[00:00:00] Dana Stanley: If you’ve ever said the words, we’ll go to Disney World someday. This episode is for you because that someday sneaks up on you fast. Suddenly your kids aren’t babies anymore. Everyone’s talking about Disney World, like it’s just a normal thing to do, and you realize you have no idea where to even start.

[00:00:20] Dana Stanley: Now that I’ve done this more times than I can count, and that’s planning for a real family trip to Disney World, I wanna walk you through exactly what I wish I’d known the first time around the timing, the age factor of your kids, the common mistakes I see over and over.

[00:00:40] Dana Stanley: And the things that make sense when you’re just starting out. Formal intro

[00:00:47] Dana Stanley: today, we’re breaking down Disney World Planning for absolute beginners. Whether your trip is a once in a lifetime thing or the start of a new family tradition. Maybe you went as a kid, but you’ve never been as an adult, let alone with your kids.

[00:01:03] Dana Stanley: I’m gonna tell you when to go, how long to stay, and the biggest planning myths that can throw first timers off. I

[00:01:11] Dana Stanley: starting with, when’s the best time to start planning for Disney World when. As in how soon is too soon,

[00:01:22] Dana Stanley: and if you’re listening to this and you have done nothing, I feel like that is the best place to start researching, planning for Disney World. So you’re already ahead of the curve just thinking about these things before you just randomly pick a resort and pick a day and get your credit card out.

[00:01:41] Dana Stanley: So if you’re going back and forth on when to actually start planning, if you can, you should start as soon as possible. Last minute trips are definitely doable. We actually plan our trips last minute, and I will tell you, I have not had first pick or first dibs on the room and the resort. That I actually really wanna stay in and probably the past four or five trips because we wait to the last minute and the rooms are gone.

[00:02:12] Dana Stanley: So that is the biggest thing, is that you’ll have first dibs on where you wanna stay. Once you find the perfect resort for your family and you wanna stay there, the worst thing is there being no availability and then you have to pick something else to make the dates work. And for me, this is the most important is where we’re staying.

[00:02:33] Dana Stanley: Ironically, classic, like do as I say, not as I do.

[00:02:36] Dana Stanley: What I always do and recommend my members do is look into renting DVC points first to save money if you’re planning on staying at one of the more high-end expensive resorts, and these are the resorts in Disney World that are going to be closest to the parks. So if you can imagine. Kind of like a radius.

[00:03:01] Dana Stanley: The closer circles that are close to all four theme parks are gonna be more expensive than the second tier, which is moderate resorts, and they’re gonna be more expensive than the third tier, which are value resorts. And the problem that I see a lot of first timers make is they come up with a certain budget.

[00:03:23] Dana Stanley: And they just start automatically looking at the resorts that have rates that they think are within their budget. Not knowing that you can save a ton of money and probably SA and probably spend just as much by renting DBC points at the nicer, closer resorts. You can think of the resort rooms in Disney World as kind of two buckets.

[00:03:48] Dana Stanley: You have the Disney Vacation Club rooms, and then you have the regular resort rooms that are booked through Disney. And the thing with both of them is once they’re gone, they’re gone. So the best chance you have of getting the best price for either is to book as soon as you can.

[00:04:10] Dana Stanley: And something to keep in mind that I’ve been thinking about specifically for 2026 is I think some, not a lot, but I do think some people have been putting off their 2025 trips until 2026. There have been rides that have been closed this year. Lots of renovations. Some resorts have been under refurbishments.

[00:04:37] Dana Stanley: I think there’s just gonna be a surge of people next year in 2026, and the more people and more people equals less rooms and less availability. I now, if you want the flexibility of canceling your room and having a lower cost upfront. You’ll want to skip renting DVC points and book through Disney directly, and that’s all the way out until October 31st, 2026 when I’m recording this.

[00:05:10] Dana Stanley: That’s like a little over a year out. The good thing about booking a package early is you’re gonna have an easier time getting the room you want and the room type that you want at the resort you want, but also, and this is a big one.

