For most of us, going to Walt Disney World means a little (or a lot) of planning in advance - with dining reservations, fast passes and flights. But for others, sometimes it's a last-minute "Let's go to Walt Disney World" type of vacation.
In today's blog, I'm going to be sharing all about planning that last-minute Disney trip.
A very common question is do you get a Magic Band if you're traveling to Walt Disney World on a last-minute trip? Well, it all comes down to how last-minute your trip is. If you have more than eleven days prior to your stay at the time of booking, you can go into the
My Disney Experience app and customize your Magic Band with your favorite color, your name on the back, and they will send your Magic Band to your house. If it is ten to six days before your trip, you can customize it on the
My Disney Experience app with your favorite color, your name on the back and Disney will send it to your Disney Resort so you can pick it up when you arrive, However, if you have five or fewer days, unfortunately that's not enough time to customize your Magic Band and you'll pick uu a solid gray Magic Band when you check in (with no name customization on the back) but it will still work and it's still a free magic band.
Of course, if you have your own Magic Band, whether one the special design ones or one from a from previous trips, those will work as well and you can bring one with you on your trip and decline a new Magic Band.
If you've planned a trip to Walt Disney World before and taken advantage of the
Disney Magical Express service, you know that before your trip, Disney will send you several yellow luggage tags you attach to your luggage allowing you to bypass picking up your luggage at Orlando International Airport. Using these tags, Disney will deliver your luggage to your resort room via their luggage delivery service.
But what happens if you have a last-minute Disney trip? There are a couple options - one being you could collect your luggage off the carousel yourself and bring it to the Magical Express bus where they will put your luggage on the bus with you, or two, you can hand the Cast Members at the Magical Express desk the claim ticket that you received from the airline when you checked in your luggage at your home airport. They will take care of everything else it will arrive at your resort that night.
If you've been to Walt Disney World before you know the value of fast passes. Disney's fast pass system can get you on some of your favorite attractions and rides with extremely low wait times but if you're going on a last-minute Disney trip can you still get them? Of course you can, and you may even be surprised with how many attractions and rides still have fast passes available for your stay. Of course, getting fast passes all depends on the time of year and the crowd level but you may even see some great fast pass availability on the day you're in the park. The key is to keep checking the My Disney Experience app on your phone frequently.
What about dining reservations? Well, you might be surprised how many dining reservations may still available at the very last minute. If you can't find one available for your stay, don't be afraid to check in at the restaurant desk, keeping in mind walk-up availability comes down to the time of year and the crowd level in the parks.
Now you may be thinking that because you're planning a last-minute Disney trip, it's going to be more expensive, especially at the resorts. That is not always the case especially depending on the time of year if you're trying to get a reservation for. As an example, if you are trying to get a resort room at Walt Disney World two days prior to Christmas so that you can be in the parks on Christmas Day, you may be out of luck. However, other times throughout the year you may be surprised at how much availability there is. If Disney is not selling as many of those rooms as they would like, they may even start to discount them just a little bit. There will be no big announcement like the regular discounts, you just have to search on the
Disney World website and you may be in luck and be able to say "oh my gosh look at this great deal that I found for a Disney Resort - let's hop on a plane and go."
These last minute deals are not as frequent anymore but it does happen, so yes, you can still experience the magic of a last-minute Walt Disney World vacation. The most important factor to remember is the time of year. If it's the time of year when the crowds are relatively low, you are going to have better luck with finding great fast passes and dining reservations, and even your flight will probably be less expensive.
If you're thinking about going during a heavy crowd time of year like the middle of the summer or Christmastime, you're unfortunately going to be paying a little bit more and may not even find the availability that you're looking for.
Have you been successful in booking a last-minute trip to Walt Disney World??
