***Official March 2021 Thread***

[Bama Mom]

Ok... need to go back and read everyone's plans but wanted to take a minute to get ours down...

Trip is me, DH, DD (16), DS (12). Staying in the towers at CSR.

We're actually leaving here in VA on Saturday the 12th but going first to Hilton Head Island to stay at a resort (not Disney, boo) for 3 nights with a friend and her family. My parents moved to that area this past fall so we will enjoy the resort and visit with them a little.

Tues (16th) - leave HHI, head to AK when we arrive. I'm hoping to be there around 1:00. We have a reservation at Yak & Yeti at 2:45. My hope is to get in to the park and just enjoy the atmosphere a little until lunch. If we luck out and get a short line for a ride, great. Maybe we will catch the bird show, something like that. We're hoping that crowds will start to clear after we eat and we can hit the big rides.

Wed (17th) - MK. We had made reservations at The Wave for breakfast planning for a 9am opening but with an 8:00 opening, we're probably going to scrap those and make sure we're on a bus first thing instead. Hoping to hit 7DMT, BTMR, Splash, PoTC, Jungle Cruise, and Haunted Mansion in the morning. If we can catch other things with short waits, great. We also have a lunch reservation at The Wave because we were assuming our car would be parked there but I'll probably cancel that, too. I'm thinking we will head back to the resort and do a grab and go lunch and hit the pool for a couple of hours and then go back to MK closer to dinner. Hopefully mobile order dinner and spend the night doing what we can.

Thur (18th) - HS... We're huge Star Wars fans so hopefully we will get a boarding pass for Rise. Again, I had a breakfast reservation at Tratorria al Forno but with the earlier opening, it won't work so the plan now is just to drive to the Swan and pay the daily parking rate. Planning to be there around 7:30 so we can walk to HS and hopefully be towards the front. MMRR, SDD, TSMM, Smugglers Run will be the morning priorities. Everyone will want to explore GE for sure. We have a Savi's reservation for lightsaber build at 12:40. We have a 50s Prime Time reservation for 1:30 but I think we're going to drop that and head back to the resort again. Because we will have the car, we can grab food someplace or do a mobile order on the way out. We then have droid building at 5:00 so we just need to be back in the park for that. Then hopefully we can hit rides we missed in the morning. DH and DD would love to do ToT and/or RnRC but my son and I will probably sit those out. We do also have an Oga's reservation but it's for 9:05 am and I don't necessarily want to miss prime riding time for that. I actually haven't even told anyone in the family that I got it yet in case I can't move it.

Fri (19th) - Epcot... It will be nice to end the trip with some more relaxed mornings so that's what we will do. Still planning rope drop but it's nice that rope drop will be 10:00 instead of 7:00! Soarin' and Test Track for sure when we arrive. Frozen if we can get on with a short-ish wait. Walk World Showcase, check out festival booths, etc. I do have a sit down reservation around 4:00 at San Angel because I figure it might be fairly crowded by then so getting a sit down break might give us the boost we need for the rest of the evening. We will just leave when everyone is ready.

Sat (20th) - HS/Departure. Another chance for Rise but we aren't planning on rope dropping. We will just head to the park when we're ready, probably around 9:00. It will be more of a wander around, check out shops, etc kind of morning. If we can get on a ride, great. We have lunch reservations at 2:00 at Beaches and Cream. After that we will head north. We're stopping back at my parents house in South Carolina for a couple of extra days before we head home Monday the 22nd.

Sounds like a great trip! My sisters and I are big Star Wars fans too so hoping we get a BG for RotR as well. It would be so much more fun to ride with them than my non star wars fan hubby LOL

 

[Bama Mom]

This is fun! I’m enjoying reading everyone’s plans! I also hope you all come back and tell us how your trip went.
We are a group of 4 friends....all married, middle-aged moms. Two of us just completed our doctoral degrees in January, so our other two friends decided they wanted to celebrate with us. We often go on a small cruise together for a nursing conference each year, but obviously that was derailed in 2020. So this year we decided to celebrate our accomplishment by doing Disney! We’ve all been before with our husbands and kids, but I’m definitely the fanatic of the group. None of them have been in at least 10 years. My family last went in June 2019.

