Spring Break, dining plan distress, soggy shoes, AND FUN! (3/23-3/28)

sam1998

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 2, 2013
Our "last minute" trip was booked in February (last minute by Disney planning standards). We kept it a secret from our 9 year old son (not the best idea, he was pretty overwhelmed by the surprise). I'll give a rundown of the trip, and highlight a few of the best and worst things. Also, its worth noting that this was the first time we've visited during the busy spring break season. Our previous trips have been October (several times for fall break, especially before it became a popular time) and early June.

Resort: Pop Century
Dates: 3/23-3/28
Ticket: 5 day base ticket
Dining: Quick Service Plan (first visit without the regular plan)

3/23 (Saturday)- Arrival day! After a long drive and an overnight stay halfway, we arrived late afternoon. We got our text stating that the room was ready before arrival, which always makes the process feel smooth. We booked standard and requested Top Floor (first) and Lake view (second). We did get top floor, not lake view. We had a lovely view of trees and parking lot, but didn't mind a bit. Super close to parking and just a few minutes from the food court. We stopped by the front desk to put our credit card on file, because of the uncertainty of the new charging system. The whole process took no longer than five minutes. We got our Anniversary buttons and headed to our room. The room was clean and as expected (not our first stay here). We showered and got changed and headed to our ADR at Whispering Canyon, our only table service of the trip. Got there, checked in, and only had to wait a few minutes before our table was ready. Dinner was great, the antics were toned down since our last visit but the ketchup gag was still going strong. After dinner we headed to the outlets and bought a few things then back to the room to rest up. Before bed, we hit the food court and got our refillable mugs. After getting back to the room, we realized that they charged us for them rather than using the dining plan. I called and was put on hold for the reservation department, and after about 10 minutes on hold, got a recording that they were closed. I guess they close at 11 even if they have people on hold. So, I had to walk back to the lobby for help, where I was told the dining plan for some reason wasn't linked and they wouldn't be able to do anything until the next day. So, I had to pull up emails to give them confirmation numbers, etc. It was a big pain. They said that department was closed until the next morning and told me to come back then. I explained that we had a PPO reservation and would be staying until close. They said they would try to handle it for me the next day without me there.

3/24 (Sunday)- Magic Kingdom! Just a few days before arrival I was able to score an 8:05 BOG reservation. I wasn't sure what to expect because they were having the ticketed event that morning, but we rolled with it anyway. We pre-ordered and when we got checked in they reminded us that we could get an alcoholic beverage on the dining plan, so we opted to add those then. However, our dining plan was still not working and we had to charge it to our room. Food was delicious, but did take a little longer to arrive than I expected. We were done around 8:45 and went out and they lined us up if we wanted to head to mine train. They didn't line us up at the standby entrance because the paid guests were riding. At almost 9 they went ahead and took us to the ride. We beat the rope drop crowd, but just barely. We pretty much walked on, and were off just a few minutes after 9.

After 7DMT, we hit Pooh, then Barnstormer, then Dumbo. Rode Space Mountain with FP, then Buzz with FP. Rode the people move, did Carousel of Progress, then BTM with FP. After that we started grabbing more FP. We did almost all rides with a FP, with the exception of waiting out Haunted Mansion. Rides with extra FP were Small World, Splash Mtn (but after dark, it was chilly), Pirates, and Little Mermaid. We also checked out the Hall of Presidents (our first time somehow). The only rides that we didn't do were Astro Orbiter, Peter Pan, and Aladdin. At the end of the night we were able to ride BTM again right at the time of the fireworks.

The low point of the day was when I called Guest Services around 10:30am because the dining plan still wasn't linked. It took 20 minutes on the phone, plus them calling me back twice to get it taken care of and get the mugs and BOG meal switched over. Unfortunately in the process they basically canceled my package and unlinked my credit card, so we couldn't charge anything back to the room until we could go to the lobby (the next morning). It was definitely not convenient.

