I traveled from New York City to Disney World and back in 24 hours. It was exhausting, but I saved hundreds of dollars. (2024)

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To start my day, I essentially woke up in the middle of the night. I was dressed by 3:13 a.m.

I was taking a 6 a.m. flight out of LaGuardia Airport in New York City, so I had to give myself at least 25 minutes to get from my house on Long Island to the airport.

The night before, I tried to go to sleep early, but nerves kept me up until around midnight. My "sleep" felt more like a nap.

I knew I had a long day ahead of me, but mainly I was just excited to get going and be at Disney, so I couldn't even be crabby at my lack of sleep.

Luckily, I had packed my bag the night before so I was ready to go.

I chose my Baggu Crescent Bag for the day, since it's lightweight, carries a lot of items, and is easy to clean.

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I packed items, including a portable charger and a handheld fan, that proved to be invaluable during my day at Disney.

I packed my wallet, my over-the-ear headphones, Supergoop face sunscreen, a portable charger, Advil, travel-sized deodorant, sunglasses, regular glasses, my inhalers, hand sanitizer, a portable fan, lip gloss, my keys, and a pair of Minnie ears.

I also debated bringing a rain jacket, seen in the top left, but I ended up leaving it at home.

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By 3:45 a.m., my mom and I were out the door. We had parked at LaGuardia Airport by 4:24 a.m. — still plenty of time for our 6 a.m. flight.

It cost $75 to park there for the day. That is steep, but an Uber from my house on Long Island to LaGuardia can cost over $100 for just one way, making parking the more cost-effective option for us.

It could've been even cheaper if I'd pre-booked parking, but I found the website confusing to navigate. I'd pre-book in the future, though.

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I flew Spirit Airlines to Orlando since it was cheaper than most airlines. It cost me $236 round-trip.

I only booked my flights a couple of weeks in advance, but Spirit flights on this route can be as cheap as $102 round-trip.

This was actually my second attempt at this trip. My original trip was supposed to be on July 16, but my flight got canceled due to an "Air Traffic Control decision." I got a refund and a $100 voucher for my troubles.

So, I was pleased when my second flight took off without a hitch.

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Since I only had a personal item, I was unaffected by Spirit's extra charges.

It's not just the drinks and snacks — I heard an airline employee warn someone that if their bag didn't fit under the seat, they'd have to pay $79 just to put it in one of the overhead bins.

However, I was just bringing a crossbody bag, so I knew I wouldn't have any problems.

You can also purchase access to a shorter security line, a specific seat, a bigger seat with more legroom, and WiFi on the plane, but I kept it basic and didn't opt into any of those.

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And since it was a short flight, I didn't mind my lack of TV or the inability to recline my seat.

I would definitely fly Spirit again to go anywhere on the East Coast or to a city less than four hours away, like Nashville. I was able to just put on my headphones and zone out.

But I know if this was a longer flight, I would've gotten antsy.

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In a pleasant surprise, the flight landed at 8:21 a.m., 36 minutes early. It was go time.

It normally takes about 3 hours to get from NYC to Orlando, but my flight was just under 2 1/2 hours.

My first peek at Disney magic was at the airport, where a Disney store beckoned to anyone arriving.

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Since getting on rides was a big priority for me, I spent a little more on ensuring I could skip lines.

Disney World has changed a lot in the 11 years since I last visited. In 2013, I received a physical ticket to the parks and used FastPass to maximize rides. But FastPass has been a thing of the past since 2014, and visitors can instead buy a Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, which I decided to opt for.

After tax, my $232 park-hopper ticket was $247 (yes, that means the park ticket cost more than my airfare). But after adding the $24 Lightning Lane Multi-Pass in Hollywood Studios and the $20 Single Lane Pass for the TRON ride, the final cost was $291. Those prices aren't stagnant, though —they go up and down depending on how busy the park is expected to be.

A park-hopper ticket lets you visit multiple parks in one day. A single park ticket would have been cheaper, but since I was there for just one day, I wanted to see as much of Disney as possible.

At first, I was pretty confused by the way the Lightning Lane passes work. Until recently, Disney used Genie+, an add-on service where you could purchase FastPass tickets to wait in a short line for rides. To secure them, you had to log onto the Disney World app at 7 a.m. the day of your visit and pray.

