Disney Last Minute with Late Mornings...How's That Possible!?

Tips for young adults and other people who just don't enjoy getting things done early!

No matter when you arrive, you can have a fun day if you know a few Disney secrets!

No matter when you arrive, you can have a fun day if you know a few Disney secrets!

I recently sent my 20 year old daughter and her 21 year old cousin to Walt Disney World (WDW) for the weekend during their winter break. We had planned to be in Florida recently to visit my parents on the West Coast of Florida. Since our cousin lives in that area year round and has an annual pass for Disney, and my daughter had an extra non expired day on a ticket from 2 years ago, the girls thought it would be fun to cruise over to Orlando and spend the weekend. Our cousin booked 2 nights at the POP Century about a month before the trip and got a Florida resident rate.  Other than that, the girls made no advance plans, and neither is well known for being an early bird! I wondered just exactly how this trip would go. 

For me it would have been an unmitigated disaster...I plan Disney trips like a military campaign complete with spread sheets, multiple planning apps and checking crowd calendars, but I have different priorities and goals than 2 young adults. They enjoyed some later mornings and last minute reservations (and let's face it, they encountered more than a few snafus) but being young and adaptable, and having visited many times before, they happily went with the flow. I wouldn't suggest this kind of trip for people taking a first trip to WDW, or for a trip with little kids who are less adaptable, but if you ever find yourself with an impromptu day or two at WDW (conventions are often held in Orlando and you might find yourself with an extra 1/2 day in WDW sometime! ) or are the type of person who felt you would never like WDW because it's not in your nature to plan so far ahead,  here are some of the tips my daughter and I suggest to make even a last minute trip to WDW fun!

You don't have to stay at a high end hotel in WDW to benefit from the concierge services. (the lobby at the Contemporary Resort)

You don't have to stay at a high end hotel in WDW to benefit from the concierge services. (the lobby at the Contemporary Resort)

Tips for a Last Minute and Late Start Visit in WDW

1) If you can stay in a WDW resort, you can take advantage of the concierge services to plan much of your last minute trip.  These services are available even in the lobbies of Disney hotels that cost as little as $120 per night.  And the Value Hotels at WDW also offer food court style dining which can be much faster for breakfast than getting up late and then sitting down for breakfast at a restaurant. If you've truly not planned anything at all for your WDW visit, go to the concierge to buy your tickets and get a  recommendation about which park is best to visit that day. They will have the best idea about which park is likely to be least crowded and which might have special events that will create bigger crowds.

Special events like Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party can affect crowds, the concierge will know where to send you for the best experience!

Special events like Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party can affect crowds, the concierge will know where to send you for the best experience!

 

2) Also use the concierge to ask them which restaurant is a good choice. They can make those reservations for you. It may not be the hottest ticket in town (places like the Princess character breakfast in the castle book up literally within minutes of "opening" reservations 365 days in advance) but the concierge will be in the "know" about which places are likely to have some openings and save you the time and energy of wandering to restaurants that already have a full slate of reservations and a huge standby waiting line.  If you are already getting to the parks late, you can plan to eat at off times, (think lunch at 3 PM, dinner at 9) which will allow you to avoid normal meal crowds and enjoy a relatively quieter park when everyone else is eating. You'll enjoy more park time knowing you have a late lunch reservation and wont have to wait standby to eat when you are hungry!

Popular dining spots like "Be Our Guest" in Beast's Castle at Magic Kingdom, are a hot ticket, booked well in advance.  There may be no way to score a table without months of planning, but the hotel concierge can check for same day ca…

Popular dining spots like "Be Our Guest" in Beast's Castle at Magic Kingdom, are a hot ticket, booked well in advance.  There may be no way to score a table without months of planning, but the hotel concierge can check for same day cancellations for you!

 

 

3) As soon as you know you are going to WDW, (or while waiting in the concierge line!) download the Disney World Wait Time App (it's free with ads, or you can upgrade to an ad free version) This app will list the wait times for each attraction at every park and you an use it to plan where you want to go on the fly. You won't need to walk across the park to learn that Space Mountain is a 130 minute wait and then waste more time wandering to the next place!  There are apps for a fee that will actually create the "best itinerary" for you based on what you'd like to see, but these require a little more time to learn and aren't the best option for the last minute, late start trip.  Keeping it simple, you can check the app and choose rides based on the shorter wait times.

