Spring Break at WDW Part 2 - from Guest Blogger Mindy Walbesser

Happy Thursday, folks! Today is the second in a four-part blog post series from my friend Mindy Walbesser about her family's recent vacation to Walt Disney World for Spring Break.

Take it away, Mindy!

Let’s talk about Fastpasses.  Now that Disney has gone to Fastpass+ with pre-scheduled Fastpasses, you must decide before arrival what park you want to do which day.  If you are staying onsite, like we did, your Fastpasses can be made as early as 60 days before arrival.  We did not make our Fastpasses until 32 days before arrival, but that is because we didn’t buy all our tickets until later.  Package guests won’t have to worry about that.  The ideal strategy is to plan to arrive at the park at opening, and reserve your Fastpasses for later in the afternoon.  The general rule of thumb is that the park will be much less crowded at opening, until at least 11am to noon.  Later, when crowds thicken, you will have your Fastpasses+ to get you through.  One strategy could be:

Park Arrival at Rope Drop:  Ride Headliner and popular rides that will have a long line later
Breakfast Stop:  Eat breakfast at a quick service in the park that is offering breakfast or stop for a table service breakfast.  Most park quick services tend to offer pastries, bagels and coffee/juice.
Afternoon Plan: Want a pool break?  If the weather is acceptable to you for a pool stop, head back to your resort to enjoy the pool.  I personally prefer 80° as a minimum outside air temp for a pool break.  If the weather doesn’t look promising, or you don’t care about a pool break, you could schedule your Fastpasses for the afternoon, allowing plenty of time for eating lunch and dinner.  You could even decide to spend your Fastpass+ selections later in the evening. 
Evening Plan:  Have you used all your Fastpasses?  Try booking another one.

Since my family knows we are not rope drop people no matter how hard we try, I scheduled my Fastpasses+ for the afternoon hours.  I tried as best I could to make sure my first Fastpass+ wasn’t until 1pm.  For Animal Kingdom, we were meeting a friend for lunch, so I went ahead and scheduled the Kilimanjaro Safari Fastpass+ for 10am.  The animals are typically more active in the morning.  During our spring break week, we found that it was very difficult to make any adjustments to previously scheduled Fastpasses because there were no other times or attractions available. I am not sure we succeeded in getting a single one.  On our 2nd Magic Kingdom day, we ended up missing our first Fastpass+ for the Jungle Cruise. We tried to reschedule the time, but no other times were available.  We tried to select another attraction, but again, nothing.  For the duration of our trip, we were unable to experience any attraction with a fastpass+ after our first selections were used.  We had to rely on walk in attractions. 

So what do spring break lines look at like at Disney?  As you’d guess, the most popular attractions have the longest lines.  We found that even the Fastpass+ lines were sticking out of the queue and in need of switchbacks.  This is the Splash Mountain Fastpass+ queue at 3:27pm on March 24th.  Earlier in the day, the Fastpass+ queue for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was out the queue, down the hill and across the bridge.  These kinds of lines are not for the faint of heart.  Just walking through Magic Kingdom was a challenge. 

There are a few things to be said about Magic Kingdom.  This park has the most Fastpass+ attractions to choose from, so the Fastpass+ system works best here.  Some of the attractions that we were easily able to experience without having a fastpass were Monsters Inc. laugh Floor, Carousel of Progress and Hall of Presidents.  Pretty much any high capacity attraction in a theater setting is a great choice.  I would have also been able to see Mickey’s Philharmagic, Enchanted Tiki Room and Country Bears Jamboree.  We did not try.  The People Mover is usually a best bet as well, however, it had an unexpected breakdown for most of the day and when it reopened, the lines were very long.  In fact, there was a line sticking out passed the queue ropes to get into the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  I actually had never seen that before ever!  