Since we’re ditching the families, we are keeping this a pretty short trip. We leave on 3/25 and arrive to MCO about 2:50pm. We are staying in a preferred room at CBR. We stayed here on our last family trip, and the transportation was less than stellar at times, but this was before the Skyliner was operational. I’m cautiously optmistic that with better planning transportation will be smoother this time around. We will go to DS for the evening and have reservations at The Boathouse at 7:15. We also have military tickets so we will get them validated and pick up the discounted memory maker at guest relations while there.

Friday, 3/26: MK. Planning to get on early bus, but also willing to Uber if one is close. Ride whatever we want, and then have lunch ADR at LTT that we may or may not keep. I’ve found the table service dining in MK to be.....underwhelming. Lol We may take a break and then come back later in the afternoon but this will depend on how the park hours wind up changing. I am trying to embrace the more laid-back approach to this trip.

Saturday, 3/27: AK. Early bus again. I love the Pandora ride, and my friends haven’t ridden it before, so it’s first priority. We have lunch at Yak n Yeti at 11:30. Hoping we can power through the rides and It’s Tough to be a Bug (I weirdly love this show) in time to leave early, rest a bit and then maybe hop to Epcot.

Sunday, 3/28: HS. GET THE RotR boarding group!!!!!! None of us have been to Galaxies Edge, and I’m super excited. My whole family are Star Wars fans and they are green with envy that I might get to ride it without them. The rest of my group hasn’t seen Toy Story land either, so I want to show them this at night. It’s just the cutest area. ToT is also a priority. We have too many reservations for this day, so we may or may not keep them all. Lunch at 50s. Afternoon res at Ogas. Dinner at Sci Fi. We may actually keep them all if we can hold up through the long day, because these restaurants have sentimental value to many of us from taking our families. And Oga’s doesn’t take long. But we’ll see.

Monday, 3/29: Epcot. Soak up F&G. I am so excited to get to leisurely stroll through the World Showcase, but my teens are bored stiff there. What can I say......I have raised uncultured swine. Lol. I’m looking forward to being able to actually explore a little more without listening to constant complaining. We have a 9:00 breakfast reservation at Chef Mickey that we may well drop in order to sleep a little later this day. We’ll decide the night before based on how tired we all are. We also have a 1:30 at Via Napoli. I think we will eat around the festival for supper.

Tuesday, 3:30: Breakfast at Topolino’s @ 8:45. This we will keep. I want some pictures of us with characters in the background, and I hear the food is delicious. And it’s very convenient to get there. Flights out at 2:00. Sadness.

I’m curious to see how the trip plays out with the crowds, and to see how we hold up to all the early, long days. I’m used to longer trips, where we can go at a more leisurely pace and still do pretty much every single thing we want to do. If it’s too much, we are all prepared to lounge around the pool some and soak up the ADULT TIME! : )

Have a magical trip, everyone.

We will be at MK on the morning of the 26th as well.
I'm used to the go go go 5 days in the park trip but I'm not used to crowds with no FPs so I hope I can hang. Like I've said before I will be happy to be at DW no matter what. I did make my hubby and my trip in 2019 more relaxed and slow paced so he wouldn't be a total grump. He isn't an "amusement park" type person but went to appease me.

 

[Bama Mom]

We have hit single digits for our trip! This is not a drill!

My travel crew includes my 3 ladies... my wife and daughters 11 & 16. This trip was planned in January after returning from a short Christmas trip. This year we had canceled WDW and Disneyland trips and became DVC members just before the pandemic. So while the Disney math doesn’t shake out completely, we have had lots of DVC points and airline credits to use.

**I’ll preface this information with a disclaimer that this entire thing will likely change because of how I tinker with everything and can’t leave it alone. This trip started as a 2-night 1-park trip and last night I changed flights and added another night. We are now up to a 5-night 4-park trip!

Saturday 3/13: Fly in early in the AM and drop bags off at AKL Jambo. Originally we were to head off to AK, but since adding a day, we can spend time at Disney Springs and relax at the pool and explore the resort at night. The wife and I will break away for dinner for 2 at Sanaa.

Sunday 3/14: Really the only day that hasn’t changed. We go to HS and have reservations for Oga’s and Sci-Fi. Things we want to do that we always skip for the headliners are Walt Disney Presents (haven’t been since 2014) and Frozen Sing-a-long.