[00:05:26] Dana Stanley: You don’t have to wait for a promotion to apply it to your reservation, so you may be waiting to book because you think that there will be a discount or a deal coming, but it’s actually really easy to apply a promotion if you’re eligible for those dates after the fact by just modifying your reservation under your account.

[00:05:48] Dana Stanley: So if you’re booking through Disney and you’re not renting DVC points, there’s really no downside to booking as soon as possible. And that brings me to the next thing that can have people waiting to pull the trigger on a Disney World trip. And that’s the question of when is the best age to go to Disney World with your kids?

[00:06:11] Dana Stanley: This comes up probably once a week just in my own life, like chatting with neighbors and friends from school. And a part of me wants to say like every age is great in Disney because me personally, I have three kids, they are now nine, five, and almost two, and I have truly brought them at every age either.

[00:06:35] Dana Stanley: And I have truly brought them at every age, especially in the context of having multiple children. This can get to be a hard question to answer because maybe there’s, quote, a good age for the one child, but maybe a harder age for the other child. And I will say we have had trips that were for sure harder than others.

[00:07:00] Dana Stanley: Because of my child’s age. I actually think my easiest trip I’ve had was when I was pregnant. Believe it or not, I was pregnant with my third and my girls were three and a half and seven.

[00:07:15] Dana Stanley: I,

[00:07:16] Dana Stanley: so the best age is so dependent on. The family, how far apart the kids are in their ages and also their personalities. There was an age where my oldest was the hardest at that age, but my middle was super easy and vice versa, like the opposite with my third.

[00:07:38] Dana Stanley: So while I really do dislike this question. If you were to ask me like gun to my head, what is the best age to go to Disney World with your kids? I would say four years old is probably like the peak of a fun age to bring to Disney right before kindergarten with a huge asterisk because when they’re four, they’re usually not napping anymore.

[00:08:04] Dana Stanley: Which sounds like a good thing ’cause you don’t have to worry about nap times and schedules. But I actually think it’s hard when they’re not napping because you don’t have them resting as much in the middle of the day. So it’s hard to have late nights and Disney World just has a lot of late nights with fireworks and just dinners and parades and parties, all of those things.

[00:08:28] Dana Stanley: Whereas a two or 3-year-old. Taking a nap for sure in the middle of the day, whether it’s in the stroller or in the room, they can actually usually hang pretty late. There’s also the fact that if they are under three, they cost nothing in Disney. So you don’t have to buy them a ticket. They get in lightning lanes with you, which is an upgraded line that you pay for to skip the regular line.

[00:08:56] Dana Stanley: So if budget is a main priority for you. That really may be a factor of going before they’re three.

[00:09:02] Dana Stanley: Now, my son, who turns two next week, I am dying to get into Disney World because he is growing up so fast. Maybe it’s like a third kid thing or a boy thing, but he is talking so much and having conversations he understands so much. That I see him growing up truly like week to week before my eyes, and I’m just like, like, we have to get to Disney World because it’s actual magic to him right now.

[00:09:35] Dana Stanley: And then on the flip side, my niece is a freshman in college and is probably in love with Disney World more now than ever. So I guess my point is, is if you’re bringing the kids to Disney World and it’s your first time, I really think the best time to go is when you want to go and when you want to bring them.

[00:09:58] Dana Stanley: And there may be people in your family that are giving you. Alternate advice and that they’re totally entitled to their opinions. But really it’s up to you and you’re an adult and you can decide when you get to go. I covered the benefits of booking as soon as possible, but now the next question would be, when is the best time to visit Disney World?

[00:10:25] Dana Stanley: And I hate giving advice that says it depends, but it depends. Yeah, there are four factors, variables that I want you to be aware of before you plan a trip and deciding when to go, and that is the crowds. The crowd levels change a lot depending on the time of year. The weather can fluctuate a lot. Again, depending on the time of year, the pricing.

[00:10:53] Dana Stanley: And then also the holidays, meaning the seasonal parties and activities going on in Disney World mixed with your own availability and your school schedules. So for example, there are people that will visit in September because it’s the least expensive, but it’s also the peak for rain and hurricanes. And it’s also maybe when your kids are heading back to school and getting into a new routine like us.

