***Official March 2019 Spring Into Disney Thread!***

[ArielSRL]

Cave Spring here!
I can lead foot too but it's real hard in an H2 Hummer, she is a non aerodynamic brick but super fun to drive. That's why we are taking the car this time! I just need to head out early so I can get south of ATL by rush hour.

We usually have a goal of leaving by 6, which turns into 7. But that's on a Saturday. We are leaving on a Friday for this trip, so the goal is 5am this time.

 

[ChiefM]

If I can leave no later than 5 AM and I can hit the I-20 to 285 south merge around 6- 630 AM I am usually golden.
I have never been this way during rush hour but thinking of maybe catching 75 south in Cartersville and going straight down 75, if I do that I will get a peach pass before we leave.

 

[vacationer1954]

We live north of Atlanta. I think we typically make it in 10 hours. (We don't speed, and we take decent breaks.)

This trip will be our last with Illuminations. We booked the Illuminations Dinner Package for our last night.

 

[ArielSRL]

If I can leave no later than 5 AM and I can hit the I-20 to 285 south merge around 6- 630 AM I am usually golden.
I have never been this way during rush hour but thinking of maybe catching 75 south in Cartersville and going straight down 75, if I do that I will get a peach pass before we leave.

We have a peach pass and it also works as a Sun Pass.

 

[ArielSRL]

We live north of Atlanta. I think we typically make it in 10 hours. (We don't speed, and we take decent breaks.)

This trip will be our last with Illuminations. We booked the Illuminations Dinner Package for our last night.

We have two boys (currently 4 and 7) so I like to get them out of the car ASAP!

 

[ChiefM]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a super speeder. I can drive for hours before I have to stop. Once the wife and son fall asleep I can make good time with limited stops.
If we take 75 straight down and go thru Atlanta I feel like a peach pass will be necessary. Plus there seems to be so many toll roads in Florida. Last trip we were on International Drive and the GPS sent us down a toll road, luckily I had cash to pay the toll. A peach pass and I won't have to worry about it while we are wandering around.

 

[vacationer1954]

We visited 12/16-20. It took a couple of weeks for the Florida Turnpike tolls ($2.94 each way) to show up on our Peach Pass account. We have yet to see tolls (or violation tickets) for the tolls we went through on the Central Florida Expressway/West Beltway (SR 429). I wonder if we'll see those tolls charged before our March trip.

 

[ArielSRL]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a super speeder. I can drive for hours before I have to stop. Once the wife and son fall asleep I can make good time with limited stops.
If we take 75 straight down and go thru Atlanta I feel like a peach pass will be necessary. Plus there seems to be so many toll roads in Florida. Last trip we were on International Drive and the GPS sent us down a toll road, luckily I had cash to pay the toll. A peach pass and I won't have to worry about it while we are wandering around.

Yeh, we just don't stop a lot. On our last 'leave in the morning' trip - our actual last trip, we left in the afternoon and that is a whole different story - we stopped 3 times for quick potty breaks and that was it for stops. We got there in under 7 hours. When we run the trip through a map app, our travel time is posted at 6 hours 45 minutes, so its not like we are breaking sound barriers or anything.

 

[ArielSRL]

We visited 12/16-20. It took a couple of weeks for the Florida Turnpike tolls ($2.94 each way) to show up on our Peach Pass account. We have yet to see tolls (or violation tickets) for the tolls we went through on the Central Florida Expressway/West Beltway (SR 429). I wonder if we'll see those tolls charged before our March trip.

It took forever for ours to show up from our June trip. Like months and months.

 

[ChiefM]

I have lived in GA for over 25 years and never needed or used a peach pass but looks like that will change.

 

[vacationer1954]

You don't need a Peach Pass. It just helps with the cost of some tolls and the time needed to get through toll barriers.

 

[wdwnut61]

Super happy! I was able to move my FOP FP to 12:35 from 6:35. Makes my day there run so much more smoothly. Refreshing pays off!

Absolutely plus tweaking FP’s helps pass the time

 

[wdwnut61]

Stalking dining pays off was able to change our Storybook ADR to 6:00pm. It was 4:15pm plus I think it will be even prettier when it’s darker with the twinkling lights

 

[bdiddy]

Hi All! This will be our first time there over Spring Break and am so excited! Usually we are there in the summer but did go once the beginning of Dec and end of Sept.

Our daughter is going with the marching band and we are going down as well. We'll be there from 3/22-3/27 staying at Pop Century (first time at that resort too). We are flying down and doing 1 park each day. DD will be heading down with the band on the bus and they are also doing a day at Universal the day we fly back and then they'll be back the next day.

I'm curious about crowds this time of year though and the week we'll be there. I know it's a bit spread out because everyone's Spring Break is different and it's probably the most busy around Easter correct? Also, how is the weather? I'm SO excited to go when it's not miserable out. I'm thinking it may be like the weather when we went in early December? Similar at least?

