Woohoo! I love my job!!!

[Daffodilmom21]

So I usually have a training session for my position every so often and it’s usually in Las Vegas. Usually DH and I make a nice couples trip out of it but this year it just wasn’t going to work out. Was not looking forward to Vegas solo. Then I find out last week, TRAINING HAS BEEN SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE AT DISNEY WORLD!!! We will be stay at CSR. So friggen excited. DH still cannot go, plus we were just there in Sept and the kids missed a week of school so that’s out of the mix also. I’m going to DW solo!!! Made my flight arrangements last night and will be arriving around 11am on Monday 3/23 staying until Friday 3/27!! I have the following tentative plans in mind:
Monday 3/22- arrive at CSR around noon, explore the resort a bit/relax, then head over to Poly-trader Sams for some drinks before heading to DAH at MK at 7pm. Is there anywhere better at CSR to try instead of Poly??

Tuesday 3/23- HS I think since it’s my only free morning. Wanted to RD and see if I could get a BG for RiSE. I know I will be out late the night before, but it’s only me to worry about to get ready in the morning so it shouldn’t be too bad. Can break and go back to CSR for a nap whenever and come back later in the day if I wanted. Was thinking maybe get a PH for this day and do AK the afternoon/night

Wednesday I will be in meeting till about 4-430. Was planning on Epcot for the evening

Thursday will be a repeat of Wednesday with meetings and was thinking of splurging and doing DAH at AK this night. This would depend on what I do Tuesday afternoon. Might just be another Epcot night What do you think?

Any pointers as a solo traveler? Was hoping to go bagless to the parks to make it easier with security, do you really save time with out a bag? Only thing I could see me missing without a bag would be my phone charger but thinking the only day that would really be an issue would be Tuesday.

Been to DW 13 times so far never solo, never as just adults so this is really different for me. Any items to put on my must do/bucket list??

 

[NH-to-FL]

TRAINING HAS BEEN SCHEDULED TO TAKE PLACE AT DISNEY WORLD!!!

Wonderful!

Never really done a solo trip, just adults only DW and I.

We have shifted our park visits to bagless. I wear a pair of cargo pants and become the pack mule. It really does speed things up if you arrive at a park during a busy time. We went to over to Epcot today late morning and the bag check lines were long. We walked right through the no-bag line.

As far as solo must do's, I would just let your your own interests be your guide. What corner of the park have you always been interested in but never managed to get it on the family schedule? Now's the time.

As far as your evenings, you can't go wrong with wandering the World Showcase. That's what DW and I would do most evenings of our trips. But then we would have our days to visit other parks. Which makes me think about our WDW story.

Our obsession with WDW began because of one of my work conferences held at the Swan/Dolphin almost 25 years ago. When I found out about the location I did some research and booked a room at the BWI for both DW and I to make it a bit of a vacation, staying a couple of days after the end of my work activities. We quickly became addicted to the location being walking distance to Epcot and that started our yearly BWI visits, evolving to twice yearly visits, ending with us becoming Disney snowbirds after I retired.

I wonder how many times that happens after conferences held at Disney. Of course, at thirteen trips, it sounds like you are already a Disney fan.
Wishing you a visit!

 

[Daffodilmom21]

Wonderful!

Never really done a solo trip, just adults only DW and I.

We have shifted our park visits to bagless. I wear a pair of cargo pants and become the pack mule. It really does speed things up if you arrive at a park during a busy time. We went to over to Epcot today late morning and the bag check lines were long. We walked right through the no-bag line.

As far as solo must do's, I would just let your your own interests be your guide. What corner of the park have you always been interested in but never managed to get it on the family schedule? Now's the time.

As far as your evenings, you can't go wrong with wandering the World Showcase. That's what DW and I would do most evenings of our trips. But then we would have our days to visit other parks. Which makes me think about our WDW story.

Our obsession with WDW began because of one of my work conferences held at the Swan/Dolphin almost 25 years ago. When I found out about the location I did some research and booked a room at the BWI for both DW and I to make it a bit of a vacation, staying a couple of days after the end of my work activities. We quickly became addicted to the location being walking distance to Epcot and that started our yearly BWI visits, evolving to twice yearly visits, ending with us becoming Disney snowbirds after I retired.

I wonder how many times that happens after conferences held at Disney. Of course, at thirteen trips, it sounds like you are already a Disney fan.
Wishing you a visit!

Thank you for your reply and help. I am definitely gonna try for GE at DHS my one morning if they continueing doing BGs the way they have been. Other than that, I just plan on taking it all it. Just enjoying some “me time”. If I get lonely, I will have some work friends join in and I believe we have some dinners planned into the business side of things but otherwise, I might even skip them and continue alone on my journey. Thanks so much

 

[rpfennig]

Any pointers as a solo traveler?

Congratulations! I'm in a similar position with an upcoming conference at the Swan and Dolphin in April. I was able to attend the same conference last June and have my wife come down for the first half but did the second half solo. I've also had a couple other conferences that were offsite that I added a couple/few days on at Disney World solo (I mean, c'mon... I'm in the neighbourhood).

I would describe my solo pace as "frenetic gerbil" so, I'm trying to teach myself to slow down a bit and along with that I generally bring a camel pack into the parks to make sure I stay hydrated and have a place to stash any small purchases and charge cables (plus any seeds and nuts for snacking on). I've always been lucky with bag check lines and don't think it's ever been an issue.

