2018 Disney World Vacation Planning Guide

Our 2018 Walt Disney World trip planning guide includes all the tips you need for a vacation, whether you’re a first-timer or regular. We cover how to save money and time, avoid crowds, choose where to eat, which rides to do, and fully plan your Disney itinerary for your Florida vacation. The information here is updated regularly, so you can be sure that none of the tips are outdated. (Last updated August 6, 2018.)

Many first-timers don’t realize Walt Disney World is so complicated until they arrive. The commercials make it look like a carefree world where everyone skips holding hands with Mickey Mouse and walking onto rides. That’s not the reality. You need to plan. There is a ton to know before you visit Walt Disney World. As complicated as planning might seem, the payoff is worth it. After dozens of trips dating back to the 1980s, we’ve learned a lot, and try to distill it into something easy to absorb to make your planning easier.

Because of how much there is to know when visiting Walt Disney World, we gloss over the basics pretty quickly. If you want a high-level overview of the four parks, different hotels, water parks, and other basics, we highly recommend that you order a free copy of the 2018 Disney Parks Vacation Planning Video. That free video covers all of that with fun footage from Walt Disney World. (We order this every year to get us hyped for our visits!)

Think of this post as WDW101, with everything organized into the most important aspects of Walt Disney World vacation planning. This page is a jumping off point to give you some background information on each aspect of your trip, with a ton of links to other helpful blog posts that offer more detailed information. Each linked-to post opens in a new tab, so click away as you read and prepare to waste some time reading all this. We also recommend signing up for our free email newsletter so you can stay updated with all the latest changes, news, and more info on the parks!

In addition to our comprehensive planning info in this guide, we’ll also briefly cover all of the latest updates around Walt Disney World, in case you’ve been before but are wondering what’s new and on the horizon. Our most recent visit to Walt Disney World just ended in July as we visited for summer and the grand opening of Toy Story Land (more on that in a bit). We have monthly visits planned for the remainder of 2018, including Halloween and Christmas, our two favorite times of the year at Walt Disney World!

One final warning: while we are Disney fans, with this guide, we try to share our objective and unbiased tips, covering the good and the bad, pros & cons of everything you’ll need to know for your Walt Disney World trip. If that’s not for you, there are plenty of other planning sites that offer only positive or only negative spins on Disney.

We promise taking the time to learn about Walt Disney World will be worth it, so let’s get started…

When is a Good Year to Visit?

First, the absolute best year to visit, if you’re planning way-way into the future, is 2021. That’s Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, and a ton of stuff was announced at the D23 Expo that will debut in time for that. For most people, 2021 is too long to wait, so we’ll help you decide whether you should visit in 2018 or 2019 in this section of our Walt Disney World Vacation Planning Guide.

During our Summer 2018 visit, we also made special tours of several hotels to check out construction progress. There is an unprecedented amount of construction at Walt Disney World right now, with the most heavily impacted areas being (in order): Caribbean Beach Resort, Coronado Springs Resort, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney Springs, and Epcot. At present, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom are largely free of construction walls. You can see our latest construction updates here.

Suffice to say, if you’re planning a trip between now and 2020, you should plan on encountering some degree of construction. You can definitely minimize how much this impacts your trip, particularly by staying at resort hotels that do not have projects. (Here’s our list of 2018-2019 Construction & Refurbishments at Walt Disney World Hotels.)

Don’t fret too much about the construction–even with an unprecedented amount, there’s still a ton to do at Walt Disney World. For Summer 2018, there’s new entertainment in each of the parks as part of a celebration called “Incredible Summer.” Beyond that, here’s a park by park look at everything new…

Pandora – World of Avatar is the newest land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and the biggest addition in over a decade at Walt Disney World. We absolutely loved this new land. We are not Avatar fans, but this land was very impressive. We could go on and on…and we did, in our Spoiler-Free Pandora – World of Avatar Review.

