Have you ever taken a spontaneous trip to WDW?

[DancingBear]

A few things came together for us just right this last September. I was wrapping up a big project at work that had consumed a few weekends in a row. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal saying that my US Airways frequent flier miles might not survive their most recent bankruptcy. And the DIS was offering a great deal at the Swan and Dolphin--good rates plus a free upgrade and 4 p.m. checkout. And, Florida was between hurricanes!!

So, on Thursday afternoon I lined up the free USAirways tickets, reserved a room at the Dolphin and a car at the airport, and bought passes through the Disney website to get the advance purchase discount, for a Saturday morning to Tuesday night trip.

My DW is a nervous flier, so I didn't tell her anything in advance--I secretly packed on Friday night for myself and our DS4. On Saturday morning, I woke up my wife and told her to pack up, 'cause we're going to Disney World!

 

[Deborah_Mary]

We kind of did. We decided last minute (for us anyway) and booked a trip 10 days prior to leaving. We didn't tell our dd until the weekend before and she was so excited! Dh and I couldn't decide if we should take the trip or not since we had our little one (6 months at the time) but we took the plunge and had a great time. We drove down and stayed at CR. When dh went to book the room, I was really hoping to go all out and get a tower room. He of course really wanted to save the extra $$, so when he got home from work and booked our trip he told me he had gotten a standard room. I was bummed to a degree since I felt we would be spending a lot more time in our room (which we ended up doing with the baby) and it would be worth it. Fast forward a couple days when we got the paperwork... all of it said "tower room" on it, so I called dh at work and he was bummed that he wasn't home to get the mail as he was going to keep that a secret to surprise me at check in! It was the best even if I did spoil it.

That's our little story.

Deb*

 

[gweeptrish]

Except for our honeymoon in 1996, and the cruise we're going on next month, all of our trips have been done with less than 2 weeks notice.

The shortest notice ever was when I got a bonus at work on tuesday, and surprised my husband with a trip to disneyworld that weekend.

It's a lot harder to do last-minute when you live in New Hampshire & have to fly, than when you live close enought to drive.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

Last year, I was travelling in Orlando on business and I called my wife and on my last Thursday of meetings, I called and told her to check her email for a surprise. I had bought a plane ticket for her on Song on a flight left that afternoon and I extended my flight to leave the following Monday night. She flew in to Orlando and I picked her up at the airport and we drove straight over to AKL. The CM at the front desk looked like her head would explode when I told her we needed a room for 4 nights with no reservations! As far as she was concerned, we were the 1st people who had ever done this! I guess even Disney doesn't know what to do with "pop in" guests . It took some doing and a little frantic running around on her part but she finally figured out how to set us up and we had a fantastic time at WDW!

 

[ead79]

We've done it once, and it was great.

We booked the trip about 12 days out (very last minute for me--I usually book about a year in advance) and got an AP rate at All Star Music. We made 2 PS's and drove on down to Disney. It was a great trip, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I'm hoping to have the funds for a spontaneous May trip, but who knows.

 

[cruisin'Mike]

My wife and I were taking our 3 kids to Baltimore Aquarium for the day to celebrate our oldest's preschool graduation. We were joking around on the way there from Philadelphia that we should just keep going. Next thing you know, we were driving past Baltimore.
This was on a Friday, so we both called work to see if we could get off for Mon and Tues. Then called our neighbor to see if he would take care of the dog. Then by around Washington DC, we figured we should call and get a room.
Since we weren't planning this, we only had a small diaper bag with one change of clothes for our then 2yr old twins and 4 year old. So we stopped at Target to buy some diapers, swimsuits, shorts, and t-shirts. Then we drove some more. When we hit South of the Border at 11PM, we wondered what the heck we were doing.
We finally arrived at All-Star Music Saturday morning. After a very short rest, we hit the parks Sat, Sun, and Mon. Then we hit the road for the long ride home on Tues.
This turned out to be one of our best trips. Since we hadn't planned on being there, it really didn't matter what we saw. Everything was a bonus. People thought we were nuts, and didn't even expect us to come home. But it was great, and now our friends jokingly call us as the gods of spontaneity.