3/25 (Monday)- Epcot! After a late night at MK, and knowing that we needed to go to the lobby to take care of the credit card issue, we decided not to hit the park super early. Instead, we got there right at park opening. We started with Living with the Land, then Mission Space (FP), Spaceship Earth (FP), and Test Track (FP). We then did Nemo and waited out Soarin. After that we hit the World Showcase (our first Flower and Garden). We snacked around the world and listened to music the rest of the evening. We got a FP for Illuminations but decided to beat the crowd and duck out ahead of them. As we headed toward the front of the park we saw that Soarin had a wait time of 15 minutes, so we hit it again (actual time was only 10 minutes).

3/26-Hollywood Studios! Our plan was to rope drop Slinky Dog. We didn't get to the park as early as we had hoped, and the crowd was already super thick. Rather than wait behind everyone, we actually went around to the left and stood where they were holding people (near the Frozen sing along area). When the time came, CM's tried to walk people back in an orderly fashion. Unfortunately, some people did push, shove, and run. I saw a man near me his a kid ahead of him multiple times with a stroller. We are a family of three with no strollers, so we walked briskly and tried to navigate the crowd as best we could with people running between us. We got in line for SDD and it took us approximately 15 minutes to get on. By the time we got off, the line was 120+. We then waited out TSM (took about an hour despite the 45 minute posted wait time). We had some time before our FP's, so we did Muppet Theater and Star Tours. After that we used our FP's for ToT and RR. We grabbed a quick bite and finished up our day with our Alien Saucer FP. After that we decided to head to the resort to escape the growing crowd. We napped and enjoyed our evening, and then drove over to the TTC and took a few laps around MK and Epcot on the monorail to see the fireworks going off.

3/27- Animal Kingdom! I was super lucky and was able to find a FOP FP a few weeks before the trip. Knowing we wouldn't have to worry about that, we didn't get there super early. We instead got there about 8:30 and lined up at the entrance to Pandora with pretty much every human on the planet LOL. Once they started leading people back to the ride, we stayed to the side and headed to Navi River. Walked right on. We were off in time to head toward Africa and wait in line for rope drop there, at which time we headed to KS, despite having midday FP. We thought a drizzly morning ride would be neat. At that point it switched from sprinkles to pouring, steady rain. We pulled out the ponchos and realized we forgot one! We dashed to the nearest shop as soon as we got off KS to purchase one. Despite the rain, wind, and chill, we forged on. We made our way to Dinosaur, rode it and then hopped right back on, and then Primeval Whirl, which is an interesting ride in the rain LOL. By then our shoes and socks were water logged, but they were reopening EE! We were able to use our FP within it's window and beat the 45 minute line. We were able to see the blue skies behind the clouds and peaks of sun as we rode. After we got off the ride, we found a sunny seat at Flame Tree and took our socks and shoes off to let them dry in the sun (don't worry- we didn't put them on the tables LOL). We killed about an hour, eating, talking, enjoying the atmosphere-but mostly waiting for the soggy shoes to dry some. Eventually we put them back on and hit it again! We went over to KS for our FP, then Festival of Lion King. Finally it was time for our FOP FP. It was, of course, amazing. After that we found our way to the Nemo show and had a great time speaking with a young woman waiting in line. She knew all kinds of cool things about the show (which my son loved, he is a Disney fact nerd). Turns out she is on an internship and working backstage in costuming on the show. Super cool! After that my son wanted to take another ride on Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl, so we did that. While we were in line for Dinosaur I was able to snag another FP for EE. We went and rode it, and decided to wait in line and ride it again. The posted wait time was 25 minutes, but it actually only took about 15. My son was having such a good time we decided to do it again, (by this time its about 15 minutes before park close). We pretty much walked on! So much fun! It was a chilly, windy evening and we decided not to stick around for Rivers of Lights. Headed back to the room and caught up on some much needed sleep!