For tips & tricks on beating the crowds, read our Ultimate Guide to Pandora – World of Avatar. That covers FastPass+, rope dropping the land, Extra Magic Hours, and all kinds of other strategy and tips & tricks.

Next up is Magic Kingdom. “Happily Ever After” is the new fireworks show, and it is fantastic! You can read our full Happily Ever After Review for more info. For this summer, Incredibles Tomorrowland Expo has taken over parts of the land, and is about what you’d expect–dance party with some random entertainment acts and characters.

At Epcot, Soarin’ Around the World and Frozen Ever After are now a couple of years old, but still very popular. If you have Frozen fans in your party, read our Frozen Ever After Review & Tips post for strategy. Guardians of the Galaxy – Awesome Mix Live has now debuted and is…quirky? An odd choice for entertainment directly across from American Adventure, but maybe kids will like it?

Over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, construction for Star Wars Land (officially “Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge) and and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway continues, which means that there are a lot of construction walls and closures. These projects should be awesome once completed, but Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey & Mickey’s Runaway Railway won’t open until 2019 (Late 2019 in the case of Star Wars).

In the interim, Toy Story Land is now open! We share our thoughts on this new area of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in our lengthy Toy Story Land Review. If you’re just looking for strategy, check out our Toy Story Land FastPass+ & Strategy post. If you’re visiting this summer, the good news is that Disney’s Hollywood Studios will open daily at 8 a.m. with morning Extra Magic Hours starting at 7 a.m. The bad news: CROWDS. 

If you’re not concerned with Disney’s Hollywood Studios until Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens, take a look at our Universal Orlando Resort Trip Planning Guide. Consider spending a day at Universal Studios Florida or Islands of Adventure–both of which have elaborate ‘Wizarding World of Harry Potter’ lands that are wonderful–instead of Disney’s Hollywood Studios. While it’ll cost more to get 1-2 day Universal tickets than it would to add a day on at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, those parks are significantly better than DHS for teens and thrill-seeking adults right now.

Then there’s Disney Springs. This is the entertainment and shopping district previously known as Downtown Disney. There are still a few ongoing construction projects, with more Disney Springs restaurants opening soon. It’s almost done now, and it has made fans of both of us big time with solid additions such as The Boathouse, Jock Lindsay’s Hangar Bar, Morimoto Asia, and more. Read our Best Restaurants in Disney Springs post for more.

Ultimately, in terms of pros versus cons, we see any time between now and Fall 2019 as a good timeframe to visit if you want to enjoy the “calm before the storm” before Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens in Late 2019.

Alternatively, if you’re really into Star Wars, you should probably wait until at least Christmas 2019 to visit. While an official opening date has yet to be set for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Walt Disney World, the vague official timeframe is “Late 2019.” Even then, it’s possible the land will be delayed into 2020 or will open in phases.

We would not recommend delaying the trip unless you’re fine with waiting until around Memorial Day 2020 just to play it safe. If you’re already waiting that long, why not just wait another year and a half for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary in October 2021?

There are other considerations to when you should plan a trip between now and 2021, include price increases, hotel availability, and more. We cover all of these in our Should You Visit Walt Disney World in 2018…Or Wait Until 2019, 2020? post.

Okay, now let’s tackle the 10 elements of planning a WDW vacation…

1. When to Visit

If you’ve determined what year you want to head to Walt Disney World, the next, related question is what time of year. The first thing to consider is discounts. We have a post Rating the Walt Disney World Discounts, so you can determine which really might be the best options for you. If you’re not able to take advantage of one of those discounts, we have a post that features the 10 Best Tips to Save Money at Walt Disney World. It covers ideas like buying discount Disney gift cards to save money!

The Free Disney Dining Plan promotion is no longer available for 2018, but the bounce-back offer is now available for select Late Summer through December 2019 travel dates. This is the most popular promotion of the year, and one good reason to take a trip later in the year. Other discounts are typically offered throughout the year, during less busy travel dates.

