Is Spring Break The Wrong Time to Convince the Fiance that WDW is The Best Vacation? - A Pre-Trip Report

[VancouverIslandDisney]

Welcome to My First, but hopefully not last pre-trip report!
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First, let me introduce you to who will be on this trip.

I'm Linda (celebrating my 48th when at WDW), a complete Disney fan, but only since my early 20s, was not into Disney as a child but found a love of all things Disney when raising my son as a single mom. I used to do Disney regularly, both with my son and ex-husband, solo and then with family. My last trip to the World was over 10 years ago for my friends wedding when I was a lot heavier and some of my experiences were limited due to that. My favorite park is Epcot!

My fiance is Alan, not a hardcore Disney fan but loves Tigger and will watch the movies with me. His one and only visit to the World was back in early 2001 when he was still living in England and made the trip with his then 13 year old daughter and ex-wife. At that time his favorite park was MGM Studios (now DHS).




I typically like more time to plan and save for our trips but flights from where we are in Western Canada are usually close to $1,500 per person so when I was able to find flights for $450 I booked and said I'd figure out the rest later.

Please join me as I plan for this trip, and I hope you'll join in when I do up the live trip report while we are there.... I love reading everyone's trip reports and I hope to provide information that is helpful for others as well.

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

Dates Set - March 7th to 14th

As mentioned previously I was able to get flights for $450 and they were date specific so the dates were locked in. Was I thrilled that it was during Spring Break, nope.... but it is the first week of Flower and Garden so that makes it a little easier to deal with.

Unfortunately the flight times are not ideal. We leave Vancouver at 12:45pm but don't land in Orlando until 12:30am on March 8th. I still have to figure out the logistics of getting to Vancouver that morning, the one downside of living on Vancouver Island, but we have options so I'll figure that out later.

Once the flights were purchased I then had to figure out where to stay. When at WDW I always prefer to stay on-site. I want to stay within the Disney bubble so off-site is never in the plans. Because of our late arrival I really considered finding a place off-site for the 1st night but after checking places near MCO and Disney Springs the difference in price didn't really make sense to me so I decided to bite the bullet and book from the 7th at POP Century.

We have booked a preferred room so we are close to the main building and access to the Skyliner (loving that new travel option).

I took my niece to WDW for her 10th birthday 12 years ago and we stayed at POP and I enjoyed it, and because the Fiance and I are from different decades I figured it would be a good conversation piece for us. He has never stayed on property or experienced any of the resorts so we will be making sure to have a resort hopping day.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more .

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

Tickets Purchased!

Once we figured out where we were staying, the next step was to put together a general game plan for the trip so we could work out how many days we wanted to spend in the parks and whether or not we wanted to park hop.

When I’ve travelled with kids or family I always purchased tickets for every day we were on site but without park hopper. When I travelled solo I would get park hopper for every day so that way I could come and go as I felt depending on weather, ADRs that were available morning of and whether or not I ran into another solo traveller.

I hope I’m not the only one that goes back and forth on number of days and whether or not to do Park Hopper.

For this trip I tossed around all the options but finally decided on 5 day park hopper. We obviously won’t be using a park day on the 7th (don’t land until after midnight), I want a day of resort hopping to show Alan around some of my favorite places, and our last day I want to go to AKL for a meal before heading to the airport so I think 5 days will work out well.

Next Up: Plans for Park Days and ADRs

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

Plans Made and Changed and Changed Again

I absolutely love AK and it’s an easier park to plan for so I had planned to make our day 1 park AK. We could sleep in to recover for the late arrival, still get to the park for 10 or 11 and have a full day at AK. Then the Garden Rock Concert listing for that first week were released and things changed.

Day 1 - Spend mid-day at Disney Springs. Still allowing for sleeping in but can go get Magic Bands, do some shopping, have an early lunch and head to Epcot for the concert. Originally had planned AK

Day 2 - Hollywood Studios. Alan’s favorite park so want to start the trip off well for him. Originally planned EPCOT, then switched to MK (crowds are predicted high on the Sunday at MK on the weekend so that’s why it was changed). Will likely park-hop somewhere else but depends on the ADRs I get as I know Alan wants to do Fantasmic.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom. I’m hoping for a full day at MK but if we can get all priorities done we may hop back to DHS. Originally planned DHS but moved this when we switched Day 2.

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom. This was supposed to be my Disney Springs Day but since we want to do a partial Epcot Day on day one I needed to find a time for it. This one is still the most in flux. Will likely end up park-hopping somewhere depending on crowds.

Day 5 - BIRTHDAY There will be no parks this day. I plan on doing resort hopping and just enjoying showing Alan around. Maybe have a slice of cake at Cake Bake Shop, but definitely checking out some resorts for my hopeful trip solo in September.

Day 6 - Epcot - Eventhough Alan’s least favorite park is currently Epcot I hope to change his mind on this, and since it’s Flower and Garden we definitely need more than just a couple of hours around the concert to get the most out of it so a full day at Epcot is a MUST. Originally a MK Day

Day 7 - Departure Day… No park as we will have used all 5 park days. Breakfast at a resort and maybe Disney Springs again, depending on timing. If all goes well I will be booking a Bounceback before we leave for Breakfast.

