I am trying to sneak in a SUPER short, one-night WDW stay this summer (which comes on top of a 3-day/3-night DLR/DCA visit in June).
I’ll be flying into Orlando with my two girls (7 and 10 yrs old) on a Saturday night (27th July) to go and visit my parents. My parents live 2hrs away from Orlando and don’t like driving in the dark, so they suggested that we stay in Orlando overnight and they come pick us up around 11am on Sunday.
I was thrilled at this suggestion, which gives me one evening and one morning to do fun things in WDW, plus a new resort to explore! Ideally, I’d like to spend the evening in a park (with after 5pm conference tickets), and the morning having breakfast/brunch at Topolino’s (we’ve never been!)
For parks, MK seems to be the obvious option since we touch down at MCO at 6pm (we’ll have checked luggage unfortunately), and MK currently has the latest predicted opening time (11pm). We would be super excited for some MK firsts like riding Tron, watching HEA and maybe - with some pixie dust - also ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
What would you do?
Transport: take a ride share from the airport to the resort to drop bags there (then WDW transport or ride share to MK), OR book a self pick-up rental car to drive from the airport straight to TTC and leave the bags in the car while in MK, then drive to resort? The main drawback with the latter is that I would then need to plan for around 1hr the next morning to drop the car over at car care center.
Resort stay (all of these would be firsts for us):
Pop room for $209
Boardwalk DVC studio for $360
Copper Creek DCV studio for $414
Grand Floridian DVC studio for $420
Bay Lake Towers DVC studio for $437
Riviera Resort DVC studio for $520
I realize that there’s a level of risk to plannnig a night in the parks when my flight could be delayed, and I’m prepared to accept that. I am however therefore hesitating how much money I’m willing to risk for nice accommodation, and currently wavering most between staying at Pop with the rental car (most economical option + potentially quickest) or splurging on the Grand Floridian (taking ride share from airport, dropping bags in room and then monorailing 1 stop to MK). I guess the latter would work equally well for BLT, but I figured we will have some time for pool/water slide in the morning, and thought the GF pool area looked nicer than the BLT one?
Thoughts?? Are there transportation options or other factors that I’m not taking into consideration?
Mears or Rideshare. The rental return is way too much of a hassle for such a short visit. Once you’re on prop you can use Disney transport or more rideshare
Again for such a short stay I would go inexpensive. You’re not going to be there long enough to enjoy the amenities of any of the deluxe resorts so I wouldn’t bother paying for them.
I’ll admit, I am not sure I would even bother with a park for such a short time. If your flight lands at 6, probably to resort by 7:30…so probably the absolutely earliest you would be in the parks is 8:00 pm.
But that’s me. I might instead just focus on the resort itself, maybe the pool (which could suggest something more than a value of you want a water slide). So I might choose the Boardwalk option, and then enjoy the Boardwalk itself…and next morning you could hop on the Skyliner or boats without going into a park.
I’d be happy with an MK night from 8-11pm, but if the timing slips and we’re looking at an arrival closer to 9/9.30 (e.g. missing HEA) then indeed some splashing in the Boardwalk pool (which I’ve read has a great water slide) and grabbing a late snack while enjoying the Boardwalk ambiance sounds like a pretty amazing consolation prize.
What are you planning on doing on Sunday with a short number of hours? That would sway my decision a bit.
I did a less than 24 hour trip a few weeks ago and stayed at AoA but my less than 4 hours morning time I planned to spend at HS, so the skyliner was key for me.
EDIT: I now realize you are only planning on doing park stuff on Saturday night, but doing park stuff Sunday morning is a good option if you get delayed.
Eh. With her parents picking them up at 11am I think that would be too much of a hustle for too little return. Also she would have to buy regular tickets vs convention/after 5 tickets which would be expensive
The plan for Saturday morning would be to sleep in, splash in the pool whenever we wake up and then have brunch at Topolino’s with the grandparents (who will LOVE it there) before heading out of Orlando.
Yep, that was exactly my thinking - full day park passes for three people are a lot of money for just a few hours of touring on Sunday, whereas after 5pm conference tickets seem positively reasonable by comparison.
Are you sure you are calculating the Disney math correctly. Could you make it a two night trip and do half park fun and half hotel fun?
I wouldn’t bother with a rental either. Sounds like a huge time suck. There are car services that will take your luggage to the hotel, so you can start at the park w/o going to your room. (Gear Fusion?)
It’s pricey, but if you downgrade to a less expensive resort - then there you go.
Not sure if your airline, but I figured out that I could ship my carry on for less than the cost to take it on the plane. With no large bags, use a bubble bum booster and ride share directly to the park.
Genius! I knew about this but somehow completely forgot. This is why I love TP Forum - getting to pick the minds of Disney master planners. Will research options straight away and likely go with that to save time on arrival.
Haha, two days would be awesome, but it would eat into our beach time with the grandparents so I’ll be happy with just the one-night stopover this time.
Another interesting idea that hadn’t occurred to me! Who did you ship your things with? Is there a guaranteed delivery day/time? I guess then I’d still need to get a locker at MK for my carryon though (e.g heavy stuff that I don’t want to lug around the park like laptops and kids tablets).
We are flying JetBlue, I already paid $35 for one checked bag for, but may be able to change.
I always under estimate the time for logistics. We are doing something similar to you and others have estimated at least 1.5 hours to get from MCO to a park. I’ve been trying to shave off all stops.
Check with @kerrilux_625778 on the luggage delivery services (not the shipping ones but the ones suggested by @TheSafetyLady ) She did not have a good experience as I recall. The shipping one may be different.
It’s been a few years now, but I did one that picked our backs up from the airport and delivered them to the hotel. We landed in the afternoon and did not get our bags until around midnight IIRC. If you’re right on time, I do not recommend this option.
Thanks @kerrilux_625778 for the feedback (and thanks to @OBNurseNH for the excellent memory of past Liner experiences!)
After some online research I couldn’t find any well-reviewed/widely used companies that offer bag pick-up from bagagge claim. There’s a ‘Hold My Luggage’ service located inside the airport that says it offers bag pick-up, but it actually sounds like you still need to wait at baggage claim yourself and then leave it with them for delivery to give you the freedom to head out without bags. So I’m dubious of going that route.
In the meantime, I can see positive reviews from Liners of ‘Away We Go’ car service that offers a $25 upcharge for taking you straight to the park and then dropping your bags at bell services in your resort for you afterwards. Leaning towards this option right now over shipping my luggage (as the latter requires you to drop your bag a few days in advance of travel, and that’s not convenient for me because neither my departure city nor my arrival city are home for me so I don’t have access to alternative clothes/toiletries if I ship everything).
BONUS: I woke up this morning to an email from JetBlue announcing a new departure/arrival time of my flight, which gets me into MCO 1hr 20 min earlier than expected, just before 5pm. Lucky for me!