Beyond saving money, crowds are a huge consideration. This has a huge impact on the trip, so choose wisely. Walt Disney World can be crowded, and the time of year you visit can have a dramatic impact on crowd density and attraction wait times. If you have kids in school, you’re looking at visiting during school breaks, which are some of the busiest times due to the vast majority of Walt Disney World guests being in the same circumstances. (If you’re traveling with kids, you’ll want to read our Walt Disney World Trip Planning with Kids guide in addition to this post.)

Generally, the week (or so) long breaks are absolutely the worst in terms of crowds. If you’re planning a Summer 2019, the first bit of good news is that summer is no longer busy season at Walt Disney World…at least, not totally. The second bit of good news is that next summer will likely be a slower period as people postpone their annual visits, waiting for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to open in Late 2019.

We discovered this year that January and February are not the “ghost towns” they used to be at Walt Disney World. We normally visit at this same time every year, and one big thing we noticed was a pronounced spike in crowd levels. In our “Is There an Off-Season at Walt Disney World Anymore?” post, we cover the big crowd increases we’ve observed during our last few trips, and why they might be occurring. (That’s a good and important read if you’re thinking of booking your trip based upon info from crowd calendars.)

We have more thorough tips regarding when to visit on our When to Visit Walt Disney World page, which takes into account school schedules, crowds, weather, park hours, and special events. We also have a new Best and Worst Months to Visit Walt Disney World that ranks every month of the year, and recommends the 3 very best weeks of the year to visit.

Before solidifying your travel dates, you’ll also want to check out our Walt Disney World Refurbishment Calendar to make sure any must-do attractions won’t be closed for renovations during your visit.

Walt Disney World is great any day of the year, but we absolutely recommend going during seasonal festivities. We have guides for each big seasonal offering that you can read:

• • Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World
  • Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
  • Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party Guide
  • Flower & Garden Festival Guide & Tips
  • Food & Wine Festival Guide & Tips

The two “best” times of year for seasonal events at Walt Disney World are fall and Christmas. In September and October, you have Food & Wine Festival at Epcot and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party in the Magic Kingdom, plus Halloween decorations. While Food & Wine and the Halloween Party will cost you some money, they are both enjoyable.

We love winter and spring events at Epcot: the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival and Epcot International Festival of the Arts. Both of these events have now concluded and will return in 2019. Meanwhile, it’s “Diet Epcot” time with the longest festival-free stretch of the year.

On August 30, 2018, that ends as ‘Festival Season’ resumes at Epcot with its popular food & wine event. Read our Guide to the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival to prepare for this colossal celebration. Around that same time, Halloween season also kicks off at Magic Kingdom with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

During November and December, you have Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. Our favorite time to visit is early December, as we love Christmas at Walt Disney World. So much so that we wrote a comprehensive post about the holiday season: read our Ultimate Guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World if you need convincing that this is the best time to visit!

There is so much going on during the holiday season, and the parks are so beautiful that it just can’t be beat. Plus, weather is nicer and if you go at the right time, crowds are relatively light. Since there are seasonal events pretty much every time of year except the very beginning of the calendar year and the middle of summer, pretty much no matter when you visit you’re going to be at Walt Disney World during a seasonal event, so it’s a good idea to consult those guides before picking your vacation dates to see which event is most appealing to you.

2. How Long to Stay

How long you should stay at Walt Disney World depends largely upon the type of trip it is. If you’re not much of a Disney fan but are taking your kids on a “once in a lifetime” rite of passage trip, how long you should stay is dramatically different from how long a Disney fan. For the first time visitor, we recommend a Walt Disney World vacation of at least 6 or 7 days. The exact length will still vary a bit depending upon how much vacation time you have and if you plan on visiting non-Disney theme parks or destinations.

If you’re on the fence, the good news is that ParkSavers (an authorized ticket seller) has a limited-time special on a 7-day Park Hopper ticket, so this ticket is currently our top recommendation. If that ticket is not right for you, we recommend that you compare prices of all multi-day Walt Disney World park tickets, as there are plenty of good deals to be found on other tickets!