[00:11:22] Dana Stanley: Which can make it really hard for a lot of families. Then December has lots of Christmas decorations, Christmas parties. The kids will have off from school for an entire week or two, but it’s gonna be the most expensive and the most crowded, depending on which week we’re talking about. We visited this past summer because there was a great promotion on the room and my kids were off from school.

[00:11:52] Dana Stanley: But it was so, so hot. Like, so hot you guys,

[00:11:58] Dana Stanley: and I feel like our trip would’ve been a lot more relaxed and easy if I wasn’t so concerned about the heat and the kids dehydrating or getting sunburned, all of the things. So knowing how to balance those four things and really figuring out. What is most important to you and your family is gonna be the key.

[00:12:19] Dana Stanley: Now, if this is your first trip to Disney, it’s most likely a big deal. You’re thinking of it as a once in a lifetime trip. You are not going to be visiting that often until you fall in love with it, and then you’ll be back. But when you’re choosing how many days, ideally. And this is just a fictional trip.

[00:12:43] Dana Stanley: I’m gonna say a week is ideal, seven days. And that won’t surprise some people, but it’s gonna surprise some of like, what do you do for an entire week in Disney World? Like you’re crazy. It’s a theme bark. But I want you to imagine this for a second. If you have a seven day trip, two of those days are just travel days.

[00:13:04] Dana Stanley: Okay? And if you’ve traveled with kids before. Especially if you’re flying, it’s an all day thing. You’re getting ready for the airport, you’re getting to the airport early, then you have the flight, then you’re getting to the resort. You’re waiting for your room to be ready, you’re getting unpacked, you’re pooped.

[00:13:21] Dana Stanley: So those two travel days are just kind of a wash. Same thing for the day that you leave, just kind of reversed. You’re packing, you’re tired, and you just wanna get home. So that leaves us five full days. And there are four parks in Disney World. So if you wanna visit each park, that’s four days right there.

[00:13:42] Dana Stanley: And that leaves you with one bonus day to either hang out at the pool or do like a doubled up park day where you can visit a resort that you’ve already been to, but you can go back and do it again, which is usually what we do. So day one, you’re traveling. Day two, you’re visiting Park one. Next day, park two.

[00:14:06] Dana Stanley: Then day four, you can rest or hit the pool or do a bonus day, whatever you want. Day five and six are the last two parks, and then day seven, you’re going home. If it’s your first trip, it can be tempting to stay off site because you don’t want to. Spend as much money. Maybe you feel like you’re kind of getting your feet wet and it’ll be nice to have a house or an Airbnb, but when you’re thinking about where is the best place to stay in Disney World for the first time, I really want you to consider staying on site, meaning at a resort that is inside on Disney World Property.

[00:14:50] Dana Stanley: And I already mentioned that there’s a lot of them from the lower budgets at the value resorts all the way up to. Deluxe. And I will tell you the majority of people I get into conversation with after their first trip, a lot of them stay offsite at an Airbnb instead of an actual Disney resort. And the first words out of their mouth when they get home are, we had a great time, but next time we’re definitely gonna stay on site.

[00:15:16] Dana Stanley: And there are some scenarios where this might not work out. Like if you’re just going to visit your family and you’re doing one park day, or maybe you’re doing a couple park days, but you’re also going to Universal. But if this is your once a year or once in a very long time, Disney trip, staying on property is going to be the only way to get all of the perks and just make the trip feel.

[00:15:43] Dana Stanley: As easy as possible versus staying offsite. It’s your first time and now on top of learning everything new and everything being a new experience for you, you are. Figuring out the traffic and how to get around. You’re probably driving your own car and having to park and it’s just gonna feel like a lot.

[00:16:06] Dana Stanley: And you’re gonna be tired before you even get to the parks. And I want this to be the easiest part of your trip.

