Technology and Walt Disney World

Throughout my planning process, I have been doing a lot of research (not to be confused with alot).  I am going through a travel agent to book my trip (go MouseFanTravel! and Coleen, who has had much patience with me through this journey), but I still have found loads of information on when to visit, what to visit, what to eat, etc. and let me tell you, it is not an easy task to keep it all organized.  Because it's one thing to write it all into a document, or jot it down in a notebook, it's another to be able to organize your information and make it useful and portable for when we actually go on our trip.

Here are some planning applications and websites that I have been successfully utilizing.

Evernote:  This little elephant doesn't forget anything.  Evernote is a downloadable program that you can put on your computer (for free!) that allows you to do what scissors and scrapbooks did before.  You can clip webpages with the click of a button and "tag" them for use later.  Example:  I find a tip on DisneyDaddy about Miyuki, the candy maker in Epcot.  I click my little elephant button and like magic, it is copied to my notebook along with a link.  Now I put in tags so that it will pop up when I'm in Epcot (tag of 'epcot'), and when I'm looking for some tasty foods (tag of 'food').  It's very much an ingenious way of keeping track of things, like having an address book that can search by any way you choose (name, address, phone number, hair color, etc.).  And later, while we are on the vacation, I can take my Evernote with me on my phone or iPad, and since the data is "cloud-based" (meaning it is stored on the internets), I will have all of my information with me at all times.

Southwest Airlines Ding! Alerts:  In the quest to get the cheapest airline tickets possible, I've been keeping tabs on all the major airlines through various trackers (Cheapoair and Kayak), which work great on the large scale, but when it comes to our specific trip, Southwest Airlines is the way to go.  If you sign up for their fare alerts (another freebie), you can be notified any time there is discounted pricing on flights.  When it comes to regional airlines, they typically do not pop up on the big search sites, and you have to go straight to the source to get your pricing.  Southwest Ding! also has apps for your mobile devices, so you can check it constantly.

Walt Disney World Website:  It sounds pretty lame to bring up this site, but here is something that I am quite happy I was able to find on the site.  You can actually find out the operating hours of every single park from now until the end of February (at least as of this date).  From here you can find out where the Extra Magic Hours are happening and plan around them.  I noted on many blogs that the best time to visit each park is when they do not have Extra Magic Hours.  So I was able to book our dining reservations at the parks that will (hopefully) be less crowded, or so that we can watch some fireworks as we eat.  I feel like planning around all of that will really add to the magic of the trip.


So those have been the major things that I have used while planning our amazing trip.  Has anyone had success with other programs during their planning process?  I'm always looking for some new resources!