As an added bonus, readers of this blog can save an extra $2 per ticket with discount code DISNEYTOURISTBLOG at check-out. These tickets are valid until December 31, 2019, so buy now to lock-in current prices (before they increase again!).

You’ll also probably want to build in a day for relaxation, and this is good to plug into the middle of your trip so you don’t get worn out by the theme parks. The other consideration for planning trips to Walt Disney World might be how much time to spend doing other things.

You might want to do Orlando-area theme parks like Universal Studios Florida (including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), SeaWorld, Busch Gardens might be places you want to visit. Or maybe you want to visit the beach, or visit local outlet malls…or go manatee watching…I have no clue what people enjoy doing outside of Disney. 😉

Of all these things, the one place we think you should give serious consideration is Universal Orlando Resort. We have a post titled Walt Disney World v. Universal Orlando that covers a lot of the pros and cons of visiting Universal. I am not a Harry Potter fan, but I was absolutely blown away by the Diagon Alley area in Universal Studios Florida and Hogsmeade in Islands of Adventure.

There’s also other stuff at Walt Disney World besides the theme parks to consider when planning how many days you spend there. This “other stuff” at Walt Disney World consists of Disney Springs, golf, restaurants, water parks, and more. We recommend at least 1-2 partial or full days of this entertainment outside the parks.

3. Park Tickets

If you book a package, you may not have a ton of say over which park tickets you purchase. However, we recommend buying your tickets separately from an authorized third party ticket seller to save money if you can. Read our Tips for Buying Discount Walt Disney World Tickets post for everything you need to know about choosing the right tickets and saving money on them.

If all you want to know is where to safely buy the cheapest, legitimate Walt Disney World multi-day tickets from an authorized reseller click here to buy via ParkSavers, our recommended & Disney-authorized ticket seller. If you’re visiting before December 31, 2019, you should buy your park tickets as soon as possible to lock-in lower pricing as ticket prices will likely increase with tiered multi-day pricing expected to be introduced by October 2018.

Currently, Walt Disney World uses Flex Pricing for 1-day tickets with three pricing season tiers: Value, Regular, and Peak. This probably doesn’t affect most readers of this guide, but if you’re only visiting for 1 day, you should really try to avoid national holidays, school breaks, or weekends, as those are now the most expensive days.

The longer the duration of your park tickets, the less they cost per day. Disney’s mantra is “the longer you play, the less you pay per day.” As corny as it sounds, it’s true. Single-day Walt Disney World tickets are quite pricey, but multi-day tickets are much cheaper per day. The cost of additional days on a ticket substantially decreases with each day you add after 3 days. In other words, longer trips are not proportionately more expensive than shorter ones. (Too bad the same doesn’t apply to hotel rooms!)

This is just one of the many tips we cover in our post about saving money on Walt Disney World park tickets. Buying in advance of your trip allows you to book FastPass+ selections up to 60 days before your trip (if you’re staying on-site). Whatever you do, don’t wait to buy your tickets at the front gates of the parks (or on eBay…they won’t work!), because then you can’t book your FastPass+ attractions in advance. You’ll understand why this is a huge deal in the sections below…

4. Where to Stay

One of the very best posts on this blog (we think) is our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews page. We have stayed at every single on-property Walt Disney World hotel, and that page offers links to each of our hotel reviews. Those reviews feature room photos that we took and are really helpful in deciding which hotel will appeal most to your family. We updated almost every single one of our hotel reviews with new photos last year, so what you see in those is how the room actually looks now, not how it looked a decade ago.

When pricing out Walt Disney World hotels, you’re bound to have some sticker shock. Prices have gone up considerably in the last few years, and discounts are not nearly as abundant as they once were. If your budget is tight but you still want on-site luxury, consider getting a quote from Disney Vacation Club point rental company (click here to book with the cheapest point DVC rental company).

For more info about renting points, you might want to read our Guide to Renting Disney Vacation Club Points article. This is a great way to save money on nicer accommodations than you otherwise might be able to afford.

