Beating the Spring Break Crowds?! - A March 2025 Pre-Trip Report

[madeline07]

9/30/24

Hi all! My name is Syd, and I am currently a 20 year old college student who loves to plan (and attend) Disney World trips with my family! Our next trip is the first week of March 2025, and I could not be more excited. I’ll start with some background, and then in the next post I’ll get into the first steps of planning I’ve taken!

This coming trip will mark my 12th Disney World vacation, with the first one taking place on my fifth birthday (2008) and the most recent taking place this past March (2-7, 2024). All throughout high school, my family (mom, dad, and I) would go in January. The weather was perfect, the crowds were perfect, and I could afford to miss a few days of school. However, since I’ve started college, it’s been much more difficult to swing January trips, or any winter trips for that matter.

Like I said, our most recent trip was at the beginning of March, which is my college’s spring break. The weather was totally tolerable, and the crowds were manageable due to the fact that it was a week or so before the spring break crowds came flooding in. So, about a month ago, my dad and I decided we wanted to go again this coming March and he gave me the go-ahead to begin planning!

As of right now, the travelers for this trip will be the same as our last (which I actually wrote a brief, relatively undetailed trip report on, which you can find on my profile)! It’s me, my dad (DD), my cousin (DC), who accompanies my dad, and my best friend (DF). This is a great setup as we all get along and enjoy meals and park days together, but my dad has my cousin to walk/drink/hang with, and I have my friend for when our plans differ.

My main goal for this trip is to try as many new things as possible. I keep running spreadsheets to track the resorts I’ve stayed at, attractions I’ve done, and restaurants I’ve eaten at, and I’d like to cross off as many new experiences as possible during this trip! This goal is already being fulfilled with our resort plans, which I will dive further into in my next post.

I believe this is all I have for the intro, I am looking forward to keeping this report going and hopefully hearing from some of you! Please let me know if there are any restaurants or attractions that I have to check out on this trip, and I’ll be back soon with the first details of my planning. Thanks for reading!

Table of Contents

 

[madeline07]

Table of Contents

Pre-Trip Report
September 30, 2024 - Introduction
September 30, 2024 - Resort Plans
October 2, 2024 - General Itinerary/Tentative Dining Plans
December 2, 2024 - Post-Thanksgiving Updates
December 5, 2024 - Flight Updates
January 7, 2025 - ADR Updates
January 30, 2025 - Tickets Purchased!
January 30, 2025 - Arrival Day Itinerary (Disney Springs)
February 18, 2025 - Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure Itinerary
February 24, 2025 - Animal Kingdom Itinerary
February 25, 2025 - Epcot Itinerary
February 28, 2025 - Magic Kingdom Itinerary
February 28, 2025 - Hollywood Studios & Departure Day Itinerary
February 28, 2025 - Wrapping Up the PTR​

 

[madeline07]

9/30/24 - Resort Plans

Hello again! I’m back to dive into our resort plans! As I mentioned in the last post, we just recently decided that this trip was happening, which meant we only have 5 months to plan! In the grand scheme of things, this is plenty of time. However, on the DVC point-renting timeline, this is way behind schedule.

For those of you who are unaware (which I’m sure most of you are aware, so you can disregard this), DVC reservations open 11 months in advance, which is the recommended time to put in rental requests for the best chance of there being availability. At the time when I began to book, 5 months out, there was very limited availability.

On my journey to stay in all the Disney World resorts, I’ve discovered that DVC point rentals are an amazing way to stay at deluxe resorts without the deluxe resort price tag. Our most recent trip this past March was spent at the beautiful Wilderness Lodge in their Boulder Ridge Villas, where we had two deluxe studios.

Before that, we stayed at the Beach Club villas, another incredible resort.

