Walt Disney World before the internet.

[addacollier]

Hi all, my first ever trip to WDW was back in September 1989. From memory, I recall going there reasonably ignorant to what was on offer across all of Orlando as there was no internet for another 5 years. My holiday brochure was my only guide. For those old enough, how did you plan for WDW before the internet came along?

 

[MinnieM123]

Hi all, my first ever trip to WDW was back in September 1989. From memory, I recall going there reasonably ignorant to what was on offer across all of Orlando as there was no internet for another 5 years. My holiday brochure was my only guide. For those old enough, how did you plan for WDW before the internet came along?

In the late 80s, all my mother and I planned on were the airline tickets and hotel. We'd buy the park tickets at the gate, and the brochure was our only "guide". Things were a bit simpler.

 

[Lilofan]

We borrowed travel books from the library and or bought at the local bookstore to read up on WDW . There was microfilm we could view at the library for research too.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Birnbaum's Official Guide to Walt Disney World, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and the state and regional travel guides published by AAA. Plus, word of mouth.

 

[DisAl]

The Birnbaum book and HOURS AND HOURS on the phone with Disney getting reservations made.....
The last couple of trips we still got the Birnbaum Walt Disney World for Kids book for kids to keep them busy during the 7 hour drive.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Another tool my family used, not for Disney World specifically, but for the long drive south were the brochures provided at the state welcome centers. We always had our stop-off points planned and booked in advanced, but sometimes these brochures would alert us to some minor tourist attractions nearby. My parents were of the philosophy that driving straight without stopping from Philadelphia to Orlando with 2 adults and 4 kids stuffed into a station wagon probably would have killed their sanity, so we broke the trip up into very manageable pieces, sometimes stopping for two nights in some locations.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Specifically... a travel agent.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

That was the nice thing (although I love it now) you didn't plan.

We went every November. I didn't even have the internet until 2004 and even then didn't really start planning anything until my first onsite stay in 2006.

We drove from the Buffalo NY area with stops along the way and did a lot of other attractions while in Florida.
The Disney days were in equal parts with other attractions like Seaworld, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, Cypress Gardens, Homosassa Springs, Weeki Wachee Springs, Silver Springs, NASA etc.

We never booked anything ahead of time including hotels.

These days we mostly focus on Disney and plan our park days and meals etc.

 

[willtravel]

Bought airline tickets. Made hotel reservations. Bought tickets at AAA. And just winged it. Was so nice back then. The last time we went to WDW at Thanksgiving about 5 years ago, we did the same thing. Only ressie we made was on Thanksgiving day dinner.

 

[trr1]

Birnbaum's Official Guide to Walt Disney World, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and the state and regional travel guides published by AAA. Plus, word of mouth.

and the vacation planning Video(VHS or dvd)

 

[RoyWalley]

Before and after the internet we used these a lot(VHS tapes or DVD), i think they stopped doing them around 2010 or just before. They were issued by WDW and they would send them to your home(via mail) to find out about what each park had to offer. Still have many of these and i remember all sitting around the TV watching and discussing before our vacation. Good memories from the past.

 

[CosmicRays]

The last trip I didn't use the internet for planning I stayed at Port Orleans Riverside for a week in May of 2007. Did not use fastpasses or make a reservation of any kind, just grabbed the maps at the gates and rode and ate where I wanted. Seemed so simple compared to my last trip in October that was almost planned to every hour it seemed.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I didn't use the internet for planning WDW trips before 2006. I was on 5 WDW trips before 2006.

My first WDW trip happened in 1991 when my mom won a drawing for a trip to WDW. I recalled doing research before going on the trip by reading a book for getting a rough idea. That contest included free airfare, free hotel stay at Yacht and Beach Club, free park admission, free Mears transportation from airport to Yacht & Beach club.

That trip was different than the other 4 for planning. You dealing with a trip that was won through a contest by a local radio station for winning a WDW trip. The contest itself gave details on hotel, transportation, and amount of days. The day starting the trip was planned by the radio station. The only planning that needed to be done was reservations for table service, what park/ or where to go to on WDW grounds for what day. We had 3 free meals each day and that was time consuming at the time considering we used table service.

