(This is just the background of planning the trip, no actual travel included in this post, so feel to skip unless you really enjoy knowing the background of every decision made).
How the trip came to be...
My coworker had gone to Disney for a week during spring break 2018, and she is a planner like me so I was able to use a lot of the information she provided through her research. I had originally wanted to do all four Disney parks and Islands of Adventure as well as Universal Studios, but as I got closer it seemed like we were going to have to pick one area and stick with it, so I chose Disney. We did a long weekend as Husband was not willing to go during Spring Break (too crowded and too close to his busy time at work); I was not willing to go during Christmas break (too busy and I live in a very cold climate and the last thing I want is to return home in early Jan and staring down 2 months of subzero temperatures) and we cannot travel in the summer due to Husband's work schedule. So our choices are generally MLKJr. Day weekend or President's Day weekend, and add on a day or two as to limit the amount of school my daughter misses. My general max is two days of missed school. However, because this trip was going to be SO short, I really did not want to wait in lines any longer than I had to so I nixed both holiday weekends (although in my limited experience MLK day isn't generally too bad for crowds and airfare and hotels aren't jacked up either like they are President's Day). We settled on Thursday, Jan 31st (evening flight), coming home on a late afternoon flight the following Monday, so daughter would only have to miss Friday and Monday. I probably made and cancelled over a 100 reservations for hotels, dining, etc. as I desperately reworked the trip for a more advantageous stay.
Choosing the hotel:
In October 2018, I settled on the Boardwalk Inn, a hotel I had never really considered (in 2018 I seriously considered a trip to Caribbean Beach resort with my sister in law's family but the trip never panned out, and I've always thought the Polynesian was cool), but I liked that it was close to two parks. However, because our flight was getting in so late Thursday night, and the per evening price was, although not peak season, still more than I had
ever paid before, I decided to rent a car at MCO and drive to a Country Inn and Suites near the airport. I knew about the Magical Express (my coworker had taken it and told me about it), but I liked the idea of having my own car and I was still thinking maybe we would somehow magically find a few hours to drive to Cocoa Beach (very dumb). I used miles to rent the car, but even if I hadn't, I
still think I would have come out ahead financially paying for a rental car but using a discounted hotel the first night.
Choosing the Flight:
Next, I booked airfare. I'm a Delta kind of girl (well not really, but we live in Minneapolis so that's our main airline) but this time I booked Sun Country since it was so much less expensive and the times worked out a little better (Delta was not offering a flight between the 6-7 pm window that I wanted on the way out and a 4-6 pm window on the way back, and Sun Country was). I had flown Sun Country lots of times in the past and never had an issue with them. Now, I had heard they were changing their policies in 2017-2018 to become more like Spirit, but even after I paid extra for a checked bag and chose our seats, I was still coming out ahead financially by quite a bit. But...I somehow did not get the memo that Sun Country had also undergone new management and everyone had a horror story about Sun Country Airlines. I went on Trip Advisor and read poor review after poor review and just about had a heart attack. I could live with "broken/spotty streaming" and "bad/no snacks" but then I read "lost luggage and they did not answer my 16 calls following up" or "I paid $x for upgraded seat and they did not honor that" to "they cancelled my flight because of maintenance issues and couldn't get me on a replacement flight for 3 days". Oh my god. I was terrified. My husband and kids do
not do well with this kind of thing. When we travel, I basically research and plan for every possible contingency. (Spoiler alert, we were fine). I sweated bullets for
three months before our trip wondering what kind of shenanigans we were in for.
Making the ADR part 1:
That said, I had a trip to plan. I booked the
Disney Dining Plan and immediately got to work researching where we should go. Most of the places were out as the prices were not high enough to match what I had already prepaid. I was also wary of having dinner at a park or a hotel that was not within walking distance of our hotel because with kids, you just never know and you needed to cancel reservations 24 hours in advance. The last thing I wanted was a situation where everyone was tired and just wanted to leave the parks but we had to hang around for our 6 pm reservation. Looking at things from a price perspective, it seemed that one credit character meals (which were usually buffets) was going to be where we needed to go. I definitely wanted Ohana for breakfast, the Rapunzel Bon Voyage breakfast, and Coral Reef as a nod to Danny Tanner proposing to Vicky.