If you’re totally unsure of where you want to stay, the first question you should answer is whether to stay on-site or off-site? In general, you get more bang for your buck when staying in an off-site hotel, as there are a lot of non-Disney hotels competing with one another, and they can’t charge the premium Disney charges for its name recognition or location. Conversely, non-Disney hotels are typically farther away from the parks, and don’t provide the same immersive vacation experience that many people describe as being in the “Disney bubble.”

Basically, the decision to stay off-site will likely come down to saving money. Comparable (or better) rooms off-site can be significantly cheaper than on-site Walt Disney World hotels. We have an Off-Site v. On-Site Walt Disney World Hotels article that goes into greater depth about the pros and cons of both options.

One option if you want to save money by staying off-site but want larger accommodations than a standard hotel is Airbnb or a vacation home rental. We’ve used Airbnb a ton, and absolutely love it. If you’re unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the service, we have a post covering Tips for Using Airbnb at Disney to put you at ease!

If you’re going to stay on-site at Walt Disney World, the three main tiers are Value, Moderate, and Deluxe, which are exactly what their names sound like they are. There’s also a Deluxe Villa tier, which is basically Disney-speak for “timeshare room.” Looking for the best hotel in each tier? Check out the following posts ranking the various Disney hotels:

• • Value Resort Hotel Rankings
  • Moderate Resort Hotel Rankings
  • Deluxe Resort Hotel Rankings
  • Deluxe Villa (Disney Vacation Club) Resort Rankings

Beyond the location and transportation, some of the main perks of staying on-site are the FastPass+ booking window and MagicBands. FastPass+ is the all-digital ride reservation system that replaced paper FastPasses several years ago. Read our Guide to FastPass+ at Walt Disney World to fully understand the system, and how to best take advantage of it.

The big thing to know about this system as it pertains to staying on-site or off-site is in terms of FastPass+. Guests staying at a Walt Disney World hotel can make FastPass+ reservations up to 60 days before their trips; those staying off-site can only book FastPass+ reservations up to 30 days in advance.

If you want FastPass+ for popular experiences like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Frozen Ever After, Slinky Dog Dash, or other popular attractions, having the full 60 day window might be the only way to get them. Many of these FastPass+ experiences “sell out” within hours or days of their 60-day windows opening.

This is a big deal because each of these attractions can have 2+ hour waits depending upon the time of year, so by being able to make these FastPass+ ride reservations with that 60-day window can be the difference between waiting an extra 4-6 hours in line per day, or not. This is also why we highly recommend buying park tickets in advance of your visit. You can still make FastPass+ reservations on the day you arrive at Walt Disney World, but you’ll be picking from leftovers that no one else really wants, so to speak.

5. Booking Vacation Packages

The most popular direct-from Disney vacations booked via DisneyWorld.com cover some combination of hotel, park tickets, and dining. Sometimes these packages offer excellent savings off rack rates, sometimes they’re merely full price elements of the trip bundled together.

Even though you can save a lot with vacation packages, you’re saving that off Walt Disney World’s on-site pricing. We believe it’s worth it to pay a premium for the “Disney Difference” and location, but that may not matter as much to you. If your main criteria is to save money, read our Tips for Doing Walt Disney World on a Dime post.

The best way to find the right vacation package for you is by using a travel agent. If you go this route, look for one who primarily or exclusively does Disney-related bookings. As you can probably gather already, Walt Disney World is fairly complex, and if a travel agent doesn’t specialize in Disney, they probably won’t know the many nuances of Walt Disney World vacations (for this reason, we don’t recommend AAA, even though many of their agents are knowledgeable about Disney).

Most travel agents specializing in Disney are “no fee” agencies, meaning that it costs you no more to book through them than it does to book through Disney (they get their cut from Disney). If you are unsure of which package might be best for you–or need personalized help with any aspect of your trip–we recommend contacting a no fee “Authorized Disney Vacation Planner” (here’s why we recommend using a no-fee vacation planner) to get a quote and to help you plan. Here’s one such recommended Authorized Disney Vacation Planner. If you’re not convinced using a free Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is right for you, read our post discussing the benefits they offer.

