*** New Official February 2013 Thread ***

[Wood Nymph]

Dining plan was way too much food for us, as kids preferred to eat cereal or oatmeal in the room for breakfast. If we do it again I'll definitely try to plan all our credits better. We had 9 snacks, 7 quick service and 4 table service all remaining on the last day...it was awful to"waste" them especially considering we had to stay two additional nights and they wouldn't extend our dining plan or let us book dining plan for our additional days

I hope you all awaiting your trips have a magical time!!

-Kelly

We felt that the dining plan, our first time using it, was too much eating. It seemed like we spent far too much time traveling to restaurants and eating. We ran out of quick service credits and ended up paying out of pocket for two TS meals. The only reason I only had one snack credit left was because I was buying Dole Whips and French pastries for my sisters, who were not on the DP. We should have used our snack credits for ham and cheese croissants at the French Bakery to save our qs credits. I'm not sure if we will use the dining plan again, though.

 

[SplashMtnCrew]

They will have it at the front desk and you might get a $15 document printing fee, but its no big deal for them!

Thanks for letting me know. I've never heard of a document printing fee before. I learn something new on DIS all the time

Since this morning I've had to forgo leaving a day early. DS has been complaining of a sore throat and has had a mild fever since Sunday morning. This morning things didn't seem any better and DS is prone to bronchitis/pneumonia b/c of medical issues. Took him to the Dr. and DS has a sinus infection, put him on antibiotics and decongestant. We decided that it would probably be better not to change our dates, just in case DH or I end up sick too. I'd rather stay here and be sure everyone is healthy to go to WDW

 

[GrumpyFamilyof5]

ok this is it, kids are home, DH is loading cooler up as I type, then we will be on the way!! So excited, I have butterflies in my stomach, it doesn't matter how many times I've been or how old I get I still feel like that little girl the first time my grandparents took me!!
Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day and a safe President's Day weekend!!
Off we go......

 

[Saturn23]

For example, we got to Epcot 12 minutes after rope drop on Sunday and the line for Test Track was already over 30 minutes long. It took us almost an hour to get through that ride. When we went to Epcot on Thursday morning at rope drop we were able to walk right on Test Track.

Would you say Thursday was just less busy overall at Epcot or did that extra 12 minutes really make that much of a difference in line length? (If you arrived 12 minutes later on Thursday would you have waited as long as you did on Sunday?).

 

[skater]

ok this is it, kids are home, DH is loading cooler up as I type, then we will be on the way!! So excited, I have butterflies in my stomach, it doesn't matter how many times I've been or how old I get I still feel like that little girl the first time my grandparents took me!!
Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day and a safe President's Day weekend!!
Off we go......

You made me excited for you! Hope you have a wonderful trip.

 

[Kathymford]

Would you say Thursday was just less busy overall at Epcot or did that extra 12 minutes really make that much of a difference in line length? (If you arrived 12 minutes later on Thursday would you have waited as long as you did on Sunday?).

I'm not there, but in general I would think the difference between a weekday and a weekend could also have an impact. We attempt to avoid the parks completely on the weekends.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Would you say Thursday was just less busy overall at Epcot or did that extra 12 minutes really make that much of a difference in line length? (If you arrived 12 minutes later on Thursday would you have waited as long as you did on Sunday?).

I think that there were less people in Future World on Thursday than on Sunday. There were a lot of people on Sunday who came to ride on Test Track and Soaring. They both had really long wait times. Other rides were fine. There were more people in the World Showcase on Thursday than on Sunday. We were there in the early afternoon and again after dinner. And both times the World Showcase had very light crowds. They must have moved to one of the other parks. MK was open until midnight on Sunday, and that place was mobbed.

 

[James65]

Thanks for letting me know. I've never heard of a document printing fee before. I learn something new on DIS all the time

Since this morning I've had to forgo leaving a day early. DS has been complaining of a sore throat and has had a mild fever since Sunday morning. This morning things didn't seem any better and DS is prone to bronchitis/pneumonia b/c of medical issues. Took him to the Dr. and DS has a sinus infection, put him on antibiotics and decongestant. We decided that it would probably be better not to change our dates, just in case DH or I end up sick too. I'd rather stay here and be sure everyone is healthy to go to WDW

So sorry that your DS is under the weather. Hope all of you are healthy for your trip.

 

[Saturn23]

I'm not there, but in general I would think the difference between a weekday and a weekend could also have an impact. We attempt to avoid the parks completely on the weekends.

I think that there were less people in Future World on Thursday than on Sunday. There were a lot of people on Sunday who came to ride on Test Track and Soaring. They both had really long wait times. Other rides were fine. There were more people in the World Showcase on Thursday than on Sunday. We were there in the early afternoon and again after dinner. And both times the World Showcase had very light crowds. They must have moved to one of the other parks. MK was open until midnight on Sunday, and that place was mobbed.

Thanks! I'm going to get park hoppers so if a park is horrible I'll be able to find one that is less horrible. After reading all the crowd threads I'm getting nervous.

I'm going the last week of Feb and there are two MSEPs most nights, but only one on the days that people who just returned are all calling super crowded.... should I expect that week to be even worse???

