Re-scheduling April trip

#1

Last February (before Covid), I booked a room at BC for this April spring break. When they opened reservations for 2021, I canceled my reservation and rebooked with a TA. The whole planning really got me through last spring. Now it’s approaching and we aren’t feeling comfortable since we all won’t be vaccinated. When they opened 2022 reservations I got that feeling again and we are not going to cancel April, but just move it to next February. We don’t know when we will all be vaccinated so I don’t want to move it to the summer and I am petrified to go during major holidays. So with this decision I went back to the drawing board. I want to sketch out how I think I want our vacation to go before asking for quotes. My deposit for my current trip will be the deposit for February trip. So here is the scenario I would like input on.

We would prefer close proximity to as many parks as possible. DH has been working his butt off this whole year and deserves a relaxing-ish vacation. Instead of doing 6 days at one hotel, I think I want to try a split stay.

Arrive on Presidents Day - our last trip we took first flight out and hit MK and had Chef Mickeys. This was exhausting so that is experience learned. So fly in and have a resort day at Poly, dinner at Captain Cooks or another QS at nearby resort.
Tuesday - MK
Wednesday - arrange for transfer to BC and go to AK - maybe have Ohana that night and either take monorail or uber to BC after dinner - or have dinner at AK and uber to BC.
Thursday-HS
Friday-EP
Saturday-HS (if it’s super busy, that is ok because we already had a day there and we could go back to the pool as that is why we are paying $$$ is to enjoy the resorts also)
Sunday - depart.

Now if we start off at BC and do Poly last we would do AK on Saturday. but we would have to transfer on our MK day, Friday which would kind of stink. I don’t want to do MK on Saturday. From the price standpoint this is a better option, but I think I like the other option as we would have more resort time at Poly in the beginning rather than end.

I need to definitely get some quotes but I think that this is where we are now. Trying to be positive about not going in April. Went onto VRBO last night and booked a beach vacation for this summer to ease some of the pain.

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#2

I know next year isn’t the confluence of Presidents’ Week and Mardi Gras this year was, but it was EXTREMELY packed this week this year. Just so you’re aware for planning purposes.

#3

Thanks for pointing that out. I did check the dates out. Next year both Easter and Passover are during our April break so we can’t go then either. I am hoping since President’s day is so late in February (last week) and Mardi Gras the week before, people would go the week before and fly home Monday. At least this isn’t our one and only trip anymore and if the kids just want to do four rides and go back and relax at the pool, we’ll be okay with that, and being close means they can take monorail from MK to Poly or walk from EP or HS. This is what I am hoping for at least. It’s so hard to tell with it being so far away. I wish we could go in April but DH isn’t on board anymore because he’ll be the only one vaccinated.

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#4

Have you gone during February (President’s Day) break before? Is it usually jammed pack? I wonder how much Mardi Gras influences the crowds also. That may be something to think about. I really don’t want to wait until 2023.

#5

FWIW, I felt completely safe this past week while there.

I have gone before. A lot depends on when Mardi Gras is, but it’s generally fairly busy. One year we went as an all-adult family and it happened to be the year that a lot of places had school budget issues and faculty had to take furlough weeks, many of which seemed to coincide with Presidents’ Week.

It’s generally not Christmas/New Year’s crowded, but this year it felt VERY similar to the pictures I saw of the week between Christmas 2020 and New Year’s.

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#6

If it was just me, I probably would go, but we have been really strict with quarantining this whole year so hard to de-rail from what we have been doing. Although I also feel we need to figure out how to continue to live with this thing. The thing that is getting us is we know two long haulers so we need more time to figure things out. We haven’t eaten at a restaurant even though that has been an option for awhile now.

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#7

You are describing my family. We have 3 households planning an April trip 2021. None of us have been in a restaurant, none of us have been on a plane, in an airport in the past year. I have not seen my daughter’s family since January 2020. Only 2 of us will have had the vaccine in time for this trip.
We have a backup trip for mid May. Not sure what we are going to do.

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#8

It’s so hard. Especially with all the successful trips we’ve seen via trip reports, I just can’t pull the trigger for the whole family. DH is high risk, he’ll be vaccinated. I have an autoimmune and there isn’t much out there on how I would react if I got Covid, and I don’t want to know. I have hard enough days as it is. If it was just me I could deal with it, but I still have my kids to think about. I definitely don’t want them to get it even though they are lower risk. Next year I think we will know more and we will be vaccinated. I wish we could do a sooner trip, but I just really need us all vaccinated at this point. DS is in high school and really can’t be taken out to miss any days as we did a few years ago.
I did discuss with DH that it may be super busy and he is still on board as long as we are vaccinated and things are better or they are still using the safety measures they are now. Can’t predicts the future.

Good luck with your decision. Does your family live in other states and you are all meeting up? Whatever you do, I hope you can all decide together. Covid stinks!

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#9

April hasn’t worked for us the last few years so we have gone PresIdent’s week (this April I had a trip booked too).

President’s week is busy- not unmanageable busy, not Easter busy, but 7-8 busy. A good plan will work!

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#10

It would be me, DH, coming from WA, our adult DS, also in WA but his own house, and our adult DD, DSiL, our 2 DGDs who will be 5 and 2 coming from PA. The other adults were more concerned about me and DH, but we should get our 2nd dose next week if all goes as planned. No one will give me a definite answer for April. There is a chance that my DD could be vaccinated for May.
I could not handle it if anyone got covid on the trip.
DGD starts school this fall and DD and DSIL have no intention of having her miss school. This spring is our last chance to go when it is not school vacation crowds.
I want to cancel April before paying the balance if we aren’t going, so in 2 weeks.

#11

Thank you. I was hoping you would respond as I thought you had experience going the week we are planning. 7/8 I can manage, I think. I guess we will book it and I will see how things are Christmas and MLK weekends.

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#12

That’s a lot of coordinating. That is a big fear of mine if someone got Covid on the trip and we couldn’t get home. I understand not taking DGD out of school as I was the same way, until we in fact planned our trip. After all was said and done, I wish we had done it more when they were little, even though I know we couldn’t since DS was always coming down with some kind of virus. I’ll be keeping an eye on your plans. Since you’ll be vaccinated, I hope you get to go!

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