There are a lot of dates, deadlines, and times to remember during the process of booking and enjoying your Disney vacation. Here is a timetable to give you an idea of when to take each step, to ensure you have the smoothest, most magical trip ever!
1) Booking your trip
The first step to going on a Disney vacation, is to actually book the trip on the Disney World website. Typically, Disney releases reservations for the following year, in spring or summer of the current year. That means that you can start the process of planning your Disney vacation nearly a year ahead of time. For the most part, it is really not necessary to book your trip that far out and is really only beneficial if you are trying to stay in an extremely difficult room to get, during an extremely popular time of year. For example, a Castle View room at the Contemporary on Christmas Day. Another benefit is that park ticket prices do go up each year, so if you are able to buy your 2025 park tickets in 2024, you will be locked in to the 2024 price without having to pay the inflated price.
It is much better to wait for the seasonal discounts that Disney regularly releases, so as to make the trip as cost efficient as possible (which you should do since Disney trips add up FAST). Seasonal discounts are typically released 4-5 months prior to the time that you desire to go. If you choose to wait until the discounts are released to book your trip, you still should not have any issues in securing your vacation. If you do decide to book your trip prior to the discount release for your dates, you can always try to modify your trip to apply the discounts once released. I don't recommend relying on this though, as often times the discounts do not apply to all dates and all room types. It's a nice perk if it works out, but do not get your hopes up as it is nowhere near guaranteed.
In order to initially book your vacation package (resort plus park tickets) all that is required is making a reservation on the Disney World website and paying a $200 deposit. It is fairly low risk since the reservation can be cancelled up to 30 days prior to the trip with no penalty and full return of your deposit. A couple of caveats though- If you book just a resort with no park tickets, you are required to pay a deposit of one full night's rate. This is fully refundable up until 5 days prior to your stay. If you book just park tickets without a Disney resort stay, you have to pay for the tickets in full. These park tickets are non-refundable and non-transferrable to other parties.
2) Party Tickets
If you are visiting Disney World during Halloween or Christmas time, you may be interested in purchasing tickets to either Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party or Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. These are separate tickets, so they are not purchased as a part of your Disney vacation package during the initial booking. The party tickets typically go on sale around 3 months before the first party date. For example, this year's Halloween Party tickets went on sale on May 8th and the first party date is August 9th. Guests who are staying at a Disney Resort are also permitted to purchase party tickets a couple of days prior to the general public, so it is beneficial to have your Disney vacation booked prior to buying the party tickets. Disney announces the official date that the tickets will go on sale a couple of days before that date, so keep your eyes peeled. However, it is really not necessary to immediately book party tickets as they will not fully sell out for particular dates until closer to the actual party.
3) Dining Reservations
Guests who are staying at a Walt Disney World resort are permitted to book dining reservations at Table Service restaurants on the 60th day prior to the first day of their trip. That means that if the first day of your five-day trip is on July 5th, you will be able to book dining reservations for your entire trip on May 6th. The longer your trip is, the more advantage you will have when booking dining reservations for the last few days of your trip, since you can book those dates earlier than 60 days out. Dining reservations officially "open up" on the Disney World website or the My Disney Experience App at 6am on the 60th day prior to your trip. It is surprisingly important to be up and ready to book at 6am. Hard to get reservations go fast and you will need to book those immediately if you have any chance of getting one. It is advisable to be up by 5:45am on your dining reservation day and have your list handy of the reservations you need to book.
4) Special Experiences
Many different experiences are offered at Disney World that must be booked as a separate reservation from your park ticket. You are able to book these on the Disney World website or My Disney Experience App 60 days in advance. A few examples of special experiences that can book are: Capture your Moment, the Lightsaber Workshop, the Droid Depot, Bibbidi, Bobbidi Boutique, Keys to the Kingdom, and a Firework Dessert Party. There are many more options on the Disney World website, if you are looking to mix it up and try a little something different on your next trip. Just be warned- they are all an additional cost that you must pay, on top of the high park entrance fee.
