Last-minute and Low-key—March 2017 Trip Report
Who: Me—45, WDW obsessed; DH—46, not obsessed but always happy to tag along
When: Tuesday, 3/14- Sunday, 3/19
Where: All-Star Music (first stay here)

Pre-Trip

DH and I had been debating for some time about whether or not we wanted to go somewhere for my spring break (I teach at our local community college). I hemmed and hawed, debated and declined, finally deciding that I did not want to spend the money, and I would rather just stay home and relax for the week.
Well, you all know how insistent that Disney bug can be, so five weeks before my spring break, I just thought, “I want to go to Disney World!” I called my DH to get started on our airline reservations, and I got the ball rolling with Melissa at Magical Journeys.

Since it was so last-minute, there were slim pickings for hotels, so we decided to try an All-Star since we wanted to keep costs down and had never stayed at one before. We had some frequent flyer miles to use, so that helped keep airfare reasonable, and I had about 275 Disney Reward Dollars to go toward food.

Everything was squared away quickly, and now we had a trip to look forward to in just five short weeks!

One problem I did run into was booking dining and fastpasses. I had tried to get into Be Our Guest for our June trip last summer, booking 180 days out, with no success. I knew there would be no way I would get in this time on such short notice, so we decided that our one sit-down meal would be at the Liberty Tree Tavern, which I booked pretty easily. I kept checking on dining openings, though, just in case. Lo and behold a very late (9:30p) dinner opened up at Be Our Guest, so I switched to that. I had really wanted a lunch ressie, but this would work. Late, but, who cares? We always seem to eat at off times when we are there anyway.

Just because I like to put my Type-A, obsessive personality to good use, I kept checking out dining options over the next couple of weeks. To my great surprise one day, an 11:00a Be Our Guest lunch ressie came up, so I was able to get what I wanted after all!

Fastpasses also worked out surprisingly well, considering I made them at about the 30-day mark, rather than the 60-day. I was able to get everything I really wanted except for Frozen and SDMT, but with some luck and good timing, we were able to enjoy both without a FP.

I decided to take a bit of a gamble this trip regarding how I booked our FP+. We are really disciplined about getting to the parks early and planned to park hop this trip (if you read my last June trip report, you will know that I really regretted not having park hoppers!), so I booked most of our fastpasses for our late afternoon/evening park. This worked beautifully for us! We were able to experience many rides and shows before 11a with short waits, take a break back at our hotel in early afternoon, and then use our fastpasses later in the day. I was even able to book a 4th or 5th one after the first 3 were used.

Thankfully, the five weeks went by relatively quickly as we finished things at work and prepared to leave on Monday, 3/13 for Denver to spend the night with my parents and then fly out early in the morning. I didn’t take notes or keep very good track of the specifics, but I do have some overall observations and stories to share in Part 2 of my report. Stay tuned!