***Official April 2013 thread*** SEE POST # 4028

[TJDisneymama]

So after much research, i think we're going to do another disney cruise next year (april) and add on 2-3 nights at the Dark Side (US). I've always wanted to stay at one of those hotels and heard they are much nicer than Disney hotels......actually, the new hotel looks awesome but only the deluxes come witb the express pass so......

For me, a big family trip to WDW every year would be too much, and i feel like would make it lose its novelty, kwim? I may take YDD for a short trip some time in 2014 since I took just ODS last year.......we'll see.

 

[bigjrfan88]

I'm so excited I'm leaving for Disney at 4 AM although my flight doesn't leave until 7. I almost can't believe it's actually happening. It feels like a dream to me, hehe a dream come true.

We are here now too. Heading to check in at POR soon. Enjoy today! It's probably going to be the only one that is dry.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

So after much research, i think we're going to do another disney cruise next year (april) and add on 2-3 nights at the Dark Side (US). I've always wanted to stay at one of those hotels and heard they are much nicer than Disney hotels......actually, the new hotel looks awesome but only the deluxes come witb the express pass so......

For me, a big family trip to WDW every year would be too much, and i feel like would make it lose its novelty, kwim? I may take YDD for a short trip some time in 2014 since I took just ODS last year.......we'll see.

That's exciting!

For the past few years we have been doing a split stay at Universal/Disney. We usually spend 3-4days at Univ. then move to Disney for a week.

We've stayed at the Hard Rock. My DH and kids love it there. And yes it does stink that you can only get express passes if you stay on property. That's why I like Disneys FP system so much more.

 

[elfling8]

We are here now too. Heading to check in at POR soon. Enjoy today! It's probably going to be the only one that is dry.

We had a bunch of days when we were there a couple weeks ago that the forcast said 50-60% chance of rain. It only actually downpoured one day off and on for about 2 hrs. It was a little misty one other morning and cloudy and breezy for a full day even though it said 60% chance of rain. Hope you have good weather too!

 

[bigjrfan88]

First bit of magic...upgraded to Royal Room at POR. Was supposed to be in a standard.

 

[danceintherain]

So after much research, i think we're going to do another disney cruise next year (april) and add on 2-3 nights at the Dark Side (US). I've always wanted to stay at one of those hotels and heard they are much nicer than Disney hotels......actually, the new hotel looks awesome but only the deluxes come witb the express pass so......

For me, a big family trip to WDW every year would be too much, and i feel like would make it lose its novelty, kwim? I may take YDD for a short trip some time in 2014 since I took just ODS last year.......we'll see.

We didn't need express pass. Granted, we pretty much only did the Harry Potter area and left. The only attraction that Express Pass would have made sense for in our case was the Forbidden Journey (60 minute posted wait by a little after 10 am) and it doesn't participate in Express Pass. It is open during their Early Entry though.

It definitely would cut back on wait times though. They put it at pretty much every attraction, so pretty much everything would be a walk on.
If we do Universal again, then we'll definitely stay at one of their hotels for the proximity.

WDW hasn't lost its novelty to us, even though this trip wasn't great, but we always try to do something a little different, so it's not just the headliners all the time. This year we did the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and spent a lot of time doing the Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom.
We always stay somewhere different too.

Even so, I doubt we'll go every year, because the budget and the time just aren't there. Probably every 18 months to 2 years, unless we move closer.

 

[TJDisneymama]

You're right, the lines at US are never all THAT long so the express pass isnt a necessity like FPs are......IDK, i'll have to see how the prices compare for their new resort with no express pass vs. The other resorts that come with the pass.....the new resort is all suites tho and we're all about suites.......so that may sway us.

It just stinks that the cruise we're (probably) going to do is M -F, not leaving us much time on either end to do a longer land stay. DH can PROBABLY get 1 day off (teacher) so we could do the Fri-Monday before the cruise, or the Fri-Monday after......if the cruise started earlier, say saturday, (or later) then we could do like 5 nts. On land somewhere........i'm already stressing about it being such a short trip - either 6 or 7 nights, lol.

UNLESS! We do both before and after..........maybe US o e weekend and then SW or Legoland the other. Hmmmm.......

 

[pwdebbie]

Trip Reports! ***Official April 2013 thread***​

Follow the link above to the new thread for our trip reports. Instead of updating the first post of this thread, I've started a new thread in the Trip Report forum. You can link your trip reports there and I will repost your info to Post #1 so we have all our info in one place. Any TR links posted here I hope to catch and carry over to the new thread also.

Knowing that this thread is soon to be closed, I wanted to get something new going so we can continue to keep up with each other.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Going to have to check out my fellow April DISers' reports!

 

[Lemonademouth]

Just got home . Miss it already. Going back in September for mnsshp and hhn.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Heading back to work tomorrow....uhhh. Not going to do a trip report- just quick thoughts.
First if all holy heat- had to keep reminding myself why we paid April prices for weather....it felt like late September most of the time.
Another- weird crowds. Seems it was packed with people, but wait times weren't bad
Had another wonderful, peaceful stay at POR. But after the first day....decided to drive to the parks every day- am sold on that idea now, much nicer. Got to the bus stop at MK and the POR was 2 stops full and the line extended all the way down and out the other end!!! jumped POFQ bus and walked home. Last time we took a bus- will be driving every time next time.
All my sanitizing paid off, no illnesses!!!
Decided to take a break from Disney in 2014 and wait until new FL is complete, and these new policies( magic bands, fp+, etc) are out for some time and working smoothly. We had planned on going to universal for 2 days this trip, and had such a wonderful time, ditched our 3erd MK day and went back. There were no lines, and no stampedes trying to simply walk around. We are currently planning our next trip there at HRH, and adding sea world, followed by a st. Pete beach/BG few days. Hope everyone had a great trip, will be back to plan our 2015 trip.

