1 Day Solo Trip

Walt Disney World Trip Reports
1

Earlier today in the Lines app, someone asked if anyone had ever flown to Disney World for the day. This got me thinking about the day trip I did earlier this year and I realized I never did a trip report for it. With all of the recent re-opening of reservations, I decided to do a much much-belated trip report from a time BC (before COVID, to steal a term from @OBNurseNH).

The Background: I love Disney, and being a first-year AP holder, I have this FOMO, YOLO, and every other abbreviation attitude towards making the most of our AP. DH is a Star Wars fan and has endured my love of Disney parks so long as he can get his Star Wars fix. But, I have always wanted to go to Disney for the day, hang out at MK and EPCOT (not DH’s favorite). I have never been to the Festival of the Arts and was getting tired of the dreary winter in Ohio so on a whim, I looked up airfare just to see…would it be possible to fly down for the day to check out the festival? I found some really reasonable airfare (one way on Southwest and one way on Frontier). Both were non-stop flights and the timing would work. No carry-on (aka this would limit any spending due to not having room to take things back), no overnight stay…this could be my cheapest trip ever! I took a day off work and booked the trip about 1 ½ weeks in advance.

The Trip: January 31, 2020: Depart 6:30 am and return on 9:30 pm flight. My only objective was to go to the Magic Kingdom in the morning and then spend the rest of the day at EPCOT enjoying the festival.

I got up at 3:30 am out the door and headed to the airport by 4:15 am for my 6:30 am flight departure. I am not a morning person, except on Disney departure days!

The first line of the day – rope dropping Starbucks at the airport

image

I landed at 8:15 and headed to get a Lyft to the Contemporary with the plan of walking over to MK.
image
In a Lyft and on my way by 8:30….no matter how many times I see it, I have to take a picture of the WDW sign
image

image
The Contemporary is the first hotel I have a memory of staying at when I was young so being inside, seeing the mural and the monorail going through is like seeing an old friend. It was pretty overcast out and it looked like it could start pouring anytime so I decided to hop on the monorail instead of walking.
image
This took a little longer but, I was still able to tap in around 9:30 am
image
image
In all of the years I have been here, I have never gotten my picture with Roy and Minnie and I didn’t have a plan so stopped for a photo op!
image

Caught the Main St Opening Welcome show (had never seen it!), I took some video but no pictures. I continued down Main St and took a few pictures. Even though I wanted to escape the dreary Ohio weather, it was pretty dreary here too but it was a warm dreary which makes all the difference!
image
The castle looks so muted compared to the new pink and blue colors of its makeover!
image
image

I didn’t make any Fast Passes for MK so I decided to head over to Fantasyland to check out wait times. Small World Stand By was super short so I set off on the happiest cruise on earth.
image
image
image

I wanted to get a Dole Whip and watch Country Bears so I strolled through Liberty Square on the way to Frontierland.
image
I got to meet some of the Country Bears!
image
image
Then headed in to watch the show. Again, this has a nostalgia factor for me. image
image
Next stop: Dole Whip!
image
image
As I was walking back towards Fantasyland, I saw that the wait for Pooh and Tigger wasn’t that long so I waited for that. It made my heart happy.
image
image
My last stop was a ride on the PeopleMover, always a relaxing way to see the park. image
One thing I really wanted was the newly released Loungefly Disney Parks backpack. I reasoned that this would still count as a free carry-on so I bought it and headed to the monorail to go to EPCOT for Festival of the Arts.
image

I’ll finish up the last half of my day tomorrow! Thanks for following along.

19 Likes
2

Love it! I have taken a few one day trips to Disneyland. It is the best feeling when people ask what you did on your day off and you can say, “I Went to Disney!”

1 Like
3

I wish I lived close enough to go for the day! Loving your report!

1 Like
4

Why have I never thought of doing this? What a fabulous idea! But could I really just keep it to one day?

2 Likes
5

My niece and I visited in 2014 for just over 24 hours to do a 24-hour “Rock Your Disney Side” MK event that happened to fall on her 7th birthday. I didn’t plan ahead at all, and only booked the hotel and airfare 2 days before… it was truly last minute.

We live in MI, and went to an amusement park in OH with her mom and little sister the day before. Shortly before leaving the park I pulled her aside and asked if she wanted to sneak out and have an adventure with me. Of course she said yes, so I pretended that her mom didn’t know and we got in the car and drove to a hotel in Columbus, OH.

We flew the next day. We had a connection in Chicago, and I kept her from the gate areas until we boarded so she didn’t know where we were headed until the pilot announced Orlando, FL. We arrived at MCO around 4:00, and took the Magical Express. We met some west coast people at the airport who were about to board a flight for LA and planned to hit the last leg of DL’s event! We checked in at Contemporary, and had Chef Mickey’s for birthday dinner, then headed to MK around 7:00pm.

Being a little night fiend (like me) and also having slept on the plane, she actually lasted until about 3:30am, when she hit a wall. We had no FP, but didn’t really need them as the park mostly emptied out after the fireworks, like usual even though the park was open until 6am or 7am. We made it back to the hotel, and had plans for AK the next day before our 4:30pm airport pickup. I was looking forward to sleeping in, but she had other plans and woke up around 8:00, and we were ready to go at 9:00am.