Here is an example of wait times in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom on the Disney World Wait Time App

Here is an example of wait times in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom on the Disney World Wait Time App

 

4) Once you've arranged your park choice, advanced dining reservation and ticket options with the concierge, be sure to get the map and entertainment schedule for the park. Do try to make it into the parks before noon time and make your very first stops the headliner rides in that park (Space Mountain, Rock and Roller Coaster) that have Fast Pass (This is a advance reservation system that allows you to use your ticket to get a Fast Pass to return to the ride during a specified later time window and join the much shorter Fast Pass line to ride at that time) The FP attractions are noted right on the park map. These FP's will be generated until there are no more time windows open during the time the park is open.  During busy times, this can happen before noon for top attractions.  

Rides like the Rock'n Roller Coaster in Disney Studios offer fast pass, or you can choose the single rider line.

Rides like the Rock'n Roller Coaster in Disney Studios offer fast pass, or you can choose the single rider line.

 

Once the Fast Passes are out, the only option is to wait in the regular line, or you can make this time shorter by choosing to have everyone in your party go to the "Single Rider" line.  This line moves more quickly since they will use singles to fill in ride vehicles occupied by parties of odd numbers. You might not get to ride with your party, but the line will be shorter!

Another way to beat the long lines is to ride the headliner attractions during major parades or fireworks displays.  Most guests are enjoying those events and lines are often shorter.

Fireworks can still be seen from some exterior lines in WDW, (Big Thunder Mountain, or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) so you can enjoy a shorter line and still have a view of the fireworks!

Fireworks can still be seen from some exterior lines in WDW, (Big Thunder Mountain, or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train) so you can enjoy a shorter line and still have a view of the fireworks!

Going to headliner attractions during a parade can thin the crowds waiting in line. Just make sure you get yourself to the part of the park where your attraction is located, sometimes parades cut off cross traffic making it hard to cross the park af…

Going to headliner attractions during a parade can thin the crowds waiting in line. Just make sure you get yourself to the part of the park where your attraction is located, sometimes parades cut off cross traffic making it hard to cross the park after they've started.

 

5) If you do get stuck in a long line use that time to check your app for the shortest line for your next attraction.  You can also pose for selfies,  have a snack, or apply your sunscreen (you forgot that while rushing out in morning, didn't you?) 

 We've received no promotional consideration from WDW, or any app related to WDW.  All photos credited to Jeffrey Klofft.  Let us know if you have any other good tips for Last Minute, Late Start Disney trips!

Where We've Been and Where We Are Going

Jeff has a running joke about me...that I'm not happy unless I have at least 3 trips booked at any given time!  And I'm embarrassed to say, he's not wrong!  Last year I traveled to the Florida and the Bahamas on Enchantment of the Seas with my mother and teen daughter. In September and October, Jeff and I traveled to Eastern Europe and Danube River cruise on AmaPrima, and we took a college visit trip to Minnesota. So it seems there is always a trio (or more!) of trips to pack for each year. But I would argue (and I do!) that this because we take a very programmatic approach to fitting in the destinations we want into an already really busy life, and generally, we plan travel well in advance. 

With short vacation times, and our usually aggressive plans to see and do a lot in that short time, we like to book trips early to have plenty of time for planning and to ensure we get our first choice of all the components we want. The best hotels, cruise cabins or guides can book up even a year in advance!  We almost always book our trips a year or more in advance.

That all changed this year!

{People with more time, and fewer responsibilities can afford to wait it out and see what specials might pop up last minute.  You can get some good deals, but usually only on trips or components that for some reason didn't sell well in the first place (think cruises during hurricane season, or hotels that might be a little down at the heels or a destination off season)  If you don't mind making those kinds of compromises to save some money; waiting till the last minute is a great way to get a good value.}   

 

Sunset from the Grandeur of the Seas; wondering about that distant Island!

