Thinking of taking a detour and doing a spontaneous trip to WDW, anyone ever do solo last min trips?

[TornadoTitan]

I am normally much more planned and calculated and don't do things on a whim, but I been in a really theme park withdrawal mood lately, been watching videos of Disney World and Universal Studios thinking about my first trip to Orlando last year. I been planning fake trips to the Orlando parks since people say that helps but after doing that want to make them a reality.

I have a convention I will be selling my art at in Atlanta the first week of October and noticed if I ended up rescheduling my flight from Atlanta to Orlando before heading back to Texas it wouldn't be too much more. I am thinking of either staying at a cheap hotel or AirBNB in the range of $30-50 a night and fly in Tuesday early morning, look around Disney Springs, do Epcot on Wednesday, then fly out Thursday morning. It would still be a chunk out of my wallet but think it could be worth it so I could get it out of my system and finally experience the Food and Wine Fest.

Alternatively I was thinking of staying an extra day if I do go through with this and try and hit Universal for Halloween Horror Nights since I never been.

Has anyone else tried out of the blue trips to Disney? The rational side of my brain is saying last minute trips like this could be a bad idea, but I feel I am in the mood for an adventure. Also this would be me as a solo traveler so not sure how the experience of doing it alone would be.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I say go for it, I live about 90 min from the parks, so I take frequent day trips, most of which are planned pretty last minute, sometimes just the night before.
You can generally still get FP's and dining reservations the day before/morning of. This past year I did a day at Epcot by myself, I had never done any of the parks solo, and I really enjoyed myself. It was cool to do WHATEVER I wanted without consulting or taking into consideration the mood of the group.

 

[beccasmom]

I think it's a great idea! When DH or I have to travel for work to Orlando or Tampa, we try to get our Disney Fix in. It may be only a day or two (or an afternoon or evening!), but it helps until our next - longer! - visit. We have also done impromptu weekend trips on pretty short notice when the airfares made it impossible to resist (doesn't happen too often these days, unfortunately ).

 

[heidilee2003]

Do it!! I was supposed to go to Disney from my cancun vacation last weekend when Irma hit, so we're going next weekend instead. I was going from STL to Cancun to Orlando back to STL, but had to cut Orlando out of the equation unfortunately. It's a little chuck but oh so fun!

 

[bobbiwoz]

Go for it!

I smiled when I realize you have only been once, and are already tempted to do a unplanned trip! We've rerouted many trips to put WDW in the way!

 

[ocdisney08]

I recently booked my first solo trip. It's the first weekend of December, so about 2.5 months before which is totally a last minute trip in my books, lol. I'm just dying to see some Christmas decor and am gonna go to my first MVMCP. I'm constantly looking into prices for flights at the end of the month too even though I have a November and March trip already planned. Just trying to get the most out of my annual pass.

 

[kwdw]

This is totally doable! See the solo board for tips from solos - but I've definitely planned last minute trips.

It also all depends on how much money you want to spend. If you are arriving on Tuesday before 11 am - you COULD go to a park that day, too. Yes - you can go to Disney Springs - but unless you really like to shop - I'm done with that in a couple hours plus the time of a table service meal. Yes - that's another park ticket - so balance your costs.

Frankly - I think splitting just two days between Disney and Universal isn't smart. I think it's better to pick lodging close to the park you are going to hit - so you travel times (renting car or Uber?) are less - both in terms of time spent and cost. One day tickets are always the most expensive option. (though I don't know how much Universal Halloween tickets are)

If you do this - be sure to buy your ticket in advance at Disney so you can book FP's now. You'll have better selections NOW than you will if you wait to buy your ticket that day.

 

[DanielNYC]

T
If you are arriving on Tuesday before 11 am - you COULD go to a park that day, too. Yes - you can go to Disney Springs - but unless you really like to shop...

I was thinking this too. The OP appears to have the time to do an almost entire day at another park.

 

[BingandNelsonFan]

Disney Springs is amazing, and it will definitely give you a nice Disney thrill. Our Gramma took us there last December for the first time --- just rather spur of the moment, because I was wanting a Disney hat. It has a ton of the feel of the parks (minus rides, of course) and totally worth doing even without plans. If you're into Star Wars, don't miss the Star Wars "Galactic Outpost" store. My sister and I aren't even keen on SW, but our best friends are nuts for it, so we stopped in to buy some souvenirs for them. It's one of the coolest "themed stores" you'll ever see. Also, if you walk all the way through to the back of "Once Upon a Toy" store, there is a fabulous SW area in there.

Disney Springs is definitely worth throwing in. In fact, we had so much fun that we went back in June and went to Disney Springs twice! Learned about pin trading while there and have now come home and ordered pins and lanyards. So, we've already got a trip planned for the end of the year and are throwing in a day at Epcot to boot. Have only been there once (16 years ago), but it's too wonderful an opportunity to pass up! Hope you have fun!

 

[TornadoTitan]

Alright, thank you everyone for your helpful tips and opinions. It is a trip I do want to do, but being self-employed it is sometimes hard to justify such a big expense though I know I do have it in the budget to do such a trip.

