A Magical Day: Day Trip To Disney World

What do you do when it’s way too long since you’ve experienced the magic of Disney but you live 600 miles away and a vacation isn’t in the budget? You plan a magical day and take a Disney World Day Trip, of course!

Does taking a one-day trip to an amusement park that’s several states away sound wild? I would have thought so too. Until a friend sent me a Tik Tok video from a Disney creator who did just that and planted the seed of inspiration. 

Honestly, I thought the hardest part of taking this trip would be convincing my husband. But as soon as I explained the concept, he was intrigued by the sense of adventure.

And an adventure it was! Intrigued to try it yourself?

Step One Of A Disney World Day Trip: Pick A Date

This is kind of a two-part process. For the first step, I looked up same-day round-trip flights from my local airport (Raleigh-Durham International) to Orlando International. I’ve found the easiest way to do this is using Google Flights to easily compare dates.

Once you plug in a date you have in mind into the search, you can then click on the calendar to see what the prices are for different dates. I did this to identify the cheapest days to fly to Orlando and back. From Raleigh, you can score these same-day round-trip flights to Orlando for under $50. And since it’s only for a day, there’s no need to pay extra for luggage or carry-ons. We just brought a small backpack that fit the parameters of a “personal item”. 

The second part is to identify the best days to be in the park. And this depends on your goals for the trip. For us, we wanted to see Magic Kingdom decorated for Christmas and ride Tron since we hadn’t been back to the parks since it opened. Based on our work schedules and in hopes of going on a day when the park wasn’t too crowded, we went on a Monday at the beginning of December

Side note: The parks were actually very crowded

If your schedule is flexible and you’re looking for a less-crowded day, this crowd prediction calendar is a great tool to use.

Oh, and don’t forget to book your park tickets.

Step Two Of A Disney World Day Trip: Make The Plan

So how do you actually execute a one-day trip to Disney World from 600 miles away? Well here’s how we did it…

Our flight out of RDU left around 5:45 am. We made sure we arrived at the airport by 5:00 am so we could park and catch the shuttle to the departure gates. Because we only had our little park backpack, getting through security was super quick. We made it to our gate about 5 minutes before boarding started.

We landed in Orlando around 7:30 and called a Lyft from the designated pick-up spot to take us to Disney’s Ticket & Transportation Center. From there, we hopped on the Express Monorail to Magic Kingdom and made it into the park about 10 minutes before rope drop.

We spent the day meeting characters, riding some of our favorite rides, enjoying some snacks, and, of course, waiting in lines. And as for Tron…

As of our trip, there are two times of the day you can try to join the virtual queue and get a boarding group. We missed the first one because we were still in flight but we were able to get a boarding group at the second time slot. It worked out just about perfectly and they called our boarding group in time for us to enjoy the new ride before we had to head back to the airport.

Truthfully, I was a little stressed about making it back in time so we left during the fireworks show. It was back onto the monorail, back to the TTC, into another Lyft, and back to MCO. Security moved a little slower this time but still pretty quick and we made it to our gate a good 30 minutes before boarding. Or so we thought. Our flight actually got delayed by about half an hour.

We made it back to Raleigh a little after 1 am. A long day but oh so worth it.

Step Three Of A Disney World Day Trip: Budget

If you’ve ever read anything else I’ve written or follow my social media channels, you already know I’m always happy to save a buck. Especially when it comes to Disney! 

It’s no secret that any trip to the parks can be pricey. So I say take advantage of any money-saving tips, tricks, or deals you can. My favorite? Using my Target Red Card (the debit version) to buy Disney Gift Cards for 5% off. It might not be a lot, but any little bit helps.

Disney gift cards can pay for tickets, vacation packages, merchandise, food, and pretty much just about anything in the parks.

You can also buy Lyft and Uber gift cards through Target at that 5% discount.

These gift cards are a good way to come up with a budget for your day trip and keep you from going over that budget.

If you don’t have a Target Red Card (although I highly recommend them as they don’t have any additional fees and the debit card links to your bank account), there are other money-saving options. Sam’s Club, Costco, and BJ’s also sell Disney gift cards at a slight discount. Sam’s Club members also have access to their Travel Center deals where you can buy tickets at a discounted price. Reportedly, at least. I let my membership lapse so I haven’t been able to fact check this for accuracy recently😅.

Step Four Of A Disney World Day Trip: Pack Your Bag

I wrote extensively about what to pack for Disney in this post, including what to bring in your park bags.

But I figure it bears repeating, especially for anyone thinking of taking their first trip to the parks.

Side note: I do not recommend trying this day trip for your first visit to Disney World. It can be very overwhelming and there’s way too much to take in in one day.

Weather can be pretty unpredictable in Florida. But if there’s anything you can count on, it’s that it will probably be hot and there’s a good chance of a little rain. So two things I always pack for the parks are ponchos and a handheld fan.

And because we are budget girlies, we’re not buying expensive bottles of water in the parks. Instead, pack a small refillable water bottle. There are bottle-filling stations and water fountains all around the parks and you can ask any quick-service dining location for a cup of ice water at no charge.

It’s going to be a long day and it would feel even longer if you get uncomfortable. So pack lip balm to avoid chapped lips and a Thigh Stick to avoid chaffed thighs (or any other parts).

You know what could probably ruin a magical day trip? A dying phone. Not only do you use your phone a lot while in the parks to check wait times and mobile order food, you’ll probably also use it to access your boarding pass and get updates on your flight. So, bring at least one good portable charger. I have two favorites I bring. One is a smaller charger that’s perfectly portable and plugs straight into my phone. The other is bigger and holds about two full charges with charging cords for multiple devices attached directly to the charger.

Last but not least…sanitizer. Because there’s nothing magical about coming home with thousands of people’s germs.

Want a more in-depth run down? I shared a video packing my park bag here.

Step Five Of A Disney World Day Trip: Pick The Outfit

I’m a fashion blogger, of course, I need a cute Disney-themed outfit for a day at the parks.

For this trip, I went with holiday theming and wore a T-shirt I designed. (P.S. Did you know I have an Etsy shop with graphic tee designs?) And then paired it with a red skirt, sneakers, and Holiday plaid ears that I made myself. 

Want to try making your own ears? I roughly followed this tutorial. I sewed them by hand so they were definitely not perfect but they were cheaper to make than to buy. Time-wise it probably took me a few hours in total but, again, that’s because I sewed them by hand. Using a sewing machine would be much quicker.

Looking for other Disney outfit inspiration? Check out these two posts: Cute & Trendy Outfits To Wear To Disney and What To Wear: Disney Edition.

Step Six Of A Disney World Day Trip: Have Fun!

And follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok for more Disney content, petite & curvy fashion inspiration, shopping and more!