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