The above categories are all of the items that you can book prior to your Disney vacation. The next few items are items that you must book while you are on the trip. This is frustrating to a lot of Disney guests, as many would prefer to get all of the planning done prior to the vacation and then just enjoy it once it starts. My advice would be to just make sure you do all of the planning you can in advance so there are only a few items to have to stress about on the actual trip.
5) Genie Plus
The current "fast pass" system that Disney is utilizing is called Genie Plus. Disney used to allow you to book your fast passes up to 60 days prior to your trip. Those were the old days before Covid, which many Disney fans wish would come back. Genie Plus however is purchased anytime after midnight on the day you intend to use it. While I have not experienced this, I have heard that if you are buying Genie Plus for a very crowded day like Thanksgiving, you do actually have to buy it at midnight, or it might sell out for the day. I typically purchase Genie Plus when I wake up in the morning that day, around 6am. You can purchase Genie Plus for yourself and any of the members of your trip.
After purchasing Genie Plus for that day, you are able to book your first Lightening Lane at 7am. My advice is always the same in that you should try to book the most popular Lightening Lane right at 7am, since those book up the fastest. You are then able to book your next Lightening Lane, either two hours after the official park opening or after scanning into your first Lightening Lane, whichever happens first. The pattern continues throughout the day, either waiting two hours after your booking to book another Lightening Lane or booking your next Lightening Lane after scanning into the current Lightening Lane, whichever occurs first. The My Disney Experience App will help you out and keep track of when you are able to book your next Lightening Lane.
6) Virtual Queues
Similarly to Genie Plus, virtual queues cannot be booked until day of as well. There is something about 7am that Disney loves so much since a virtual queue for a few rides opens up for booking at 7am as well. In order to book the 7am virtual queue, you can be anywhere and do not actually have to be scanned into the respective park. A virtual queue should be your priority at 7am before booking your first Lightening Lane. The virtual queue option is available for Guardians of the Galaxy, Tron, and soon for Tiana's Bayou. The only way to ride these rides (without paying extra for an Individual Lightening Lane) is the virtual queue, so if you have any hope to ride them you must make booking the virtual queue your 7am priority.
If you are unsuccessful with the 7am virtual queue, or you wish to obtain a virtual queue for a different ride, there is also a 1pm queue each day. In order to book the 1pm queue, you must be scanned into the park that holds the respective ride you are trying to get a virtual queue for. This certainly complicates matters for the 1pm queue. You are permitted one virtual queue per ride per day, so take advantage of the 2nd chance to book.
7) Individual Lightening Lanes
This is one that I have not personally booked, simply because I think it is ridiculous to pay around $20 extra to ride one ride. An Individual Lightening Lane can be booked for some of the most popular rides at Disney World, which are strategically not included with Genie Plus. That means that if you want to skip the line, you will have to book an Individual Lightening Lane, which costs an extra fee. Individual Lightening Lanes go on sale at 7am on the day that you plan to use them, and you can only buy 2 Individual Lightening Lanes per day.
Individual Lightening Lanes are available for the following rides for the following average prices: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ($12), Tron ($20), Guardians of the Galaxy ($17), Rise of the Resistance ($25), and Flight of Passage ($17). In my opinion, I will never pay that much money to just ride one ride, but to each their own.
8) Mobile Ordering
Mobile Ordering is a feature available on the My Disney Experience App. It allows you to prepurchase food or drinks at a Quick Service Restaurant from anywhere in the park to be ready at a certain time. This is extremely helpful because it allows you to avoid wasting time waiting in line to get your Quick Service meals. The feature opens up at 7am, so you can technically pre-order your meals first thing in order for them to be ready at a certain time during the day. However, I typically wait to mobile order until I am ready to eat. At that point, you usually can mobile order for your meal to be ready about 30 minutes from the time you place your order. This feature saves so much time, prevents you from handling cash since you pay directly on the app, and streamlines your whole day.
As you can see, there are many moving parts throughout the booking process of your Disney vacation. I hope this timeline helps you in deciding when to book each component of your trip in order to have the smoothest experience possible. Taking care of as much planning as possible prior to your trip will help and knowing the deadlines for bookings during your trip will help minimize stress while on vacation. Good luck!
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