 

[gtpoohbear]

Heading back to work tomorrow....uhhh. Not going to do a trip report- just quick thoughts.
First if all holy heat- had to keep reminding myself why we paid April prices for weather....it felt like late September most of the time.
Another- weird crowds. Seems it was packed with people, but wait times weren't bad
Had another wonderful, peaceful stay at POR. But after the first day....decided to drive to the parks every day- am sold on that idea now, much nicer. Got to the bus stop at MK and the POR was 2 stops full and the line extended all the way down and out the other end!!! jumped POFQ bus and walked home. Last time we took a bus- will be driving every time next time.
All my sanitizing paid off, no illnesses!!!
Decided to take a break from Disney in 2014 and wait until new FL is complete, and these new policies( magic bands, fp+, etc) are out for some time and working smoothly. We had planned on going to universal for 2 days this trip, and had such a wonderful time, ditched our 3erd MK day and went back. There were no lines, and no stampedes trying to simply walk around. We are currently planning our next trip there at HRH, and adding sea world, followed by a st. Pete beach/BG few days. Hope everyone had a great trip, will be back to plan our 2015 trip.

I thought the same thing about the crowds, none of our June trips ever "felt" that crowded, it was shoulder-to-shoulder people EVERYWHERE, all week! Even first thing in the morning, we're used to having the parks to ourselves for the first hour or so. But the wait times weren't really any worse.

And the weather wasn't much better than June, so I'm kind of wondering why we bothered doing something different.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Just got back last night!! We had a great trip!!! After 10 nights, we were ready to go home. Happy that I have a couple of months before starting to plan our next trip...(have to wait until 2014 rates come out)!

Just grateful for an awesome trip and safe return home. Now life goes on....

 

[librarygeek]

We just got back! Had a fantastic time and I will hopefully be starting a TR shortly!

 

[momtwoboys]

Just wanted to say its been a fun year on this thread, i enjoyed everyones company! We had a wonderful 9 day trip to the world! We thought the weather was great, crowds were great too. Never waited more than 20 min for anything except for a technical difficulty with splash mtn one day, but other than that we used fp when needed to ride
A second time, had some good meals...and learned we love pop better than por. Hope to see a new thread for april'14!!!!!!

 

[danceintherain]

Heading back to work tomorrow....uhhh. Not going to do a trip report- just quick thoughts.
First if all holy heat- had to keep reminding myself why we paid April prices for weather....it felt like late September most of the time.
Another- weird crowds. Seems it was packed with people, but wait times weren't bad
Had another wonderful, peaceful stay at POR. But after the first day....decided to drive to the parks every day- am sold on that idea now, much nicer. Got to the bus stop at MK and the POR was 2 stops full and the line extended all the way down and out the other end!!! jumped POFQ bus and walked home. Last time we took a bus- will be driving every time next time.
All my sanitizing paid off, no illnesses!!!
Decided to take a break from Disney in 2014 and wait until new FL is complete, and these new policies( magic bands, fp+, etc) are out for some time and working smoothly. We had planned on going to universal for 2 days this trip, and had such a wonderful time, ditched our 3erd MK day and went back. There were no lines, and no stampedes trying to simply walk around. We are currently planning our next trip there at HRH, and adding sea world, followed by a st. Pete beach/BG few days. Hope everyone had a great trip, will be back to plan our 2015 trip.

I'm glad your experience at Universal went well... I don't know if I just picked the wrong day or what, but it was crowded there too.

I thought the same thing about the crowds, none of our June trips ever "felt" that crowded, it was shoulder-to-shoulder people EVERYWHERE, all week! Even first thing in the morning, we're used to having the parks to ourselves for the first hour or so. But the wait times weren't really any worse.

And the weather wasn't much better than June, so I'm kind of wondering why we bothered doing something different.

I agree about the weather and the crowds. I don't know if this year was a fluke or what, but it just "felt" different.
DH and I have a theory about the heat too. When we went during the summer in the past, we were going from heat to heat, so we were acclimated. Since we went from blizzardy temps here to scalding temps in FL, we didn't adjust as well or as quickly.

 

[wdw4rfam]

I'm glad your experience at Universal went well... I don't know if I just picked the wrong day or what, but it was crowded there too.

I agree about the weather and the crowds. I don't know if this year was a fluke or what, but it just "felt" different.
DH and I have a theory about the heat too. When we went during the summer in the past, we were going from heat to heat, so we were acclimated. Since we went from blizzardy temps here to scalding temps in FL, we didn't adjust as well or as quickly.

I know I read that your focus was Harry Potter- all that crowd stuff went out the window there. It was raining, and still wall-to wall back there. We got lucky with a 20 minute wait time. But it was 60 later that day. The rest of the park was dead, and our other 2 days at USF was very slow. We walked right up to the curb for the parade- unheard of at Disney. Also rode rip-ride-rockit 4 times ina row!!

Will agree- but we have gone in spring the last 3 years, and it was not this hot. TV said "above average temps", so it WAS hotter. The norm is low 80's for that time of year and it was 90+ many days.