Spring Break 2016 - A March PTR

[pascalspal]

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This is my first PTR, so thanks for joining in! I am in no way new to Disney. Ive been to Disney World and Disneyland over 70 times combined! I've taken many vacations with family and a lot of Disneyland trips with friends as I had an annual pass. So I'm super excited to be planning a disney trip for my college spring break this year. This will be my first completely solo trip to Disney World without my parents tagging along.

Here is a little more about me:

I am 20 years old and attend the University of Alabama (don't worry I won't use 'the words' on this post. I know they can be quite offensive). I'm working on getting my degree in Mechanical Engineering, and an MBA in business. I unfortunately had to turn down the opportunity to participate in the Disney College Program this spring, but maybe I'll have time for it another year!

Favorite Park: Epcot
Favorite Ride: Test Track
Favorite Snack: Churros
Favorite Princess: Rapunzel
Favorite Movie: Inside Out
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The rest of my group will consist of 7 of my college friends. 5 girls (all my alpha chi omega sisters) and 2 guys. Having to plan for everyone and make sure we are all on the same page is stressful, but I have no doubt that it will all be worth it! Stay tuned for more!

 

[pascalspal]

Table of Contents

When & Where
Travel Plans
Epcot
Tonga Toast?​

 

[pascalspal]

So when are we going and where are we staying you ask?

Spring break falls during the week of March 13th this year, so we will be checking in March 13th and checking out March 18th! Being that we are college students having to pay for this trip ourselves or with minimal help from our parents, you could say that we are on a budget. We decided to stay at...

All-Stars Music!
We wanted to take advantage of EMH as well as disney bus transportation if we didn't feel like driving to the parks would save time. We booked two standard rooms, and I'm hoping we can get lucky and get one of the few standard rooms in the Jazz buildings so we can be close to breakfast and the buses! I also need to figure out which parks it would be quicker to drive to instead of taking the buses. I'll need to do some more research!

 

[soniam]

I am probably (Read my PTR. It's complicated.) going the same exact week. Looking forward to seeing your plans. Hope you have an awesome first solo trip.

 

[pascalspal]

I am probably (Read my PTR. It's complicated.) going the same exact week. Looking forward to seeing your plans. Hope you have an awesome first solo trip.

Just caught up on your PTR, I had a feeling that your hesitations were about SWW being cancelled. We have some unhappy campers in our group as well. Hopefully they'll release more information about all the new Star Wars things to do soon!

 

[pascalspal]

So being that we will traveling 9 hours by car from Tuscaloosa, I made some extra travel plans to maximize park time. We have six days of park tickets and five nights at our Disney resort. If we drove down all the way the first day, we would lose most of our park time. So I booked our group two rooms at a Best Western a little over an hour out of Orlando. This way we can make the bulk of our drive Saturday and get up bright and early Sunday morning for a short drive to Disney! We have plans to do the same on the way back as well.

As for other plans, we are considering using one of our six park days to go to Universal, but we are still undecided on that. I have made one ADR for Dinner at Splitsville in Disney Springs for our Animal Kingdom day.We were hoping to do a fast pass for BOG lunch, but I see that they are ending this process in the early spring right before we get there I didn't schedule any other table service meals because again we are broke college kids Anyway we figured we would do mostly quick service to maximize ride time. This isn't really how I like to do Disney, because I value at least a little rest time on busy park days but majority rules! Oh Well! If anyone has Dining Recommendations I would gladly take them, QS or TS!

 

[mandyyyrose]

Hey!
I'm doing my first non-parents trip for spring break too! Mine's the week before though. Definitely excited to see where your plans lead

 

[soniam]

So being that we will traveling 9 hours by car from Tuscaloosa, I made some extra travel plans to maximize park time. We have six days of park tickets and five nights at our Disney resort. If we drove down all the way the first day, we would lose most of our park time. So I booked our group two rooms at a Best Western a little over an hour out of Orlando. This way we can make the bulk of our drive Saturday and get up bright and early Sunday morning for a short drive to Disney! We have plans to do the same on the way back as well.

As for other plans, we are considering using one of our six park days to go to Universal, but we are still undecided on that. I have made one ADR for Dinner at Splitsville in Disney Springs for our Animal Kingdom day.We were hoping to do a fast pass for BOG lunch, but I see that they are ending this process in the early spring right before we get there I didn't schedule any other table service meals because again we are broke college kids Anyway we figured we would do mostly quick service to maximize ride time. This isn't really how I like to do Disney, because I value at least a little rest time on busy park days but majority rules! Oh Well! If anyone has Dining Recommendations I would gladly take them, QS or TS!