If you're thinking about it...GO FOR IT!!!!

Mike

 

[leighe]

I consider our spring break trip last minute and it's 3 months away!

I would love to just take off one weekend and go but we're about a 15 hour drive and DH hates to fly.

 

[PrincessCandaceMarie]

Yes and they're so fun to do!

I always thought it would be fun to all of the sudden decide we were going to Disney and leave the next day or so. Has anyone ever taken a spontaneous trip to the World?

 

[zakatak]

We just decided on Tuesday to fly down Saturday night through Tuesday night! I had the airfare & resort booked (Pop Preferred), towncar reserved, dog kennel confirmed all within 20 minutes.

Gotta use up my AP! We told the kids that we were going to Disney this weekend and they didn't act that excited. Then later on, they asked, "Are we REALLY going to Disney this weekend or are you joking?". We usually plan our trips 1 to 1.5 years in advance. We told them we were serious and they got semi excited... then my dd(6) sees me counting out the Disney Fund change and runs into the kitchen screaming at the top of her lungs, "Daddy, we really ARE going to Disney! Mommy's counting the Disney Money!"

So, yep, they finally understand and have been out of control ever since!

Sometimes no planning works out better than over planning... sometimes.

 

[prince of thieves]

Yeah, i had a spontaneous moment once to go to WDW. I ended up staying for 6.5 months and missed a semester of school . It was the best time of my life. I made tons of friends, got paid to be in WDW, and even saved someone's life.

If you haven't guessed already i was a WDW College Program student and loved every minute of it.

 

[gothmommie]

Yup, our first family trip with our daughter, then 4. I had just had some health problems and was kind of bummed though recovering.

I kept getting travel discount emails and we were contemplating going to Europe but knew DD would be bored so I suggested Disney. We rented points, bought hoppers and food vouchers, cashed in air miles and found out about (and crammed at) mousesavers and the DIS - 20 days later we were on our way to our first annual February exodus to WDW.

My last trip prior to that had been MVMCP in 1991 as a Florida (Tampa) resident.

The only thing we weren't able to do on short notice was CRT so we had lunch there. True, no princesses, but this wasn't year of the princesses for DD, that was the next year! Too bad Kim Possible isn't in the parks as that's her fave now.

 

[gothmommie]

My wife and I were taking our 3 kids to Baltimore Aquarium for the day to celebrate our oldest's preschool graduation. We were joking around on the way there from Philadelphia that we should just keep going. Next thing you know, we were driving past Baltimore.
This was on a Friday, so we both called work to see if we could get off for Mon and Tues. Then called our neighbor to see if he would take care of the dog. Then by around Washington DC, we figured we should call and get a room.
Since we weren't planning this, we only had a small diaper bag with one change of clothes for our then 2yr old twins and 4 year old. So we stopped at Target to buy some diapers, swimsuits, shorts, and t-shirts. Then we drove some more. When we hit South of the Border at 11PM, we wondered what the heck we were doing.
We finally arrived at All-Star Music Saturday morning. After a very short rest, we hit the parks Sat, Sun, and Mon. Then we hit the road for the long ride home on Tues.
This turned out to be one of our best trips. Since we hadn't planned on being there, it really didn't matter what we saw. Everything was a bonus. People thought we were nuts, and didn't even expect us to come home. But it was great, and now our friends jokingly call us as the gods of spontaneity.

Wow! Now that's spontaneous! Hats off to you. And I thought 20 days was spontaneous. I'm in awe (seriously)!

 

[Divamomto3]

I just booked a trip last week....24 days before we arrive. That is very last minute for us...especially for DVC owners. There wasn't a DVC studio to be had on points, but I had my pick of all the hotels. We're staying at the Wilderness Lodge.

