The Best Sources for Planning your First Disney World Trip!
Overwhelmed at where to begin planning a Walt Disney World vacation? Never fear! The Chaos Manager is here! Read on for my favorite planning resources for Disney.
I realized that I’ve been writing (or thinking about writing) this blog for a year and a half now and have yet to let my Disney flag fly. Well, I’m flying it high now, we are definitely one of those Disney families!
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We not only love Disney, but traveling in general (visit my page on our USA travels here). Family and friends are constantly asking for advice in planning their Walt Disney World trips so I thought I would finally share the method to my madness. A lot of work up front makes for a much more enjoyable trip.
Read about our Disney staycation here-Disney at Home!
What to Consider when planning a Walt Disney World Vacation
-Budget
-Length of stay
-Where to stay
-Where to eat
-Rides & Character interactions
-Transportation
-And more!
It is completely overwhelming and can be difficult to know where to start. In fact many people say, “I want to enjoy my vacation, I don’t want to stress out planning it a year ahead of time.” Well, let me tell you, those are the people who are yelling at their three year old in the middle of the Magic Kingdom. It is so so so worth the bit of planning on the front end to enjoy the actual trip.
Here are a few of my picks for a little research before you spend your life savings to see the Mouse.
Simple Resources for Planning a Walt Disney World Vacation:
Planning a Walt Disney World Vacation- For the person who needs all of the info at their fingertips:
This book is huge and overwhelming- but you do not need to read it all! It is broken up into chapters, so you can choose to read only what applies to you and your trip. It is also linked to a great website: www.touringplans.com. On this site you can customize your plan down to the minute. Again, this might seem ridiculous, but if you want to be sure to see everything this is the way to do it!
Including the kids when you’re planning your trip:
My kids love these books, we buy the current one before every trip. They have a lot of pictures, fun trivia and ride reviews by actual kids. It makes them feel like they are a part of the planning process. It also gives them an idea of what to expect when they get to Disney!
Read about how I homeschool with Disney– Arts, Music, Social Studies and Math, Science and Technology
For the person who has specific questions:
If you have a good handle on what you want to accomplish while in the parks but now you have even more questions, this very website is a great place to start! Check out my page on everything Disney:
The Chaos Manager’s Disney World FAQs
While I have a lot of info on my site, it is far from all-incompassing, so here are a few more of the websites that I like to use when planning our next trip.
https://www.youtube.com/@Mammoth_Club I love The Mammoth Club! Their videos are so entertaining and give you a ton of information. They are family friendly (or they will issue a content warning at the very beginning if they are featuring scary or questionable content) and cover all of the theme parks.
www.characterlocator.com Kenny the Pirate is the website’s operator and your guide to all things Disney World & Land. For a very reasonable fee you can gain access to his entire website and his touring plans (you need a touring plan whether it is your own or from a website).
There is also a very active and knowledgeable Facebook group called Kenny the Pirate Crew: A Disney Planning Group.
www.allears.net I love this website specifically because they have all of the menus posted from every restaurant and kiosk at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Ready for more information? Find out what time of year you should go to Disney!
What are your favorite planning resources? Do you have any questions you’d like me to answer next? Comment and Subscribe!
13 Comments
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tlover tonet
Hey I am so glad I found your blog, I really found you by error, while I was searching on Askjeeve for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a incredible post and a all round thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to look over it all at the moment but I have saved it and also added in your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the awesome job.
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Hannah Louise
I should be in Walt Disney World now but I can’t be given the situation, nice to get a little bit of Disney Magic from this post!
admin
I’m glad! We are supposed to be leaving tomorrow to go to the World. Stay tuned to the blog for the Disney week we are doing from home instead to soften the blow.
Brooke
We have yet to take a family Disney trip, but in the little I have read so far, it seems impossible to stay budget friendly while also experiencing so many of the great things they have to offer. I have never heard of that podcast so I’ll have to add it to my list. Thanks!
admin
Thanks Brooke, stay tuned and hopefully I will give you a few ways to save on a Disney trip. There are a lot of ways to go and I can’t recommend it enough. Like I said though, it is an investment that you should plan for so you are not wasting your money!