One day at Disney - park or no park?

[jenbrewer]

I am headed to Florida at the end of February to spend a few days with my best friend who lives near Jacksonville. I am going to stay in Orlando the night before I head home because I have a 6:30AM flight out of MCO on Monday morning and don't want her to feel like she has to drive me there in the middle of the night. So, I decided the best decision would be to stay at a Disney resort (thinking maybe Pop - never stayed there) and use MDE for transportation to the airport. Good way to sneak in a little Disney time, right?

I figure she will head back to her house by mid-afternoon, leaving me with several hours of free time at Disney. I can't decide if I should buy a 1-day ticket to a park (or even a park hopper) or if I should just do non-park things, like resort hop and some shopping. I can't imagine being that close & not going to a park (but it's so hard to decide which one), but it would also be the first time I've ever gone without my DH and DDs. Worried I would feel guilty going without them, and thinking maybe I should stick to non-park activities. On the other hand, it could be a great time to just take all the pictures I want without feeling like they are waiting for me

Any suggestions? If I do a park, I'm leaning to MK because it is open the latest, until 11 pm. I would want to soak up every minute I could. For background, we live in Maine, so it's not like I could just take them in a couple weeks. We did go in 2014 for 11 days at the beginning of May and we are going back in January 2016 to celebrate our 20th anniversary & renew our vows.
Appreciate any thoughts you may have!

 

[Waiting2goback]

Any suggestions? If I do a park, I'm leaning to MK because it is open the latest, until 11 pm. I would want to soak up every minute I could.

There is your answer. This is what someone who LOVES Disney would say. If you will be there you go to the park. If it were me, I would do a park hopper. I would hit the parks for my favorite rides and then do Fantasmic, and then hurry to MK to do the parade and fireworks if the schedule works out that way. After the park closed I would sit outside the park and cry that I only had one day.

OK, that part might be slightly dramatic but you get the point. As for the guilt, I have been 3 times solo. The kids didn't care when I went in October to run the Tower of Terror race. They were happy for me. Hopefully your family would understand as well.

 

[Waiting2goback]

I haven't quite figured out how to work the new forums yet so I had to post this to ad this to my email notifications. Sorry.

 

[Bete]

I would absolutely go to a park. There is no doubt in my mind.

Since you are on site check out if there is a extra magic late time for a park and compare to closing time of MK is it's a different park.

 

[jenbrewer]

Thanks for the feedback! I'm going to book my little one night vacation package now!

 

[PMFan]

no feedback but hello from a fellow native Mainer (transplanted to Virginia for now)!

 

[jenbrewer]

Hi, fellow Mainiac! We have more snow headed our way this weekend - I'd like to be in Virginia now!