I'm going to WDW...like right now!

[pittsburghmarc]

Earlier today I was thinking, I could be packed and at the airport in one hour. Find a flight and be in Orlando by noon. But then I would need to find a room, but I can call while waiting for the next flight to FL. Etc.

Great thought, and I may do it one day. But for now, I'd love to hear from anyone who has taken a spur of the moment trip. And you need to get on a plane or have at least a 6 hour drive to qualify.

How did it go? Just you or did you drag the family along?

 

[Minnie Lor]

A friend of mine on another forum, just had "had it" with her teenage kids this summer. So she booked a flight for the next morning to MCO, called her TA to book a room for 3 nights, then called hubby at work and asked if he would drive her into the city that night because she had a flight the next morning. She had a great, spur of the moment trip. It can be done.

 

[kaligal]

A friend and I have made several, "Let's go to Disney" trips where we decided to go, packed fast and left.

Flights are easily booked on the internet. It just takes a couple minutes. Cars can be rented at the counter and hotels can be called while driving to them.

You can just show up at a WDW hotel and do it as a walk-in, but if you want AP pricing or whatever, you have to do it on the phone.

It's not really hard. If you HAVE to have an itinerary and ADRs and all that, it would be harder. But if you just want to go, all you need is time, money and a sitter (if you have young kids.)

Now with all that airport security crap, you have to factor in time for to stand in lines and be searched. But it isn't hard.

And it is fun!! Next time, go!

 

[catycatcat4]

I live in florida so randomly going to Disney happens all the time. Only once with a room though.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

On Monday, October 1, 2001 Judy saw a special internet promotion for that weekend at the Mariott Courtyard on Hotel Plaza Blvd (now the Holiday Inn) for $25 per night. She called me and I found a very cheap air fare for that weekend (Columbus Day weekend less than a month after 911). We each immediately asked our bosses for annual leave on Thuirrsday and Friday.

So we flew down Thursday and retuned Monday evening.

But we felt it was a deal we could not afford to miss. The combined cost of our air fare, parking at Dulles Airport, Rental Car and Hotel, including all taxes and fees came to $513. We had our APs and never counted food costs in any trip plans, as we tened to eat out a lot anyway.

 

[golden2323]

My husband called me one Thursday at work (I don't work on Fridays) and told me that the weatherman was predicting snow and ice that night. We had gone without power for almost a week the year before due to an ice storm, with two small babies, so he was a little leery of sitting through another ice storm. He called my office around 10 am and pitched his idea of leaving as soon as I got home from work for the weekend - we'd get a nice weekend and avoid the ice storm. Since we already had AP's, I hopped online and checked for a passholder rate - we could get the Contemporary pretty cheap, so I said "book it". He got instructions on what laundry needed to be done and what to pack for our kids. When I got home at 6pm, while he picked up the kids, I threw my stuff in the suitcase and threw it in the car. As soon as he got home with the girls, we changed them to pj's and loaded them in the car. We drove about 5 hours that night and stopped near the FL state line for the night. Got up early the next morning and checked in at the Contemporary early the next morning and were in the parks by 10 am on Friday. Got to spend all day Friday and Saturday at the parks and then drove home on Sunday after all the ice had melted!


Hmm.....my mother and I just got back from a trip, but I've been itching to go for F&W and MNSSHP - maybe we'll do a repeat in the next month or so!


ETA....I forgot, that was actually our SECOND trip like this. Over New Year's weekend, my 12 year old niece was staying with us and we had decided to take her to our local aquarium for the day. We drove down and the place was PACKED - all the while my DH and I were regretting not going away for the weekend. Well, we spent about an hour fighting the crowds and finally gave up. On our walk from the aquarium to the car, my DH hopped on the phone "just to see" if there were any decent AP rates for that weekend. We could get a room at Coronado Springs for the 5 of us (my DH and I, plus our twin toddlers and my niece). I quickly crunched the budget numbers and decided we could swing the trip down, the food and a ticket for my niece, but no shopping. Well, we got to the car and asked my niece if she thought she could go and not shop (we had just taken her for a week that September, so it hadn't been that long since her last trip), and she said "YEAH!", so we went home, loaded the car and were on our way!

 

[pittsburghmarc]

My husband called me one Thursday at work (I don't work on Fridays) and told me that the weatherman was predicting snow and ice that night. We had gone without power for almost a week the year before due to an ice storm, with two small babies, so he was a little leery of sitting through another ice storm. He called my office around 10 am and pitched his idea of leaving as soon as I got home from work for the weekend - we'd get a nice weekend and avoid the ice storm. Since we already had AP's, I hopped online and checked for a passholder rate - we could get the Contemporary pretty cheap, so I said "book it". He got instructions on what laundry needed to be done and what to pack for our kids. When I got home at 6pm, while he picked up the kids, I threw my stuff in the suitcase and threw it in the car. As soon as he got home with the girls, we changed them to pj's and loaded them in the car. We drove about 5 hours that night and stopped near the FL state line for the night. Got up early the next morning and checked in at the Contemporary early the next morning and were in the parks by 10 am on Friday. Got to spend all day Friday and Saturday at the parks and then drove home on Sunday after all the ice had melted!

Wow, I would have not been able to contain my excitement that day. Sounds like you and your husband share the same Disney passion. My wife is understanding, but the stars would have to align for her to take a spur of the moment trip.

 

[Lee Disney]

On the first Saturday morning of December 2007, my husband and I were watching the news which was all talk of a huge snow storm heading our way to NH. We began thinking about how great it would be if we packed up the car and went to Disney World, how incredible it would be to see the Christmas parade and all the lights and decorations thru out WDW. Knowing school would most likely be cancelled for the next 2-3 days, we decided to just DO IT. We had the car packed and the kids ready within the hour. It was an incredible feeling. We had NEVER done anything this spontaneous before in our lifes. Our vacations were always planned to every detail.

Well, we made great time on that first driving day. Left NH at 1pm and pulled in to a hotel in Southern Virginia by 10:30 that night. The plan was to get a good nights sleep and be back on the road by 6am. Everything was on schedule the next day. Drove approximately half way thru North Carolina before deciding to call WDW for hotel reservations. Unfortunately we learn that there isn't a hotel room available in ALL of Disney World. Never thought of that one since it was only the first week of December and it was supposed to be a quiet time.

Knowing how many hotel rooms in Disney made us realize just how crowded and crazy WDW would be so we decided to turn around. We were all EXTREMELY disapointed but to pacify the kids somewhat we decided to stop at the National Zoo on the way home. Had a great afternoon there but this stalled our trip back enought to get caught in the HUGE snowstorm heading North.

So not only did we spend a couple days driving for nothing, we were out in the exact storm that we tried to escape.

The worst part of the entire thing was having to tell everyone who we called in the excitement to tell we were going to WDW that we home, never got to WDW, and drove for many stress filled hours in the storm.

I hope other spur of the moments trips go better than ours.

 

[bkoehl]

Not Disney but still Florida...

When I was in 3rd grade my mom came home from work on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and announced we were driving to Ft. Myers to see Grandma for the week. We didn't have a lot of money so we went around the house collecting all the coins we could find and rolled them all. We ended up with a little over $100! We packed, loaded the car and drove off! Got to miss a few days of school and surprise Grandma. We still talk about rolling all those coins!

 

[JacksLilWench]

I wish I could do that right now! It's been a very rough week for me, and I just can't seem to catch a break to save my life. I must be on the receiving end of some good prayers or something to still be standing. But if I could afford it, I'd be there right now in front of the castle!

 

[*NikkiBell*]

The quickest spur of the moment trip I've ever done was about a week before going. It was exciting!