We Tried To Beat Spring Break Crowds With Lightning Lanes And It Mostly Worked

We share a mini trip report from our March 25th to March 28th Walt Disney World getaway with a split stay at Bay Lake Tower and Art of Animation. We break down what stressed us out, what totally made the trip, and the planning tools that helped us do a lot even during heavy crowds.
• spring break crowds and how they affect walking, shopping and quick-service seating
• why our accessible Finding Nemo suite layout felt off and what went wrong in the room
• Expedition Everest going down at rope drop and the tension of an unofficial line
• flight delays and how travel friction can hit a short trip
• extended evening hours at Magic Kingdom and the best late-night moments
• Lightning Lane strategy that helped us ride nearly everything
• how Wait Magic finds and modifies Lightning Lanes with less phone time
• why short one-on-one trips with your kids matter
• announcement of the new podcast Our Adventure Book
If you're enjoying the podcast, I would love if you would leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you know someone who's traveling to Disney soon, share the episode or share the show. Make sure to subscribe as well so you never miss a new episode.

If you are enjoying the podcast, I would love if you would leave me a five-star review on Spotify or Apple Podcast. Make sure you come back next Monday to hear all about that. If you want to take your own little Disney short trip, I would love to help you plan that.

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Transcript

Trip Format And Travel Details

Lowlights Start With Big Crowds

Art Of Animation Room Letdown

Everest Downtime And Line Tension

Flight Delays As Extra Friction

Extended Evening Hours Magic

Lightning Lane Strategy That Paid Off

Using Wait Magic To Optimize

Final Reflections And New Show

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Welcome to Disney Travel Tales. I'm your host, Jenny. Here we talk all things Disney destinations, be it the parks or cruises. If you love traveling to Disney or just dream about it, then you have found the podcast for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Before we get into today's episode, I just want to apologize for not having an episode drop last week. We left for Disney two weeks ago, Wednesday, like a week and a half ago. Anyways, I got pretty sick before we left. And so I had no voice. I could not record that episode before we left. And then once we got back in town, there just really wasn't enough turnaround time because we got in late Saturday due to a flight delay. So I do apologize. That episode was supposed to be like a deep dive into Epic Universe, just some general information and then our personal experience at Epic Universe, Universal's Newest Park. That episode will be next Monday. So definitely stay tuned for that. But this week I just wanted to go ahead and do a little mini trip report of our trip that we just took, since it's still fresh on my mind and since it's still pretty relevant. Before we get into that, if you're enjoying the podcast, I would love if you would leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This is the best way to support the show and just kind of get it out there for other people to listen. If you know someone who's traveling to Disney soon, share the episode or share the show. If you know people who love Disney but don't get to travel as often, I would just love if you would get the word out there and share the show. Make sure to subscribe as well so you never miss a new episode. Okay, so trip reports now on the podcast are going to look a little bit different just because I don't I'm moving away from the long format and I'm moving more towards highlights. So for our trip report, I am going to do separate episodes with really deep dives into the rooms that we stayed in and what we liked and disliked about our resorts. So this episode, I'm just going to do an overview and I'm going to do our three highlights of the trip and our three lowlights of the trip. I will start with the lowlights because I definitely don't want to end on a low point. So let's just go ahead and start. Before we get into that, I will say our trip dates were Wednesday, March 28th to Saturday. Oh, sorry, Wednesday, March 25th to Saturday, March 28th. We did a split stay, a stay at Bay Lake Tower, which is part of the contemporary resort for one night of the trip, and then we finished at Art of Animation at Finding Nemo Suite room for the second part of the trip. I have an annual pass. My daughter had a four-day park hopper ticket, and we did have the photo pass. We did not use dining plan on this trip, and we did you I did pre-purchase us lightning lanes for every day of our park, single pass and multi-pass. Okay, so our first low of the trip would be the crowds. I had a feeling it was going to be crowded. I just was a little bit surprised how crowded it was, which I don't really know why this caught me off guard, but this was probably one of the busiest times I have ever been to Disney. It was like walkways were so crowded you could hardly get around people. There were a lot of school groups I noticed, like giant school groups. And so when they were all together, they were kind of taking up a ton of space. I didn't really expect that if I'm going to be honest. I didn't really giant school groups took trips during spring break, which now I'm fully aware of that. So the crowds were definitely a downer. We did have lightning lanes, so the lines were not affected by the crowds. It was more so eating areas were just so packed you could not find a table. This would have been a great trip to do more table service restaurants because I do feel like these larger groups don't do those types of things. And just getting around, walking around the park, the stores, everything so intensely crowded. Okay, so our second low of the trip would be our