Need Help with Upcoming Trip !!

[pandora174]

Here's is my dilemma (a little long, sorry). We take 1 big vacation a year (usually Disney ) & several weekend getaways during the year (usually BG or SW). It's me, DH & DS (3 years old). This year for budget reasons we skipped Disney since we went 2x in 2004. I have the week of 12/17/05 - 12/23/05 off, we were going to try Universal for the first time with our son but I'm wasn't 100 % convinced even with adding some days at SW that we'll have enough to do 6 or 7 nights & I don't want to risk having an ok time vs. a really magical time like we've had at Disney. My main concern is crowds. My DH HATES crowds & my DS, bless his heart, has no patience for standing in long lines either, nor would I have the poor people in line with us suffer through one of his hourly meltdowns. So being that our week off in December is just right before Christmas I thought Disney would be crowded. We've been to Disney for the holidays before, so I could live with skipping Disney this holiday season & just doing a 3 day trip to BG & then save a low crowds trip for Disney in early Febraury ?? The weather would be nice, the crowds low & everyone happy ?? Right ? Now the dilemma. Am I picking the right time to go ? I was hoping since it's low season Disney would throw some decent rates. But reading some of the past posts about the new AP rules sounds unlikely. I was thinking of getting the seasonal FL resident AP passes & hoping for some decent FL resident room rates or if that pans out if they decide to give out some good package deals, like the recent ones out I could live with that. It seams it was easier before planning our Disney trips when I had the AP passes & I just had to wait for the codes. Now I'm all confused. How do you all plan your trips now ?? I really don't want to pay rack rate but if I got a good package deal with tickets/meals I would consider it. Is February a good time to go ? & don't even get me started on the choice of resort yet. I'll take it one step at a time. Sorry for the long post ! Any suggestions are most welcome !!

 

[JodyLynC]

Have you tried this website? It looks like it might be less crowded if you go earlier in the month, but you should still be okay if you don't go Christmas week.

http://www.touringplans.com/BestDays.htm

 

[Cinderella]

I think your first few days may be not so crowded, but the closer it gets to christmas the more busy the resort will become, and there will also be less likelyhood of discounts. If I were you, with a three year old, I would try to switch to the first two weeks in December, or the beginning of January. You will still get all the Christmas decorations etc, but it will be v quiet.