OPINION: A little overplanning and a lot of money

A month from today, I’ll be preparing for a trip I’ve been planning for years: Disney World. Well, let’s be honest, I’ve been slowly preparing for the trip for months now.

In case you didn’t already know, a trip to Disney takes a bit more planning and a lot more money than it used to. I was lucky enough as a child to go to Disney World with my family a number of times. Now that I’ve been planning my own trip, I was talking to my dad about how planning went for him. Apparently, the entire trip, including flights, meal packages, etc., cost less than our hotel stay this year. Fun.

However, I understand some of his planning struggles. For example, a dining reservation can first be made 60 days out (it used to be 90). In order to snag the exciting, hard-to-book restaurants, you have to book the reservation at 5 a.m. 60 days out. For my dad, this meant waking up and calling. For me, this meant pulling up the app.

The problem is, I’m not a morning person. I had a reservation all pulled up on my phone and then must have fallen asleep for about five minutes. By then, the original time I meant to get was no longer available. Luckily I was still able to get the reservation at a different time, but man, those spots go quick!

You used to also get a small amount of lightning lanes (passes to skip the line) for free when you visited. Once you were in the parks, you just scanned your ticket at a lightning lane kiosk for the specified ride and out pops a ticket. Now it’s a paid service only and you have to book everything ahead of time. As a relatively young group, we decided we didn’t need to splurge on that.

There are countless other small things I had to think about in planning that were once free when my dad was planning (yay money grabs), but that’s not the only thing that’s been different about my dad’s and my experiences. As a Certified Disney Adult (that’s not actually a thing but if it was, I’d be one), I am out here getting everything I can think of that will make my trip fantastic.

First up, park bag. It was a little different for my parents; they had to worry about diaper bags and anything their children might need. My travel buddies and I are all 21 or older (my sister just, it’s her birthday today!), so our bags look a little different.

I have a list of items that will be in my Disney backpack, including a water bottle, snacks, medication for motion sickness and headaches, portable charger, a cooling towel, a poncho, sunblock, a first aid kit, sunglasses, a Tide stick and small games for when waiting in line.

Connected to the outside of my bag is a Disney-themed hand sanitizer and a clip for my Disney ears on rides.

And because the fun doesn’t stop there, I’ve also already planned outfits for each of my days at the parks. Magic Kingdom is based on the Haunted Mansion ride, EPCOT on the purple dragon Figment and Animal Kingdom is more animal print, beige vibes. I think I’m going to go with a general cute outfit for Hollywood Studios as I’m not hugely into any of the properties at that park (RIP Muppet*Vision 3D, 1991-2025).

For the Universal parks, I’m less sure. I did buy a t-shirt from my favorite theme park influencers (For Your Amusement) for our time in Epic Universe, though I have yet made plans to jazz it up and make the outfit more exciting. The other two Universal parks are being crammed into one day, and while I’ve always been a big Harry Potter nerd, my disdain for the author warns me against repping her media at the parks. Maybe I’ll make my grandma happy and go full Minion style.

Yes, I’m kind of going overboard with this trip, but I’ve been so excited about it for so long, I have no regrets.

The idea for this trip originally came from talks of my sister’s birthday celebration. We thought it would be fun to drink around the world at EPCOT for her 21st birthday. Well, since she’s in college, we figured we should wait until the semester is over, and it’s since turned into this big, wonderful debacle. Though we’re both in the Midwest for your actual birthday, I know we’ll have a great time celebrating next month. Happy birthday, Kate!