***Official April 2013 thread*** SEE POST # 4028

[ddluvsdisney]

No. I'm sure it will be in the next month or two though.

ok thanks! I'll look to see if I can get a date.

 

[Funfire240]

I can be taken off the list on the first page - doesn't look like we'll be making the trip. We have so much other things going on and improvements around the house that we want to do that we're putting a hold on vacations.

 

[pwdebbie]

I can be taken off the list on the first page - doesn't look like we'll be making the trip. We have so much other things going on and improvements around the house that we want to do that we're putting a hold on vacations.

I'm sorry to see you go. But thanks for letting us know. You can always start thinking about 2014 now.

 

[Funfire240]

I'm sorry to see you go. But thanks for letting us know. You can always start thinking about 2014 now.

that's probably when we'll end up going - it's not too bad since we just returned last Sunday from our trip so it makes it seem not too bad. And we're thinking if we wait until then, my brother and sister and their families may be able to join us. So even though it's disappointing now, I know there's much more to come (and the reasons for not going aren't bad either - remodeling the house and all) so in the end it doesn't seem so bad And I still have the boards to keep my going too

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Ok, in an effort to fulfill my need to talk nonstop about this trip for the next 6 months lmao, maybe I'll post some questions/topics for discussion each day. Today's question is:

To Surprise or Not to Surprise? (the kids) What do you think?

I'm torn b/c I LOOOOOOOOVE surprising them, and I myself love to be surprised (don't even want to know what Santa's bringing me, I always want to be surprised).........so I'm a huge fan of surprising, but I'm also a huge fan of planning/talking about every little detail of the trip for months and months beforehand. I love the anticipation.

Also, if they don't know about the trip, how can I hold it over their heads and threaten to cancel if they don't behave??

We surprised my boys for their b-day in 2007. They thought they were going to school that day. When I told them to get dressed b/c the plane for Disney was leaving in 4 hrs. They flipped out!! I loved surprising them! And that was only their 2nd trip. We've been so many times now that surprising them doesn't seem to have the same effect. I know that's probably just my kids. Now I try to do something new each trip. Sometimes I won't tell them until we get there.
It was really hard not to slip by talking about it. I think we kept the secret for about 6 months. I still can't believe we pulled it off.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Looking for some advice. I have a subscription to Touring Plans but looked at Easywdw for April 2013 for my dates and at least 1/2 of the dates are totally different. Anybody found that one is better than the other ?? Thanks

Exactly why we choose not to use them. Undercovertourist has one too, and there are a couple others too, and if you look....they are all different. We just avoid whatever park has EMH that day, and go. Since we are forced to make ADR's 180 in advance....we have to make a decision now, and the crowd calander will keep changing before April- a million times. It caused me more stress because I would keep changing everything with them- so we have been ignoring them for years now. Plus, If everyone goes by the crowd calanders and goes to the "suggested" park that day......IT WILL THEN BE CROWDED right????

 

[Mousemommy1]

Exactly why we choose not to use them. Undercovertourist has one too, and there are a couple others too, and if you look....they are all different. We just avoid whatever park has EMH that day, and go. Since we are forced to make ADR's 180 in advance....we have to make a decision now, and the crowd calander will keep changing before April- a million times. It caused me more stress because I would keep changing everything with them- so we have been ignoring them for years now. Plus, If everyone goes by the crowd calanders and goes to the "suggested" park that day......IT WILL THEN BE CROWDED right????

We don't use touring plans at all either. We go to what park we want, when we want. We also always have park hoppers, so if we don't like the situation at a certain park, we up and move to another one.

And, I for one, have never noticed a huge crowd difference between being at a park that has EMH's and one that doesn't.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

We don't use touring plans at all either. We go to what park we want, when we want. We also always have park hoppers, so if we don't like the situation at a certain park, we up and move to another one.

And, I for one, have never noticed a huge crowd difference between being at a park that has EMH's and one that doesn't.

We do that too. Although when we were there in August 2008 MK was way more packed on EMH day. So we do avoid EMH if possible, but I don't rearrange my whole schedule like ADRs for it.
Our first couple of years we did all those things but a lot of know after going so many times you don't need to do that anymore.
I also know that there are certain days( no matter what time of year) that are better than others to go to MK.