 

[Kathymford]

Thanks! I'm going to get park hoppers so if a park is horrible I'll be able to find one that is less horrible. After reading all the crowd threads I'm getting nervous.

I'm going the last week of Feb and there are two MSEPs most nights, but only one on the days that people who just returned are all calling super crowded.... should I expect that week to be even worse???

I think you are panicking. I think our crowds will be much different than what other, earlier people are experiencing. There are no competitions and most signs point to most of the tour groups being gone. None of the crowd calendars have changed. Just breath. For whatever reason they have Wishes an hour before park losing our week, so they added another MSEP at closing. In general, parks are more crowded on the weekends because of locals. I still don't think it will be terrible.

That said, I'm no expert, but these are things I truly believe.

 

[pigletto]

I think you are panicking. I think our crowds will be much different than what other, earlier people are experiencing. There are no competitions and most signs point to most of the tour groups being gone. None of the crowd calendars have changed. Just breath. For whatever reason they have Wishes an hour before park losing our week, so they added another MSEP at closing. In general, parks are more crowded on the weekends because of locals. I still don't think it will be terrible.

That said, I'm no expert, but these are things I truly believe.

This is pretty much how I feel as well. For our week we aren't dealing with tour groups, cheerleading competitions, mardis gras week crowds or the Presidents week crowds. All that's on the agenda for our time frame is the Princess Half that first weekend. If history holds true, the half will not make a huge impact on crowds and I was there while it was going on 2 years ago and it was fine.

Go in expecting moderate crowds, use the best parks and a loose touring plan and I think we'll all be just fine. The best park for the day can make a huge difference. I have one day that I am going against it because of our BOG reservation and I am prepared to park hop if needed, but hopefully we can make it work with rope drop and a plan

ETA) Although I have to admit that I find the two MSEP scheduled a little concerning. I've never seen that before in 8 trips. I am wondering if it's to deal with the MK crowds because the new Fantasyland is such a huge crowd draw?

 

[Happy2BGoofy]

Have a magical trip to all of those leaving today or in the next couple of days

At the airport waiting for our flight now! Yiieeeepeeeee!!!!!!

Will arrive in Orlando around noon. Can't wait for our 10th anniversary celebration to start!!!!

 

[Canooknic]

Thanks! I'm going to get park hoppers so if a park is horrible I'll be able to find one that is less horrible. After reading all the crowd threads I'm getting nervous.

I'm going the last week of Feb and there are two MSEPs most nights, but only one on the days that people who just returned are all calling super crowded.... should I expect that week to be even worse???

We are here now and yes it is busy, but it certainly hasn't ruined our trip.
We have been on almost every ride we want to (I just need to find a way to get on Peter Pan tomorrow morning before our flight!! )
We had a couple of issues with BTGs, none with cheerleaders, and a QS lost our order yesterday so I stood around like a lemon for 20 minutes waiting for a salad!!
You'll have a great time xx

 

[skater]

For those of us leaving around the 23rd - I checked accuweather again today (obsessively every day now), and it looks better than it did yesterday. I understand it means nothing, but I like this one better than the last one I looked at .

 

[skater]

I think you are panicking. I think our crowds will be much different than what other, earlier people are experiencing. There are no competitions and most signs point to most of the tour groups being gone. None of the crowd calendars have changed. Just breath. For whatever reason they have Wishes an hour before park losing our week, so they added another MSEP at closing. In general, parks are more crowded on the weekends because of locals. I still don't think it will be terrible.

That said, I'm no expert, but these are things I truly believe.

I'm holding you to it . I am hopeful that there will be low crowds (I think we get down there the same day you do), but even if there aren't, most of us know how to tour the parks and which days to go to which parks. Its always easier to deal with low crowds, but we all know how to have a good time no matter what. I still hope you're right though .

 

[Wood Nymph]

The cheerleaders packed the popular rides but otherwise they were fine. Once they are gone it should help to reduce the lines for the popular rides a little. They also tended to stay late at the park, which meant that some of the rides stayed busy.

They added an extra MSEP at the last minute while we were there last week. I think it is in response to the large MK crowds. The only disadvantage to that was that the park didn't clear out as fast.

Peter Pan was always packed. We were finally able to get on it at rope drop on the morning the Ariel ride was closed.

 

[ryankelli]

For those of us leaving around the 23rd - I checked accuweather again today (obsessively every day now), and it looks better than it did yesterday. I understand it means nothing, but I like this one better than the last one I looked at .

saw that as well. I hope so 24 starts the week at wdw for us after 3 days at us/ioa. This week is going really slow.

 

[ninjagirl]

Anddddd two days from departure (driving to WDW) my new car breaks down with apparent engine troubles. Since we're driving, I think that justifies a tear fest. Thank god for warranties.

 

[aaarcher86]

Single digit dance!!!! 9 days until departure!!!

 

[casanova5]

Anddddd two days from departure (driving to WDW) my new car breaks down with apparent engine troubles. Since we're driving, I think that justifies a tear fest. Thank god for warranties.

Omg prayers all goes good