room at Art of Animation. Now I will talk about this more when I do our deep dive at Art of Animation, but we had a finding Nemo suite, which I was really excited to stay in. I have stayed at Art of Animation before. I tend to not double stay at resorts, but my rule of thumb is if I do, I need to stay in a different type of room. So this is definitely a preferred room. The location was great, but our room, we were on the first floor, which I was like, okay, that's that's fine. We ended up getting put in a handicap accessible room, and the layout of the room was just not really comfortable for us. The couch and TV were kind of in a corner, almost like I joked it was in timeout. The table was by the window, which felt very strange. Typically, that's reversed in a standard room. The couch is by the window because you can like sit on the couch and look at the window. The bathroom setup was not nice. I don't know. It just was not great. Plus, on top of the layout just not really working for us. Oh, and because it was also a handicap room, every all like all the hangers and everything was very, very low. And the bed was really, really low to the ground, which is fantastic for a guest who needs those accommodations. But when you don't need those accommodations, it can kind of be annoying a little bit. I know for sure if I would have stayed at this in this room with my husband, he's 6'4, that bed would have been an issue because it was so low to the ground. It was almost on the ground. The bathroom. So I remember the last time we stayed here, the car suite, the bathroom, and the primary bedroom was so nice. This amazing walk-in shower, this huge counter with tons of storage. This bathroom was not like that. It had an old-style bathtub. It had a the counter had no storage because it was accessible to like a wheelchair to pull up under it. It just had a totally different vibe. We did not like it. And on top of all of that, the doors to the bathroom, we could not open and close. My daughter literally got stuck in the extra bathroom because there's two bathrooms. Because once she closed the door, she could not open it. I had to go pry the door open. So again, for someone who's handicapped, they wouldn't even be able to open these doors. It just felt really old and run down and did not have that magical feel that I was hoping for. So that room was a huge letdown for us. A third, our final low of the trip was Expedition Everest going down the morning we went to Animal Kingdom. And I know this is very like you cannot plan these things, but we on our last morning decided to go to Animal Kingdom just for the sole purpose to ride Expedition Everest and Flight of Passage. We were also going to Hollywood Studios later in the day. So I ended up buying our multipass for Hollywood Studios because those rides tend to have longer wait times and are harder to get on multi-pass. And since the only ride I would need it for at Animal Kingdom was Expedition Everest, I just told my daughter, we'll just rope drop that. It'll be no problem because it tends to not have too long of a line. Or we could even do single rider if she wanted to. We kind of got there in a sweet spot. It was like 7:15. So we got to go into the resort, hotel, guest entrance. We walked back to Everest and kind of noticed a long line of people. So I went ahead and checked the app and saw that it was down. So we're standing in this quote unquote line, and a cast member walks over and she's like, Everest is down. We're not sure when it's going to be open. And she only, I just want to note, she only came to the back of the line, and she said, This is not actually a line. This is a line that the guests have kind of set up on their own. So when the ride opens, anyone can just walk into the front. She's like, it is not going to be like follow this line. So we all from the back went kind of over to the front area where the entrance to the ride is and stood there. Well, this kind of upset some of the guests that were in line, which I can understand. So I feel like the cast member maybe should have told everyone, like, this isn't an official line. You can just kind of come in. So as the park got to opening time, the ride was still not open. It's it's starting to get a little bit more crowded over here. Guests are kind of starting to get loud. The people in the line were starting to get kind of upset. Like, we've been here, you know, we should be able to be the first ones on. And it was just getting very tense. And it was just a moment that felt tense for no reason. And I actually I hated it. I was like, part of me just wants to leave this area and go do fight of passage and then come back, and maybe it's things have calmed down. Like I hated the tension, but I also wasn't going to stand at the end of this really long line if I didn't need to. I don't know. It was just kind of a weird situation. So when they finally decided to open the line, one of the, I guess, senior cast members came over and he made an announcement. And he's like, when the ride opens, please do not trample people. I do not want a trampling of people. There is not going to be a single line that goes through. You know, everyone can just kind of come get into line, but please do not trample people. So then they open it and it was literally like people trampling people. Nobody listened. It was insane. And so I'm just like holding my daughter's hand. I'm like, do not let go of me. I do not want to get separated. We ended up getting through the line and pretty much walked onto the ride. So that was fine, but that whole just stressful moment felt so unnecessary. And I just, I hated it. I hated it so much. So those are probably the three biggest slowlights of the trip. Another lowlight that didn't have to do with Disney was our flight, both our flights were delayed. So our flight to Disney was delayed, which was annoying because whenever you're trying to get there and you can't get there