To help you stay organized and on top of things when planning your Disney World vacation, here’s a simple timeline and checklist that highlights key steps, tasks, and important deadlines.
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Disney World Timeline and Checklist
Here is my ideal timeline for planning a Disney World vacation:
8 Months Before Your Vacation
This is the best time to set your budget and lock in your trip dates.
Set Your Budget
- Disney World is so expensive so this is a great time to figure out how much you plan on spending on tickets, hotels, transportation, and food.
Pick Your Hotel
- Research any hotels that you want to stay out
- Figure out if you want to stay on or off-property
- See which Disney hotels fit your budget
Choose Your Trip Dates
- Figure out what exact dates you plan on visiting
- Check to see if there are any events or attraction openings you want to attend
- Look at ticket prices for your potential dates
Make Sure Your Dates Have Park Availability
- It’s so important to check and see if the day you want to visit has an available park reservation (check out park availability here)
Figure Out What Parks You Want to Visit
- 9 times out of 10, you’ll be visiting all 4 parks
- Also see if you want to go to any Disney water parks, or even some nearby parks like Universal Studios, SeaWorld, or Busch Gardens
Do Some Research on Special Events or Attraction/Land Openings
- Figure out if you want to go to any special events like:
- Mickeys’ Not So Scary Halloween Party
- Mickeys’ Very Merry Christmas Party
- Backstage Tours
- VIP Tours
- Drawn to Life by Cirque du Soleil
- Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue
- Check to see if any new attractions or lands will be opening that you’ve been dying to see
Figure Out if the Disney Dining Plan is Right For You
- Determine if you want to buy the Disney Dining Plan or not
- Check out which restaurants accept both Disney Dining Plans
6 Months Before Your Vacation
This is a great time to book your hotels, buy your park tickets, and set up your My Disney Experience app.
Book Hotels
- It’s time to book your hotels
- Compare room rates on third-party websites, just in case there’s a major price difference
- You can also buy park tickets and the Disney Dining Plan at the same time too, if you’re staying at a Disney resort
Buy Park Tickets
- Choose your starting date and purchase your park tickets
4 Months Before Your Vacation
This is a great time to book flights, rental cars, or any other transportation arrangements.
Book Your Flights
- Compare prices for flying into Orlando (MCO), Sanford (SFB), and Tampa (TPA)
- Book your flights
Book Your Rental Car
- Find the best rental car deal for the duration of your visit
60 Days Before Your Vacation
This is when you can finally start securing advanced Disney dining reservations book any special experiences like a fireworks dessert party.
Make Advanced Dining Reservations
- Start making dining reservations at 5:45 am every day
- If you have a Disney World hotel reservation, you can make restaurant reservations for your entire stay (up to 10 nights) up to 60 days in advance of your scheduled arrival date.
- If not, you can make it for up to 60 days in advance. That basically means that the next day, you can make another dining reservation for the following day until your entire trip dates are covered.
Book Special Experiences
- You can now book special experiences such as:
- Savi’s Workshop (lightsaber building)
- Droid Depot
- Magic Kingdom Fireworks Dessert Party
- Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
1 Month Before Vacation
This is when your final vacation balance is due. Plus, it’s a great time to buy your Mears Connect tickets if you don’t plan on taking an Uber/Lyft from the airport.
Make Your Final Payment
- If you’re staying at a Disney resort, your final payment is due 30 days before your scheduled arrival date.
Book Your Mears Connect Tickets
- Book your roundtrip tickets on Mears Connect bus service to and from Disney World
1 Week Before Your Vacation
It’s time to pack!
Pack
- Start packing your bags (here’s some of my recommendations)
Day of Your Vacation
The big day is finally here!
Make Sure You Have Everything You’ll Need
- IDs, boarding passes, MagicBands, cash, sunscreen, sunglasses, ponchos, phone chargers, etc.
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That’s it. Hopefully this helps you plan an awesome Disney World vacation!