When I started to think about accommodations for this trip, my first thought was that maybe we’d just stay at a moderate resort, most likely one of the Port Orleans resorts (as we’ve already crossed Coronado Springs and Caribbean Beach off the bucket list). After all, it was a bit late for DVC rentals and we don’t spend a ton of time at the resorts to begin with. This way, we’d save money and get to experience a new resort!

However, when I actually got to planning, I decided to take a look at DVC availability anyways, just in case anything good had availability! Our past two stays, we had used David’s DVC Rentals and everything worked out wonderfully. I had heard some good things about DVC Rental Store, though, and the prices seemed slightly lower on their website for the same stays. I decided that I would try and submit a rental request through them.

One of the resorts at the very top of my bucket list is Animal Kingdom Lodge, and considering the fact that it’s one of the cheapest and most available deluxe resorts, I’m surprised we haven’t stayed there already! Well, when I was checking DVC availability, I saw some AKL Kidani Village Savannah view studios for a good price! I immediately submitted the requests (two, as we need two deluxe studios between the four of us), and it took them around 24 hours to get back to me.

By the time they had responded, there was no more availability for those dates. This was fine, they still had availability from March 1-6, I was willing to do this and stay elsewhere on the last night. Maybe a two-bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs or Old Key West, two more inexpensive and readily-available resorts. However, each time I responded within 5 minutes and they would take another 24 hours to respond, meaning that availability had usually gone away by the time they’d respond.

This went back and forth for a while, and it even got to the point where I was requesting 2-bedroom villas at Riviera or Bay Lake Tower for 3 out of 6 nights of our stay, totally different from the original plan! Overall, nothing worked out with them. 5 days and a $200 (refundable) deposit later, no DVC points had been rented by me. Ultimately, I understand that it was my fault for trying to rent so late. However, I can’t help but think in the back of my mind that if they had been able to respond slightly more promptly, we may have been able to secure a booking. For this reason, I prefer the process that David’s uses, where you deposit immediately and they secure the reservation immediately, rather than going back and forth for days. DVC Rental Store certainly has its perks, including its flexible cancellation policy, none of that really matters if you don’t have a reservation in the first place!

Anyways, no harm crying over spilt milk! (Especially when you’re the one who spilled the milk in the first place…) It was back to the drawing board. Since the whole DVC rental process had put the idea of a split stay into my mind, I couldn’t get it out. This was a perfect way to cross off two more resorts, plus save some money and still get to experience a new deluxe resort! I went back to the original idea of a Port Orleans, and got to looking at some of the cheapest deluxe resort options for our date.

Since staying at the Beach Club a few years back, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the incredible location. A walk away from Epcot, a boat away from HS, and Skyliner access?! Sign me up. Because we’ll be visiting both HS and Epcot during the second half of our stay, I figured this would be a perfect time to book at either the Yacht Club or Boardwalk Inn (the final decision would come down to which one was cheaper at the time of booking)!

Then, it came time to decide between Port Orleans Riverside or French Quarter. It took exactly one post by Disney Tourist Blog (my favorite Disney blog!) to decide that I wanted to stay at French Quarter. If anyone happens to know which post I’m talking about, I’m aware this seems counterintuitive, as the ultimate “winner” between the two was deemed Riverside. However, I am a foodie at heart, and I had to go with the resort that gave me the easiest access to Mickey beignets. Plus, I will be 21 during this trip, and maybe I’ll want to go to Scat Cat’s Club and get a drink, who knows!

So, it was decided. I logged onto Disney two days ago and booked two rooms at POFQ from March 1-4, and two studios at… drumroll… the Boardwalk Inn from March 4-7! I am so incredibly excited for our first split stay and to experience the resorts. This is where my resort-planning ends, but I’ll be back at some point (probably soon) to cover further plans… maybe dining, itineraries? Anyways, thank you so much for reading!

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Next Post: General Itinerary/Tentative Dining Plans

 

[DLo]

Following along . Looking forward to reading more .