on time, of course, you're just like, ah, I just want to be there. So that was frustrating. And then our flight leaving Orlando was delayed as well. And that one probably was the most annoying to me because I like make sure we get to the airport in plenty of time. And then we get there and we find out we're like an hour delayed. And I'm just like, ah, we could have stayed at the parks. But that was kind of another low light of the trip. I had nothing to actually do with Disney, but just the trip in general. So now that we are done with all that sadness, let's get to some happiness and talk about our highlights of the trip. So our number one highlight, and this was probably the best moment of the trip for both Amelia and I, was extended evening hours and Magic Kingdom on our first night. When we got to Magic Kingdom that evening, it was a little bit busy, but it wasn't too busy. I think it had rained earlier in the day, and so there weren't, you know, people had kind of left and not come back. Typically, I've I feel like the more popular extended evening hours have gotten at the parks, the less like, I don't know, if it's it's not as worth it because I've gone to extended evening hours and got to do like two rides because the lines really were so long or just could not really find a line to get into that was worth it. There was literally no one in the park. I like once the park kind of cleared out, there was nobody there. And so just so a little back information, when you stay extended or when you stay at a deluxe resort, you get extended evening hours, typically Monday nights at Epcot, Wednesday nights at Magic Kingdom, that can vary different times of year, but for the most part, that's what it is. And so in order to make sure you are a deluxe guest, when you walk up to a ride, they will scan your magic band. So it's really you can't get around the system. So it's pretty strict. So you really have to be a deluxe guest to be able to, you know, have access to this evening. Well, there was a point we were standing in Magic Kingdom and Tomorrowland, and there were like two people walking by. I just I was stunned. It was so fun. It's so fun being at the parks when there's not a lot of people there. I do think the majority of the people were in ride for in line for Tron and in line for Seven Dwarves, but I had purchased us single pass for those rides before the park closed, which I said I wasn't going to do, and I ended up doing because I have a I have a problem. I don't know what to say. So we had kind of already done those rides, so those were on our like list of things to do. We did Space Mountain, we did the Tamarlean Speedway. We what else did we do? We did Astro Orbiter, we got some food, and at that point, so we oh we walked over to do Tiana's, which was closed. I did not realize that it's closed during extended evening hours, so that was a bit of a bummer. We did Pirates and like an adventurlean, there was nobody. It was the craziest thing. So then we're like, okay, let's go to Haunted Mansion and then we'll just go ahead and leave. So extended evening hours are 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. It was getting pretty close to the 1 a.m. mark, and we, you know, we had just gotten there and I knew we were gonna be waking up early the next day. So we go over to Haunted Mansion. There was literally nobody there. They led us into the stretching room. There is one other couple in the stretching room with us. I'm not gonna lie, it was creepy. That was probably the creepiest haunted mansion experience I've ever had. I was actually like looking in my bag for something, and the cast member walked, was like snuck up next to me and didn't say a word. And my daughter kind of saw her, and I like looked up and saw her in the corner of my eye and just yelled. Like it was so funny. She totally scared me, but it was so much fun, and that was a great ride. There was nobody there. So that was just a really fun experience. Leaving the Liberty Square area, I turned around and took a picture. Nobody, not a single person on the bridge by the castle, not a single person walking around. So that was definitely probably our highlight of the trip, plus, definitely one of our biggest, biggest highs. Our second high was our lightning lane selections. So even though the parks were really crowded and there were these really, really large groups, the thing is a lot of times when people are traveling to Walt Disney World, especially in large group large groups, they either are not using lightning lanes or they don't even know about lightning lanes. This is a great reason to prepare yourself for your trip and to use a travel agent because they will help you with all of this. But, anyways, I ended up getting fantastic lightning lane options for us early in the day. And those were my pre-selected ones. And then when we went after we checked in and rode the lines, it was so easy to just go ahead and grab another lightning lane. It was actually quite shocking. And we ended up, like on our Magic Kingdom Day, we ended up doing almost every single ride. We did not do Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh just because my daughter didn't want to, but we pretty much did everything. Oh, and we didn't do the flying carpets of Aladdin because that was insanely packed or Jungle Cruise. We did everything else. So we were like ready to leave the park at around 4:30, which is crazy to think that we got to do all of that. Plus, we watched Carousella Progress and Mickey's Philhar Magic, so we saw shows and did rides. But the most shocking for me was when I went and purchased the Lightning Lanes for our last day or departure day. I purchased purchased it for Hollywood Studios. I was able to get Slinky Dog at 10 a.m. Yes. 10 a.m. Slinky Dog. That is insane. That's never happened before. There were actually earlier times available, but I just was like, we can't get there any earlier. So I got Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and Slinky Dog all before 12 o'clock. So that was definitely just the selections, the ease of getting the rides. We um on our Epcot Day, our first ride was Remy's since we were coming in through the International Gateway. After we checked into Remy's, I was able to get us a Frozen Ever After, which is crazy. Like you never get to get those two together. I also was able to get us a test track. So on our Epcot day, we had a lightning lane for Remy's test track and Frozen Ever After, Soren, Spaceship Earth, and the Weight Single Pass for Guardians. It was like we hit the jackpot. It was so so fantastic, so nice, which leads me to our third high of the trip, which assisted me in getting these lightning lanes, and that was using weight magic. I've used weight magic last October when we had a day at Disney and it worked really well. I I was happy with it. And then I used it for our trip in January. I used it a little bit less just because it was a girls' trip. We weren't super focused on rides. For this trip, weight magic was so, so worth it. I used it at Magic Kingdom to bump around our times. So what you do is you have to book your initial lightning lanes. Then if you want your times modified for your lightning lanes, you go into your Weight Magic account, you set up a trip. So this was just I put like March trip, and then they will go in and you just like write what line what ride you want modified, what you know do you want at an earlier time, a later time? They can also book new lightning lanes for you once your initial ones have been booked. So after we rode Remy's, I could not get test track or frozen. So what I did is I just created a new search in Weight Magic for Test Track and Frozen. I prioritized Test Track because that's the one we wanted to do more. And they're constantly looking for someone to drop one. And we're just going through the park doing our thing, and I get a text. Yes, weight magic got you a test track at this time. Then if you're happy with that time, you just keep it, stop the search, you're done. They can also modify the time. So our time was fine. I think it was like three o'clock, which we were totally happy with. And then after we rode another ride, I went in to try to get frozen. I couldn't get frozen. I set up a weight magic alert for frozen and it got me frozen. It was a much later time, so I did try to modify that to bring it up. It never could, but ultimately it was just such, it just worked so well for this trip for us. Over at Magic Kingdom, after we had rode Space Mountain, I tried to get a Tiana's and it was way, way, way later in the day. So I just went into Wait Magic. I asked it to bump Tiana's to an earlier time, and eventually it did. And it bumped it so early, so it just worked much better with our schedule overall. It's really easy to use, however, you do have to use it in your browser on your phone because they do not have an app, but they are not sponsored at all. I just love the service. It was really, it just kind of takes the stress away, and it never disappointed me. It always got us the rides that we wanted, the rides that we were looking for. It always changed our ride at times, and it just allowed me to enjoy the vacation and park overall without having to constantly be on my phone looking for that next ride, just seeing if it came up, see, you know, refreshing, refreshing, refreshing. I didn't have to worry about any of that. I just let them do that work and I just reaped the benefits and it was just it was great. It was fantastic. I highly recommend it. It will just make your trip a little bit less stressful, a little bit more streamlined, which, in my full opinion, when you go to Disney, the best thing you can do, the best thing you can do is just avoid stressful situations. Overall, we had a fantastic trip. We ate lots of really yummy food. We ate at some new places that I'm gonna talk about on different episodes. We watched some new shows. We watched The Beauty and the Beast show at Hollywood Studios, which I haven't seen, and we just had so much fun. It was such a great trip. We went back to our room early a couple of nights and swam in the pools. We watched movies together, and I just again I love these short trips. I love taking one-on-one trips with my kids and spending extra time with them because they are only getting older. Time is not slowing down, so you just really need to take advantage of these moments when you can. Okay, so I do have an exciting announcement. I have a new podcast coming out called Our Adventure Book. I am hosting it with my best travel buddy friend Eve, and this podcast is going to be really travel in general. It's gonna have a lot of Disney stuff, of course, but it's also just going to have general travel. Eve, between the two of us, me and Eve have traveled all over. We both have decently sized families and that love to travel. And our first episode is dropping on Wednesday. So make sure that you subscribe to it and listen to it. We talk about how we became friends and how our love of travel developed at the same time. And that was planning our own Disney trips together. So we went at the same time but separately, but we did plan this together. So make sure that you, wherever you listen to podcasts, you subscribe. This podcast is also going to be on a video format. So you can find it on YouTube on video if you want to see us chatting with each other. I'm sure the first episodes are going to be a little bit rocky with the video because we are getting used to it. However, we already recorded the first episode. It went pretty well. So I would love if you headed over there and supported that show as well. Next Monday, I will be back with the Epic Universe episode, which I'm super excited to talk about. Make sure you are following me on Facebook at Vacations with Jenny. And until next time, may all your Disney travel dreams become a reality.