February 2022 Trip w/o Express Pass?

[hmcater]

Hello all, hoping I can get some thoughts from everyone. We've never been to Florida in February and we also do not usually go when school is out. But it's my daughters senior year and she is taking mostly AP courses, so she cannot miss school. So we've decided to go on winter recess, 2/20-2/26. We wanted to stay at Cabana Bay but I'm wondering if it will be too busy to not have EP. We are AP holders but I really didn't want to have to get 2 rooms.

So should I be planning on the more costly hotel because we'll need EP or do you think we'll be okay without them staying at CB? Thank you for your thoughts!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Your trip coincides with President's Week so the crowds may be higher. Some schools in the south get the entire week off and that drives up crowds (or at least it did pre-pandemic). Personally, I'd plan two rooms at an EP resort.

 

[cfoxga]

Our last trip was president's day for 3 nights. Even with the lowered crowd levels back then, it was a zoo. So EPs helped a ton.

But with 6 nights, you can certainly make CB work. Just make sure to get to the parks very early. By 10:30-11:00, I would expect 60+ minute waits at most of the rides if you don't have EPs. Crowd levels tend to drop off again in the evenings, so I'd take a long break in the middle for meals, pool, or shows.

 

[DizKids2]

I would recommend a resort with EP. we just returned from a trip a week ago with low crowds, and my teenagers raved about how amazing it was to have express pass, even with the parks not very crowded. We had debated doing CB as well and ended up with two rooms at RPR for 3 nights and then did CB our last night, as we had an AM flight and did not need EP. we also really liked the hotel better. We like walking to the parks, and although it doesn’t seem like it is going to be that much further, the walk to CB at the end of a hot day was a lot.