Late flights on departure day

[princesslover]

Typically on our last day we have a morning flight. This last trip was the latest flight we’ve had at 11:20. That still meant we were picked up at 8:15. It’s a real bummer to be scurrying around that last morning and be stressed about getting downstairs in time (mostly my husband who gets VERY stressed.)

I’m thinking for our next trip I will book an evening flight home. For those of you that do this, what is that day like? Do you do Disney Springs? A park day? Hang at the resort? We are DVC and stay almost exclusively at our home resort which is CCV. We could do MK easily enough with a quick boat ride over. Not sure if it would be worth it or if we would be just looking at the time and worried about getting home. Maybe a rope drop to l2:00 or 2:00 or so? What have others done after checking out?

 

[mom2rtk]

We book a late flight. We get up early, pack up, leave bags at the hotel and head for the park. It beats the heck out of moping around knowing we have to go home.

 

[princesslover]

We book a late flight. We get up early, pack up, leave bags at the hotel and head for the park. It beats the heck out of moping around knowing we have to go home.

Yeah at first I was thinking of hanging at the resort or monorail resort hopping. But I think that would allow us too much time to “mope.”

 

[ddluvsdisney]

We usually do a late flight home. It can sometimes be stressful bc our flights have been delayed several times due to weather. But it beats getting up and out at the crack of dawn.

 

[Disneylover99]

We usually request a late check out if possible and sleep in.
Store our luggage and head to DS for a nice lunch.
When we have AP’s we will sometimes go to a park for a few hours.
And we like to head to the airport extra early, to make the day as stressful as possible free as possible.

 

[bakerworld]

I use to love a 2p flight on departure day. Stay out late the night before to really enjoy the last day and still get home at a reasonable time. Lately this only works for us about 50% of the time due to plane issues. Luckily the last time the plane was delayed I was up at 4a when I received 'Your plane has been delayed' and booked us on a earlier flight. However it worked well for our May flight.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

We have some motion sickness issues with our crew and have learned that we cannot combine roller coasters and flights on the same day if we don't want... gastric fireworks.

We had an evening flight in July and had a lovely pool day on checkout day. It does require some good planning with making sure you pack your last day bags correctly to have a dry change of clothes, but it was a great way to ease out of our trip.

 

[DisneyMom93]

We try to do a late afternoon flight and just have a relaxing morning with a nice breakfast (more like brunch) and just hang out at the resort.

We don’t do a park that day because we usually do 10 park days on the weekdays (we stay two full weeks) and that’s the max on a ticket anyway.

I personally can’t imagine going to a park on our flight day but that’s just because I get stressed about making our flight.

We have done DS before but only if we have a much later flight. Since we stay until Sunday we don’t want to end our vacation late on a Sunday night when my husband has to wake up early for work and our girls have school.

 

[Marthasor]

When we do late flights, I take advantage of the pre-checkout time by sleeping in and finishing packing. At check-out time, we either head to the closest park (MK would be super easy for you!) or resort hop and have a late brunch/lunch. Being at CCV would make resort hopping, visiting Ft. W and doing activities there and/or going to MK super easy for you.

 

[hardcorestitch]

Typically on our last day we have a morning flight. This last trip was the latest flight we’ve had at 11:20. That still meant we were picked up at 8:15. It’s a real bummer to be scurrying around that last morning and be stressed about getting downstairs in time (mostly my husband who gets VERY stressed.)

I’m thinking for our next trip I will book an evening flight home. For those of you that do this, what is that day like? Do you do Disney Springs? A park day? Hang at the resort? We are DVC and stay almost exclusively at our home resort which is CCV. We could do MK easily enough with a quick boat ride over. Not sure if it would be worth it or if we would be just looking at the time and worried about getting home. Maybe a rope drop to l2:00 or 2:00 or so? What have others done after checking out?

It’s definitely doable to do Disney Springs or a mini golf course in the early half of the day in this case. I wouldn’t recommend visiting a theme park that day as you’ll need some substantial energy heading to the airport. You should book that departing flight in the 6:00 hour if you can find it.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I always plan a relatively late flight (3:00 or so). I don't go to the parks-I'm so afraid I'd get stuck, and miss getting back in time. Sleep in, pack, have a nice TS breakfast (I've done Cape May, Trattoria al Forno, GFC), hang around the resort.

 

[TheBigErn]

We too typically have an early flight home. This is the first time we are flying back to Pittsburgh later so our plan is to have brunch at DS and do some shopping.

 

[princesslover]

Thanks everyone. After reading through these replies I think “relaxation” is the key. I am thinking maybe taking the boat over to Fort Wilderness or hopping on the monorail and having breakfast at the Poly or GF. I think it’s a great point that we want to conserve energy for the airport. Running around MK, as much as I love that idea in theory, right before the airport might be too much.

I’m not sure about swimming. I don’t want to have to deal with wet bathing suits.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We do later flights home, usually around 4pm-7pm departures. If it's on the earlier end I sleep in and do brunch after check-out time (GF Cafe does brunch every day) and leave. If it's later I do a park- but it's a bit more complicated if the weather is warm or hot. I don't want to board a plane in sweaty, smelly clothes, nor do I want to still be covered in sunblock or bug spray. So I put fresh clothes, face wipes and a wet/dry bag for my dirty clothes in my carry on, retrieve it from bell services and freshen up in the hotel bathroom before heading to the airport. When the weather is really muggy and hot, I use the showers by the pool to clean up before heading home. Idk if all the Disney hotels have that option, I know SAB does. These showers have soap, shampoo, conditioner and towels. I think I saw a hair dryer as well but I can't swear on it.