Epcot was featuring the 2016 Flower & Garden Festival.  During our vacation, Test Track continuously had lines exceeding 90 minutes, often up to 120.  I have seen longer, at Christmas, but a line like that is no fun.  Soarin’ was still down for its refurbishment, and is not back up at this writing.  Maelstrom is still down while it is being made into the Frozen Ever After attraction.  This did not leave much at EPCOT as far as fastpasses go.  We did make a fastpass for Test Track in advance.  Without fastpasses my husband and daughter were able to ride Mission Space while I waited.  It’s not my thing.  We did the Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion.  We could easily have ridden Ellen’s Energy Adventure, but we chose not to.  We did spend a good amount of time walking around World Showcase to experience the EPCOT Flower & Garden Festival which really should be renamed the EPCOT Flower & Food Festival.  Each year they have more and more food booths.  We returned to EPCOT in the evening after dinner on Tuesday for late magic hours.  By the time you return to the park, and actually ride, two hours really isn’t that much time.  We were able to ride Nemo and Friends, and Living with the Land. 

This is a good time to talk about dining reservations.  Prior to our vacation, I had only booked one dining reservation.  My husband’s birthday was Wednesday March 23rd and I booked Raglan Road at Downtown Disney, one of his favorites.  I booked that reservation through OpenTable.com instead of Disney’s system.  On Tuesday, a family friend had reservations for the Captain’s Grille at the Yacht Club Resort.  The Captain’s Grill is on my list of acceptable restaurants that are not too hard to get in as walk-up.  Acceptable because the menu contains entrees that appeal to my family.  We decided we wanted to dine together, so when my friend checked in at the podium, she asked if they could accommodate another 3 guests.  This was effectively doubling her reservation party.  We were prepared with a back-up plan, Big River Grille and Brew Pub, as they do not accept reservations.  However, the hostess came back and said it would be no problem.  We were given a nice round table in a private alcove.  The service was excellent and the food was very good.  They even brought my husband a cupcake for dessert because he was wearing his birthday button.  He had no planned to eat dessert as he’s not a dessert person.  We definitely would return to this restaurant again.

I have always found that certain restaurants are easier to get in last minute that others.  Do not even think about walking up to a character meal during spring break without a reservation.  Most won’t even consider you.  The best you could do there is check with guest services at your resort or a park to see if there are any cancellations, or call 407-WDW-DINE.  The easiest to get into are resort restaurants followed by World Showcase restaurants that have limited or no view of World Showcase Lagoon.  Restaurants with a view are very popular for Illuminations, so they’re harder to get.  Restaurants with no view are not easy, but I have done it.  Some last minute favorites are San Angel Inn, inside the pyramid, Restaurant Marrakesh in the Morocco Pavilion, and Chefs de France.  Restaurants at Downtown Disney, now called Disney Springs are also doable because those restaurants do not load all their availability into Disney’s system, and reserve a certain percentage for walk-up.  However, allow plenty of wait time.  Another way to avoid this is to join the Landry’s Select Club.  Landry’s Select members are entitled to first available seating at their restaurants any time.  Just show your card.  Restaurants at Walt Disney World include Yak & Yeti, T-Rex and Rainforest Café.  That gives my family 3 options right off the bat.


(Thanks again, Mindy! Stay tuned for part 3 next week....)

Spring Break at WDW Part 1 - from Guest Blogger Mindy Walbesser

Hey guys - happy Thursday! Today is the first installment of a four-part post from my friend Mindy Walbesser. Mindy spent Spring Break at Walt Disney World with her family, and is sharing her thoughts. She had a lot of great information so we're breaking it into four parts, each Thursday for the next next Enjoy!

I recently returned from a trip to Walt Disney World Resort during Spring Break.  The reactions I get from people upon hearing that I plan to spend spring break at Disney World range from “Lucky you” to “are you insane?” .  Our family has been to Walt Disney World during Spring Break in 1990, 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2010 and every year since.  Needless to say, the experience has changed drastically over the years.  You may ask the question “has it changed for the better? Or for the worse?” and the answer to that really depends on how you look at it. 

During our most recent trip, we were able to get into the Boardwalk Resort in a 1 bedroom villa by way of the waitlist.  We had a booking at Saratoga Springs Resort through the Disney Vacation Club, and I put our family on the waitlist for that trip.  The waitlist expires 31 days before arrival, and I received notice that are waitlist had come through 33 days before arrival!  I was rather shocked. 

