What to do after checkout

[Britt7]

We will be staying at Pop Century in January. I know checkout time is around 11AM. However, our flight home does not leave until 9pm. We are flying out of St. Augustine instead of Orlando - great deal through Skybus- so I know that will take up some of our time, but what can we do for the rest. Can you check out and still do things around WDW such as Downtown Disney? What do we do with our luggage? We do not have park tickets for this day.

 

[Bob P]

Hi,

You can check out and they will store your bags for you until you are ready to leave for the airport. I assume you will have a car? If you don't want to get an extra park day you can go to DTD, or you could just resort-hop with the car to see all the different WDW resorts. Maybe have breakfast at one resort and lunch at another. You could also play mini-golf.

 

[OKW Lover]

When you check out of your Disney hotel, they don't exile you from WDW. Go ahead and do DTD for a while. Or visit one of the other resorts to check it out for a future visit. Lots of people love to just ride the monorail and get off at the Contemporary, Poly & GF just to see them.

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

We will be staying at Pop Century in January. I know checkout time is around 11AM. However, our flight home does not leave until 9pm. We are flying out of St. Augustine instead of Orlando - great deal through Skybus- so I know that will take up some of our time, but what can we do for the rest. Can you check out and still do things around WDW such as Downtown Disney? What do we do with our luggage? We do not have park tickets for this day.

I agree with BobP, Breakfast, Lunch and then DTD. The YC/BC are great to visit as you can walk around the Boardwalk as well.

 

[Sandi]

If you are buying MYW tickets, you might consider adding a day and going to one of the major parks. After a certain number of days, the cost of an extra day is close to negligible. I went through some angst about this for our August trip and, when I finally looked at the numbers, the cost was less than $10.

The other ideas about DTD, other resorts and mini-golf are all good, too.

 

[Britt7]

Thanks! I did not even think about checking out the other resorts that day. I had been trying to figure out where to fit it in to our schedule since there are a few I really want to see to help us plan our next trip. Also - does anyone have any suggestions about our rental car issue. I would like to pick a car up at the airport, but drop it off at WDW. I don't know how we would be able to drop it off at a rental place and then get back to WDW. I would then like to pick a car up on departure day at WDW to drive back to return it at the airport - St. Augustine. I know that Enterprise says that they "will pick you up".

 

[Bob P]

Hi again,

National/Alamo has a desk at the Dolphin Hotel.

 

[Britt7]

Thanks so much Bob P - you seem to be a wealth of information. So I can just drop off and pick the car back up at the Dolphin and then ride a bus back to Pop? Sorry for all the questions - it is our first trip and I am a very excited trying to avoid as many hassles as possible.

 

[Bob P]

You're very welcome!

You can't get a bus from the Dolphin to Pop, but you can either take a taxi from the Dolphin to Pop, or you can walk/take the boat from the Dolphin to the Studios and take a bus to Pop from there.

 

[dburg30]

Yea.. you'll need to check about the rental car. IIRC at St. Augustine the only car places are Enterprise and Avis. So just make sure you are allowed to do a 'one way' drop off. Worst case is you take a cab a couple of times..

 

[disnut8]

If you want something to do at the other end of your question, there is a very nice, almost secluded beach just north of St. Augustine called Vilano Beach. You can spend an hour there just walking and picking up shells. The beach is littered with them so take something really big for them. I have jars of Vilano Beach shells (cleaned) in my house. Just in case you get to the coast a bit early. Just take the bridge over the inlet and then take a right, not a left. There's public parking right there.

 

[CoachBagFanatic]

Thanks! I did not even think about checking out the other resorts that day. I had been trying to figure out where to fit it in to our schedule since there are a few I really want to see to help us plan our next trip. Also - does anyone have any suggestions about our rental car issue. I would like to pick a car up at the airport, but drop it off at WDW. I don't know how we would be able to drop it off at a rental place and then get back to WDW. I would then like to pick a car up on departure day at WDW to drive back to return it at the airport - St. Augustine. I know that Enterprise says that they "will pick you up".

The rental car thing might end up costing you more money as you want one way rental cars. It might be cheaper for you to keep the car for the whole time you are at the world or you might want to check out some round trip sedan or limo transfers. It might end up being the same amount of money and you can be dropped off directly at your hotel and back to the airport. You would also be able to relax back and forth from the airport.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I agree with coach bag fanatic. Whenever I've looked into the one day deals at the Dolphin they haven't been worthwhile. Really, Magic Express is quite nice. Before that, we rented cars. Otherwise ther are towncar serviecs that aren't too expensive. Less money that what you propose, and far less time consuming.

As for your original question - another option is hitting the pool and taking your time at the resort. 9pm is pretty late, so it would be worth going to a park...but you could also do DTD combined with swimming. There are locker/bathrooms rooms at the pool at Pop, and even another set at the 80's quiet pool (I don't know about the 50's pool. It may have them too, I didn't go over that way.)

Also, I wanted to point out to you that you don't have to decide now. You can decide that day (or maybe the day before) what you feel like doing. You can modify your MYW tickets at the front desk - you can also do it at the park entrance. (though there is sometimes a line there inthe am. The best time to modify tickets is in the pm.)

STill another option is seeing a movie at DTD or going to Disneyquest. If you like videogames, Disneyquest is paradise. (In our family, the guys often go to DQ while the women/girls shop.)

 

[jlmarr]

Dollar has a desk at the Regal Sun Resort (former Grosvenor Hotel). Regal Sun is right across the street from the DTD bus stop. We picked up a one-way rental there and dropped it off at the Jacksonville airport (JAX) for $34/day via a code I found on MouseSavers. YMMV