Let me start by saying this post is for people that have never been to Disney World or who don’t go often or at busy times of the year because I had a hard time finding this information. Also some info on Caribbean Beach Resort if you’ve never stayed there at the end. This is probably not for people who go to Disney all the time, you will be thinking this is stuff you already knew. But if you still want to read on, enjoy.
Our previous trips to The World were off season in September. So when we decided to try going during the kids winter break during Presidents Week in February it added a bit of stress! I was worried about the crowds being completely crazy.
Let me start by saying September is a fantastic time to go if you have little kids not in school yet and you aren’t a teacher yourself. Yes, even though its hurricane season. Our first trip was in 2017, we were there for Irma and fyi, Disney hotels are the safest place to ride out a hurricane. Tons of locals even stay there. They send characters to the hotels to meet and play while the parks are closed, its great. The heat and humidity can be awful though.
Anyways, back to February! It can come with it’s own set of challenges. Whether you are driving or flying, if you live North snow storms can be a nuisance. We got lucky and the day we drove down (from Western NY) was just between a string of storms. And Florida is not immune to the cold, as much as us Northerners would like to believe. Our last day was a high of 63… seems decent right? Sure, in the middle of the day it was great. However while waiting for the skyliner to open first thing in the morning when its 50 and wind is blowing across the lake, or at night when Slinky Dog is your last ride and you’re bundled in your winter coat, its chilly! And we were lucky enough to miss the deep freeze when Orlando had highs in the 40’s by a couple of weeks. I think our family agreed that the couple of cooler days we had were way more enjoyable than when we had 95 degrees with a heat index of 112 in September! We would definitely go in February again!
As far as crowds go… yes it was busier in the middle of each day. The wait times were a bit longer in the middle of the day as well. I will say the best way to combat this is 1. Rope Drop and 2. Naps. 3. Lightning Lanes.
- Rope Drop means more than just being in line when the park opens. It means staying at a Disney Hotel to take advantage of Early Entry. It means getting up at crazy times to get your family ready to stand in line for the skyliner or to get on the first bus of the day, just to stand in line again to get into the park, to stand in line again when you get to the ride. BUT once the park opens and its 9:05 at Hollywood Studios and you have already ridden Rise and Millennium Falcon and you are walking towards Star Tours and you see a massive line of people who aren’t allowed early entry and you’re on your way to your third ride when they are being escorted to wait in an hour long ride for their first??!! Worth it. I’m still kicking myself for not turning my family around to get back on Rise for a second time when we saw that crazy line walking towards us.
- Naps - When we took our first trip to Disney I bought a book called The Unofficial Guide to Disney World
and it suggested for families with small kids to stick to their nap time. My kids were 2 and 7, so we did. Even though we were at Art of Animation before the skyliner and had to bus everywhere. Every day, we went back for a nap. And it didn’t take away from our trip at all. Fast forward 7 years and my kids are 9 and 14 and YES we still nap! They hate the sound of nap, so its always, you don’t have to nap, just try to rest and if you can’t sleep we are just resting our feet. And guess what within minutes they were both asleep! What does napping do for us? It gets us out of the park at the busiest, hotttest time of the day. It rests our feet and gives us the stamina to last until the park closes. Cause we only have the energy to go all day the first day. After that a nap is essential for us. - Lightning Lanes- When we went in September #1 it was just fast passes. September #2 was Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes, we did buy Genie+ but we did not buy any ILLs. This time we bought both Multipass and Single Pass. I was worried if we didn’t we wouldn’t get to ride our favorites. Was it necessary? Meh… (imagine my hand wobbling in the air). Would I do it again? Absolutely. Let me go ride by ride, because in 5 years when someone is reading this the information could be useful. Tron- Standby for this just started a couple of months ago, its not included in Rope Drop (Come on Disney, really??), its one of our favorites. So in a couple of years when Disney is less stupid and includes it in Rope Drop, when it’s not “new” anymore would I still buy the Single Pass? Possibly. If it ends up like Rise, where its 5 years old and lines are still over 2 hours during the day. Tiana- was surprisingly enjoyable. Not sure why there are so many Debbie Downers about this refresh. We all enjoyed it more than expected. Would I buy Single Pass for it again? Probably not. Maybe because it was just a refresh or because reviews are so low or because we happened to get in line at the right time, the standby line (with VQ which is gone now, a week later) was not bad. Not like Rise/Slinky Dog, Tron, or even Avatar. