My 36 Hour Disney Trip – Was It Worth It? – One Day Disney Trip

I recently went on a ~36 hour trip to Disney World! This was something that has always been on my bucket list, and my sister gifted me this experience for my birthday back in January. So I was so excited to do this and it honestly satiated my desire to escape the dead of winter.

While some fellow Disney fanatics totally understood the concept of the trip, others thought we were insane! And so many people asked me if we enjoyed ourselves, if we’d do it again, etc. So I figured I’d write a whole blog post about it in case any of you are considering doing something similar!

Let me give you a quick run down of our trip, along with approximate time stamps.

2/13/24
~6:45AM: Boarded flight from PIT to MCO
~9:15AM: Landed at MCO
~9:45AM: On Mears Connect bus heading to Disney World
~10:30AM: Arrive at Pop Century (luckily our room was ready!)
~10:45AM: Freshen up at the room and head to Skyliner to go to Epcot
~11:15AM: Arrive in Epcot to eat and enjoy the Festival of the Arts
~2:15PM: Take the monorail to Magic Kingdom and spend the afternoon/evening there
~8PM: Leave Magic Kingdom and head to Polynesian Resort for Ohana Dining Reservation
~9PM: Late dining reservation at Ohana
~10:15PM: Get in Minnie Van at Poly to take us back to our hotel
~10:30PM: Arrive back at hotel
~11:30PM: Bed time

2/14/24
~6:55AM: Wake up to purchase Genie+ for the day
~8AM: Drop off our luggage with bell services to hold for the day
~8:15AM: Grab a pastry at the food court while waiting for a Minnie Van
~8:50AM: Arrive at Hollywood Studios during early entry
~10:30AM: Take boat to Boardwalk area to walk around the resort shops
~11:15AM: Get on the bus at Beach Club to Disney Springs
~11:30AM: Arrive at Disney Springs to shop and eat lunch
~2PM: Head back to our hotel on the bus to lounge in the sun
~3:45PM: Freshen up and get ready for our bus to pick us up
~4:35PM: Get on Mears Connect Bus
~5:45PM: Arrive at MCO
~7:45PM: Board plan to PIT
~10PM: Touch down in PIT

As you can see, it was an extremely loaded 2 days! And while we didn’t do a ton of rides and such, every person has different priorities. For us, we specifically wanted to do the Festival of the Arts and ride the Tron coaster. Everything else we kinda flew by the seats of our pants, changed plans along the way, etc. Even our Ohana reservation we didn’t get until the afternoon of! At the end of the day, we could’ve done a lot more, but we chose to take a more relaxed approach.

Now I will certainly admit this kind of Disney trip isn’t for everyone. For the record, I wouldn’t recommend this trip to anyone that doesn’t go to Disney often or people planning to bring kids. We go to Disney a lot and have annual passes, so that alone allowed us to not spend money on tickets, plus we got a discounted hotel room rate. Since we go to Disney so often we weren’t stressed about getting a ton done. If you don’t go often, unless you go into this with low expectations it may not be the best idea. When it comes to doing this with kids, I think it would just be too many moving parts – and this is a situation where you will be exhausted and going all day long. So bringing kids would be a recipe for disaster in my opinion. However, I do think this could be a fun trip to do with teens/older kids who could handle it!

But would I do this again? Yes! However, there are some “requirements” if I were to do it again. And these can serve as tips for any of you wanting to do this yourself.

1. Book A Cheap Flight: This is kind of a no-brainer, but in full honesty we paid with flight credit so it didn’t really matter. However, our flights weren’t super cheap, but we did book things quickly as I wanted to go to Festival of the Arts which ended in mid-February, so we didn’t have many options. I think you could easily use a budget airline like Spirit and only bring a carry on or personal item. We flew Southwest which does offer free bags, but we only did carry-ons to save time – plus we didn’t have much with us.
2. Reasonable Flight Time: My sister and I originally wanted to do the trip there and back in the same day, which I have seen people do. However, the flight times didn’t make sense, so we decided to add a night. Regardless, I think getting the first flight to MCO and the last flight home is key! From Pittsburgh, our flight time to Orlando is approximately 2 hours, and I really think any flights longer than that may not be worth it for just a one night trip.
3. Stay on Disney Property: Staying on Disney property would be a MUST. You don’t want to mess around with outside transportation, renting a car, etc. We chose to just get the most affordable room, which I would recommend, considering we literally only slept in the room. Plus, we chose a value resort with both bus and Skyliner transportation, so multiple ways to get around. And by staying on Disney property it allows you to get affordable transportation to/from the airport via Mears Connect.
4. Be Flexible: We were flexible as we didn’t have a laundry list of things we wanted to do. Additionally, we were willing to open our wallets a bit during certain situations to make things more convenient. If rides are important, I’d highly recommend purchasing Genie+ and/or individual Lightning Lanes. I am by no means an expert, and this trip was my first time using the service (Genie+), but if you can do it right it will save a ton of time (I recommend this video to educate you on the service). We also utilized Minnie Vans a few times, which is the Lyft service operated by Disney. This costs more than a traditional Lyft, however it was worth it for us to utilize (extremely long Skyliner lines in the morning, or being stuck at a resort that isn’t your own).

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I hope this gave you all some insight into my most recent trip – and potentially inspires you to do it yourself! It is so fun for a quick girls’ trip – or even a quick couples getaway.

Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Jayme