A Twitterpated Disney Trip

So spring is here, and Spring means the Flower and Garden Festival comes with it. Now, I've never been to the Flower and Garden Festival, however, this is about to change. My mom and I are taking a special trip for Mother's Day in early May and I will finally get to experience the Flower and Garden Festival. We are both very excited!

We booked with the Special Spring Room offer and got 15% off our Value Resort room and paid for four day tickets and got the fifth day free! We saved a lot of money and we get to go for five whole days. We check in on a Sunday, spend the week in Disney, and check out on Saturday.

Disney in 3 out of the 4 weeks of May has moderate crowds, second lowest of the year. The same can be said for the last half of April once the Easter craze has passed. If you've got a party of adults this is the best time to go. You can experience the food and gardens at Epcot during the festival and avoid the family vacation crowds that come with summer time.

Not only that but this spring a lot of things are happening around the World of Disney Theme Parks. Trader Sam's is opening at the Polynesian Village Resort, the renovations at that resort itself are finally beginning to wrap up with the Feature pool set to open in early April, Disney Springs is starting to unfold around the former Downtown Disney area with the completion of the two parking decks and The Boathouse restaurant.

Excitement is in the air and it's leaving Disney fans everywhere quite...twitterpated.

Do yourself a favor and pay a visit to Walt Disney World in spring! Especially this spring with so much of our country still under the spell of a lingering winter! Just picture yourself in the warm Florida sunshine enjoying food that only Disney can make and entertainment that only Disney can produce!

Just be careful not to anger the Tiki gods!

Whirlwind Weekend Getaways

Just recently my friend Holly and I decided to go to Disney World for a short weekend trip. Neither one of us have much paid time off left for the year at our day jobs so we could only afford one day off. Here's what our late August weekend trip will look like:

Friday-
We take off at 10:30 AM and land at MCO (Orlando International Airport) at 12:30 PM
We've booked Disney's Magical Express to take us from MCO to All Star Sports resort

Saturday-
1 Full day at a Disney Park

Sunday-
We take off at MCO at 3:15 PM

The important thing to note about a weekend trip is that if you keep it contained to the weekend (and not let it bleed over into Monday) then you really only have one full day. For one day at the parks you can buy a one day ticket to Magic Kingdom or a one day ticket to Disney's Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Disney's Animal Kingdom. You're better off picking one park and sticking with it than trying to cover multiple parks in a single day.

In our case, we picked the Magic Kingdom. Hollywood Studios is having a special event the night we'll be there so we'd have to pay a separate price for that event to spend a whole day there. There's not enough to do at Animal Kingdom to spend a whole day there. Which left Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. I left it up to Holly to decide which one. I'll be going back for a full week in September with my parents and Holly won't. She picked the Magic Kingdom in order to see New Fantasyland. The last time the two of us went in 2012 it hadn't opened yet. (They started the soft open two weeks after we got back from our trip. We did, however, get to see all of Storybook Circus.)

We decided to stay at All Star Sports to take advantage of the lowest rate in the Fall Room Only offer. For a quick weekend all the two of us need is a bed, a shower, and a mini-fridge so the Value level is perfect for us.

At this point our trip (without airfare) is costing us about $210.00 a person. Not bad for 2 nights, 3 days at Walt Disney World Resort and a full day park ticket each. The Fall Room Only offer really saved Holly and I a lot of money this time around.

Once all of that was booked and I received our confirmation codes I went to My Disney Experience at Disney World's website and customized our Magic Bands as well as linked all of reservations and my Memory Maker purchase to our bands. (Memory Maker is a one time purchase for your Photo Pass digital photo license. Once you purchase it and link it to your Magic Band you get all of the photos taken by Photo Pass and select ride photos as well!)

Now all that's left to do for our trip is decide what we'll do during our available time on Friday and Sunday. I know we'll be having a late lunch at Earl of Sandwich at Downtown Disney on Friday, but beyond that I have no clue what we'll be doing.

We have a ton of options. If you're looking for similar ideas for your check in and check out day then this post we'll help you out. There are a lot of places to go on Disney Property that aren't theme parks or water parks. Here's a list of possible ideas:

-Downtown Disney for dining, shopping, movies, and bowling. (There's also DisneyQuest Indoor theme park and Cirque de Soleil's La Nouba for additional ticket purchases.)
-Disney's BoardWalk for dining and shopping as well as a Dueling Piano Bar and a Dance Club.
-Disney's Winter Summerland and Fantasia Gardens miniature golf courses
-Magic Kingdom firework viewing at Disney's Contemporary Resort or the Ticket and Transportation Center
-Dinner and shopping at various other Disney Resorts. (The Grand Floridian or any other Deluxe resort is particular fun to explore as they are incredibly detail oriented with their theme and story. One of my favorite places to relax is the lobby for Disney's Wilderness Lodge Vacation Club Villas.)

Once we arrive and check in, Holly and I will decide what we'll feel like doing but any of these options are doable for our time and budget. There's so much to see and do at the Walt Disney World Resort that sometimes I forget not all of it has to be done inside of a theme park. Be sure to keep the above options in mind next time you have free time to plan during your Disney Vacation!

Just 68 days until my next Disney vacation!

Have a magical day and please let me know if you'd like a FREE Disney quote or have any questions! I'll be happy to help in any way I can!