6. Airfare & Transportation

For finding cheap airfare, we recommend ITA Software by Google. You can’t book through ITA, but it’s the most robust airfare search engine out there. It gives you latitude in choosing multiple airports to see if nearby airports might offer better pricing, and allows you to check out a calendar of dates for travel, among other things.

If you’re not booking a trip for set dates but are willing to travel whenever a deal pops up, another great option is Airfarewatchdog. You can signup for their deal alerts for trips between two cities. We opt for their daily email, which provides listings for the cheapest future airfare to numerous destinations departing out of our home airport. We use Airefarewatchdog a lot when Planning Last Minute Walt Disney World Trips.

You’ll also need to determine whether to rent a car. If you’re not visiting other destinations outside of Walt Disney World, you might not need to waste the money on one. Check out our Tips for Renting a Car at Walt Disney World post for pros & cons, money-saving tips, and more. Walt Disney World provides complimentary transportation to the parks and even to and from the airport. We cover how to use this free service in our Disney’s Magical Express post.

An alternative to a rental car is Lyft (or the Minnie Van service powered by Lyft) or Uber. For the basics on using these ride-sharing services, read our Tips for Using Lyft or Uber at Walt Disney World post. This post also shares the easiest way to get to Universal Orlando Resort (in case you want to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, too).

Disney transportation can be hit or miss, and can take a lot of time. For the most efficient transit options, read our Time-Saving Walt Disney World Transportation Tips post. This covers shortcuts, when to use buses v. monorail v. boats v. your feet, and more!

7. What to Pack

It might sound hard to believe, but packing for Walt Disney World offers ways to save money and improve your experience. There are some wrinkles to Walt Disney World that make packing a bit different, and by bringing certain “clever” (we think) items in your luggage, you will improve your experience.

We have spent a lot of time scouring the internet and magazines searching for various gadgets that might help with Disney trips, and have tested them. Some have been gimmicky duds, but others have been brilliant “we can’t believe we didn’t use this before!” revelations. We go over the good stuff in our Walt Disney World Unique Packing List.

Two of our favorite examples from that list are Frogg Toggs Chilly Pads and this Compact External Charger. Seriously, you’ll wonder how you ever travelled without these (and many other) items on our list! Additionally, if you’re going in the colder months, check out our Packing for Disney in Winter post. For summer months, read Tips for Beating the Summer Heat at Disney.

In addition to those things, you might also want to bring some pins for Disney Pin Trading. Read this article to find out how to buy Disney Pin Trading pins in advance for less than $1/pin (versus $10+/pin at Walt Disney World). If you’re a female looking for cute outfits to wear to Walt Disney World, my wife has a post covering What to Wear to Disney.

Since a Walt Disney World trip will be (for many of you) a memorable experience for your kids that you’ll want to cherish, getting good photos is also important. To read about the equipment I used to capture the photos on this page and for how you can take better photos at Walt Disney World, read our Ultimate Guide to Disney Parks Photography.

In that post, there’s one point & shoot camera and a book that I recommend to 90% of readers interested in taking better photos at Walt Disney World. If you are contemplating letting Disney’s roaming photographers around the parks take photos for you, read our Memory Maker & PhotoPass Review.

8. Which Attractions To Do

Planning an itinerary is a big deal, even for some frequent Walt Disney World guests. Some people create binders, spreadsheets, and schedule every step of their day. People get serious and obsessive about this. We are not those people. We like to pre-plan to a degree, but going to those lengths just seems unnecessarily stressful, especially since the best laid plans often go awry.

