What to do after you book your Disney trip

Congrats on booking your Disney Trip! There are quite a few important dates ahead of you and a good amount of planning!

HERE’S WHAT WE WILL COVER IN THIS POST..

Create your My Disney Experience (MDE) account
Link your Disney reservation to your MDE
Make Park Pass Reservations
Dining reservation booking window opens
Online check-in begins
Final payment deadline
MagicBand deadline
MemoryMaker deadline

MY DISNEY EXPERIENCE ACCOUNT

Before we jump into these important dates, you’ll need to set up your My Disney Experience (MDE) account. Below is a video all about the My Disney Experience app. You can watch the beginning to see how to set up an account.

Link your reservation to MDE

Now that you have an MDE account, it’s time to link your Resort Reservation to your account. This is very simple to do, and it is only necessary if you did not already book your reservation through your account.

Here is a video to help you link your reservation to your MDE account:

Make Park Pass Reservations

This is only necessary if you do NOT have date-based tickets, like Military Salute Tickets.

If you booked a resort/ticket package, you have date-based tickets and do not need to make Park Reservations.

If you purchased your tickets online or with a Disney Travel Planner, and your tickets have a specific start date, then you have date-based tickets, and you do not need to make Park Reservations.

60 DAYS BEFORE CHECK-IN

Make Dining Reservations

Cinderella Castle with Cinderella's Royal Table restaurant inside at Magic Kingdom — Grab reservations for popular restaurants like Cinderella’s Royal Table inside the castle ASAP when your dining reservation window opens.

If you are staying at a Disney Resort, mark your calendar for 6am EST 60 days before check-in. This is the time you can book all of your Dining Reservations for your entire stay – up to 10 days.

This puts you at an advantage trying to get those hard-to-book restaurants like Cinderella’s Royal Table (CRT), Be Our Guest, Oga’s Cantina, or ‘Ohana. You are even more advantaged if you are making those hard-to-get reservations for the end of your trip.

For instance, if you are booking Oga’s Cantina on day 7 of your trip, then you are able to book that reservation 66 days in advance since you are booking it 60 days before your check-in date!

If you are not staying at a Disney Resort, you will have to set your alarm for 6am 60 days before each reservation date. So if you want to make dining reservations for days 1, 2 and 3 of your trip, you will have to make those reservations 60 days before day 1, and then 60 days before day 2, and then again 60 days before day 3. Of course you could just wait until 60 days before day 3, which will be fine in a lot of cases, but not for those hard-to-get restaurants.

Online Check-In

Online Check-In also becomes available 60 days before your check-in date. This is completely optional, but it does allow you to put in a few specific requests before you show up.

This is also where you can let Disney know when you plan to arrive. They will try to have a room ready for you, although it’s not guaranteed until 3pm.

The greatest benefit of online check-in is skipping the hotel lobby when you arrive. That’s right! You can go straight to the room or the parks using your MagicBand.

30 DAYS BEFORE CHECK-IN

Disney World Package Final Payment Due

Disney World Package (Room plus Tickets and/or Dining) final payments are due at 11:59pm EST 30 days before your check-in date.

**Room-only reservation final payments are due at check-in.

10+ DAYS BEFORE CHECK-IN

Order Magic Bands

Although MagicBands are no longer free with your resort reservation, I still highly recommend them. For more on why I recommend MagicBands, along with your other options, go HERE.

MagicBands are waterproof wristbands that act as your room key, your ticket into the parks, and can also be linked to your Disney Resort room for purchases around Disney property. They can also be used to connect Disney PhotoPass images to your My Disney Experience account. At some attractions, the MagicBand will automatically add pictures from the attraction to your photos in your My Disney Experience account.

If you are staying at a Disney Resort, definitely order your MagicBands before your trip (see deadlines below). You will save money, and you will be able to skip the lobby and go straight to your Resort room when you arrive.

Complimentary Magic Bands in each color — Solid Color Options – starting at $10 for Disney Resort guests when purchased pre-arrival; starting at $20 when purchased at Disney World.

To order your MagicBands, sign in to your My Disney Experience account on the Disney website. Hover over the “My Disney Experience” tab, and select “My MagicBands and Cards.” From there you will be able to order your bands.

If you already have MagicBands from a previous trip, you can plan to use those. They are not transferrable to other guests, so make sure you are bringing the one that is connected to your My Disney Experience Account.

Examples of Premium Options – starting at $15 for Disney Resort guests when purchased pre-arrival; starting at $25 when purchased at Disney World.

7 DAYS BEFORE CHECK-IN

If you are staying at a Disney World Resort, you can purchase and book your Lightning Lanes for your entire trip at 7:00AM EST seven days before check-in. Before going to purchase your Lightning Lanes, make sure you’re ready by doing these things.

4+ DAYS BEFORE CHECK-IN

Memory Maker

Man and woman at Animal Kingdom theme park. — PhotoPass Photographers offer “Magic Shots” where they tell you what to do, but you don’t know what the picture will be until it shows up on your My Disney Experience app.

Memory Maker is a photo service Disney offers. You get unlimited digital downloads of all your Disney PhotoPass photos and videos.

Photos and videos could be from the following.

Attractions
Character meals
Character meet and greets
Pictures from PhotoPass photographers set up around the parks.

If you want to purchase Memory Maker, make sure you do this at least 4 days before check-in. This will give you the discounted price of $169 (instead of $199).

So if you’ve booked your trip, and you are wondering what to do next…

Start planning! Go ahead and order your MagicBands. Decide which parks you want to visit on which days and book your Park Pass Reservations. Pick the restaurants at which you’ll want to eat, and go ahead and make reservations if you are within your booking window!

If I’m your planner, thinking through all those decisions is why you have me, so reach out!

If you want me to be your planner, and you haven’t booked your trip yet, fill out this form. It costs you nothing to have a personal planner!

If you want a personal planner and you booked your trip in the last 30 days, let me know. We can transfer your reservation, and I can still be your official Disney Travel Planner, at no cost to you 🙂