New FL Resident - First Time Trip

[FL2410]

My family relocated within a 2 hour drive to Disney with our 4.5 yo daughter and almost 2 yo son a couple weeks ago. Our daughter has been begging for Disney (she found out we were moving close by!). This would be her first trip, and our first trip since our own childhoods.

Ironically, last fall I did quite a bit of research on Disney in anticipation of taking the kids within the next year or so, and then out of the blue my husband was recruited for a job in FL. So our perspective has changed...we will now be able to go more than I ever imagined and won't need to see all the magic at once. I just don't know how to make the first of many trips now. I think ideally we'd go next fall and still make a somewhat big deal out of it ... but next fall is forever for a 4 yo.

So I would like go relatively soon before the heat kicks in along with the crowds. Would going up for a little weekend trip in the next couple weeks be feasible? Would Easter weekend be completely awful - we have Good Friday off. Or May?

We would definitely be taking it slow due to our new location and their ages; we will be getting resident passes. Thanks for the advice!

 

[HopperFan]

@Robo

 

[Deb & Bill]

My family relocated within a 2 hour drive to Disney with our 4.5 yo daughter and almost 2 yo son a couple weeks ago. Our daughter has been begging for Disney (she found out we were moving close by!). This would be her first trip, and our first trip since our own childhoods.

Ironically, last fall I did quite a bit of research on Disney in anticipation of taking the kids within the next year or so, and then out of the blue my husband was recruited for a job in FL. So our perspective has changed...we will now be able to go more than I ever imagined and won't need to see all the magic at once. I just don't know how to make the first of many trips now. I think ideally we'd go next fall and still make a somewhat big deal out of it ... but next fall is forever for a 4 yo.

So I would like go relatively soon before the heat kicks in along with the crowds. Would going up for a little weekend trip in the next couple weeks be feasible? Would Easter weekend be completely awful - we have Good Friday off. Or May?

We would definitely be taking it slow due to our new location and their ages; we will be getting resident passes. Thanks for the advice!

Resident passes may be blacked out for Easter. A week before and week after. Same with Christmas. If you get silver, you lose more times.

 

[glassslippergirl]

From a family of life-long Floridians, welcome to the Sunshine State. It's the best-- especially this time of year!

If you plan to go before June 9, check out the Discover Disney ticket deal-- https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/resident-discover/. It's three days for $139 (fourth day is $20 more), and the only blackouts are AK the week or so that Pandora opens (so you can use it Easter week-- in fact, that's when we will be using ours). For future reference, WDW usually has a special FL resident ticket offer like this that goes on sale starting right after the new year and expiring in June. When you buy multi-day tickets anytime of year, always be clear that you are a FL resident; there's usually some sort of deal, and our tickets usually expire in six months rather than two weeks. These may work for your fall trip: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/tickets/. There's blackout dates. No promises, but a lot of the blackouts were lifted last year, so they aren't carved in stone, but I wouldn't plan a trip assuming they'll be lifted. We also get deals on annual passes, and you can purchase them on a monthly payment plan-- not available to others. We had them before DS was born and spent 40 days in parks one year. We plan to get them again when DS is a bit older. It's actually a good deal if you can maximize it.

To be clear, if you buy tickets outside of WDW (like at an outlet store or online), you will get a voucher that lets you make FPs when linked to your MDE account, but you will have to visit guest relations somewhere in WDW to show proof of FL residence (so make sure you get your FL driver's license sooner than later).

A tip-- I save 5% on tickets by buying Disney gift cards at Target using my Target red card, then using them to buy the tickets from the Disney Outlet store near our house. I think you can buy them at a Disney Store, too. But it's a pain to buy with gift cards online or on the phone.

There's often FL resident discounts on WDW onsite lodgings, too. We don't like to stay on site (we feel we get more value off site), but we've been hundreds of times. For a first trip, you might want to look into on site options. https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/special-offers/resident-stay-rooms/.

To address your question, most of our trips are weekends. If we can extend by a day (taking off a Friday or going on a weekend with a Monday holiday), we do. We live 3 hours away, have a DS4, and find that driving up after work, going right to sleep in the hotel, and hitting the park the next two days works well for us. If we can extend the weekend, we hit Disney Springs on the last day before heading home. DS is usually so worn out, he sleeps the entire ride home. Easter weekend will be very crowded. We can usually find decent hotel rates Memorial Day weekend. I'd aim for May because the 30-day FP window for Easter week has already opened. I'm following it pretty closely because that's when we're going. You can still get FPs, but better ones will be available if you maximize your window.

Enjoy living in FL.