Sunset from the Grandeur of the Seas; wondering about that distant Island!

Cuba

For years, when we've cruised the Caribbean from Florida, and I've always looked out the window on our sea days as we passed by Cuba, and been fascinated about this place.  After all, the place we just left- Miami, throbs with energy and music of a huge Cuban American population there. What is the island they left like now?  It's another of the world's politically complicated place, but our travel philosophy has always been that going to a place and learning about it, meeting the people (if that can be done safely) is the best way to learn about the differences and make an informed opinion.  I knew that for years an embargo trade and travel in Cuba had left citizens of the US on the outside, and people in Cuba unable to share the stories of their lives with us.  In 2000, some limited travel on "people to people" exchanges was allowed by the US government for the reasons I mention above, but they were discontinued in 2003, and resumed again in 2011. Ever since sailing by (at quite a distance to stay in International Waters) and seeing the lights glittering on Cuba and miles of undeveloped beaches, I imagined what it might be like to visit there.  

I put a "people to people" tour to Cuba on my list, when the licenses started being offered, but having at least 3 trips booked already, I didn't exactly have a "spot" on the calendar for a trip to Cuba.  But we wanted to fit in a short trip, between other travel we had planned.  At the time I had trouble finding an operator that offered a shorter trip; several were island tours lasting 10-15 days. (Overseas Adventure Travel, National Geographic, Natural Habitat, Roads Scholar, Friendly Planet etc) That's a luxury of time we didn't have, so I put it off and other trips made the top our list.  Our daughter almost traveled there with a high school group (and we were angling to find a way to latch onto that trip- after providing some pretty good photos of a prior student exchange, we were hopeful the lure of Jeff's photos might convince the teachers to let us join as chaperons!) but the tour company the school planned to use failed to secure the necessary license and that trip was cancelled. 

On December 21st, President Obama announced the normalization of relations with Cuba.  Politically, it will be debated, but one thing that will not be debated is that a change in US policy will mean changes for Cuba. Eventually, I imagine, US based Caribbean cruise ships will make regular ports of call in Cuba, and I will likely set foot there many times in the future.  But the announcement increased the urgency for us to see Cuba now before it changes!  This thought was confirmed when I called Insight Cuba to ask about their trips.  The representative, who has spent considerable time in Cuba, explained that her friends there could not wait to sell those old 1950s cars and buy modern ones! And I can just imagine the American antique car market salivating over those old cars coming into Miami via barge!  While we talked she confirmed my feelings that things are and will be changing in Cuba and NOW is the time to go to have a sense of that change when when I step off a cruise ship into Habana 10 years from now!

Less than 6 months to do my research!

Less than 6 months to do my research!

So, we did something completely uncharacteristic for us!  We booked a trip less than 6 months away!! (only 6 months to plan- how will I cope!?!)  In June 2015, we will take Insight's Jazz in Havana tour. Insight offers people to people tours with guides and all the appropriate licenses. It's under the umbrella of a development organization that uses all the profits from the Cuba trips to pay for volunteer travel to other locations across the globe where they do development work.   It is only 5 nights, so fits perfectly in our schedule. The Jazz in Havana trip with visits to art galleries and museums, artists homes, and meetings with jazz musicians in Havana night clubs, is perfect for our daughters; a saxophone player and a design student.  Jeff is already salivating over the photographic opportunities, and I am looking forward to practicing my Spanish, dancing and meeting Cubans for myself in their home!

Cuba seen from the Navigator of the Seas

Cuba seen from the Navigator of the Seas

So...what about the other 2 trips Jeff insists I must have booked? Well, there might be more than 3 booked now!  I have plans to travel to Florida next week and hope to blog live how to find "real Florida" among all the man made tourist attractions!  In April we will be sailing Adventure of the Seas from San Juan Puerto Rico, visiting Barbados, Antigua, St Marteen, St Lucia, and St Croix. Lastly, we've booked passage on the Azamara Journey from Miami to Cartegna, Columbia, through the Panama Canal and along the Pacific coast of Costa Rica in early 2016.