I don’t usually create a schedule or put together a to do list when it comes to what we will do on our Disney vacations; but this year we are going during a time of year we never went before and I am a little nervous about it. We never go during school vacations because it’s school vacation time and the whole world seems like they are in Disney during that time of year (besides Christmas). But I did some research tonight and am printing out some information and getting my bearings to help make some decisions and plans.
We are also doing things a little different this time. My Star Wars Dark Side Challenge races conveniently fell during the same time we were taking this trip; so some of my park touring may be altered slightly to accommodate my early wake ups for the two races. But we also didn’t purchase an annual pass this year like we always due. Last October the price of the Annual Pass increased to an amount that just wasn’t going to work for us. When we went in January for marathon weekend we were able to purchase park passes with my Dad’s military discount. This time we are going to purchase multi-day park passes through an employee discount website so we can purchase as many days necessary and we will just factor in some non-park days to this trip. All in all we won’t lose much. We just won’t be able to hop on the monorail some nights to go for a spin around the park on the train and do some rides at night. But since we are staying in resorts on the monorail loop we will take advantage of watching the fireworks shows from the beaches.
There are things I would like to do on this trip that we have never done with the kids before. Surprisingly, we haven’t taken them to the following attractions. Don’t judge, there never seems to be enough time and they always want to do their favorites! So here are a few of the attractions that are a must do on the trip list this year:
Enchanted Tiki Room
The Country Bears
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Indiana Jones
Star Wars Launch Pad
Jedi Training Academy for Adrienne
The New Star Wars Symphony in the Stars: A Galactic Spectacular fireworks show at Hollywood Studios
And I would REALLY love to try to be at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop to see the welcome show. I also want to do a water park and this year I found some great discounted tickets for Aquatica. Since we have done Blizzard Beach twice in the past, I am not opposed to trying something different. Again, this trip is about being cost conscious. We will do our grocery shopping and stock up our room with the essentials, water and alcohol to save on the cost of drinks and food and pack our lunches for the parks and mainly eat our dinners in a park or resort. We have a few reservations for some restaurants that we know we want to go to for sure.
The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival will be in full bloom during this trip so I will be doing my research and posting on my blog some great resources for what is happening for kids this time of year at Epcot. I heard that there are a lot of great kid-centric activities going on this year. I also want to have the children go around to each country and have their name written in the language of that country to put into their journals.
I am also planning on participating in Dapper Day and dressing up for the Magic Kingdom. Diana and Mandy and I are going to get all dolled up in cute dresses after the 10K and take pictures in the Magic Kingdom. Dapper Day celebrates “stepping out in style”. There is no specific period of time that is recreated; but the looks are vintage-inspired. Active and retired military are encouraged to wear their dress blues or service uniforms. I have never been a part of this before so I am looking forward to seeing what everyone looks like!
One last thing that I am hoping we will get to see is the Rivers of Light Show at Animal Kiingdom. This show is debuting in April and rumor has it, that it will be opening on Earth Day , which is April 22. So I am keeping an eye out to hear more about it and how we can participate in this event when it starts showing. It would be so neat to be one of the first people to see this new show! I will also blog about this new feature separately, so stay tuned! Despite all of the construction going on in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, there is still enough for us to do in Hollywood Studios to keep us busy for a few hours that day and also allow us time to rest for the afternoon and then head to another park for the evening.
So as you can see, this trip is going to take a little bit of planning. I’m going to have to figure out which days will be park days, which days will be relax by the pool days and I also have to get to the Expo and fit my races into the vacation. It’ll all work out, this is nothing compared to Marathon Weekend in January! But I also do want the trip to be so busy with activity that it goes by in the blink of an eye either.
What else do you recommend we try on this trip?