The drive in sounds like a good plan. I prefer to to start out my park day at opening too.

If you can swing Universal, I would do it. We loved it. However, it's best to do at least two days. Unfortunately, just one or two days at Universal is going to be more expensive than the those days at Disney will cost, since the days get cheaper as you buy more.

If you want to save money, I would definitely skip TS as much as you can. Just do one or two that you really want to do. Lunch and breakfast are usually cheaper, so maybe do your TS then. There's a ton of good QS places at Epcot. The flatbread pizzas at Pinocchio's Village Haus are pretty good. I like Columbia Harbor House the best in MK. We have never done much QS at DHS. We usually do a TS or end up getting a hot dog from a stand because the QS lines are too long. The new Harambe Market at AK looks really good. We usually only do one TS at most a day anyway. I really prefer to do one every other day to maximize park time.

 

[pascalspal]

So here are our tentative plans (without Universal)

Day 1 - Sunday : ARRIVAL DAY & EPCOT

We would grab a quick breakfast and check out of our travel hotel early this morning and get back on the road to Disney. Our target is to arrive at the hotel around 8:00 am. We are all putting credit cards on our magic bands to purchase food so I'm assuming we would need to do that separately at check in. Our room definitely won't be ready that early, so we are going to drop off our luggage and take a short drive over to Epcot for the day. We will be visiting Epcot twice so we don't mind getting a potentially late start here.

I'm going to make our FP+ reservations for late afternoon just in case we run into obstacles in the morning. With Soarin' being closed we will most likely use our FP+ on Test Track, Mission Space, & the Character Spot. I know I am definitely going to want to hit up the F&G festival booths for a snack-lunch option. I think two days will be plenty of time to try some new food, do some rides, and check out all the pretty topiaries!

What are your Epcot suggestions or must-dos?

 

[soniam]

So here are our tentative plans (without Universal)

Day 1 - Sunday : ARRIVAL DAY & EPCOT

We would grab a quick breakfast and check out of our travel hotel early this morning and get back on the road to Disney. Our target is to arrive at the hotel around 8:00 am. We are all putting credit cards on our magic bands to purchase food so I'm assuming we would need to do that separately at check in. Our room definitely won't be ready that early, so we are going to drop off our luggage and take a short drive over to Epcot for the day. We will be visiting Epcot twice so we don't mind getting a potentially late start here.

I'm going to make our FP+ reservations for late afternoon just in case we run into obstacles in the morning. With Soarin' being closed we will most likely use our FP+ on Test Track, Mission Space, & the Character Spot. I know I am definitely going to want to hit up the F&G festival booths for a snack-lunch option. I think two days will be plenty of time to try some new food, do some rides, and check out all the pretty topiaries!

What are your Epcot suggestions or must-dos?

I think Mission Space is now a Tier 1, so you would have to choose between it and TT. You could probably hit MS first thing. It usually doesn't have a long wait. However, all this could be out the window with Soarin' closed.

 

[kadrachb]

Following along!

We were hoping to do a fast pass for BOG lunch, but I see that they are ending this process in the early spring right before we get there

They are still doing ADRs for lunch at BOG... you can try that, and if you can't get a full group ADR, try splitting it up, like 4 at 12:00pm, and 3 at 12:05pm. That way you can all still be together!

e are all putting credit cards on our magic bands to purchase food so I'm assuming we would need to do that separately at check in.

I've heard people having some trouble doing this. The thing I've heard of doing to make sure it worked is to buy something small at the gift shop to make sure it chargers their card, and not yours.

What are your Epcot suggestions or must-dos?

My boyfriend and I LOVE The Seas. It's always a must-do for us!

 

[soniam]

Here's an article about 3 budget WDW places. I haven't been to the Plaza or the Wave, but we thought Wolfgang Puck Express was pretty good.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/3-budget-conscious-restaurants-at-walt-disney-world/

 

[pascalspal]

I think Mission Space is now a Tier 1, so you would have to choose between it and TT. You could probably hit MS first thing. It usually doesn't have a long wait. However, all this could be out the window with Soarin' closed.

I'll definitely check up on this when it comes time for Fast Passes. Food is my biggest priority in Epcot

Following along!


They are still doing ADRs for lunch at BOG... you can try that, and if you can't get a full group ADR, try splitting it up, like 4 at 12:00pm, and 3 at 12:05pm. That way you can all still be together!


I've heard people having some trouble doing this. The thing I've heard of doing to make sure it worked is to buy something small at the gift shop to make sure it chargers their card, and not yours.


