So you have booked your trip to Walt Disney World, now what? You are looking to build that excitement. Most people book their vacation about a year in advance, how do you keep that excitement going for a year? There is so much you can do to help fuel the fun of planning our vacation with your family. I have 2 boys, a 7 year old and a 2 year old. We always have a Disney Vacation in the works, so how do we keep the excitement up? I am going to share some of the fun things we do, to make that year fly by.
As soon as we decide we are going to book a trip, we sit down as a family and decide what resort we are going to stay in. We look online, we look at pictures and themes of the Resorts. We decide what resort we are going to stay at that year. Then the day that we book, we have a Disney Dinner. I usually make Mickey Waffles, a favorite of my family. We talk about our visits from the past, and what rides we love, and even better yet, what ride my 7 year old might be able to ride for the first time this trip due to his size.
Do we do something Disney everyday or every week, no! I try to at least once a month until we get to our 180 mark for our Dining Reservations, to have a Disney Themed night. We regroup and talk about our trip, and I plan a movie night and dinner that is totally Disney Themed. We have watched Wreck It Ralph and had “Sugar Rush” Ice cream cones after, or watched Star Wars, and had “Death Star” shaped Pizza. This is where you can really have fun with it. This always help build excitement coming up to your vacation at least once a month. My children always look forward to this, and know that we will have at least 12 movie nights before our trip!
When we get to our 180 day mark for reservation, that night, we always order Pizza, sit down as a family and talk about what places we have loved in the past to eat. Everyone gets a vote and we put together what we want for reservations, and always have one or two back ups in case I can’t get a reservation wanted. This is always fun, because we always laugh and remember all the past trips, which also build excitement for the upcoming one. It looks like a fantasy football draft at our kitchen table as we decide where all we want to go, and it’s always a debate. This is my husbands favorite activity we do while planning our trip. Also face it, we all love to eat! That’s half the fun of Disney!!
If you stay on Disney property you get to plan your Disney Fastpass selections 60 days in advance. When we get to this day, we always watch YouTube videos of POV rides in the Parks. This is my favorite, because my son gets so excited. As we are watching videos, I get all of our “faves” written down so I can get the fastpass selections together at the 60 day point. I know we have 3 per day, so we narrow down our favorites and get a plan of action in place. To make this fun, again, we make a party out of it! At 60 days we start our Disney Chain! This is a chain I make with construction paper and put it on our mantle. Every day the children get to take one link away, which is counting down our days to FUN!
When we get to the week before we leave, this is where we do something to get ready for the trip every night. We have our Disney Chain, that we take a link off every day, and that last week I make it a party. We have had party horns, silly string, bubbles, streamers, whatever I can think of to make this part of the day fun. Also, I go to the dollar store and have little treat bags with one thing in a bag every night. Things might include: A water bottle, sunglasses, a little toy that they can play with on a ride, the Disney activity books, anything I can find at either the dollar store or the Dollar Spot at Target! My kids love this part! Each night they know they are going to get a little treat bag with something for our fun vacation!!!
Then, the day of our trip, I always wake the kids up extra early, because we drive, and they each get a new shirt to wear for the trip, and a small treat bag with snacks and a small, again dollar store, toy to play with on the ride, and away we go for our amazing Disney Vacation!
Long story short, there are MANY ideas of things you can do to build excitement even a year in advance!! What have you done to pass the time until your next Disney Vacation? Let us know in the comments below!
When you’re ready to book your Disney Vacation, be sure to email Angela at [email protected] or contact your favorite Enchanted Adventures Agent!
