Walt Disney World planning. Who has been there recently?

We were there in August (on site, and OMG was it hot) but we love it and can't wait to go back. We've never done offsite so I can't speak to that, but for fastpasses...... make a list of your most important and hardest to get, do those first.

Don't focus on getting 3 for each park, just do your high priority ones. Also, if you can't get one for 5 (or 6 or whatever) split your group up. Do 2 people from 12-1 and 3 12:30-1:30, then you can all go between 12:30 and 1. Also make sure your accounts are all linked (I don't know how, but i know there's a way) so one person can make all the fastpasses.

If you can't get the perfect time take what you can get and then try to adjust it later. For the most part I was able to move our times a bit the week we were there even though I'd made them 60 in advance.

I really love the planning, too. It extends the trip for me. My last trip to Disney was also 5 years ago, too.

I just got back Sunday and had a fabulous trip planned just over 30 days out. I'm also going back next month (just a coincidence - both trips were with groups). I was persistent with checking for Flight of Passage fast passes and did end up getting one about 2 weeks out. The only one I didn't manage to get was Snow White's Mine Train, but I've ridden it before, so I was OK with that. Oh - and I didn't go to DHS this time.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to upgrade to an annual pass or buy tickets out right, so I didn't get tickets until I was there which was less than 30 days from my next trip. I started making FastPasses in the airport on the way home. I haven't managed to get Snow White or Slinky Dog for next trip yet, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I will do the DHS After Hours event, so I will get Slinky Dog in either way.

I don't know if you are willing to pay extra for experiences, but the After Hours event at Animal Kingdom was worth every penny. During the 3 hour event, I did a character meet and greet, rode Everest 3 times (twice in the front row), saw Rivers of Light (with my choice of prime seating), rode Flight of Passage 3 times, and snacked on some "free" popcorn and drinks. Since FOP takes 30 minutes even with no lines if you include both pre-show rooms, 3 rides is a lot! There were also times when I didn't see another person around!

We were there in December. It was our first trip there but have been to Disneyland multiple times.

We stayed on site. This allowed us to book fast passes 3 months out. We were unhappy with the fast past system compared to Disneyland. It’s MUCH easier to get fast passes at DL which means we waited in long lines at DW.

I think the first two hours of your day will be important. Keep in mind that some park times posted aren’t always accurate. We spent one day at animal kingdom and they opened 30 min earlier just to be nice, but it meant by the time we went for opening the lines in avatar world were 2 hrs. We waited once for 2 hrs (I waited while dh took kids around) and once we did a fast pass. I found there aren’t always that many rides per park (compared to DL) so it concentrates people into longer lines on fewer rides. We enjoyed the shows at animal kingdom and the safari ride. We loved be dinausaur ride and roller coaster. The big roller coaster there was scary. I did it once. Dd went multiple times. It was the only ride in the park with a single riders line.

We tried to use the app to order our food in advance and there was always a problem. People were always going up to say they didn’t get their cookie, etc. They put avocado on dh’s veg burger even though he specified for it to be without because of an allergy and dh didn’t realize until he ate it.

We loved magic kingdom. We got on everything we wanted to and many rides multiple times by checking app / wait times. And using fast pass when possible. We got on seven dwarfs ride 3 finds. First two with fast pass and third time we waited for only 40 min. We loved that ride, especially little dd.

The bracelets we received that we could use to open hotel room, had our park tickets, could pay for food, and had our fast passes was a fantastic addition for when you stay on property. Totally worth it. I wish DL had that feature because carrying the tickets is a pain.

We had breakfast in our room every morning. Bought a lot. Carried food in bags for snacks in the parks. We ate lunch in the parks and dinner in the hotel. We wished the parks had longer open times. Maybe we don’t normally go in winter. We were there only 2 days. It was a quick stop after a cruise, road trip and Kennedy centre. We stayed at Coronado springs and thought the hotel was beautiful. The only issue id say with staying on property is you don’t get away from the Disney or the Disney food, but the food was good. We did find some of it expensive.

ETA: at animal kingdom we loved the nemo show, liked the lion king show, and left early from the river show. We found the last one boring. The bird show wasn’t worth it. At magic kingdom we loved the monsters inc show.

We try to get fast passes for early in the day, once you've used those you can book more. 
Ice water is free from any counter service restaurant or snack counter. Take an insulate cup or bottle. Stay hydrated.
If you have young children in your group take a few travel type games, pull them out when they get bored waiting in lines.
I always put a couple of washcloths in a ziplock - wet one and put on the back of your neck - instant air conditioning.

