The Ideal Timeline for Planning a Disney World Trip
Planning a visit to the Most Magical Place on Earth? There are a lot of things to consider when planning your trip, like Park Passes, ticket types, hotels, and more.
Disney World
Sound a bit overwhelming? Not sure where to start your planning process? We’ve got you covered! Here’s our ideal timeline for planning your Disney World trip.
Keep in mind, this is our version of a generalized ideal timeline. What’s best for you/your family in terms of a planning timeline will depend. You might like to plan WAY further out, or (on the opposite end) much closer to your trip. For the most part, these dates are all just suggestions.
Tree of Life
You can theoretically book a flight the day before your trip to Disney World, buy tickets the day of, and still make things work if that’s what you’d like. But for this plan, we’ve added in quite a bit of advance planning time to give you some comfort/peace of mind.
Alright, let’s get into our plan!
10-12 Months Before Your Trip
About 10-12 months ahead of your trip, there are several things you’ll want to take care of!
1. Start thinking of what your “dream” trip would include — Do you want to go to a water park? How many days would you (ideally) like to spend in Disney World (and no, “forever” isn’t an answer, though we feel you there). Click here to see the 5 best rides in EPCOT and the 5 worst.
2. Start looking at prices for hotels, tickets, flights, etc., and how they fit with your dream plan. Click here to see the average cost to fly to Disney World in March of 2022.
3. Establish a rough trip budget — Roughly, how much can you spend on a hotel, food, merchandise, flights/travel, tickets, etc. Click here to see how to take your dream vacation on a budget.
5. Sit down with the family and take a look at park maps and ride lists — What rides are must-dos? Which ones would you like to do but aren’t a must? Based on your picks in each park, how many days would you need in each park to accomplish the things on your list? Does that fit your budget? Do you want/need a Park Hopper ticket to get everything done? (Disney World has 1-park-per-day standard tickets, but also has a Park Hopper option that lets you visit more than one theme park in a single day, for an added cost). Click here to see how to choose the right Disney World tickets for YOU.
6. Check out our month by month guide to Disney World festivals and activities — Is there anything in there that would change your plans, how long you want to stay, etc.?
8. If you’ll be renting a car, start looking at prices — According to Kayak.com, the best time to book a rental car is generally 6-12 months in advance if you’ll be traveling with a large group during the peak season. You could book closer to your travel dates if you’ll be traveling with a smaller group and/or during a less busy season. Click here to see why your rental car cost might be MORE than Disney World tickets.
9. Finalize your plan — How many days of tickets do you want? What types of tickets do you want? What dates will you be visiting Disney World?
EPCOT
10. Finalize your budget now that you have those trip dates and ticket information set. Click here to see 3 tips to budget for a Disney World trip.
11. Start looking into and potentially booking your hotel stay — Depending on where you want to stay, places can fill up (especially Disney owned and operated hotels). Also, if you’re renting Disney Vacation Club points and want to stay at some specific villas, David’s Vacation Club rentals advises that you book some up to 11 months in advance since they can book up quickly. For other villas, they recommend that you book 10 months in advance, some fall into shorter categories, all the way up to 1-2 months in advance of your trip dates.
If you aren’t staying at one of the hotels that fill up far in advance, you can wait to book until later, but we’d still recommend that you look at prices and availability early. For many hotel reservations, you can book early and then change or cancel it later if necessary.
Disney’s Riviera Resort
As part of this hotel selection process, you’ll have to decide what is the best route for you given your budget — staying on property, staying off property, staying in something like an Airbnb, or making other arrangements.
When it comes to Disney World owned and operated hotels, if a discount comes out after you’ve already booked your stay, you can usually call Disney and ask to see if it can be applied to your reservations. Click here to see more about the latest Disney World discounts.
13. Take a look at those must-do rides and start putting together a plan of attack! What rides will you do each day? What parks have longer hours on particular days? Which ones do you want to prioritize? We’ve got lists of the best and worst rides in each park, posts about rides that are bad for those prone to motion sickness, and more to help you plan!
14. Keep finalizing that budget and refining/finalizing your other plans.
15. Once you’ve got your tickets and your plan of attack, make your Park Pass reservations! These are reservations indicating which park you’d like to visit each day. You’ll need these to enter a theme park in Disney World. You’ll definitely want to make these as far in advance as possible. If you change your mind about what parks you want to visit, you can cancel your reservations and make new ones (provided there is availability).
6-9 Months Before Your Trip
1. Wrap up anything from the last months that didn’t get done
2. Take a close look at your budgets — Consider smaller things like your merchandise budget. Should you buy some items ahead of time (at places like Walmart, Target, or the Dollar Store) to save money but still give the kids some fun?
Will you need to pack lunch/breakfast/etc.?
3. Watch some videos to get excited for your trip! Are there any must-get snacks? Things you never knew about? We’ve got TONS of videos about hidden details, secrets, and more that you can watch on the DFB YouTube Channel!
5. Learn about Disney Genie, Disney Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection — Disney Genie (Free) is a planning service, while Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection are Disney World’s PAID FastPass+ replacement systems. Do you want to use these services? Will it help you accomplish your goals? Can you fit it in your budget? Watch our videos and read our posts to find out more. Click here to see our step-by-step guide to using Disney Genie+.
6. Make sure that ALL park tickets, hotel reservations, etc. are linked up properly in your My Disney Experience account and that all family members have their proper accounts and are linked together. This is something you likely did before when you set up the Park Passes, but it’s good to review and make sure everything is still good. Click here to see the NEW way to link friends and family accounts on the My Disney Experience account.