As of July 24, the parks use Lightning Lanes, which go live two weeks before your visit if you stay on Disney property, or three days prior to your visit for everyone else.

Either you can purchase a Multi-Pass for one park, which gets you time slots for one top-tier ride and two lower-tier rides, or you can purchase a single Lightning Lane for some of the most popular rides, like TRON, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Tiana's Bayou Adventure, or the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

If you purchase the Multi-Pass, you're allowed to have three slots at once. Once your first slot has passed, you can check the app to add another ride.

I chose to apply this to Hollywood Studios since it had the most rides I wanted to try, and then I added the TRON Lightcycle ride in Magic Kingdom since that was my No. 1 ride in the whole park.

If this sounds overwhelming to you, you're right! But once you get the hang of the app, it makes more sense.

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Since my time slots for rides were in the afternoon, we took an Uber straight to Epcot. I was in the park by 9:32 a.m..

Epcot opens at 9 a.m. for anyone not staying in one of Disney's official hotels. Anyone staying on the property can get in an hour early.

My Lightning Lanes were all from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m., so we headed to Epcot first. Our Uber took 27 minutes and cost $44 before tip, but I'm an UberOne member, so it ended up being $36 after discounts.

There was a crowd by the time we arrived, but it was not overwhelming at all.

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My mom and I were pretty hungry, so we made a beeline for the France pavilion. I had seen a spot for pastries on TikTok that I thought would be a great way to start the day.

Most of the rides in Epcot aren't by the country pavilions. Instead, they're towards the front of the park, by the giant sphere.

We figured that if we went straight to the countries, we wouldn't have to wait long for food or rides, and we were right.

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Our first ride of the day was Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, which opened in 2021.

Of course, the "Ratatouille" ride was in France. This ride was high on my list, as many Disney experts call it one of the best rides in all of the parks.

It's a trackless ride, so it really feels like you're just one of Remy's rat friends as you whip around the kitchen and are lightly dusted with "Champagne" (water) and the smells of food cooking are piped in throughout the ride.

The standby line said it would take 35 minutes, but we were on the ride in around 20 minutes, which made us hopeful for the rest of the day.

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We walked through the countries, but many weren't fully open yet. I think most people head to Epcot in the afternoon or evening to eat lunch or dinner.

The only other country that was really popping off was Norway, which makes sense: That's the location of Frozen Ever After, the other big attraction at the World Showcase Pavilion. The line was 45 minutes and mainly outside, so we didn't wait.

However, countries like England, Canada, Japan, and Morocco were almost entirely empty throughout the morning.

By the time we left at around 12:30 p.m., Mexico (our last stop) was finally becoming quite busy.

Epcot is known for its food and alcohol — it's the only park in Orlando that serves alcohol, so many adults go and "drink around the world." But it's a little aggressive to start drinking at 10 a.m., which is perhaps why it wasn't that crowded.

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On the way out, we stopped at Mission: Space, which opened in 2003.

Mission: Space has two different versions: a milder simulation called the Earth Mission, which just rocks back and forth and simulates lift-off, and the Mars Mission, which is more intense and simulates getting flung off a slingshot.

We did the Earth Mission, which I didn't love. The ride felt outdated, and I was a bit claustrophobic.

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I tried to get on the Virtual Queue — another way to get on popular rides — for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which opened in 2022, but it was hopeless.

Some rides at Disney are so popular that you don't even have the option of waiting in line. Instead, you have to join a virtual queue at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. and see what group you're placed into.

I got off Spaceship: Earth at 12:59 p.m., so I was all ready to try to get on Guardians before we went to Magic Kingdom. I got placed in a group that had to come back in 250 minutes, or roughly four hours.

That wasn't feasible with my day, so I had to skip it.

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Our time slot for TRON was from 1:55 p.m. to 2:55 p.m., so we decided to head to Magic Kingdom, where it's located, via the monorail at 1:20 p.m.

The Monorail has been at Disney World since 1971. It mainly connects some of the resorts with Magic Kingdom, but the other route can take you from Epcot to Magic Kingdom.

The other park that's directly accessible from Epcot is Hollywood Studios. You can take the Skyliner, a gondola service.

