Category — j. To-Do Lists for Walt Disney World

DISNEY WORLD 2013 PRICES TO COME OUT NEXT WEEK

Multiple sources, including crack commenters Brandon and Terri, have noted that Disney World will begin online booking for 2013 visits next week, on July 11.

This means that the full 2013 Disney World resort hotel price schedule will be out by then as well. (2013 Disney World ticket prices were announced in June, and will be good until Disney raises them, likely in the summer of 2013.)

THE 2013 VALUE SEASON AT DISNEY WORLD TO BEGIN JANUARY 6TH?

We won’t know for sure until Disney release the prices itself, but it looks like the value season for 2013 won’t begin until January 6.

You can currently book into January 2013 if your arrival date is in 2012, and the 2013 prices Disney shows when you try to book, as I write this, are sky high January 1st, drop like a rock the 2nd, then go up again for the 3rd, 4th and 5th, and then on January 6 drop to what looks like value season levels for the rest of the month, other than the Marathon and holiday weekends.

This may change next week–the 2nd looks especially odd–but is consistent with the thought that the week beginning 12/29/2012 will be much busier than I had earlier forecast.

WHERE ARE THE JANUARY 2013 ITINERARIES?

Usually by now I would have published suggested itineraries and To-Do Lists for January 2013, and published an overview of the month (like this one for December 2012).

However, Disney’s calendar for January 2013 is incomplete–it’s still missing Extra Magic Hours.  These affect the itineraries, so I won’t publish material for January until they are up. Josh at easyWDW.com suggested last week that the delay is because Disney World is sorting out how to schedule and price for the crowds the week of the 29th, and perhaps also for the Marathon.

If Josh is right–and he usually is–then the January schedules should be sorted out by the 11th as well, and I’ll get the updates out as soon as I can after the Extra Magic Hours are posted.

FREE CHRISTMAS AT DISNEY GUIDE FOR READERS OF YOURFIRSTVISIT.NET

My friends at Destinations in Florida are making available a free guide to Christmas at Walt Disney World to readers of yourfirstvisit.net.

To sign up for this free guide to Christmas at Disney World, click here.

Thanks to Allison and the rest of the crew at Destinations in Florida!

For more on the holiday season at Disney World, see this.

Bloomberg Businessweek  just published a fascinating article by Douglas MacMillan covering some newer travel sites that address some of the pains of making air reservations and of flying.

I haven’t tried any of these sites yet, but several look quite valuable.

Many strike me as most appropriate for advanced travelers.

If you are new to air travel, see this first, and if you are a “typical” traveler–that is, not advanced–see this first.

MORE ON GETTING EVERYTHING DONE BEFORE YOUR TRIP TO WALT DISNEY WORLD

This page brings together to one place links to Walt Disney World To-Do Lists and related material on this site. It’s part of a series on navigating this site.

Each of this site’s Disney World Itineraries has its own To-Do List. (For which itineraries are recommended for which weeks, see this.)

If you aren’t using one of this site’s itineraries, but rather are building your own itinerary, these To-Do Lists can serve as a model for you to create your own.

Note that a good travel agent, such as this site’s partner Destinations in Florida, can do almost all of this work for you, for free. [Read more →]

BOOKING WALT DISNEY WORLD FOR 2020

I can tell from my search traffic that people are already starting to plan their 2020 Walt Disney World vacations.

The Walt Disney World website currently only allows bookings through 2019…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 499 days ahead…but it’s a little complicated… [Read more →]

This To-Do List is for the Summer Itinerary.  For To-Do-Lists for other itineraries, see this.

A. MORE THAN 180 DAYS BEFORE YOUR PLANNED ARRIVAL DATE

(Note that a good travel agent, such as Destinations in Florida, can do almost all of this for you, for free. If you use Destinations in Florida as you travel agent through a link for this site–like this one–then they share a bit of the pixie dust they get from Disney with me.)

1. Confirm your budget, planned dates, intended hotel, kids’ development and heights, and your transportation choice and its availability for your planned dates. [Read more →]