Planning a trip to Disney - where to start?!?!?

[DTisMYdoctor]

Sorry, I know there are 1001 (and then some) threads about Disney (USA) but having had a scan through some, my head is in a whirl.

DH and I have tentatively been discussing a trip to Disney in 2015 (probably in October) with DS (who will be 7 then) - ages away I know, but I imagine it will be pretty expensive so need to think ahead so I can get an idea of how much we need to save for it. In an ideal world we'd like to aim for around 5 days at disney and tag on 3/4 days in New York at the start or end.

So, where do I start? What do I need to think about? Is it easy to book different components of the trip seperately or would I be better letting a holiday company do it for me? Any money saving tips? What are the pros/cons of staying in a disney hotel vs a villa. Can we do it without driving?

Any advice welcome!

Oh, and TheOriginal.. (apologies for shortening your nickname by the way, I can't seem to copy and paste it on my ipad or see it while posting to make sure I have it correct) did you book direct with United?

Hi DT - you reminded me that I am thinking of going back to my original name - much shorter and easier to type !

Yes I booked direct, just go to www.united.com only downside is you need to pay for the flights at the time, whereas with a travel agent I guess you could spread out the costs. I found united to be fab ( disclaimer I usually fly Ryanair ) . No fees for credit cards, luggage, soft drinks or food and all the latest movies on your personal screen, plus a tic tac toe game that DS wanted to play for hours and hours and hours with me. The seat space was standard - wish I was rich enough to fly Business class and get a bed like seat, but hey ho.

If you are only going for a week I think you have to make timing a priority so flying into Orlando International direct makes life a bit easier.

I was having a look at the Disney hotels/resorts last night as a friend is talking about going and for me the big downside would be that unless you pay for two bedrooms you are all stuck in one bedroom. Although our condo wasn't the most luxurious it was very nice to have quiet time away from the parks relaxing at the pool or in the living room/patio.

Re United and luggage.

You can check in one bag on United; any additional bags will incur a $100 (US) charge. They like many US carriers charge for any additional bags placed in the hold.

Is that one bag per person or family Attila?

I would check with United directly as their website does not make this entirely clear.

Surely its one bag per person which is what a lot of the british carriers now do

It's one bag per person including children ( although probably not infants)

It's a very generous weight allowance of 23kg per bag, which we managed to exceed on the way back due to DH buying a mahoosive case. We had the choice of paying $100 or jettisoning 2.5kg and unfortunately the other bags had already gone down the line.

DH stripped things out of his bag and put them into our hand luggage until the staff waved the bag on out of sheer exasperation.

Thanks for the luggage comments - prompted me to check what the allowance would be if we did book an internal flight between Orlando and New York and you do have to pay for baggage on those so useful to know we would have to factor that in.

Someone lent me a guidebook on planning a trip this week so I feel like I've gone from knowing nothing to being quite well informed! All from an idle comment last week 'wouldn't a trip to Disney when DS was around 7 be fun...'