2 kids, 2 adults, 22000 steps (per day), 3 parks, 2 character meals, 1 hotel pool... all in 36 hours.
Yep that about sums up our "Surprise" Disney overnight on Spring Break. While already in Clearwater, we told the kids that my sister in law and I would be taking them for a fun over night to Disney(
see the video here!) !
Problem: we would be leaving on April Fools Day so for a good 30 minutes they didn't believe us!
(side note: don't feel bad for Todd who stayed back in Clearwater with his dad during our 36 hour Disney blitz. He views this as a win/win. I get my Disney fix, and he didn't have to go;)
The Backstory:
I began planning this surprise back in January. Obviously I LOVE Disney. I kept telling Todd it was torture knowing I would be only an hour and a half away from the Happiest Place on Earth without visiting over Spring Break. So, he generously suggested we go for an overnight and invite my sister in law to join us. WOOHOOOO!
Now this is my third Disney visit in less than a year, so I am pretty familiar with what we like to do at Disney. I know how to book the hotel, restaurants, tickets, Fastpasses all on the Disney website. I know our favorite rides, favorite parks, favorite restaurants,
however, I have never tried to fit it all in in 36 hours!!
So I learned a few tips along the way of how to dominate Disney in 36 hours.
1. Stay on property / Close to the parks. We are typically "off property people" for a variety of reasons (cost, we want a kitchen/washer/dryer, my husband want's to get away from Mickey at night{humph}. this is
our favorite off property hotel), however for a very short stay the cost of being on property/being close to the parks is VERY justifiable.
We decided you can't get much closer than the
Contemporary Hotel! We LOVED that we could walk to and from the Magic Kingdom in 5 minutes. It truly added a huge convenience factor to our trip and saved us a ton of time.
2. Choose your favorites, you can't do it all. Did we ride Pirates of the Caribbean?
nope. Jungle Cruise?
nope. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train?
nope. Soarin'?
nope again. (Sigh.....)
Before you feel sorry for us here's what we DID do in the Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain, Dumbo, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Prince Charming's Royal Carousel, and Peter Pan's Flight.
Hollywood Studios: Hollywood Tower of Terror, Beauty and the Beast LIVE, The Great Movie Ride,
Toy Story Mania, Rockin' Roller Coaster, Frozen Sing-A-Long.
Epcot
: No rides but we visited every country! (
and keep in mind this was during a VERY crowded Spring Break week).
For a short trip to Disney you can NOT do every ride. You must pick and choose which rides you love most and make these rides your utmost priority!
3. FASTPASS for the afternoon. I follow many unofficial Disney blogs (one of my favorites:
Disney Tourist Blog) and most all of them will suggest to book your FASTPASS selections for late morning/mid afternoon. Why? Because this is when wait times for ANY ride will be longest! So plan to visit your favorites mid afternoon and skip the lines!! Visit your second favorites at other times when the lines will not be as long.
We did Magic Kingdom on Wednesday and we booked our three allowed FASTPASSES for Splash Mountain (12:15-1:15pm), Thunder Mountain (1:15-2:15pm) ( I LOVE BOOKING THESE TWO RIDES BACK TO BACK!) and Peter Pan's Flight (4:20-5:20pm).
So naturally, our very first stop was Space Mountain since we didn't have a FASTPASS. We got to the park at 9am after driving from Clearwater. We had about a 40 minute wait for Space Mountain which was our longest wait for the day. I knew I didn't want to FASTPASS rides like Dumbo or Little Mermaid, however these were rides the kids REALLY wanted to ride. So we did them FIRST thing before wait times increased!
We had a similar plan of attack for Hollywood Studio's on Thursday. We booked our FASTPASSES a little earlier in the day (10am) knowing we wanted to park hop LATER in the afternoon (we FASTPASSED Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania, and Frozen Sing-a-Long on Thursday). Nikki and Jonah rode Rockin' Roller Coaster and I took Jordan to get her face painted and to shop :)
4. Meet the Character's at the table. We knew with a trip so short we would be waiting in lines for rides regardless of our FASTPASS selections. It was inevitable! However, I knew I did NOT want to spend my time in character lines! Normally for a week long vacation I would be totally fine to wait in a 20 minute line to meet Ariel in her Grotto, but NOT when you are only there for 36 hours!
But don't worry, we got to meet Ariel! As well as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Jasmine, MICKEY, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald! I'd say 10 characters in 36 hours is pretty good!
How did we do this? Character Meals! Even though Character Meals are not my favorite FOOD selection at WDW Parks-- it's WELL worth the price to accomplish all these Character Greetings while also grabbing a meal (and forgo the long lines in the park!) We ate at
Cinderella's Royal Table in Magic Kingdom for a late lunch on Wednesday, and had an EARLY (7:30!!) Breakfast Thursday at
Chef Mickey's to meet the Fab Five! (bonus: this restaurant was in our hotel!).
We also ate at
Hollywood Brown Derby at Hollywood Studios for lunch, and
La Hacienda De Angel (Epcot, Mexico) for dinner. It was SO nice to pre book these reservations. The longest i waited for a meal was when i did NOT book a reservation! So make this a priority no matter how long you are visiting WDW. It is SO nice to sit down and enjoy a restaurant after many hours of walking, heat, and long lines!
5. Be flexible and go with the flow. Realize that with such a short trip there will be bumps in the road. And at times you might feel like how Jordan looks in this picture. :)
For instance, I had high hopes to watch the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday night. But towards early evening i knew there was NO WAY this would be a good idea. The kids were exhausted, I was tired, and I knew we had a super early morning planned the next day with our breakfast reservations. So instead, we opted to go to the hotel and swim in the evening.
It was SO nice and refreshing. And I was glad we had an opportunity to enjoy our hotel! Then we watch the fireworks from our hotel balcony public viewing area (another bonus of staying on the monorail loop).
Even though we weren't watching the fireworks from Main Street, we still were able to enjoy the show from afar. I have to say, the perspective of the fireworks outside of the park was pretty neat! It totally looked like they were above Space Mountain all night!
Roll with the punches! I realized that being flexible was the key to enjoying the day to the max.
I hope these tips give you a good idea of what it's like to visit (and conquer!) Disney in 36 short hours! It's totally possible! :)
Also, I have a
Document the Magic Class right now at Big Picture Classes. The first part of the class offers packing, planning, memory keeping tips, and many photography tips. The second portion of the class (coming this summer) is about putting your album together. Be sure to check it out!
