Before you book your Disney vacation you need to answer several questions.

How much do you want to spend?

How long do I want to be at Walt Disney World?

What else in Orlando do I want to see?

Where should I stay?

How do I get there?

Do I stay on a plan or go al la carte? (Special Disney Plans Page)

What type of ticket should I buy?

The Geeks Responses:

1) How much do you want to spend? This is really one of the most important questions to determine. With the expansion of WDW in recent years there are options in almost every price category. You have accommodations ranging from campgrounds to 5 star resorts. You can dine on hot dogs and hamburgers or on steak and lobster. You can stay one day or several weeks. You have a lot of flexibility. So the first thing you want to do is plan a budget for you and your family. Once you have a budget in mind it makes other decisions easier to make.

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2) How long do I want to be at Walt Disney World? With four major theme parks, 2 water parks, a night club area, 5 18-hole golf courses, and several other activities you can litterly spend weeks at WDW and not see it all. To figure out how long you want to stay I would suggest working backwards. Meaning list out everything you want to do and see how many days you come up with, then start cutting things until you reach a reasonable time that fits within your budget. As a rule of thumb it takes approximately: one day to see the Magic Kingdom, 2 days to see EPCOT, 1 day for the Animal Kingdom, and 1 day for the Studios. In addition to this you probably want a day to "catch up" and see anything you missed on your first tour through the parks. So you see its easy to fill up a week without much effort. We usually go for 6-10 days depending on what plan we will be going on. This seems to be a comfortable length of time to take a relaxing tour through the property and experience quite a bit of resort.

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3) What else in Orlando should I see? Well this is really a tough question. Disney World by itself can suck up more vacation time, energy, and money than the average family has. We used to spend a couple days and explore other attractions in Orlando, but with the expansion of Disney World over the past decade there is more than enough to keep you on property for your entire trip. If this is a once in a lifetime trip to Orlando, and you have enough time you should go visit Kennedy Space Center, Sea World, and maybe Universal Studios Florida. For me coming from California I have experienced much of this already. I have been to Sea World in San Diego (and in Ohio for that matter), so I have never been to the Orlando version. I have been to Universal Studios here in California, so I did not see any reason to go to Orlando's version. I am not a thrill ride person so Universal's Islands of Adventure does not excite me. Kennedy Space Center is a truly unique experience but after seeing it once it does not change that much. I seem to go about every 10 years and that is more than enough. If you have not been there in the past 10-15 years the Space Center has really expanded for the better.

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4) Where should I stay? The first question you must answer when deciding where to stay is whether you want to stay "onsite" meaning in a Disney resort, or offsite. As a general rule you will end up paying slightly higher for a Disney resort than for a comparable resort offsite. I have stayed both onsite and offsite, and with the ever expanding selection of onsite resorts I would have to recommend staying onsite. There are several reasons. The first being location. When on vacation I do not want to have to travel far or worry about things. Staying onsite makes your life much more simple. You walk out of your room and take a Disney bus, boat, monorail, or tram and you get to your destination (check out our transportation section for more information on this). The second reason is since your spending all the money to go to Orlando on vacation, why not "go all the way." Meaning if your going on a Disney vacation use a Disney resort. That way you never have to leave "fantasyland." This may sound like a cheesy reason, but not having to think about the real world for a week (and not seeing it) sure can relax a person. The third reason to choose a Disney resort is theme. Each Disney resort is incredible themed and has a personality of its own. Meaning that you are not just staying at a simple resort or hotel. Check out the resort section of this site to find out more about the Disney resorts. In 2005 as part of the Happiest Celebration on Earth Disney rolled out a new service called Disney's Magic Express. This "free" service is open to all onsite resort guests and includes a motorcoach ride and luggage handling to and from Orlando International Airport.

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5) To stay on a plan or go al la carte or some other option?

Check out ourDisney Vacation Plans page for an analysis and thoughts on this.

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6) How do I get there?

A majority of guests arriving at WDW arrive by airplane at Orlando's International Airport(MCO). WDW is about 30 minutes from the airport. You have several options to make the journey (rent a car, take a bus(Mears), take a cab, or take a car service). If your planning on staying at WDW and not leaving the property we recommend a towncar service. For a family of four prices are comparable to the other options, but the towncar gives you some advantages. One is its personalized. So if your late or early they will be ready. They go by your schedule, not theirs. Another is most allow for a grocery stop. This is a great idea to grab some drinks or snacks to keep in your room. It saves some money too. We would recommend against renting a car unless your planning on visiting several other Orlando area stops.

New 2005: Beginning May 5, 2005 Disney will be offering a new service for all Disney Resort Guests, called Magic Express Service. This is a bus transfer to the Disney World Resort from Orlando International Airport. The service will be FREE for the first 18 months or so during the Happiest Homecomings on Earth Celebration in April of 2006 it was announced that this service was to remain complimentary and has been extended through 2011. So if you head to Orlando this may be the way to go. Just another reason to stay onsite. This service will handle the backage transfers too.
We have added a section on Disney's Magical Express Service

The WDW transportation options are great and easy to navigate to get around. Check out our WDW transportation section for more information on getting around.

If your driving your own car or a rental car getting to WDW is rather easy. Most Orlando area roads have signs pointing the way. You will have to stop and pay several tolls along the way if you stay on the main tollways.Consult disneyworld.com or mapquest for more detailed directions.

Another route to take is public transportation. The Orlando area bus system services Walt Disney World. Click here for Tony, a guest contributor's, thoughts and tips on public transportation.

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7) What type of ticket should I buy and from where?

A: In 2005 Disney rolled out a new ticket system called Magic Your Way(MYW). This new system gives huge incentives to book more days, for example to add an extra day 7 or day 8 may only cost you $10. The MYW system works this way. You buy a base ticket for X number of days. Then there are a couple options you may add. The most important option in our mind is the Park Hopping one, this allows you to go from park to park and is a flat fee no matter how many days you add on. There is also a "no-expiration" option. Without this your tickets will expire 14 days after first use, no matter if you used all your days or not. This is a great way to save some money, but it does come at a small risk. Namely you have to use the tickets or loose the days. Usually this isn't a problem since if your at WDW for 7 days and you buy a 7 day ticket you will go to the park for a portion of every day... but plan accordingly. The other option is for waterparks/DisneyQuest. These are added on a sliding scale based on the number of days you get so many of these days to use. If you are planning on going to a water park check this add on out. One important change with the MYW tickets. Now ever guest entering the park has to use the biometric scanners, which actually just measure the distance between your fingers. This means that once you use the ticket it is "assigned" to you and no one else can use it. This means you should NOT buy USED WDW tickets from anywhere anymore. Doing so puts you at risk of having useless pieces of paper.

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