sweetmama17
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2014
So my AP expired yesterday and we will not be renewing due to other adventures planned for this year. But we thoroughly enjoyed our year at Disney and thought I'd give a little feedback on our experience and what a localish AP holder does (my experiences are similar to some of my friends who also have APs). We are about 90m minutes away.
I am a native Floridian and while I grew up going to Disney we did not do APs until we had kids. This is our second time with APs. It has made a good 2nd Birthday present for my boys ;-) So this year it included me, DH, and our boys 4/5 and 2. We were mainly weekend warriers due to work schedules with a few day trips as well.
Our trips:
Feb 11/12 2017 (both days MK, stayed at Pop for 1 night)
April 22/23 Epcot/HS and then AK with Nana (stayed at Fairfield off site)
May 21st day date to AK for Pandora preview
May 27-29 Memorial weekend trip (HS on Sat, MK and Epcot on Sunday and skipped AK for the pool on Monday) stayed at POR.
Aug 31st-Sept 3 Labor Day weekend, Thursday night Epcot, Friday morning MK, night at HS, Saturday HS with pool break, Sunday AK, stayed at Swan
October 1st- day trip to MK with Nana
November 5th day trip to HS/Epcot with Nana
December 9/10, MK on Saturday and AK on Sunday stayed offsite at Floridays
January 15th MLK day with friends to MK
February 11th day trip to Epcot
March 10/11 Saturday MK Sunday HS stayed at Hilton Buena Vista Palace.
We did have to cancel our January marathon weekend trip to being stuck out of town with weather and an overnight trip in November was cancelled to sickness
Price and location were the biggest factors for hotels. I think Pop was the only time I booked through Disney and we realized we are not Value fans. I could get better hotel deals on Orbitz using a coupon (as I did for POR) or priceline deals (Swan). Epcot area is my favorite since my boys love SW and Fanstasmic making it the best nighttime spot for us.
We almost always did TS for lunch as it was easier to plan for and the boys did better. A lot of the more expensive TS restaurants also offer sandwiches for lunch which make it better priced (LTT and HBD for example).
I think through experience and these boards I have become an expert at planning and managing a day at Disney. We always tried to get there as close to rope drop as possible. Friday morning EMH at MK are my new favorite thing. Even after a year there are some things. We only had 1 day we stayed in a park from opening to fireworks. The longest line we waited in all year was for Santa at MK (about 90 minutes). I think we waited about 40 minutes for speedway this past Saturday which was the longest ride wait (but watching a 2 year old drive his own car and say how super fast he was was totally worth it). The 5 year olds favorite things were Jedi training and TOT (though he looks terrified on all the pictures). My 2 year old loves the Nemo ride, Ariel and the "ghost" ride.
A few notes from this past weekend. I felt in general we waited in more 20/30 minute lines even first thing in the morning. It could be that we did a couple of meet and greets that we don't typically do (mickey first then ariel later morning) but I think Buzz was the only thing we really walked on without a FP.
My other note is about HS. I did not link my hotel stay to Hilton Buena Vista to MDE since I already had the FPs booked (were going to stay at Coronado) but I really wanted to use EMH at HS on Sunday and I got a great price for the Hilton on priceline so I thought we would try out a DS hotel since they offered the benefit. We did get the little tickets from the hotel to show we were eligible. No one asked for the ticket and we had no problem at the gates getting in before 8am. I only point this out because I specifically paid for a hotel with this benefit and I know others do too. When we've done EMH at MK we were double checked. I hope they aren't letting just anyone in.
Anyway, sorry for the super long post. Hope someone finds this helpful if not informative. We love Disney even though it exhausts us. We will be back even though I know it'll cost soooo much more next time.
I am a native Floridian and while I grew up going to Disney we did not do APs until we had kids. This is our second time with APs. It has made a good 2nd Birthday present for my boys ;-) So this year it included me, DH, and our boys 4/5 and 2. We were mainly weekend warriers due to work schedules with a few day trips as well.
Our trips:
Feb 11/12 2017 (both days MK, stayed at Pop for 1 night)
April 22/23 Epcot/HS and then AK with Nana (stayed at Fairfield off site)
May 21st day date to AK for Pandora preview
May 27-29 Memorial weekend trip (HS on Sat, MK and Epcot on Sunday and skipped AK for the pool on Monday) stayed at POR.
Aug 31st-Sept 3 Labor Day weekend, Thursday night Epcot, Friday morning MK, night at HS, Saturday HS with pool break, Sunday AK, stayed at Swan
October 1st- day trip to MK with Nana
November 5th day trip to HS/Epcot with Nana
December 9/10, MK on Saturday and AK on Sunday stayed offsite at Floridays
January 15th MLK day with friends to MK
February 11th day trip to Epcot
March 10/11 Saturday MK Sunday HS stayed at Hilton Buena Vista Palace.
We did have to cancel our January marathon weekend trip to being stuck out of town with weather and an overnight trip in November was cancelled to sickness
Price and location were the biggest factors for hotels. I think Pop was the only time I booked through Disney and we realized we are not Value fans. I could get better hotel deals on Orbitz using a coupon (as I did for POR) or priceline deals (Swan). Epcot area is my favorite since my boys love SW and Fanstasmic making it the best nighttime spot for us.
We almost always did TS for lunch as it was easier to plan for and the boys did better. A lot of the more expensive TS restaurants also offer sandwiches for lunch which make it better priced (LTT and HBD for example).
I think through experience and these boards I have become an expert at planning and managing a day at Disney. We always tried to get there as close to rope drop as possible. Friday morning EMH at MK are my new favorite thing. Even after a year there are some things. We only had 1 day we stayed in a park from opening to fireworks. The longest line we waited in all year was for Santa at MK (about 90 minutes). I think we waited about 40 minutes for speedway this past Saturday which was the longest ride wait (but watching a 2 year old drive his own car and say how super fast he was was totally worth it). The 5 year olds favorite things were Jedi training and TOT (though he looks terrified on all the pictures). My 2 year old loves the Nemo ride, Ariel and the "ghost" ride.
A few notes from this past weekend. I felt in general we waited in more 20/30 minute lines even first thing in the morning. It could be that we did a couple of meet and greets that we don't typically do (mickey first then ariel later morning) but I think Buzz was the only thing we really walked on without a FP.
My other note is about HS. I did not link my hotel stay to Hilton Buena Vista to MDE since I already had the FPs booked (were going to stay at Coronado) but I really wanted to use EMH at HS on Sunday and I got a great price for the Hilton on priceline so I thought we would try out a DS hotel since they offered the benefit. We did get the little tickets from the hotel to show we were eligible. No one asked for the ticket and we had no problem at the gates getting in before 8am. I only point this out because I specifically paid for a hotel with this benefit and I know others do too. When we've done EMH at MK we were double checked. I hope they aren't letting just anyone in.
Anyway, sorry for the super long post. Hope someone finds this helpful if not informative. We love Disney even though it exhausts us. We will be back even though I know it'll cost soooo much more next time.
