24-Hours KID FREE at WDW - What would you do?

[MichaelaF]

Hi All!

This November we are staying with my parents and our 18-mo-old son in their RV at Fort Wilderness. I recently (just making conversation) asked my husband if he could stay in ANY room on property, where would he want to stay? To my surprise, he said one of the Royal Guest Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside. SO I decided to go ahead and surprise him with one night at POR in the Royal Rooms. Hurrah! When I mentioned this to my mother, she offered to take our 18-mo-old for the whole day and night! This would be the first full day and night away we've had since the DS was born.

So help me plan? We are trying to keep the budget low this year (hence staying with my parents in their RV), and since we went hard morning to night at the parks last year, we are being a bit more lazy this year, only planning 5 days (out of 10) for park tickets. Originally, we had this specific day planned to just visit some resorts we'd never seen or spent much time in (Boardwalk area, Animal Kingdom Lodge, etc), not at the parks. BUT now I am conflicted. Should we take that time and hit up all the big rides we never get to ride together at the parks? (Even with my parents there, we often split up, so have to do the baby swap.) Should we just take the time and enjoy Port Orleans (which we've never stayed at), see some of the other resorts as planned, and see YeHaa Bob? Should we brave the cluster that is Downtown Disney right now and head over there on the boat?

I usually feel pretty definitive about what I have in mind when it come to planning, but with a full 24-hours without the kid I feel like THE (DISNEY) WORLD IS MY OYSTER!! So many options I'm not sure what we should do!

Again, we're trying to keep it budget-friendly (lets say $100 or under for everything - all meals) so not wanting to do Cali Grill or V&As or anything. We will probably bring some beer and wine and snacks from our own stash, though we'd probably like to enjoy a drink out with dinner too.

Thoughts? Ideas?

 

[MichaelaF]

Oh I should mention: We already have plans on another day to do the bikes and canoes at FW so we probably will skip bikes/boats at POR...

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Personally.... I would go to Epcot and have fun snacking around World showcase. Spend some romantic time and enjoy Illuminations.

 

[ChitownFamily]

I don't see your trip dates listed (but I'm still on my first cup of coffee- perhaps I missed it)
Food & wine goes to nov 10, if you are in Disney at the time, that would be a great kid free experience.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-international-food-and-wine-festival/

What about the Disney mini golf? Something that might be more challenging with a stroller in tow

If I was in your situation, I would leave Disney & do a day at Discovery Cove (not cost effective at all, but completely worth it) http://www.discoverycove.com/

OR I would step over to the "dark side" & hit up the new Harry potter at universal. Especially if you like thrill rides & coasters.

 

[MichaelaF]

Good ideas! We''ll be at POR on Nov 5-6, so Food and Wine Festival will still be on. We did really love it last year, but also found that it was pretty crowded..and we tend to spend a lot because we like food and adult beverages! But we'll keep it on the list of options, because we do enjoy it. I'd REALLY like to do Universal, but then we get into the cost factor - it would cost is $280 to go for a day, not including food. Given what we are already paying extra for the POR room, that's probably out.

I'll def put Food and Wine, Discovery Cove and the minigolf on the options list. I'll probably make a list of things we could do and just see what the DH would like....no need to plan the whole thing without any input from him, I suppose!

Keep any other ideas coming!

 

[stargazer2892]

Honestly, I think Epcot for F&W and then go to magic kingdom later. Enjoy being there with out the kids, with out the stress, find out of the way benches and just sit and relax and people watch. Ride the rides the kids wont do, jump on the monorial and grab dinner at one of the bars and have a drink or two. I think watching wishes from the Poly on the beach sounds amazing.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

What about one of the tours? The last time we went without our kids, we did the World Showcase Segway tour (no longer offered, unfortunately) and the Keys to the Kingdom tour. We loved both of them. That would be my top choice for a kid-free thing to do. That and spend the evening wandering World Showcase, browsing in the stores, watching the shows --- we never get to do those things with our kids!

 

[Mainst]

My ideal day would be:

Sleep in!!
Go out to late breakfast at hotel
Swim
Nap
Go to F&W and stroll around eating on the go.

Don't plan- just let the day happen. Whenever you get to epcot, you get there.

 

[smiths02]

When DH and I had the in-laws there, we didn't get to stay in a separate room for one night, but we did get a night away and we hit up MK for the evening extra magic hours. We got to hit all the rides and had little waits.

Would expanding your tickets to 6 day be overly expensive?

 

[MandiC]

I'd enjoy POR, we loved it there, it is a big beautiful resort with lots of paths and the grounds are very well kept. So plan to spend at least part of the morning strolling around to get a good look. They do evening horse drawn carriage rides down the river, which would be very romantic without kids
I do love the idea of heading to F&W for the latter part of the day and enjoying that and then Illuminations.

 

[MichaelaF]

Good thoughts!

I should say that we're looking at about 1pm-mid-morning time frames. So we'll leave the DS with my parents around 1pm and head over to POR. Check-in is at 3pm so we may just leave our stuff and head over for lunch at DTD, and then do a park after. It's only about $10 per person to add an extra day to the ticket, so that's definitely do-able. The next morning, we'll probably be lazy, get breakfast and check out at 11am. (I'm leaning towards doing a park, but I can't decide whether to just make some FP selections now? I think Epcot/WS is easily done without FP, but if he decides he wants to hit the big rides at MK, it may be worth just booking those ahead of time for the two of us, since they are cancelled easily enough if we want to do something different.

A tour is definitely not out of the realm of possibilities, though I think I would be more excited about that than my husband would be - and I think they mostly start in the mornings? (We could, I guess, leave earlier than 1pm, but probably not earlier than about 10am, because of my parents schedule.)

Speaking of, anyone have any breakfast preferences around POR or POFQ?

 

[MandiC]

beignets at PO French Quarter You can walk or take the boat.