I need to discuss this with other Disney people that understand, haha! My poor husband is probably tired of all of my wafflings... so I'm turning to you all. I have a *ROUGH* itinerary and plan worked out - but we haven't booked anything yet, because Husband and I haven't had the chance to sit down and really discuss. It's all been via text or 2 minute whisper conversations when the kids aren't under foot (if big sister hears we might be going we will be bombarded every day with questions about if it's time yet).
All that to say: our traveling party is me/mom, husband/dad, and 2 girls (they'll be 7 and basically 2 when we travel). We want to do this not as inexpensively as humanly possible, but, also, not... $$$$$. We have AKL tastes but an All-Star budget lol. We honeymooned at WDW in 2013(POFQ) took a trip before we started having kids in 2017(Pop), and then took our older daughter in 2021 before she turned 3(ASMo). So onto this next trip I am trying to plan!
We are planning for the end of May, after school gets out. I know Memorial Day weekend means higher crowd levels, but H and I would much rather deal with lots of people than Florida heat (Indiana is hot but not Florida hot). After our outrageous shared spreadsheet, it's looking like Port Orleans Riverside is going to be our best resort option - especially with the room package deal going on right now. Since we'll be going in 2026, we also would take advantage of the kids-eat-free QS meal plan. We are currently planning on renting a car and driving down, but it's like a 15.5 hour drive and I'm not sure that's how I want to start/end this trip... Our girls are semi-decent road-trippers, but it's a LOT of time in the car and sitting. We don't want to put 1800+ miles on either of our cars, which is why we are looking at a rental. H thinks we can do the drive in one day. I am skeptical - the 15.5 hours is without any stops. Even if we leave at 4 am, we wouldn't arrive on property until 8pm - without stopping. Add in stops and traffic, and we're looking at an 18 hour travel day probably. (Gross.)
Base: 4 park days, no hopping. 1 day in the middle for a resort/rest day. Stay at POR, get the QS meal plan and memory maker.
So that's getting to/from WDW. Once we're there: we have 4 park days. My current itinerary has us doing EPCOT Sunday, HS Monday, resort day Tuesday, then MK Wednesday and AK Thursday. We are a rope drop family, and will probably end up going back to the room around mid-day for a rest. HOWEVER... that's also negotiable because younger sister does nap pretty well when we're out and about, so she could just conk out in the stroller and we could keep rolling with big sister. We'll play that one by ear. Current park plan is based on us driving for forever on Saturday and Friday.
Okay fellow planners: what do you think? What changes should I make? What else should I consider that I've forgotten?
All that to say: our traveling party is me/mom, husband/dad, and 2 girls (they'll be 7 and basically 2 when we travel). We want to do this not as inexpensively as humanly possible, but, also, not... $$$$$. We have AKL tastes but an All-Star budget lol. We honeymooned at WDW in 2013(POFQ) took a trip before we started having kids in 2017(Pop), and then took our older daughter in 2021 before she turned 3(ASMo). So onto this next trip I am trying to plan!
We are planning for the end of May, after school gets out. I know Memorial Day weekend means higher crowd levels, but H and I would much rather deal with lots of people than Florida heat (Indiana is hot but not Florida hot). After our outrageous shared spreadsheet, it's looking like Port Orleans Riverside is going to be our best resort option - especially with the room package deal going on right now. Since we'll be going in 2026, we also would take advantage of the kids-eat-free QS meal plan. We are currently planning on renting a car and driving down, but it's like a 15.5 hour drive and I'm not sure that's how I want to start/end this trip... Our girls are semi-decent road-trippers, but it's a LOT of time in the car and sitting. We don't want to put 1800+ miles on either of our cars, which is why we are looking at a rental. H thinks we can do the drive in one day. I am skeptical - the 15.5 hours is without any stops. Even if we leave at 4 am, we wouldn't arrive on property until 8pm - without stopping. Add in stops and traffic, and we're looking at an 18 hour travel day probably. (Gross.)
Base: 4 park days, no hopping. 1 day in the middle for a resort/rest day. Stay at POR, get the QS meal plan and memory maker.
- Travel Option 1: rent a car, drive down on a Saturday, then drive home on Friday. We would use Disney transportation to/from parks and Disney Springs. We don't anticipate leaving the bubble, so the car would probably sit in the lot for the week. Unless we decide it's worth it to check out the Disney Character Warehouse - anyone have input on that?
- Travel Option 2: fly to MCO on Saturday, fly home Friday. From MCO to POR we could: Mears Connect, Uber, rent a car, or LYNX.
- Mears connect would be easiest, probably, but that's almost $100 for the 4 of us. BUT they'd haul our luggage, and we wouldn't have to worry about hauling a car seat for the toddler.
- Uber: not really a solid option, since I know it will be more than Mears and then we'd have to bring the toddler seat. Older daughter has the ridersafe vest, and we don't need to get a 2nd one. Younger will not be old enough to FF in a car, so that's a non-negotiable item. I'm also not comfortable renting a car seat.
- LYNX: now this one is tricky - because it would only truly be worth it if they expand the "DME Lite" they just announced to the moderate resorts before our visit. IF they do, we'd take advantage and fly Southwest. LYNX would take us + our carry ons to DS, and then we could hop on a boat to POR from there. If they don't, we could fly whatever airline and then we run into the issue of "what do we do with our luggage" upon arrival in DS. I know we can't take them on Disney transportation, so then do we: uber (and haul a car seat??) or one of us ubers with the luggage and the other 3 take Disney transportation to POR? Is that a terrible plan? (It seems like it could be terrible. Both time consuming and then also potentially costly)
So that's getting to/from WDW. Once we're there: we have 4 park days. My current itinerary has us doing EPCOT Sunday, HS Monday, resort day Tuesday, then MK Wednesday and AK Thursday. We are a rope drop family, and will probably end up going back to the room around mid-day for a rest. HOWEVER... that's also negotiable because younger sister does nap pretty well when we're out and about, so she could just conk out in the stroller and we could keep rolling with big sister. We'll play that one by ear. Current park plan is based on us driving for forever on Saturday and Friday.
Okay fellow planners: what do you think? What changes should I make? What else should I consider that I've forgotten?