Monday 3/15: This day was EPCOT, but now is AK. We will rope drop Nomad Lounge and eat an unhealthy amount of Mr. Kamal’s fries. We also go home to a new resort, BLT!

Tuesday 3/16: Wake up and walk to MK! That will be a first. We also hope to take a midday swim break since we can just walk over!

Wednesday 3/17: This is our new day and is now EPCOT. The only issue now is a Chef Mickey reservation at 9am which will cause us to miss rope drop. I wish I could have one on 3/18 instead.

Thursday 3/18: Let the kids sleep in while I explore the resort. As I mentioned I wish we had a Chef Mickey this day, but maybe I’ll try to waitlist it. We will just relax before our 4pm flight home.

I’ve enjoyed planning with you all and I hope everyone has great trips!

LOL, Yeah I'm not sure how much of my written down plans will actually happen. With 6 of us, we may split up some when we hop so who knows what will actually happen. All of us love most of the rides so I don't think anyone will skip rides. RnR is a headache trigger for me but I'd still ride it and I don't care much for Space Mountain (never really have) but I would ride it too. It just isn't a fun ride to me.

 

[a_ashbiez]

At AK today!
Park opened at 8, but we were moving slow and didn't get a bus until 8.
No waits to get in the park.
Dinosaur and Triceratop Spin were walk-on when we came in!
Everest was also walk-on, we hopped off and got right back in line!

Lunch at Yak & Yeti QS right now - highly recommended the Honey Sesame Chicken & Sweet and Sour shrimp!

Pandora wait times are high, but with a 5 year old who knows nothing about Avatar, we might skip it and go back for an afternoon of swimming!!

Overall very low and manageable crowds here, away from pandora!

 

[Bama Mom]

So my daughter made this mask this week. This is hers but she is making me some too. It's hard to find masks that are comfy that don't fog up my glasses and this one fit so well and didn't fog my glasses. She is making mine with a little bit loser elastics just because I have a scar behind and below my right ear from a surgery several years ago and if I wear the elastic too snug for too long it rubs terribly and irritates that scar. So she is going to make mine longer so I can add beans to tighten or loosen as I need to. This was the first time she has made a mask and she rocked it. We had bought this fabric to make ears and never used it for ears so she is making masks and scrunches for the trip instead (she also made a bib for me to have for my grand daughter here).

 

[skeettafic]

So what is everyone's thoughts about how miserable MK would be if we didn't rope drop and instead opted to try and get on the big rides at night? That's the one morning that I know everyone is going to be mad about getting up. lol

Our MK day is the 17th so it's going to be a busy week. I know the rope drop plan will be totally worth it to get the rides in but I am trying to be more relaxed this trip and if we think we could get everything done in the evening, it might be nice to have a slower start to the morning and just head over there post lunch.

 

[Wood Nymph]

So my daughter made this mask this week. This is hers but she is making me some too. It's hard to find masks that are comfy that don't fog up my glasses and this one fit so well and didn't fog my glasses. She is making mine with a little bit loser elastics just because I have a scar behind and below my right ear from a surgery several years ago and if I wear the elastic too snug for too long it rubs terribly and irritates that scar. So she is going to make mine longer so I can add beans to tighten or loosen as I need to. This was the first time she has made a mask and she rocked it. We had bought this fabric to make ears and never used it for ears so she is making masks and scrunches for the trip instead (she also made a bib for me to have for my grand daughter here).

View attachment 560474

Cute mask! I’ve made some masks from old fabric I had and I used that same pattern. I like that they don’t slip down when I talk like the pleated masks do.

 

[CalSea12]

My daughter and I fly out at 6:05 as well so we have to be there at 4am too. It's a good things we are people who can function on very little sleep.
I'm glad you were able to snag a light saber appointment for your hubby.
Several years ago I broke my left foot and now I have Arthritis in it. It swells often if I'm on it a lot through the day. So any chance I get during the day at the park I prop it up some to help with that. I also have to keep pain meds with me in case it does start hurting and throbbing so I guess that helps keep the feet and legs from hurting later on since I'm keeping meds in me. Fashion also goes out the window and I wear comfy shoes even if they are ugly HaHa. In fact I have been wearing my skecher sandals around the house to get my feet used to them again because I don't want to wear my tennis shoes on days they may get wet.

