Thoughts on Spring Break - Spirit Airlines / Disney / Southwest Florida

I’m fresh off of vacation in Southwest Florida and thought I would share some of my travel related commentary based on our flights and activities.

Spirit Airlines

We were originally planning on driving to Florida because flights were unreasonable due to spring break demand. Thankfully, a couple weeks before the trip we found individual flights on Spirit and Delta to get us there and back. Ideally, we would fly out of Grand Rapids, but with it being spring break we booked out of Detroit for these flights. The flight on Spirit was $78 (one way) and we booked on 3/13 for travel on 3/26, so it definitely pays to wait sometimes. The flight home on Delta was paid for with airline miles, which helped justify the decision to fly. For the Spirit flight we rolled the dice and didn’t pay the fee for seat selection. We are a family of five and my kids are 9, 9, and 7 so this was the first time we felt comfortable with the possibility that kids could sit alone. It worked out and we all got to sit together, but there was definitely a little anxiety (from the parents) and excitement (from the kids) about the possibility of sitting alone. There is no guarantee that the discount airlines will seat you together when you don’t pay for seat selection, but I think for the most part they try and keep travel companions together. I’m not sure it made a difference, but I had the Spirit App downloaded and I checked in as soon as they opened it up, which for Spirit was 24-hrs before departure.

Walt Disney World

This was our first visit to Disney post-Covid and I wanted to pass along my thoughts on a couple things that have changed.

Genie +

Disney Genie + is run through the Disney My Experience App and allows guests to pay to make reservations for expedited access to popular attractions, shows, and experiences throughout the parks. This feature provides a faster way to enjoy attractions, but it requires an additional fee. The fee is based on demand and pricing starts at $15, but on our trip the pricing was $29 per person. $29 per person times two days for a family of five = $290 over the base price of the ticket. Genie + is available for purchase at midnight on the day of your park reservation and the first ride reservation is available at 7am.

Disney Lightning Lane

Disney Lightning Lane is a new program introduced by Disney in 2021 that allows guests to skip the regular lines at the most popular attractions. These popular rides are not available in Genie + and can only be reserved by purchasing a Lightning Lane pass. Guests can make a reservation to access the Lightning Lane through the Disney My Experience App. The premium for Lightning Lane varies based on park attendance and ride popularity, but to give you an example we chose to pay the upcharge to guarantee we would get to ride TRON (new ride) $20, Star Wars Rise of the Resistance $25, and the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train $12. This was an additional $285 for a family of five over the base price of the park tickets.

Staying on Disney Property

We always elect to stay on property when visiting Disney. I think they do a great job of having accommodations to meet most price points and I appreciate the convenience of the shuttle services to get to their parks. One thing I wanted to bring up is that guests who stay on Disney property get the first opportunity to purchase the Lightning Lane passes to ride the most sought-after rides. If you’re staying at a Disney hotel you can book your Lightning Lane at 7am, but if you’re not staying on property you have to wait until the park opens. This matters on busy days, because these rides sell out and if you’re not staying on property, you might not get a chance to ride them.

In Closing

Disney is still an amazing place to visit, and it still holds a lot of magic. That being said I don’t really understand what they're doing with all of these add on programs and fees. It took a decent amount of time to understand Genie + and Lightning Lane and it also added several hundred dollars to an already expensive vacation. These programs also dilute the experience for the base ticket holder as they might not have an opportunity to ride the most popular rides and they experience longer wait times on the other rides as people with Genie + get to move ahead of them. My final issue with Genie + and Lightning Lane is that they detract from the experience by making parents focus on their phone throughout the day vs focusing on their families and the shared experience.

Southwest Florida

We spent a couple of days in Southwest Florida after visiting Disney. I was shocked at the amount of damage that was done in the Fort Myers Beach area. There are still hundreds (maybe thousands) of houses that need to be fixed up or demolished. Almost 30% of hotels in this area are not open for business and I would imagine the number of vacation rentals still closed is even higher. This area is nowhere near being back to 100% and it will likely be several years before they get back to pre-hurricane levels.

That’s all I have for you tonight. It felt really good to be outside in the Florida sun, but nothing beats the anticipation of spring and the first warm temps of the year in Michigan. Enjoy this week and please reach out if you have questions on flights or Disney.

Adam