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train- Yes, because it goes down so much and it is a family favorite. So we Rope Drop this and I would buy the Single Pass unless we are going during a Party, at which point the ability to ride a few times with less line is higher. Guardians of the Galaxy - at this point yes. Because it is my families favorite, even though I don’t care for dark roller coasters. The standby line is looking like it will be exactly like Rise. Avatar Flight of Passage, yes because it is one of our favorites and never lasts long enough and the standby line is still crazy long. Slinky Dog, same. Yes because the line is insane and it is a family favorite. Which brings me to Rise of the Resistance. Our absolute favorite. So absolutely yes. Even if we get a chance to go off season again. Because it wasn’t there our first trip. We happened to rope drop it our second trip and rode it three times that day because YES IT IS THE BEST RIDE AT DISNEY WORLD. For those who have not ridden it yet (because really you’re the reason I’m writing this) Rise is not just a ride. It is an experience. When it is functioning properly, there are two pre-shows, one being a gentle simulator. Then it is a trackless roller coaster, which is awesome. The set is so cool, its like being in the movie. And this is coming from a very mild Star Wars fan. If you have anyone in your family that is a true fan of Star Wars they will be obsessed with this ride. Yes buy the Single Pass. Especially if you are not going to Rope Drop.
Side Note: For all of my ranting about Rope Drop and I will say again it is super helpful… it is not make or break. This past week was sorta disastrous, both kids had a growth spurt so their legs were more painful than normally would be and my daughter ended up sick. None of us were feeling it by day 5. I usually plan three days in the park, the first a whole day, second at Epcot or AK because its shorter or else a nap day and the third is a nap day then a day off, then the other short day and the last day is a nap day and if it happens to be a Halloween party we do that, so are in the park until midnight. This trip we had MK first, Epcot (we ride, we don’t explore, so no world traveling and still had more steps logged than other parks so I think I have to reevaluate this next time) then HS, and a day off. AK and another day at HS ended the plans. So Wednesday night rolls around and no one wants to live anymore. So we decided since I had bought single pass for Avatar, which is our Rope Drop Ride that we would skip Rope Drop. We were still able to ride Everest, Dinosaur and Safari TWICE EACH, rode both Pandora rides, and It’s Tough to be a Bug and we saw Festival of the Lion King. So NO you don’t have to Rope Drop, however, that was AK, if it had been HS, I don’t know if we would have gotten everything in we wanted to. Also if we didn’t have multipass lightning lanes, that would have prevented us from riding some twice.
Our Hotels: For reference our first stay was at Art of Animation (AoA), our second stay was at the Polynesian Resort (Poly), this time around we stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort (CBR).
Let me start by saying we really liked and enjoyed each of these Resorts, for different reasons.
- AoA we had a Finding Nemo Suite- yes worth the money. Closer to pool, skyliner and busses, and main building. When it comes to end of the night your feet will be thanking you not to have to walk to the Little Mermaid buildings. Also let me tell you when its 90+ and you have 4-5 people all wanting to take showers before falling into bed and you have TWO??!! Soooooo worth it. Not having two showers has been my husband’s #1 complaint the past two trips. He actually asked me at the end of this past trip, don’t other Resorts have the suites with two showers. He’s so funny. How much does he want to spend here? Oh, something I just remembered about AoA, people complain about the noise from the pool. We requested a room away from the pool and brought a fan and never heard anything. My son slept thru Irma, had no idea it was happening at all.
