Soo many months ago I planned out our entire Disney trip in April... Skipping all of the spring break crowds, only to arrive on a Sunday night finding out my hotel (which last year had 3-5 cars in the parking lot) is full and then to find out it's sold out and Easter Week is here.
NOTE TO EVERYONE (BECAUSE I JUST FOUND OUT): EASTER IS A DIFFERENT WEEKEND EVERY YEAR FROM MARCH TO END OF APRIL, I NEVER KNEW THIS! BAHAHAHAHAHA.
Monday we went to Universal Studios, planning on hitting up IoA on Tuesday, only to realize 10 minutes in the park resulted in 30-100+ minute waits, so we purchased their version of Fast Pass for $60/daily, last week and next week it would only be $20/daily and IoA it would of been $90 this week PER PERSON on top of the park ticket price. Awesome thing is we got out of US in about 4 hours instead of... 8-10 hours.
We decided to hit up Epcot on Tuesday, leaving 30 minutes later and heading to Animal Kingdom. Although still extremely packed, the crowds quickly dropped starting around 3pm and at 7pm we were able to jump on pretty much any ride with a 10 minute or less wait in Stand By and loving the evening sunset and storm clouds roll in. By the way AK reached 40,000+ on Tuesday, park cap. is 44,000 (from what several employees told us and also a manager of the Finding Nemo musical)
Wednesday we headed to MK, knowing Thursday would be a wash. We thought arriving later and holding out for the crowds to drop would work, NOT. Can't get away with that at MK because the other parks drop in numbers as they all flock to MK and Epcot for fireworks @ 10pm and the 11pm parade. Our fast pass times were spaced 2 hours out, and our FP returns were typically 4-8 hours later (we got a FP @ 2pm for Space Mountain to return at 9:30-10:30, and another FP for Splash Mountain @ 4pm with a return of 11:30-12:30am.). We ended up giving away our FP to a couple coming in for the fireworks show (hopefully they jumped on a ride or two).
The new Haunted Mansion Grave Yard is very cool and the new ghosts are very awesome!!!
We did NOT find any hidden Mickey's this time
We also decided to leave a day early, put the $$$ into a savings account and take the $90x2 we were going to spend for fast passes at Universal into savings. So now we have 300 bucks for our future return.
PLUS we also agreed to purchase two 10-day park hopper+no expiration passes for $52/daily instead of $100+ daily and we will be returning for Christmas, Star Wars Weekends, next March for the flower festival and who knows when else!
I know one thing - we will do a much better job of avoiding crowds!
I'd say 60-75% of people were from outside of the country. We spoke to only one family from United States to every 10 families from out of the country. The furthest people we spoke to were either a couple from China or a family from Moscow. A lot of people from Brazil, Mexico, Africa and tons from all parts of Europe.
We had fun - It was our honeymoon trip, it was packed and very hot for this time of year, but we had fun, we're in love and we will be back for more!
I also looked for bunny ears instead of mouse ears, none to be found. The carrot cake easter bunny cupcake IS very yummy for sure
NOTE TO EVERYONE (BECAUSE I JUST FOUND OUT): EASTER IS A DIFFERENT WEEKEND EVERY YEAR FROM MARCH TO END OF APRIL, I NEVER KNEW THIS! BAHAHAHAHAHA.
Monday we went to Universal Studios, planning on hitting up IoA on Tuesday, only to realize 10 minutes in the park resulted in 30-100+ minute waits, so we purchased their version of Fast Pass for $60/daily, last week and next week it would only be $20/daily and IoA it would of been $90 this week PER PERSON on top of the park ticket price. Awesome thing is we got out of US in about 4 hours instead of... 8-10 hours.
We decided to hit up Epcot on Tuesday, leaving 30 minutes later and heading to Animal Kingdom. Although still extremely packed, the crowds quickly dropped starting around 3pm and at 7pm we were able to jump on pretty much any ride with a 10 minute or less wait in Stand By and loving the evening sunset and storm clouds roll in. By the way AK reached 40,000+ on Tuesday, park cap. is 44,000 (from what several employees told us and also a manager of the Finding Nemo musical)
Wednesday we headed to MK, knowing Thursday would be a wash. We thought arriving later and holding out for the crowds to drop would work, NOT. Can't get away with that at MK because the other parks drop in numbers as they all flock to MK and Epcot for fireworks @ 10pm and the 11pm parade. Our fast pass times were spaced 2 hours out, and our FP returns were typically 4-8 hours later (we got a FP @ 2pm for Space Mountain to return at 9:30-10:30, and another FP for Splash Mountain @ 4pm with a return of 11:30-12:30am.). We ended up giving away our FP to a couple coming in for the fireworks show (hopefully they jumped on a ride or two).
The new Haunted Mansion Grave Yard is very cool and the new ghosts are very awesome!!!
We did NOT find any hidden Mickey's this time
We also decided to leave a day early, put the $$$ into a savings account and take the $90x2 we were going to spend for fast passes at Universal into savings. So now we have 300 bucks for our future return.
PLUS we also agreed to purchase two 10-day park hopper+no expiration passes for $52/daily instead of $100+ daily and we will be returning for Christmas, Star Wars Weekends, next March for the flower festival and who knows when else!
I know one thing - we will do a much better job of avoiding crowds!
I'd say 60-75% of people were from outside of the country. We spoke to only one family from United States to every 10 families from out of the country. The furthest people we spoke to were either a couple from China or a family from Moscow. A lot of people from Brazil, Mexico, Africa and tons from all parts of Europe.
We had fun - It was our honeymoon trip, it was packed and very hot for this time of year, but we had fun, we're in love and we will be back for more!
I also looked for bunny ears instead of mouse ears, none to be found. The carrot cake easter bunny cupcake IS very yummy for sure