I was super happy when I was able to snag the Savi's! Now hopefully he can get his ROTR pass too. The Savi's isn't at an ideal time, but hey at least we have one

I'm pretty sure I have arthritis in my feet too, which leads to a ton of swelling and pain. I have a pair of New Balance and a pair of Crocs I am going to try this time. In October, I bought TEVA sandals bc everyone else loves them and they rubbed the bottom of my feet raw! It hurt so much.

Thankfully, we tend to do well on little sleep as well because I cant ever seem to sleep the night before a Disney trip lol

 

[jolinda]

I think this is not a bad plan. We are coming from the west coast and my 19yo has made it clear that rope drop is NOT an option, so we're going to find out. And honestly, I think it will be much more relaxing not to worry about it. If you look at ride times on touring plans, most waits increase pretty quickly in the morning, then level off or decrease, so if you don't make rope drop it's probably better to wait a bit. With small children short waits may be more important, but if your kids are old enough to understand the trade-offs, I don't think sleeping in guarantees it will be a disaster (though it might be pretty hot in the afternoons).

So what is everyone's thoughts about how miserable MK would be if we didn't rope drop and instead opted to try and get on the big rides at night? That's the one morning that I know everyone is going to be mad about getting up. lol

Our MK day is the 17th so it's going to be a busy week. I know the rope drop plan will be totally worth it to get the rides in but I am trying to be more relaxed this trip and if we think we could get everything done in the evening, it might be nice to have a slower start to the morning and just head over there post lunch.

 

[skeettafic]

I think this is not a bad plan. We are coming from the west coast and my 19yo has made it clear that rope drop is NOT an option, so we're going to find out. And honestly, I think it will be much more relaxing not to worry about it. If you look at ride times on touring plans, most waits increase pretty quickly in the morning, then level off or decrease, so if you don't make rope drop it's probably better to wait a bit. With small children short waits may be more important, but if your kids are old enough to understand the trade-offs, I don't think sleeping in guarantees it will be a disaster (though it might be pretty hot in the afternoons).

Yeah... we talked about it tonight and decided that’s the plan. One thing I hadn’t really thought about was the fact that when we arrive the day before we will go straight to AK so we won’t be even in our room until after park closing that night. To get in the room and situated for a5:30 wake up would leave me with some salty teenagers!
I made a 12:30 reservation at the wave for lunch, and a 5:30 reservation at LTT for dinner. So we will get into the park around 1:30ish and have 4 hours until dinner. I’m hoping we might luck out and hit a lull as people are leaving to use their park hoppers. Then we will catch other stuff after dinner.

 

[MomOTwins]

Yeah... we talked about it tonight and decided that’s the plan. One thing I hadn’t really thought about was the fact that when we arrive the day before we will go straight to AK so we won’t be even in our room until after park closing that night. To get in the room and situated for a5:30 wake up would leave me with some salty teenagers!
I made a 12:30 reservation at the wave for lunch, and a 5:30 reservation at LTT for dinner. So we will get into the park around 1:30ish and have 4 hours until dinner. I’m hoping we might luck out and hit a lull as people are leaving to use their park hoppers. Then we will catch other stuff after dinner.

Yeah, I try to avoid 8am (actually 7am) park opens whenever possible. I am always up early anyway, but I like to chill and have breakfast and get the stroller bag organized in the morning and hate rushing. 9am open at MK is sooooo much better.

Of course, just finished a 17 hour workday so that adds to my wanting to just relax on vacation. This trip cannot come soon enough!

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

So what is everyone's thoughts about how miserable MK would be if we didn't rope drop and instead opted to try and get on the big rides at night? That's the one morning that I know everyone is going to be mad about getting up. lol

Our MK day is the 17th so it's going to be a busy week. I know the rope drop plan will be totally worth it to get the rides in but I am trying to be more relaxed this trip and if we think we could get everything done in the evening, it might be nice to have a slower start to the morning and just head over there post lunch.

I'm planning to do a mix of rope drops and later evenings this trip. It's not worth the hassle (or grumpy teenagers!) to drag everyone out of bed super early every morning. I think the trade off of slightly longer lines, but a well rested family will be worth it.

 

[JJ2017]

Just found out at work that we will be remote a couple of days leading up to us leaving....so huge stress relief since I can now pack AND plan this party we are hosting the night before we leave. ARGH. I saw hours changed through the 20th. Still not for our week (last week of March), but any indication of extended hours is positive.

