Help plan a short trip?

[Supermavs]

I's wanting to take my 14 year old daughter as a congrats trip for her 8th grad promotion, and to enjoy some mom/daughter time alone. (I have 7 kids, so this is a treat!) Ideally, we would go this summer before high school starts. We have very limited dates to choose from due to other travel plans. Our open dates are July 13-17, Aug 2-4, Aug 8-10. Maybe possibly next week, July 6-9 time frame. We only have enough Disney points to be in the park 1 day. So, Im looking to get a low priced motel for 2 nights, in walking distance.
Hit up DD the first night, blitz all day at DL on day 2 (8am-midnight), then sleep in, and maybe hit a beach before driving home on day 3.

Big things to factor in are crowds, and cost. Being summer, i know it will be crowded...but I'm hoping midweek is at least better than weekend? If those are horrid dates, I might not be able to take her until October.

Any advice?
Thanks!
Becky

 

[figment_jii]

I would avoid July 17th because that's the 60th anniversary for the parks, so high(er) crowds than on a typical Friday in summer are likely.

 

[Angrose]

What a wonderful treat for your daughter! I just took my DS7 a few weeks ago, just the two of us since DH was out of town for two weeks without us. It was a wonderful trip because it was all about him and I let him pretty much lead the way (with my guidance and wisdom, of course). I hadn't been to DLR in the summer since I was a kid, but I expected it to be crowded and planned accordingly. We were in the parks Sun-Tue, because my AP was blocked on Sat. I have heard that summer Saturdays are good days to go because all but the higher-level APs are blocked out. However, I really like Sundays and have found that during any time of year, Sunday mornings are GOLDEN. No one likes to get up early on a Sunday, so DL at 8am is very quiet and you can practically walk on or have very little wait for everything for the first two hours! If you plan on getting a park-hopper and doing DCA as well, then one of you may want to run over there mid-morning to grab a FP for your favorite ride to use later that day. Looking at your dates, I would do Aug 8-10 so that Sunday is your park day. A good, reasonably priced hotel across the street on Harbor is the Tropicana. You can usually get good deals using the promo codes on Orbitz or Cheaptickets. You can also join Last Minute Travel Club, lmtclub.com, for really good hotel deals. They usually charge a membership fee, but if you google for a promo code, you can usually find one that will waive the fees.
Hope you have a fantastic trip!

 

[Supermavs]

ohhh....I had NO clue! Good advice. Is that whole week projected to be miserably crowded, do you think?

And the consensus is still to avoid going on a weekend, i presume?

 

[Supermavs]

Ok, more good info. thanks! I can see i need some more research time. I honestly thought it was best to avoid a weekend day. We will for sure be up and at the gates before opening, so for sure the early morning should be okay for us no matter the day. Crowds are ok, but not if it is wall-to-wall awful.
We will be doing just DL, so no hopping.
Doing 8-10 is something I'll have to get okay from the hubby. He works on sundays (pastor) and it makes it hard to be managing the other 6 kids.

Thank you for the advice.

I have heard that summer Saturdays are good days to go because all but the higher-level APs are blocked out. However, I really like Sundays and have found that during any time of year, Sunday mornings are GOLDEN. No one likes to get up early on a Sunday, so DL at 8am is very quiet and you can practically walk on or have very little wait for everything for the first two hours! If you plan on getting a park-hopper and doing DCA as well, then one of you may want to run over there mid-morning to grab a FP for your favorite ride to use later that day. Looking at your dates, I would do Aug 8-10 so that Sunday is your park day. A good, reasonably priced hotel across the street on Harbor is the Tropicana. You can usually get good deals using the promo codes on Orbitz or Cheaptickets. You can also join Last Minute Travel Club, lmtclub.com, for really good hotel deals. They usually charge a membership fee, but if you google for a promo code, you can usually find one that will waive the fees.
Hope you have a fantastic trip!