When Should I Book My Disney Vacation?
Photo credit: Christian Lambert via Flickr
Many times, people talk about planning a vacation for “next year” like it’s something so far away they don’t need to think about it right now. But the reality is that your best Disney vacation is going to come from some earlier planning.
In the last few months in particular, I’ve had the experience of clients coming to me looking to book just 2 months or less before their trips. And in many cases, we’ve had very very few options to choose from for resorts. And really, most families would love to have the best match in terms of a place to stay, but the easiest way to get that is to be thinking ahead. When I have clients come to me with more time before their preferred travel dates, I’m able to get to know them and their needs and recommend the best matches over all. But the longer time goes by, the more likely those options are already booked…meaning we’re looking at second or third or even fourth best.
For Walt Disney World, it’s always best if you can be booked at least 7 months in advance. Planning, such as dining reservations, starts a full 180 days in advance for the best options. When we have the ability to start planning about a month before that, it gives us time to set out the best strategy, before embarking on booking all of the time sensitive pieces at their due dates.
At Disneyland, a lot of people in past years were finding that they could book a month or two in advance with no problem. But the as the economy has improved, it seems more people are traveling again, and the best hotels (whether that means convenience or style to you) are booking up a lot earlier. I’ve had it happen such that a month and a half before the desired travel dates, only two or three nearby options still had availability. And none of those were options I’d normally recommend!
The great thing about planning a trip for either Disneyland or Disney World is we can book far in advance and Disney only asks us for a $200 deposit. So this makes it easy for us to make payments as you go, if you want to, and have plenty of time to get all of the details lined up, without requiring a large payment up front. You can lock in the best choices easily, without having to lay out the full trip cost up front!
And Disney Cruise Line is always better booked further in advance. By it’s nature, the best priced staterooms tend to go quickest. A year in advance is easy to do and we can often book even farther out than that!
So if you’ve been saying “Next year is when we’ll go to Walt Disney World (or Disneyland or any other Disney vacation),” don’t put off planning. Get in touch with me as soon as you know you want to do it so we can get the best option for you all set before it’s all gone.
