Do you visit a park on the day you're going home?

[GoingtoWDWagain]

After many trips to WDW our little ones want to visit a park prior to leaving to airport. I've never planned for or done this, I always felt it would be too much. We have to be at airport by 5:30pm. Anyone do this, enjoy this and all went smoothly?

Thanks a bunch for any tips/ideas

 

[cadawson]

Since we drive down, we try to get to MK early (open time) and leave by 11 am to hit the road home. It gives us a few hours to hit a few favorite rides and last minute souvenirs. Works great except be sure you have a plan for getting some lunch and/or dinner. Your flight falls right at dinnertime for us!
You should be able to leave your bags at your hotel front desk until you are ready to leave on Magic Express - just be sure to give yourself plenty of travel time.

 

[pigletgirl]

No. We never have. It would never occur to me that we would do that on a morning that we're headed to the airport.

 

[Alesia]

Sometimes. If you have time, why not?

 

[Astylla]

We plan to absolutely. Since our flight isn't until 7:19pm that night. We may just take a taxi to the airport versus MDE since we can do check in for our flight at the resort and bags( Flying United).

We have Liberty Tree Tavern lunch and even 3 FP+ scheduled.
It just makes sense to enjoy as much as we can. We are just two people so that may be different if we had a family.

 

[ajfd]

We just did that on Sunday. Had a 5pm flight and 2pm ME pickup. We got in to do HM and SM, but had to bail on the BTMR FP we had.

Of course, the bus back to the resort was delayed significantly (like 45 minutes since the prior bus) and we just _barely_ made the ME. In 7 trips to WDW, it was the longest we've ever had to wait for a resort bus by far. (There were times where we had to wait longer for additional buses to show up. This was the first time is was so long for any bus to arrive.)

 

[Fantaluminishes]

I visit a park on departure day every trip. I never use MDE for this very reason. I'll have a rental car, and drive myself to the airport. This way I can leave WDW 90mins to 2 hours before my flight departs. This year I'm doing something extra special on departure day, as you can see if you look at my signature.

 

[agavegirl1]

Sometimes. It depends on my departure flight. If I leave at 3PM, then yes. If I leave at 9AM, no

 

[ParkHoppers]

We try to have our flight departure in the late afternoon or evening so we can visit a park before we leave. We might choose a park closest to our resort if we want to return close to our airport pickup.Just leave your luggage with the front desk when you go out in the morning and get back in time for the Magical Express.

 

[Nancyg56]

We do. We like to pack up, check our bags and then head to DHS or MK for a few hours and lunch.

 

[Rosebud123]

Always! Our return flight is at 7:45 for our upcoming trip, but usually we have one even later.

We like to go to a park for a few hours in the morning, then head back to the hotel to relax by the pool for a few hours.

 

[mamamary]

Always. I get a late flight out all the time and it gives us a chance to hit one last park for a while.

 

[Kathryn777]

We always do. Wears them out so they behave better going home. We leave the park around 1-2

 

[OhThePain]

We usually take a flight home between 5-7PMish. We usually get up early, check-in our luggage at the resort and leave our carry-ons with bell service. We try to book a character breakfast for the morning and usually walk around MK and do a few favorites. We head back to the resort about 2.5 hours before ME is scheduled to pick us up. This gives us time to get our carry-ons, take another look in the store and grab a light snack before the reality of going home sets in.

 

[goofy4tink]

It depends on my flight times. If my flight is any time after 3pm, then I try to go to the park with EMHs that morning. If I'm leaving the resort, via DME, before noon, then I usually just hang at the resort.....sleep in, get a good breakfast, last minute gift shop run, maybe a swim.

 

[LaurenT]

I don't, but I always get a mid-morning flight. That doesn't really leave time for a park.
I could book a later flight I guess, but I think I'd be too stressed to enjoy the park and I prefer to get home and get unpacked at a decent hour.
I also visit frequently so I don't feel the need to squeeze every minute out of my trip.

 

[philharmagic fan]

When our kids were little, we had a family tradition that on departure day we'd book an ~8:30am character breakfast at Magic Kingdom, then each of us would choose our favorite ride to do one last time. When we did this, though, we were staying at the Contemporary and would walk back so there was no risk of a bus/boat/monorail delay that would jeopardize us catching our Magical Express bus.

 

[PSUGuy]

Only once, March 2004. We got a great deal on 2 rooms at the MCO Hyatt Regency on Biddingfortravel.com for the night after our check out from Swan so we hit MGM, as it was called then, and on to WS. We got picked up by Tiffany at 4 pm, spent the night at the Hyatt and flew out the next morning. Lately we book a flight around 2 pm, spend a relaxing morning at Board Walk then go to MCO and have a Happy Hour there.

Bill From PA

 

[PoohsFan1]

We always take the last nonstop flight out of Orlando which allows us to go to a park for part of the day on our departure day. We normally will go to either Epcot or MK and I always make an ADR for lunch and then afterwards, we would leave to head back to the resort to walk around, relax, or do whatever until ME picks us up. On our trip in October I was lucky enough to make ADRs for lunch at BOG so we will be heading to MK on our departure day .

 

[AlohaAnnie]

Yes, it is tradition. Squeeze in just a little more time!!!