My boyfriend and I LOVE The Seas. It's always a must-do for us!

I actually made reservations that way just now, so thank you so so much! I never thought about doing it that way. And I'll be sure and check out all the card situations. I'm not sure if everyone wants to do that or not. I'm lucky enough that my parents agreed to pay for my food while I'm on spring break, so I know I'll be using my card that way for convenience.

Here's an article about 3 budget WDW places. I haven't been to the Plaza or the Wave, but we thought Wolfgang Puck Express was pretty good.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/3-budget-conscious-restaurants-at-walt-disney-world/

Thanks for that article! I sent it to all my friends so they could decide where to eat. I have eaten at the Wave and Wolfgang Puck Express, and they were both great!

 

[pascalspal]

Sorry for the lack of updates, it was finals week Now that thats all over, I can get back to obsessing over our upcoming trip!

Day 2 - Monday MAGIC KINGDOM

This will be our first of two days at Magic Kingdom. I really want to stop at Captain Cooks one of our MK mornings to grab some Tonga Toast so I'm not sure if that will happen here or on the next day yet. I've heard such great things, so I feel like its worth the detour. However, I think we plan to get to MK for rope drop this morning. I think the tentative plan is to try and conquer Adventureland, Frontierland and around half of Fantasyland this day, which I think is a reasonable plan for us. I'm at a loss for which rides to get fastpasses for though. I know we will get BTM, but I'm hesitant to get Splash Mountain. In my experience it usually doesn't have that long of a wait in the morning as it can be chilly and we all know that you will get wet. I don't feel as if POC, Jungle Cruise, or Aladdin need FP+, so maybe HM? I might grab one for Peter Pan, and maybe a Princess Meet and Greet (not sure if my friends will want to do this or not)? Suggestions for this would be greatly appreciated!

Food wise I'm feeling like we will either end up at Columbia Harbour House or Pincocchio Village Haus for lunch because of the variety. I know I will be stopping by Casey's Corner for those mini corn dogs, and is it a trip to Magic Kingdom without a dole whip? I didn't think so either For dinner I feel like we might wander over to Fantasyland for a change of scenery. What are your favorite QS place in MK?

If we finish all that we set out to do in Adeventureland and Frontierland, I'm sure we will go check out Space Mountain or Buzz to top off the night. We plan on watching Wishes this night. Hopefully we can grab a good spot! We aren't a big parade/show group so as long as we can see the fireworks we are good. Last time I watched from the train platform and that was a very nice view for what I was interested in seeing and it helped with cutting down time leaving the park too, so we might aim for that spot again.

It will be a long day, but long days at disney are the best! Day 3 will be a nice change of pace for us so we can rest up!

 

[soniam]

I am currently debating FP+ for MK too. I am thinking BMTRR, 7DMT, & Space Mountain. However, there's a rumor that BMTRR is going down for an extended refurb sometime this Spring. If it is down in March, then I might get an FP+ for Splash and do it later in the day. HM is another good one. If you do it early enough, then it may not be needed. Plus, I have found that I can get HM as a 4th+ FP at the park. Jungle Cruise is another one that can be handy but can also be gotten day of. Peter Pan would be good first thing, so that you can see the new queue. The FP+ line bypasses it.

I like both CHH and PVH. We might try Friar's Nook, aka mac n cheese palace. We love mac n cheese, so it seems right. Of course dole whip is a must.

 

[kadrachb]

it was finals week

Same for me, so glad thats over! Only one more finals week before I graduate.

POC, Jungle Cruise, or Aladdin need FP+

Aladdin definitely doesn't need one, and Jungle Cruise doesn't seem to need one if you do it first thing in the morning or at night (but if it's midday, maybe?), I personally am not a fan of POC, but the one time we went on it it was only a 20 minute wait.

I might grab one for Peter Pan, and maybe a Princess Meet and Greet (not sure if my friends will want to do this or not)? Suggestions for this would be greatly appreciated!

Definitely grab one for Peter Pan if you want to ride! A princess meet and greet like Anna and Elsa you'll need a FP, but for Cinderella and Rapunzel, I think if you don't mind waiting in line and you plan it wisely, you may not have to wait too long.

You'll want to grab a FP for 7DMT! For our upcoming trip, I plan on getting FPs for two separate days. Remember that if some of your friends don't want to meet the princesses, you can always grab a different FP for them. We normally do two MK days (this year we're doing 3) and for our adventureland/frontierland day we tend to FP BTMR, Splash, and a meet and greet. Jungle Cruise we've always been able to get as a 4th once we've finished our other 3.