Best Way to Cure Disney Depression? Plan Another Trip! A Solo PTR *Updated 5/13 TR Link

[PippiDancer]

Daily Plans​

Day 0

I am working the day before I leave, which is good because it will keep my mind occupied. The last day before vacations are always super easy. I work in a resource room, so kids come and go for their scheduled times throughout the day. But on days before vacations classroom teachers usually do fun things so the kids just stay there and don’t come down to my room.
The only problem is that I’ll have to check in for my flight while I’m at school. With Southwest you have to check in 24 before your flight, the earlier the you check in the better your boarding group is. And since there aren’t any assigned seats I want to board as soon as possible so I don’t get stuck crammed into a middle seat between 2 people I don’t know. But I doubt it will be a problem, my check in time falls between two periods so it shouldn’t be a problem to log on quickly.
After work I’m sure I’ll have some last minute packing to finish up. And double checking that I packed everything. I’m hoping to get to bed somewhat early, although I’m sure it will take forever to get to sleep.

Day 1 - Saturday

I’ll have to leave home around 9:30am, one or both of my parents are going to drive me to the airport, which is about an hour and a half away. I’m sure I won’t be able to sleep the night before, so I’m hoping to sleep in the car to get as much pre-trip rest as possible. I want to be at the airport by 11:30 for my 1:15 flight. I’ll have to find something for lunch at the airport since I probably won’t have time to eat before. I’ll probably need to have a somewhat large lunch since I’ll have a late dinner.

Once my flight leaves it makes a stop in Baltimore, but I won’t have to get off the plane. I land in Orlando at 5:50pm! I want to wait until I get to AoA to eat dinner because I hate fast food which is all I would find at the airport (and I want to get to the Disney bubble as fast as possible). But, I usually eat dinner around 5 so I’ll probably be starving by the time I can eat. I’ll have to figure out a snack I can bring with me to eat on the plane, something substantial enough to hold me over.

I’m estimating that I will make it to Art of Animation around 6:30.

The plan is to go to my room the drop off my carry on, probably take pictures of every inch of the room, and then walk back to the main building slowly so I can explore the resort a little bit, and then have dinner at Landscape of Flavors.

Then it is off to Magic Kingdom, hopefully by 8pm.

After admiring the castle and taking a celebratory photopass pic or two, I’m going to head straight to Splash Mountain for my 8:10 fastpass. Depending on what time it is, I might meander around for a little bit and admire the beauty of Disney and marvel the fact that I am actually there, but I probably won’t go on any more rides at that point. I want to get to the Wishes fastpass area as soon as my time opens at 9:40 so I won’t miss Celebrate the Magic. That is by far my favorite night time spectacular, it is pure magic, and Wishes is a close second. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m a little teary eyed by the end of it.

I have a 10:25 fastpass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and after that I’m just going to wonder around and do things as I feel like it. Magic Kingdom has extra magic hours until 2 am that night, but I’m not planning on staying any later than 1am because I don’t want to exhaust myself on the first day.

 

[dalayney]

Sounds like you have an awesome plan! Landing in Orlando at 5:50 and getting to AOL by 6:30.... bit of a stretch there. You might want to allocate more time. Just a suggestion.

 

[SarahDisney]

Sounds like a good plan so far.
Definitely bring a big snack to eat on the plane - being super hungry when you arrive puts a bit of a damper on the Disney fun.
I think 40 minutes plane to hotel is pretty reasonable for AOA, assuming you don't have to wait too long for a bus. If you're waiting a while for a bus, it will add 10-15 minutes to your trip, but you should still make it to the hotel before 7 (probably closer to 6:45 even if you have to wait). I think you should have time to eat and definitely take some pictures of the room (taking all the pictures at once will take a lot of time - there's a lot to see in those rooms!) Also, remember that for a Little Mermaid room, you'll have a 5-10 minute walk to/from the room, so take that into consideration when planning your times.

 

[dreamseeker9]

Great first day! BTMRR is the best at nighttime! And Splash Mountain is my favorite!