3/27- Magic Kingdom (again)!- This was a rough day. It started when hubby ran in to the food court to grab something for my son. He came out and said it took so long because the system was down and to use your dining plan they were having to manually write down all of your info. We then headed to the park for our PPO BOG breakfast at 8:30. We were hopeful that we could be seated early and be served quickly, and then head out to ride 7DMT. Unfortunately, we arrived at 8:15 and the line to even check in was probably 50 people deep. The line to actually get in the doors were even longer. Lined all the way up both sides of the bridge and then past the check in area. We got checked in and got in line. It was crawling. At 8:40 we hadn't moved. I decided to leave hubby in line and my son and I would get in line for 7DMT. We went over and got in line, and after about five minutes a castmember came and told us that the ride would be on a "delayed opening" for the day (basically he wouldn't be running at park open). So, we went and got back in line at BOG, my husband was still in the same spot. A castmember came around giving out pastries and saying that the system was still down and dining plan credits were having to be written down, and that they had no estimated time of when they could get us in to the restaurant. We chose to cancel the breakfast plan and try to beat the RD crowd to BTM. We got over by Peter Pan and they were holding us. When they opened it up we headed to BTM, only to find out that they were stopping us and holding us just before SM and BTM. IDK why and have never seen them do this on prior visits. As soon as they let us go we headed to BTM. It was about 10 minutes to get on. It was apparent fairly quickly that crowds were much bigger than earlier in the week. Lines for everything were immediately long. Not just headliners. We were planning on a partial day in the park, so we decided to do our FP rides, try to grab a few more, get lunch, and then head out. We tried to get in line for snack since breakfast was a bust, but the same dining issue was causing all of the lines for any food stands to be insanely long. We did our FP rides (Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and POC), were able to grab a Small World FP (by 11 there were only a few things with FP available). We ate at Pinocchio Village Haus, where it took 40 minutes to get food even with mobile ordering. People were standing around waiting for seats. There was a VIP family eating there and castmembers roped off an entire section for them to be alone. There was probably 6 tables empty that couldn't be used because of that. As you can imagine, some people were pretty unhappy and made it well known to anyone around. We checked and Mine Train had reopened (with a 120+ wait) but both SM and BTM were closed. We decided it was probably best to leave soon. After lunch, we made our way over to Carousel of Progress (our family favorite) and then up to Main Street to leave.

**********The highlights of the trip- Getting to ride Big Thunder twice in one day and EE four times in one day. Our dinner at Whispering Canyon was great.

**********The low points- The issue with our reservation not being linked to our dining, and all of the hassle it caused, and then the crazy crowds on our last day multiplied by the breakdown of the charging system and the closure of three very popular rides.

**********One more take away- I am glad we used our credit card for charges. We didn't bill much to the room, but they had a pending $100 hold, another when they changed our reservation to fix the dining plan glitch, and then a pending charge for $133 for our charges, and then an actual charge for parking. Checkout day they ran our actual charges through, but didn't not do it as part of the hold, so all were showing.


All in all, it was a great trip. We aren't sure if we would travel during the Spring Break season again or not. The weather was great. The crowds felt manageable our first MK day, our AK day, and at Epcot. Our HS felt pretty intense, and our last day at MK was pretty much insane. It looks like Touring Plans shows our MK day was actually a level 10 on their scale. I can definitely say I don't want to be there again for a 10 day. With that being said, we have done Disney enough that we don't feel the urgency that those on a single once-in-a-lifetime trip might feel. There were rides we would have rode with a low wait (astro orbiter, Peter Pan, etc) that we skipped simply because we didn't want to spend our time waiting for them. We have that ability because we've rode them all before. I really felt that our touring philosophy worked very well except for the final day.
 
Thanks for this trip report. We are considering the same week for our kids’ spring break next year. We have smaller kids (will be 4 & 6) and have annual passes, and typically go to the Parks early & spend late afternoons and evenings at the resorts. I too am no fan of the 10 crowds, though reading you had manageable crowds earlier in the week was encouraging.

Did you use Any of the extra magic hours?

Thanks again for the report!
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top