 

[madeline07]

10/2/24 - General Itinerary/Tentative Dining Plans

Hi everyone! I’m back. In this post, I thought I’d just share some of our general itinerary and tentative dining plans.

Also, a quick update on our hotel bookings! As a reminder, we’re doing a split stay at Port Orleans FQ and the Boardwalk Inn. A few days after booking, the early-2025 special offers came out and as expected, 20% off POFQ rooms and 25% off Boardwalk rooms! I called the Disney booking line earlier today and was left on hold for around 5-10 minutes before realizing that I could just apply the offer to our pre-existing reservations through MDE. This was news to me, for some reason I assumed that you had to call in. Once applying the special offers, we saved around $1500 (“more money to spend at Disney Springs”, according to my dad).

So, onto the itinerary! Our trip runs from a Saturday to a Friday, and I’ll list out the general plan below for easier readability:

Saturday - fly into Orlando/Disney Springs
Sunday - Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
Monday - Animal Kingdom
Tuesday - Hollywood Studios
Wednesday - Epcot
Thursday - Magic Kingdom
Friday - Disney Springs/fly home

We always do Disney Springs on arrival day, because our flights are never early enough to justify purchasing a park ticket. Then, we always do Universal/IoA on the first full day, to avoid splitting up our Disney park days. Plus, I love Universal but I never want to end the vacation with it. Then, we typically do Animal Kingdom for our first Disney park day, for reasons I don’t know how to explain, it just feels right. After that, our park order is pretty random (but I prefer doing MK on the last day, when possible!) For this trip I’ve decided on HS, then Epcot, then MK to end with a bang. I always try to schedule afternoon/evening flights home, so that we can spend the last morning at Disney Springs!

Now, as for our tentative dining plans, they are verrryyyy tentative. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m trying to knock out as many new places as possible. This means eating breakfasts when I can (I rarely ever eat breakfast at Disney), eating more at the resorts, etc. Of course, I'm still hoping to revisit my tried and true places.

On Saturday, our arrival day, no breakfast plans because we’ll all be on our own! We haven’t booked our flights, but I’m hoping for early ones (at least for myself) so we can have lunch at Disney Springs. My idea right now is the Polite Pig, I’ve heard great things and quick service would be nice and easy. I haven’t made a final decision on dinner yet, but I know I’ll need to make a reservation since it’s a Saturday and Springs will probably be PACKED. The menu for Summer House on the Lake looks good, so that’s a contender. Since it’ll be my first visit where I’ll be 21, I may try to look into some places with good drinks. I know Springs has a plethora of good bars and drink options, so feel free to put some suggestions in the replies!

On Sunday we’ll be at Universal, and I am much less versed in Universal restaurants. Before calling the Uber to Universal, I may try to pick up a quick breakfast at Sassagoula Floatworks, it just depends on what time I’m able to wake up. We always do lunch at the Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley, so we may or may not do that again! We usually leave the parks before dinner, so my dad and cousin may eat at this pub they like outside of the bubble. This leaves my friend and I to fend for ourselves, so we’ll probably find a place in Springs or a resort that doesn’t fit their palettes as much. I was thinking of Jaleo, because there’s a location in Washington D.C. that my friend’s family loves and I’ve never been to any location!

Monday is Animal Kingdom day, and our last day at POFQ! While at this resort, my one dining goal is to get Mickey beignets. A visit to Scat Cat’s Club would be great also, we’ll just need to find the time! I would love to get breakfast at AK this morning at one of the few restaurants that offers breakfast, the first one that caught my eye was Tamu Tamu Refreshments. For lunch, I always eat at Satu’li Canteen, but my favorite item is the cheeseburger pods. I may eat at Flame Tree Barbeque for lunch and go to Satu’li Canteen to get the pods as a snack. Since AK closes early/we never stay for dinner, we’ll have to eat at a resort or Springs tonight! I was heavily considering Sanaa, but as I’ve said, this is a trip for trying new places and I have been to Sanaa.