[00:16:14] Dana Stanley: And I wanna get this out of the way of, I dunno if you wanna call it tough love, but you do not have to be. An expert going into this trip, like I am. Not saying that you have to spend hours reading and researching and memorizing and doing all the homework, but you do need to know some things. And unfortunately, there’s no true shortcut for some of this.

[00:16:42] Dana Stanley: It doesn’t take a long time, but if you’re going to Disney World, I want you to at least have a very basic understanding. Of the basics, so before you get lost in the details and skip ahead to things that you don’t quite need to know about, like lightning lanes and where to eat, dining reservations, all of it.

[00:17:05] Dana Stanley: These next key pieces are what actually in the long run are gonna make your trip feel smooth. Number one is how to get from where you are to where you wanna go.

[00:17:18] Dana Stanley: It could be from how to get from your bedroom to coffee. It could be how to get from your resort to dinner at Disney Springs. It could be how to get to the character meal that you booked, but just a basic understanding of where things are so that you know how to get around. This is something that really hangs people up and surprises them of a, how long it takes to get from different places.

[00:17:50] Dana Stanley: And B, after the fact, after zigzagging all over the place, they realize later, oh, we could have just taken a five minute mono ride or an eight minute Uber and saved us an hour. So just a basic knowledge of the map, essentially.

[00:18:07] Dana Stanley: Which brings me to number two, and that is to get familiar with the My Disney Experience app. Literally like today, download it. You have no excuse. There’s no reason that you don’t know what Magic Kingdom looks like or where Epcot is or any of the parks because you can pull it up in two seconds and I’m gonna be mean.

[00:18:29] Dana Stanley: But it’s 2025. You’re listening to a podcast right now. Like just download the app, like I know that you can do it.

[00:18:37] Dana Stanley: Beyond that, everything will be in the app, like once the ball starts to be rolling and you’re planning of booking lightning lanes, your dining reservations, mobile ordering, just finding characters when you’re in the park, even getting directions like I was saying before. I don’t know if I told you this, but I have no sense of direction.

[00:18:58] Dana Stanley: Literally, I will use that map for anything. If I am at a bathroom in Hollywood Studios and I need to go find my family, I will put it into the map and I will be holding it out in front of me like I am a 90-year-old woman who’s lost. So you can literally put in you know, space Mountain to Cinderella Castle or Space Mountain to the bus stop.

[00:19:22] Dana Stanley: It’s great. You can find directions to get anywhere that you need to go.

[00:19:27] Dana Stanley: And number three, I think we’re on number three, is to learn the lingo. And I don’t mean the acronyms and the abbreviations and like Disney World. And even like Disney World speak, I just mean, I just want you to know what all the terms mean,

[00:19:50] Dana Stanley: what a park hopper is, because you wanna know that about your ticket,

[00:19:54] Dana Stanley: what the skyliner is. What mobile ordering is, what Mickey’s very merry Christmas party is. And if you’ve just heard me say those words and don’t know what they mean, that is a sign that you should learn the lingo.

[00:20:10] Dana Stanley: Number four is to know the basics of opening. Protocols and procedures for each park. That’s really important for not wasting time in lines for rides or wondering where to go when you get there. Because,

[00:20:29] Dana Stanley: because if you go based off of the park hours that are listed on Disney World’s website and you get there right at park opening, especially if you’re staying on site. You’re gonna be missing out on the first 45 minutes to an hour of arguably like the best time of day. So it may be tempting or sound easier to just show up and kind of get in line for any old thing.

[00:20:58] Dana Stanley: Or we will get there and we’ll find some food, or maybe we’ll do characters, but a lot of certain food spots and even character spots aren’t open the first hour of the park. So you’re kind of just like wandering around, wasting time. And then the wait times start to build mid-morning. And I’ve seen a lot of first timers get stuck in those because they didn’t know.

[00:21:24] Dana Stanley: Just how to plan out the morning the best way that they could.

[00:21:28] Dana Stanley: Now, we’ve talked about a lot of things that would happen maybe when you’re home during the pre-planning stage of things. Now I wanna talk about some tips for once you’re on your trip and it’s your first time and.