We were just there at Thanksgiving. We stayed on a family suite at the all star music, and loved it. 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, and we took advantage of the food court and resort bar

We’ve been about 10 times (my kids and I), but my BF had never been. We didn’t stress about some of the fast passes, just got what we could. The newer stuff was impossible to get, and we just let it be. We’ve never been on it, so we didn’t know what we were missing, ya know? I knew the kids would want to ride things like Everest a couple times, so I got FP for all of us, and they used our tickets to ride again. (I don’t like it).

Just don’t stress about it. It’s a vacation, supposed to be fun. You don’t want to be tied down with so many reservations, just go with the flow. Even a long line moves fast if you’re goofing off and some of the best food can be found at the counter services, they’ve really improved on a lot of those choices we thought.

We were last there July 2017 and are headed back June/July this year so are in full on planning mode at the moment. We are taking a newbie this time (dd's boyfriend) so we are looking forward to introducing him to the Disney magic. Our arrival night is Pop Century and then we are off to Universal for two nights before coming back to Fort Wilderness for 11 nights. We've booked a campsite and rented a camper. We have stayed offsite a few times before renting a villa at Windsor Hills but love the environment at Fort Wilderness which is why we are headed back. We had come up with a schedule and booked our meals around that but have decided to do the After Hours events if they are available at this time. Just waiting on new dates. Problem is that we can't book them until we arrive as we need to upgrade one ticket to an annual pass to get the annual pass discount so I'm hoping, if they are available, they don't sell out. Last time we did the Early Morning Magic at Magic Kingdom. We found that well worth the money. We rode 7Dwarfs Mine Train 4 times in a row. I see they have one at DHS now also.

Last time at 60days we missed out on the Flight of Passage FP and were not able to get one despite stalking the MDE app. But then Pandora had just opened. We ended up getting on very late at night with a reasonable wait. It stated 110minutes but was actually only an hour. Toy Story Land wasn't open when we went so that will be new to us this time. From reading other boards, people are having last minute success just by continuously refreshing the app.

We were pretty successful getting our reservations for meals. We got everything we wanted at 180days. The only ones we had difficulty getting the time we wanted were Beaches and Cream, Crystal Palace and Sci-Fi. But we took what we could get. It is going to be harder to change them around though if we need to for Disney After Hours.  There are quite a few Counter Service locations that we are looking forward to trying this time so if something has to go, it's not a big deal.

I use easywdw.com for touring plans.

We always stay off-site too bc we have a time share.

Even if FPs aren't available 30 days out, keep checking during the following weeks. Sometimes they open up blocks of FPs later. I ended up getting mine train 2 weeks out that way.

After you've used your 3 FPs for the day, spend your line time securing your next pass. Keep refreshing. Things are always changing. While we couldn't necessarily ride the big ticket rides over and over that way, we were able to ride all day without waits.

Get in line at Park closing for popular rides. Lines will go quicker bc there won't be people riding with FPs.

This is so exciting! I'm going in February 2020 on a girls trip. One is a disney vacation travel agent. She is going to handle all the planning. Which makes me happy! She has been to DW 10 times. It will be my first time

I have the recipe bookmarked but haven’t made them yet. I wish we could make just 1 cookie. Or 5. I don’t want a whole batch in my house!!

Unless you have small children, use the single rider line!

The meal plan was a little confusing for us the first day, but overall we were really happy with it. Food carts, stores, and quick-service restaurants will usually have a small purple symbol on the foods that are considered “snacks” on the meal plan. 

Unless you’re doing the driving around, prepare to be riding a lot of Disney busses. Have fun!

ETA: We stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside and also really enjoyed it there .

I haven't read all the responses but we went for the first time in August and it was so awesome. My best tip is to BE THERE FOR ROPE DROP every single morning. It is rough to get there that early for sure but we did this every day for 10 days and rode more for the first 2 hours than we did for the rest of the day. We would get in like 10 rides in the first two hours. Totally, totally worth it. You will not be able to get FP for Pandora or Slinky dog but we roped dropped both of those and waited for 30ish minutes for each of those. Also, we paid for an annual subscription to Touring Plans (website name). It was about $15 and was really helpful. It's an app where you put the rides you want to do on a list and it will prioritize what order you should do them in. We pretty much only used it after the first 2 hours of the day. One more thing about being there for the rope drop, we would ride the same ride multiple times while the lines were short. And most days we left the parks to take a nap and went back later int he day.

I’ll add that we didn’t really even use our FP all that much. The first day we had issues, so couldn’t use them at all. Stood in line the second day to get them straightened out but all the good ones were taken by then. And only really utilized them decently on the third, which was our last day aT the parks


Also, I don’t think we will get the park hopper anymorez. We wasted so much time waiting on transportation. Next time we will just do one park each day..