The Most Comfortable Way to Tour the Theme Parks at Walt Disney World: 2. Limiting Advance Planning

By Dave Shute

This is part of The Comfortable Guide to Walt Disney World

OVERVIEW: THE MOST COMFORTABLE WAY TO TOUR THE THEME PARKS AT WALT DISNEY WORLD

This site provides precise instructions elsewhere , including how to tour the parks at Walt Disney World. These instructions are designed for typical first time family visitors who are not sure whether or not they will ever return.

This page one of several on how to tour the theme parks at Walt Disney World for a subset of first time visitors: those seeking the most comfortable visit.

It is part of a series about the most comfortable way to visit Walt Disney World. Its companion series is about the most inexpensive way to visit Walt Disney World,

I am publishing both series at the same time so that they also help those who are looking for bargains and deals on some things, so that they can spend more on others!! Links to everything in these two series are at the bottom of the page.

MORE ON THE MOST COMFORTABLE WAY TO TOUR THE THEME PARKS AT WALT DISNEY WORLDThe most comfortable way to tour the theme parks would resolve four goals: it would

Minimize the time you have to spend planning,
Limit how far in advance your planning needs to be complete,
Reduce how much you have to follow a daily schedule, and
Eliminate the early mornings in your itinerary.

The material on the rest of this page focuses on limiting how far in advance your plans need to be firm.

LIMITING HOW FAR IN ADVANCE YOUR THEME PARK ITINERARIES NEED TO BE FIRM

The payoff of planning well in advance—i.e. more than 180 days—is that you will have a much better chance of getting into the highest-demand, best-loved meals and hotels.

Of course, once you have made these dining reservations, you will have put certain fixed tent-poles into your schedule.

Doing this before you have a rough plan of your days can mess you up—for example, can

Have you dining at the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom at the same time as the only showing of Fantasmic at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is happening during your trip, or
Booking the later Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort at the only time that the Magic Kingdom is scheduling the Wishes fireworks show during your trip.

Put off planning too long, and you may not just miss the best; you may not be able to get any reservations at all for sit-down meals.

On the other hand…if you know you can return if you wish, then seeing all the best of the Walt Disney World dining options on your first visit just doesn’t matter that much!

If you go during one of the less crowded periods of the year (see this on crowds at Walt Disney World) you should be able to get at least some sit-down meals as little as a month in advance.

(This likely will not apply to late August through late September, as Disney typically runs a free dining plan promotion during this period—so while there may not be that many people in the parks, all of them will have reservations at the places you will want to dine.)

Busier periods like the summer and the March and April spring break months will require another couple of months ahead to make reservations, or the willingness to simply punt on sit-down meals within the Walt Disney World resort.

Crazy periods like the weeks surrounding Easter, and the weeks including Christmas and New Years Eve, will require even more advance time.

Given all that…since you can return when you wish, it’s better to go without much of a dining schedule then to not go at all!