BlueBayou
Following the magic
- Joined
- Sep 18, 2004
Pre-Trip
So we decided, for the first time ever, not to do a big Thanksgiving meal for our family of 4. That is me, DH, DD19 (Aurora) and DD16 (Jasmine). Part of the reason is we realized, with DD19 off in college - their spring breaks do not fall on the same week. But they were both off a full week at Thanksgiving.
The decision - Drive 1000 miles to Walt Disney World.
To save money - we opted not to stay onsite. We had previous stays at POFQ, Pop and All Star Music (just DD16 and me for a cheer competition).
Got a good D23 rate that included free parking at the Hilton in Disney Springs. I looked at Air BnB - but with cleaning fees - and the cost of parking - it made more sense to stay in a Disney Springs area hotel.
Also I had a left over 5 day park hopper from when my mom backed out last minute of our Pop trip in 2015. I inquired about using the ticket for the 2017 trip - but I was told that tickets are only good for a year ish when I called Disney. But playing around on MDE for this trip- The unused ticket was still showing up on my mom's account that I controlled. It was able to be transfered to me. It was listing an expiration as 2030 something. I really think what happened is I bought the tickets during a time that Disney was switching from the never expire tickets. And these tickets came from Undercover Tourist - and I think they must have had some older tickets.
I purchased 3 5-day one park tickets. And fingers crossed that my ticket would work.
I began planning FP and Meals. I was able to get fast passes on all 4 tickets. So it looked like my old ticket was still good. There were not very many good options for FP when I started planning in earnest. A couple weeks before the trip. I've planned months in advance before. My husband did not get on MDE before we left. Each park he was like "Wait - why do we have a fastpass for this and not..."
We decided on this order of parks. It ended up being good because for EMHs.
Monday (early entry)- AK FP - Kali River, Dinosaur
Tuesday (late hours)- Epcot - FP- Spaceship Earth, Frozen
Wednesday (early entry)- DHS - FP- Stunt show, Star Tours and RnR
Thursday (Thanksgiving) MK - 4:20pm Dinner at Tony's Town Square, FP - Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, BTM (10:20p)
My youngest, Jasmine, helped me plan the FPs. We got what we could get. She also felt strongly that MK should be our last park. Until Junior High, the girls were raised about 6 hours away from Disneyland. We went annually. They know DL and DCA like the back of their hands. We would turbo park hop - Like ride Splash and race to GRR or soarin' then back to Pooh. Those parks are so close together - that if you know your way around and you have the energy you can treat them as one huge park.
That is not the case for us at WDW. We have park hopped in the past - but you lose so much time going between parks. The kids were disappointed that we were not going to be park hopping (we have NEVER done one park on day before). But once they realized that we were only going to be there 4 days - that hopping didn't make sense - they were fine with the one park per day plan.
So we decided, for the first time ever, not to do a big Thanksgiving meal for our family of 4. That is me, DH, DD19 (Aurora) and DD16 (Jasmine). Part of the reason is we realized, with DD19 off in college - their spring breaks do not fall on the same week. But they were both off a full week at Thanksgiving.
The decision - Drive 1000 miles to Walt Disney World.
To save money - we opted not to stay onsite. We had previous stays at POFQ, Pop and All Star Music (just DD16 and me for a cheer competition).
Got a good D23 rate that included free parking at the Hilton in Disney Springs. I looked at Air BnB - but with cleaning fees - and the cost of parking - it made more sense to stay in a Disney Springs area hotel.
Also I had a left over 5 day park hopper from when my mom backed out last minute of our Pop trip in 2015. I inquired about using the ticket for the 2017 trip - but I was told that tickets are only good for a year ish when I called Disney. But playing around on MDE for this trip- The unused ticket was still showing up on my mom's account that I controlled. It was able to be transfered to me. It was listing an expiration as 2030 something. I really think what happened is I bought the tickets during a time that Disney was switching from the never expire tickets. And these tickets came from Undercover Tourist - and I think they must have had some older tickets.
I purchased 3 5-day one park tickets. And fingers crossed that my ticket would work.
I began planning FP and Meals. I was able to get fast passes on all 4 tickets. So it looked like my old ticket was still good. There were not very many good options for FP when I started planning in earnest. A couple weeks before the trip. I've planned months in advance before. My husband did not get on MDE before we left. Each park he was like "Wait - why do we have a fastpass for this and not..."
We decided on this order of parks. It ended up being good because for EMHs.
Monday (early entry)- AK FP - Kali River, Dinosaur
Tuesday (late hours)- Epcot - FP- Spaceship Earth, Frozen
Wednesday (early entry)- DHS - FP- Stunt show, Star Tours and RnR
Thursday (Thanksgiving) MK - 4:20pm Dinner at Tony's Town Square, FP - Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, BTM (10:20p)
My youngest, Jasmine, helped me plan the FPs. We got what we could get. She also felt strongly that MK should be our last park. Until Junior High, the girls were raised about 6 hours away from Disneyland. We went annually. They know DL and DCA like the back of their hands. We would turbo park hop - Like ride Splash and race to GRR or soarin' then back to Pooh. Those parks are so close together - that if you know your way around and you have the energy you can treat them as one huge park.
That is not the case for us at WDW. We have park hopped in the past - but you lose so much time going between parks. The kids were disappointed that we were not going to be park hopping (we have NEVER done one park on day before). But once they realized that we were only going to be there 4 days - that hopping didn't make sense - they were fine with the one park per day plan.
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