First time Disney World trip - Advice please

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Hi,

I'm wanting to take my child to WDW in Florida, I've been looking for 2025 as I can't find anywhere you can book further in advance.

Can someone give me some general advice on best places to stay, best time of year to visit etc?

I'm also wanting to know the cheapest way of doing this? I know you can book Disney hotels which can come with park tickets and dining plans and they (understandably) cost a lot of money.

Do people tend to go for this option or do people stay in 'normal' self-catering hotels and book tickets separately?

Also, how much spending money (for food and in general) do people take?

It would just be me and my daughter (7)

Thank you 😊 xx

i stayed at a airbnb theres reviews you can check.Nicer than a hotel room but cheaper .You have to pay for parking at disney hotels as well as parks so you can save on parking.You really need to rent a car to get around

kayak is good for comparing cheaper flights and car rentals.I recommend national car hire its the only one without surprise fees.Most of them add loads of fees at airport.Make sure you get insurance for the car rental before the airport

April apparently good i went in august the wet season ,3 weeks is a good time as theres so much to do out there .I got a multi ticket between seaworld and disney.

for august i would book in January

aldi is the best supermarket to go to over there ,we took a cooler backpack and did picnics

It doesn’t always work but sometimes booking a fly+drive with British airways works out cheaper than booking them separately. Miami is always cheaper and the drive up/down is very easy. But Orlando can be priced well, you just have to keep looking.

If you just want Disney and nothing else then I would price up on staying onsite with tickets and the free dining plan (if you book now for 2025 then it’ll be available for most dates). That way all food is sorted and you’d just need souvenir money. Parking is free for on site guests so factor that in as it’s a lot if you’re staying off site. And then book your flights separately. 99% of the time it will be cheaper to that instead of booking a package holiday.

The Dibb is a good disney site specifically for Brits: https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/index.php

We also did lots of research on thedibb before we went many years ago so I highly recommend reading up on there

You need to decide if you’re prepared to hire a car and drive because if not it limits your options. I wouldn’t rely on hotel free shuttles. There are loads of hotels and condos in Orlando and you can pay as much or as little as you want for accommodation. Bear in mind most hotels charge a “resort fee” per night.

disney hotels are much more expensive, but include Disney transportation which is frequent and early park access. Downsides as well as expense are you’re limited to Disney food. Tickets aren’t included but can be bundled.

do you only want to do Disney or do you want to do other things in Orlando - universal, Kennedy space centre, sea world etc?

We're also going (again) next year!

We've done it several different ways, all with their own benefits and disadvantages:

VRBO villa, plus car.
VRBO villa, used Uber and Lyft.
Disney's Saratoga Springs resort, dining plan, no car.
x2 maisonette-style villas, shuttle service, no car.

Conclusions:

For us, as a family, we prefer the villas booked through VRBO, with park tickets and flights booked separately. We found hiring a car to be unnecessary, even to go shopping at the malls or to go out to eat in the evenings- Uber and Lyft worked really well, and of course meant no car park fees or rental costs. Plus, no-one had to drive.

The year we stayed on Disney and had the dining plan was the year we had the Olympics here, and there was a never-repeated 25% discount. It's too expensive normally. The dining plan was great, but we did end up wishing we had gone outside of Disney to other places.

Transport around Disney itself is easy and plentiful- if you have a car you can drive to one park, park there, and use the transport system to hop to other parks.

The two places that had shuttle service were ok, but mostly the shuttles were at inconvenient (for us) times, and were nearly always crowded.

I book flights in December at the latest. Usually BA direct, although last time we split the journey and knocked a couple of hundred each off the price. It made for a very long day of airports and flying though.

You need to decide if you want to share a hotel room, or want a bedroom each, how you want to get around, where else you want to go etc.

The cheapest option for us has been the villa/no car option, but we're a family of four who all want our own rooms.

IMO the best time to go is the latter half of August. Somewhat cooler, although rainstorms happen sometimes, and the crowds are ever-so-slightly thinner.

Edited to add: a car is a good way to get around, but gets unbelievably hot in the car park upon your return. Also, make sure you do something to identify your rental car to make it stand out from the hundreds of identical ones, so you're not left wandering around zapping cars with the remote control thingy (voice of bitter experience)

Have a look at disney accommodation deals now for next year with the free dining plan. If you want to lock in the deal now you can book with a deposit and then adjust dates and hotels once you've found a decent flight.

I'd recommend to stay in the Disney 'bubble' for a first trip, if you can afford it. A week is enough, but 10 days or 2 weeks will give you more time to relax and visit other attractions and shopping without feeling rushed.

Google crowd calendar predictions for 2025 to get a feel for a good time to visit eg Undercover Tourist. Every month has pros and cons, seasonal events, US holidays, so read or watch YouTube to get an idea of what you want to experience.

A car is not needed. All transportation within Disney is free, and Uber or Lyft are plentiful and reasonably priced.

We're going again this summer.
This time we're doing villa and not getting a car this time - Lyft/ Uber fine, and we'll not have to pay for park parking.
Food is expensive.
You can buy the park tickets in advance through Attraction Tickets and pay off before you go.
We're flying to Tampa this time, and the transfer is only about an hour.

Thank you all for your suggestions 💕 they've been really helpful to read. Sounds like I've got some thinking to do about accommodation and how to get around while we're there!
Thanks again. I hope those of you going back have the best time 😊

Cheapest is to stay at a cheap hotel with shuttle near Disney.

And only do Disney to get maximum value from your 14 day tickets.

Else it gets very expensive to hire cars /do other parks etc.

I have done it many times just using hotel shuttles (and occasional Uber when staying late)

(And yes it's nicer staying on site and in the bubble but it's also very much more expensive due to that niceness)

Cost are so variable.
When we went as a family of five it was way cheaper to stay on site with free dining, because we filled the room to capacity. We could afford a moderate, upgraded to table service so did character dining etc.
Going as a couple this summer we're staying off site. But the cheapest Disney (All Stars) is only about £200 more for the week.

Shop around!.

Consider:

The heat. It is HOT. We froze bottles of water overnight and took them in our backpacks. There are water fountains in the parks (we got D&V from these though!)

The walking: parks are HUGE, we did over 20,000 steps every day. Comfy shoes are essential.

The queues: can be 2-3 hours queuing for one ride. Download the queue APP, it will tell you the queue times for each ride. In the heat, it is very uncomfortable to stand and queue even when in the shade.

The tipping: factor this in to every single restaurant visit, eating out is very expensive and tipping is expected.

Parking: if you hire a car, parking is $25-30 per park, work out the cost and budget this expensive extra cost.

Merchandise: At the parks: extortionate prices, you can get most cheaper in Walmart or some of the souvenir shops that are dotted around.

It’s a great holiday if you love shows and rides, it’s not a relaxing holiday, but you can take rest days and go to a water park or a day at the pool.

Caveat to say I have not used their services and have no affiliation to them but am signed up for updates Ocean Florida look like you can book trips up to 2027 which could be useful for a longer planned trip https://www.ocean-florida.co.uk