Timing to go to a park on departure day

[mastermind307]

If you visit a park on your departure day, how late is your flight? Trying to decide between 2 flight times, 3:50PM and 5:50PM and trying to decide whether or not to visit a park on our departure day.

We'll be visiting May 29-June 5 and staying at BWV.

 

[kmb584]

If you visit a park on your departure day, how late is your flight? Trying to decide between 2 flight times, 3:50PM and 5:50PM and trying to decide whether or not to visit a park on our departure day.

We'll be visiting May 29-June 5 and staying at BWV.

We don't, and our flight is always at 2:00 pm. I think that if you're going to visit a park, the 5:50 pm flight is the better option. If you're taking DME from your resort to the airport, they'll pick you up 3 hours prior to your flight departure time (4 hours if you're flying internationally). You'd be able to get in a solid half day plus of a park with the later flight.

 

[Babsy]

I'm returning on a flight at 6:30 pm. Planning to go to the parks until about 2:00 pm. Then return to get picked up for the flight. Should be fun. This is the first time that the flight is after 1:00 pm and can do that!!! We usually leave by the 11:00 am checkout time or earlier.

 

[KSR0330]

We've taken flights home at about 5:30 and gone to the parks until about 1:30. We typically get there at about 10 am and do a leisurely tour, have lunch, shop on the way out and get back to the resort about a half hour before ME pick up.

This will be our first trip with an early flight (2:00) so no park for us this time

 

[Ensusieasm]

If you visit a park on your departure day, how late is your flight? Trying to decide between 2 flight times, 3:50PM and 5:50PM and trying to decide whether or not to visit a park on our departure day.

We'll be visiting May 29-June 5 and staying at BWV.

You would have to be at the Magical express bus stop at about 12:35 for a 3:50 flight. ( 15 minutes before pick up time ). Depending on where your Resort is in relation to the park you go to, you would want to be leaving the park as early as 11am. If you go on the later flight, you could stay at the park until 1:00. ( of course if you are just walking to Epcot, you can give yourself another hour in the park)

 

[kitkat4622]

we always book a later flight home so we can hit MK for breakfast at crystal palace, ride our favorites one last time. stock up on treats to bring home. to me the later flight is worth it for us

 

[cuteandfluffy626]

We're doing a flight around 7pm to enjoy the last day as much as possible.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

If taking DME, we don't go to a park on departure day unless our flight is after 5pm.

We usually shoot for an 8pm flight.

 

[sky13]

I usually try to get a flight out that is 5pm or later (depends on airline/availability/etc). With this, I'll plan to be in the parks until around 1pm or so, then head back to resort to get the Magical Express. A couple of times though I have decided to spent a couple more hours in the parks then head back to resort and Uber to MCO instead!

 

[StratMan]

I just booked airfare for April and my options were pretty limited for direct flights. For the return flight, I had to choose between early afternoon and 10:20PM!!! Maybe a little overkill but, I went with 10:20. I figure we'll just sleep in a little on that last morning. We don't get to Disney World very often so having the extra day in the parks is worth getting home at some ungodly hour.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Debating doing it this trip, with a 3:30 flight. But we never take DME to the airport, we take Uber. We take DME from the airport though at the start of our trip. But the advance pickup time to the airport is unreasonable to us.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

We've done a 4ish flight each of the last 2 trips and did the parks on the day. We usually open the parks and stay until about 12 or so. Then we head toward the bus and toward the DME. It's a lot easier if we've rented a car, which we have the last 2 trips. If we do a noon flight like we did the first 2 trips, we skip a park that day.

 

[Gilbert Loo]

We try to schedule our return flight after 5pm and get to one more park to burn our three fast passes, eat lunch, do some last minute shopping and head back to the resort by 1:30-2 for MDE. Works well for us and even if you don't have an annual pass, adding another day to your ticket would be worth it.

 

[earfulofmagic]

I did this a few weeks ago, the Saturday just before Irma blew through (when MCO stopped flights at 5PM). My original flight was at 5:35, then after a series of rebookings, my final flight was to leave at 3:30ish. The only thing that really changed was waking up earlier and that instead of going to Epcot as planned, I did a morning (very empty, too) at MK. I left the park a bit after noon and caught a Lyft around 12:40 to MCO, which had me there extremely early -- but, because of Irma, I thought it'd be best to go early since the airport was chaotic.