I do not have any serious plans for HS yet because I don’t want to break away from our favorites! I love Ronto Roasters and Woody’s Lunchbox, so we’ll see if I have the strength to resist those places. The one thing I would love to do here is go to Oga’s Cantina. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and we’ve never been. I’m excited to go and be able to get one of their drinks!

I have very loose plans for Epcot, because I assume that Flower & Garden Fest will be there for our trip, but they haven’t officially released the dates yet. At this point in the trip, we’ll be staying at the Boardwalk! I was thinking of getting crepes from the quick service place in France, since we’ll be able to enter through the back of the park. For lunch I was thinking of Regal Eagle, as I’ve never eaten here and I love barbeque! It’s just now occurred to me how many barbeque restaurants I’ve listed off, so I may have to reconsider some. For dinner, I currently have Trattoria al Forno written down, in my attempts to eat at some resort restaurants. However, this is subject to change based on when we leave the park, whether we eat at food booths, etc.

Our final park day is MK! As I have stated in past TRs, I do not care for MK’s food selection at all. As a result, I have not thought about our dining plans here once. What I do like about MK is its snacks. I’d love to try the spring rolls from the spring roll cart, get a Dole Whip as always, and maybe do a table service restaurant here? The most appealing one to me is Skipper Canteen, but this will take a lot of thinking as my dad and cousin tend to be less exploratory with their taste preferences.

On our final day, I’m planning on late flights so we can squeeze in a morning/afternoon visit to Disney Springs! I love doing a table service lunch this day, one final sit down meal to close out the vacation. We usually do Homecomin’, which is one of my favorite restaurants ever, so I would not be opposed to eating here again at all. Another option would be the Boathouse, another family favorite.

That wraps up our unconfirmed dining plans, thank you for reading! If anyone has any favorites or suggestions for me, I would absolutely love to hear them! See you in the next post

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Next Post: Post-Thanksgiving Updates!

 

[PoppyJ]

If anyone has any favorites or suggestions for me, I would absolutely love to hear them!

Do you have park hoppers / are you planning on doing extended evening hours on the days you are staying at Boardwalk?

 

[madeline07]

Do you have park hoppers / are you planning on doing extended evening hours on the days you are staying at Boardwalk?

I haven't gotten our tickets yet but I wasn't planning on doing park hoppers, we've never done them! But if there are extended evening hours for the dates we're there, we'll definitely do those

 

[Woth2982]

Plans look great! I believe After Hours at Hollywood Studios is going on during this time frame. May be worth looking into. My brother and I went a couple years ago and it was AMAZING! We were the only two on Rockin Rollercoaster. The CM was like pick anywhere. I sat in the front and him in the back. My brother has declared he will never go to Disney when it is "open" again!

 

[madeline07]

Plans look great! I believe After Hours at Hollywood Studios is going on during this time frame. May be worth looking into. My brother and I went a couple years ago and it was AMAZING! We were the only two on Rockin Rollercoaster. The CM was like pick anywhere. I sat in the front and him in the back. My brother has declared he will never go to Disney when it is "open" again!

Thank you so much! I will certainly be looking into that now that you mention it, I just don't think the park hours are even out this far in advance That sounds like a DREAM, rock n rollercoaster was closed last time I was there unfortunately

 

[vrb]

Hey! We will be at BWV March 1-8th!!! We are DVC but haven't stayed at BWV since the rooms have been remodeled. We are very excited!

 

[madeline07]

Hey! We will be at BWV March 1-8th!!! We are DVC but haven't stayed at BWV since the rooms have been remodeled. We are very excited!

Very exciting, new experiences for everyone! Hope you have an amazing stay!!

 

[madeline07]

12/2/24 - Post-Thanksgiving Updates!

