Depature day plans? We have park tickets.

[Rossie3]

I'm sitting at MCO waiting on my departure flight.

Woke up around 7 am.
Packed.
Checked in at airline desk and checked bag.
Checked carry on also at resort to be held.
Took bus to MK.
Missed rope drop by about 10 minutes due to VERY SLOW MK bus boarding but it all worked out great.

Did all the rides I wanted: BTMRx2
PP
Space
Peoplemover

Rode the Liberty Belle.
Went to Tom Sawyer's Island
Basically enjoyed a very leisurely day. Drank tons of slushy things to deal with the heat. (Discovered LeFou's Brew is amazing.) Had the lobster roll and hush puppies at Columbia Harbor House. Watched the parade.

Watched the flag retreat then left around 5:30 only because a storm seemed to be rolling in.

Went back to Pop and retrieved my bag. Changed out of sweaty park clothes into fresh clothes. Had dinner. Wandered around.

If my son was with me he would have wanted to swim and we've done that in the past. It's simple to put wet suits in a plastic bag.

Had to board DME at 8:05, even though my flight had been delayed. I was the only passenger. There were supposed to be 2 more but they were late (or made alternative plans) and after waiting for a bit the driver left.

There were no other stops and I was at MCO in about 30-35 minutes.

Of course that has left me with almost 4 hours of airport time due to my flight delay - which is why I'm sitting here typing this unnecessarily long response.

I always love to fly in early and out late and do MK on both of those days.

I'm super jealous of the day you had today. That is how I like to roll too, although we do not have flights that come back to where I live that leave that late. (Huntsville, AL) I wish we did. Where are you flying back to that you are leaving so late? Heading west?

 

[Figment Mom]

I'm super jealous of the day you had today. That is how I like to roll too, although we do not have flights that come back to where I live that leave that late. (Huntsville, AL) I wish we did. Where are you flying back to that you are leaving so late? Heading west?

Ohio. Just a late flight originally scheduled to get in at 1 am but now it'll be 2:30.

Tried to switch my DME time when I got the text about my flight delay but they wouldn't let me.

Then I tried to get the DME driver to take a detour to MK (since I was the only passenger and at that point had 4 1/2 hours until my flight) but he wasn't amused. He probably gets that question in jest every day.

 

[chris44]

I'm sitting at MCO waiting on my departure flight.

Woke up around 7 am.
Packed.
Checked in at airline desk and checked bag.
Checked carry on also at resort to be held.
Took bus to MK.
Missed rope drop by about 10 minutes due to VERY SLOW MK bus boarding but it all worked out great.

Did all the rides I wanted: BTMRx2
PP
Space
Peoplemover

Rode the Liberty Belle.
Went to Tom Sawyer's Island
Basically enjoyed a very leisurely day. Drank tons of slushy things to deal with the heat. (Discovered LeFou's Brew is amazing.) Had the lobster roll and hush puppies at Columbia Harbor House. Watched the parade.

Watched the flag retreat then left around 5:30 only because a storm seemed to be rolling in.

Went back to Pop and retrieved my bag. Changed out of sweaty park clothes into fresh clothes. Had dinner. Wandered around.

If my son was with me he would have wanted to swim and we've done that in the past. It's simple to put wet suits in a plastic bag.

Had to board DME at 8:05, even though my flight had been delayed. I was the only passenger. There were supposed to be 2 more but they were late (or made alternative plans) and after waiting for a bit the driver left.

There were no other stops and I was at MCO in about 30-35 minutes.

Of course that has left me with almost 4 hours of airport time due to my flight delay - which is why I'm sitting here typing this unnecessarily long response.

I always love to fly in early and out late and do MK on both of those days.

Oh wow, I love the way you did your day ...and I think you’re my new hero!

 

[AngiTN]

I'm super jealous of the day you had today. That is how I like to roll too, although we do not have flights that come back to where I live that leave that late. (Huntsville, AL) I wish we did. Where are you flying back to that you are leaving so late? Heading west?

Really? I'd have thought it would similar to us here in Chattanooga.
We regularly take a Delta flight that departs at 8:30 PM, lands at 12:30 AM (all Eastern) or an American flight that departs at 7:15 and lands at 11:45 pm.
Conversely, we depart here at either 5:00 or 6:00 AM, getting into MCO about 8:30 or 9:00 AM

I'm really dreading our trip at the end of this month though. We have to be back midday on a Saturday and leaving Friday won't work for what we are doing so we are flying out at about 10:00 AM. Blech! Thank goodness we use Ride Share and have PreCheck so we won't have to leave for the airport at 7:00 AM

 

[Figment Mom]

Oh wow, I love the way you did your day ...and I think you’re my new hero!

Ha! Gotta use every second.

