I hate the last day of the trip.
There’s always the struggle to fill up the time before it comes to an end, that looming “gotta be back at a certain time for Tragical Express” feeling, reduce the depression of the vacation ending, try to anticipate how exhausted you are, and try to make sure you are not wasting any of that valuable time before it’s over.
Sorry, there’s no point to this thread. I’m just ranting.
I usually like to have a noon-ish departure for this very reason. Dip in the pool, leisurely, fancy breakfast, then to the airport. No rush to try and fit a bunch of stuff in, no worry about that 4pm flight, or whatever. Plus a lil time once we get home to chill and get ready for whatever’s gonna happen the next day.
I did that on my first trip, I HATED it. Felt like I paid for and lost a day at Disney.
You can rant. We all understand that feeling.
Oh man, I go for as late of flight home as possile… 4pm… 5pm… maybe even 7pm! It doesn’t bother me if I get back to Michigan after midnight… I still got a half day in at Magic Kingdom 
Also, “Tragical Express” is amazing, and a term I might have to use myself!
Our flight back to the UK is always 7.30-8pm, but our car always had to be returned to the airport by 12 so we basically got up, left and spent the day at the airport. It was awful.
Last trip with no car, we went to the parks something like 10-2, back to the resort to relax before ME - it was great!
Hahaha it’s one that’s used around here a lot… very apt description! So if you see “My DTE (or TE) arrived” That’s what that is.
And yeah, when we had our flight in September and it was at like 9PM (I think), it was…difficult given the circumstances, but we were able to make a whole day out of it. Which was awesome.
And when I’m going alone, I want that flight to be like…10PM or later. In fact, if I could TE out after Fireworks or park close, that’d be the best.
I have been leaving early enough to get home around 6. I always have to work the next day and the exhaustion makes it unbearable if I get home late.
Usually, our last day at the park is an evening, then go to bed, and head out early the next morning.
This next trip, however, we’ll have our last evening, check out of our house in the morning, then had back to one of the parks until close to dinner, leave and head up to my parents. I’m not sure what it will do to the dynamic. Usually that final night with the family in the parks is kind of bittersweet glorious. But this time, we’ll just kind of go, “Okay. Well. Time to go get dinner. Come on.”
Feels like it could ruin some of the special feeling we’d normally get. I guess we’ll see.
if i gotta pay to be in a Disney hotel for a night, I want park time the next day.
Well, the cost of renting a house is a bit different in that regard. By having one last night in the house, it gives us a full day at the park rather than cutting the day shorter. Since my parents live just shy of two hours north, and the fact that my dad will be 86, we can’t really stay late and arrive late there. They will be in bed! 
ETA: I realized that sounds confusing as worded. What I mean is, if we pay for that extra night, we can stay our last day in the park late, and leave early the next day. But THIS trip, we’re going back to my parents the next day, which is only 2 hours away…but we can’t stay late in the park that day as a result.
Nope, you made sense. Being able to leave property I think would have a much different feeling than waiting for the bus out (not to mention that absolute gut-retching video on the bus).
You can be out of the bubble and free!! And then everything is less painful/stressful.
This is true.
Me too. Our flights are often even later than 7 pm. It means time at the park that last day and usually a cheaper airfare.
I had two (logical) choices for upcoming trip for return home - 8:30 am or 4 pm, OR I could pay double and increase a 2 hour non-stop flight to a 10 hour flight that leaves at 9 pm
We travel like Ryan. After the last lovely evening, and return to the rental house for a good nights sleep and hit the road the next morning. For me the worst part is throwing out all the partially eaten food when we get up on departure day. That kills me worse than any goodbye to the mouse.
Honestly, I am usually more than ready to get back to reality. Our vacations are almost always two week ventures and as much as I like make-believe, real life rocks it, too. Clearly, you do not feel the same way. I hope you find it somewhat different this time around.
That must be my problem, my vacations aren’t long enough!
I’m never ready to come home after 2 weeks. It feels like a couple of days.
I get tired of eating out and not having all my own things and I miss my own bed. Don’t get me wrong, less than 10 days hardly feels worth it. Our longest trip was 19 days and that was decidedly too long. It won’t happen again with John’s new job. I am glad we tried it.