Hello everyone!! Sorry it's been a minute, but I'm back for a few quick updates! First of all, I hope everyone who celebrates had a happy Thanksgiving and got to spend time with their loved ones. I was able to head home (from Boston to Maryland) for around a week and a half, which was great. I got to spend Thanksgiving with family, do some Black Friday shopping, and go out with my friends now that I'm 21!

I flew back into Boston last night, and it just now hit me that we are starting to get closer and closer to our Disney trip! We are officially 89 days away, I was so wrapped up in work and school that I missed the break from the triple to the double digits! I believe that our ADR booking date is December 31 (NYE... eek!), so this month will consist of me reviewing our plans and finalizing which reservations I'll need to book.

One decision I cannot make is whether to build a lightsaber at Savi's Workshop this trip. I have three already, each with different colors and hilts, so I feel like I just need to build the fourth to "complete" my collection. I have found that on our last two trips, I have spent much less money on souvenirs than I used to. I think as I'm getting older, less and less of their souvenirs (clothes, stuffed animals, etc.) appeal to me. Last trip, I barely spent anything at all compared to what I usually spend! That fact alone is sort of a justification for building a lightsaber this trip. I guess I'll just have to see how I'm feeling on the morning of the 31st, lol. It is nice knowing that Savi's reservations usually don't fill up until much closer to the dates, and I can always modify/change my booking if necessary.

Speaking of souvenirs, there are some that I need to get each trip. I fell victim to pin collecting a few years ago, so I have a big binder of them at home and like to buy some each trip. I always get a pin commemorating the resort we stayed at (we have yet to stay at the same resort twice) and a pin for the festival/event happening at the time, if there is one. I have one for Disney World's 50th birthday celebration, F&W Fest, Festival of the Arts, and a few more that I'm sure I'm forgetting about. I used to buy (at least) one pair of ears on each visit, but I stopped enforcing that rule for myself a few years ago. Last time, I did buy a cute pair of Boba Fett ears from HS that caught my eye.

I was watching a Disneyland vlog on TikTok, and the creator has an autograph book that she uses to draw in when she visits Animation Academy, that way all of her drawings are in one place! I thought this was the cutest idea ever, but I don't visit the Animation Experience in AK nearly enough to do that. Just wanted to throw that idea out there for people who do visit any of Disney's drawing attractions relatively frequently, if ever!

Anyways, I know I basically just rambled for 5 paragraphs, but it's nice to get my thoughts out to reflect on when I seriously need to start booking. My dad and I are hoping to book our flights soon, we probably should have done this earlier but it totally slipped my mind! As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to comment any suggestions you might have for our plans!

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Next Post: Flight Updates

 

[madeline07]

12/5/24 - Flight Updates

Hi everyone! I'm back already because I have exciting news... I booked my flights! I am departing from Boston Logan on March 1st around 8am, landing in Orlando around 11:30am. I usually like to fly Southwest, but they don't offer direct flights from BOS --> MCO, so I book through another airline. Then, I have a flight from MCO to BWI (Baltimore) on March 7th, which departs MCO around 6:30pm.

I'm very glad I was able to snag these flights because the times are pretty ideal for me. On the 1st, I get to wake up early to head to the airport, which I love. I'm usually not a morning person, but waking up early to head to Disney is a different story. Plus, I don't have to spend any time sitting around waiting to leave for the airport. On arrival day, our only plan is to hang around Disney Springs and the resort (Port Orleans FQ for the first half of our trip). I am excited to have plenty of time to check some of the items off my bucket list for that day, which includes going to the cookie bar at Summer House on the Lake, drinking some fun cocktails (maybe Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar?), and getting beignets at the resort. I'll also make some sort of dining reservation in Springs this night, but I'm not sure what it'll be yet. I'm thinking Raglan Road. I've never been, so I can cross it off my list, but I know it'll appeal to my dad, cousin, and friend.