Up Next - ADRs are booked!

 

[suse66]

Fellow Canadian joining in to read along! How in the world did you find tickets for $450 from Vancouver?? I couldn't get anything from Toronto for under $1100 for March Break (8-15).

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

Fellow Canadian joining in to read along! How in the world did you find tickets for $450 from Vancouver?? I couldn't get anything from Toronto for under $1100 for March Break (8-15).

I use DailyDrop. I pay $100 a year and get alerts for new daily flight deals, both domestic and international. I hadn't even thought of going back to Disney for a while but when I saw the price I jumped on it.

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

60 Days Out - ADRs here we come!

So as you are all well aware, planning ADRs can me the trickiest part of planning for Disney, especially if you are a foodie or have must-do places to eat for your upcoming trip. With the 3 hour difference between Orlando and Vancouver Island I was up at 3am to book my ADRs but fortunately I was able to get everything I wanted.

On Alan's previous trip he didn't eat in the bubble and chose to start and end the day with food at his off-site resort so he offered absolutely no help in this phase of planning. Since it's been so long since my last trip I knew that most experiences had changed or at least an aspect of it had so I figured I was starting from scratch.

I have done all previous versions of the Dining Plan in the past but as Alan and I typically only eat one meal a day at home going with any version of the dining plan this trip didn't make any sense.

When I asked Alan for one type of food he wanted to try he said BBQ. I know BBQ at Disney can be hit or miss and my favorite on site is actually Flame Tree Barbecue so figured I would give him a version of with entertainment as well so we booked Hoo-Dee-Doo. This will actually be on our Hollywood Studios day but we can enjoy the show with plenty of time to get back to DHS for Fantasmic!

My one character interaction I MUST have every trip is to see Eeyore. He's always been my favorite character and since we are not going during an event like Mickey's Not So Scary, I figured the best option would be Crystal Palace so we have an 8am breakfast on our MK Day!

Since this trip is for my birthday I wanted something a little more upscale for dinner on that day and I've always wanted to do Narcoossee's but never had the opportunity due to kids, finances or just timing so this was the first ADR I booked on the 60 day window.

I gave Alan the ADR options for our full Epcot Day and he said he liked the idea of the show at Biergarten so that's what we ended up booking.

On our departure day our flight doesn't leave until after 8pm so we have almost a full day but no park tickets left so we will be heading to AKL for breakfast at Boma to start what will be a VERY LONG Day!

Since the concert line up hadn't been finalized at 60 days I didn't have anything booked for the Saturday but I hoped that we would have some decent availability for a dining package when they opened up and I got what I had hoped for. We are doing a Dining Package at Spice Road Table as it's a cuisine we like but have limited availability where we are.

Most of our ADRs are for AYCE places but that suits our style well. We eat very small portions so usually share an entree somewhere but that doesn't allow us to try much of anything and can be quite boring if I'm being honest. Going with these selections we can eat as much or as little as is offered as we like and the cost is set regardless of if we have 1/2 a plate or 2 plates, obviously with Narcoossee's and Spice Road being the exceptions.

As with all of my previous trips, these plans may change while we are on site depending on how we are feeling, what is available and what mood strikes us, but either way, Disney food is better than having to cook for myself at home.

Up Next - Final Payment Looms.... Memory Maker or No?

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

30 Days Out - Final Payment - US/Canada Conversation and the US Exchange Rate

As we were approaching our 30 days I kept going back and forth on different options, potentially adding days, maybe doing the dining plan, and of course considering memory maker.

Unfortunately the week before the final payment was due my fiance got sick and ended up losing almost a week of pay so that put a hold on adding any extras. During this time there was also the talk of Tariffs between Canada and the US and the uncertainty of that also caused some conversations at our house.

I know a lot of Canadians have cancelled any US travel for this year but I fully intend to live my life and enjoy by time south of the border just as much as I would at home.

The one sticking point for me is the US exchange rate. Our package shows at just around $3,800 but with the exchange rate it's over $5,600, so when I made the final payment that was all my budget would allow, but I worked some of my own Disney magic, moved some things around and managed to add enough funds in to cover Memory Maker.... I truly believe this is the one add on that is a MUST for every trip. It cost almost $275 with the exchange rate but now I can capture all of our Disney experiences without having to worry about it.

Now to figure out what to pack..... JUST OVER 3 WEEKS TO GO!

 

[VancouverIslandDisney]

Purchase Lightening Lanes or No?

For the last week I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not to buy lightening lanes. With the exchange rate it’s even harder to stomach the costs but there are a few Must Dos that I decided to bite the bullet.

I opted for Multi-pass for MK and DHS and Single LL for Rise of the Resistance and Seven Dwarves Mine Train. It ended up being $300 for 2 of us with these purchases.

I’m still considering buying Single LL for Guardians and FOP but I think I will wait to see what the parks are like first when we arrive.

One week until we head out, but we don’t arrive until after midnight so technically 8 days before we can enjoy the Disney Bubble!