Walt Disney World Easter week April 5-9, 2015

[Gabe]

I just returned a couple of days ago from another whirlwind trip to the Mouse, but this time with my two kids and girlfriend in tow, which made for a different park experience. Without further ado, here goes:

Sunday, April 5 (Easter). We arrived at our resort (Disney's Art of Animation) for check in about 10:30 AM. luckily, our suite room was ready in the cars section, building 2. A note or 2 about this resort- it is BIG!! It is also an almost all suites resort ( the Little Mermaid building features just standard rooms). Our suite was themed right down to the shower curtain! Amazing to say the least. Each suite features 3 beds-a pullout couch and a table that turns into a trundle-style bed in the main room, and a queen bed in a separate room separated from the main room by a door. Each suite also features 2 full baths, which definitely came in handy. The main building is located right ion front of the Nemo suites, with Cars behind those, so it made for about a 5-6 minute walk to the cafeteria.

The cafeteria/food court was very busy! There are lots of different stations for each meal and the signage is digital, with different menu items flashing, so you have to look carefully. I found the service to be slow, especially given that it was high season. We were on the dining plan (the regular, or middle plan- 1 snack 1 quick service and 1 table service pp per day) for most of our stay, but since breakfast was usually cheap, I saved the credits for lunch and dinner. After getting settled, we were off to:

Day 1--Disney's Soon to be renamed Hollywood Studios.

We arrived just after lunch and proceeded to find (of course) a fairly busy park. We had Fastpasses in our MagicBands for Toy Story, Tower of Terror and Star Tours (I had times at first for each, but when I added the dining plan, Disney messed up and erased ALL of my selections for EACH day!! However, after calling their IT dept, their agent was very friendly and, when she wasn't able to get my exact times back for some attractions, she simply performed an override of the system, which allowed "Length of Day" times for each attraction. So, we could do Toy Story anytime from park open to close, which was nice).

On Star Tours, our audio cut out halfway through the ride, so upon exiting, we told a friendly CM, who put us on "the next flight" for another ride (we did wait about 5-6 minutes for it, but hey, we rode it 2x in a row on a day when the wait was always at least 60 minutes).

Tower of Terror was great. My 7.5 year old fearless daughter rode it twice, but my son opted out, so my girlfriend used his FP to ride with my daughter while I watched him. From there, it was on to Disney Jr. Live on Stage, a 15 min show featuring puppets from the latest Disney Jr cartoons. My son LOVED it (he's 5), but my daughter is slowly growing out of those shows, so she was a bit bored. Nevertheless, she was excited to meet Sofia the First and Jake after the show along with my son.

We then went to a oldie but goodie--Muppet Vision 3D (or as Kermit says it, Threeeeeeee deeeeee!). Both kids loved it. I've seen it a hundred times but it's still a good laugh. Here's hoping version 2.0 comes along soon. After that, we went to Rock N Roller Coaster, where my daughter wanted to ride along with me. We didn't have a FP and the wait was 60 minutes, but we opted for the SRL, which was about 10-15 min. I told my daughter we may be separated and almost were, but a very nice girl in front of us allowed us to move in front of her when the CM was sending 2 people through to the ride from the SRL. The ride was fun, though my daughter has no clue who Aerosmith are haha!

We were then off to Mamma Melrose for our dinner ressie. I was really really upset because we had 5:25 reservations, yet when we got there, were told it could be up to a 30 minute wait. My kids were hot, tired, hungry and cranky and wanted to eat. After pleading with the hostess to seat us and telling her that a reservation for 5:25 means nothing if you don't get seated right away, a manager finally came over and did his best to seat us within about 10-15 minutes. I understand the restaurants get overbooked, but come on Disney-plan for busy times!! dinner was good once we were finally seated. After dinner, we went back to the hotel for the night.

Day 2- April 6, 2015

The plan was to do a half day each at AK and Epcot but my kids really had no interest in AK (who does? Wake me when Avatar opens and I'll go back. EE and Dinosaur not enough for me to make the trek). Instead, we got to Epcot a bit after opening. We had Fastpasses for Soarin, Imagination and Turtle Talk. We were able to ride Soarin twice because we used a Disabled Access Services card Disney gives out to those requesting one. My son needed it since he has some autistic tendencies and cannot wait in long lines. The way the card works is thus- you show up to a ride and ask for a return time. The CM notes the current wait time, subtracts ten minutes and puts down that return time. Upon return, you all go through the FP line. We used this card often throughout Epcot and the MK and it really saved the trip for us.

Our touring plan through Epcot took us to Soarin (2x) Imagaination (kids liked) Capt. Eo (DATED!!!! make it go away. Like yesterday), Test Track, Mission Space (Orange for gf and daughter; green for son and me), Turtle Talk (5 stars! This is a tremendous attraction!. Crush asked my daughter for a question but my son stole it from her lol!). After Crush, we made our way over to the World Showcase for a stroll around the countries before dinner at Teppan Edo (Japan). Dinner was good, we were seated promptly and everyone was h appy (well, except for the fact that they serve you some kind of beef rice which is brown in color-yuck. white rice is available upon request. After dinner we went to Spaceship Earth before heading back to the hotel, where the kids wanted to go swimming. They were too tired to make it to the Big Blue Pool (biggest in WDW), but the Cozy Cone pool at Cars was just fine.