HS is the nut to crack this time around. I'm looking at scheduling HS/MK, HS/Epcot or HS/AK days where I rope drop to see if I can pick up a ROTR boarding group and then go to the other park later in the day but that kind of kills the opportunity of getting a PPO breakfast reservation at BOG or Garden Grill. Still, sacrifices must be made for the Empire/Resistance (no judgement zone). Some times I wake in the middle of the night and wonder... what if they still have 7 AM openings when I'm there for the conference... could I slip over to HS before the 8 AM conference start... hover my finger over the join boarding group button for a few seconds and perhaps, just perhaps get a group for later in the day after the conference is done for the day or over the lunch hour while everyone is trying to get the earlier ones... but then I think... this road leads to madness and try fruitlessly to get back to sleep... could it work???

Last trip I did the Villains After Hours and HS After Hours back to back on the last two days of the conference... managed to fly home the next day but it's a blur. I kind of remember, mistakenly throwing a ceramic plate in the garbage at one of Dolphin quick serve places that day because my brain stopped processing the idea that... well, it just stopped processing in a traditional sense... and now, I carry the guilt of that with me every day. Having said that, I bought a ticket for the Villains After Hours party for the last day of the upcoming conference and definitely recommend doing the After Hours events as a way to get a bit more Disney in (MK and AK if you can get away with it).

The nice thing about going solo is that chance to not have to worry about managing a family schedule and just have a chance to do what you want to do in the moment. You're not ruining someone else's schedule if you decide to relax a bit longer/spend a bit more time at/get distracted by a shiny light in the distance because it's your experience to make and enjoy.

 

[Daffodilmom21]

Congratulations! I'm in a similar position with an upcoming conference at the Swan and Dolphin in April. I was able to attend the same conference last June and have my wife come down for the first half but did the second half solo. I've also had a couple other conferences that were offsite that I added a couple/few days on at Disney World solo (I mean, c'mon... I'm in the neighbourhood).

I would describe my solo pace as "frenetic gerbil" so, I'm trying to teach myself to slow down a bit and along with that I generally bring a camel pack into the parks to make sure I stay hydrated and have a place to stash any small purchases and charge cables (plus any seeds and nuts for snacking on). I've always been lucky with bag check lines and don't think it's ever been an issue.

HS is the nut to crack this time around. I'm looking at scheduling HS/MK, HS/Epcot or HS/AK days where I rope drop to see if I can pick up a ROTR boarding group and then go to the other park later in the day but that kind of kills the opportunity of getting a PPO breakfast reservation at BOG or Garden Grill. Still, sacrifices must be made for the Empire/Resistance (no judgement zone). Some times I wake in the middle of the night and wonder... what if they still have 7 AM openings when I'm there for the conference... could I slip over to HS before the 8 AM conference start... hover my finger over the join boarding group button for a few seconds and perhaps, just perhaps get a group for later in the day after the conference is done for the day or over the lunch hour while everyone is trying to get the earlier ones... but then I think... this road leads to madness and try fruitlessly to get back to sleep... could it work???

Last trip I did the Villains After Hours and HS After Hours back to back on the last two days of the conference... managed to fly home the next day but it's a blur. I kind of remember, mistakenly throwing a ceramic plate in the garbage at one of Dolphin quick serve places that day because my brain stopped processing the idea that... well, it just stopped processing in a traditional sense... and now, I carry the guilt of that with me every day. Having said that, I bought a ticket for the Villains After Hours party for the last day of the upcoming conference and definitely recommend doing the After Hours events as a way to get a bit more Disney in (MK and AK if you can get away with it).

The nice thing about going solo is that chance to not have to worry about managing a family schedule and just have a chance to do what you want to do in the moment. You're not ruining someone else's schedule if you decide to relax a bit longer/spend a bit more time at/get distracted by a shiny light in the distance because it's your experience to make and enjoy.

Well it’s nice to know I am not the only one with a bazillion ideas in my head for my HS days! I am definitely trying for a BG the day after I do DAH at MK the night before and as it stands it’s showing a 9am opening. I know I’m crazy but I’m silently praying the times change, 9am opening will make it more of a crazy opening than 7am. I made all of my FPs for HS that day, atleast for the morning. Will hope to catch up on some sleep during my meetings since I did go ahead and purchase an AH ticket for AK my last night with a 730am flight out the next morning. Thinking that might be my only time at AK but am stoked I got a 7pm KS FP so can pretty much do everything I would want to on a normal day at AK.
Now I have to hide my countdown excitement from the family for the next 50 some days!!

 

[rpfennig]

Well it’s nice to know I am not the only one with a bazillion ideas in my head for my HS days!

I'm looking at treating the HS days as park hopper days with the FPs set for later in the day at the secondary park. If I'm lucky and get a low enough BG then it works out somewhat normal. If it's for later in the day I can bounce to the other park and then back to HS doing a quick reshuffle of FPs (seems unlikely to work) to try and salvage as much as possible. I'm hoping it still has the earlier openings as well, so that in the worst case scenario (no BG) I can still get to the secondary park close to rope drop and maximize the day... just no ROTR that day ("I'm not crying, you're crying!"). The decision tree for the HS days is just a nightmare (and I'm still not sure what's happening with Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Train... am I trying to grab two BGs now??). Luckily I'll have a few days to try and a bunch of evenings where I can be a bit more relaxed since showing up in the parks after the conference ends for the day enforces no boarding group drama.

Now I have to hide my countdown excitement from the family for the next 50 some days!!

That's the hard part. The bursting with surges of absolute joy and anticipation and having to play it cool... "Yeah, works making me go... you know how it is."