 

[PippiDancer]

Sounds like you have an awesome plan! Landing in Orlando at 5:50 and getting to AOL by 6:30.... bit of a stretch there. You might want to allocate more time. Just a suggestion.

It was just an estimate of the earliest time I would get there, I don't really have any times sensitive plans. But thank you for you suggestion.

Sounds like a good plan so far.
Definitely bring a big snack to eat on the plane - being super hungry when you arrive puts a bit of a damper on the Disney fun.
I think 40 minutes plane to hotel is pretty reasonable for AOA, assuming you don't have to wait too long for a bus. If you're waiting a while for a bus, it will add 10-15 minutes to your trip, but you should still make it to the hotel before 7 (probably closer to 6:45 even if you have to wait). I think you should have time to eat and definitely take some pictures of the room (taking all the pictures at once will take a lot of time - there's a lot to see in those rooms!) Also, remember that for a Little Mermaid room, you'll have a 5-10 minute walk to/from the room, so take that into consideration when planning your times.

I will definitely eat something on the plane, I don't want to be hangry when I get into the Disney bubble. I just have to figure out something that will survive being stuffed in a carry on for a few hours and will be substantial enough tor hold me over until I can eat.

Great first day! BTMRR is the best at nighttime! And Splash Mountain is my favorite!

Splash is my favorite too! It was closed for refurb on my last trip, so I haven't been on it in 10 years. I love rides when it is dark, especially rollar coaster types, it's a different experience!

 

[LindseyJo22]

This PTR is awesome!

I would totally love to do a solo trip, but don't think that will happen any time soon unless I end up doing a short one for a runDisney event.

I totally love your bows! I am pushing my fiance to do a Disneybound for at least one day on our honeymoon, and I think these bows would be perfect! Sadly, it's probably going to be hot as blazes when we are there, so that makes Disneybounding a little more difficult.

Can't wait to see the AoA room and hear more about your adventures

 

[Tracy161]

Sounds great so far!!! I know, it's always SO hard to sleep the night before a Disney trip!

Woohoo! You're getting SO close! Landscape of Flavors looks so beautiful... I'll be staying at Pop so perhaps I need to haul myself over to AoA to check things out!

 

[PippiDancer]

This PTR is awesome!

I would totally love to do a solo trip, but don't think that will happen any time soon unless I end up doing a short one for a runDisney event.

I totally love your bows! I am pushing my fiance to do a Disneybound for at least one day on our honeymoon, and I think these bows would be perfect! Sadly, it's probably going to be hot as blazes when we are there, so that makes Disneybounding a little more difficult.

Can't wait to see the AoA room and hear more about your adventures

Thank you! I've never actually attempted Disneybounding, but it sounds like fun. But I'm sure the heat would make it more difficult to pull it off and be comfortable.

Sounds great so far!!! I know, it's always SO hard to sleep the night before a Disney trip!

Woohoo! You're getting SO close! Landscape of Flavors looks so beautiful... I'll be staying at Pop so perhaps I need to haul myself over to AoA to check things out!

It is practically impossible to sleep the night before Disney Day. I'm pretty sure I got a whopping 2 hours of sleep before our last trip. Everything at AoA looks amazing, I can't wait to get there and see everything for myself!

 

[LindseyJo22]

I've never actually attempted Disneybounding, but it sounds like fun. But I'm sure the heat would make it more difficult to pull it off and be comfortable.

Yeah, I've never actually attempted it either! It seems to have exploded in popularity (at least in places I look at) between our last Disney trip and this one, so I've been envying the cute outfits for a while. I'm going to attempt it, but may just end up in shorts and cute Disney tees, which are also super fun. Though your post about the bows has made me want to buy all of them!

 

[PippiDancer]

Day 2 - Sunday

My first full Disney day! I’m planning on sleeping in a little bit since I will probably be up late the night before. I might grab breakfast at Landscape of Flavors or I might wait until I get to the park.