I calculated the numbers for the rough cost of the trip, minus food and souvenirs. And since Southwest is flexible with dates, I currently have two different leave dates, Thurs early morning (7:45 AM flight) which would mean only one day (or one and a half day) at the park; and Saturday evening (need to be at airport by 6:45 PM) which could mean an extra half day or looking around Disney Springs more and 3-5 park days depending.

I have also been looking into getting Disney All Star Sports (currently the cheapest of the Disney Resort hotels), which much more expensive than $30 a night hotels, I do get the Magical Express to and from the airport and shuttle to the parks, while I see I would have to use Lyft or Uber for the cheaper hotels. So the Supershuttle from the airport to the cheap hotels I am looking at are about $20-25 one way, so looking at $50 expense with just that, then of course getting to the parks form the hotel which I estimate would be a $15-20 Lyft/Uber ride one way to and from the parks. While I believe with the Disney resort transportation is including and the All Star might have some extra magic hours.

A rough estimate of hotel, park tickets, transportation (not including food and extra spending money) this is roughly how much I am looking at for staying 2 or 5 nights at the cheapest offsite hotel or cheapest Disney hotel.

2 Day (Tues-Thur) at cheap offsite - $400 or $200 a Day
2 Day (Tues-Thur) at Disney hotel - $454 or $227 a Day

5 Day (Tues-Sat) at cheap offsite - $656 or $132 a Day
5 Day (Tues-Sat) at Disney hotel - $958 or $192 a Day

So what do you all think? I think $1000 would be my max range for just the base cost of parks, hotel, and transportation so a 5 day at the Disney All Star Sports would be in the max range, meaning I would need to be more thrifty on food and souvenirs. Also that is for a 3 day ticket to the park, if I tried 4 or 5 day ticket the per ticket cost would go down but overall price would go up.

Which of these 4 options seem the best?

This is totally doable! See the solo board for tips from solos - but I've definitely planned last minute trips.

It also all depends on how much money you want to spend. If you are arriving on Tuesday before 11 am - you COULD go to a park that day, too. Yes - you can go to Disney Springs - but unless you really like to shop - I'm done with that in a couple hours plus the time of a table service meal. Yes - that's another park ticket - so balance your costs.

Frankly - I think splitting just two days between Disney and Universal isn't smart. I think it's better to pick lodging close to the park you are going to hit - so you travel times (renting car or Uber?) are less - both in terms of time spent and cost. One day tickets are always the most expensive option.

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure to check out the solo board for more help.

My flight actually arrives at around 1 PM so realistically it might get to the parks at around 2:30 or 3 PM. But doing a half day at a park that stays open later might be an option.

I think you are right about not splitting Disney and Universal. Either way it looks like getting Lyft or Uber would be an extra cost since those two locations are far away. I was looking into doing Halloween Night for Universal on the value days when its $60, but it might be better if I spend more time on the Disney side.

 

[BingandNelsonFan]

Hi! As one more note about making your souvenirs very affordable, have you looked into pin trading? It's certainly affordable (especially if you prepare in advance) and saves so much on that feeling of "needing" souvenirs. I sure don't know what to tell you about the hotels, but if it was me, I would try for the 5-day trip. Can't imagine you would be disappointed!

 

[TornadoTitan]

Hi! As one more note about making your souvenirs very affordable, have you looked into pin trading? It's certainly affordable (especially if you prepare in advance) and saves so much on that feeling of "needing" souvenirs. I sure don't know what to tell you about the hotels, but if it was me, I would try for the 5-day trip. Can't imagine you would be disappointed!

Yeah I do pin trading, actually my first trip to WDW last year got me hooked on pin trading and collecting, though probably spent a lot on just buying new pins that I like, I think all my souvenir money last year went to getting pins at the parks.

 

[DVC-Don]

I go solo quite often during my Florida season. Chores done, head up to WDW. It's only 35 min. for me.

 

[krsb09]

Some friends of mine had a trip booked for last Thursday-tomorrow. I had an event to go to Saturday, but somehow they convinced me to join them in their room Thurs-Sat. I booked my airfare last Monday and was able to add myself to their reservation on Tuesday once the phone CMs were back at work. Honestly, the last minute nature of that trip freaked me out, but I had a BLAST. I did all 4 parks plus Disney Springs in 36 hours, and my friends didn't fly in until almost 12 hours after I got there. I'd do it again in a second.

 

[TornadoTitan]

Since I am arriving at 1 pm so not enough for a full day at the park, I am thinking of doing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

 

[DisDreaming4116]

I was just there with my daughters in late Aug/early Sep and became an AP for the first time. I planned on coming back in May 2018 but after finding a cheap flight to/from Milwaukee this morning, am now staying 2 nights this weekend at POP. MNSSHP was so good that I had to get back once more this year.
So absolutely, go for it!

 

[RustManFan]

I have had business trips in Orlando twice before and made solo visits to WDW. Both times I arranged an extra day or two in Florida and stayed there.... once at CBR and once at POR.