Preparing for our trip

As we get closer to our Walt Disney World vacation, I think it is real important to make sure you are ready to enjoy every moment.

Have you ever gone someplace and spent that much money to be disappointed?  I’ve had clients do it…. even though I tried to prepare them for everything.

By preparing  I mean paying attention to everything leading up to your trip.

When we travel, we make our reservations almost a year in advance. We start looking at flights as soon as our three favorite airlines, Delta, Jet Blue and Southwest releases their flight schedule for our travel dates.

But we usually fly Southwest because of all the options we have. During this trip we will be flying out of Buffalo, New York because of better flight schedules for our trip.

Once our Disney reservations are made, our flights are made, we turn our attention to park hours at Walt Disney World. We try to loosely plan our days at the parks. We pretty much know what attractions we like the best so it’s really easy for us.

Tip:  If you are not extremely experienced in Disney travel, you are better off working with a travel agent who is.

It can save you time, aggravation and money spent. You do not pay any extra money to the travel agent to guide you as you plan your trip.

Disney pays us to make sure you have the most magical vacation!

Look for this sign when working with a travel agency.

I am proud to say that the agency I work for, http://www.upanduptravel.com/ has qualified. Every agent we have is trained by Disney and has a lot of personal experience at all Disney destinations.

Then we decide which table service restaurants, if any, we’d like to eat at. You may request dining reservations 180 days prior to your trip.

My wife and I don’t eat at a lot of sit downs because we don’t have those eating habits. But we have friends that book table service for lunch and dinner so it’s important to them.

Once dining reservations have been secured there isn’t too much to worry about until you hit that magic number on your countdown of sixty days! That’s when Fast Passes can be made if you are staying on property.

TIP:  We are going to be at Walt Disney World for eight days but I’ve only booked fast passes for six days so far. I have two days without any plans at all. Why you ask? Because we might want to spend some time at our resort relaxing. After all, we are on vacation. If we decide to go to the parks on those two days, which we probably will, I’ll make the fast passes that morning.

So our flights are booked….. our resort is booked…. our dining is booked….. our fast passes are booked….. the countdown is progressing…. we are all set right? Not exactly.

We make sure we are in shape for the ten mile walking days by walking every day here at home. You wouldn’t believe how many people have had their vacation ruined because they were so tired after two days that they couldn’t hardly move during the rest of their vacation.

My wife and I walk at least two to three miles every evening after work. Even on the days that I play golf and walk five to six miles on the golf course, we walk together in the evening.

My wife walks a couple of miles every day the weather allows during her lunch hour at work. We make sure we can walk ten miles a day during our Disney trip…. and I’ll be sixty six years old next month. I want to be walking all over Walt Disney World when I’m in my eighties!

Establish some form of exercise program that allows you to get in better shape before you go so your vacation isn’t ruined from being overly tired.

Another thing to remember is make sure you wear good comfortable footwear while at Disney.I know some of you can’t wait to get into your flip flops…. and I don’t know how you do it.

I always recommend a good pair of walking shoes or sneakers that fit really well. I would never buy new shoes or sneakers and wear them for the first time at Disney World. Put a few miles on them first while at home.

But I’ve also seen ladies walking around the parks in stilettos! So if you are comfortable wearing and walking in them, go for it.

Once all your plans are made… and the countdown is getting close the only thing you have to do is watch the weather reports for Walt Disney World so you know how to pack for your trip.

For our April trip the weather is foretasted to be in the upper 80’s to low 90’s during the day and upper 60’s during the nights for me, it means shorts, tee shirts, a polo shirt or two and a couple of bathing suits and tank tops for pool days. For my wife it will be caprices, shorts, tee shirts, bathing suits and if I know her, a sweater.

We will also pack our light rain coats and our small umbrellas in our day packs to have on the days it looks like it could get wet. But quite frankly, I’m not worried about a little liquid pixie dust falling on me.

So there you have it…. planning tips and how we do it for ourselves…. and our valued clients.

My next blog post won’t be until April 18th while doing my live trip report for our first day at Walt Disney World. I hope you enjoy reading them and follow along.

Contact me today and let me help make your trip to all Disney destinations special!