Ok, so when SWA advertised a sale of couple of months back with Orlando as a destination; I mentioned to the wife that we could fly down to Orlando for a long weekend visiting "The World" (code for WDW so the kids won't Alert!).
Surprisingly I received the nod of acceptance from the wife to proceed with a purchase of airfare round trip to and from one of my favorite places in the world (thanks to the SWA Chase Credit card I only paid for 4 tickets one way, the other way was covered with points).
So after the initial purchase of airfare, a couple of feelings started to set in on me. One, I was going to WDW! The other: I had to organize and plan this trip (4th trip in 3 years to WDW/USF).
First was Hotel: Under Cover Tourist hooked us up with Disney's Pop Century for a reasonable rate, and I accepted (stayed there previously).
Then the rental car (a must in our opinion), Priceline was selling agent with Advantage/EZ getting the business (no issues here btw).
About a week before flight time, I started to realize I had not planned much at all if any. Not packed a thing, but I had managed to procure some provisions for the children like extra warm weather clothes and some new shoes for each of them. As well as some travel necessities for the adults.
Along the way I did purchase USF/IOA park to parks from USSSA. We planned to use our existing NO Expire Park Hoppers for the 4 of us for a couple of days and then decide if we wanted a 3rd day and pay for that.
About a month or so prior to arrival in Orlanda I did schedule 2 days worth of fast passes at MK and DHS.
(*side note: We were not 100% sure how many days were left on the NE tickets. I was pretty sure we had 2 days left on them. MDE would only let me schedule 2 days of FP+ and that ended up being the indicator for the balance of the tickets.)
Back to the trip:
We set the alarms early for a red eye flight out of IND to MCO with a 5:30AM depart time. I was up early around 1:30AM to get things going.
We made it to the gate with about 30 minutes to spare (not exactly early by my standards).
Took the flight, 2 hours approx down to sunny Florida. We split up at the airport, one to get bags and I went to pick up the rental car. No issue there.
We were on the road in 30 minutes or so after landing.
We went straight to AK, we were in the gates about 15 minutes after their opening time. Went straight back to Expedition Everest and rode it twice. Then onto Dinosaur, Safari, the trails etc.
After that around 2PM we headed for the Hotel and checked, showered got naps and woke up around 5pm for the big Magic Kingdom. It was moderately crowded on my scale. Probably 7 out of 10.
We were able to ride a good amount of rides, but were disappointed by the early closing time at 11PM.
Day 2, we rope dropped EPCOT and ran/walked back to Soarin (the new HD old version). It was great as usual. Headed over to Test Track went single rider, then onto Mission Space and LWTL. We then stopped by the ever famous Coca-Cola shop for the international sodas.
Surprisingly I received the nod of acceptance from the wife to proceed with a purchase of airfare round trip to and from one of my favorite places in the world (thanks to the SWA Chase Credit card I only paid for 4 tickets one way, the other way was covered with points).
So after the initial purchase of airfare, a couple of feelings started to set in on me. One, I was going to WDW! The other: I had to organize and plan this trip (4th trip in 3 years to WDW/USF).
First was Hotel: Under Cover Tourist hooked us up with Disney's Pop Century for a reasonable rate, and I accepted (stayed there previously).
Then the rental car (a must in our opinion), Priceline was selling agent with Advantage/EZ getting the business (no issues here btw).
About a week before flight time, I started to realize I had not planned much at all if any. Not packed a thing, but I had managed to procure some provisions for the children like extra warm weather clothes and some new shoes for each of them. As well as some travel necessities for the adults.
Along the way I did purchase USF/IOA park to parks from USSSA. We planned to use our existing NO Expire Park Hoppers for the 4 of us for a couple of days and then decide if we wanted a 3rd day and pay for that.
About a month or so prior to arrival in Orlanda I did schedule 2 days worth of fast passes at MK and DHS.
(*side note: We were not 100% sure how many days were left on the NE tickets. I was pretty sure we had 2 days left on them. MDE would only let me schedule 2 days of FP+ and that ended up being the indicator for the balance of the tickets.)
Back to the trip:
We set the alarms early for a red eye flight out of IND to MCO with a 5:30AM depart time. I was up early around 1:30AM to get things going.
We made it to the gate with about 30 minutes to spare (not exactly early by my standards).
Took the flight, 2 hours approx down to sunny Florida. We split up at the airport, one to get bags and I went to pick up the rental car. No issue there.
We were on the road in 30 minutes or so after landing.
We went straight to AK, we were in the gates about 15 minutes after their opening time. Went straight back to Expedition Everest and rode it twice. Then onto Dinosaur, Safari, the trails etc.
After that around 2PM we headed for the Hotel and checked, showered got naps and woke up around 5pm for the big Magic Kingdom. It was moderately crowded on my scale. Probably 7 out of 10.
We were able to ride a good amount of rides, but were disappointed by the early closing time at 11PM.
Day 2, we rope dropped EPCOT and ran/walked back to Soarin (the new HD old version). It was great as usual. Headed over to Test Track went single rider, then onto Mission Space and LWTL. We then stopped by the ever famous Coca-Cola shop for the international sodas.
