Things I would do differently from my last trip (2 days) / (3 nights):
I loved this trip (October 2013). But:
(1) One thing I would do differently in the future on a mini trip is stay in a three star instead of a four star hotel. We stayed at the Renaissance by SeaWorld. It was lovely / had that wow factor / great seating areas / nice pool area with heated towels etc., and DS was really excited to stay there. As I had a very reasonable base rate with the SeaWorld package and it was such a short stay, I went for it. But truth be told, I'm a budget traveler and even though we had a great rate and I knew all these things ahead of time and even budgeted for them, the extra charges for parking, the extra charges for wifi, and the high cost of food at the hotel really annoyed me. I would do the neighboring Hilton Garden Inn or Marriott Residence Inn next time (nice but not wow, well priced food, and no annoying extra charges). These kinds of places are just more my style. I'm just not a four star person. (lol -- onsite Disney hotel and food prices annoy me too by the way, and I'm happiest offsite I find. I'm not impressed by the value for the values and moderates and the deluxe hotels and condos are too outrageously priced for my budget.)
(2) Given a choice I'd pick a timeframe in the Nov - May period instead of October. I've done two trips in October now, and it's just too hot and humid then. I mean it's not all that horrible compared to summer. But if I could I'd swing for a less humid timeframe. Trying mid December on the next trip.
Things I'd do differently on the trip before that (March of 2011) (six days / seven nights)
(1) I'd go for a shorter time and skip resort days or just do one not two. A full week was just too much. Maybe too it's that I just go with DS (DH doesn't like Orlando) and on this we met up with extended family. I like doing that, but for a few days not for a whole week I think. Also, in Orlando resort days feel like a waste to me. My parents love them and think it's a waste not to have them when you are staying at a great resort. I guess a compromise for me would be shorter park days with some resort time, but still doing some sort of activity each day. We're meeting up with them again December 2014, DS is staying the whole week, but I'm just doing five nights / four days and have one day for the Titanic and resort and parks for the other three days.
(2) On our busy Hollywood Studios day we got there right at nine not before rope drop. That was a mistake and even our first two hours were crowded. Next time like I almost always do, I would get to any park over spring break at about 45 minute to a half hour before rope drop.
(3) I would not do to Hollywood Studios again on a Fantasmic day when over spring break when they aren't doing that every night. It just makes crowds at an already crowded time that much worse. I'm actually though doing MK on a wishes night when they don't have that every night because of the Christmas party (mid December). It's a crowd level 5 day though, not a 9 day like spring break, so hopefully I won't regret that. We want to see the evening parade and fireworks.
(4) I would never do a Fantasmic dinner package at Mama Melrose again -- We had to wait to be seated taking away valuable park time (might as well have waited for Fantasmic). And I found the food very mediocre for what we paid. Yuck.
(5) I'm a little less gung ho about spring break than I used to be. It's gotten more crowded at this time. I'd still consider it and do it instead of summer because of the great weather and instead of the busiest Christmas time due to the crowds and weather is quite unpredictable at Christmas. But the idea of a spring break trip to Orlando just doesn't fire me up quite as much as it used too. (Popularity makes it less appealing for me). // Next spring break DH, DS, and I are doing Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. My parents are coming too. It's not as much of a spring break destination as Orlando. And activities (tours not park days) aren't so affected by crowds.
Soo I'll just have to see how my five night / four day Orlando December 13 - 18 trip goes. Staying at Cypress Point, an offsite condo and bunking up with extended family. I'm really excited to be going. Seems I tweak a little each time based on what I liked / didn't like on previous trips.
Truth be told -- I do love going to Orlando and I haven't really ever had a bad trip! That's why I'm back and actually have the opportunity to tweak. Most other vacation destinations that I love I only do a repeat every 10 years or so. I do by the way do at least two vacations every year, so don't get the impression that Orlando is the only place we ever go. December will be my 39th trip to Orlando since 1971 when I first started going. It's just so much fun and something pulls me back. I can't think of a more fun mini mon/son get-a-way. My son is 19 an in college by the way. Like I said though, these days I'm liking the little intensive mini trip best. // 39 times in 43 years means I'm almost averaging once a year. That could be why I like the short trips too. Maybe I've just been down so much that anything more than a few days to get a theme park fix is too much of a been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. But those mini trips now for me are more magical now than my first 35 years of trips. Love them. I'm liking going down more than ever for some reason. Maybe going with my own teenager is more fun for me than when he was little, than when he was in elementary school, than when I didn't have kids, or than when I was in elementary, middle, and high school (skipped Orlando when I was in college). To quote the carousel of progress: Now is the time, now is the best time. At least that's the way I'm feeling.
I love the mickey rice krispies and bags of Disney treats when we're at home to remind me of Disney ... but we're all out now
Our last trip was the first time I really had regrets. It was our first summer trip and I totally regretted planning downtime in the middle of the day, during the hottest point, and a # of resort ADR's. I just felt like we lost so much park time! I booked some lunch ADR's at resorts, and while they were places I'd always wanted to try, between the travel time and just being out of the parks I felt like we were wasting time. And on the days I had us going back to the resort to swim - nobody wanted to swim
But once back there my DS's wanted to chill in the room on their phones and all I could think was, WE COULD BE IN A PARK lol!!! Finally the last couple days we had lunch ADR's in parks and stuck it out during the hot hours and I realized we could have managed doing that every day. Lesson learned for our next summer trip!