8. Think about any other essentials you need to get arranged before your trip — Do you want matching family t-shirts (will your family agree to wear them?!)? Need someone to watch the house while you’re gone? Who will take care of the dog, cat, fish, etc.? Start thinking about these arrangements and how you’ll handle them
3-5 Months Before Your Trip
1. Wrap up anything from the last months that didn’t get done
2. Start looking at restaurants you’d be interested in eating at around Disney World — We’ve got a FULL list of restaurants in Disney World and reviews to go along with them. We’ve also got a list of your must-get dishes for 2022, posts about the best snacks, the best steaks, and more. We’ve even got posts where THOUSANDS of fans rank all of the Quick Service restaurants in a particular park.
For the most comprehensive help in planning your dining, check out our DFB Guide to Disney World Dining 2022. The DFB Guide comes with a step-by-step plan for helping you plan your dining decisions in the parks and resorts that can be incredibly helpful, especially if you’re not sure where to start! Plus, it comes with a restaurant reviews section, food and restaurant photos, a snack chapter, top 5 lists for restaurants and snacks, and all kinds of other helpful info to make your dining a total success!
Sample Pages from Our Guide
3. Familiarize yourself with the My Disney Experience app and its MANY features, like making Advance Dining Reservations, placing a Mobile Order, using Mobile Merchandise Checkout, checking wait times, Mobile Dine Walk-Up Wait List, Mobile Dine Check-In, Mobile Order Table Service To-Go, and MORE. Click here to see things you probably didn’t know you could do with the My Disney Experience app.
4. If you’ll be flying to Disney World, start looking at flights and potentially book one! According to a 2018 article from Travel and Leisure, CheapAir.com noted that the “Prime Booking Window” is 4 months to 3 weeks prior to departure. USA Today indicates that three and a half months before departure is when domestic airlines tend to release discounted seats. According to a press release from Expedia in 2021, the “sweet spot” to book a domestic flight is around 28-35 days in advance.
But that can all depend. We recommend starting to look at flights and depending on how things look, you may want to get booking if prices are expected to keep climbing. You can track prices throughout this time and decide when to jump on a deal.
Airplane
5. Finalize those dining decisions — Where do you want to dine and on what days? What are your back-ups in case reservations fill up quickly? Again the DFB Guide’s step-by-step dining plan can be a HUGE help here!
6. Finalize a must-get snack list
8. Finalize your daily plans for your trip.
9. Think about how you’ll manage the budget while in Disney World — should you get gift cards to pre-load?
2 Months Before Your Trip
1. Wrap up anything from the last months that didn’t get done
2. Make those dining reservations! Guests can make dining reservations 60 days in advance. Remember that if you’re staying at a Disney World resort hotel, you can make your dining reservations for the length of your trip (up to 10 days) at that 60 day mark, giving you a bit of an advantage! Click here to see what you need to know about making dining reservations.
EPCOT sunsets are EXTRA beautiful!
3. If you’ll be flying, make sure you’ve figured out transportation to/from the airport. Disney’s free Magical Express service is no longer available, so you’ll need to determine what is the best way to get to/from the airport and your hotel. There are rental cars (which we’ve noted above), taxis, and more. Many guests might be interested in the Magical Express replacement services — Mears Connect (available now) and The Sunshine Flyer (available February 2022). Click here to see our step-by-step guide to get to Disney World from the Orlando Airport.
1 Month Before Your Trip
1. Wrap up anything from the last month that didn’t get done
2. Make a packing list — We’ve got some to help! Make sure you’ve bought any essentials you need or merchandise you’ll be getting in advance at a discount to bring with you for the kiddos.
3. Whenever it becomes available, complete any information needed in advance for your Disney World resort online check-in.
Month of Your Trip
1. Wrap up anything from the last month that didn’t get done
2. Need water bottles or other groceries ahead of your trip? Look into different delivery services – Amazon, etc. Around 2 weeks-1 week before your trip, make sure everything is ordered and ready to go with the proper delivery date. Click here the NEW way you can get your delivered items from your hotel in Disney World. And click here to see crazy cool things you can get delivered to your hotel!
3. PACK! About 1 week before or so, start packing up what you’ll need. Click here to see 10 Disney World essentials you can get on Amazon.
4. Ahead of your trip, make sure you discuss tips and tricks with kiddos like what to do if you get lost. Click here to see what happens when a kid gets lost in Disney World.
5. Go to Disney World (and have fun!!)
Other Tips
Here are a few other things you’ll want to consider as you’re planning your trip:
1. Look into using a travel agent to help take out some of the stress from your planning. Our friends at Small World Vacations can help you plan the trip of your dreams and their services are totally FREE! They’ve got a wealth of knowledge about Disney trips and can help answer all of your questions.
2. Don’t forget about final payment dates along the way.
4. Subscribe to the DFB Newsletter so you can get the latest updates!
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
And that’s it! Hopefully this guide gives you an idea of how to plan your Disney World trip! Be sure to stay tuned for more planning tips and tricks and all of the latest Disney news.
Our favorite people over at Small World Vacations are ready to help you save time, headaches, and best of all, money, when you book your Disney trip or cruise.
Their agents compare current offers to find the best deal for you -- they've literally saved their guests millions of dollars since 1996. Plus, their services are 100% FREE FOR YOU! (They're DFB's recommended travel agency, and you can see why here!)
So book that trip now, then sit back and enjoy planning your Disney World Trip with a DFB-approved expert! Click here for a no obligation price quote today, and let them know DFB sent you 
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What other planning tips and tricks do you have? Tell us in the comments!
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