We do mostly agree...but I realized I probably misinterpreted myself originally...
I was wondering why you - being a "fla-ridian" - would do the parties several times (it appears)...during those sticky, "unflorida resident" crowds when you could do weekends at other less travels period? That was my initial question...if you have the passes? Just curiosity
Well, I guess I would have to say that it is a guaranteed way for me to, using a term used previously on this board, avoid the "common folk". Here's the thing, I pay to rent the cabanas in Typhoon Lagoon at $340 a pop. Why? Because I didn't have to pay to get in. I have the money for admission, but I don't have to spend it on admission. I get to spend it on something more luxurious while others had to spend it on the admit ticket. Do I do it every time? Nope. However, my schedule makes weekend visiting the most convenient so I have to do a little out of my way when I decide I need to visit at a time that is probably less than ideal. So, if I need a TL fix, but I'm worried about the crowd, I book a cabana. Last year, we went for Easter because Holidays are boring for us (Atheists) and well, we got a cabana and just had the most relaxing day. I have no idea how crowded it was that day and I didn't even care. I can tell you stuff had lines because my son mentioned it, but my husband and I never saw them.
I spring for the parties because we like to experience different things. See, we've done all the "free" stuff that we're out of stuff to do. We want to do the other stuff like the parties, but to do that, we have to have admission unless it's a hard ticket event that
MNSSHP or
MVMCP. So, we can't get rid of the passes and just buy party tickets. We're interested in touring now that our son is teenager. We love to learn about the "magic", but to do the tours, you need admission. So no matter what extras we want to do, we're tethered to the passes in order to experience them.
As far as our travel periods, I usually avoid high crowd times, except, and this is the most ironic, 4th of July and Xmas. I book a Fort Wilderness cabin and host a bunch of friends for a 4th of July party and then on Xmas instead of staying home with nothing to do, we get to go to Disney and entertain ourselves and nothing is closed.
Now, could I stay home for 4th of July? Yep. This year our pool was under construction and came on line one day before we were to leave for the Fort. Well, I had all the crap in place anyway so we just went, but I couldn't host a party like that at home. The fireworks alone would have blown my budget. However, next year, we'll probably go in June and host 4th of July at hour house since the pool is fixed.
For Christmas, like I said, we're atheists. So Christmas for us is really boring. We like to exchange gifts, but once that's done, there's nothing else to do. Last year we decided to start traveling at Christmas. My son is too old for Santa now, so I have no need to be tethered to a tree. We enjoyed the mass amount of entertainment and decided to do it again this year. However, I don't want to deal with the crowds, but I want to be at the parks. So I paid to avoid the crowd. I WANT to be there at Christmas and see all the happenings and experience the unique things not offered during other times of the year (Illuminations Christmas finale), but I don't want to sit next to 400 other people to do it. So I paid $70 a person, we got a perfect view, snacks, drinks, and lots of elbow room and we left very happy. Will I do it again? Maybe. Can I say I've done it and now can choose to do it again? Yes. I like to experience everything, at least once.
I tour the parks at all times of the year, busy and non-busy. I try and stay away from busy days/weeks, but that's becoming harder and harder to do, even with attendance "down". Also, I work a full-time job and I competitive bowl on the weekends so my schedule doesn't always allow for weekends to spend at Disney. Usually, I have to take a day off in the middle of the week if I want to go during a slow time and then I am restricted on what I can do.
So while it may seem ideal to avoid the crowds and go at "slower" times, those times don't always give me the ability to do everything I want to do and sometimes my schedule doesn't allow it and I have to be herded in with the rest of the cattle, but I have the luxury of buying my way out of it.