 

[Cailin'sMom]

We're leaving Sunday, May 1 on our spontaneous trip. My best friend called last Monday and said "Pack your bags, we're going to DW!!" Her brother is letting us use his timeshare in Orlando (1 mile from parks.) DH and I have never stayed offsite, but for a free room we could not pass it up. DD can't stop talking about it. My friend and her DH have a DS 14 mths and they have never been. We will be there during the Happiest Celebration opening, so it will probably be crowded, but we'll be at WDW so who cares!!

 

[lauran cameron]

yes we have...

it was a few years ago we just drove to florida one day while looking at the leaves and just kept driving. we only stayed for 3 days but it was worth it...plus we had some points we had to use or else they'd burn (metaphrically of course)

 

[clkelley]

We just got back last night from a spontanous trip!! Hubby just got a new car a couple of weeks ago with a neeto-keeno navigation system in it. On Thursday night, hubby was musing if the car knew it's way to Disney World. I said let's find out Before we went to bed on Thursday, I had hotel reservations in Macon, GA for Friday night, and on 192 in Kissimmee for Saturday night (nothing available at WDW except for two-bedroom suite at Animal Kingdom Lodge). Before we left for work on Friday, we were packed and hubby gassed up the car at lunch, and I got sodas and beer at Wal-Mart during lunch. I got on the phone and got us a PS for dinner at Chef's de France at 7:00pm on Saturday.

I shut down the computer at work at 4:59 and hubby locked the doors to his shop at 5:10 and by 5:30 we were heading South!!

We got to Macon, GA by 11:30pm and were on the road again by 8:00 the next morning. We got to Downtown Disney parking lot by 2:00 pm Eastern time on Saturday (and yes the navigation system did perfectly know it's way!!!). We unloaded hubby's ECV and scooted/walked over to Saratoga Springs and caught the bus to Magic Kingdom.

We had lunch at Plaza Inn and watched the parade, then rode Stitch and Carousel of Progress. Then we took the monorail to Epcot and tried to get FPs for Soarin' but they were out and the wait was 85 minutes so we skipped that and wandered past Canada and admired a lot of the Flower and Garden stuff and went to our seating at France. Dinner was wonderful!!!

We then tried to decide if we were going to wait on Illuminations or head over to the Studios for Fantasmic!. We decided to go for Fantasmic, so we headed out the International Gateway, but it was getting really windy and cold, so we changed our mind on Fantasmic and wandered around the Beach Club for a bit, then went on to Downtown Disney. We wandered around World of Disney for a little while, then went to Adventurer's Club for a few shows. Then we found our car and went to our 192 hotel.

Sunday morning, we were at Epcot for rope drop and got on Soarin', then wandered around MouseGear for a bit, then went out to the car and drove home.

We got home about 9:00 last night so were back at work bright and early this morning.

Carol

 

[newholidayx2]

in 2002 we had 22hrs notice from when our cruise was cancelled to when we left for WDW - did the best we could w/out advance notice - there were alot of us "displaced cruisers" at WDW that Thanksgiving wknd and following week

 

[jpeltier]

Yes. I decided at lunch to bring DD to WDW.I called and booked the air and made a ressie @ Ft. Wilderness cabins and we were there before 10:30 am the next day.It was fabulous. One of the best parts was we didn't have the waiting period . I booked in Feb. for a May-June trip and I feel as though its been about 2 years rather than two months!!!

 

[experiment626mom]

We did a very spontaneous trip on New Year's Eve. I came home from work at 2:00pm, looked at my dh and told him "We have to get out of this Chicago weather." 4 hours later we had roundtrip tickets, a hotel room on I-drive, a rent a car, and 2 park hopper passes. We flew out very early the next morning (Saturday) and came back Monday. It was one of the best trips we've ever done!!! We call it "The weekend we ran away!!"

I would highly recommend spontaneous trips!!!

 

[TDC Nala]

I would if I could drive. Last minute flights are too expensive.