Late flights on departure day

[princesslover]

The thought of this on departure day makes me feel so anxious

I was thinking the same! I’m super impressed by it though!

 

[princesslover]

I typically try for a mid-morning or early afternoon flight, but we have a 4:00 flight on our upcoming trip. My husband isn’t thrilled because he hates getting home in the evening when we all have work/school the next morning. But it was either 6:30 a.m. or 4 p.m. and I refuse to do an early morning flight on the way home.

So I’ve been debating the same issue and have vetoed Disney springs because I feel like I’d be anxious to get back to the resort in time. We’ve done a few hours at MK before in the same situation and it just felt like too much. We’ll be at Poly, so I think we’ll either plan to eat lunch at Wailulu or maybe look into a reservation at GF or WL. If we go that route, we can look at gift shops, see another resort, etc. and still be close by to get back quickly. I feel like it’s just the right amount of activity that won’t stress everyone out. This will also allow the kids to sleep in a bit at the end of a busy vacation and before we re-enter the real world.

While I love the *idea* of sneaking in a final trip to MK, the reality would be stressful because we’d be clock watching the entire time. Also, I love walking out of the park on our last night with the castle and Main Street all lit up as our “goodbye.”

The idea of the late flight for us is not squeezing in more stuff but sleeping in and relaxing. I think brunch is probably all we would do. Since we are CCV owners, getting to other resorts is not quick and easy, nor is Disney Springs. Although possibly a boat ride to FW or Contemporary would be doable.

 

[smrice95]

I have convinced the family to go home later at nighttime for our last 4 trips. 2 of them we were staying at SS so we slept in and then had a nice late lunch at a sit-down before walking back to go to the airport. The other two times, we were not in the springs area and we stayed pool side. We used the showers after swimming and I had plastic bags for the swimsuits. (Just remember when you get home to take them out of the bag!) If I remember right, they have swimsuit dryers, but they are still wet, just not dripping. Personally, I like either or. I look at it as more time in the bubble before reality hits again! For us, going home typically isn't an issue if there is a plane no show because of weather. It just means we have to find a hotel again. Last year was the first major delay of 3 hours because of storms up and down the east coast. Hoping this year no storms, only because my parents will be with us. We still get to the airport earlier than I would like, but it is a nice compromise and I loved my meal or swim! Enjoy whatever you plan!

 

[PetePanMan]

The thought of this on departure day makes me feel so anxious

I do get this. We were a bit nervous but it ended up being a great day. Driving on beach, swim in ocean, loading up on snacks from Buc-ees etc.

 

[Sweettears]

I do get this. We were a bit nervous but it ended up being a great day. Driving on beach, swim in ocean, loading up on snacks from Buc-ees etc.

I think that once you undertake this approach the stress level decreases for subsequent trips. You get your timing down and know how to plan your time.

 

[vinotinto]

I think this depends on how long your trip is. We usually stay 3-4 nights, so we like to make the most of our trip by going to a park for 3 hours on our last morning. We can’t really relax on our last day while checking the flights, where our inbound plane is and the weather. We live close enough that we sometimes drive and sometimes fly. I will say it’s rather common for flights 2-5pm to get delayed due to weather in MCO, or our home airport (ATL). So if we had a longer trip than 3-4 nights, we would probably have an earlier flight that avoided the delay possibility.

 

[IndyToThere]

We never do early departure flights. Personally, I don't want to get to bed early the night before to plan to leave early... I'd rather enjoy my last night normally. Not to mention, I'm not a morning person anyway.
All of our departure flights are in the afternoon and sometimes late evening. We sleep in till a normal wakeup time and check out around resort checkout time. If we have lots of time to kill, we'll leave our bags at the resort and hang out for a few hours in Disney Springs. Much more relaxing than doing the early morning rush.

 

[Little E]

We have done late flights (like around 5 pm) and we usually sleep in, pack up, and then go to a late breakfast/brunch. We sometimes walk the Boardwalk area, we've played pickleball at a resort, and just generally take our time until it's time to leave for MCO. I much prefer this over getting up early and flying out or getting up early and trying to do a park. Going to a park on checkout/fly home day really stresses me out.