I’m in the very early planning stages in the trip I will take in the spring with my mom. My mom LOVES to garden so about 8 years ago (when things were great financially, or at least I THOUGHT they were, haha), I decided that I wanted to take my mom to Epcot for the Flower and Garden festival and do a Mom/Brooke weekend for her birthday/Mother’s Day present. So, I booked the room, using some of our DVC points, and planned the trip. Mom did pay for her own airfare (Things weren’t THAT great, unfortunately) but that first year, I did the hotel and the tickets. She did her airfare and some of the meals. I planned everything. We had so much fun that we did it for the next two years. The year of the wedding, we didn’t do it because we were both saving money for the wedding stuff, and because Frank and I were going in May already for our wedding planning and food tasting trip. The year after the wedding, it just wasn’t financially feasible, and well, that’s been the story for the last couple years as well. BUT things are finally getting better, and I think if I plan ahead, like I did for our anniversary trip this fall, and work a little extra here and there, I can swing it this year. Mom is totally up for it, and fortunately, is willing to cover her airfare, her ticket and some meals. Since I decided to go the annual pass route for the November anniversary trip, I’ll already have my ticket, so I just have to figure out my airfare and food. And of course, spending money because let’s face it…no way am I going to Disney and NOT buying some souvenirs!
With DVC, you can book reservations at your “Home” resort (the resort where you actually own your points…in our case Bay Lake Tower) 11 months out from your arrival date. You can’t book a room anywhere else until 7 months out from your arrival date. When I go with mom, we stay at Old Key West. The studios at Old Key West are the largest, and always have 2 beds, which makes them ideal for us. Extra room to spread out and gives her a LITTLE space from me (I snore ☹). Old Key West studios also cost the lowest amount of points per night, so we can stay more nights for fewer points than when I book a stay at Bay Lake Tower.
When I go with mom, Epcot is the MAIN attraction, although I always drag her through several parks anyways. But Epcot is the primary reason for the trip. Now that I have a more normal work situation, I’m really looking forward to taking a slightly longer trip with her than we’ve done in the past… The last time we went, we flew down on a Friday afternoon and had to fly home at the crack of dawn on Monday, because I just couldn’t take more time off work than that. Previous trips were a LITTLE longer, going down Thursday night, but still coming home early Monday. For this trip, I’m thinking about going down on Wednesday, morning hopefully and coming home Monday night. I also want to plan TWO Epcot days in there, so we can maybe attend some of the seminars or special tours offered during Flower and Garden.
Choosing Dates
Flower and Garden Festival usually runs from March 1 through Memorial Day. Disney hasn’t officially announced the dates for 2018, but I feel pretty secure in that window. In the past, we’ve planned for late April or early May, trying to see the Festival at it’s peak, and, avoiding as much as possible, spring break crowds.
I decided to look at the first two weekends in May as our target. The second weekend includes Mom’s birthday AND Mother’s Day and while that would be perfect from a celebration standpoint, it’s not really fair to steal her away from my step-dad and my brothers and their families for that weekend, so I was hoping that first weekend would work. I checked the Crowd Calendar predictions at Touringplans.com and predicted crowd levels are fairly light Wednesday through Friday, moving to 6’s and 7’s for the weekend, which is fairly good. Disney rarely has light days or slow periods anymore, so while I would LOVE for every day to be a 2 – 3, I consider myself lucky to have 4’s – 6’s. I then checked availability at Old Key West for those dates. Because it’s an older resort, it doesn’t have the popularity that some of the newer, “sexier” resorts have, like the Villas at the Polynesian resort or the Grand Floridian, so it’s generally fairly easy to get reservations there—at least during non-peak times. Currently, the dates we want are available. Of course, that could change between now and when my booking window opens…remember, I can’t reserve the room until 7 months out. With an arrival date of May 2, that means I can’t book until October 2. SO…bottom line…Have noted on my calendar on October 2 to remind me to book the reservation. Also, I made notes on December 3 and March 3 to note when I can make dining reservations and Fast Pass Plus reservations for our trip. Time for both Mom and I to start saving! I won’t be able to save much until after Christmas, but it really helps to have a trip planned and (sort of) scheduled. I do much better when I have a concrete GOAL to shoot for, know what I mean?
At any rate, you will be hearing lots more about this trip as time goes on…
Happy Dreaming!
Brooke