Although when I pulled into my driveway at 3:30 am I had to remind myself that it was worth it and what a great day I'd had.

Bunch of snafus on the way home including a not-so-great airport parking shuttle driver, doors that wouldn't close on the shuttle (and he kept asking me what he should do), walking around alone at 3 am in the airport parking lot because for the life of me I could not remember where I parked my car, and a freeway closure on the drive home .

Also, I forgot to get a FP for my flight home. Longest wait of the whole trip.

Anyway, love our almost full park day on the last day.

 

[Nancyg56]

We will generally hit a park on departure day. We like to pack up and check our bags for the flight and then will have breakfast if we planned a TS meal, or head to a park. We like lunch in the park and then go back to the resort, sometimes meandering through the monorail or Epcot resorts, depending on where we are staying. IF we have time I pick up some food at the CS for the airport because I hate relying in what is open or has a short line. For a 7 PM departure you would need to be back at the resort and ready for pick up about 3:45. so plenty of time to enjoy a park.

 

[IluvMGM]

If we have the time I always like to have "one last hoorah" and go to a park the morning of departure. I usually pick the park I feel like we didn't spend enough time at or if there is a ride I really want to ride again I do that. Unfortunately we have a 2pm flight next trip and are using magical express, so I don't think we will have much time.

 

[Figment Mom]

On my trip with my then-9-year-old I let him pick the park for the last day. We made the decision the night before.

He chose MK because he wanted ooey gooey toffee cake from LTT one more time. So the night before we grabbed a reservation.

We made it for rope drop, rode a few favorite rides and spent a long time playing checkers at Ft. Langhorn. You know you've had a great trip when you can relax and play checkers on your last morning.

Then we had lunch at LTT before heading back to our resort to swim.

Our DME pick up was at 6 pm, IIRC.

 

[jewels4488]

We always drive to Disney, it's about a 91/2 hour drive. On our last day we pack the car and rope drop AK, ride everything we can and catch our 3rd FP for FoP at noon. The goal is always to be back to the resort heading home by 2 p.m. I have several drivers so rope drop is not a problem for our group.

 

[Rossie3]

Really? I'd have thought it would similar to us here in Chattanooga.
We regularly take a Delta flight that departs at 8:30 PM, lands at 12:30 AM (all Eastern) or an American flight that departs at 7:15 and lands at 11:45 pm.
Conversely, we depart here at either 5:00 or 6:00 AM, getting into MCO about 8:30 or 9:00 AM

I'm really dreading our trip at the end of this month though. We have to be back midday on a Saturday and leaving Friday won't work for what we are doing so we are flying out at about 10:00 AM. Blech! Thank goodness we use Ride Share and have PreCheck so we won't have to leave for the airport at 7:00 AM

Since the airport here is small (12 Gates total) I think that limits how many flights we get in. As our city is growing at a fast rate currently I hope this changes. For departures Delta leaves here at 6 with a stop in Atlanta always, then to MCO by 11 EST. We just had Frontier and Silver start doing direct flights from here in the past year and a half. Frontier leaves at 8 CST and arrives by 11 EST, but they don't fly everyday. I'm honestly not sure what time Silver leaves but the plane is a Turboprop so that slightly scares me.

For the return flights Delta usually has the latest one coming back at 6ish EST, Frontier only comes back in the morning, and I believe Silver takes off about 515ish. Now for our Christmas trip we just booked Delta is doing a 830 EST departure which we booked, we were super excited to have a long day there before coming back on the 29th!

 

[saraheliz]

We did a park day our last trip (flight left after 9pm) but there's no way we could have done RD that last day. We needed to get packed up and luggage checked in, carry-ons with bell services, etc etc. Especially if you'll be at the parks late the night before, you'll need time in the morning to do this. We were able to do a few hours at Epcot (like 11-2), then back to the resort for a quick swim and snack until our pick up time around 6. We made sure to give ourselves hours of cushion to get back from the parks since earlier in the week we had gotten stuck on LwtL for an hour and there was a woman panicking about missing her flight (and she ended up leaping off the boat and through the greenhouses in LwtL against the CMs wishes and running through the back of the ride with her son). We scheduled swim time as our buffer.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Personally I'm not a fan of swimming on departure day due to my hair and all of my toiletries being in my checked bag. I don't feel comfortable getting showered and fully dressed in a pool bathroom. But I know it's a popular thing to do.