If I wanted to do something that day but didn't want the complications of freshening up, I would sleep in, do brunch and hit Disney Springs. If its a weekend there are brunch options at Disney Springs.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Thanks everyone. After reading through these replies I think “relaxation” is the key. I am thinking maybe taking the boat over to Fort Wilderness or hopping on the monorail and having breakfast at the Poly or GF. I think it’s a great point that we want to conserve energy for the airport. Running around MK, as much as I love that idea in theory, right before the airport might be too much.

I’m not sure about swimming. I don’t want to have to deal with wet bathing suits.

Hahaha, just missed the decision has been made! Resort hopping is fun thing to do that day as well. I like poking around the gift shops as sometimes they have hotel specific merch you don't see elsewhere.

 

[princesslover]

We do later flights home, usually around 4pm-7pm departures. If it's on the earlier end I sleep in and do brunch after check-out time (GF Cafe does brunch every day) and leave. If it's later I do a park- but it's a bit more complicated if the weather is warm or hot. I don't want to board a plane in sweaty, smelly clothes, nor do I want to still be covered in sunblock or bug spray. So I put fresh clothes, face wipes and a wet/dry bag for my dirty clothes in my carry on, retrieve it from bell services and freshen up in the hotel bathroom before heading to the airport. When the weather is really muggy and hot, I use the showers by the pool to clean up before heading home. Idk if all the Disney hotels have that option, I know SAB does. These showers have soap, shampoo, conditioner and towels. I think I saw a hair dryer as well but I can't swear on it.

If I wanted to do something that day but didn't want the complications of freshening up, I would sleep in, do brunch and hit Disney Springs. If its a weekend there are brunch options at Disney Springs.

The wet/dry bag, fresh clothes, and face wipes/shower is a great option if we did do a park. But as you implied, it would need to be a much later flight, closer to 7:00 pm. I’m not sure I could convince DH to stay that late on departure day.

Sleeping in on departure day would be a gift to my girls (who are 18 and 22). I think they would prefer that to the complications of a park. I could be persuaded but I think I’d be vetoed!!

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

I'm personally not a fan of later day flights.
That stresses me out way more than early morning flights.
And the earlier you leave the less likely the weather will impact the flight.
I would not go to a park. I would usually do Disney Springs.
But then you're just lounging around the lobby or food court etc until its time to leave and to me that feels like a waste of time and makes me more anxious.
I'm headed to WDW tomorrow and have a 9:05am flight home later this week. Its awesome to be back at my house by noon on check out day!

 

[princesslover]

I'm personally not a fan of later day flights.
That stresses me out way more than early morning flights.
And the earlier you leave the less likely the weather will impact the flight.
I would not go to a park. I would usually do Disney Springs.
But then you're just lounging around the lobby or food court etc until its time to leave and to me that feels like a waste of time and makes me more anxious.
I'm headed to WDW tomorrow and have a 9:05am flight home later this week. Its awesome to be back at my house by noon on check out day!

The early flights have traditionally been very stressful for us but I’ve kept doing them for some of the reasons you mention (not wanting to lie around the resort putting off the inevitable, potential flight issues etc.). But I really would love to experience departure day be easy and laid back. Sleeping in, nice brunch etc. I think I’d be looking at flights around 4:00, leaving the resort around 1:00. Getting home at noon would not interest me (even with morning flights we still are traveling all day sometimes with layovers). If I got home that early, I’d feel like need to unpack. Arriving in the evening I’d just leave everything and go to bed/relax and deal with it in the morning.

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

The early flights have traditionally been very stressful for us but I’ve kept doing them for some of the reasons you mention (not wanting to lie around the resort putting off the inevitable, potential flight issues etc.). But I really would love to experience departure day be easy and laid back. Sleeping in, nice brunch etc. I think I’d be looking at flights around 4:00, leaving the resort around 1:00. Getting home at noon would not interest me (even with morning flights we still are traveling all day sometimes with layovers). If I got home that early, I’d feel like need to unpack. Arriving in the evening I’d just leave everything and go to bed/relax and deal with it in the morning.

What time of year are you talking?
Because if its summer then any time between 1pm-4pm could very likely be delayed.
And remember that even if Orland is fine, if there is bad weather where the plane is coming from that could delay the flight as well.

If you're going during the winter then less likely for rain storms at least but still could be delayed due to snow somewhere else.

I just personally feel way more stressed and anxious with the flight "hanging over me" ya know?

 

[PetePanMan]

We live on west coast and almost always have late flights home (6-8pm for non stop). We normally do DVC stays which means a pretty firm 11am checkout. This schedule makes for a very long travel day but we try to make the best if it. Note: we often debate whether we should just book an extra night but we want to keep points for future trips.

We normally take it pretty easy on the departure morning…nice bfast, pack up etc. Depending on season, we then may go to a park (if not too hot), Disney springs for good lunch/movie etc., or hang out at pool (if nice temperature). The pool option has made for a more relaxing day and we just shower / change before we leave in pool showers.

For us, the ideal return flight would be around 2-3pm.