Day 3- April 7, 2015

We got to the Magic Kingdom about 10..biiiiiiiiig mistake! The crowds were already swelling, Main Street was jammed and there were literally wall to wall people everywhere. Miserable. We used our 3 FP for Splash, Thunder and Jungle (all of which kids loved, esp Splash) and decided we'd call it a day there. We went back, swam for a while, relaxed, then decided to go to DTD for dinner with NO RESERVATION!! DTD was very busy as well and parking is a nightmare (the bus from our resort only goes to Epcot after 2 and from there you have to transfer, so we opted to drive our rental). Somehow someway, we managed to get into T Rex at 5:30 after only waiting 20 minutes. Kids wanted Rainforest Café but (no joke) it was a 3 hour wait! Everyone was tired and cranky and the noise of the place didn't help so we kind of ate, dropped some cash at the World of Disney and took a ferryboat back over to our parking lot on the West Side (the construction is all around you as DTD turns into Disney Springs. The former Pleasure Island section is finished and work has just begun on the Marketplace side. The West Side won't really be touched much, so the whole project should be done by early 2016). We went back to the hotel and decided that for the next 2 days, we were going to do the morning EMH at 7 AM, in order to knock out a bunch of stuff.

Day 4- April 8, 2015

We arrived to the MK at 7:30 and knocked out a bunch of Fantasyland-Tea Cups, Small World, Philharmagic ,Dumbo, and Barnstormer along with FP for Pooh and Belle. We then were able to go to lunch with a reservation at Tonys Town Square, which we finished right as the crowds were swelling. We took an afternoon break to swim, then went back about 4 to do Mansion (kids found it interesting), Buzz,and Tomorrowland Speedway before dinner at Be Our Guest, for which we had a 6:10 reservation, yet weren't seated till close to 6:30. Dinner was good, but cold, but the kids loved meeting The Beast. After dinner we went over to Space to get a return time, then over to the PeopleMover. Upon returning to Space, it was down and after waiting for a bit, decided to head back to the hotel ( an interesting note about the DAS card--there is no expiration. You can go on the ride anytime throughout your stay once you reach your return time). We hoped the ride would be back up the next day.

Day 5--April 9, 2015

Arrived again about 7:30 and headed right over to Space. It was up and running, so we were able to ride it twice in a row with little to no wait. Everyone loved it except my son lol! From there we went over to meet Anna and Elsa with our FP, which the kids really enjoyed, then over to the Country Bear Jamboree to see where daddy worked on the College Program then on to Jack Sparrow and the Pirates. Pirates is due for a major rehab in about a month that will cause a 4 month closure. Everything was working fine on our ride though. Finally, we ended our trip with a spin around the park on the railroad before saying goodbye to Disney! We spent the rest of the week at my parents winter home in Palm Beach, about 2.5 hrs down the road.

Overall, it was a great trip. I wanted the kids to see the parades, shows and fireworks, but with a 5 year old, it just wasn't feasible. Next time. We did stay our last night in a regular room next door at Pop Century in the 50s building 2 near the main building. Having not stayed in a Value resort in some years, I was really shocked at the size of the foodcourts. And of course the gift shops, which rivaled in size any Disney Store I've ever been in. I'm seriously considering buying a resale into the Disney Vacation Club, since the ones Disney is selling are only in the really high-end resorts right now. I'm deciding between Saratoga and Old Key West as my "home" resort, so if any of you KICers out there have firsthand knowledge about DVC, please post and let me know about it! Since I like to take 1-2 trips a year there, I figure it's a good investment.

Hope you enjoyed reading! Looking forward to a number of trips to KI this summer both with and without the kids!

[RailRider]

Nice trip reports. Great memories.

The only advice I can give about DVC and the reason we haven't bought in is because of the expiration date and the annual service fees are pretty high. Do the math for yourself and compare with DVC. I sometimes think renting points is a better way to go.

[Gabe]

I'm not worried about the expiration dates. Under most state laws, such purchases as DVC can be extended to 99 years. Disney recently extended OKW out another 15 years, so the leases are likely good until I'd say at the late 2000s, though as that date draws near Disney will likely just reorganize DVC such that the clock will restart.

Disney itself has very little to sell right now, unless you want to buy into the Floridian or Poly bugalows (25-30k buy-ins), Hilton Head or Aulani. Everything else is sold out, but there are gobs of resales in all resorts. I know a portion of your maintenance fees can be deducted under property taxes on your 1040. If I buy, I'd prob buy into Old Key West, given that their 1 BR units actually have 3 beds (master bed, pull out couch, sleeper chair). There are a number of resales in that resort for less than half of what Disney has featuring enough points to provide my kids and I and whomever else with 1-2 trips a year. Still kicking around the idea for now.

[RailRider]

The DVC's are some of the best ways to stay on property.  Thankful I have lots of friends I can buy points off of and stay.

[purdude86]

My family has bought into OKW and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Old Key West is a great resort and so is Saratoga (we stayed there each time when we had Animal Kingdom as they were always booked when we went. My parents did stay at it just themselves though and sai it was nice too.)

The properties both have lots of space for families and there are kitchens in the rooms so half the time we would usually cool dinner or do lunch there to save money. Overall though I think I personally liked Saratoga Springs better, and it is connected via bridge to Downtown Disney so easy to just walk over there.