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We were there by 1:44 p.m. Since we had time to kill, we posed for pictures — which we didn't realize would cost $75 to download — went shopping, and walked along Main Street USA.

It took 24 minutes to get from Epcot to Magic Kingdom since the Monorail experienced some delays.

Since we had at least 10 minutes to kill and, at most, an hour, we decided to take some photos with PhotoPass. There are professional photographers stationed at the most photogenic stops.

But we didn't realize that to get them, we needed to purchase the Memory Maker add-on for $75. There's also an option to buy individual photos for $20 each.

If we had known that, we would have utilized the photographers at every park.

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Then it was time for TRON, which opened in 2023. It was worth the extra $20.

TRON Lightcycle Run is one of the most popular rides in the park. In order to ride it, you either have to purchase a $20 Lightning Lane, or you can try your luck with the virtual queues at 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.

This was one of the coolest rides I've been on. You hop on a "lightcycle" and are rocketed around an indoor/outdoor track that makes you feel like you've been sucked into a video game. I get why it's such a fan-favorite.

But by the time we got off, it was already time to head to Hollywood Studios for our upcoming Lightning Lane time slots.

Even though we had a Lightning Lane, it doesn't mean you automatically get on the ride with no wait time. It still took around 10 minutes to get onto the ride, but that's nothing compared to some of the wait times I saw on the Disney app.

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Luckily, I was able to switch our first slot in Hollywood Studios, the Tower of Terror, to an hour later. That gave us time to grab ice cream to cool down.

Since we felt like we barely had any time in Magic Kingdom, I was able to switch our time slot for Tower of Terror to an hour later. That gave us some time to relax, get some water ($3.75 each) and some ice cream.

My Mickey Premium Bar was $6.50, while my mom's Olaf Strawberry Lemonade popsicle was $6.25.

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That meant we also had time to ride Under the Sea: Journey of The Little Mermaid, which opened in 2012.

I went to Disney World in 2012 and 2013 — I remember when this ride was being built, and then when it was brand-new and the wait made it impossible.

Now that it's been here for 11 years, barely anybody cares about it. The wait time was posted as 25 minutes, but it ended up being shorter.

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This was a relaxing way to kill time ... but it did stop twice halfway through the ride.

This ride entails sitting in a giant clam shell and essentially watching "The Little Mermaid" play out in front of you via animatronics. I couldn't complain, because I got to sit down in an air-conditioned structure.

However, as Sebastian the crab pointed out, the ride stopped twice while we were going through it. His voice came through over the loudspeaker to tell us that our clams had stopped moving and that we needed to remain seated.

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The breakdowns ate up a little bit of our time, so we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios for our last three rides. We took the bus.

Disney World has a true fleet of buses. There are buses going to every park and every resort, plus Disney Springs.

Even though we were heading to our third park of the day, I didn't feel overwhelmed. I liked having a set schedule dictated by the Lightning Lanes — I'm not a huge fan of just wandering around a park without a set destination.

It was annoying to have to go back and forth, though. I would've tried to plan my day a bit better so I could've stayed by Epcot and Hollywood Studios, since they're quite close to each other, and then headed to Magic Kingdom later.

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Thankfully, the bus was right there when we decided to leave, and we crossed the gates into Hollywood Studios by 4:17 p.m.

We were lucky with our timing and it still took 25 minutes to get from Magic Kingdom to Hollywood Studios. If the bus hadn't pulled up just after we got to the stop, it easily could've taken us 35 to 40 minutes, including wait times.

We booked it over to Tower of Terror, a classic ride that's been there since 1994. The wait time was 30 minutes, but with Lightning Lane, I was on the ride in less than 15 minutes.

If you're not familiar with the Tower of Terror, it's a classic drop ride themed after a hotel from "The Twilight Zone." It's one of the park's mainstays, and after the Disneyland version was re-themed to "Guardians of the Galaxy," it's only become more beloved.

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Our next time slot was Toy Story Mania! from 4:50 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. Since we had a bit of extra time, we ate at Rosie's All-American Cafe.

Since we were running from ride to ride in Hollywood Studios, we didn't get time to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere.

Eating this meal, which cost $10.99 — plus a Diet co*ke for $4.49 and a water for $3.75 — was the only time we got to take it easy.