We stayed at AK until a little after 3pm, then headed back to get a bite to eat before Magical Express. We arrived in OH at about 10:00pm, and a very, very tired me drove us 4 hours home to MI.

8 Likes
6

Arrived at EPCOT – I took a video of the entrance loop – so much construction!! But, I do love EPCOT, the music, the festivals, the food…so I was ready to experience my first ever Festival of the Arts.
image
I am also a huge fan of Figment so I love that he is featured so much.
image
Headed to the temporary Mouse Gear location to pick up my passholder magnet!
image
I had seen the wall mural and knew that I wanted to paint some squares. My goal was to do the things that I knew DH would not want to do when we came for our Valentine’s day trip :slight_smile:
image
image
image
Next up were all of the 2D and 3D chalk paintings. Because it was overcast, I didn’t get to see the 3D chalk finished while I was there, they had to cover it up when the rain started. But I did see it online later and it was so amazing (it was a large ocean wave).
image
image
image
image
I stopped into Port of Entry to get my gift card wrist band and was ready to start eating!image
First up: The Deconstructed Dish
I tried the Deconstructed BLT and the Deconstructed Strawberry Cheesecake. Both were really good but I loved the strawberry cheesecake!
image
image
It is a good thing I wasn’t buying anything on this trip because there was so much fabulous artwork. So fun to just stroll around and watch many of the artists as work.
image
Time for more food. The Masterpiece Kitchen was the next stop. Here, I tried the Wild Mushroom Risotto and the Vanilla, Rose Water, and Pistachio Panna Cotta.
The Risotto was really good, but very rich. I wasn’t sure about the Rose Water and sure enough, I was not a fan. It looked so pretty but the taste, not so much.
image
image
I continued around world showcase just enjoying the scenery.
image
My final stop was the Artist’s Table near the American Pavilion. Here I got the Beef Wellington. I thought it was OK. There was something about the taste of the Bordelaise that I just didn’t care for. But it was cooked well overall, not too tough but a one and done for me. One thing I really enjoyed about all of the food was the presentation. Even if I didn’t enjoy all of the flavors, you can’t deny the presentation
image
image
image
As soon as I saw the Star Wars paintings, I knew we would be back when DH was with me. Sure enough, during our February trip, we bought 3 pieces from this booth!image
I was able to get a Fast Pass for Frozen. I hadn’t been on it for a long time (we usually do Soarin) so I headed to Norway. I passed so many other great food booths but I was so full!
image
The ride photo proves I was practicing social distancing before we even knew it would be a thing!
image
Outside of the Mexico Pavilion, I stopped at El Artista Hambriento and got the Firda Banana Daiquiri. I have never had a bad rum drink and this was no exception!
image
image
By now it was close to 2 and I was feeling like I had done most of what I wanted to and still had several more hours before I had to head to the airport. So I decided to walk to Hollywood Studios. When DH and I were there in December, he had seen a shirt that he really wanted to but didn’t buy. I thought I would check to see if they still had it and get it for him. There was no rain on the radar so I decided to continue to walk off everything I had eaten and had a nice walk to Hollywood Studios. Sadly, I didn’t find the shirt after checking in all of the Star Wars shops and decided to head back over to EPCOT. image
Coming back in through International Gateway, I got to see the French acrobats (Serveur Amusan), another first, so nerve-wracking!
I really wanted to do a few more things so I headed to the Land Pavilion to check out the Artist Palette cupcake and watch Awesome Planet.
image
The cupcake was more colorful than tasteful (it was good but slightly dry) but I managed to struggle through it :wink:
image image
Awesome Planet was so so. The cinematography was beautiful but I’m probably one of the few who hasn’t seen Modern Family so that fell kind of flat for me. But, glad I got to see it at least once.
image
My final ride of the day was Spaceship Earth. At that time, it was unknown when the ride was going to go down for refurbishment so I knew I had to ride it (potentially) once last time.

The forecast was looking like rain was on the way and I wanted to look for the Star Wars refillable mugs so I headed for the Skyliner to go to Pop Century to see what I could find.
image
image
image
After looking around the gift shop and grabbing a drink, it was time for a Lyft back to the airport for my 9:30pm departure flight. Nearly a 24 hour day door to door, 9 hours in three parks and 25,000 steps. It was a magical day!! Thanks for following along.

10 Likes
7

That sounds awesome.

8

Amazing pics, sounds like an fantastic day! I have a similar FEA pic :joy:

9

Thanks for sharing! I am so impressed with all you got done, pretty magical!

10

Always enjoy a trip report, even more so now. Festival of the Arts is turning into my favorite festival

1 Like
11

I am fortunate to have annual passes and before everything closed down, this trip in January was my 6th trip since activating the AP. So, it was easy to look at this as a quick 1 day trip since I knew I was going back in February (and had just been in December). Otherwise, keeping it to one day would be impossible!

12

That sounds amazing!!

13

It was so fun. I am anxious to see what the “new” normal will look like.

1 Like
14

Being solo definitely helped, I think. It was so nice to just be spontaneous and not really have a plan.

15

Mine too! This was my first time and I just booked a trip for next year to go again. I really enjoyed it

16

I wasn’t planning to go till July 2022 anyway so hopefully it will just be normal!

1 Like
17

I am hoping they run it longer next year, I will be in the South Pacific if all goes well for most of January and not able to get back to WDW till late February. I really hate to miss it. Oh and solo trips are awesome aren’t they.