Preliminary Planning

I've begun serious pre-trip planning with my down time. I'm thinking which parks, which days, which rides. This is a little difficult considering how far out the trip is. I've been researching through blogs and podcasts to see where my best tools are. 

Which parks?
Well obviously all of the major WDW parks, and also the Universal's Island of Adventure park to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!

Which days?
This one is a little more difficult. Since we're going to stay in a Disney Resort hotel, we have access to Disney Extra Magic Hours. This allows us to enter some parks early, and stay at some late. Only on certain days though. So which parks have AM or PM Extra Magic Hours (EMH), what parades are happening, and what or how many attractions we are interested in contribute to the decision for which parks on which days. I'm thinking 2 days at Magic Kingdom (MK), 2 days at EPCOT, 1 day at Disney Animal Kingdom (DAK), 1 day at Disney Hollywood Studios (DHS), and 1 day at Universal's Islands of Adventure (UIA). But not necessarily in that order. Originally I was thinking the very end of September in order to participate in the International Food and Wine Festival in addition to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. However, in an effort to save money, I think we might pass on these special events which might also help us avoid some crowds. Because of this change in thought, I have to reevaluate which order we will be visiting the parks.

Which rides? 
This is easier than for families with kids or even large groups because both Erik and I are rather predictable as to what we are interested in. Erik does not like water rides or roller coasters. I love water rides, like roller coasters, and hate spinning rides. This would be an issue at any park but a Disney park. It is also part of why we're going to Florida instead of the California park. So I've started making a list of all the rides and rating them from must ride, to skip please. I'm also including information about location and whether or not a Fastpass should be acquired. 

Dining?
Advanced dining reservations (ADR) at WDW can be made 180 days from check in date. And many places NEED to be reserved 180 days out to get a reservation at your desired time. So I have begun researching which restaurants I would like to eat while we are at each park. I know which restaurants to correspond with which park for the most part, but since I will be rearranging the park order most likely, that will have to be reassessed also. 

Plans I'm sure of?
So it kind of seems like all of my planning actually hasn't done anything. However! There are a couple of things that I am sure of for our trip. We will be staying at a Disney Value Resort. I am currently really leaning towards Disney All Star Movies Resort. We will be staying for 8 nights in September 2013 to celebrate our 6 year anniversary. We will be getting 6 days of single park tickets for WDW in addition to a 1 day single park ticket for UIA. We will also be participating in the Disney Deluxe Dining Plan. This will allow us to prepay our meals for the trip inside the World. We will have 3 meals (quick service OR table service) and 2 snacks each per night of our stay at our resort. We will also be flying (obviously since we live in CA) and therefor using the FREE Disney Magical Express to get us and our luggage to and from the hotel and airport. We will not be renting a car, so we will be using Disney Transportation and also need to find a way to get to and from the UIA.

I have all of this in a fancy Mickey color themed document with tables and maps and spread sheets. =]