When Disneyland in California had its opening day, Walt wasn’t thinking about high heels sinking into the pavement. But the asphalt was so…new, the temperature ended up being 100 degrees, and that’s exactly what happened.

He never could have planned for the number of fake tickets, traffic, or plumbing strikes.

Walt Disney, the man himself, couldn’t plan for these flaws, so what makes us think we can when it comes to planning a trip to Disney World?

WE JUST WANT TO KNOW.

In this post, I’m covering the pillars of planning a trip. A clean slate is the best place to start when planning for Disney World; you can set an intention, potentially avoid crowded times (or as kids say, “peopley”), and get a feel for what to expect.

The imperfect details — like the new asphalt and plumbing strike — are the things we throw into the “expect the unexpected” bucket. The “kids will be kids” bucket. The “don’t sweat the small stuff” bucket.

Follow these and when disaster inevitably strikes, it won’t matter — you’ve already made your trip bulletproof.

6 steps for How to Plan for Walt Disney World in 2024

Walt’s opening day of Disneyland may have been a mishap, but the pillars of his new theme park were solid. They were the bones that held his vision together, and you can do the same thing for your vacation.

Start with these six steps:

• Know your intention
• Book your resort
• Sketch out your trip
• Buy tickets
• Make dining reservations
• Craft your park days

Let’s dive in…

01. Set an Intention and Start a Mood Board

With all the new stuff coming to Disney World this year, this is probably the most important step in how to a trip to Disney World in 2024 with kids, and the step that almost eeeeveryone will skip.

Ask yourself: what feelings do I want my family to come home with?

When you start with this question and keep asking it, it cuts out the noise and keeps your mind clear. Here are some prompts to get you started:

My vacation will be worthwhile if __________. 

When I come home, I want to feel __________ and __________. 

The most important thing is for my family to have feelings of __________.

I want to remember that we’re taking this trip because __________ and __________.

Maybe your intention is to have an escape. Or give your dare-devil kids tons of adventure. Use Pinterest, Canva, or create an album on your phone to organize any visuals that speak to you. You can see what I pinned for a past trip on this pinboard.

For each step of your planning, ask yourself: does this support my vision? If not, leave it be.

02. Book Your Resort

If you’re like me, you get overwhelmed when you think of your trip all at once. What most people don’t realize is the biggest step – booking your trip – is actually the easiest.

Figure out what park you want to visit the most and from there you can decide what would be the most convenient for you to stay. For us, we’d rather get a smaller room somewhere in closer proximity to the parks then a bigger room farther away.

For example, if you know you’re going to be going to Magic Kingdom the most, you may want to stay at the resorts closest: the Polynesian, Contemporary, or Grand Floridian.

Or if you’ll be hopping into Hollywood Studios a lot for a little Star Wars fan, it would be nice to be able to take a Skyliner ride back to your resort.

I have something that will help you here. Save this resort transportation chart to give you an idea of resorts that have options to walk, take a boat, monorail or Disney’s new Skyliner.

Ok, you noticed budget isn’t mentioned in this step. That’s because sometimes it’s better to start backward; budget for the vacation in your mind instead of squeezing your vacation above what you can’t afford.

Some ideas to get the most for your money:

• Look into renting DVC points to stay at a deluxe resort

• Buy slightly discounted tickets

• Bring your own stroller since it’s free to gate-check

• Order groceries to the room to save on water, snacks, and small meals

03. Sketch Your Trip

Just like an artist sketches in their lines before adding paint, you’re the artist here. Before setting anything in stone, start filling in these details:

• Your travel dates
• Festivals + Events
  Think fireworks, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, etc.
• Crowd level predictions
  I like the free crowd calendar from UnderCover Tourist. This can give a great baseline when you don’t know where to start and has events, too.

Look over my shoulder as I sketch out an entire trip in 15 minutes here.

04. Buy Tickets

Now that you have a sketch, buying tickets and making park reservations are easy decisions. Once your tickets are purchased and tied to your My Disney Experience account you can make park reservations here if you need to.

Note: park reservations aren’t needed if you buy date-based tickets.

05. Make your Dining Reservations

60 days before your check-in, at 6:00 AM EST is the start of your Advanced Dining Reservations. Keep in mind that 60 days doesn’t mean “2 months”, I like to use this calculator and subtract 60 days from my check-in to be sure.

My biggest trick for deciding where to eat in Disney World is pretty laughable, and my husband HATES when I do this.

Just look at the menus.

Download the My Disney Experience app (free) and start clicking around, and search. Start with the menu at Jungle Navigation Co in Magic Kingdom if you’re looking for a place to get started.

I’m not stressed about dining reservations in 2024 for two reasons: the cancelation policy just changed up to 2-hours before, making it easier than ever to get last-minute reservations.

Second, I use Mouse Dining which send me alerts when there are cancellations. No matter the demand, we’ve always gotten the reservations we wanted, even if I didn’t get them 60 days before.

“Getting dining reservations” is the answer I get most when I ask my friends what’s stressing them about Disney planning. And I get it. Reservations for popular restaurants can seem hard to come by.

Learn everything in my arsenal to get the reservations you want by joining my members-only planning guide, Laid-back Magic.

06. Craft Your Park Days

Fact: having a general idea of what time you want to get to the park and where you’re headed first takes about 9283 vacation-pounds off your shoulders.

You cannot, will not, and should not see and do everything the park has to offer. Go back to your intention when you’re feeling any FOMO.

If you’re worried about waiting in lines all day — as you should — brush up on Lightning Lanes before you leave, even if it’s the night before!

Lightning Lane Multi Pass is a paid add-on that lets you skip the lines for most things in WDW and can save you hours of waiting in lines. It’s great, but you have to know how to use it. Unfortunately, buying Multi Pass is just one step.

I’ve figured out the simplest way to use Lightning Lanes, learned a lot of tricks, and put it all into this tool.

How to Plan for Walt Disney World in 2024 with kids, in conclusion…

To keep this from being the longest post ever, this is what I feel like you absolutely HAVE to know going to Disney World in 2024 with kids.

When it comes to planning, I believe there are three things that everyone needs: support, knowledge, and intention. Hopefully, this has given you a portion of that.

You got this!

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For more Disney World planning, here’s how I can be of help:

• Subscribe to my newsletter where I give weekly planning tips and Disney news (the kind you should know, not the silly stuff.)
• Join Laid-back Magic, my members-only planning guide and community to help you plan your vacation.
• Follow me on Instagram where I share tips and tricks for taking the kids to Disney World.