Should I be booking sooner than I usually do? Been a couple years since I've gone...

[Jupiter&Wolfe]

I haven't been back to the World since May 2011. I've tried to get back since then but I'm a busy, poor full time student so it's taken a couple years.

Well it's FINALLY looking like DBF and I can get back this coming May. Of course, I come onto the boards to get the latest scoop and find that the whole "World" has been turned upside down!

I won't be comfortable taking the big leap and booking until after all the Christmas madness, so that puts me about 4 - 5 months out. That's pretty normal for my booking time, but now that I'm reading about FP+ and rooms selling out quickly, etc etc.

Should I be worried about waiting to book? I'm staying open minded about all the changes, I just want to make sure I'll really be able to take advantage of it and not miss out on my favorite attractions.

And while we're on the topic, is it currently assumed that all the MyMagic+ and FP+ and MB's will be rolled out and fully operational by May??

Thanks for any help!

 

[matthewhavens]

I haven't been back to the World since May 2011. I've tried to get back since then but I'm a busy, poor full time student so it's taken a couple years.

Well it's FINALLY looking like DBF and I can get back this coming May. Of course, I come onto the boards to get the latest scoop and find that the whole "World" has been turned upside down!

I won't be comfortable taking the big leap and booking until after all the Christmas madness, so that puts me about 4 - 5 months out. That's pretty normal for my booking time, but now that I'm reading about FP+ and rooms selling out quickly, etc etc.

Should I be worried about waiting to book? I'm staying open minded about all the changes, I just want to make sure I'll really be able to take advantage of it and not miss out on my favorite attractions.

And while we're on the topic, is it currently assumed that all the MyMagic+ and FP+ and MB's will be rolled out and fully operational by May??

Thanks for any help!

You certainly don't need hotel or FP+ reservations now (you can't book FP+ until roughly 60 days out anyway). And the whole FP+ system could change three times by then.

What you do want to book now is dining as you are coming up on 180 days from your trip. If you want to eat dinner at Be Our Guest you will need to book at almost exactly 180 days from your planned trip.

You don't need to have a room booked or tickets or anything like that. Just plan out a pretend trip on the calendar and book all your dining around that fake trip. You will need to hold the reservations with a credit card but if you don't go on the trip or change your dates you just cancel and reschedule the dining with nothing lost. But if you don't book your dining 180 days out you will miss out on the flexibility of picking the restaurants and times you want.

That is all you have to do now. The rest can wait until after Christmas.

 

[Hootch]

book my room a few months in advance to ensure I get the AAA discount. There may be some types of rooms that sell out early, but in most cases you can get into pretty much any resort with a little flexibility.

As the PP noted, some restaurants book up early but you can find somewhere decent to eat pretty late in the game. It should not be a problem 4-5 months out unless you have a must do. (My then fiancee, now wife, did a trip right before finishing grad school. I don't think we could afford sit down meals then.)

FP+??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

[Cafeen]

If you know when you're going and where you want to eat on those days, go ahead and make ADRs when it's 180 days from that date of dining. You don't need a resort reservation to do this (I've done it a few times when I delayed booking my trip). You won't get the "+10" perk, but otherwise you can have at it. (Note: There is a planned change to make all TS locations require a cc-guarantee. This was pushed back and it's still just signatures, character meals (or a restaurant that houses a character meal), and a few other special meals (BoG is one of them).)

Outside of the ultra-popular and busy, a few months out you should have plenty of availability.

For FP+, don't sweat it yet. The furthest out booking is rumored to be is 60 days (and that's what's reportedly going on right now), so you should be all set by that time.

As far as the rooms, I'm not sure that rack-rate rooms sell out all that often. What you may encounter is discounted rooms selling out quickly, so if there pops a discount for your time frame, you're going to want to jump on that ASAP.

 

[Jupiter&Wolfe]

Thanks for the reassurance, guys! I think I was just getting nervous due to all the big changes happening, I feel like I'm walking in as blind as the first time I went to Disney!

I'm not usually one to make ADR's really far out as I like the flexibility of changing my park days, I usually only make one or two throughout any given trip. I might try to hop on to a ressie for BOG, but I need to come up with some definite dates to do that so it's a big maybe!

Thanks again!

 

[diskev]

Book like you usually do. It's what I do and it works fine. Some will suggest that you might not get ADRs you want inside the 180 day window, but I've never NOT gotten what I want and I book ADRs around the 80 to 100 day mark. This includes my BOG dinner. When it comes to what you want, persistence is key.

Have fun!