So I say don't stress you will be able to do all the things you want! It's not like you're going to change your vacation week. Or maybe you can but most of us can't so we do what we can when we can.

 

[TJDisneymama]

Looking for some advice. I have a subscription to Touring Plans but looked at Easywdw for April 2013 for my dates and at least 1/2 of the dates are totally different. Anybody found that one is better than the other ?? Thanks

Which week are you talking about? I just looked at the month and only saw a handful that were different and only varied by 1-2.

 

[TJDisneymama]

I just did a comparison chart of the 3 for my week, lol. Are there any other crowd calendars out there?
I like TP b/c I like to see the separate park predictions. Overall # of 6 doesn't mean much to me. I want to know if MK is an 9 and EP is a 1, kwim?

 

[mom24mouseketeers]

So DH and I have been discussing purchasing tickets - when I booked our trip, we got a military discount on the hotel and we added the DP. But because it's a military booking there are no tickets in the package. Which is fine we have done this many times before. BUT - this time - because we used our 4day hoppers for 2012/2013 already -we won't be buying the military discounted passes.

I have relied heavily on these passes for so many years - I don't really know where to begin as far as buying tickets that may or may not be discounted.

I saw the promo on Priceline - buy 3 get 2 free, or buy 5 get 2 free...

I also saw Undercover Tourist (which seems to be a great option)

But I am just not sure when it comes to this - any insight from you wonderful DISers would be amazing!

TIA!

T

 

[ddluvsdisney]

So DH and I have been discussing purchasing tickets - when I booked our trip, we got a military discount on the hotel and we added the DP. But because it's a military booking there are no tickets in the package. Which is fine we have done this many times before. BUT - this time - because we used our 4day hoppers for 2012/2013 already -we won't be buying the military discounted passes.

I have relied heavily on these passes for so many years - I don't really know where to begin as far as buying tickets that may or may not be discounted.

I saw the promo on Priceline - buy 3 get 2 free, or buy 5 get 2 free...

I also saw Undercover Tourist (which seems to be a great option)

But I am just not sure when it comes to this - any insight from you wonderful DISers would be amazing!

TIA!

T

We have used UT and Maple Leaf tickets as well as AAA all are pretty much the same prices.
I think this year I did AAA b/c I was able to just pick them up instead of having them shipped and b/c of the Diamond parking pass.

 

[luvsvacations]

I am looking at April 14-20th. There were a few days but the 17th for MK and the 19th for AK. Thanks for looking

 

[pwdebbie]

We have used UT and Maple Leaf tickets as well as AAA all are pretty much the same prices.
I think this year I did AAA b/c I was able to just pick them up instead of having them shipped and b/c of the Diamond parking pass.

We also use Undercover Tourist. Bought through them for our last minute trip in 2010 (in other words, I had less than three months to plan, that's what I call "last minute").

Bought from them again right after that trip for our 2012 trip that ended up being cancelled. So I still have those tickets for our 2013 trip. How many price increases have I avoided?

Plus, if you subscribe to mousesavers, they offer a discount code to Undercover Tourist through a special link. Their newsletter comes out the fifteenth of every month, so if you want to get that code this month, subscribe now.

 

[Mousemommy1]

So DH and I have been discussing purchasing tickets - when I booked our trip, we got a military discount on the hotel and we added the DP. But because it's a military booking there are no tickets in the package. Which is fine we have done this many times before. BUT - this time - because we used our 4day hoppers for 2012/2013 already -we won't be buying the military discounted passes.

I have relied heavily on these passes for so many years - I don't really know where to begin as far as buying tickets that may or may not be discounted.

I saw the promo on Priceline - buy 3 get 2 free, or buy 5 get 2 free...

I also saw Undercover Tourist (which seems to be a great option)

But I am just not sure when it comes to this - any insight from you wonderful DISers would be amazing!

TIA!

T

Couldn't you still go over to SOG and get the "Stars and Stripes" tickets???? I've never purchased those, but they are discounted MYW tickets different from the 4 day salute passes...

We bought the military annual passes this year so we'll be using them for our April trip, but I think in the future we will look into the Stars and Stripes tickets.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Here's the link for the Stars and Stripes tickets.

http://www.shadesofgreen.org/StarsStripes.htm

 

[Jays2013]

I think the thing that someone mentioned with the Touring Plans website and the Easy WDW site ... and others ... isn't that the overall crowds levels are very different for the days. (They seem about the same.) It's that both have completely recommended different parks on the same days.