- Poly we had a Park View room to watch the fireworks. My kids loved being able to see the park, but only watched the fireworks the first night there. I would absolutely stay here again (can you say Tonga Toast). But I would just get a basic view. This resort really makes you feel like you are in the tropics. Being able to take a boat to Magic Kingdom was great. And I’m not talking about the ferry from the TTC, this resort has little boats to take. My kids loved it as well as the Monorail. People complain about the horn from the ferry being too loud. We always take a fan (if you’re flying the resort did offer one to us, and I have a friend that used to buy one and have it sent to the resort to guarantee that she would have one. She would leave it there when she flew home). We were never bothered by the horns from the ferry and honestly fireworks and the music from the water parade was louder and I worried it would bother my son even with the fan and it didn’t. My biggest complaint here was that I picked a room so far from everything in trying to ensure a quieter stay. We were in Tuvalu, which again at the end of the night our feet were not thanking us for. Maybe if it hadn’t been 112 degree heat index it wouldn’t have been so bad… but you can definitely enjoy this resort from a room closer to transportation. Also most rooms are far from the parking lot. And yes, you get a luggage cart, but the staff gives poor directions and you’re trekking thru a crowded restaurant with your personal belongings hanging all over the place. Not an enjoyable experience. The alternative is to go thru a small hallway with a line for another crowded restaurant. We saw many families doing this, and felt their pain. It just isn’t a good setup in general. We did find a path to the parking lot but it’s nowhere near the main entrance, which is where the luggage carts are.
- CBR- We were in Building 43 in Jamaica. It was an absolutely perfect location. Not far from the main building, maybe 5 minutes? I didn’t time it, but it wasn’t far. It was so close to the Skyliner and the bus stop. Speaking of bus stops… in the morning hours, I think she said until 11am, this is a FIRST bus stop. Meaning it does not stop at Port Royale or Trinidad or anywhere else first. The bus is empty when it pulls up, unless it has people getting off in Aruba. Also this Resort has Ice Machines that you can get water or any Coke products from. Plus we were so close to the parking lot. We walked by our car every time we went to the skyliner or bus. Which other drivers can appreciate, for the flyers who don’t know, trust me it helps when making trips from the car to pack or unpack! People complain about distance here, which I can see if you don’t want a room in Jamaica. So I would definitely recommend asking for a room there. When there I was shocked I hadn’t heard any complaints before going about noise. First the fireworks from Epcot as well as Fantasmic, they are all very loud. But honestly I was shocked you can hear the skyliner! It kinda groans/whines when it has been stopped and starts moving again. Which runs until midnight some nights and they start warming it up in the mornings at least by 6am. Again, our trusty fan makes enough noise it didn’t bother anyone, but I could still hear it, so without a fan or some type of white noise machine, you will be hearing it. Not that it should wake anyone, but it is annoying to listen to. Speaking of the fan again, CBR has a ceiling fan in the room, which made me a bit surprised that Poly didn’t! Bonus point to CBR. After staying at Poly, I really didn’t think anything else could measure up, but CBR was still very nice, had it’s own perks and way cheaper.
I would stay at any of these hotels again, except I’m too curious and want to try out others. Each Resort has it’s own advantages and disadvantages. None of them can be perfect. Also notice I didn’t mention food much. My children are super picky (honestly so am I but not quite as bad), so proximity to restaurants isn’t a big deal. We all loved Kona Cafe at Poly, so I booked a breakfast there again on this trip and we drove over. Also, Pizza Hut delivers to CBR at least, others I would assume as well, so for other Pizza Hut lovers who live in areas they have all closed like we do, there is that.
I hope this post helps someone in the future. I had some serious anxiety about being able to get everything done we are used to, and I just couldn’t find answers. Just know that you have to make decisions that are right for your family and that won’t be the same as what was right for mine. And whatever you choose your trip will be magical!
Edited to add: Now that I’ve gone at a busy time of year I think I would be brave enough to try Spring Break and even Thanksgiving! So don’t be scared of crowd size unless you want to go for Christmas/New Year’s Eve.
Edited Again to add: If you are going during a busy time of year I suggest using the Lines App. It helped us a lot!
