First Time Traveler to WDW and doing it solo HELP! 6/9-12

[Brendanb33]

I just found out I will be traveling to Orlando for a work conference and figure I should use the opportunity to check out WDW as I haven't been since I was a young child. That said I don't know where to begin so I am reaching out to the community for help. Here are a few details and questions I have:

Dates: Check in 6/9 (last meeting ends at 11:30 am) - Out 6/12 - 8:30 am flight
I prefer to stay on the resort as I won't have a vehicle

What hotel should I stay in? I am a 27 year old single male and would lean towards a lower budget room. I want to be out and explore, I don't plan on spending too much time in the room.

Where is a good place to book the trip? Right through disney, travel site, etc? Flight is already taken care of and have hotel accomodations off resort for 6/7-6/8 for the conference.

What resorts should I visit? I definitely want to visit Epcot and do the beers of the world but other than that I am open to suggestions. I only have 2.5 days of park time, is it possible to visit all 4 in that span without going nuts? I am not hugely into rides I will do a couple but like to explore and experience things.

What is the best way to go about park passes? Should I get the hopper or just one park a day?

Thank you in advance for your help, I am usually prepared but given the last minute nature of this trip I wanted to turn to the experienced vets for help. If anyone will also be there that weekend I would be happy to experience some of the fun together!

 

[BrianL]

I just found out I will be traveling to Orlando for a work conference and figure I should use the opportunity to check out WDW as I haven't been since I was a young child. That said I don't know where to begin so I am reaching out to the community for help. Here are a few details and questions I have:

Dates: Check in 6/9 (last meeting ends at 11:30 am) - Out 6/12 - 8:30 am flight
I prefer to stay on the resort as I won't have a vehicle

What hotel should I stay in? I am a 27 year old single male and would lean towards a lower budget room. I want to be out and explore, I don't plan on spending too much time in the room.

Where is a good place to book the trip? Right through disney, travel site, etc? Flight is already taken care of and have hotel accomodations off resort for 6/7-6/8 for the conference.

What resorts should I visit? I definitely want to visit Epcot and do the beers of the world but other than that I am open to suggestions. I only have 2.5 days of park time, is it possible to visit all 4 in that span without going nuts? I am not hugely into rides I will do a couple but like to explore and experience things.

What is the best way to go about park passes? Should I get the hopper or just one park a day?

Thank you in advance for your help, I am usually prepared but given the last minute nature of this trip I wanted to turn to the experienced vets for help. If anyone will also be there that weekend I would be happy to experience some of the fun together!

I recommend Pop Century as a place to stay. It's my go-to for solo trips. It is a value priced, centrally located and doesn't share buses. The stops can be crowded at night (leaving the parks at close), but all the values always are. I always book directly through Disney.

If you don't have tickets yet you might find a package to your liking, which is room and tickets. Often though you can save a little by getting tickets through a re-seller like Underground Tourist. You won't save that much on a 3-day single admission but you might check it out.

If you like to explore, get the hopper. You'll need it to see all four parks anyway. Make sure to hit Pandora at Animal Kingdom as it will be newly opened. Pick which nighttime shows you'd like to see and work from there as to which park to go to when.

Get your tickets and room booked soon so you can make Fast Pass reservations at 60 days out. Those Pandora Fast Passes are gonna be HOT!

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Traver Freeman]

I'll second the above about staying at Pop Century. Never been there, but it's the value resort least likely to be populated by lots of kids.

2 1/2 days is certainly enough to see all 4 parks if you're solo. Plan to spend 1 full day at Magic Kingdom. Then you'll likely want to half day the rest of them. If you wanted to spend longer at Epcot, then pair it on the day you go to Hollywood Studios and only spend 2-3 hours there and go to Epcot for the rest of the day. Hollywood Studios is the park with the least to do right now.

I recommend going to Animal Kingdom that first day as you'll only have half a day, and you'll want to spend the evening at Animal Kingdom for Pandora as was mentioned above.

 

[karly05]

3rd vote for POP. I stayed there this year and liked it; I'm planning to stay there again next year. If you stay at POP, you must walk across he bridge and check out Art of Animation. AoA food court was also much less crowded than POP for breakfast in my experience.

I book room only through Disney and buy a park hopper ticket from Undercover Tourist. Sign up for the free email newsletter from Mousesavers.com and you can get a little extra discount on tix from UT.

I can't promise you won't go nuts, but I would make some priorities of the things you most want to do and definately try to get to all 4 parks. I did the 4 Parks in 1 Day thing a couple of years ago just for fun, so with some thought and planning, you should be able to hit your top "must do"s. I love the Epcot resorts area, which connects Epcot and DHS, that would make a great day, maybe hit DHS at rope drop, boat/walk through the resorts area and spend the rest of your day at Epcot.

 

[rstevens333]

You might want to look into the express transportation upgrade. I used it on a trip of almost the exact same length this past January and saw a lot of all four parks.

(It costs a few bucks, but you wind up only going through security in your first park of the day- then you can go to little kiosks in each park and get on buses that go directly backstage in any of the other parks. I liked it for seeing the Magic Kingdom early, then swapping to somewhere quieter in the afternoon, then another park in the evening.)

 

[Brendanb33]

Thanks for all the help everyone! After your advice and research I went with the Pop century resort for 3 nights and grabbed the 3 day hopper plus. All in only $830 which doesn't seem bad for June and with the company picking up the flight!

 

[Oneanne]

Was also going to recommend POP, but see you've already booked it... good choice as it is centrally located and doesn't share buses with any other resort. I haven't been since the new express transportation has started, but would definitely use it on a shorter trip to park hop with the greatest ease.

 

[mustinjourney]

Like someone else said -- get the express transportation upgrade. You will save a lot of time doing that.

Rule of thumb -- if going by buses, just factor in an hour to go everywhere within WDW. Each bus ride is not too long (10-15 mins max) -- but by the time you wait for the bus to arrive, ride, depart and walk to entrance of the park and get through security, it can easily be an hour.

Which is why the express transportation thing would be highly useful for you. With that said, it might be more fun to take the boat from DHS to epcot if you do those two in the same day.

 

[bryanb]

Pop Century is one of the hotels used to house athletes competing at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. We arrive on June 10 for a week-long wrestling competition; you'll probably see a larger number of high schoolers than usual. It shouldn't affect your stay much (compared to if you were visiting during a cheerleading competition).

Have a really great trip! My first visit to WDW was added onto a business trip too, about 3.5 years ago, and I went solo. I liked it so much that I've been back many times since.

 

[janicept]

Disney Springs would be good for nighttime unless you plan to be up early for rope drop.