So what park did I choose for my first full day? Magic Kingdom of course! I always try to make Magic Kingdom my first park of the trip because it just doesn’t seem real until I see the castle. Even though I will be at MK the night before, I made the plans before I decided to go to a park on my arrival day and I just didn’t feel like rearranging my plans. And there is nothing wrong with being in the Magic Kingdom two days in a row!

My goal is to be at the park by 10am, 10:30 at the latest. After admiring the gorgeousness of the castle some more, I’m going to head to Fantasyland for my first fastpass of the day, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!

My fastpass is at 10:35, so I might do another ride or two before my window opens, depending on when I get to the park. It will be my first ride on SDMT and I am very excited to try it!!

After SDMT I’ll probably stay in Fantasyland for a while. And then grab some lunch before heading over to Splash Mountain for my 12:35-1:35 fastpass.

I’ll probably stick around the Frontierland/Adventureland area until it’s time to find a parade spot around 2:30. On our last trip we got perfect spots for Celebrate a Dream Come True right on the corner of the parade route in Liberty Square, so I’m hoping to replicate them for Festival of Fantasy. Even if I don’t get a prime corner spot, I’m sure I’ll still find a good spot and won’t have to fight the crowds on Main Street.

This will be my first time seeing FoF, I’ve heard so many wonderful things about it, I can’t wait to see it for myself! I’ve seen pictures, but have been avoiding seeing any videos or listening to the soundtrack because I want to save a few surprises.

Once the parade is over I’ll probably meander over to Tomorrowland for my 3:45 fastpass on Space Mountain. And then explore that area.

And then I have no other plans for the rest of the day. I’ll just do things as I want to. I might watch Main Street Electrical Parade or save it for another night. I enjoy that parade, but it isn’t something I have to see more than once per trip. I am, however, planning on watching Celebrate the Magic and Wishes again. Because there is no such thing as seeing those too many times. I might try to get a spot on the Train Station to watch them, it seems like great new vantage point to watch from.

I’m going to leave right after Wishes and hopefully get right to bed because I have a very early morning the next day. But first I have to remember to stop in Landscape of flavors and grab something for breakfast the next day, like a muffin or bagel so I can eat on the go.

 

[Tracy161]

So true - one can NEVER be in MK too much! I love your Day 2 plans - I haven't yet ridden SDMT either and just secured a FP+ for it at 12:01 this morning! Excited to keep hearing about all your plans.

 

[ThistleMae]

M

Who?
Me. Just me. It’s going to be a solo adventure!

I was going to go with my best friend, but she won’t be able to afford a trip this year. At least I have an excuse to go next year, right? I don’t have anyone else to go with, so my choice were solo-Disney or no-Disney. An obvious choice.

I’m really nervous about going on a solo trip. I’m a very introverted/shy person, so I’m worried I’ll get lonely or feel awkward doing things alone. But I’m also really excited to be able to do whatever I want without having to worry about anyone else.

When?
I always swore that I would never go to Disney World during school vacations because of the crowds. I much prefer off season; lower crowds, lower cost, shorter wait times. However, since my new job is in the public school system, I don’t get any vacation time outside of school breaks. This restricted me to either February or April vacation. After doing some research and looking at a ton of crowd calendars, I decided that April was the better time to go.

My trip will be during the week of April 18-26 2015.

The best thing about this week? My birthday is on April 25. Is there a better way to spend your birthday than being in Disney World? I don’t think so

I would usually fly back on Saturday so I can have a buffer day before going back to work, but I don’t want to have to leave Disney on my birthday. That’s too depressing. So I will be returning on the 26th. I haven’t decided an arrival date, but I’m leaning towards the 19th.

Where?
Since this will be a budget trip, I’ll be staying at a value resort. I’ve narrowed it down to Pop Century or a Little Mermaid room at Art of Animation.

Pop is cheaper. But I’ve been dying to stay at AoA since it opened. So, I’m leaning towards AoA.

