I have always wanted to do a one day trip to Epcot from NY. I'm talking flying into Orlando early AM and out from Orlando in the same day. Everything finally lined up and I was able to get the flight times I wanted, at the price I wanted, and talked my wife and son into doing it. We flew out via Southwest direct at 5:30am and flew back via JetBlue direct at 9:00pm. Knowing that so many things could go wrong on a trip like this, we packed and extra backpack with a change of clothes and left it in our rental car just in case...
It was an early morning on March 25th, 2023.. Alarm was set for 3:15am so we could leave the house by 4:00am to make to 4 mile trip to the airport. Thankfully we have precheck because the line at the airport (ALB) extended out of the que and across a bridge to the main parking garage. The precheck line had zero people in it. We were sitting at the gate by 4:30 am and the flight boarded at 5:00am. We were supposed to take off at 5:30am but got delayed due to a flight plan change which required more fuel. Sat in gate for about an extra 15 mitues and took off at 5:50am.. I purchased in-flight wifi to make our first Genie plus reservation, and enter virtual que for Guardians at 7:00am(Got group 62). Because it was only a 1 day trip with no hotel we could not purchase an ILL at 7:00am, so had to wait until 9:00am to do that.. Gotta ride it twice!!
Flight was pretty uneventful and we landed at about 8:45am. We were towards front of the plane so we got off quickly and went to get our Alamo rental car.. With Alamo we did not have to go to the rental counter, so we went directly to our car and headed out! We left the airport by 9:00am at which time our son got our ILL for Guardians at 4:00pm.. We got to Epcot and this is where we made a mistake. We should have gotten preferred parking.. Paid the 25.00 for regular and ended up in Rockit 606 all the way at the end of the row fartest away from the entrance. This walk literally took 15 minutes(30 minutes round trip) to walk so it took half an hour off our day.. If we ever do this again, I will defintely pay for preferred..
We entered Epcot at about 9:45am and headed to Test Track for our first ride. We don't need to use LL for this because I work for GM. So were actually able to ride it twice without using Genie+. After our first ride we went to the Creations Shop so my wife could look at all the Flower and Garden merch, then we went Brunchcot (highly recommend) and Farmers Feast (ribeye was fantastic) while we waited for our virtual que to be called.Like I said, we got group 62 with estimated callback at 2:50pm. Things were moving along so we ended up going on it at 11:50am! Already had Remys lined up for 4:00pm and had Frozen for 3:30pm but as we were waiting in line for Guardians a 12:00pm time for frozen showed up so we snagged it! As soon as we got off guardians headed towards Frozen and stopped into Citrus Blossom for the tempura shrimp which was fantastic! After Frozen we headed back towards Mexico and hit that food booth! The quesadilla and taco were just ok, but the one alcoholic drink I had my eyes set on was the Cristal Margarita in the souvnier cup and it did not disappoint!! I so wanted to try many other alcoholic options around World Showcase buthad to limit myself to one and be responsible.. I did try a sip of my wifes Violet Sake and Italian margarita in Italy, but that was it.. After Mexico we strolled clockwise around world showcase, and tried at least one thing from just about every food offering. Our ILL was then coming up quick so we headed back towards Guardians.. Just before we rode that we did do Test Track again.. After Guardians we went back to World Showcase to do Ratatoulle LL.. Such an awesome ride.. Especially since it was our now 16 year old sons favorite movie as a little.. From there we hit Canada, Trowell and Trellis for some cake and Pineapple Promenade for a hot dog and my favorite non-alcoholic drink ever.. A frozen Desert Violet Lemonade! It just happens to use someof the same ingrediants for Violet Sake! In case you want it for any reason here is the actual recipe for homemade Violet Sake..
Violet Sake
4 oz sake
1.5 oz Monin Desert Pear Syrup
.5 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice
2 oz Water
You're welcome
We then went to the Honey Bistro.. At this point we were so full we could not get the Chicken and Waffles we wanted to try, but I did get my second favorite non-alcoholic drink, the Honey-Peach Cobbler Freeze.. It was very good!! After that we went to Soarin for our last ride of the day.. It was approaching 5:30pm when we got on, and knowing it was the last ride we would be going on was depressing, but we also realized how much we had fit into the day and we were happy!! After Soarin we started to make our way back out to the exit.. Stopped at Spaceship earth and there was a very short line, but at the same time we heard thunder, so it was now 6:30pm and instead of riding it we decided to make our way back to the car.. Good thing we did because about 2 minutes after we got into the car the skies opened up!!
Luckily we hit no traffic on the way back to the airport and arrived to Terminal C at about 7:15pm. Dropped the car off without any issues, and headed to TSA. There was absolutely no line. We actually had about an hour of free time at the airport before we boarded at 8:30pm. Wasn't a full flight so we actually took off at 8:50pm.. Uneventful flight and got in about 45 minutes early and we were home before midnight..
Would we do it again? This time we had enough points for Southwest to cover the way down and JetBlue was only 100.00 each without any carryons and only 1 personal item each.. Also,the flight times for this trip were perfect! Early AM flight and late evening flight. Weather was also perfect, except for the thunderstorm when we were leaving. So yes, we would absolutely do this again! Maybe not again this year, but in the future we would because it was totally doable with the right flights available.. I know a lot of things could have gone wrong.. Weather, delayed/cancelled flights.. etc etc.. So I would highly recommend one of the personal items you bring on plane if full of just in case extras... The cost for Epcot was 149.00 each plus 25.00 each for Genie + and my son and I rode a second time on Guardians for 17.00 each.. That ontop of the tastings etc made for an expensive park day, but was not unexpected. The pictures I am posting were pretty much our timeline for the day...