 

[JJ2017]

Just found out at work that we will be remote a couple of days leading up to us leaving....so huge stress relief since I can now pack AND plan this party we are hosting the night before we leave. ARGH. I saw hours changed through the 20th. Still not for our week (last week of March), but any indication of extended hours is positive.

Has it been through the 20th already - and today would change through the 27th??

 

[MomOTwins]

I'm planning to do a mix of rope drops and later evenings this trip. It's not worth the hassle (or grumpy teenagers!) to drag everyone out of bed super early every morning. I think the trade off of slightly longer lines, but a well rested family will be worth it.

I think the reason so much emphasis has been placed on rope drop lately is that evening just hasn’t been an option lately with the parks closing between 5 and 8pm most days. As we head into the spring break with 10/11pm closers, midday to close is back on the table as a more viable strategy now. Most families with small kids are simply not going be hopping onto 7DMT at 10:55pm. I think you’ll experience pretty short waits the last couple hours on those extended hours days.

Has it been through the 20th already - and today would change through the 27th??

That is correct. Though we are just assuming an hours drop today based on recent experience. No guarantees Disney won’t decide to take a few extra days to finalize hours for that week.

 

[skeettafic]

I'm definitely trying to remember that this is supposed to be relaxing. The whole point of the trip after this last year is just to enjoy time away. So I need to take some of my uber planning down a few more notches even from what I've had. lol

 

[Bama Mom]

Thos good thing about my group is if some want to be at rope drop, we can and those who want to sleep in and come later can do that as well. The youngest in our group is 15 and she is as excited as I am for the trip so I can see her rope dropping and closing down the parks. My middle sister may want to sleep in some (she likes her sleep and is used to more relaxing vacations like cruises) and my oldest niece may need to sleep in some morning since she is coming from LA so the time difference may catch up with her. My oldest Sister has breathing issues cause by stenosis in her esophagus so that may slow her down a bit when she needs a break to take her mask off and get some fresh air but when she needs that I will take that time to rest my foot and prop it up. Basically we will just go with the flow and I know my daughter and I will be rope dropping each morning and I'm sure at least my youngest niece will be with us each day.

I'm not sure when new hours are normally posted on Friday (time wise) but I know they aren't posted on the website yet...are at least weren't when I checked earlier. Hopefully they will get them posted today though. I can't imagine them not extending them some with most days being booked for HS and some MK for the each group besides pass holders. I am grateful that it doesn't seem as busy as the week before my week though when several parks are filled in all ticket groups on some days (there are a few days only EPCOT is available). Sorry for those going that week, but at least you'll be in Disney!

 

[dez1978]

Thos good thing about my group is if some want to be at rope drop, we can and those who want to sleep in and come later can do that as well. The youngest in our group is 15 and she is as excited as I am for the trip so I can see her rope dropping and closing down the parks. My middle sister may want to sleep in some (she likes her sleep and is used to more relaxing vacations like cruises) and my oldest niece may need to sleep in some morning since she is coming from LA so the time difference may catch up with her. My oldest Sister has breathing issues cause by stenosis in her esophagus so that may slow her down a bit when she needs a break to take her mask off and get some fresh air but when she needs that I will take that time to rest my foot and prop it up. Basically we will just go with the flow and I know my daughter and I will be rope dropping each morning and I'm sure at least my youngest niece will be with us each day.

I'm not sure when new hours are normally posted on Friday (time wise) but I know they aren't posted on the website yet...are at least weren't when I checked earlier. Hopefully they will get them posted today though. I can't imagine them not extending them some with most days being booked for HS and some MK for the each group besides pass holders. I am grateful that it doesn't seem as busy as the week before my week though when several parks are filled in all ticket groups on some days (there are a few days only EPCOT is available). Sorry for those going that week, but at least you'll be in Disney!

I keep checking the hours today too lol.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Our trip is sadly over and we will be going home very soon. We tried to get boarding passes for Rise on two separate mornings and failed both times. But other than that we had a great time.

Just a heads up for anyone who wants to park hop to Epcot. They let us in the main entrance 8 minutes early - at 1:52 pm.

 

[Justrose]

Waiting impatiently for hours to change! Fingers crossed!