As mentioned above, Walt Disney World can be a crowded place with some really long lines. Having an itinerary, even a loose one, is important for first-time visitors. Doing things inefficiently can mean a lot more time spent in lines or having to skip attractions completely if lines are too long. All you need to develop a basic itinerary are our attraction guides for each park. We highly recommend reading our Disney Parks Ride Guides and getting a rough idea of which attractions you want to do, and where you want to book your FastPass+:

• Magic Kingdom Park & Attraction Guide
• Epcot Park & Attraction Guide
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park & Attraction Guide
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park & Attraction Guide

We also have guides for the Walt Disney World water parks and Disney Springs:

• Blizzard Beach Water Park Guide
• Typhoon Lagoon Water Park Guide
• Disney Springs Shopping & Entertainment District Guide

These are enough for a loose and helpful plan that will still allow for plenty of spontaneity. Aside from having a good itinerary, the most important things to know are: 1) which attractions have height restrictions (if you have children); 2) how to use FastPass+, which is a free ride-reservation system allowing you to “reserve” a slot in advance for three attractions per day to skip most of the line at select attractions; 3) arrive at the parks just before they open. Optional step 4 if you’re the parent of a Frozen-obsessed kid: make sure to know when and where all the Frozen “stuff” is happening, and make sure to do it. 😉

Forming your own strategy and using FastPass+ to its fullest is difficult and confusing. Since you can book your FastPass+ reservations 60 days before your trip (if you already have your tickets and are staying on-site), we highly recommend buying your tickets before you get to Walt Disney World. You don’t want to waste time at kiosks when you arrive, only to find out popular attractions like Slinky Dog Dash and Frozen Ever After are fully booked.

With all of the rest of the planning that you’re doing, we strongly recommend first-time visitors do not “wing it” for your daily itinerary. You don’t need to plan every movement so that there’s no spontaneity in your trip, just make sure you have at least a loose plan of what you’re going to do.

We have the following plans for each park that cover our perfect days:

• 1-Day Magic Kingdom Park Itinerary
• 2-Day Magic Kingdom Park Itinerary
• 1-Day Epcot Itinerary Park Itinerary
• 1-Day Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park Itinerary
• 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park Itinerary
• 1-Day “No Parks” Itinerary

Note that we’ve updated these itineraries, so they include Pandora – World of Avatar and other new entertainment. For other parks and itineraries, check out our Disney Parks Daily Itineraries page. You can use these to have what we would consider a perfect day in each of the Walt Disney World parks. We think these are good, flexible itineraries that offers attractions, dining, and other things to enjoy without going crazy with mapping out every bathroom stop of your day.

If you want to get more in-depth and really map out your entire day in advance, we recommend The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2018 to plan your itinerary. Another great planning book is The Easy Guide to Walt Disney World 2018.

9. Where to Eat

A lot of the posts on this blog detail dining at Walt Disney World, which is a surprisingly complex (and fun!) topic. The most important thing for first-timers to know is that the tired stereotype that Disney dining is all burgers, hot dogs, and other fast food is not even remotely true. Disney has a lot of wonderful dining options that can be an experience in themselves. Once you get past that stereotype, you open a world of possibilities for your meals at Walt Disney World.

To figure out where to eat, you should definitely check out our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews page. Seriously–good dining can totally make a trip (and bad dining can break a trip), so if you only read more on one topic in this guide, make it dining. We know a number of people who have had their opinions of Walt Disney World changed for the better simply because they “discovered” the right places to eat. That page has reviews of 50+ restaurants at Walt Disney World, plus other resources like our Magic Kingdom Counter Service Restaurant Rankings, and lots of other specific topics. Another great post with random quick-tips is our 101 Walt Disney World Dining Tips post.

Once you start salivating over all of the places to eat, you need to consider whether you should add-on the Disney Dining Plan. Whether to buy the Disney Dining Plan is one of the biggest questions most first-time guests face, so you really should read our Disney Dining Plan Pros & Cons post to determine if it’s right for you. It’s definitely not right for everyone, so don’t just assume it’s going to save you money–do the math.

If you’re starting the planning process far in advance, you might want to subscribe to our free newsletter for updates. We provide subscribers with news from the parks, and have given a heads up on Free Dining and ticket price increases before they have been officially announced. This makes the newsletter especially handy for scoring discounts and being in the know as to what’s going on before your trip.