Is this something you would try? Have any questions for me? Let me know and have a magical day! We absolutely did!!!
Pictures to follow..Sorry, new at this...
It was an early morning on March 25th, 2023.. Alarm was set for 3:15am so we could leave the house by 4:00am to make to 4 mile trip to the airport. Thankfully we have precheck because the line at the airport (ALB) extended out of the que and across a bridge to the main parking garage. The precheck line had zero people in it. We were sitting at the gate by 4:30 am and the flight boarded at 5:00am. We were supposed to take off at 5:30am but got delayed due to a flight plan change which required more fuel. Sat in gate for about an extra 15 mitues and took off at 5:50am.. I purchased in-flight wifi to make our first Genie plus reservation, and enter virtual que for Guardians at 7:00am(Got group 62). Because it was only a 1 day trip with no hotel we could not purchase an ILL at 7:00am, so had to wait until 9:00am to do that.. Gotta ride it twice!!
Flight was pretty uneventful and we landed at about 8:45am. We were towards front of the plane so we got off quickly and went to get our Alamo rental car.. With Alamo we did not have to go to the rental counter, so we went directly to our car and headed out! We left the airport by 9:00am at which time our son got our ILL for Guardians at 4:00pm.. We got to Epcot and this is where we made a mistake. We should have gotten preferred parking.. Paid the 25.00 for regular and ended up in Rockit 606 all the way at the end of the row fartest away from the entrance. This walk literally took 15 minutes(30 minutes round trip) to walk so it took half an hour off our day.. If we ever do this again, I will defintely pay for preferred..We entered Epcot at about 9:45am and headed to Test Track for our first ride. We don't need to use LL for this because I work for GM. So were actually able to ride it twice without using Genie+. After our first ride we went to the Creations Shop so my wife could look at all the Flower and Garden merch, then we went Brunchcot (highly recommend) and Farmers Feast (ribeye was fantastic) while we waited for our virtual que to be called.Like I said, we got group 62 with estimated callback at 2:50pm. Things were moving along so we ended up going on it at 11:50am! Already had Remys lined up for 4:00pm and had Frozen for 3:30pm but as we were waiting in line for Guardians a 12:00pm time for frozen showed up so we snagged it! As soon as we got off guardians headed towards Frozen and stopped into Citrus Blossom for the tempura shrimp which was fantastic! After Frozen we headed back towards Mexico and hit that food booth! The quesadilla and taco were just ok, but the one alcoholic drink I had my eyes set on was the Cristal Margarita in the souvnier cup and it did not disappoint!! I so wanted to try many other alcoholic options around World Showcase buthad to limit myself to one and be responsible.. I did try a sip of my wifes Violet Sake and Italian margarita in Italy, but that was it.. After Mexico we strolled clockwise around world showcase, and tried at least one thing from just about every food offering. Our ILL was then coming up quick so we headed back towards Guardians.. Just before we rode that we did do Test Track again.. After Guardians we went back to World Showcase to do Ratatoulle LL.. Such an awesome ride.. Especially since it was our now 16 year old sons favorite movie as a little.. From there we hit Canada, Trowell and Trellis for some cake and Pineapple Promenade for a hot dog and my favorite non-alcoholic drink ever.. A frozen Desert Violet Lemonade! It just happens to use someof the same ingrediants for Violet Sake! In case you want it for any reason here is the actual recipe for homemade Violet Sake..
Violet Sake
4 oz sake
1.5 oz Monin Desert Pear Syrup
.5 oz Rose's Sweetened Lime Juice
2 oz Water
You're welcome
We then went to the Honey Bistro.. At this point we were so full we could not get the Chicken and Waffles we wanted to try, but I did get my second favorite non-alcoholic drink, the Honey-Peach Cobbler Freeze.. It was very good!! After that we went to Soarin for our last ride of the day.. It was approaching 5:30pm when we got on, and knowing it was the last ride we would be going on was depressing, but we also realized how much we had fit into the day and we were happy!! After Soarin we started to make our way back out to the exit.. Stopped at Spaceship earth and there was a very short line, but at the same time we heard thunder, so it was now 6:30pm and instead of riding it we decided to make our way back to the car.. Good thing we did because about 2 minutes after we got into the car the skies opened up!!
Luckily we hit no traffic on the way back to the airport and arrived to Terminal C at about 7:15pm. Dropped the car off without any issues, and headed to TSA. There was absolutely no line. We actually had about an hour of free time at the airport before we boarded at 8:30pm. Wasn't a full flight so we actually took off at 8:50pm.. Uneventful flight and got in about 45 minutes early and we were home before midnight..
Would we do it again? This time we had enough points for Southwest to cover the way down and JetBlue was only 100.00 each without any carryons and only 1 personal item each.. Also,the flight times for this trip were perfect! Early AM flight and late evening flight. Weather was also perfect, except for the thunderstorm when we were leaving. So yes, we would absolutely do this again! Maybe not again this year, but in the future we would because it was totally doable with the right flights available.. I know a lot of things could have gone wrong.. Weather, delayed/cancelled flights.. etc etc.. So I would highly recommend one of the personal items you bring on plane if full of just in case extras... The cost for Epcot was 149.00 each plus 25.00 each for Genie + and my son and I rode a second time on Guardians for 17.00 each.. That ontop of the tastings etc made for an expensive park day, but was not unexpected. The pictures I am posting were pretty much our timeline for the day...
Is this something you would try? Have any questions for me? Let me know and have a magical day! We absolutely did!!!
Pictures to follow..Sorry, new at this...
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