Congratulations! You have booked your family's trip to Disney. That is no small feat with all of the options you had to choose from. But you’re not done yet. Below are the five things you should do before you travel in order to make your Disney vacation the very best it can be.
Book your dining reservations
Want to be transported to winter at Be Our Guest Restaurant, celebrate a special occasion at Chef Mickey’s or dine with the princesses at Cinderella’s Royal Table? You can make dining reservations up to 180 days before you travel, and you should -- popular restaurants book months in advance.
Order your custom Magic Bands
Magic Bands are very, very cool. These waterproof rubber bracelets let you unlock the door of your Disney Resort hotel room, enter theme parks, check in at FastPass, connect your Disney PhotoPass and charge purchases to your hotel room during your stay.
At least 11 days before you travel, take a moment to customize your bands and they will be sent to your home -- they’re really fun for the kids to open!
Between 10 and 6 days before you travel, you can still order custom bands and they will be waiting for you upon arrival.
Don’t worry if you forget. Although you won’t be able to customize your bands, you’ll receive plain bands when you check in that will still do all of those cool things.
Make your FastPass+ reservations
Disney World’s most popular attractions offer “FastPass” which lets you schedule a time to visit your personal not-to-be-missed attractions and avoid the long lines. You can make up to three FastPass+ per day, up to 30 days before you travel (or 60 if you are staying at a Disney World Resort).
Book carefully. Consider which parks you will be visiting each day, spread out your FastPass+ times to give you plenty of time to get from one to the next with lots of time in between to explore other parts of the park.
Consider buying a Memory Maker package
Disney World has professional photographers stationed around the parks who will happily snap your photo and link them to your My Disney Experience account. In the evenings, or after you arrive home, you will be able to log on to to view those images and order just the ones you want.
Better yet, you can purchase a Memory Maker package which will score you unlimited downloads of all of the photos taken (so be sure to grab Disney photographers whenever you see them in the park), along with a collection of attraction photos, the ability to add borders and stickers and “Magic Shots” where Disney characters will be magically added to some of your photos.
No, you don’t have to purchase it in advance, but doing so will save you $20. (Memory Maker is $149 if purchased in advance and $169 if purchased during or after your trip).
Mark your calendar to check in online
If you are staying at a Disney World Resort, be sure to mark your calendar -- ten days before you arrive, you can hop online and check into your hotel room. If you have a park pass for arrival day, just drop your bags and head out for fun -- Disney will text you your room number when your room is ready.
No park pass for arrival day? Consider lunch and shopping at Disney Springs while you await your “room is ready” text.
