Since I spent nearly as much time researching and booking my trip to Disney World in Orlando as the actual time spent there, I thought I should include a little write-up on the basics of my planning.
There are four theme parks in the World. I was clueless as to how to divide my time.
Here are the steps I took to plan my trip:
1. Decide when to visit. See this site, or check the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World (available at your local library).
2. Go to Touring Plans to see chart of which parks are recommended for which days. Usually, a park is not recommended on any Extra Magic Hours day as this means a more crowded park.
3. Decide on how many days to spend in each park. My recommendations for a week, for a family with young children (aged 5-7), is 2 days Hollywood Studios (HS), 2-3 days Magic Kingdom (MK), 1 day Epcot (EP), 1 day Animal Kingdom (AK). We napped every day except for Animal Kingdom visiting day. Choose your schedule based on the recommended best days to visit each park.
4. Reserve dining locations through http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/restaurants/. The most coveted dining locations are: Cinderella's Royal Table (MK), Chef Mickey's (MK), Le Cellier (EP), Sci Fi Dine In Theatre (HS), Coral Reef (EP), and Ohana (Polynesian). I recommend also the Crystal Palace. I also recommend Tusker (AK), dining between 1-2 pm for automatic reservations at the Finding Nemo Musical. A very useful resource is Mouse Savers, which shows you how far in advance you need to book for each restaurant, which of course reflects a given restaurant's popularity. You should also book for the Fantasmic show dinner packages in Hollywood Studios to avoid lining up ultra early to get decent seats. The dinner package allows you to sit in a reserved section. Three restaurants have limited reservations for the package. You do not automatically get Fantasmic reservations by booking at those restaurants.
5. Choosing the rides: Measure your kids' heights in inches. This will help you to decide which rides to go on, since some have height restrictions. Check the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for a list of rides with comments on fear factor if you have children. You can cross reference this with the list of favourite rides at this website.
6. Find out which rides are currently not in operation. I didn't do this, so I don't have the link for it, but I was fairly annoyed to find out that the Tomorrowland Transit Authority was shut down for the duration of our visit.
7. I bought the RideMax software to schedule which ride at what time to save us time lining up. You input the rides you want to do, along with any time parameters you require (nap times, lunches, dinners). The software optimizes your schedule to minimize your time walking and/or lining up. It also manages to fit in any shows or parades you need to catch. Less brainwork for my $18.95. http://www.ridemax.com/ You may not need this software as much if you are visiting during a non-peak time of year, but I still found it useful to save me time in planning the order to visit rides. You can fiddle with this software, scheduling in naps and breaks, or using the natural breaks the software schedules in for you.
I haven't discussed where to stay. There is much available on the web for this research, multiple forums discussing recommended resorts, etc., including this one. Disney classifies resorts as being Deluxe, Moderate, or "Value". I had to disagree with the recommendation on the yourfirstvisit website to avoid Moderate Resorts. I found the idea of staying at a Value Resort (Pop Century) then switching to a Deluxe Resort during the same trip to save money to be repugnant as I would not want to unpack/pack twice in one trip. I was willing to pay more for the nicer accommodations and amenities of a Moderate Resort, since I love luxurious hotels. Also, the Unofficial Guide to WDW has quite comprehensive information about each resort. Some websites even recommend which rooms are preferable in each resort through their forums.
Regarding saving money, I bought a package from a WDW certified travel agent which included the Disney Dining Plan, Magic Your Way tickets, and accommodations. The hotel was only $97 and the Dining Plan was around $40 a day for adults and $11 for children. In retrospect, I felt that the Dining Plan encouraged overeating. There is no way I would normally have three desserts in a day, which is what we ate: one snack (usually dessert), and one dessert at lunch and one at dinner. These were all included in the plan. For breakfasts we drank milk purchased from the store at the resort and brought along Nutrigrain bars and ate these while waiting for the bus. That way we were able to arrive early every morning for the opening of each park.
Have fun planning your trip!
