Tips for a first time solo trip?

[mustinjourney]

Where is the closest liquor store? Asking for a friend.

Instacart is your friend. Or just pack it in your luggage (checked bags)

 

[Gary Stocker]

Instacart is your friend. Or just pack it in your luggage (checked bags)

Your tips are valuable and appreciated...thank you much.

 

[Gary Stocker]

By the way got this today...my level of psyche is through the roof.

 

[YawningDodo]

My tip is—Take it slow and just enjooooooy. IDK what your other trips are like, but for me with a family of 4, 2 being kids, I simply cannot stop and take in all of what the parks have to offer very long. Who has to go to the bathroom? where are we going next? who's hungry...etc.

don't get me wrong, I love my family trips, but I cant just sit on a bench in a pavilion and bask in the details. I can't go where the wind takes me, be sporadic and lose myself in a particular land.

When I go solo, I'll spend much more time walking the Epcot pavilions, looking at all the little details, sit at a bar and try different regional drinks, talk to the CMs and hear their stories oftheir home towns.

IDK if you like photography, but when you are solo, you can scope out locations for taking pictures that are unique...wait for that perfect sunset or moment in the parade. Watching the parade through a lens for that perfect photo is much different than watching it for just enjoying the parade. Same goes for the animals at AK, spend some time waiting for the gorillas to move about and let you get that shot

Spend some time exploring the resorts. When with my kids, they prefer the parks, so taking the time and sitting on a rocking chair at Wilderness Lodge or Boardwalk and enjoying the atmosphere is rare.

A lot of tours are expensive and prohibitive if you are with a larger group, however as a solo, sometimes the price can be more manageable.

I've been thinking about this in the last week or so (I'm not going until January, but my brain's on a Disney kick). The last time I went solo I just did a one day stop in WDW and basically approached it as a challenge to visit all four parks and do "enough" in each to feel like I'd hit all the highlights. That was fun; it's sometimes enjoyable to keep myself busy and play the refresh game on MDE to see how many FP+ I can get, but....

I'm strongly considering going to the opposite end of the spectrum for most (if not all) of my week-long stay next year. I know I can rush from ride to ride and treat it as a game re: how many rides I can get on how quickly...but honestly, the experiences start to lose their luster for me a little bit if I do that for too long, not to mention that I think it would be exhausting for such a long stay. I'm seriously thinking about not even booking my full FP+ allotment for each day--I'll just do my best to snag FP+ for one or two notoriously popular rides at each park and outside of that, just...wander. I'm thinking of literally going land by land to explore everything in, say, Tomorrowland before I move on instead of crisscrossing the park to ride the same handful of headliners over and over. I feel like my family's touring strategy used to be more like that before FP+, and when I visited DLP last year I more or less did it this way, at least for the first few days while I was getting the lay of the land. I do need to string together some schedule notes since I want to watch the parade at MK (I've been twice since Festival of Fantasy started as the day parade and haven't seen it!!) and since I'll need to strategize around Galaxy's Edge...but I'm really thinking I'm going to get the most out of this trip if I make a deliberate effort not to "optimize" my touring.

Adding to this thought...I think the hardest thing about this is the fear of missing out, like I'm not making the most of my trip if I don't rack up high ride counts. The idea of just meandering and browsing shops instead of rushing to the next thing is a little daunting, honestly, because it feels "incorrect" in an era when entire threads on this board are devoted to people sharing the exact number of times they were able to ride each attraction in Andy's Backyard during EMM (and I may do EMM and/or DAH just to get that out of my system, Idk). But I don't know that I get a lot of satisfaction out of keeping score that way; I've ridden everything (at least, everything that was open as of January 2018) multiple times, so...what's two more rides on Big Thunder versus the pleasure of taking my sweet time to explore the caves on Tom Sawyer Island? It's like ice cream; I don't know that a big bowl of one flavor is more pleasurable than several little bowls of different flavors, if that makes sense.

 

[Gary Stocker]

I wish I were wired to stop and smell the roses but I always need some type of plan and the fast passes and signature meals are the skeleton of my trip..the organs are everything else...and everything else consists of smelling..and drinking ..as many roses as I can. Ha.

 

[Timhags]

I think I would get nervous and get thrown out of the park if I tried to sneak booze in...that would be embarrassing.. I always thought Animal Kingdom would be even more incredible if I had some 420 but I wouldn't dare.

Edibles my friend. That's my plan!

 

[Gary Stocker]

Share the wealth..is there a password with some cast members to obtain it? Ha

 

[Timhags]

Share the wealth..is there a password with some cast members to obtain it? Ha

Inquire with concierge. I'm shipping it in

 

[Gary Stocker]

Ask the concierge for edibles? Lol.

 

[Gary Stocker]

"Which bus goes to epcot and I heard you can get me some edibles "...sounds like when Homer asked for illegal fireworks.

 

[Gary Stocker]

 

[C.R.]

Edibles my friend. That's my plan!

You beat me to it.

 

[Gary Stocker]

Are snack credits good for edibles?

 

[Timhags]

Are snack credits good for edibles?

Only available on deluxe dining plan

 

[ronw]

The Highway in the Sky dine around is a progressive dinner around the monorail resorts that is nice to do solo.