It’s also worth noting that if you’re trying to do “Disney on a Dime,” one of the easiest ways to save money is to not eat at Walt Disney World restaurants. Dining at Disney is expensive, and unlike park tickets, it’s not mandatory. You can save a lot of money by eating off-site, or better yet, getting groceries and preparing your own meals. We have a comprehensive Tips for Buying Groceries at Walt Disney World post that covers grocery delivery, local stores, and much more.

Even if you don’t want to make your own meals, grocery delivery is great for getting fruit and other small grab and go snacks, both of which are really over-priced at Walt Disney World. It’s also excellent for beer–for less than the cost of a single beer in the parks, you can have a 6-pack delivered to your hotel room! We recommend Garden Grocer for delivery–they can deliver to every Walt Disney World resort hotel.

10. What Else to Do

Your imagination is really the limit here. Most first-time visitors only know about the theme parks, Disney Springs, and the water parks. That’s just the surface of what Walt Disney World has to offer. There are tours, golf, fishing, nightlife, shopping, fireworks cruises, babysitting, spas, and much more. An exhaustive list would ultimately be longer than the rest of this already long blog post!

Most of our favorite things are couples or adult-oriented, which you can read about on our Walt Disney World for Adults page. Honeymooners (aka “Disneymooners”) should read our Walt Disney World Honeymoon Tips article. Those who like to imbibe in an adult beverage…or 10…should read our Top 10 Bars & Lounges at Walt Disney World post.

Here are some other posts that cover “other stuff” at Walt Disney World, and other ways to improve your vacation, that don’t really fit the categories above:

• Free Things to Do at Walt Disney World
• Tips for Celebrating at Walt Disney World
• First-Timer Tips for Walt Disney World
• Best ‘Happily Ever After’ (Magic Kingdom Fireworks) Viewing Spots

There are lots of other random posts scattered around the blog, so you might want to read our Tour of Disney Tourist Blog post for an archive of some of the best & most popular posts on the blog. We update posts as frequently as possible, so if there’s a hot topic, you can be sure it has been updated within the last 90 days. Most popular posts are updated even more frequently than that.

If you want to add on something in addition to the “normal” experiences, we recommend contacting an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner (as mentioned above in the “Booking a Package” section) and seeing what they recommend. Or, you can post a question in the comments here and we’ll recommend something!

Another way to get help (and build anticipation for!) your Walt Disney World vacation is to join the Disney Tourist Blog Discussion Forums. There are a lot of friendly folks who post in the forums, and they can offer their opinions and ideas on all things Disney. We also have an Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Walt Disney World page that might help you if there’s something we didn’t address here.

Remember, what’s in this post is just a starting point. You’ll also want to read our When to Visit Walt Disney World post for the best time of year to plan your trip. If saving money is important, read Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post to buy the cheapest tickets from legitimate sources. To figure out where to stay, our Walt Disney World Hotel Reviews page is a great resource. Want to know where to eat or if the Disney Dining Plan is right for you? Our Walt Disney World Dining Resources will help! These are just a few of many posts mentioned in this article that will provide the foundation for your planning…but these 4 other posts are probably the most important of the bunch! If all of this is still overwhelming or you want personalized recommendations for Walt Disney World, click here to get a vacation quote from a no fee Authorized Disney Vacation Planner.

If you enjoyed this Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide, please help us out by sharing it with your friends via social media. We put a lot of ongoing work into this, and hope it’s as helpful as possible to as many trip planners as possible. Thank you so much for your support–we really appreciate it!

Your Thoughts…

Are you visiting Walt Disney World in 2018 or 2019? If you are a Walt Disney World veteran, what tips would you add to this? If you’re a first-timer, is there anything else you’d like to know? Are you excited to experience Pandora – World of Avatar or Toy Story Land…or will you wait for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to open in Late 2019 before visiting? We love hearing from readers, whether it be questions from newbies or tips from seasoned Disney pros with tips of their own to add!