Hang on Folks, this is gonna be a long one...
Planning a Disney vacation can be incredibly overwhelming, especially your first time. I thought that I might explain, in a little more detail, the specifics for my and Miss H's upcoming trip and why we made those choices.
When to Go?
Having never been to Disney for any of the Christmas activities, going during the holiday season has always been a bucket list item of mine (plus, Miss H is my Christmas kid). I can't wait to watch Elsa turn Cinderella's Castle into ice!!! This narrowed our date choices down to mid November through Christmas week. The next step was to look at my kids' school holidays and do some searching to see what the prices were at Disney and on airfare for that time. Turns out, Thanksgiving week is expensive but the week after is not!
Pro Tip: by shifting our flights around, we were able to stay at the resort for another day and still save money! Be flexible in your dates and look at all of the factors if you can!
Where to Stay?
The first decision you have to make is whether to stay on property or off property. I am a HUGE fan of staying on property and feel the benefits more than outweigh the potential cost differential. But, that is a discussion for a different day.
Disney World has four different levels of accommodation on property: campgrounds, value resorts, moderate resorts, and deluxe resorts. All of them have their pro's and con's but the main differences come down to price, park proximity, transportation options and pools. Since we are going in November, I didn't see pools as a compelling issue for this trip. Typically, I prefer to stay at either an Epcot or Magic Kingdom area resort. I like the multiple transportation options and how quickly you can get to the parks. This time around for us price was the most important factor, so we chose a value resort. Functionally, this means that our only transportation option is the bus (or ride sharing service), no water slides, and longer rides to the park.
When sorting through the value resorts, I noticed that Pop Century had just completed a total renovation and that the rooms were all brand new, so we decided to give it a try! I'm excited to report back how the resort is, as well as how long the travel times are to the parks...
Which Parks?
This is a really personal question as all of the parks are very different and it's all about what you like! For us, this time, the special holiday happenings at Magic Kingdom (Note: Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party is a separately ticketed event) and Epcot made the decision pretty easy. We also took the high crowd levels at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom (the recent openings of Toy Story Land and Pandora) into account and decided that we could visit those when the crowds slow down a bit! Choosing your parks first also helps to narrow down your dining options!
Dining
To get the Disney Dining Plan or not, that is the question. For our family, I firmly believe in the greatness and cost savings of the Disney Dining Plan. It especially pays off if you are going to do any of the high end, sit down, character meals like Cinderella's Royal Table. There are three levels of dining plan available: Quick Serve, Disney Dining Plan, and Deluxe. We take the middle road with the Disney Dining Plan which includes 2 snacks, 1 quick service meal, one table service meal each day, and a refillable drink mug for use at the resort. (The intricacies of these are their own post!)
When you are staying on property dining reservations open up 180 days in advance of your trip. Well, Miss H and I only booked 90 days before our trip. The reservation pickings were slim and it took a concerted effort to find times and restaurants we were happy with, we even had to shift around park days to make sure we got our reservations! Unfortunately, all of the character dining was taken but we were able to get reservations for the Candlelight Processional dining (the reservation also gets you a ticket to the special event) and we will get to try some new restaurants out!
Our table service (sit down) meals are at:
Chefs de France (French, Epcot)
Nine Dragons (Chinese, Epcot)
Liberty Tree (American, Magic Kingdom)
Tony's Town Square (Italian, Magic Kingdom)
The rest of our meals will be Quick Serve, on the fly in the parks and at the hotel.
Pro Tip: Quick serve meals can be huge! Consider splitting them to allow for more space for the delicious in park snacks... like Dole Whips and soft pretzels!
Hope this helps demystify things a bit!