Planning a trip with my mom!

[Haley R]

My parents took us to Disney when we were kids and I went once more in high school but we were that family that never did Disney the right way. We would do one day and have no idea what we were doing. Dh and I have been back a ton since! I’ve been trying to get my mom to go for about three years. She’s not a ride person at all but I know she would love Epcot. It’s right down her alley.

We got a pin code that works from January-June. I wanted to go January or February but she will be gone with my dad at the gulf coast. She loves flowers so I thought maybe the f&g festival, but I don’t want to take her when it’s going to be crazy busy. Dh and I are going to Japan in May/June so that leaves either sometime March or sometime April to take my mom.

She has not agreed to this at all but I told her we have 4-base tickets and I could pay for the room. Please help me decide what would be the best for us! I’m thinking we would mostly just do Epcot with maybe a day at mk or ak. I’m not sure because she really doesn’t like rides much. Maybe it would be a resort/Epcot trip only.

Sorry this was so long! I’ll take any ideas and dates that you think would be best!!!

 

[dina444444]

I would lean towards earlier in March to avoid the bulk of the spring break crowds unless you go at the very end of April after Easter/Passover are over.

 

[CarolynFH]

If she loves flowers, then definitely go during F&G. We haven’t found it to be anywhere nearly as busy as F&W, and Epcot is amazingly beautiful then. And there are a lot of special events and presentations and seminars; it’s not just walking around and gazing at plants.

We like the weather in March better (it’s cooler) but April is lovely too — just stay away from the weeks before and after Easter!

 

[Haley R]

I would lean towards earlier in March to avoid the bulk of the spring break crowds unless you go at the very end of April after Easter/Passover are over.

Early March might be our best bet. That’s when we’ve gone the last two years. I saw f&g won’t start until March 6 which seems later to me but that’s okay. Maybe we will go right before that starts.

 

[dina444444]

Early March might be our best bet. That’s when we’ve gone the last two years. I saw f&g won’t start until March 6 which seems later to me but that’s okay. Maybe we will go right before that starts.

From the calendar it looks like it’s starting and ending a week later than normal.

 

[Haley R]

If she loves flowers, then definitely go during F&G. We haven’t found it to be anywhere nearly as busy as F&W, and Epcot is amazingly beautiful then. And there are a lot of special events and presentations and seminars; it’s not just walking around and gazing at plants.

We like the weather in March better (it’s cooler) but April is lovely too — just stay away from the weeks before and after Easter!

I guess I forgot to mention that we’ve been going that first week of March the last couple years. Maybe I should just stick with the same and go that first week of March. I have to double check to see if our pin code works then. I know there was a period in March that it won’t cover.

Thanks!

 

[mmmears]

Most of our trips have been during March or April. My advice is to book a trip in either month, staying as far from Easter as possible depending on when it is in 2019. F&G is beautiful, and it's a great time to stay at the Epcot resorts. We've always had nice weather in the spring. Since you don't need to worry about the school breaks, I'd just try to stay away from the more crowded weeks.

 

[Haley R]

From the calendar it looks like it’s starting and ending a week later than normal.

Maybe because of Mardi Gras? I think Mardi Gras is that last week of February so maybe they moved it later one week because of that. I think we would probably want to avoid the Mardi Gras crowd.

 

[Haley R]

Most of our trips have been during March or April. My advice is to book a trip in either month, staying as far from Easter as possible depending on when it is in 2019. F&G is beautiful, and it's a great time to stay at the Epcot resorts. We've always had nice weather in the spring. Since you don't need to worry about the school breaks, I'd just try to stay away from the more crowded weeks.

Thank you! I’m thinking that first week of March might work. But she will just be getting back from the beach so she might not want to go right when she gets back. Would the second week in March be horrible?

 

[dina444444]

Maybe because of Mardi Gras? I think Mardi Gras is that last week of February so maybe they moved it later one week because of that. I think we would probably want to avoid the Mardi Gras crowd.

Festival of the arts is ending a week later this year, I don’t think it has anything to do with Mardi Gras.

 

[mmmears]

Thank you! I’m thinking that first week of March might work. But she will just be getting back from the beach so she might not want to go right when she gets back. Would the second week in March be horrible?

