Plan Packages
Dining plans are prepaid packages that allow you to enjoy a wide variety of meal offerings at participating Disney restaurants.
Dining plan packages are currently suspended at Disney World due to COVID restrictions. Disney has confirmed the dining plans will return, but no word yet on a date. In the meantime, here are just a few facts regarding the dining plans pre-COVID:
- There were 4 levels of dining plans, depending how many “quick service” (fast food) and “table service” (sit-down restaurants) you wanted each day. Regardless of the plan, each day also included (2) snack items.
- The number of days for the dining plan matched how many nights stay was on your reservation (1 night stay = a day of dining plan).
- As an example, the basic dining plan included (1) quick service meal, (1) table service meal, and (2) snack items per person, per day of your stay.
- The dining plan is an all-or-nothing decision. It’s NOT required to purchase with a Disney package, but you can’t buy it for just a few days of your reservation nor can you buy it for only certain people on your reservation. You either get the dining plan for the number of nights of your stay for all people on your reservation (excluding kids under 3) OR you don’t get the dining plan and you purchase all your meals separately.
- Children under 3 are not included in the dining plan. They can eat from your meal or you can choose to purchase an extra kids meal. For our boys, there was always PLENTY of food with our plans that made buying extra for a baby/toddler unnecessary. At buffets, they do get their own plate.
- At times during the year, the very popular FREE dining plan was a perk, typically during lower crowd times of the year. We enjoyed this discount a few times and LOVED it. It gave us so many options without worrying about cost of food.
- We have not ever purchased the dining plan, only received free dining as mentioned above. I have not run the numbers, but most articles I’ve read where experts analyze the cost of the dining plan vs purchasing meals separately state that it’s typically not worth the price. That’s mostly because the dining plan is a LOT of food that guests probably would not purchase unless they have already paid for the plan. Of course, if you have big eaters in your family, want to go all out for vacation dining, or want to have meals budgeted and not have to worry about paying for each meal at the parks then by all means – the dining plan might be a great option! (When it eventually is available again, of course!)
Next Steps to Planning a Trip to Disney World
Now that you have the basics options for your resort, park tickets, and dining options you are ready to graduate to a little more detail for your trip. In the 3rd blog post of this series, we’ll teach you the basics of planning out each day of your trip: from determining the best day to visit each park to more details on booking dining reservations and attraction planning. Keep it up! Click below to continue learning about planning your own AMAZING Disney vacation!
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Have you been to Disney? Drop a comment below with your favorite planning tips!