Booking your Walt Disney World Holiday
I think my most asked question is ‘What are your tips for booking a Disney holiday?’ or ‘Where should I start?’ and it’s a bit of a minefield so I completey get it!
It’s a question I find really hard to answer in a few sentences… hence, this post. Drum roll for the worlds biggest brain dump (which I hope is helpful!).
The biggest thing to remember when planning a Disney trip is that it’s all about personal preference. Someone will tell you that you have to stay on site at Disney, others will tell you it’s a waste of money. My advice is to do your research and book the holiday you want, it’s your holiday afterall!
So, where do you start?
In my opinion, budget is a huge factor in the decisions you make on the ‘big things’. You’ll watch lots of vlogs on Youtube of people staying in the most incredible Disney resorts and boarding first class flights and think, it couldn’t be me. Or maybe you are loaded and I’m jealous!
The first thing I do is price it up
Sounds obvious but OK, how much is this likely going to cost? Can I afford it? Or what can I afford? I head to the Walt Disney World, TUI and Virgin websites. Normally this is during the ‘I need to persuade Nick this is a good idea’ phase, so I search lots of different dates looking at all options. Which hotels? Which flights? Does it look like our budget will stretch to a moderate Disney resort or are we best staying off site?
MCO or Melbourne?
Whether you fly into Orlando International airport or Melbourne usually has a big price difference. You can look at Miami and Tampa, too. Personally, I look at the first two. You’ll find TUI fly into Melbourne and as it’s a little further out than MCO, it’s usually cheaper.
We’ve flown with Virgin into MCO and TUI into Melbourne and loved both. You have to factor in a longer transfer time for Melbourne, but in our experience, the price difference has been worth it. But again, the transfer time would be some peoples worst nightmare. You have to do what works for you and your party.
On site of off site hotel?
There are people out there who will force their opinion on you as if its the only way to Disney and it’s wild to me. Personally, we’ve only ever stayed on site when we’ve been to Walt Disney World but if it was between an off site hotel or not going, I’d pick an off site hotel.
For us, we love being in the Disney bubble. Our resort mug, the quick service at the hotel, being able to use the transport, free parking at the resorts and parks. But, I have a friend who has only ever stayed off site and loves picking different areas of Orlando to explore. For example, this year she is staying in Celebration and it looks like a lush way to do it.
If you’ve been pricing up packages as mentioned above, you’ll probably have 2 or 3 resorts in mind based on your budget. They may be on site or offsite but when you land on them, Youtube is your bestie.
We were deciding between 3 resorts for our 2024 trip and I spent ages watching peoples run through’s on Youtube of each resort. God bless those people I tell you! I also asked multiple friends for their opinions, but I actually ignored most of them with our choice. Which is fine, because it’s all personal preference as I’ve said. But the Youtube videos were a huge factor in our decision.
If you are looking for some recomendations - Pop Century is by far our favourite resort. I basically wrote a love letter to it here. But, spoiler, we’re not actually staying there this year! We also loved Port Orleans - Riverside when we stayed there back in 2018.
Where should I buy my park tickets?
In my experience, there is little difference in the price of park tickets but it’s worth shopping around. Out of everything you price up for your trip, park tickets are annoyingly somerthing you just need and can’t really do on the cheap!
In the past we’ve bought them as part of a package but the last couple of trips we’ve used Attraction Tickets. I’d definitely recommend them - they have great packages, usually a deal where you get a magic band included and their customer service is 10/10.
They have tickets for pretty much everything in Orlando so if you are looking for Universal, we’ve used them for that too! And on our last trip we bought Typhoon Lagoon Glow Nights tickets from them, too.
Should we hire a car?
A car isn’t an essential for a lot of people, but we always hire one. We really enjoy the freedom of being able to leave somewhere. That might sound a bit weird, but when I’m done, I’m done. Having to wait for public transport to get back after a long day or if I’m all hot and bothered, it’s just my worst nightmare. We also love the freedom of having a car and being able to go to the local malls, outlets, restaurants etc. without relying on Uber/Lyft.
We’ve hired a car on every trip so I can’t speak much on Uber or Lyft but as we’ll have Francis on our next trip (who will be nearly 1), it just feels like it’s going to be so much easier taking his car seat and hiring a car.
One big plus as well is that if you are staying on site, you don’t have to pay to park at the resorts or parks. This was ‘always’ a perk until the pandemic but in 2023 they brought it back again and it’s great!
We’ve used Discount Florida Car Hire multiple times now with no issues. We’ve picked the car up at the airport, but also near Disney Springs too and they’ve always been great. The price of car hire can be a lot, so I just recommend frequent searches and seeing how the price fluctuates.
There are probably 3434 more things to think about when it comes to booking at Walt Disney World trip, but they are my main focus areas and where to start. As always, any questions please feel free to reach out!