This spring break was the first time that we had to pay extra to go during spring break.  We have been annual passholders for years, but this year, if you wanted to go during the two weeks surrounding Easter or from mid -December through New Years, you would need to buy an higher tier annual pass.  This was the first year that Disney actually had date related tiers for their annual passes.  Previously, you either had a regular pass, providing entry on any date during the year to the 4 major theme parks, or you had a premium pass which included the water parks, Oak Trail Golf course, and the now defunct DisneyQuest.  Currently, only a platinum annual pass provides no black-out dates, or the new platinum plus which includes the water parks, and Oak Trail.  They now have a Gold Pass which includes black-out dates of spring break and the winter holiday season.  That pass is not available to the general public anyway.  It is only available to Florida residents and DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members.  Since we had already had spring break booked, we went ahead and sprung for the Platinum pass which was $100 more than the Gold Pass. This put us at $300 over last year’s cost for our family of 3. 

In planning for our vacation, we found that crowd calendars had indicated pretty much a crowd level 9 out of 10 for each day during the week.  That means that strategy is very important.  Now there is “best strategy” and what my family does, which aren’t necessarily the same thing.  During the busiest of times, the best strategy is to plan to get up as early as possible and be at the gate of your chosen park for the day, up to 30 minutes prior to park opening.  With a regular park opening time at Magic Kingdom of 8am starting on the 21st, and early magic hours on Friday at 7am, that is VERY early.  To be at Magic Kingdom at 7:30am on most days or 6:30am on Friday, you need to be able to get up really early.  You need to back up…and think of what time you will have to get on the bus, and then back up further to decide what time you need to wake-up.  If you want to actually shower, get dressed and eat breakfast, you must account for this time in your plan.  Also, where you are staying has a very big impact on how much time will take to get to your desired park.  We were at Boardwalk, which is a short hop, skip and a jump to Hollywood Studios, and a very reasonable walk to EPCOT.  However, taking a bus to Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom would take more time, as would taking the boat to EPCOT and DHS.  You could shorten a bit of your time by planning to eat breakfast in your chosen park after you’ve succeeded in enjoying your morning rides and entertainment.  If you’re staying at Saratoga Springs Resort and plan to be at Magic Kingdom, for an 8am rope drop (target time 7:30-7:40am), you want to be at the bus stop around 7am.  Think about getting up at 5:30 to 6:00am.  Only you know how fast your family moves in the morning.  Do you need to bathe the children the night before?  If you are staying in a typical hotel room with just one bathroom, it will take longer than if you stay in a villa with at least a half bath more if not 2 bathrooms, or a family suite with 2 full baths.

My family is not a morning family.  No matter how hard we try to get up and moving in the morning, it just doesn’t happen for us.  My husband has been aspiring to being a morning person for at least the last 30 years.  I just don’t see how this is every going to happen.  I married a night owl.  I can and do wake up in the morning, however, nobody ever said I moved quickly.

On our most recent trip, I had plans to get up and rent Surreys with the fringe on top and peddle around the early morning boardwalk.  What a great thing to do.  I wrote it down on my schedule.  However, when I woke up on that morning, grabbed my phone and checked the current temperate, 52° just didn’t seem warm enough.  And to top that off, it was very windy.  Best thing to do?  Roll over and go back to sleep.  Oh well…maybe another day we thought.  I was very disappointed because that is something I’ve been wanting to do at Disney World for years.  My cousin from Buffalo told me that she thought 52° was just perfect for surrey riding, so I guess it all depends on the climate you’re used to.  I’m from the Washington DC area, living in Virginia for the last 20 years. 

(Stay tuned for Part 2 next week on April 28th! And thanks again to Mindy!)

What I'm Reading and Watching

Happy Tuesday, all. Since the focus of this blog has switched a bit, now I feel like we can talk about other things that are interesting to me, such as the books I'm reading and the TV and movies I'm watching.

As you read on, it will become super evident how far my tastes swing, from sweet Southern, Christian women writing about female friendships, to a sociopathic story of kidnapping in Chicago.  I equally love a reality-type TV show about home remodelers in Waco, Texas and a riveting 10-part miniseries about the OJ Simpson case.

You're welcome, America.

