Departure Day Recs

Walt Disney World
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Starting to finalize plans as we are 47 (!!!) days out and I’d love all your recs for departure day.

Saturday May 15. We have Topolino’s breakfast at 7:30am so will likely be done by 9. Staying at BCV and will have a car. Will need to be back at car around noon. Me, DH, DD5, and DS2.

We will have done 2 days at MK and at least one, maybe two, days at AK, 1 day each at EC and HD, and a day at Stormalong Bay. Currently MK and AK are set to open at 9am. HS at 10 and EC not until 11. We will have 7 day tickets and can use one of the ticket days for a few hours this morning, but I don’t know if that’ll be “worth” it given we’d likely miss rope drop. If we don’t use park tix this day, we could use them on arrival day afternoon/evening.

Disney Springs doesn’t open until 10 and I feel like we’ll probably have done laps around the lake at the Beach Club resort many times by this day. But maybe just killing time at one of those two places is the right idea.

Or I suppose we could “tour” other resorts but are they as fun to see when it’s not the holiday season?!

So tell me what you’d do - basically 9-noon on a Saturday. Doesn’t have to be in the World, either, since we’ll have a car. So give me all the ideas!!

Thanks in advance!

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We very much prefer breakfast and pool time on departure day. So my vote would be more SAB time. And then I would choose a low key Epcot on arrival day. The other option would be HS on arrival day if you prefer HS over Epcot. If you really want to do a park on departure day, I would choose HS (assuming they bump the opening to 9 am). And then just have low key SAB time & dinner at the resort on arrival day.

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I usually let my kids dictate some of the plans, some days they can’t wait to get into a park, but other days they just want to sleep and swim. That free thinking is getting harder with park reservations.

On some of our last day we have gone to the parks and done a last run on the favorite rides. I don’t know the crowd level mid-May, but suspect it wouldn’t be terrible if you got there after RD. Downside is that it’s REALLY hard to leave. We drive and have left way after planned more than once.

On other last days, the kids have just wanted to swim, but they really love the pool activities (even now as teens and tweens) and that doesn’t start until later, so I doubt it would tempt them much before noon.

I’d probably make a park res IF you have an extra day or don’t mind wasting a few bucks - it’s should be less than $10 per person to add. I’d probably spend that extra day on arrival (when energy is high) and then just watch the park res and kid energy level to see if it’s worth adding on to the end.

Is mini-golf still an option?

Disney Springs wouldn’t even be on my radar for my kids - I’d rather spend the $$ and catch a couple of rides and shop in a park.

I think most resorts have interesting things to see if you haven’t been there before, as long as you can get in. Many have scavenger hunts or similar games. AKL would be a good place to waste some time - sitting on the decks, watching animals. I don’t know what they have post-Covid, but they previously had more activities than other resorts. I don’t really remember having to show any credentials there to park, but I park once and don’t move, so not certain. Maybe even a walk through the campgrounds before the confining transportation?

Another idea would be to ride Disney transport - check availability, but boats, monorail, skyliner, etc. Some trips we rush to the parks and back and never really appreciate the transport options or the interesting views. Skyliner is a pretty neat ride, IMO.

But SAB is pretty fun and an easy way to spend a day or half. There are showers in the pool bathrooms for a quick change before leaving.

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One of the two miniature golf courses, could be fun for the kids.

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