The Hopping Mad Easter Tour - 2004
Shaun - 40 something ‘If it’s high fat, high sugar I’ll eat it’
Alison - 30 something 'If it’s not Atkins I won’t eat it’
Alexandra - 10 ‘Can we play mini-golf? Can we? Can we? Can we? Can we?’
Laura - 8 'If I’m tall enough I’ll ride it'
Summary
Well, overall we had a great trip - and as always there were some real highlights, but also a few things that maybe weren’t so good - or that we wouldn’t do again. So we just wanted to sort of summarise our thoughts on the whole trip.
Accommodation
Firstly, this trip really highlighted how much we love staying in onsite hotels. It’s been quite a while since we stayed off site (1999 to be exact) and we wondered if we’d been a bit caught up in the hype of staying in Disney Hotels - but after we stayed in the off site villa for a week, we TRULY appreciated driving back on site - it felt like coming home!
In addition, we loved all the hotel hopping that we did - somehow the holiday seemed longer because of the different resorts we stayed in. We (or rather, Alison) didn’t find the packing/unpacking a problem - we totally unpacked on three of our hotel stays as they were for 5 or more nights and for the other three we just lived out of one bag. A small price to pay for the enjoyment of the different Disney resort hotels!
Offsite villa - good value (£240 for Easter week), fine for our needs although not plush.
Pop Century - great fun, good value, loved the food court, parking OK.
Coronado Springs - very relaxing, lovely scenery, good value.
Contemporary - magical stay here, great view, one of our favourite hotels.
Portofino Bay - wonderful luxurious resort, great onsite perks for the Universal Hotels.
Royal Pacific - loved the South Seas theming - just about squeezes out PBH as our favourite Universal Hotel!
Weather - Apart from one or two days it was perfect park weather. The only thing we didn’t like was the cooler mornings and evenings. Laura really feels the cold so she didn’t swim as much as normal, and we all usually enjoy a ‘midnight’ swim after a hot sticky day, but we do like it warm!
Moderate temps (usually mid to low 80’s) and low humidity.
Time of year / going at Easter
Would we go again at this time? - Yes!
Crowd levels weren’t too bad as long as you have (and adhere to) a plan, or at the least have a strategy to avoid queues or at least minimise them.
Being peak time, many parks/attractions were open for longer (i.e. MK from 07:00 - 12:00) a greater number of shows and parades on ( i.e. 2 x Spectro and Fantasmic) and no rehabs.
Compare this to off-peak season - high temps, rehabs but low crowds - you pay your money you take your choice.
Highlights
Illuminations Cruise on "Breathless" - My highlight as this was just THE best experience IMHO - It was the heady mix of Epcot and exclusivity.
Great hotel stays like Portofino Bay Hotel, Contemporary, Royal Pacific Hotel - as “Hotel people” these were fantastic with the Universal ones having a real “upscale feel”.
Great food at Cafe Tutu Tango & Olive Garden amongst others
Boggy Creek airboats - Great to get away from the usual “hustle and bustle” and see some wildlife.
Dine with Shamu - food was nothing special but real “up close and personal” whale interaction without being splashed.
Skyventure - Maybe next time I’ll have a go myself but hats off to Laura for being a good sport
Water mice on 7 seas lagoon and Bay lake - Another “must do” for me too - the shrieks of pure joy from Alexandra was payment enough.
Wishes - Best fireworks ever!
WWTBAM hotseat for Alison - we all enjoyed watching Alison win her hat, lanyard, 10 pins and polo shirt!
Last thoughts
Well, it was a wonderful 3 week holiday - and we enjoyed it all the more because we don’t know when we’ll go back. It certainly won’t be in 2005 - maybe 2006?
Either way, we’ve really enjoyed writing these trip reports and hope that others have enjoyed reading them!
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