Last trip we got up around 8 am, ordered room service, ate and packed up, took our bags to be checked in at 11 am, gave bell services our carry ons and then headed to DHS (we were staying at BWV). We had our 3 FP+ starting at 11-12, including our second time riding SDD. We left the park around 3 for our ADR at B&C. Had a nice early dinner at 4 pm at B&C. Debated on going to Epcot since our DME pick up wasn't until 7 pm but it was the last Sunday of F&W and Veteran's Day weekend so we avoided Epcot. We went the day before and it was the most packed I've ever seen any Disney park so we didn't want to go through that again, plus after a 10 day trip our feet and bodies were tired. So we just sat in the lobby, strolled through the shops at BW, etc. Our DME ended up being almost 45 minutes late but we made it through security super fast and had to wait a bit for our take off. It was a nice last day to our vacation.

 

[nkereina]

If your flight is at 7pm, that means DME picks up around 4pm. You should be leaving whichever park you're at by 2:45-3pm to give yourself ample time to get on a bus to get back to the resort and pick up any stored luggage, so you can be at the DME stop 15 minutes prior to your pick-up time. To me, this would not be worth a waterpark day. With the time it takes to "get ready" (sunscreen, renting a locker, etc), and then the time it takes to pack all that up, change out of wet swimsuits before your flight - you're not going to have a ton of time. And then you're feeling gross for your flight home and have wet swimsuits in your carry on luggage (if you do Resort Airline Checkin).

If it were me, I would just do one of the four parks. Whichever one you want to do a couple things at, not worrying about EMH. You could also sleep in, do a character breakfast somewhere, go somewhere like Disney Springs, or just swim at your resort.

 

[AngiTN]

Since the airport here is small (12 Gates total) I think that limits how many flights we get in. As our city is growing at a fast rate currently I hope this changes. For departures Delta leaves here at 6 with a stop in Atlanta always, then to MCO by 11 EST. We just had Frontier and Silver start doing direct flights from here in the past year and a half. Frontier leaves at 8 CST and arrives by 11 EST, but they don't fly everyday. I'm honestly not sure what time Silver leaves but the plane is a Turboprop so that slightly scares me.

For the return flights Delta usually has the latest one coming back at 6ish EST, Frontier only comes back in the morning, and I believe Silver takes off about 515ish. Now for our Christmas trip we just booked Delta is doing a 830 EST departure which we booked, we were super excited to have a long day there before coming back on the 29th!

11 gates Small? That's huge. We have 5 gates. LOL. Sounds like you are taking the same 8:30 flight to Atlanta that we always take too.

 

[Beer Me]

Another benefit of going to a park on departure day is you can use it as a back up plan for hard to get fast passes. On our last trip we got a FoP FP for our last morning. It turns out we were able to ride earlier in the week but it was good to have another chance.

Departure day is also a good day to go back to the shop where you saw something you wanted but didn’t buy.

 

[RamblingMad]

WWYD? We leave on a Friday. Thursday night we are doing MK and happily ever fireworks. Our departure day EMH are 8am at MK we were going to Rope drop and use our 3 FP's. Now I am debating just doing a waterpark day. Our flight is at 7pm. Thoughts?

It takes forever to get to MK. That’s my only hesitation with MK. Do you really see yourself getting all packed up and to the gate by 8a?

As for a water park, it might be too cold first thing in the morning.

On my departure date last weekend, I was on property at Universal. I took the water taxi over to City Walk, and I made it to the gate by 8:15. We did both Universal parks until about 10:30a and then we hit Volcano Bay until 2p. This worked because our hotel was walking distance to the water park.

Where are you staying at relative to MK?

 

[chelleb1974]

I book as late of a flight out as I can (heading to Boston area). I like to do a later character/buffet breakfast so we're good for most of the day. Usually hit a park, then back to resort an hour or two before DME and we grab a QS meal and eat before heading to the airport.

For our trip in Nov/Dec, we're doing Garden Grill breakfast at 9:40, then will hit whatever we missed at Epcot. Never thought about going back to swim, but that's a good option to keep in mind!

Off topic, sort of: we usually do a water park on arrival day and dinner at Disney Springs. I like an early flight, but if it's delayed, etc... we're not really missing something important.

 

[bopper]

After many a summer Disney vacation, I learned not to make afternoon/evening airline reservations because there is always an afternoon thunderstorm that delays flights.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

After many a summer Disney vacation, I learned not to make afternoon/evening airline reservations because there is always an afternoon thunderstorm that delays flights.

I’m fine with getting stuck at Disney so I book late flights coming home. I always book morning flights to Disney to avoid the storms.

 

[Rossie3]

11 gates Small? That's huge. We have 5 gates. LOL. Sounds like you are taking the same 8:30 flight to Atlanta that we always take too.

Oh, I figured it was larger than that. I just meant in comparison to the larger airports around the country we are small. I was so shocked when I saw that late of a flight heading back I had to book it immediately. Hopefully we will start having those more often. Or maybe I just never book early enough for that to be an option for me to come home? This is the farthest out I have ever booked a flight to Disney. Usually its like a month or 2 out.