 

[ThistleMae]

Hey adventure girl! You go! For my first solo trip I too want to stay at AOA. I took a walk over there on my last trip and checked it all out. The theming is so pretty! I didn't care for the gates around the pools, one of the reasons I really like POP, but I hear the resorts will all be going that way eventually. It is just such a magical area! I'm not going till November, but I have other trips I'm doing in between to move things along. Let us know how your trip went....tell us all your solo secrets! Have a Blast!

 

[LindseyJo22]

Festival of Fantasy! This is on my "new to me" list for our honeymoon! Thankfully, I think FH likes parades, because my family was never the kind to sit down and watch one, but now that I have trips of my own to take, I definitely want to make them a part of the experience. I seriously had to stop myself from looking it up on YouTube last night when I was watching Wishes so that it would still be new to me

And you definitely can't have too much MK! We are thinking we won't even go to AK this trip, so I'm thrilled with the amount of time we are going to have at MK and Epcot (HS isn't really our favorite either).

Hope you have so much fun!

 

[SarahDisney]

I love that you're going to MK 2 days in a row - that's definitely the best way to start the trip!

Sounds like you've got a great day planned! Once you get there and see how the crowds are moving it'll be a lot easier to figure out what to do between fastpasses. Going with the flow once you get there is pretty easy (and can be a lot of fun, too!)

 

[*tinker*bell*]

Love all your plans so far. I went into 7DMT not expecting much after reading how disappointed people were with it. I really loved it though, it's great for what it is, a medium between the Barnstormer and Thunder Mountain. A little thrill with a little dark ride mixed in. Can't wait to read more plans!

 

[dreamseeker9]

Sounds like a fab Day 2 to me! I just posted in my TR about FoF parade if you're interested.

Check the Landscape of Flavors closing time just to be safe - I found that many times after I returned to AOA from the parks, it was closed, though a small section of grab and go options appeared to still be open.

 

[PippiDancer]

Yeah, I've never actually attempted it either! It seems to have exploded in popularity (at least in places I look at) between our last Disney trip and this one, so I've been envying the cute outfits for a while. I'm going to attempt it, but may just end up in shorts and cute Disney tees, which are also super fun. Though your post about the bows has made me want to buy all of them!

Maybe one day I'll put the effort in to try Disneybounding. Now I just stick to the simple Disney tees. Those bows are definitely addicting, once you start looking at them you will want to buy all of them.

So true - one can NEVER be in MK too much! I love your Day 2 plans - I haven't yet ridden SDMT either and just secured a FP+ for it at 12:01 this morning! Excited to keep hearing about all your plans.

There will be a lot of Magic Kingdom time during this trip! Yay for getting your FPs, you're getting closer!!

Hey adventure girl! You go! For my first solo trip I too want to stay at AOA. I took a walk over there on my last trip and checked it all out. The theming is so pretty! I didn't care for the gates around the pools, one of the reasons I really like POP, but I hear the resorts will all be going that way eventually. It is just such a magical area! I'm not going till November, but I have other trips I'm doing in between to move things along. Let us know how your trip went....tell us all your solo secrets! Have a Blast!

Thanks for reading! I love the themeing of AoA, everything looks so gorgeous. I can't wait to see it for myself

Festival of Fantasy! This is on my "new to me" list for our honeymoon! Thankfully, I think FH likes parades, because my family was never the kind to sit down and watch one, but now that I have trips of my own to take, I definitely want to make them a part of the experience. I seriously had to stop myself from looking it up on YouTube last night when I was watching Wishes so that it would still be new to me

And you definitely can't have too much MK! We are thinking we won't even go to AK this trip, so I'm thrilled with the amount of time we are going to have at MK and Epcot (HS isn't really our favorite either).

Hope you have so much fun!

I love parades! They are so much fun. I have a rule against watching youtube videos of rides/shows/parades until I've seen it for myself. I think it takes some of the magic out of experiencing then for the first time.

I love that you're going to MK 2 days in a row - that's definitely the best way to start the trip!

Sounds like you've got a great day planned! Once you get there and see how the crowds are moving it'll be a lot easier to figure out what to do between fastpasses. Going with the flow once you get there is pretty easy (and can be a lot of fun, too!)