The other 4 trips involved using a travel agent. Decisions had to be made for what transportation, airline, and hotel along with amount of days. We also winged it more for eating. There is a difference for paying for food compared to getting free food.

We depended on experience from our first trip for what we liked and thought 5 days was not enough after the first trip.

 

[Bullseye1967]

In the 80s we would wear out the VHS tapes watching them over and over as the time for our Florida trip came closer. We would also hoard the brochures at the welcome center and read them excitedly for the rest of the drive. My Dad lived for planning using the Mobile Travel Guide.

 

[Laketravis]

September of 1972 there was only the Contemporary, Poly, and MK so four days there wasn't much more complicated than wishing we had more E tickets.......

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Yes, I remember those tapes and videos. I always ordered one when making reservations with Disney, even though I knew every ride and attraction by heart It was part of our pre trip prep and we looked forward to watching these and getting hyped up for our disney trip!
Later we used a travel agent because it was so much easier. In l977 we just picked a park that day and went there without planning at all. It was all so relaxed and easy and fun to do, no frustration at not getting a FP or no mad rushing to your fp or adr. Maybe without the fp's things will ease back again. It wasn't bad without them. We all stood in the lines. There was no waiting for those fp lines to go ahead of anyone. We were all equal and we did just fine.

 

[Goofyernmost]

and the vacation planning Video(VHS or dvd)

This was the first year that I ever went to WDW and from what I understand this was also the first year that Birnbaum published the official guide.

 

[CobraBubbles]

I used to request those trip planning DVDs every year to up my chances of getting special offers

I miss the parks before the internet and smart phones--you have to be on your phone all day long for everything now and it's no fun! Staring at my phone is not relaxing, and it's made even more stressful because you have to constantly reload the app to try and snag fastpasses, you use the phone to order food or make dining reservations. I miss the old paper fastpasses, I miss rushing ahead across the park with everyone's Key to the World cards to get passes for your favorite ride; I miss asking the hotel concierge to book dining reservations; I miss having conversations with other guests in line; experiencing the world firsthand, now everyone holds their smartphones up in front of their faces to record stuff instead of actually living in the moment while on vacation.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Hi all, my first ever trip to WDW was back in September 1989. From memory, I recall going there reasonably ignorant to what was on offer across all of Orlando as there was no internet for another 5 years. My holiday brochure was my only guide. For those old enough, how did you plan for WDW before the internet came along?

To tell the truth, planning was not necessary. You bought a ticket which was good for life and when the time or the whim hit you, you would go to the gate show your ticket and walk in. Many friends that had been before gave us a list of things to see first. We tried that the first day and just spent the day going back and forth across the park. Second day, we went clockwise from the hub and just went from attraction to attraction. Since we had never been before we decided that we would determine on our own what we liked and disliked. We wanted to see it all and we did.

When we got hungry we stopped at a quick service location and then continued on. If we wanted a sit down meal, which we did at least once a day because we wanted the kids to get something with a possibility of vegies. Usually a walk in because ALL the food areas were open. We, however stayed offsite and had our main meals at one of the hundreds of thriving restaurants along Arlo. If we left we got our glowing hand stamp and came back later to either MK or Epcot, the only two that existed in 1983.

If you got a guide book like I posted earlier then you had easier access to onsite hotels, meals available and the like. But, I never found it necessary and just relaxed and went door to door. That guide that I posted I bought at a yard sale probably 10 years later. We chatted with people we met in line and revisited every few minutes in the continuously moving switchback queue's. We had the best time of our lives and because of that I have been going almost every year since then. Now that I am fairly long in the tooth, I physically can't go as often as I would like but I still go and I keep my planning to the absolute minimum. Now that we are limited in how long the tickets are good for, I have to decide about what day and which place to go to on those days. I still have lunch at the quick service locations and ate most meals offsite. I save a lot of money and only have to try and get Fastpasses, because I have to now. I've waited a number of times until the night before for the park I was scheduled to visit. However, I have managed to see everything multiple times and I have my favorites and those are the ones I try to get. Most of the time, successfully!

 

[tpac24]

Anyone else remember the books you could get from the Travel Agents office that had the room and ticket prices laid out so nicely by the day for each resort?