This is my landing page for our 2019 Disney Trip! You can find all my daily reports here:
1. Lodging
We loved staying at Wyndham's Bonnet Creek Resort and feel fortunate Scott's parents took us here on their timeshare. It books up fast and they were happy to get it, as they had tried and it was full in previous years. Doing a condo is hands down the best: plenty of space to spread out, kitchen, laundry, and close parking.
2. Parks
I was really happy with the plans of doing both Universal and Disney on this trip. It was a lot doing a park every day, but I think we balanced it well. It was hard because even on our "short" days, we were still almost ending close to dinner time. I enjoyed doing the whole day at Universal but it would have been too much to try to do that with more days than just that. The kids were definitely feeling tired as the week wore on and we felt the burn from vacation the following week trying to get back into our normal routines. As in my previous post, I'm glad I made a list of things I wanted to do because I think we did a good job of doing those attractions. I think the only regret I had is not allowing time for re-rides of favorite attractions, I'm just not sure we could have done that with the crowds.
Speaking of crowds, I am posting these crowd levels from touringplans.com for my own memory and also so people don't think I am crazy for thinking it was crowded while we were there.
Universal Day:
Makes sense in hindsight, the rest of the week was all 9's. It was also St. Patrick's Day and it did sprinkle a bit on and off throughout the day which may have been factors.
DHS Day:
Magic Kingdom Day (least busy and we noticed it because of the rainy day)
Animal Kingdom Day:
Magic Kingdom Day 2
Epcot Day:
Only a nine, we didn't feel like it felt too bad but we did end up skipping the whole seas pavilion due to do crowds.
I think that we were smart with our plans in anticipation of spring break crowds but it did wear especially on my patience. It felt like we did not have a lot of freedom to go willy nilly from place to place but we had to be pretty mindful of our schedule. I think we got a lot accomplished, all things considered. The weather is so nice at spring break time, but I wonder if another time of year would be better for future trips.
3. Planning
I feel like I did not go bonkers in planning this trip, but I did do some lengthy sessions over the course of Saturday mornings leading up to the trip. I used primarily the plans and advice at easywdw.com and then used touringplans.com to create customized touring plans that would give me an idea of the wait times, show times, and walk times to expect on the days we were there. It really helped for me especially to know what we could realistically accomplish in the time I knew we wanted to spend at the parks. Then when booking our fastpasses, I could add in at the times that made the most sense.
For touring, I primarily tried to keep our routes to a loop to eliminate a lot of backtracking or traversing the parks. I think this helps immensely in fatigue and battling the crowds. I especially liked it when we could ditch the stroller for a bit and do a handful of attractions all in the same area.
I also exclusively used the touring plans Lines app in the parks, as it gave posted and expected wait times and as well as recommendations on when to ride and when to wait.
You can get access to the touring plans site and app when you buy the Unofficial Guide books, which I did as well for both parks. I mostly just enjoyed reading them for fun. :) They are chock full of great info!
We used my friend Lisa to purchase our tickets and she gave us some good information as well as a whole package of goodies in the mail before we left. She is great, please check out her facebook page!
4. Other
I think that is all I am going to expand on at this time. All my other tips rang true this trip as well and you can see me reference them throughout my trip report. You can visit my previous landing page for them!
5. The Future
As for what the future holds, we are not sure at this point. :) I would love to take a Disney Cruise or visit Disneyland in California but as of right now they are both pipe dreams. I would also love to visit WDW again for their big 50th-anniversary celebration in 2021.
We need to make it through this season of life and then we will figure it out...who knows?
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