Our trip was May 12-18 and now that we are settled back at home I am ready to report on this lovely Sunday morning while I have my coffee! (This turned out to be a little long, my apologies)
We stayed at Coronado Springs and had my husband's cousin and wife along for the ride. What started as separate vacations of "oh we'll meet up for a meal or two!" turned into a group vacation, which I normally HATE but it was great! We wouldn't have done 1/2 as much without him staying on top of Genie and the planning.
Now, I knew on a Sunday afternoon and being Mother's Day Disney Springs would be crowded, but I was unprepared for the madness. We shopped a little, then had an early dinner at Boathouse. Delicious as always. We headed back to the resort for swimming and sleep to prepare for the week.
Crowds: 8
On to the parks!
(I'll add my crowd level opinions 1-10)
5/13- I woke up and bought
Genie+ and then we opened the adjoining doors to our room at 657 to book rides (this would become our morning routine). *I* was able to get a VQ for TRON (group 67) but cousin didn't get it. We LL Space Mountain for around 1030. We waited until 8am to head to the parks to let the initial rope drop group enter. We knew it was a gamble, but it worked out great. Haunted Mansion was a walk on, Big Thunder was about 5mins, Jungle Cruise was one of the longer waits at 25mins, and Pirates was a walk on. We had a snack, did Monster's Inc Laugh Floor and went to Space Mountain. We did Buzz and it shopped around until our boarding group time. We had quite a wait in the VQ and the ride went down for about 10mins. It was a good ride, but SHORT. I love the pre-show though in the glass room! (I won't spoil it).
Crowds: 4
That evening we went to EPCOT. We were able to LL Soarin', we shopped around the World Showcase, and my group did Mission Space (I do NOT ride that one). We stayed for the new nighttime show which I am not a huge fan of and closed out the park with shopping.
Crowds: 6
5/14- Woke up and bought Genie+. Had our morning meeting to coordinate LL and ILL. We bought RIse and I BELIEVE we LL Smuggler's Run. We rope dropped this day and headed into the Star Wars area with the masses. I am not a Star Wars fan, but the theming is great! We went on Smuggler's Run (not a fan) and then we did Rise. WOW what an amazing experience. I can't imagine how it would feel to a big Star Wars fan! ToT was down so we did Indiana Jones and got an anytime LL which we used at ToT right after because it was back up. Has anyone seen the entire Indiana Jones show in the last few years? There is always something off with it! We LL Mickey and Minnie after playing the Genie slots and refreshing a lot, then headed back to the resort for a rest. We went back later that evening for Fanstamic and some Toy Story fun, but we never made it on Slinky Dog! We LL Mania and Swirling Saucers and had some snacks before Fantasminc.
Crowds: 6
5/15- Crazy long EPCOT day. I think we walked like 27K steps this day! We coordinated our LL through the door again while everyone else slept (lucky ducks). We ILL Guardians, LL Ratatouille and did Early Entry to rope drop Frozen. It was POURING. Terrible start to the morning. But we made it onto Frozen in about 20mins, had breakfast, went over to Test Track which had been down but we hung around and got right on after it opened back up. Then the group did Mission Space again (WHY???). We wondered around the World Showcase festival booths then did Ratatouille and returned to the resort for a rest. We went back to EPCOT that evening for dinner at Teppan Edo and did Soarin' again and Living with the Land.
Crowds: 3 (almost no lines for any booths even around lunch time)
5/16- We ILL Flight of Passage, and LL Navi. We did Early Entry and rope dropped Everest where we rode twice back to back with no wait. We had a snack and went to the safari where we waited about 25mins. The animals were so active! We did our ILL at FoP and rode Navi. We love them. It's really disappointing that the park isn't open later year round to see that area at night. We LL Dinosaur and saw It's Tough to Be a Bug before we went back for a nap. Later that day my kids and the cousin went back to HS for the evening. They rode Rise Again (not sure how, I didn't plan that) and ToT, a few other small things and came back.
Crowds: 5
5/17- We split up for the first half of our last day. My husband, children, and I met my family as DS for lunch (they live near Tampa). We did some shopping and eating and the crowds were much better. Then later we went back to MK to see the fireworks and have dinner. I didn't buy Genie+ but did ILL Mine Train and TRON (everyone wanted a second ride) for that evening. We had dinner at the Plaza, did Mine Train, then posted up and saw the fireworks. After that we rode TRON and It's a Small World before ending our trip with sundaes on the walk out.
Crowds: 5
Overall it was a great trip! Crowds and weather were manageable for us and with the cousin nudging me when to book LL we did a lot! We usually take our Orlando trips in June but this week after Spring Break and right before Memorial Day is a nice sweet spot. Genie+ and the ILL were expensive but we've only been going to WDW every few years and won't be back for at least two so we said, "why not?" (husband says a new roof is more important... how rude).