I'm looking at my chart. (Yes, I have a chart. I know you understand. ) On Friday, April 27, Easy WDW says the best park, overall, to go to is Hollywood Studios. On the very same park, Touring Plans says that is the park to avoid at all costs.

Sigh. I'm sitting here trying to plot out my ADRs, obsessing about which park to go to when. Part of me says it can't be that different from park to park, and we'll deal no matter what, but this is such a long-awaited trip and so exciting to my family ... I really want to plan this to the best of my abilities.

Yes, I'm a little neurotic, why do you ask?

 

[wdw71]

I think the thing that someone mentioned with the Touring Plans website and the Easy WDW site ... and others ... isn't that the overall crowds levels are very different for the days. (They seem about the same.) It's that both have completely recommended different parks on the same days.

I'm looking at my chart. (Yes, I have a chart. I know you understand. ) On Friday, April 27, Easy WDW says the best park, overall, to go to is Hollywood Studios. On the very same park, Touring Plans says that is the park to avoid at all costs.

Sigh. I'm sitting here trying to plot out my ADRs, obsessing about which park to go to when. Part of me says it can't be that different from park to park, and we'll deal no matter what, but this is such a long-awaited trip and so exciting to my family ... I really want to plan this to the best of my abilities.

Yes, I'm a little neurotic, why do you ask?

Here is my opinion. I think that having a touring plan of some sort is more important than which park you visit on which day. We have always used touring plans.com's information and it has not let us down yet. We try to follow the best park days but if that doesn't suit our wants for a day we just go to the park we want despite what they say and then follow a touring plan to at least start our day. We never rush from ride to ride we just follow the recommended order for rides and we have always had an enjoyable trip.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[TJDisneymama]

I think the thing that someone mentioned with the Touring Plans website and the Easy WDW site ... and others ... isn't that the overall crowds levels are very different for the days. (They seem about the same.) It's that both have completely recommended different parks on the same days.

I:

I know that TP's policy is to never, ever recommend the parks with EMH as the best park, even if it *is* the best park (i.e., least crowded) since not everyone has access to EMH's. So maybe the other sites don't have that same policy, which is resulting in the different recommendations.
When looking at TP I don't really look at their Worst/Best park recommendations - i look at the individual park #s. My method is not to pick the least crowded park each day, but to pick the lowest day for each park, i.e., I look at MK's #s for the week. Say it says:

M - 6
T - 8
W - 6
Th - 4
Fri - 8

I'll go to MK on Thursday, even if the other parks on Thursday are 1s and 2s, and even if MK is the 'park to avoid' that day. Then I also follow a touring plan, not down to the minute, but just as a general guide as to which direction to head first, then second, etc.

Everybody raves about how awesome the plans that I make for them are, so I think I've got it down to a science.

 

[mom24mouseketeers]

Here's the link for the Stars and Stripes tickets.

http://www.shadesofgreen.org/StarsStripes.htm

Yeah I have looked at them, and it seems they are basically the same price as UT. Except that I would have to wait and purchase them once I got there, like we usually do... I was just hoping to avoid that if possible - sometimes it can be done in minutes - other times it may take over an hour...

We also use Undercover Tourist. Bought through them for our last minute trip in 2010 (in other words, I had less than three months to plan, that's what I call "last minute").

Bought from them again right after that trip for our 2012 trip that ended up being cancelled. So I still have those tickets for our 2013 trip. How many price increases have I avoided?

Plus, if you subscribe to mousesavers, they offer a discount code to Undercover Tourist through a special link. Their newsletter comes out the fifteenth of every month, so if you want to get that code this month, subscribe now.

I will def subscribe now!

We have used UT and Maple Leaf tickets as well as AAA all are pretty much the same prices.
I think this year I did AAA b/c I was able to just pick them up instead of having them shipped and b/c of the Diamond parking pass.

Thank - I was wondering how the shipping part would be... I don't need a parking pass - we are flying and are not renting a car... I am going to try the "completely dependent on Disney Trans." option. If I don't like it, you can bet I will rent a car while there!