The last day, the 7th, our flight back to Baltimore isn't until 6:30pm, which leaves us plenty of time to pack our things and leave them at the resort bell desk, head to Disney Springs for a lunch reservation (usually Homecomin'), and maybe do some last-minute shopping. I really cannot not get to the airport early, so ideally we'll get our bags from the Boardwalk and call an Uber to MCO around 2:30 or 3pm.

One of my goals this trip is to document as much as possible, so that I can write a nice trip report to look back on. My phone recently updated to iOS 18, and Apple highlighted this Journal app they have (which I don't think is new... maybe they just did some bug fixes and improvements). But I'm probably going to be using this to store pictures and notes, as I've heard it's pretty convenient!

Last year, our March trip fell during the Flower and Garden Festival. However, I'm not sure if this will be the case for this trip. Disney hasn't announced the official dates, but if our trip does fall during the festival, I'm sure it will be at the very beginning of the fest. Hopefully this doesn't impact crowds too much, but we will see!

It looks like the last official steps are buying our park tickets (which I will do soon) and booking our ADRs (Dec 31st), so I will be back with updates when either of those things happen! Thank you so much for reading!

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Next Post: ADR Updates

 

[madeline07]

1/7/25 - ADR Updates

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a very happy new year. I’m back with a quick ADR update! My booking date was December 31st, but when I got on that morning to book I realized that I had two separate booking days due to our split stay hotel reservations. I was only planning on booking three (maybe four) reservations: Raglan Road dinner on our arrival day, Oga’s Cantina on our HS day (since I’ll be 21 this visit!), and Homecomin’ lunch on our departure day.

During our first booking slot, I booked a 9:15pm reservation at Raglan Road for all four of us on our arrival night. I was hoping for something earlier (ideally 7pm-ish), so I may keep logging on to see if any new times pop up! On our Animal Kingdom day, we never end up staying in the park until dinner due to the fact that the park closes so early. So, I booked a dinner reservation for my friend and I at Jaleo on our AK day. I’ve never been, but my friend loves the location in DC and I’ve heard such good things. My dad and cousin have this pub off-site that they like to visit, so they’ll probably do that instead of coming with us.

I made our last two bookings three days later, starting with an Oga’s booking at 8:05pm on our HS day. Since this isn’t an actual meal, I honestly wasn’t sure what the best time would be. After reading some posts online, I decided to make a nighttime reservation, that way we can walk out of Galaxy’s Edge at night and enjoy the views. Since we’ll be staying at the Boardwalk this day, we have easy access to the park from our hotel and if anyone in our party wants to take a midday break (I’m sure they will), it won’t be too much of a hassle to get back to the park for our Oga’s reservation! I also started thinking about whether I wanted to make a Homecomin’ reservation for our last lunch, or try a new place. I ultimately decided to book a lunch reservation at Summer House on the Lake! I’m super excited to try this place, I’ve heard good things and it looks so pretty inside. Plus, a very universally appealing menu.

I’m very excited that all of my dining reservations are for places I’ve never eaten! Hopefully I can stay on track with quick service/snacks to complete my goal of trying as many new places as possible. Now, I’m pretty sure the only thing we have left to do is buy our park tickets! I’ll be back whenever I have an update, but thanks for reading!

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Next Post: Tickets Purchased!

 

[Counting Stars]

Everything sounds really good so far... It looks to be a great trip, and a really nice split stay between POFQ and Boardwalk. You and your fam are really packing a lot into your time but should have good (cooler) weather that shouldn't be as draining energy wise. Thanks for spending the time to detail your plans. We will be arriving at the end of March... You have a comfortable writing style- very easy to follow. Looking forward to your trip report!

 

[madeline07]

Everything sounds really good so far... It looks to be a great trip, and a really nice split stay between POFQ and Boardwalk. You and your fam are really packing a lot into your time but should have good (cooler) weather that shouldn't be as draining energy wise. Thanks for spending the time to detail your plans. We will be arriving at the end of March... You have a comfortable writing style- very easy to follow. Looking forward to your trip report!

