How exactly do you plan your Disney trip?

We usually start with the hotels because those are going to be the most expensive part. We see what deals we can get on the nights in the hotels and work from there. Even if we know we want to be there for a particular event & time we'll still move our start and end dates around to get a good deal.

For us its straight forward. We either go the week before or after Thanksgiving. Since were DVC... its AKL. six months prior to leaving we pick our ADR's, and then in a month or so when we can book our flight, we book it. Now that ive typed all of this out... seems quite boring... LOL

Dates first
I like october and trying out september, I like the slow times when kiddies are/should be in school
Then bop around the hotels to see that time frame (and the free dining, we do love that part)
Then ADR's AWAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
This year we just booked dinner plans and worked around everything else.

I usually try to decide when I want to go first. I really like going in May during the Flower And Garden Festival...September is another favorite time to go for me.When I have an idea of when I would like to go I check Disney World websites like Allears and try to find out if there are any ride closings, refurbishments during that time. Then I will try to figure out how many days I would like to stay..or how many days I can afford to stay. Choosing a hotel is not that hard for me..with my budget it is always Pop Century ( I would like to try one of the All Star Resorts one day) When I look about buying my Disney vacation I usually get a package deal...the hotel, park tickets, dining plan,and flight. I also add the Disney's Magical Express complimentary shuttle service from the airport to my resort. As far as planning my days I will try to pick out a different table service restaurant to visit each day. I also see if there are any restaurants that I have not tried yet that I would like to and try to fit it in. I also try to figure out a budget. How much money to bring for tips for servers at table service restaurants....how much money to bring for bottled water during the day ( I sometimes buy one bottled water at the start of the day and continue to fill it at water fountains throughout the park.) how much money I want to bring for souvenirs....when I buy my package, everything is basically included, even most of my food, so any extra money would be for souvenirs, tip money for servers, maybe an extra snack. When I actually arrive at the Disney World, Magic Kingdom is alway the first park I visit it is tradition for me....from there I just wing it the rest of the days. By the end of the day I try to figure out where I would like to go the next day.
Well that's how I do it! WHEW!!! Can you believe I said all of that in one breath?!

This is interesting. I'm always intrigued when I see ADRs that range all over property. If I were to plan a trip of more than a couple of days, I think I would very much plan my park days, and then ADRs to correspond with the parks/resorts. I guess the exception would be if I couldn't get into a place. Then I might switch my park days. But I'm not much for leaving a park to go to dinner somewhere else.

Ah, Scrappy, love California Grill. It has been TOO LONG (10 years!) since I've been there. We used to get their bread for special occasions or holidays.

We've been there so much we've pretty much done it all so now are trips are just kind of relaxing ones, ones where we do what we want, there is no rush, so that's why it is fine for us to have our ADR's at various parks in the same day.

Plus it always seems like were done with whatever park we go to either around noon, or by then anyways.

I like to choose my dates first (obviously) and then I go through and choose the right hotel for my budget and then do the theme park tickets (usually park hoppers since I love the freedom of jumping from one to the other) and then I book it. ADR's generally are made 2 months in advance unless it's something that is hugely popular and I want a chance to get into. I like to peruse guidebooks a lot and own a number of them from different travel companies. First 2 trips I went on to WDW I had a travel agent do all the planning but the most recent two I am doing myself

So do many of you choose your dates before you see prices? We always let prices dictate our dates.

For us prices arent much of an issue except for the plane travel, but you usually cant do that till the 6 month mark or so, and we have to book our room with our DVC points about a year before.

Yep, it's important for us to choose dates first to know whether hubby can get the time off or not. Also, I am not going to go during the most crowded times (except for this year since my best friend wanted to go at the end of June) so I'll let that dictate too.

We pick a general time frame and then look for when rates are the cheapest and see which hotel can fit our budget.

Then we pick the hotel and start thinking about the most important thing..the food!

We pick dates first - and never go during peak season. I have been in May for the last two trips, but am trying September for the next one because of the better deals (POR in May was the same as the WL in September).

Next comes place to stay, which we choose based on prices and our budget.

Then ADRs. I'm surprised to see how many ADRs everyone makes! My hubby and I only book one or two (CRT for sure!), then once we get there we book our lunch and dinner at the concierge the day of. So far, we've always been lucky and able to get the reservations we want on the day of.

First I always choose a date. Then a resort. After that I check extra magic hours (if posted yet) since I never go to those parks on those days. Then I plan my park days and my ADRs!

I start with dates.. then I pick the resort. After that, it's all about the ADRs. Everything else is planned around where I"m eating! But.. I try to make the ADRs make some kind of sense.
For instance, if I was lucky enough to get a reservation at 'Ohana for dinner.. then I would try to get a lunch reservation in the Magic Kingdom area (either in the park or at a resort) then that would be a Magic Kingdom day.
Like... I wouldnt do lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and dinner at Sci Fi diner.
But, when I get a BETTER reservation somewhere (like if a Le Cellier popped up) then I would redo my days lol..

it's all about the food.

First step for us...find dates conducive to Ohio State's and Michigan State's football schedule.
Since we go for F&WF in Oct./Nov. every year, this is important.

Second step... make ressie for room @ BCV on first day we can...high priority since BCV fill up fast for F&WF...

Third step...it's on to the white board. From there, we just fill in any date restricted activities like Fantasmic, MNSS, concerts of anyone we would want to see at Eat to the Beat based off of forum speculation (usually right)...then we fill in any other ressies that need it.. like LeCellier, ect ...

Final step...check out projected crowd projections from touringsplans.com enter those in the dates on the whiteboard.

From there the open areas on the calendar open up so we can have the best indicators for the best times to relax around the hotel or go and see if I can't get my high score on Toy Story Mania!... that is for our Food and Wine Festival trip, which is usually 10-15 night stay at BCV.

For our "long weekend" trip... we always go the weekend before the Super Bowl... so that is straight forward...5 nights at BLT (Tue.-Sat.)...no whiteboard...willy nilly on that one...and a lot of relaxing!

LOVE IT!!!! GO BUCKS!!!!!!!

Yes.. Go Bucks...still!..and always...
And the upside is that my wife graduated from Michigan State...that's why that is there...and she is huge Spartan fan (and Green Bay Packer fan...and sadly...don't kill me for this... a big Red Wings fan)...
but with her being MSU grad...we are anti UM equally...which is max x10

That is all a plus... except for the Red Wings stuff............................

Gonna have to have a talk about that one... lol

Last year's trip was pretty much a no brainer. It came up something like this.

My friend: "Hey JoAnn, do you want to come to Disney in November?"
Me: "Ok"
My friend: "We're going November 14 - 20 and staying at Pop Century"
Me: "Ok, I'll book the trip this weekend"

Since she and her friend already had their trip book and all the ADRs made I just had book the trip and to show up. I did some research before booking my trip and saw the F&W festival was ending the day we were going to meet there, I decided to go on Friday so I can go to the F&W festival on Saturday.

I'm going with them again this year at the same time. I'm going two days before them again so I can hit the F&W festival. I did a lot more advance planning this year, like booking early enough so I can make monthly payments and not put it on a credit card. I made all the ADRs for us for the week. I have grids and spreadsheets of all the park hours, EMH, entertainment, a list of attractions I didn't see or do last year and some "do-overs" and our ADRs. For the resort ADRs, I added the transportation we'll need to make to get there.