How do you usually handle check out day? Go to theme park or no?

[VandVsmama]

Our last day at WDW for our vacation in June will be on a Saturday in June. Flight doesn't leave Orlando airport until 7 pm and we're planning on leaving AKL around 4 pm. For most of our trip, we're staying off site, but our last night we are staying at AKL.

The planner uber-Disney fan in me wants to cram in as much park time and WDW time as possible. However, I know that my kids and my DH will want & need downtime before we head back to the real world.

I'm having a heck of a time deciding how to handle our check out day! So I'm curious what the rest of y'all do in situations like this.

When we went to Disneyland almost 2 weeks ago, we WERE going to do the VR game at The Void in DTD, but I cancelled those plans when this WDW trip came up. The day after we get back home is DH's birthday, so we're doing his birthday dinner at Boma on Friday evening. On Saturday, I was originally thinking that we'd sleep in and have QS breakfast at Sanaa. Check out by 11:00 am, store our bags with Bell Services, and spend some time at the pool before we leave for the airport.

But then I read a thread that talked about The Void. I'd love for us to to The Void on Wed of our trip, but I don't know yet if DH will need to attend a work event that evening for the conference he's attending in Orlando that week. He won't know until the last minute. I'd hate to plunk down all of that $$ only to find out that he can't do it with us...when doing this is going to be part of his birthday present.

So I am inclined to schedule The Void for Saturday afternoon before we leave for the airport. But what time should I schedule it for? I'm thinking that we'll go to Disney Springs, do The Void thing, browse a little, eat a snack, then pick up our bags at AKL before heading to the airport.

We will have a rental car and are not using ME for airport transportation.

 

[Greenfield1984]

For me checkout day is a somber day where I would have a very hard time rallying any energy to do anything.

On check in day, despite a 27 hour straight drive, im still ready to go experience some things.

But day of leaving im just sad the trip is done.

 

[wilma-bride]

We have done various things on our last day. Because we fly back to the UK, our flight is nearly always an overnight flight leaving late evening. meaning we have a whole day to 'kill' before leaving for the airport. We used to just get up and finish packing, then have an early lunch and spend some time at Disney Springs but hubby didn't like the fact that we felt like we were just killing time. The main issue , for us, is that we don't want to get too hot and bothered on the last day, when we still have at least 12 hours of travelling ahead of us. We usually 'borrow' a washcloth and have a wash/use deodorant back at the resort before we leave for the airport, but it's not the same as being able to shower and freshen up.

Scheduling an activity for the last day is a good idea, especially if you have pretty much a full day but, personally, I would be stressing about getting to the airport and through security if it was too late, so my instinct would be to suggest you schedule The Void for early afternoon. Have lunch beforehand (or late lunch after), then head back and collect your bags before leaving for the airport.

 

[Elle :)]

We don’t do the parks on our check out day. I usually schedule our flights for about 3pm (because I don’t like to fly in the dark and our flight is only 3hrs). We usually sleep in, clean up and pack up, sit down to a nice breakfast, and head off to the airport.

If I had your schedule, I would probably spend the morning at the pool (especially since you’re only at AKL for one night. Follow that up with a lunch at Disney Springs and a trip to The VOID. From what I’ve read, The VOID is about 40minutes after all is said and done so definitely doable. This way your last day feels both relaxing and fun.

 

[holden]

We don’t hit the parks on checkout day. We time our flights to land before rush hour begins so we don’t hit traffic driving home from the airport.

Checkout day is breakfast somewhere and then to the airport.

 

[David D]

I’m the kind of person that likes to pack in as much as I can. We usually fly home later at night as well so we setup 1 or 2 fast passes in a park for the last day in the morning and then a late meal around 2 or 3 before we get whatever bags we left with bell services and take ME back to the airport.

 

[Timothy02359]

We never hit the parks on check out day.

 

[slpeters]

We didn't do the parks on our last day and can't really see us ever doing so. Part of that though is that we tend to have early afternoon flights--I hate flying in anywhere late (even home).

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We have gone to the parks on check out day once, when we left on a Sat but the last two trips we've been leaving Sun so we have an early flight to have some time at home to unpack, etc before crashing and having to get up for work the next day. It was fine going to the parks in the morning but we didn't have as much time as we thought and we felt rushed.

Since you have basically all day, I would second the option of going to the Void early afternoon and spend any remaining time after that poking around DS.

 

[Wdw1015]

We always go back to Magic Kingdom for a few hours to do that “one last thing”. It’s a much more relaxed visit, wander Main Street, pick out souvenirs, eat a Dole Whip, soak up the atmosphere before going back to the real world. Love ending our trip this way.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Personally, I would hang out at AKL until check-out time at 11 am, store the bags, head over to DS, do the Void at 12/12:30 pm, have lunch, shop and start heading back to AKL to pick up your bags around 3:30 pm.

 

[mousestruck]

We always go back to Magic Kingdom for a few hours to do that “one last thing”. It’s a much more relaxed visit, wander Main Street, pick out souvenirs, eat a Dole Whip, soak up the atmosphere before going back to the real world. Love ending our trip this way.

This! We usually have an evening flight home with a DME pick-up around 3:00, so we spend a few hours in MK. We like to do a little last minute shopping and get one last view of the castle. We have a tradition of ending our trip at the Plaza for lunch.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

We always choose late flights home, that way we can spend a significant amount of time in the parks before we have to leave.

 

[Moliphino]

We usually hit Epcot on our last day. Eat shawarma at Tangierine Cafe and soak in everything we can before we have to leave.

 

[bobbie68]

Hi we take evening flights now just to fee like we get more bang for our buck with vacation. We do not go to the parks on check out day. We relax pack and check our luggage then we spend the day at the resort. We find it relaxing and not worrying if we will be back in time to get to the airport. Missing a flight for us is difficult with our cats back at home. AKL is one of my favorite resorts and I enjoyed spending a day there.

 

[elcmum]

I deliberately fly out with an airline that has resort check-in, so the first thing we do is have breakfast and pack up, and then drop off the bags. My goal is to always get a direct flight as late as possible in the day, so we have park time in the morning. The goal is to never have any real plans -- we just go around to one or two parks (usually MK) to buy a plane snack or ride a last ride and say farewell. Sometimes that includes a lunch reservation and then we leave the park an hour before MDE is due to pick us up for the resort.

It's low key and casual, but just a nice way to say goodbye.

 

[richmo]

Always go to a park on checkout day...I usually won't schedule a flight before 6:00. In my way of thinking, flying out early means a wasted night prior.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We hit MK in January on check out day. It was a short trip, so we wanted as much time as possible. We had a PPO at CP and then rode our favorites before heading back to catch ME. It worked out really well. We had to be on ME at 3:30 and we left MK at 1. We had plenty of time to grab lunch at POP food court before we headed to MCO.


We have the same idea for September, but we'll go to HS on departure day. I need to be there one last time before GE changes that park forever.

 

[msk]

Now that I have an AP we go to parks on check in and check out day. I love to just grab that last minute thing, wander and enjoy.

 

[alan68]

We originally weren't going to do a park on checkout day, but the disney/US ticket package we got through Undercover Tourist included a bonus day at US/IOA. We have to be out of the condo by 11:00 but our flight doesn't leave until 7:45. I don't know if we'll stay at Univ very long, but we may as well make some use of our extra day.