How to Plan A Disney Vacation to Avoid Crowds at Peak Times

November 5, 2014InACents Leave a comment

Our family had a big gala at Walt Disney World this past summer to celebrate my father-in-laws 60th birthday! The unfortunate part is that due to our work schedules, as well as the kids schooling, we could only travel to the parks during the peak summer travel months. This meant traveling when everyone else was also going, which meant higher crowds. So with some simple planning, our family attempted to divert the crowds while visiting the Disney World theme parks.

1) Disney releases the park hours approximately 6 months in advance. So the first step our family takes is to evaluate which days the parks will have Extra Magic Hours. For those that may not know, on select days certain parks may be open earlier or later than normal for guests who stay in a Disney resort. So for example, on certain days you may be able to go to the Magic Kingdom an hour earlier than normal and/or they may stay open several hours later at night. The next day, maybe Epcot has extended hours.

So the key is to determine which parks will have Extra Magic Hours on which day(s). Looking at the Disney park schedule, we can get a good idea of what parks are typically open longer on which days, even if the schedule is not loaded yet for your trip.

For example, while I can not see the calendar out to next summer yet, I can get a rough idea of the schedule based on the preceding months. If I want to know which park will have Extra Magic Hours on a Monday, I can simply look at all of the Mondays that have been released. The method is far from perfect because just as soon as you think you have the schedule figured out, the next week it is totally different. However, you could probably make some good assumptions on the schedule to get you going on the planning stage.

With the Extra Magic Hours days selected, we try and select a park that will not be where the crowd masses go. If everyone goes to the Magic Kingdom, we are headed to Epcot. So plan accordingly and go where there are not Extra Magic Hours.

2) The next step is to start planning your dining reservations, which can be reserved 180 days in advance of your trip. With our park plans in line, we then select where we want to eat. With our dining options selected, we then count back 180 days from that day and schedule a reminder to call and make our reservation on that day.

Guests who stay at a Disney property get to call 180 days in advance of their trip, but can schedule 10 days of their trip. Our family does not stay at a Disney Resort, and elects to save money by staying at the Downtown Disney area hotels.

Ideally, we would only call once when all of our planned park days are known and make all of the reservations. However, for some more difficult reservations like Le Cellier Steakhouse or Be Our Guest, we will call each day to get our best chances of getting to experience the dining venues.

In Conclusion

Disney is always going to be busy no matter which park you select to visit during the busier travel periods. However, by taking advantage of not following the crowds, you can help mitigate the long wait times and possibly booked dining reservations with a little bit of smart planning.

What time saving tips do you use to plan ideal Disney vacations?

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents

10/31/14 Originally published

What is a Zoo, Without a Little Boo?

November 4, 2014InACents Leave a comment

Our family’s recent trip to the Pittsburgh area found us using one of our best annual investments, our zoo membership. Our Cleveland Zoo membership gets us a 50% discount on the cost of admission at the Pittsburgh Zoo.

Our visit to the Pittsburgh Zoo also happen to correspond with Zoo Boo, a kid friendly Halloween event throughout the property.

We happen to arrive on a cool, Saturday morning right as the park opened. We were also one of the only people in the zoo, making it an excellent opportunity to not only see the grounds, but get a head start on the Boo activities.

We happen to travel pretty minimally on this trip, and did not originally plan on visiting the zoo, so we only brought one stroller for our infant son. So we opted to rent a safari cart from the zoo. For only $8, the safari cart provided two seats.

Scattered across the park were tables sponsored by local companies. Each table than handed out trick-or-treat items to the kids.

We selected to go around the zoo and end back at the front of the park where two kid friendly haunted houses were constructed. Both were really cute for entertaining the kids with just enough scary not to make them frightened.

Overall, our family had a great time visiting the Pittsburgh Zoo Boo event. My personal favorite part of zoo happens to be the PPG Aquarium, with its super large viewing tanks with impressive habitats.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: InACents

Visiting the Duquesne Incline with Kids

November 3, 2014InACents Leave a comment

Our family’s recent trip to Pittsburgh was a combination of some favorites as well as finally doing some of the things that seemed to escape us on prior trips. My wife was determined this trip to do something we have always wanted to take our boys to do, ride the iconic Duquesne Incline.

The Duquesene Incline has been in operation since 1877 and was originally constructed to transport materials up and down Mt. Washington on the south side of Pittsburgh. Today the incline is privately held non-profit organization dedicated to its historical preservation and operates with no city, state, or federal subsidies.

We opted to ride on a Friday night. However, we did not realize it also happen to be the biggest high school football match-up on the year at the adjacent stadium. Therefore, parking at the bottom of the incline became a little bit of a nightmare with so many people clambering for a spot. The parking lot happen to be one of the most horribly operated sites I had ever seen because there was no one there directing traffic, people were double and triple parking each other all over the place, and the pay box system was so poorly handled with the massive amount of people parking.

Regardless, a half hour later by the time we got parked and got our parking ticket, we were on to the incline.

With so many people headed to the football game, we assumed there would be no one there to ride the incline. However, as it turns out, quite a few people were there to ride the incline to the top to visit the various restaurants.

The whole incline is just as poorly run as the parking lot. Upon entering and paying our fee, we were issued a ticket and told to wait in the room adjacent to the inclines.

During our visit, one of the inclines was not in operation, which may have helped contribute to the long wait time. The small building at the bottom of the hill had no queue lines, just an open space. Therefore, as 30-40 people crammed into the room, waiting for the one incline, the people leaving the incline had to squeeze their way through the massive crowd. Then there was a mass rush to get on the incline. With no set queue line, it was a free-for-all to get inside the incline that was restricted to the number of seats.

So one hoped being adjacent to the door that they would get on. There was no attendant ushering people to the car. As soon as the train emptied, and the guests left the building, we were permitted to enter. As the crowd made its way to the incline, anyone who did not have a seat had to turn around and go back to the waiting room.

Honestly, even the pay system seemed to be “optional,” though it surely was not. For guests riding the incline one way to the top, with the massive crowd, and no one actually taking tickets, one could have walked right on.

The same thing went for the top, though there were only a handful of guests returning to the bottom. One you returned to the bottom, you were told to return your ride ticket, but I am not quite sure how the process was sufficient.

Regardless, our family made the peaceful ride to the top, which on a beautiful, clear night, was a site to see. Once at the station at the top of the hill, we went out to the platform overlooking the city. It was a wonderful view on a nice fall evening.

The top station also had a nice collection of historical artifacts related to the Duquesne Incline and a small gift shop.

Overall, we were glad we finally got to go on the incline, and the views were spectacular. However, they need to come up with a better system both on parking and incline operation, as they were abysmally disappointing.