Also did this a few weeks before that, I think my flight out that time was around 4. I stayed at the Swan, so spent a morning and late lunch at Epcot, then around 2 I walked back to Swan, got my bags, and immediately hopped into a Lyft around 2:30.

In Nov. our return flight is at 8 PM

 

[Anabelletoronto]

We don't, and our flight is always at 2:00 pm. I think that if you're going to visit a park, the 5:50 pm flight is the better option. If you're taking DME from your resort to the airport, they'll pick you up 3 hours prior to your flight departure time (4 hours if you're flying internationally). You'd be able to get in a solid half day plus of a park with the later flight.

Do you know if Canada counts as international? Yes, I know it is technically but for US-Canada flights, the hours early at the airport is not the same as international (2 vs 3 recommended)
And can we just take the MDE later than suggested? If we miss or flight, it's on us
Our flight is 8pm, but we would have to leave the park at 3 and I had planned to leave at 4.

 

[kwdw]

With a flight at 5:50pm - I'd go to a park that day. While I usually pick a flight later than that - 5:50 is late enough for me to go to a park.

Given my traveling distance, frequency of flights, etc - I'd never pick a 3:50 flight. That's just crappy timing in day planning for me. (Flight time home is 2 to 2.5 hours.)

Now - We have flown home on flights between 12:30-2 pm. For those trips - we planned a big breakfast - either a character meal or Boma - as the last "thing" of the trip and then head to the airport. Now that the youngest of the group is tad older, however, we'll probably always pick a late flight out instead now. No need to give a hotel more of our business and the late flights out are among the cheapest!

 

[kmb584]

Do you know if Canada counts as international? Yes, I know it is technically but for US-Canada flights, the hours early at the airport is not the same as international (2 vs 3 recommended)
And can we just take the MDE later than suggested? If we miss or flight, it's on us
Our flight is 8pm, but we would have to leave the park at 3 and I had planned to leave at 4.

I'm not sure on that Canada aspect, but it's a worthy question to investigate.

You won't be able to board a later DME bus. It's rigidly scheduled and each person is allotted a seat on said bus. So, if you miss bus #1 but bus #2 shows up ten minutes later, there won't be seats for you on that bus. It's scheduled 3-4 hours in advance because of the numerous stops. For instance, in June we were the first pickup (BLT) but stopped at 3 other resorts before going to MCO. We arrived with less than 75 minutes prior to our flight.

 

[Kindermouse]

Debating doing it this trip, with a 3:30 flight. But we never take DME to the airport, we take Uber. We take DME from the airport though at the start of our trip. But the advance pickup time to the airport is unreasonable to us.

How much has Uber run you to the airport? I originally book a 5:30 pm flight home but only a few days after I booked it they changed the time to 3:30 which would mean I would need to leave the park by 11:00...ugh. I would much rather take uber in the this case and get picked up a bit later.

 

[mybestieismickey]

We fly JetBlue and they only offer one direct flight home each day (with 2 under 4 and 4 1/2 hours of flying time, direct flights are a must). It changes, but that flight tends to be at either 5:50 or 6:50 PM. That definitely means park time for our family.

We get to the park as early as we can, though we rarely make rope drop with all the check out morning goings on and stay until about 2 or 3 depending flight time. We rent a car, so we leave right from the parking lot to MCO. RAC makes it super easy, we only have carryons, car seats, and the stroller. We would still do a park if we were using ME.

 

[scrapquitler]

If you visit a park on your departure day, how late is your flight? Trying to decide between 2 flight times, 3:50PM and 5:50PM and trying to decide whether or not to visit a park on our departure day.

We'll be visiting May 29-June 5 and staying at BWV.

Friday our flight was at 5:45 PM, and our ME pickup time at All Star Sports was 2:55. We went to the the MK in the morning, arriving about 9:30 and left there about 1:15, were back at the resort by 1:45, picked up our carry on bags at Bell Services and had time to go get a drink and a snack in the food court before we got on the bus. We were able to ride 8 rides and eat lunch before we left MK.

Typically we take a later flights (like 8-9PM) and stay in the park until almost 4:00, but that time flight was not available this time.