 

[MousetersInc]

Super happy! I was able to move my FOP FP to 12:35 from 6:35. Makes my day there run so much more smoothly. Refreshing pays off!

Maybe this belongs in a FP strategy thread, but could I ask why you prefer that time? My understanding as that you want your FPs clustered in a window ca 10-3, so you don't waste them on short morning wait times, but can use up your 3 and book more. But I hear people talking about aiming for 9:00 or, here, evening. Is there a more nuanced strategy behind it? Or are you just prioritizing the optimal time within your plan over getting maximum FPs?

 

[WaterLinds]

Maybe this belongs in a FP strategy thread, but could I ask why you prefer that time? My understanding as that you want your FPs clustered in a window ca 10-3, so you don't waste them on short morning wait times, but can use up your 3 and book more. But I hear people talking about aiming for 9:00 or, here, evening. Is there a more nuanced strategy behind it? Or are you just prioritizing the optimal time within your plan over getting maximum FPs?

Can’t speak for the OP here, but there are lots of possible strategies and scheduling options. The advice you’re read is generally sound for trying to get the most rides in—on a typical day I tend to book around 10, 11, and 12 so we can snag more for later. But sometimes people may have plans to start in one park in the morning and hop to another, saving all the FPs for the later Park. Or maybe a pool day followed by an evening at the parks, or scheduling around ADRs, or wanting to see an area at night (Pandora and Toy Story Land both fit that category), etc. We have one day on this next trip with evening only FPs, because we’re going to do a late resort breakfast, some pool time, and then head to DHS to see TSL at night, do Fantasmic, etc. So I booked SDD for 6 pm or so.

 

[WaterLinds]

Hi All! This will be our first time there over Spring Break and am so excited! Usually we are there in the summer but did go once the beginning of Dec and end of Sept.

Our daughter is going with the marching band and we are going down as well. We'll be there from 3/22-3/27 staying at Pop Century (first time at that resort too). We are flying down and doing 1 park each day. DD will be heading down with the band on the bus and they are also doing a day at Universal the day we fly back and then they'll be back the next day.

I'm curious about crowds this time of year though and the week we'll be there. I know it's a bit spread out because everyone's Spring Break is different and it's probably the most busy around Easter correct? Also, how is the weather? I'm SO excited to go when it's not miserable out. I'm thinking it may be like the weather when we went in early December? Similar at least?

If you check the previous page, someone posted last year’s weather from March, so that should give you some idea. It’s super variable, but usually most days hit a nice midpoint where it’s warm enough but not sweltering. (I grew up in FL with a March birthday, my parents never let me have a pool party growing up because the weather was too variable for that. But now I live in Canada and our family is of the “it’s above freezing and the sun is out, the pool sounds good!” philosophy, ha!)

Hard to know for sure what to expect with crowds, but I think the time your going isn’t one of the major spring break weeks, although there will certainly be plenty of people there. As far as I can tell, the major spring break rushes are forecast to be right around Easter, and then that second week of March with Texas, much of Canada, and some other places on break, and I think a lot of the FL schools are out the 3rd week of March.

 

[ChiefM]

Expected crowd levels

3-22- 5/10 crowd level
3-23- 5/10 crowd level
3-24- 5/10 crowd level
3-25- 6/10 crowd level
3-26- 6/10 crowd level
3-27- 6/10 crowd level

Much better than my first park day:
3-30-9/10 crowd level
3-31- 3/10 crowd level

 

[bdiddy]

Expected crowd levels

3-22- 5/10 crowd level
3-23- 5/10 crowd level
3-24- 5/10 crowd level
3-25- 6/10 crowd level
3-26- 6/10 crowd level
3-27- 6/10 crowd level

Much better than my first park day:
3-30-9/10 crowd level
3-31- 3/10 crowd level

Wow that looks pretty good for our days, thanks! Crazy how yours jumped from 9 to 3! Quite a difference!

 

[bdiddy]

If you check the previous page, someone posted last year’s weather from March, so that should give you some idea. It’s super variable, but usually most days hit a nice midpoint where it’s warm enough but not sweltering. (I grew up in FL with a March birthday, my parents never let me have a pool party growing up because the weather was too variable for that. But now I live in Canada and our family is of the “it’s above freezing and the sun is out, the pool sounds good!” philosophy, ha!)

Hard to know for sure what to expect with crowds, but I think the time your going isn’t one of the major spring break weeks, although there will certainly be plenty of people there. As far as I can tell, the major spring break rushes are forecast to be right around Easter, and then that second week of March with Texas, much of Canada, and some other places on break, and I think a lot of the FL schools are out the 3rd week of March.

Thank you! I just looked at it! Being from NE Ohio those temps are going to feel wonderful to us. It’s still pretty cold here even in late March. My daughter’s birthday is April 8th and we’ve had anything from 75 to a snowstorm on her birthday! Lol... We can never plan for an outside party for sure!