In October and November, I had read some reports about how small the crowds at Disney World were and that there were some good discounts. We weren't ready to travel then and I didn't considered a trip after that. After the New Year, my wife was talking to a coworker who had been to Disney World over Winter Break and she raved about how great it was. We are more on the conservative side of dealing with the pandemic so we had a lot of trouble visualizing ourselves traveling. Lisa's coworker has a similar stance on COVID-19 and found that their trip fit all of her concerns and she said Disney was taking all necessary precautions to keep everyone safe. This really caught our attention.
Lisa contracted COVID in the middle of January. All four of us quarantined in our house for 4 days with Lisa isolated to our bedroom the entire time. This really tested us. To all of our surprise, we made it through and the kids were great. I couldn't believe how great they were and Lisa was shocked at how much more laughing than yelling was coming from the rest of the house.
After talking to Lisa's coworker and being cooped up at home, we needed to get out of the house. So we looked into going to Disney World. We couldn't go to Disneyland since it was still closed, but we wanted to go to a Disney resort.
When and Length of Stay:
When and Length of Stay was decided based on our accommodations (more on that later). We landed on the second week of February 2021. We booked the trip 3 weeks before our trip. This was a very short turnaround and it was really strange after we made the decision I'm pretty sure I was in denial. Generally after we decide to go on a Disney trip it is 4-6 months in advance, sometimes 11 months. My excitement doesn't kick in until about 3 weeks before.
When and Length of Stay was decided based on our accommodations (more on that later). We landed on the second week of February 2021. We booked the trip 3 weeks before our trip. This was a very short turnaround and it was really strange after we made the decision I'm pretty sure I was in denial. Generally after we decide to go on a Disney trip it is 4-6 months in advance, sometimes 11 months. My excitement doesn't kick in until about 3 weeks before.
I read a report that January was pretty slow at Disney World and the crowd calendars were showing the week we picked should be slow as well.
Since park hopping restarted, it is different than the original park hopper and is not a great option. We decided on 1 park per day tickets. This made it a little tricky to determine how long to go. We settled on 7 days, 6 nights. This gives us 6 days in the parks, which allows us to double up on 2 parks.
Transportation:
I found really good airfare on Southwest, even with decent times. This worked out well. I also had travel funds from a canceled trip so my airfare was paid and Lisa used points on half of her roundtrip ticket. We ended up only paying about half of the total airfare. They were both non-stop and the flight is about an hour less than LAX so we hope this will help the kids on the flight.
I found really good airfare on Southwest, even with decent times. This worked out well. I also had travel funds from a canceled trip so my airfare was paid and Lisa used points on half of her roundtrip ticket. We ended up only paying about half of the total airfare. They were both non-stop and the flight is about an hour less than LAX so we hope this will help the kids on the flight.
Disney World is still offering their Magical Express transfer to and from the airport (it is ending at the end of 2021). This is a huge factor in deciding to stay on property. Since it is included with the hotel reservation, we don't have to rent a car and figure out car seats for the kids.
Accommodations:
The hotel choice was the key determining factor in this trip. This is the largest expense of the trip so we were looking for the best deal. I follow several DVC Rental websites and there were some great discounts on renting points. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a combination of correct time of year, length of stay and preferred resort with the discounted price. I then looked at Marriott properties. There were some good prices, but these hotels are all off Disney property and we would be on our own for transportation. Then I looked at the Swan and Dolphin. There were some attractive prices and we love the location, but we weren't sure about airport transfers. They are not part of the Magical Express so we would have had to figure out transfers with car seats, which brought us back to Disney resorts. I decided to look at booking direct through Disney. There were some decent prices through Disney, but then I remembered I got an email from our Disney Visa card that said there was a special discount for Disney Visa cardholders. We found the link to the Disney Visa card discounts and they were really good. We found a couple options that we liked that were cheaper than renting DVC points. We ended up booking the Contemporary Resort. It is in the garden wing, but the discount was under $300 per night. That is a great rate for the Contemporary and this was one of my favorite hotels when I was a kid. When I found this rate, it made it very hard for us not to go. We went back and forth for several days finally deciding to do it.
Food:
Dining was going to be very different. Historically we have eaten at a lot of sit down meals at Disney World. Not only were they not all open, but we had avoided eating in a restaurant for almost a year. Our plan is to eat at mostly mobile order quick service restaurants. This will help cut costs as well. This really doesn't bother us too much because we have been used to carry-out since the pandemic started.
The hotel choice was the key determining factor in this trip. This is the largest expense of the trip so we were looking for the best deal. I follow several DVC Rental websites and there were some great discounts on renting points. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a combination of correct time of year, length of stay and preferred resort with the discounted price. I then looked at Marriott properties. There were some good prices, but these hotels are all off Disney property and we would be on our own for transportation. Then I looked at the Swan and Dolphin. There were some attractive prices and we love the location, but we weren't sure about airport transfers. They are not part of the Magical Express so we would have had to figure out transfers with car seats, which brought us back to Disney resorts. I decided to look at booking direct through Disney. There were some decent prices through Disney, but then I remembered I got an email from our Disney Visa card that said there was a special discount for Disney Visa cardholders. We found the link to the Disney Visa card discounts and they were really good. We found a couple options that we liked that were cheaper than renting DVC points. We ended up booking the Contemporary Resort. It is in the garden wing, but the discount was under $300 per night. That is a great rate for the Contemporary and this was one of my favorite hotels when I was a kid. When I found this rate, it made it very hard for us not to go. We went back and forth for several days finally deciding to do it.
Dining was going to be very different. Historically we have eaten at a lot of sit down meals at Disney World. Not only were they not all open, but we had avoided eating in a restaurant for almost a year. Our plan is to eat at mostly mobile order quick service restaurants. This will help cut costs as well. This really doesn't bother us too much because we have been used to carry-out since the pandemic started.
Entertainment:
We opted for a 6 day single park ticket. Disney did restart park hopping, but it is different allowing guests to hop to a different park after 2:00pm. With park hours shortened, this did not interest us. In 6 days, I decided on this schedule:
Day 1 - Flight and EPCOT
Day 2 - Magic Kingdom
Day 3 - Hollywood Studios
Day 4 - Animal Kingdom
Day 5 - Hollywood Studios
Day 6 - Magic Kingdom
Day 7 - Disney Springs and Fly Home
I wanted to have 2 days in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The Studios has the most new attractions and you can't just have 1 day at the Magic Kingdom. EPCOT is mostly under construction so I don't think we need a full day. Animal Kingdom does have Pandora, which I would like to see, but not a lot else since most shows around the 4 parks are closed.
Final Thoughts:
We booked the trip the night before we went to my parents' house for dinner for my dad and brother's birthday. I mentioned to them that we booked a trip to Disney World and they all wanted to go. Within the next couple days, they all booked and the trip became a full Holk family vacation.
The weekend after we booked, we all got together for dinner. None of the kids knew about the trip, so we surprised the kids all together. It was the best surprise. The kids went nuts. My oldest niece did not believe us. They got so emotional that they couldn't control themselves. My nephew son shutdown for a while and then ended up crying because he was so excited. It was great to see their reaction and excitement.
We are so excited to see Grady on this trip. He has grown up a lot since our last trip and is much more animated and emotional now. Ellie has become an old pro at Disney vacations. She does not remember going to Disney World when she was 14 months old so she is extremely excited to see Disney World compared to Disneyland. After we booked and surprised them, I started watching some ride videos with my kids and they are super excited. The night before we left, my daughter was so excited that she couldn't sleep.
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