Thank you for your kind words! I definitely have my fingers crossed for some nice, cool weather while we're there. Hopefully you have good weather during your trip too!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

Hi Syd! Your PTR title caught my eye because we’re also visiting during spring break this year two weeks after you!

Your resort choices are great! I’ve stayed at POR twice and enjoyed it both times. I preferred the building layout and decor in the Magnolia Bend section over the Alligator Bayou section, but the whole resort is nice. Boardwalk is on my list for the future, but we stayed at BCV last year and I agree the short walk to Epcot (and not too long walk to HS) was spectacular.

I don’t mind the MK restaurants, but wish more of them weren’t buffet or prix fixe meals. That said, Skipper Canteen was excellent and one of the best meals of our trip. My husband is still raving about the fish he ate and I loved the “secret menu” cheese bread. The flavors are unique but we didn’t fInd them too out there - it’s certainly “Disney-fied.” Most importantly, the food was super fresh and tasted like it was cooked just for us rather than prepared elsewhere and set under a heat lamp. Even better, it’s not hard to snag day-of ADRs here! I highly recommend you consider giving Skipper Canteen a try during your trip.

Looking forward to reading more about your plans.

 

[madeline07]

Hi Syd! Your PTR title caught my eye because we’re also visiting during spring break this year two weeks after you!

Your resort choices are great! I’ve stayed at POR twice and enjoyed it both times. I preferred the building layout and decor in the Magnolia Bend section over the Alligator Bayou section, but the whole resort is nice. Boardwalk is on my list for the future, but we stayed at BCV last year and I agree the short walk to Epcot (and not too long walk to HS) was spectacular.

I don’t mind the MK restaurants, but wish more of them weren’t buffet or prix fixe meals. That said, Skipper Canteen was excellent and one of the best meals of our trip. My husband is still raving about the fish he ate and I loved the “secret menu” cheese bread. The flavors are unique but we didn’t fInd them too out there - it’s certainly “Disney-fied.” Most importantly, the food was super fresh and tasted like it was cooked just for us rather than prepared elsewhere and set under a heat lamp. Even better, it’s not hard to snag day-of ADRs here! I highly recommend you consider giving Skipper Canteen a try during your trip.

Looking forward to reading more about your plans.

Hi! It's so exciting that you also have a trip coming up soon! I am so excited for the Boardwalk's location, you can't beat it. And that's really good to know about Skipper Canteen, I may end up adding a lunch reservation to our plans soon. Thank you for the comment!

 

[madeline07]

1/30/25 - Tickets Purchased!

Hi everyone! I’m back with an update because I finally completed the last major step of our planning, the tickets! We’re doing one day at Universal (both parks, Universal Orlando and Islands of Adventure, in one day) and four days at WDW (one for each park, no park hopper). With all of the price increases at Disney lately, I’ve been trying to save us money wherever I can, so I scoured my favorite Disney blog (DisneyTouristBlog) to see if there were any good authorized ticket deals, and it seemed like the two best options were either Undercover Tourist or a site called Get Away Today, which I’d never heard of!

I plugged our tickets into both sites and found that both saved money as compared to buying directly from Disney and Universal, but with the Disney Tourist Blog coupon code on Get Away Today, that was the best price! I was able to get both our Disney tickets and our Universal tickets in one purchase, which was also very convenient.

I received a purchase confirmation in my email inbox immediately, and then the tickets hit my inbox around 45 minutes after purchasing! Just to note, incase anybody is considering booking through an external site such as this one, the Universal tickets were sent to me as a PDF that can be scanned directly to get into the park, and the Disney tickets were sent via a code, which you plug into My Disney Experience so that the tickets show up in your plans. I’m sure you all already know this if you’re scouring Disboards, but just make sure that you’re buying from an authorized seller if you buy third party tickets!