What I'm Reading:

Nobody's Cuter Than You - by Melanie Shankle

 

I came across Melanie because I am a new listener to the Boo Mama podcast, where Melanie and fellow writer Sophie Hudson talk about their kids, shopping, make up, SEC sports and all manner of things which tickle me to no end. And I LOVE me a Southern accent; I could listen to those ladies all day. Melanie and Sophie also have blogs (Big Mama and Boo Mama, respectively), and Sophie writes books as well. I am going to move onto one of hers next.

Anyway, Melanie was talking in one podcast about her newest book and it intrigued me so I picked it up on Amazon. Friends, I am about 1/3rd of the way into it and LOVE THIS BOOK. If you have a special girlfriend or group of friends who you consider your sisters, you will die over this book. You'll be nodding your head like a bobblehead doll as you read her recount her relationships with her closest friends. Get a copy and give it to a girlfriend. Share the love.

The Good Girl - by Mary Kubica

 

One of my best friends and I (Bekka - you will hear her talked about a lot here) decided that we needed to read more, and that we would probably do that if we had a sort of book club and discussed a book once or so a month. Bekka came up with some great choices, I did a little reading on Amazon and we decided on The Good Girl, by Mary Kubica. Oh my land. If you're a lover of mystery and crime novels, this is for YOU. I'm only about 1/2 way through it; Bekka and I have been reading a few chapters at a time but decided this week that we're at the place where we should just finish it, so I'll be doing that this week. We have multiple theories going about the crime, the ins and outs, and the extent of involvement of each character.  Bekka said that she heard if you read Gone Girl, then you would probably enjoy this too. (And by enjoy, I mean Gone Girl rocked me and it was the first time I sat down a book at the end and went, well that took a turn I did NOT see coming.)

I'll report back when I finish but so far, so good.

Oh and I am also on a launch team for a book that's coming out in a few months (I think a few months). We got our PDFs and have started reading. Mum's the word until we get the green light to talk about it, but I'm excited to share that with you.

What I'm Watching / Listening To:

American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson

I couldn't be more TV-cliche right now if I tried, but I am obsessed with this show. Ryan Murphy is little bit of a loon, bless his heart - - but the man knows TV. (He's the brains behind hits like Nip/Tuck, Glee, and the American Horror Story shows.) The 10-part miniseries on FX focuses on the OJ Simpson trial, and all the shenanigans that went on behind the scenes. I was a young pup during the OJ trial days, but was very aware of the big news items (the Bronco chase, the glove, etc). Even if you were old enough to remember the ints and outs and watched the trial coverage, I feel like this show gives such a glimpse into the circus of that time, the racial tensions, the antics in court, etc. However you feel about the trial and its outcome, the show is worth a watch.

I know how it ends (of course) but am about 4 episodes away from the conclusion of the show. In the hustle and bustle of getting the house ready to sell, I have been falling woefully behind on my shows but I plan to rectify that this week.

Also - if Sarah Paulson doesn't win an Emmy for her portrayal of Marcia Clarke, there is no justice in this world.

(Another Emmy nod that is SURE to come - - Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran. Holy smokes, man.)

The show is set up to be a reoccurring miniseries with American Crime Story as the header. Rumor has it that Hurrican Katrina is the next one to come, pending the go-ahead from the studio. I personally feel like good contenders for future seasons would be the Casey Anthony trial and JonBenet Ramsey. The OJ show has been such a ratings juggernaut for FX, I can't imagine them not getting the green light for at least another 2-3 seasons. Time will tell.


Podcast: The Popcast with Jamie Golden and Knox McCoy

 

Podcasts are so my jam right now. I counted and I am currently subscribed to 19. And that's after I ended up removing some that I didn't like as much. I love them - so fun and great to listen to in the car, doing house work, exercising, etc etc. 

One of my current favs is The Popcast, with Jamie Golden and Knox McCoy. If you like all things pop culture - movies, TV, current events, etc you will love this.

I will laugh out loud, to the point my dog looks at me with THAT look (you know the one, dog people - head to the side, eyes blinking questioningly).  I'm going back every now and again and listening to past episodes and if you do this - you must start with the ones where they analyze the Bachelor and Bachelorette cast before each season. DYING. My absolute favorite.

So share away....what are YOUR current favorites??

Save some cash with Raise.com

Image from Raise.com

Who likes saving money?!

Dumb question, right? We all do. I'm all for saving a few pennies here or there, or in some cases, lots of pennies.

