TikiFamily April Antics Pre-trip Report
Tiki Family Pre-Trip Report 2013
Who:
TikiGoddess (Kathy), turning the big 4-0 on this trip!
DH (Tim), ready for a vacation and some warmer weather
DD10 (Julie), wants to join the Duffy Club this year
DD8 (Katie), wants to see Carousel of Progress more than once
When:
Mid-April (Sunday-Thursday night)
We have always gone in the summertime. My husband and I are teachers, so we really can’t take time off during the year. But it happened that our April break fell away from Easter this year – a perfect occasion to go!
I’m very curious to see how April is in Florida. I’m hoping for lower crowds, fewer Brazilian tour groups, and lower temperatures. I know that most schools in the Northeast have their spring break at the same time as ours, so I know the parks won’t be empty, but it has to be better than mid-July. Heck, as long as it’s not 93 degrees out with 95% humidity, I’ll be happy with just that.
Where:
4 nights at the glorious Pop Century Resort. This will be a change for us -- we’ve been staying at AKL (concierge level) the last two years. But we couldn’t turn down the price – and it was so affordable, we booked two rooms. I love Pop and have stayed there at least 4 times, but for everyone else in the family this is pretty much their first time. The girls are excited to have their own room (so are me and my husband!). I’m going to pack special snacks and breakfast items so we’ll have our own ‘lounge’ in our rooms.
The Plan:
Saturday: my birthday! We’ll be leaving home for my brother’s house in Albany (2 hr car ride) and spending the night there. Flights from Albany were much cheaper than Hartford as the NY schools have their spring break at a different time. Plus, on Sunday my brother can drive us to the airport and we won’t have to pay for parking. The girls are excited to spend time with their cousins – always a treat.
Sunday: Our flight arrives at MCO at 3:45pm. We’ll be using Magical Express – first time for everyone except me. I know the girls will love the video (and my husband will think it’s awfully cheesy and play games on his ipod the whole time). We hope to make it to Pop Century by 5pm. We’ll check in, have dinner in the food court, and most likely go swimming. You can’t keep Julie away from a pool for long. If the weather is not conducive to swimming, we may head to Downtown Disney for an hour or two.
Monday morning: Epcot. We’re looking forward to seeing the Flower and Garden beautifulness this year. Tim and the girls have never seen it. I’m excited to try out the new food booths.
On each trip we tell the girls they may pick out ONE souvenir, and this year Julie wants a Duffy bear. Katie and I got ours last year, so this year Julie will join the club. We plan on getting our picture taken with the big Duffy too.
Monday evening: Evenings are not scheduled… we’ll go with the flow.
Tuesday morning: Magic Kingdom. We have our time honored tradition of having breakfast at Crystal Palace all set for 8:15am. I happened to snag a cancellation online – everything was booked solid by the time I planned the trip. In this case, persistence paid off.
And yes, we’ll do Carousel of Progress, as requested by my Disney nerd daughters. (Raising ‘em right!)
Wednesday morning: Since I consider Toy Story Midway Mania a must, we’ll most likely hit Studio’s rope drop. But we may be getting tired by this time, so depending on crowds we might sleep in a little.
Wednesday afternoon: would like to do AK – and ride Everest right at closing…
Thursday: Most likely MK for EMH. Our flight home leaves at 9:25pm, so we until 6:40pm to enjoy the parks. We’ll fly home, land around midnight, and crash at my brother’s house before driving home the next day.
Top Ten List:
1. Ride the new Test Track. I’ve been good and haven’t watched any Youtube videos, so it will be a completely new experience.
2. Introduce the family to the new Fantasyland. I got to see it during ICOT’s meet in October, but it was at night. I can’t wait to see it in the daylight, ride the Little Mermaid (with Katie, who has always been an Ariel fan), and maybe try for lunch at Be Our Guest.
3. Get Julie her Duffy.
4. Catch the golf ball in Soarin’. (How many years have I said this… maybe I’ll actually ‘do it’ this year)
5. Try out the new patisserie location in France. We loved the old one, and the new one looks even better.
6. Introduce my family to the fun of Value Resorts (and two hotel rooms).
7. Spend a little more time in Animal Kingdom, since the weather will be more bearable (knock on wood).
8. Seeing the topiaries from Flower and Garden at Epcot.
9. Perhaps seeing Fantasmic for the first time…?
10. Spending time with the most important people in my life. :)
Question #1: With the lower temps (and hopefully lower crowds) will we be able to comfortably skip our afternoon break? If we do, I think we’d end up going back to the hotel earlier in the evening. There’s no way we can do the parks 9am-9pm. Well, I can… but the rest of my family are wimps. Just kidding. :D
Question #2: I need to brainstorm for morning surprises in the hotel room… each year Tink leaves a note and something special for the girls to find when they get up (it gets them up and moving quickly!). Chocolate coins are always safe… but maybe something different this year… tell me if you have any creative ideas.
Question #3: Still trying to figure out what ride to do first on our Epcot morning… I guess our usual plan of ‘send someone to get FPs for Soarin’ while the rest head to Test Track’. Any ideas?
Question #4: Has anyone done the new interactive Pirate adventure in Adventureland? I haven’t heard much about it but it sounds like something my girls would like. They love Sorcerers so if it’s like that we’ll have to check it out.
Thanks for reading!
Kathy