Here is a screenshot of my email inbox with all the dining reservations I made and subsequently cancelled:
The Fast Pass Selection:
Around Christmas we were visiting family and ended up inviting my nephew to come along! To back up a bit, early Dec my FP window opened and I immediately booked Expedition Everest, Navi River, and Kilimanjaro Safaris for Friday, Feb 1. I
could have gotten an FOP fast pass, but it would have been in the evening, I didn't know if we'd last that long, and my son was too young to ride it, Husband doesn't like thrill rides, and daughter is kind of nervous about thrill rides. So, I made someone's day and left that one on the table. For 2/2, I booked Epcot fast passes for Soaring/Test Track/Frozen Ever After (not all at once, obviously, but at some point I had one of the three booked, due to the tiered rules), Spaceship Earth, and I don't remember the last one. I figured I'd watch each day and see which Tier 1 ride had the longest waits and then switch, and hope to rope drop the other two, since Epcot had the most flexible of FP times (by that I mean you could book an FP even 30 days out and still get your first choice). For 2/3, I picked Snow White Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Peter Pan's Flight. I don't remember if I even planned on going to Hollywood Studios on 2/4 because we were flying home that day and I wasn't too interested in HS. I feel like I did not pick them right at the 60 day window because I know SDD was not an option but at some point I did pick up FPs for Aerosmith and Tower of Terror.
On 12/14, I had decided I wanted to pop for Toy Story Extra Morning Magic, despite it being
expensive. But I figured hey, why not? When are we going to be here again?
The (happy) Wrinkle...
OK, so this brings us to family Christmas. For reasons I'll not get into, nephew (who's 11) was looking at needing a babysitter for the exact same long weekend we were going to be out of town. Seriously, what are the odds? I spent most of Christmas on the phone with both Disney and Sun Country seeing what it would take to add an 11 year old to our reservation. Luckily, the room I had booked at Boardwalk already slept 5. Unluckily for me, ALL our dining reservations except Toy Story had to get cancelled because they could not add a 5th to our table. Also, most of the FPs were still available except for Snow White, and we had to move our late morning Peter Pan FP to early evening. The nice CM told me on the phone I could
prob plead my case at the park and get an FP for Snow White for him so don't immediately cancel our FPs. But a week later, I decided, in for a penny, in for a pound, and booked the Fantasyland early morning magic as well for that Sunday morning. I don’t remember if I left the PP and SWMT FPs or released them. I did release them at some point but I don’t know if it was prior to our trip.
So, as of early Jan our trip looked like this:
Thursday, 1/31- arrive late at MCO, get bags, rental car, drive 1.5 miles to Country Inn and Suites and call it a night
Friday 2/1- wake early, eat hotel breakfast, stop at store on way to get bottled water and snacks, be at AK right at 9 am (or earlier). Rope drop Avatar if possible (since now my nephew was there and would be interested), use our FPs, then go to Epcot (I had 4 day park hopper) for dinner at Coral Reef and see if we could get on any rides with minimal waits
Saturday 2/2- Breakfast at Cape May with Mickey and Minnie, go to Epcot, use FPs, go to Magic Kingdom once bored with Epcot. Late dinner reservation at Park Fare
Sunday 2/3- Early Morning Fantasyland! Lunch reservation at Be Our Guest, use FPs, head out to T Rex for dinner (this would be paid out of pocket)
Sunday 2/4- Early Morning Toy Story! use FPs, leave park around 1-2 pm, return rental car and fly home
A few tweaks were made before our trip: I decided to swap out Coral Reef for Biergarten as I just didn't think any of the food would appeal to my kids, and I thought Biergarten would be more fun, and an early morning Bon Voyage Rapunzel opened up 2/2 so I swapped that for Cape May.
Cue the Pre-Trip Freak Out...
So, mid Jan, we had our magic bands, we had time taken off, we had everything ready and then...the polar vortex of early 2019 happened. Dangerously cold temperatures. I spent the week leading up to my trip sure the extreme cold was going to mess with my flight. I emailed them nonstop...but what if this happens? What about this? They answered me the first few times and then I think they just figured I was a headcase.
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