First off, I found this site a couple days ago and enjoy reading your reports and tips. Some great info to be found!
My wife is running Expedition Everest next Saturday and was originally going to make it a quick weekend trip. However in January we decided "Why the heck not?" and booked a room and flight for the whole family for a longer weekend. We were just there last year and it cost as much as a used Hyundai so we decided we'd go on the cheap this time around.
We are a family of five - me, wife, 2 boys (6 and 2), and a 1-year-old daughter. Our 2-year-old has been a Mickey fanatic since our trip last year. His third birthday is in June so we were originally planning on making this an early birthday present.
Our plans so far:
Thursday (May 1): We are flying from Manchester, NH (cheap parking and no crowds? Sold!) and arrive at MCO at 4:40. We have dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's at 7:40 so in that 3 hours we need to check in at Art of Animation, drop our carry-on luggage, and zip on over to the Contemporary Resort. I can't think of a better way to surprise the 2 year old than having dinner with all his heroes. As exciting as I'm sure A of A is, as soon as we get back from dinner, it's light out. Because.....
Friday: We will be at Magic Kingdom bright and early. When the Touring Plans calendar was available, MK was a 5, so we are optimistic that it will be OK for crowds.
Saturday: Wife, older son, and our Orlando-based friends are running the early morning race at AK. If Friday is a success the two younger ones will be sleeping in so I'll likely hang back at the hotel. The rest of the day will likely involve pools and hotel exploration. In another thread I posted, many suggested taking the monorail to various resorts so I'll likely do that. I'm also kind of toying with the option of Epcot. I've never been there and my wife doesn't believe it will be great for kids. That's still really up in the air though.
Sunday: Hollywood Studios. We are primarily interested in the Star Wars content in this park for our older son so it may be a shorter day for us depending on how the kids do.
Monday: Flight back home. Our layover is only 30 minutes and we have to switch planes, so that should be interesting!
According to the Touring Plans calendar we will actually see lower crowds if we swap parks (HS Friday, MK Sunday). So I'd call these plans more of an ongoing work in progress
My wife is running Expedition Everest next Saturday and was originally going to make it a quick weekend trip. However in January we decided "Why the heck not?" and booked a room and flight for the whole family for a longer weekend. We were just there last year and it cost as much as a used Hyundai so we decided we'd go on the cheap this time around.
We are a family of five - me, wife, 2 boys (6 and 2), and a 1-year-old daughter. Our 2-year-old has been a Mickey fanatic since our trip last year. His third birthday is in June so we were originally planning on making this an early birthday present.
Our plans so far:
Thursday (May 1): We are flying from Manchester, NH (cheap parking and no crowds? Sold!) and arrive at MCO at 4:40. We have dinner reservations at Chef Mickey's at 7:40 so in that 3 hours we need to check in at Art of Animation, drop our carry-on luggage, and zip on over to the Contemporary Resort. I can't think of a better way to surprise the 2 year old than having dinner with all his heroes. As exciting as I'm sure A of A is, as soon as we get back from dinner, it's light out. Because.....
Friday: We will be at Magic Kingdom bright and early. When the Touring Plans calendar was available, MK was a 5, so we are optimistic that it will be OK for crowds.
Saturday: Wife, older son, and our Orlando-based friends are running the early morning race at AK. If Friday is a success the two younger ones will be sleeping in so I'll likely hang back at the hotel. The rest of the day will likely involve pools and hotel exploration. In another thread I posted, many suggested taking the monorail to various resorts so I'll likely do that. I'm also kind of toying with the option of Epcot. I've never been there and my wife doesn't believe it will be great for kids. That's still really up in the air though.
Sunday: Hollywood Studios. We are primarily interested in the Star Wars content in this park for our older son so it may be a shorter day for us depending on how the kids do.
Monday: Flight back home. Our layover is only 30 minutes and we have to switch planes, so that should be interesting!
According to the Touring Plans calendar we will actually see lower crowds if we swap parks (HS Friday, MK Sunday). So I'd call these plans more of an ongoing work in progress
