Recent Trip- Staying offsite

[BOTL76]

Just returned from a 10 day trip and wanted to share our recent experiences to potentially help others with their future planning.

In no particular order here are some random thoughts and feedback on our trip:

Pre-trip notes

• Since 2006, my family has gone to Disney World about 12 times up to 2019
• Our "sweet spot" for our family, has been renting offsite (Windsor Hills primarily) and always going the week or 2nd week after American Thanksgiving
• We rent from Global Resort Homes as they offer multiple different resorts to choose from and whenever we have had an issue they are prompt and professional with their response
• We have always done Disney world parks and water parks, occasional visits to Universal

Recent Trip (Nov 30 to Dec 9)

Airports/Rental Car

• We flew Westjet out of YYZ to MCO, no issues, flight was on time
• our Nexus helped us get through security quickly and avoid the long lines
• For our flight home, I have never seen MCO so busy, getting through security was 60 minutes! Never experienced that before, so much for the "downseason" of travel after American Thanksgiving. Now waiting 1 hour doesn't sound like much, but at the end of the vacation we had limited patience and energy to wait this long LOL
• Have to look into TSA pre-check, a gentleman on my flight that I sat next to uses it as he has Nexus and says we can now get it just have to enroll online. Seriously going to look into how to get TSA pre-check now that Canadian Nexus holders
• Thankfully flight was on time and was quite smooth getting home, surprisingly luggage only was a 25 minute wait, which is a next to nothing wait at Pearson!
• We don't have a particular rental car agency we rent from (have done all the major ones), this time we chose Alamo and worked out great! Can't say the same for the other agencies, we lucked out big time. Many of the other big agencies had long lines, seemed like Alamo and Enterprise had the shortest lines from when we arrived. From check-in to driving out of MCO was 15 minutes!

Accommodations

• We frequently use Global Resort Homes and for the first time we rented at Solterra Resort to try something new (previously had always stayed at Windsor Hills)
• Not a bad resort, check-in was smooth and easy and we lucked out as our rental was walking distance to the clubhouse and main pool area.
• Small note the main pool and waterslide are heated at Solterra, the lazy river is not.
• We had an issue with water leaking in the laundry room, called Global resort and they took care of it, service was prompt and professional

Universal Studios Theme Parks

• We decided to do the promotion where Universal offered buy 3 days get 2 days free, purchased back in the summer
• We booked the tickets through Touring Plans travel as they include the early admission offer as part of booking with them
• We did 2 days each at IA and USF, and 1 day at Volcano bay
• While the crowds were steady, we took advantage of the early entry where possible and got to ride all the popular rides many times before 11am each day (where crowd levels and wait times seemed to pickup each day)
• We lucked out at Volcano bay, weather was 24C and the park was quite empty! Got on everything with little to no wait. The aqua coaster did have an afternoon wait of about 30 minutes to return to the line but according to some locals we met that is nothing of a wait time for that ride
• the only main downfall for our trip was in IA and USF the rides seem to break down or be delayed a lot, especially in the afternoon just from the times we were in the park. Hence even better to take advantage of the early admission time and knock out all the big rides (and ride again multiple times) so we didn't have to worry about missing out on any of the big rides

Disney World

• Sadly, Disney has priced us out of visiting. As much as I love Toy Story Land, Star Wars land, one day for my immediate family of 4 was over 700USD to get into Hollywood Studios as an example. Sorry Disney, not this time, you have priced us out. (not to say Universal was cheap either, but it helped taking advantage of the purchase 3 days, get 2 days free promotion to make it a bit more reasonable).
• All we ended up doing was to visit Disney Springs for some shopping and dinner, it was packed! Luckily we know the ins and outs of Disney Springs so didn't have to contend too much with the crowds (did our shopping mid-day and had an early dinner)
• Overall I use the touring plans Lines app for both Universal and DW, I couldn't believe how busy the DW parks were with wait times, so maybe a good thing we didn't visit any of the DW parks, based on our previous visits in December the wait times for DW were way up on average. 100 minutes for Slinky dog dash! No thanks!

Traffic and Construction

• One area that was quite frustrating was all the traffic and construction on the I-4 and old lake wilson road. This was a major issue especially getting to and from Universal. I know some side roads and alternates can be taken for the DW area, but just a heads up if you are staying offsite expect major delays, especially through the week
• Looks like this construction and delays on the I-4 are going to be a few more years, so heads up when you are planning and if you are choosing to stay offsite
• Average time from Solterra resort to Universal was about 45-50 minutes, so the earlier in the morning we left we shaved off a few minutes but it was still quite congested

All for now happy planning!

 

[ottawamom]

Great report, thanks.

 

[CanucksRock]

Have to look into TSA pre-check, a gentleman on my flight that I sat next to uses it as he has Nexus and says we can now get it just have to enroll online.

I have Nexus and it just automatically includes TSA Precheck …you just need to put in your Nexus Pass ID when checking in for your flight ..and then any US Flights should say TSA Pre on your ticket..

Also just a comment on Disney Wait times …they are usually inflated.

We were there today. Buzz said 35 mins ..it was 5 mins if that.

 

[starvenger]

I have Nexus and it just automatically includes TSA Precheck …you just need to put in your Nexus Pass ID when checking in for your flight ..and then any US Flights should say TSA Pre on your ticket..

Good advice. I usually go one step beyond further and ensure that all the relevant information is entered once I finalize my flights.

I know it seems like Madness, but that's because we've only not gotten TSA precheck once, and I suspect that it was because I never entered in my NEXUS info for the flight going down to the US.

 

[BOTL76]

Great report, thanks.

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

 

[BOTL76]

I have Nexus and it just automatically includes TSA Precheck …you just need to put in your Nexus Pass ID when checking in for your flight ..and then any US Flights should say TSA Pre on your ticket..View attachment 816897

Also just a comment on Disney Wait times …they are usually inflated.

We were there today. Buzz said 35 mins ..it was 5 mins if that.

This is gold, thank you kindly! Also for DW wait times, happy to hear Buzz was only 5 when it was posted 35, certainly enjoy when that happens!
However on my end I look more at the Touring plan lines app, they seem to be a bit more realistic, just based on checking that it seemed DW was way more busier comparative to our previous December trips (2019 and earlier). But I also have to consider other variables that I would rather have a busy park than no park visits at all!