Hello and happy Friday to you -

One of the things that has changed a lot over the last several years is the ideal timeline for planning a Disney World trip, so I wanted to break it down here to make sure you don't miss a step.

I'm going to use our 6-step planning process as a guide to work through the timeline.

6+ months ahead of time

More than 6 months before your trip begins, you should have steps 1 (picking your dates) and 2 (choosing lodging) figured out. You need to make sure you’re booked so that you can move on to the next steps.

Could you book your hotel less than 6 months out? Sure, but availability is likely to be much more limited and your ability to get promotions on your trip are decreased. To see when/what promos are typically out during your trip dates, check out our complete guide to Disney World promotions.

2-4 months in advance

Once your hotel is booked, move on to step 3 and make your daily plan which includes determining where you’ll be each day of your trip. Figuring this out allows you to move on to planning your dining (step 4) which is important to know before you get to the 60 day mark.

Once you have your daily plan, choose dining options that are near where you’ll be to minimize transportation time. From that list, you’ll want to make note of the Table Service restaurants which will require a dining reservation.

This also a good time to finalize your transportation arrangements for getting to/from Disney World such as flights and hotels to stay during a road trip, etc.

60 days before

60 days before your trip is when you can make your Table Service dining reservations as well as book many special activities.

The times for these 2 things vary, which is confusing, but make sure you book activities at midnight eastern time and book dining at 6 a.m. eastern time.

Dining reservations should be made in order of difficulty – not chronological order – to make sure you snag the most popular ones first. Learn more tips on getting difficult Disney World dining reservations.

7 days out

Lightning Lanes for onsite guests can be booked 7 days before your trip begins at 7 a.m. eastern time. While this is optional, we do recommend doing it at least for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios where it seems the most beneficial.

You will be able to book for the whole length of your trip, but it’ll be multiple transactions (at least 1 for each day that you’re using Lightning Lanes).

Not sure which Lightning Lanes to book? We have a complete guide to Lightning Lanes which includes the highest priorities in each park.

To make Lightning Lanes and Virtual Queues easier once you’re at Disney World, we do highly recommend considering using Standby Skipper which is like having an extra pair of hands to help you snag things during your trip.

3 days out

Lightning Lanes for offsite guests can be booked 3 days before their tickets begin. Offsite guests can book for the full length of their tickets at one time.

1 day before (or sooner)

The day before you leave, make sure you’re all packed and prepared for your trip. We have an ultimate Disney World packing list to help you make sure you don’t forget anything.

Another thing you might consider doing is placing an order for grocery delivery if you’d like to have some basics on hand during your trip. Here’s our favorite ways to get groceries delivered at Disney World.

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Whew! That's a lot, but hopefully it helps break it all down if you're in the process of planning.

Let us know if you have any questions as you work through it all.

Talk to you next week,

Shannon