During the summer of 2022 my family took a trip to Disney World in Orlando. Before I share some of the resources I used to plan our trip, here are some relevant details:

1. When did we go? We decided in April of 2022 to visit Walt Disney World starting Sunday August 7th
2. Who went on the trip? Myself, my wife Megan, Charlotte age 16 and Izzy age 14
3. Had we been before? Just once, ten years ago in 2012.
4. What kind of vacations do we like? We mostly like to be on the go when it comes to a vacation. We thought about flying into Seattle, renting a car, and driving to Los Angeles but the high cost of plane tickets made us look for an alternate trip. You might say my wife Megan is the best at knowing how to relax. My daughter Izzy and I are the ones who really like to go from one thing to the next. Izzy is the most adventurous amusement park rider. My wife and I can both get motion sickness.

Here are some of the questions I remember facing pretty quickly in my planning. I’ll get to answering them in upcoming posts:

1. How many nights should we stay?
2. Which hotel resort?
3. Would we go to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT?
4. Should I purchase the park hopper option?
5. What about Genie+? 

Here are some resources I found helpful for the planning of our trip:

1. The Kindle version of the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2022. I use an iPad to read from the Kindle app, and I really enjoy being able to highlight passages and take notes in the app.
2. Purchased access to the book’s accompanying website TouringPlans.com. This included access to their Lines WDW phone app. I used this app constantly during our time in Orlando and found that its estimated wait times for rides was more accurate than what was posted in each Disney Park.
3. Downloaded and started to get familiar with the Disney World phone app.

Some helpful YouTube videos:

1. Genie+ Priorities at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom. These are all videos published on the TouringPlans channel.
2. How to Conquer Rise of the Resistance by AllEars.net.
3. How to get a boarding group for any Disney attraction. by Mark Ambrose. This one helped us nail our boarding group for EPCOT’s new coaster Guardians of the Galaxy.
4. My Disney Experience APP Tutorial by Bear Savvy.

Two podcasts I listened to:

1. Disney Travel Secrets
2. That Park Life

Thanks for checking out this post and let me know in the comments section if you’ve got your own tips you think would be helpful to others or if you have additional questions about our family trip.