Exactly, it is so hard to plan everything until you know what the crowds are like on that day. I like leaving my plans as open as possible so I can do things as I want to.

Love all your plans so far. I went into 7DMT not expecting much after reading how disappointed people were with it. I really loved it though, it's great for what it is, a medium between the Barnstormer and Thunder Mountain. A little thrill with a little dark ride mixed in. Can't wait to read more plans!

I've heard a lot of people were disappointed with SDMT. I think it's because everyone thought it would be another big rollar coaster ride and that's not what it was meant to be. I can't wait to try it out for myself!

Sounds like a fab Day 2 to me! I just posted in my TR about FoF parade if you're interested.

Check the Landscape of Flavors closing time just to be safe - I found that many times after I returned to AOA from the parks, it was closed, though a small section of grab and go options appeared to still be open.

I've read about FoF in several TRs, but I don't want to know too many details about it. I will definitely check the closing time of Landscape of Flavors first, if it closes early I will just grab something earlier in the day or something.

 

[PippiDancer]

I officially have less than a month to go!! I got my Magical Express tags in the mail the other day and today I got an email that my magicband has shipped! It is getting so close!! Exactly 4 weeks from right now I will be on an airplane on my way to Disney! I also have a new favorite game...”what will I be doing exactly a month from now?” It makes the work day a lot more enjoyable.

And now back to the daily plans...

Day 3 - Monday

My plan for today is pretty ambitious, I’m not sure if I will accomplish everything. But I would rather over plan and decide to skip things if I run out of energy.

Today is going to be a very early morning. Why? Because it’s tour day! I am going on the Marceline to Magic Kingdom Tour. The tour starts at 8am but I’m supposed to check in at 7:45, no late comers allowed. I am super excited about this tour, but I’m not looking forward to the early morning. And I know that I will be stressing out about getting there on time.

The plan is to wake up at 6am. That is 45 minutes earlier than I wake up to go to work and I am NOT a morning person, so it’s going to be rough.

I want to get to the bus stop by 6:45 and be on a bus by 7 at the latest. Any later than that and I’ll probably try to get a cab, I really don’t want to sped that extra money if I can avoid it but I also don’t want to miss my tour because of slow busses. For breakfast I am going to grab something (like a muffin) the night before so I can eat en route to Magic Kingdom.

The tour is 3 hours long, so it will probably be done around 11. I’m going to head out of MK right after the tour and take the monorail over to Epcot.

I might eat lunch in MK first or I might eat in Epcot, it depends how hungry I am. I have a 1:10 fastpass for Soarin, a 2:15 fastpass for Spaceship Earth, and a 3:20 fastpass for Mission Space. I’ll just fill in time in between those with things in Future World. I might try to hit the Visa exclusive character meet at some point. After my Mission Space fp, I’ll probably head into World Showcase to explore that area and check out the Flower and Garden Festival. I’ll eat dinner in WS, probably at Yorkshire Fish & Chips or just snacking at the food booths.

This is where the plan is a little flexible. I’m anticipating that my early morning will be catching up with me at this point and I’ll be feeling the exhaustion. If that’s the case I might try to reschedule my Mission Space fp and head back to AoA for a quick nap. And then head back to Epcot for dinner.

Hollywood Studios has Extra Magic Hours 9:30-11:30 this night that I’m hoping to get to. But again, that is flexible. If I don’t get back for a nap and I’m tired I’ll skip EMH and make it an early night.

But, the plan is to take the boat to Hollywood Studios around 9. Hopefully there will be shorter lines and I can do some of the major rides; TSMM, Rock n Rollarcoaster, maybe Tower of Terror. And I’m going to try to see the 10:00 Fantasmic!

 

[LindseyJo22]

So much fun!!

I love love love Fantasmic; I had never seen it until my last trip, and I'm pretty sure it's my favorite show (maybe next to Wishes).

One month! Woo hoo!!! I'll definitely be following; we still have quite a few months and I need to make the time go faster