After reading about how much food costs at festivals like Coachella, I was expecting to spend way more on food at the parks. But I didn't feel like I was over-spending at all. It cost less than the same meal at a restaurant in New York City.

Then it was time to head over to Toy Story Land.

There are a few rides in Toy Story Land, including Toy Story Mania!, Slinky Dog Dash, and the Alien Swirling Saucers.

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Toy Story Mania! opened in 2008. I had been to Disney twice before when it was open, but the line was always too long.

I actually got to go to Disneyland earlier this year — for free, which is the only reason I went — and it has its own version of this ride, which I loved.

That's why I wanted to use one of our slots to show my mom this ride — I knew she'd love it too.

Now, with Lightning Lane, I was on in 10 minutes— and this ride is worth the hype.

Toy Story Mania! is like those classic carnival games where you use toy guns to shoot things, but on steroids. It requires 3D glasses, so you feel like the toys are really coming out and talking to you. Plus, it's interactive, so you're competing with the other person in your car.

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Our final Lightning Lane was for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, which opened in 2020, from 5:50 p.m. to 6:50 p.m.

Disneyland in California has its own version of this, too — but while I was waiting in line for it, there was a minor earthquake, so the ride shut down. It meant I was all the more determined to get on the Florida version.

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Our flight was at 8:45 p.m. — we were cutting it close by the time we got to this ride at 6 p.m.

The standby wait was 45 minutes. I didn't love how there was no time estimate for how long Lightning Lane lines were going to take. I had to ask the attendants what their best guesses were at each ride and hope for the best.

If we didn't have Lightning Lane, we would've had to skip it — but we got in under the wire and were off by 6:15 p.m.

It was worth chancing it. This is another trackless ride. It's a train operated by Goofy as you zip through a classic cartoon land.

Something I was surprised to learn is that this is the first Mickey Mouse-themed ride-through attraction at any Disney park. I'm glad he finally got his due.

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After a perfect — if not extremely hot — day, this was when Mother Nature turned on us.

It began downpouring as we left the park and hopped in our Uber at 6:30 p.m. We were more than slightly concerned we'd miss our flight.

This Uber cost $38.99 before tip and took 37 minutes, due to the rain and rush-hour traffic.

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But we made it to the airport relatively quickly. We were through security by 7:17 p.m.

I wasn't concerned about long security lines, since I was able to keep an eye on estimated wait times on the airport's website.

I was only able to do this, though, because I had brought my portable charger. After using my phone all day to get into the parks, use my Lightning Lanes, keep track of wait times for rides, and take pictures, my battery would've been dead twice-over without my charger.

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Our flight was delayed by just over an hour. We finally landed back in New York City at 12:30 a.m.

Since we were in the airport for so long, and I was wet from all the rain, I had to buy a sweatshirt at the airport for $20. I would've been freezing without it.

For people who had been up for 22 hours and walked over 23,000 steps, we felt surprisingly fine. The adrenaline was most likely still pumping.

But this day caught up with me the next day.

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While it took me almost two days to fully recover, it was worth it. I had so much fun at the parks, and I'd do it again ... just not in July.

In total, this trip cost me $747 — and that was before splitting parking, food, and our Uber rides.

If I had gone for three days in August, a three-day ticket alone would've cost around $493. Airfare, a hotel, food and drinks, Uber rides, and long-term parking at the airport in New York would've put me over $2,000 for just one person.

But there are a few things I'd do differently. First, I'd go during the shoulder season, which runs from October to February (excluding Halloween and Christmas break). It felt like 98 degrees at some points throughout the day, so I went through three water bottles and a Diet co*ke just trying to stay cool. I'm so thankful I brought a portable fan.

I also wouldn't try to fit three parks in one day. Two would've been perfect. If I were to go again, I'd probably do Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom since I fully missed out on that park this time.

Maybe, maybe, I'd try to get Hollywood Studios in, since I didn't get to go to the "Star Wars"-themed area, Galaxy's Edge.

But I would definitely recommend doing Disney in a day to anyone who wants to try to save as much money as they can while still visiting the most magical place on Earth. I had so much fun, got on so many rides, and got to soak up the Disney vibes without taking more than a day off work.