[00:21:46] Dana Stanley: And the first thing that pops into my head is to build in a lot of rest time, like more than you think. Once you start planning things out of what you’re actually going to do on the trip, I wanna see some blank space of there’s just nothing going on. And I would rather you have more empty space built in.

[00:22:11] Dana Stanley: And not needed than the other way around. I get this feedback a lot from my members that they wish they planned a break on the third day. It seems like the general tipping point for most kids and adults just like human beings, is that they can kind of go hard for two days or maybe get a little less sleep for two days, or wake up early for two days.

[00:22:37] Dana Stanley: Or have two late nights, and then by the third day they’re shot. that’s the limit where you just need some rest and some downtime. I think people just underestimate how much they’re walking, how stimulating it is, how much mental brain work they are doing, and I’m talking about the adults, not even the kids yet.

[00:23:03] Dana Stanley: So then throw the kids into the mix. And they are going to be so, so tired. So plan to build in more rest than you think.

[00:23:11] Dana Stanley: Which leads me to another tip and that is to just pretend that you’re going back. I know this is most likely what you think is a once in a lifetime trip, but I want you to try to trick your brain. Into thinking that you can have rest, because if you don’t do something or if you miss out on something, or if you sleep in that, it’s not a big deal because you can always just do it next time.

[00:23:43] Dana Stanley: I’m telling you, if this is like the one tip you could take away, it would be that of just pretend like you’re going back.

[00:23:50] Dana Stanley: In that same line of thinking, I don’t want you to make any promises to anyone about this trip, including to yourself. Like, don’t make promises that you know for sure you can’t keep. Don’t promise that you’re going to meet Rapunzel. Don’t promise that you’re gonna sleep at the castle. You can’t, so definitely don’t promise that.

[00:24:14] Dana Stanley: Don’t promise you’re going to. I don’t know, like fight a storm trooper because there, there are just some things that a may not truly exist. Like maybe there are things that you have heard of, like maybe it’s like a myth or things you assume, or things from when you were little that you remember that just aren’t around anymore.

[00:24:37] Dana Stanley: Or b, things happen, like things rides close down. Things are getting renovated. A show can be canceled. There’s weather, people get sick, all the things. So the worst thing you can do on a first trip is to set the expectations of the trip too high.

[00:24:55] Dana Stanley: And I know, I mean, half the fun is getting the kids and the family pumped up for this trip, especially if you’re doing it as a gift or maybe you’ve been talking about it for literally years. But I want you to just make other things fun or sound exciting, like maybe you’re getting on the airplane. That’s very exciting and will kind of have to happen for you to get there.

[00:25:21] Dana Stanley: Or you can tell them about where you’re staying and maybe have it be a little bit mystery of, oh, I wonder what our room is gonna look like. I can’t wait to see what your bed looks like. Things like that, that are more immediate, satisfying things that you know are gonna happen for sure. Versus things that are going to happen in the park and then make things kind of like a question, like a little bit of a adventure or a guessing game of I wonder when we’re gonna see Mickey, or I wonder who we’re gonna see first, like this character or this character, or I wonder who’s gonna wake up first tomorrow, like you or your brother.

[00:25:59] Dana Stanley: Just little things that are kind of no-brainers that you know will happen versus promising. Versus promising a certain experience.

[00:26:09] Dana Stanley: So if you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to start planning for Disney, I really feel like right now is the perfect time because the truth is Disney World will never stop changing. There’s always going to be some new ride or a renovation or a different promotion or something exciting. So the best time to plan is when you can just imagine you and your kids there, and when you picture it, it makes you excited.

[00:26:40] Dana Stanley: If those two things are happening for you, then right now is the perfect time, and if you want help mapping it all out from choosing the best resort to sketching out your park days. And understanding what actually matters. That’s exactly what I built, laid back magic for. It is the number one place to start.

[00:27:01] Dana Stanley: If you’ve never been to Disney World as a family, I’ll leave the link to join and learn more about laid back magic in this episode’s caption. And I cannot wait to see you inside.

[00:27:14] Dana Stanley: And I cannot wait to see you inside so we can start planning your trip together. I.