I would suspect that it will get more and more crowded with kids on spring break as you get close to Easter, with the 2 weeks around it being the worst (in terms of crowds and prices) and then will get better each week. Having said that, we went during school breaks so were there with the huge crowds and still had a great time, but I personally wouldn't choose that time if I didn't have to deal with school schedules. I'd take a look at the TP crowd calendar also.

 

[Haley R]

Festival of the arts is ending a week later this year, I don’t think it has anything to do with Mardi Gras.

Oh okay. I wonder why then. Plane tickets aren’t looking great right now but that’s because frontier usually does deals last minute.

 

[Haley R]

I would suspect that it will get more and more crowded with kids on spring break as you get close to Easter, with the 2 weeks around it being the worst (in terms of crowds and prices) and then will get better each week. Having said that, we went during school breaks so were there with the huge crowds and still had a great time, but I personally wouldn't choose that time if I didn't have to deal with school schedules. I'd take a look at the TP crowd calendar also.

All good points. Thanks! It all really depends on my mom. I’m trying hard to make a convincing argument to go. I think since we wouldn’t be worrying about rides much we would probably be okay in a busier time in March. She probably won’t want to go right away in March after getting back from the beach. It also depends on plane tickets since right now frontier isn’t cheap yet.

 

[Haley R]

Yikes! Epcot resorts are showing super pricey for March/April. We got bc for under $400/night next week and the cheapest I’m seeing for any Epcot resort is around $429/night.

 

[mmmears]

Yikes! Epcot resorts are showing super pricey for March/April. We got bc for under $400/night next week and the cheapest I’m seeing for any Epcot resort is around $429/night.

Yeah it's not a cheap time to go, or at least it hasn't been for my family. Money aside, if you aren't worried about rides, the crowds might not bother you as much.

 

[Haley R]

Yeah it's not a cheap time to go, or at least it hasn't been for my family. Money aside, if you aren't worried about rides, the crowds might not bother you as much.

I wish my mom would just be more open to January. I could get yacht club for $300/night at the end of January but she will be going to the beach right after. I tried telling her she could drive over from Disney but that wouldn’t be ideal for her.

 

[Haley R]

Now my dad is saying he wants to go to the big 12 tournament which is like March 12 so I have no idea when I could take my mom. It looks like it would have to be late March or early April.

 

[Redbudlover]

I think we are the wrong people to ask. Go to TP and put in your possible dates and see what they say about each day in regards to crowds . I got back from a Sept trip after looking at the entire year one day I was feeling pretty obsessive and found the slowest week of the year. It was perfect! I haven’t been in the parks for such s great trip in years. I was shocked how well it worked.
I have another trip coming in December where I did the same thing - this time went a week earlier than planned due to crowd calendar. We will see but I am a WDW vet and TP worked better than anything I could have guessed on my own.

 

[Haley R]

I think we are the wrong people to ask. Go to TP and put in your possible dates and see what they say about each day in regards to crowds . I got back from a Sept trip after looking at the entire year one day I was feeling pretty obsessive and found the slowest week of the year. It was perfect! I haven’t been in the parks for such s great trip in years. I was shocked how well it worked.
I have another trip coming in December where I did the same thing - this time went a week earlier than planned due to crowd calendar. We will see but I am a WDW vet and TP worked better than anything I could have guessed on my own.

I looked on tp and I’m seeing mostly 6,7,8 for crowds. I think I would just need to go into knowing it might be busy. I thought April would be worse but tp shows the end of March and beginning of April to be about the same. I’m more worried about hotel prices than crowds though. It would be best to stay at an Epcot resort but the prices are crazy.

 

[WaterLinds]

I looked on tp and I’m seeing mostly 6,7,8 for crowds. I think I would just need to go into knowing it might be busy. I thought April would be worse but tp shows the end of March and beginning of April to be about the same. I’m more worried about hotel prices than crowds though. It would be best to stay at an Epcot resort but the prices are crazy.

We arrive March 5 and TP has Epcot at a steady 5 for that and every day after it. AK and HS both have days that week as low as 3/4.

It is Mardi Gras week, so possibly a bit busier than some other first weeks of March, but the predictions don’t look bad (better than Mardi Gras week this past year...that was insane). The second week of March is when spring break really kicks off this year, I think, although it’s well spread out into April due to late Easter.

But yes, prices are pretty high that week. We got an agency exclusive deal for POFQ that was pretty good, but all the Epcot resorts were way out of our price range.