I had the experience of already planning 3 WDW trips, so
I took the lead in making our plans. My trip planning skills and in-park experience were some other reasons Brandi & James wanted us to go along with them.
The day after we found out that we were able to go we spent an evening at our house to do our initial planning.
My first task was to convince them not to stay in the small hotel room on Disney property and get a much roomier vacation home only a few more minutes away. We could split the cost, while getting more room and better amenities. It wasn't very difficult to do that when I showed them the comparison.
The couple of "extra magic" hours offered during our stay (which with our trip so close, was the only real advantage of an "on property") did not compare to the comfort and convenience of a vacation home.
We decided to stay in a 3 bedroom unit in Kissimmee just down the street from where Paula and I stayed last December. It had it's own private pool and a bedroom for Aria decorated with a Mickey Mouse theme.
Our next important decision was what type of park tickets we were going to purchase. Again, my knowledge of trip planning came into play. Instead of buying our 4 day park passes directly from Disney, I used a very popular discount ticket broker: Undercover Tourist.
We got a great deal. Paid for a 4-day park ticket and got a 5th day free. It was about $20 less each than buying from Disney as well. This made a big difference in our vacation. It meant we could visit all 4 WDW parks for a day and then go to Magic Kingdom a second time.
The next step was the logistics of our travel. We decided that we would leave very early on Saturday morning (4AM on March 5) so we could get there in time get enough sleep to be able to get up early and to go to the Magic Kingdom on Sunday.
Our "what we want to do" list included meeting all the characters that Aria liked, go to a character breakfast, see the fireworks and night time shows. There was more including a lunch at the "Be Our Guest" restaurant in the MK and taking a day to go to Cocoa Beach and enjoy the ocean.
When our evening of planning was over I had a list of the things I needed to make sure was did while we were in "The World".
The one major factor that made this trip to Walt Disney World different was the way a guest now has to make plans with Disney itself. It's done through a section of the Disney World website and on a smartphone using an app. Both are called "My Disney Experience."
Through "MDE" I was able to register our park tickets which allowed me to do a lot of planning. I made Fast Pass Plus and dinning reservations for each of our days in the park.
All of these plans were gathered together in my MDE online itinerary. Although the plans were on my account, once the others created their accounts I linked them so they could see them too.
Among other resources I used to set up our trip plans were online websites, All Ears.net, Touring Plans.com, Accuweather.com, wdwinfo.com, Trip Advisor.com/Cocoa Beach and about half a dozen WDW trip planning podcasts.
I also used digital copies of books on my Kindle, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and a "how to" guide that helped me learn the best way to use Fast Pass.
I put my "proven" trip planning tool into action, an Excel workbook with several spreadsheets. One with a overview of our trip day by day and 5 others, each dedicated to a day of the trip. All of them had lists of what we wanted to do each day in the order we needed to do them.
They weren't set-in-stone minute-by-minute marching orders but rather guidelines to help us do what we wanted to do. We could take our time and enjoy our day but my guide would keep us on track.
The guide sheets were works in progress right up until the night before we left. Although I printed them out so everyone could have a copy; I kept a digital copy on my phone so I could make changes as needed throughout the week.
By 9 o'clock on Friday night, March 4, all the planning and packing had been done. After a few hours of sleep we would pull out of our driveway, meet up with James & Brandi in Bowling Green and then head south.