I’m still contemplating whether to order MagicBands for everyone in our party. I sooooo miss the days when these were complementary. I always have one, but I know the others don’t care too much one way or the other. They’re just so much more convenient for everything, especially unlocking the resort room! Last year, we were having technical difficulties unlocking our room door with the cards, and I’d like to avoid that this year if possible… we’ll see!

Now that we have our tickets, the next step in my planning is Lightning Lane. The whole system had changed again since our trip last year, so I had to relearn the whole system. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it’s more similar to FastPass than Genie+, minus the free part I have my calendar marked to make our selections on February 24th, and I started mapping out what rides I’m prioritizing.

I’ve been getting so excited for this trip that I’ve started planning our daily itineraries, which I didn’t do at all last year! That trip was not bad by any means, but in hindsight, it could have been planned much better. I’m holding off on the itineraries for our Disney park days, because I’m not sure which LLs we’ll have yet, but I was able to start planning our arrival, departure, and Universal days! My next few posts will probably just be describing those plans, so if anyone has any suggestions (rides, food, pretty much anything at all!), I am very open to those!

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[madeline07]

1/30/25 - Arrival Day Itinerary (Disney Springs)

Hi all! I’m back to start sharing my (tentative) itinerary plans for each day of our trip. Of course, these aren’t strict rules for what we have to be doing every minute of everyday, but it’s nice to have an idea of how the day will flow. This is also more so for my friend and I rather than our whole group, because sometimes we split up to ride different rides, do different things, etc.

I’ll do a post for each day, starting with our arrival day! I am doing this, first, to serve as an outlet so I don’t bug my friends and family with Disney talk constantly, but also because I love reading others’ plans like this and figured that some other people might be the same way! If this is redundant to you, feel free to stop reading

This day is a Saturday, and I’ll be flying into Orlando from Boston. We don’t have any parks planned for this day, just Disney Springs and possibly exploring our resort! Without further ado, here are my plans:
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5 AM: Wake up, get ready, pack final items in luggage

5:30 AM: call Uber to BOS
*I might schedule an Uber the night before, just to be safe

6 AM: arrive at BOS, check bags and go through security
*Breakfast @ Dunkin’ if I have time/am hungry

7:30 AM: board flight to MCO
*Takeoff at 7:55 AM
**The last time I flew BOS → MCO at this time, the airport was packed so I’m hoping that’s not the case again! But if so, I should have plenty of time anyways to get to my gate

11:30 AM: land in Orlando, collect bags, Uber to Port Orleans French Quarter
*I debated Mears vs Uber, especially since I’ll be traveling by myself, but I figure that I’d rather pay a bit more to have a direct ride to the resort, rather than risking a longer ride due to multiple stops

1 PM: arrive at resort, drop bags at bell services (assuming room isn’t ready), wait for my friend to arrive
*My friend should be arriving at MCO shortly after me, so I’ll wait at the resort to meet her so we can go to Disney Springs together! My dad and cousin won’t be arriving until later in the afternoon
**Depending on how long I have to wait for my friend to arrive, I may head to Scat Cat’s Club to get some beignets and then just walk around the resort

2 PM: this time is tentative based on whenever my friend arrives. When she does, we’ll take the boat to Springs and probably head to Jock Lindsey’s for a late lunch and drinks!

5 PM: walk around Springs, shop, maybe get a drink at The Boathouse (I have my eye on the Duck Duck Razz)

9:15 PM: our CURRENT Raglan Road dinner reservation. I’m hoping to move this to an earlier time (ideally around 7) but a spot hasn’t opened up yet. I’m going to keep checking!

10 PM: dessert at Vivoli il Gelato. Not sure if I’ll be hungry after dinner, but honestly I want to try as many new food places as possible during this trip, so I’m adding snack stops everywhere I can! But this plan is definitely subject to change

10:15 PM: boat back to POFQ

11 PM: get ready for bed, go to sleep
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Again, I am very open to any suggestions, so please feel free to reply below with any ideas or tips for our plans! Thank you for reading!

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