January 2019 - Daddy/Daughter 5th Birthday Trip!

PurpleJesus

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jun 4, 2018
A little background...

I really wanted to take our daughter, Charlotte (aka Charlie), to Disney for her 5th birthday because that's how old I was the first time my parents took me to Disney World. I still remember that trip, and it really was the beginning of my love for all things Disney World, but our other little girl just turned 23-months old - and in our opinion - that's literally the hardest aged child to watch over at DW. A 23-month old is fully mobile, very grabby, not particularly interested in listening to instructions, and easily overwhelmed. I kind of gave up hope of taking Charlie this year happening based on that.....



But, then Wifey had a great idea - "Why don't you just take Charlie on a trip by yourself?"

"Ummmm, Ok. Really? I wasn't aware that was an option.....(runs to computer)" :)

I had our trip booked in about 30 minutes. :rotfl:, but only about 45 days out so much planning had to be compressed into a few weeks.

Trip Details: January 25-28 - Pop Century Resort - Standard Pool View Room - Park-hopper tix - and plenty of planes, trains, and Ubermobiles.

I'm going to try and do this whole trip report this week because I've found over the years that if it doesn't happen when I get right back home; it generally doesn't ever happen.

Without further ado, here's us:

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So, Spirit Airlines just started flying direct from our local airport to Orlando (MCO) last month. Before the best flight we had was Allegiant into Sanford, but that's really far from DW, and was more expensive. Not sure if everyone is aware, but Spirit is sneaky with the way they price their tickets. In order to pay a lower excise tax to the government Spirit reduces their "ticket price" to practically nothing, and instead, charges a "Passenger Usage Fee" which is generally $40/person per flight.

However, in order to use that tax loophole legally, Spirit has to offer its customers a way to avoid the "Fee", and their solution is that if you literally go to the airport, and buy your tickets from the service check-in counter, then the fee is fully waived. So, two round-trip tickets on a direct flight to MCO were just $124 total - $62/person - that's nuts. The receipt for our tickets show the ticket price was $.01 per flight, and all of the charges were for fuel and gov't fees/taxes beyond that. We had to check one bag ($40/each way) so the bag's ticket ($80 total) cost more than our individual tickets :rotfl:.

Overall, I'd give Spirit an A+. I read a lot of mixed reviews, but I made sure our personal items were the correct size, and our checked bag was the correct weight, and had zero issues with them. They even got us loaded and in the air early, and each leg was supposed to be 1.5 hours, but ended up being just 1 hour. All in all, it was probably the best value of the entire trip. The planes were new, clean, plenty nice enough, and even though the seats and amenities were pretty spartan, who cares? They could have told me to sit on a milk crate next to a live goat for that amount of money, and I would've gladly tipped my cap, thanked them for the spot, and sat my butt down on the crate for the hour flight.

More than anything, I'm just thrilled we have such an inexpensive and easy way to get to Disney now. Before it was a 10 hour drive (assuming things went smoothly), or multiple flights. Now, it's 3 hours (total time) in airports, and cheaper to fly than it is to drive using the Magical Express from the airport. That alone will get us to Disney more often. Yay!

It was an early morning, but Charlie is fired up, Minnie backpack is in position, and we're ready to roll. The hardshell Away suitcases are great because she can sit on top and I can use it as a 'stroller'. Lol. They also measure exactly 62" linear inches which is the max for most airlines.
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She was a big fan of MCO's transportation system. "We already get to go for a ride, Daddy?" She got frustrated with me for getting her to run up to the first car, but after she saw this seat was the reason I wanted her to run up to the front, I was never met with resistance again when it came to hustle, lol.
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She wasn't 100% sure at first about the Magical Express....
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....but, once the cartoons started playing, and she had a comfy seat we settled in for the ride.
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She wanted a pool view..., and BOOM, check that box off!
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She was very, very happy with our room. She calls hotel rooms "Our little house" whenever we travel. So, this was our little house for 3-nights. #2202 - 50s section on the end of the bowling pin pool. Nice and quiet, very little foot traffic, and a great view. 2nd floor. Highly recommend.
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Alright, that gets us to Disney World. Over the next four days we hit every single park (some multiple times), rode dang near everything because Charlie has hit the magical 44" mark, ate at Be our Guest, Cinderella's Table, played at Early Morning Magic in Hollywood Studios, and even went bowling with all of her cousins from Florida at Splitsville in Disney Springs.

It. Was. EPIC. So much fun while we were there, and all we've done since getting back is try to figure out when we can go again. So, really, this thread is just trip hangover therapy. ;)

Stay tooned! The fun's about to start for Charlie's 5th birthday trip!!!
 
Totally awesome!!! Can't wait to read more! Hope you brought your wife home an epic souvenir! Also, had no idea about that "buy your ticket at the airport" hack with Spirit! Very interesting.....(rubs hands together).
 
Totally awesome!!! Can't wait to read more! Hope you brought your wife home an epic souvenir! Also, had no idea about that "buy your ticket at the airport" hack with Spirit! Very interesting.....(rubs hands together).
I bought her SO MANY souvenirs, lol. So many.

And, yeah, the Spirit hack is the best travel deal I've found in a long time. :) Happy to spread that info all over the internet. I think in the case of most major airports (Like Boston/NYC/Etc..) driving/parking in garage/going to counter/paying for parking/leaving..... is a lot of effort and money (if parking), and I assume why Spirit makes it that way. To make it as difficult as possible. But, for us, driving to our airport and running in/out is a 20-30 minute errand, and the first hour of parking is free at the airport. So, it's a no-brainer on our end.
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How exciting! We're doing something similar this summer after Frontier offered kids fly free and we had $45 each way tickets for the adults. We're staying at Pop Century as well. How did you like the room?
 
How exciting! We're doing something similar this summer after Frontier offered kids fly free and we had $45 each way tickets for the adults. We're staying at Pop Century as well. How did you like the room?
The rooms are great. Really well laid out, lots of storage, and the beds are super comfortable. I think it's the 2nd time we've stayed there since they did the room remodel, and the new rooms really are fantastic. We stayed at the end of the bowling pin pool in the 50s section which is far from the Classic Hall, but still only a 5 min. walk. The advantage vs. the other sections of Pop that we've stayed in, is that down there on the end there was basically no foot traffic. So, at night, and early in the morning, it was just as silent as a Deluxe resort. Previously, I'd always booked rooms as close to the buses and Classic Hall as I could, but after this trip I'm happy to walk another couple minutes for the peace and quiet at night.

I'm hoping to post the 2nd day of the trip sometime this afternoon on this thread! Working on it at lunch.... :)
 
You must have the nicest wife in the world. I would never give up a WDW trip, that being said we are currently planning our 10th trip to WDW and our 2nd without DH who vows never to fly again!!!
A great start and I can’t wait to read the rest.
 



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