Hey guys. What’s new? Well, it’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy posting on different pages of my blog. Why don’t you pop in and have a peep?
It’s time now to start planning a Disney World vacation.
As I mentioned in my previous post, we’re planning a trip to Orlando at the beginning of 2019. You’d think that’s a long time off, and starting the planning at this stage is a little premature. Well, maybe it is for some, but I believe it’s not. And I will explain why.
First off, properly planning a trip, any trip, takes time.
Secondly, for me, half the fun is in the planning. That way, I get to enjoy a three week trip for much much longer.
So, let’s get started. How do I plan my trip to Orlando?
First thing first, we have to answer the big three questions – When? How long? How much? All three questions are actually intertwined and influence each other (budget limitations may limit stay and influence decision when to go…).
When – time of year, weather, holidays or special occasions that may effect your stay either crowd wise or budget wise, and special events you may want to attend (Epcot food & wine festival, Mickey’s not so scary Halloween party etc.). Just how flexible are you with your dates – taking into consideration the crowd levels.
How long – how long do you have for your vacation, how much you can take off work or school, how many days you want to spend in each resort and maybe you want to spend outside the resorts.
How much – how much are you willing to spend and how much you can actually spend. Staying on site resorts (at Disney or Universal) is more expensive, but gives you a full on experience.
you have to decide what type of vacation you are looking for – calm and relaxed or filled with excitement and thrills, or maybe a bit of both.
Is it a romantic vacation, are you travelling alone or is it a family vacation.
Are you travelling with young kids or teens, or maybe a combination of all ages.
Do you stay on site or off site – if off site , there are many options, starting with hotels, motels, apartments villas etc. Staying offsite is usually cheaper, but because of distance from the parks, you might need to rent a car.
All these will have an effect on your trip plan.
For starters, we need to decide just how long we want our trip to be this time. Obviously, this would be limited by the amount of time we can get off from work, and budget limitations.
As a matter of fact, I find that the biggest limitation is my budget restrictions, so, as I get into the planning process I prioritize accordingly – deciding where to stay, how long, what activities and extras to choose from this time, what or where we want to eat, transportation (rent a car or depend on public transportation) etc.
This time, we decided to take a three week vacation.
As soon as we decide how long the trip will be, I start my research – I have to decide where to visit, how long and where do we stay, activities, transportation and so much more.
Surfing the net you will find an overload of sites, blog and forums, all with advice and information about Disney World Orlando , Universal Studios and Orlando attractions in general.
I will share with you the sites, blogs and forums I like to work with. I find that these give me all the information that I need and so much more, and I find they are quite sufficient for me.
First of all, there are the official sites – for Disney, Universal, Sea World and Busch gardens:
Then, there are informative sites, forums and blogs I like to work with. They supply you with information, reviews, advice and so much more:
http://www.disneyfoodblog.com/
http://www.dadsguidetowdw.com/
www.touringplans.com (with touring plans I like to plan my day to day itinerary within the theme parks – I’ll get into details in my next post)
For my flights I usually book through:
or
Because we have prior knowledge, and this isn’t the first time visiting Orlando, we know approximately how we want to break our trip down – starting it off at Disney World, staying there for 10 nights, then 5 days in Orlando, and finishing the trip off with 6-7 nights at Universal studios.
Transportation is another thing we have experience with in Orlando. We personally prefer not to rent a car. It may limit you a bit , but we found that it is very easy to get around in Orlando with public transportation and it is much lighter on the pocket then renting a car, especially when we are staying on site in Disney and Universal (more about that in my next post).
There is so much more to do, we haven’t even gotten started….
Next post – Starting the specific planning – our first 10 days at Disney.