A few months ago, I started using Raise.com quite a bit and can't believe I didn't sooner. I feel like it's the best-kept secret online. I'd heard about it before, but never really took the time to investigate.  To be honest, it sounded a little bit too good to be true.

Raise.com is a totally legit, above-board website where people sell their partially or un-used gift cards, and Raise then takes a % of the gift card for their fees. (I imagine people do this as they would rather have cash than the gift card to Outback Steakhouse or Target.) Then Raise lists the gift cards on their website for anywhere from a few percentage points, to more than 30% off.

If you are going to be spending money anyway at these locations, you would be silly not to investigate Raise.com.

The available gift cards are for all different balances. Some are $10 or less, some are over $500. You will also notice, if you look on the site, that some are e-gift cards or vouchers, and some are mailed to you via USPS as physical gift cards.  For the e-gift cards and vouchers, they say it can take up to 24 hours to show up in your account but in my experience, there are often there just minutes or a few hours later.

For instance - I looked on Friday the 8th at some of the stores I frequent and here are the current offerings:

iTunes: up to 5.1% off

Marcus Theaters (the local movie chain in my town): up to 8% off

Sephora: up to 3% off

Lane Bryant: up to 34% off (yep, you read that right. More than 1/3rd off.)

and the list goes on and on. They have hundreds of companies and not just places that are obscure. Hundreds of national retailers and even high-end ones, like Kate Spade, Pottery Barn, Whole Foods and Dooney and Bourke.

And these percentages off and amounts available change ALL the time, depending on their current stock.

You can also set alerts for some of the more popular options, such as the Disney gift cards. You simply look it up on their site, and then can set an alert for gift cards up to a certain value, and also up to a certain percentage off. They'll email you when they are stocked, easy peasy.

In addition to practically giving away some of these gift cards, they have a referral program where, if a person clicks on your affiliate link and signs up, after their first purchase you will each get $5 credited to your account. If you'd like to check it out, here's my link:

http://geta.raise.com/kmiller36

I am using Raise any chance I get, and saving money left and right. I'd encourage you to take a look and hopefully you'll find some of your favorites on their site!



** I was not contacted by Raise to write this post; all comments and opinions are my own. I do share my referral link but that is not unique to me; anyone who signs up with Raise gets the same opportunity for a referral bonus.

April Fools - Just Say NO

I hate April Fools Day. Annoys the stink out of me.

Every year on April 1st, I cringe as I fire up Facebook and Twitter. I cringe for the people who think that these social media pranks are funny, AND I cringe for the people that fall for them. I know all day long I'll be subjected to all sorts of ridiculous posts, announcements and the like.

We've all seen these, right? Lucy posts "Surprise! We're pregnant!", complete with a fake sonogram she's swiped from Google images. Relatives and friends descend, offering well-wishes and love. After an uncomfortable amount of time has passed, she posts "Just kidding!"

UGH. I don't know what's worse - pretending you're pregnant to get a cheap laugh for two seconds, OR getting a giggle out of tricking your great-aunt Gladys that you're expecting. Wow, Lucy, you're sure a funny one!

And let's talk about click-baiting, shall we? For those who don't know the term, click-baiting means websites and writers posting articles online with deliberately attention-grabbing (and often misleading) headlines so the person will click to read it. Thus, getting the website/blog more hits and perhaps more ad revenue, likes, etc.

Be warned - you will see these all the live long day today. If you see an article saying something like, "Walt Disney World is going to close!" or "No more Pixar movies, ever!" - spoiler alert - those are not real. Don't click on them, it just encourages the people who do that crap.

Not trying to be a spoil-sport but would someone please explain to me what is funny about making jokes on a day that EVERYONE IS MAKING JOKES!?  If you're really trying to fool your Aunt Gladys about being pregnant, throw a curve ball and do that on April 5th! (I still think fake pregnancy announcements are ridiculous, but you get my point.)

Can we all just make a pact? Today and every April 1st for the rest of our lives? That we will not buy into or stir the pot of this madness?!

Be a pal - give April Fool's Day and all its "pranks" your coldest of shoulders.

Signed, Me
(Not an un-fun Scrooge, just someone who has had enough of April 1st shenanigans)