How Far in Advance Can You Book a Walt Disney World Vacation?

BOOKING WALT DISNEY WORLD FOR 2016

I can tell from my search traffic that people are already starting to plan their 2016 Walt Disney World vacations.

The Walt Disney World website currently only allows bookings through 2015…so how do you book for later dates? Do you have to wait?

The short answer is that you can book a Disney World resort room 500 days ahead…but it’s a little complicated…

I asked my friend Allison, a travel agent at Destinations in Florida, to explain, and here’s what she said!

BOOKING YOUR WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIP IN 2016 AND BEYOND

You can book rooms at Walt Disney World for 2016 up to 500 days in advance right now.  But there’s a couple of tricks and complexities.

• You can’t do it on the Disney World website.  You can only do it by calling Disney directly, or through a travel agent like Destinations in Florida.
• For dates beyond what are available on the Disney World website, you can only book rooms—not packages with tickets, the dining plan, and such. (You can add these to your reservation later.)
• The prices you’ll be quoted will be 2015 prices.  These will be wrong.  The prices for the next year are usually announced in the summer of the prior year–so 2016 prices likely will come out in summer 2015.  This is also when the website is opened to 2016 reservations.
• You will have to pay a deposit to hold your reservation.  This deposit will increase when the final prices for 2016 come available, next summer. 
• When final prices come out, your travel agent will help you fix your deposits…and if any discounts come out, your travel agent can also help you take advantage of those!  You can also add tickets and other parts of a package later, when final prices come out.

USING A TRAVEL AGENT FOR YOUR DISNEY WORLD TRIP

Thanks, Allison!

Since this site suggests you book your Walt Disney World trip at least 180 days in advance of your arrival date, and the Disney website likely won’t allow that for 2016 dates until summer 2015 the earliest, knowing that there are ways to book out to 500 days ahead is really helpful!

Many people don’t even consider using travel agents.  But for a complex trip to a place where discounts come and go, there’s a lot to be said for using someone like Destinations in Florida.

Travel agents are free to you to use—they are compensated by Disney, not by you—and the prices you end up paying are as good or even better as those you can book yourself!