Ah! Extra day! Now what?

[Stefien Quix]

Wife & I were looking at our schedule and realized that our plane doesn't actually leave until 6:45 the evening of our checkout day. I don't have DW tickets for that day, and we'll be checking out at 11 or 10 (or whatever the checkout time is), so I'm not sure what to do with the day in between when DME will take us to the airport and the start of the day.

I'm not loving the idea of buying another park ticket as we didn't really budget for that. I'm thinking possibly about the water park, as it's somewhat cheaper. Still more pretty expensive though. Is there a good option to kill time around the parks and hotels and/or Orlando? We don't have a car, so it'd be an Uber or something if we ended up leaving the Disney area, so we'd have to factor that into the expense.

Thoughts?

 

[cmarsh31]

Depending on how many days already have, adding on a day to your park tickets might be a lot cheaper than you think!

 

[Ghost Host 998]

Depending on how many days already have, adding on a day to your park tickets might be a lot cheaper than you think!

Last time we had this same situation. We had 8-day tickets with Park Hopper, it was only $10/person to upgrade to 9-day. The Park Hopper is a flat rate no matter how many days your theme park tickets are for, so this doesn't add any cost when adding days.

 

[Stefien Quix]

Depending on how many days already have, adding on a day to your park tickets might be a lot cheaper than you think!

I have 3 single park tickets for each of us. Say more? How do I look into this?

 

[cmarsh31]

I have 3 single park tickets for each of us. Say more? How do I look into this?

I'm assuming you mean you have a 3-day Base ticket for each of you, not 3 single day tickets (because that would be insanely, and needlessly, expensive). A 3-day base ticket is $305 and a 4-day ticket is $380, so $75 per ticket to upgrade (before tax). In general if you have a 5 or more day park ticket, it becomes almost negligible to upgrade as PP stated.

 

[Stefien Quix]

I'm assuming you mean you have a 3-day Base ticket for each of you, not 3 single day tickets (because that would be insanely, and needlessly, expensive). A 3-day base ticket is $305 and a 4-day ticket is $380, so $75 per ticket to upgrade (before tax). In general if you have a 5 or more day park ticket, it becomes almost negligible to upgrade as PP stated.

Gotcha. Firstly, you're correct. It's a 3-Day Base Ticket and unfortunately the trip wasn't planned to be that long. It's the first trip for a DD and she's only 5, so we wanted to make a somewhat gentle entry I'm guessing upgrading her ticket will cost slightly less?

 

[DCLPrincess]

You get free mini golf vouchers with your package that you could use. Also you could go to Disney Springs or the boardwalk area. We also swim on check out day.

 

[Stefien Quix]

You get free mini golf vouchers with your package that you could use. Also you could go to Disney Springs or the boardwalk area. We also swim on check out day.

We didn't purchase a package. We purchased the park tickets and hotel reservation separately. But either way, mini golf would be cheaper than a park ticket! Disney Springs is a good idea I hadn't considered! And a pool day was our default go-to option failing anything else, but I was a little concerned how well it would work when we wouldn't have our hotel room as a "home base" when we were tired of swimming.

 

[iluveeyore]

Which resort are you staying at? Our favorite non-park thing to do is explore the other resorts...you can take a bus to any resort from any of the parks or from Disney Springs. My DH's favorite is the Poly for the atmosphere, plus you can ride the monorail loop, which my grandson loved (just take a bus to MK, then hop on the monorail). My favorite is Animal Kingdom Lodge, you can view the giraffes, zebras, etc. from the viewing area outside at the back of the main lobby. For your little one, Art of Animation is fun as there is lots of Disney theming that's larger than life to walk through and see, and they have a nice food court there as well. The Wilderness Lodge is beautiful, and you can take a bus from there also to Fort Wilderness where you can tour the stables (and they have pony rides for little ones there too).

 

[Stefien Quix]

Which resort are you staying at? Our favorite non-park thing to do is explore the other resorts...you can take a bus to any resort from any of the parks or from Disney Springs. My DH's favorite is the Poly for the atmosphere, plus you can ride the monorail loop, which my grandson loved (just take a bus to MK, then hop on the monorail). My favorite is Animal Kingdom Lodge, you can view the giraffes, zebras, etc. from the viewing area outside at the back of the main lobby. For your little one, Art of Animation is fun as there is lots of Disney theming that's larger than life to walk through and see, and they have a nice food court there as well. The Wilderness Lodge is beautiful, and you can take a bus from there also to Fort Wilderness where you can tour the stables (and they have pony rides for little ones there too).

These are great suggestions! Thank you! The day BEFORE we start our park experience we'll actually have some time to kill around both the Boardwalk resort and the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so my hope was to explore both of them then, but like you say, there are lots of other resorts to explore and check out. We're staying at Pop Century.

 

[NickC]

I would either do Disney Springs or visit other resorts. At Disney Springs, The Void, the Amphicars and the hot air balloon all seem fun. Or, since we usually stay in the Epcot and MK area, I'd love to visit other resorts to see how they compare. We always consider staying other places, but we've never taken the risk.

 

[Stefien Quix]

I would either do Disney Springs or visit other resorts. At Disney Springs, The Void, the Amphicars and the hot air balloon all seem fun. Or, since we usually stay in the Epcot and MK area, I'd love to visit other resorts to see how they compare. We always consider staying other places, but we've never taken the risk.

Agree about all three! Unfortunately The Void won't allow my DD (age restriction) and the Amphicar is probably outside of what we'd want to spend. Definitely hoping to make the hot air balloon happen though!

 

[Michelle James]

I'd second the recommendation for mini-golf. My DS is 6 and Winter Summerland has been our arrival day activity for the past 3 trips. He LOVES it. The theming is terrific, it's reasonably priced, and it's on the Disney bus system (bus to Blizzard Beach).

 

[Stefien Quix]

I'd second the recommendation for mini-golf. My DS is 6 and Winter Summerland has been our arrival day activity for the past 3 trips. He LOVES it. The theming is terrific, it's reasonably priced, and it's on the Disney bus system (bus to Blizzard Beach).

This is good info, thanks! Yeah, mini-golf is actually on our itinerary for our first day as well. I've got brunch reservations at Trattoria al Forno for their Bon Voyage character breakfast on the Sunday before our park day starts and my plan is to walk over to Fantasia Gardens and Fairways Miniature Golf afterwards. But no reason we couldn't do another mini-golf on our last day if time permits!