Planning our Disney World Vacation - Part 1

Okay, I may be jumping the gun here. We are planning our next Disney trip for the fall of 2017, but it's never to early to start planning! So I thought I would take you along and share some tips on how we planned our last trip and what we are doing this time around.

Mickey Wreath in the Fall

So the first thing one should figure out is what time of year are you going and for how long. Once you have that in mind, you can start figuring out if there are any special events going on or how busy the parks are likely to be. In the springtime there is the Disney Flower & Garden Festival, late May and early July has Star Wars weekends for all those Jedis in training. Of course Christmas at Disney World is definitely on my bucket list for the future, but we had so much fun last fall, that is the time of year we decided to back in 2017. For us, fall is all about Epcot's International Food and Wine Festival, with Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party thrown in for good measure!

At the 2014 Food & Wine Festival

Once you have an idea of when you want to go the next important piece is the funds! Nobody has ever said that Disney World is a cheap vacation, however, I believe you get what you pay for when going to the 'World' and we don't mind splurging a little bit when we are there. So the Disney company, in all of it's infinite wisdom, has come out with their own vacation savings account - seriously, genius! Folks can head over to this website, (https://disneyvacationaccount.disney.go.com/) figure out when you're going, get an idea for a budget and then figure out how often you would like to contribute to the account. From there the budgeting tool will tell you how much money you will need to set aside to reach your goal, and it will automatically withdraw that amount from your bank account. The other nice thing about this - it's not just for Disney World! You can use this account to save for your next Disney Cruise, Adventure by Disney (Hello, Italy!!), or even save up for a trip to Aulani (Disney's Hawain resort).

Example of Disney's Budgeting Tool

Since we are not actually able to book our Disney trip until next summer, this at least gets us started with our vacation fund growing without us really having to worry about it! It's just a couple of ideas and tools, but I hope that got you thinking and excited about your next Disney vacation!