Disney World 2020 - The Planning; decisions, decisions, decisions...

Photo by Benjamin Suter on Unsplash

Firstly, how gorgeous is that picture! I usually choose horizontal photographs for my blog posts as I like the symmetry, but this one was too beautiful to ignore! 

So, we are taking the plunge.... we are headed to Disney World in 2020. 

I hadn't realised exactly how much planning goes into a Disney World holiday, but thankfully there are many many websites to help you through the planning stages. 

Here is my take on the planning stages, and the decisions we've made for our family at this stage in our lives. 

Our Family

We are a family of five, with our three children - Miss 7, Mr 6, and Miss 3, by the time we actually land in Florida. 

So we've hit there stage with Miss 7 and Mr 6 where travel isn't such a daunting task. A few new iPad games and some Where's Wally books and they can pretty much entertain themselves for large amounts of time on a flight. 

Miss 3, on the other hand, will be more of a challenge. She's a wriggle who struggles to sit still for a three hour flight, so an 8 hour one is likely to be difficult. We decided that we were going to take the risk anyway, and just get on with the holiday. 

Realistically, we spent a lot of time on 7 hour flights when we lived in Dubai, with two kids who were much younger, and a lot less able to reason. 

I'm an over planner, so I'm sure we can cobble together enough entertainment for the flight, and if not, it's only 8 hours out of your life! Eeeekkk. 

When to go

For Disney World, this appears to be the all important question. And one that was answered for us by one, very important, factor - flight prices. 

We looked at direct flights from the London airports (we are in the Midlands, but travelling to London for the flights is fairly straightforward). Flights at Easter would have cost us £4,000. I have to say this in capitals FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS... for flights!

So.... ummm, no. 

Flights in May (in school term time), came in at £1,200, direct from Gatwick. 

We are very firmly in favour of term time holidays for our kids, mostly because of the price difference. I know that causes a lot of controversy, but we've made the decision that, as long as our kids are doing well at school, we are happy to take them out of school for two weeks a year. 

We have been very lucky so far that our school/council hasn't fined us. Although the fines would be nothing compared to the increased flight costs of going in the school holidays. 

So not only have we saved a fortune on our flights, but we will also be arriving at Disney World in one of the quietest times of the year. Which is a huge relief given Miss 3 does not like queuing. 

Where to stay

Having read a LOT of blog posts on this subject, I know that the simplest option in terms of getting around the parks, would be to stay on site at Disney World. 

Whilst this might be the simplest logistical solution to getting into the parks, it is not the best solution for us as a family of five. It's a long flight to get there and the entire Disney World experience is likely to be very over stimulating for our kids. I'm expecting meltdowns and complaining and moaning as par for the course.

So, to be frank, we are all going to need some space for some decompression time. That is not going to happen if we are all staying in one room. 

We are also going to want some time away from the parks to chill out and relax. So constant exposure to Disney theming is probably not going to cut it. 

We made the decision that villa was going to be the best bet for us. It gives us enough space to spread out, everyone can have their own rooms. We can have breakfast at the villa, in peace and quiet, and we have somewhere to retreat to, if it all gets a bit much for the kids. 

Plus, driving to and from the villa might tempt the kids to nap, which I suspect is going to be necessary, if we all want to get through the holiday in one piece. 

We booked a villa at Reunion Resort through Top Villas. They have already been fantastic with us, as we needed to amend the booking. As we have a night flight back, we have extended our stay by one night, so that we don't have to check out at midday on the day we leave. We can have a leisurely day in the villa, by the pool, and be rested and relaxed when we head to the airport. 

Reunion Resort is about a 20 minute drive from the parks, plus we know we are going to have to park and then walk to the entrance to the park. It is going to add on to our days; but I think it's the best compromise. 

We are unlikely to be in the parks from dawn until dusk, so being able to get out and to somewhere quiet and calm is going to be important for us. 

Universal? 

When I saw the price of the park tickets I almost cried. I am not careful with money, in fact it practically burns a hole in my pocket, but hitting "pay" to buy the tickets was a painful experience. 

Disney World currently has an offer of Get 14 days for the Price of 7... which for the five of us costs a grand total of £1,935.... ouch. 

That was hard enough to swallow, but then comes the big question - do we do Universal too? 

I am a HUGE Harry Potter fan, and I would love to see Harry Potter World at Universal. But those park tickets are also hideously expensive. We had quite a few discussions over a few weeks, trying to decide whether the kids would really get enough out of it, and whether it was really worth spending the money. 

In the end, the deciding factor for us was that we weren't sure whether we would do Florida again. There are lots of places we would like to visit, and Florida was an expensive holiday. 

After checking all of the discount  ticket websites we could find, we decided to buy the tickets through Disney and Universal direct. For a 14 day Disney ticket, and a 3 day Universal ticket, it was only about £50 cheaper to go through the discount websites, and for peace of mind we decided to book direct. 

We knew we didn't need 14 days at Disney and 14 days at Universal, as our kids are quite young, the Magic Kingdom is likely to be our main base. 

Character Dining

After a lot of (more) thought, we decided we weren't going to do any character dining at Disney or Universal. 

We've had friends go to Disney recently who said that their kids weren't that bothered about the characters, and getting up close to them. Plus it's another rather large expense, that we didn't really think was worth it. 

So we didn't bother to book any Disney dining when the reservations opened. 

Fast Passes

As we haven't yet hit the 30 day Fast Pass opening, I'm still trying to work out which Fast Passes we want. 

Miss 3 is too small for most of the bigger thrill rides; plus I'm not entirely sure that Miss 7 or Mr 6 will be too keen. We went to Cbeebies land recently, and both refused to ride on the Octonaughts roller coaster, which was pretty tame. 

So we are aiming for the first days at Disney and Universal to be based around the smaller rides, with no height limit. To be on the safe side I'll add some of the bigger rides in on our fast passes later on, and hopefully they'll be more keen after a week of riding roller coasters! 

Next Steps

So we've made quite a few decisions, which go against quite a bit of the advice available from seasoned Disney goers. Whilst staying on site would be magical, we just couldn't afford to spend the money, to ensure we got enough space and calm that we felt we would need. 

Hopefully we'll have made the right choices for us as a family. 

Next up - packing. We are attempting to pack light this time (as we'll have a washing machine); especially as we are expecting to come home with much more than we went out with! The kids have been given dollars for their birthdays and christmas presents from family and friends, so I suspect there will be a few more toys on the return journey! 

My next blog posts will be centred around packing both our suitcases and cabin bags for the trip. Once it goes live, I'll link to it HERE.