Best way to spend a hot, summer Sunday arrival day?

[Dobie]

I am trolling for advice--
I've never been to DL on a weekend before, but we are flying in Sunday, August 10. Our plane is scheduled to arrive at SNA at noon, so I am thinking we will probably be checked in to our room at the Sheraton by 1:30 or so.

I am wondering if it would be worthwhile to try to hit a park on a hot, crowded afternoon, or if we would be better off chilling by the pool, making a dinner PS for 7,then hitting some low key rides (Pirates, BTMRR,Buzz) before calling it a night in preparation for a big week (we are leaving on Friday.)

Any suggestions/advice/thoughts would be muchly appreciated.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

We are arriving Aug 24th, a sunday afternoon with pretty much the same sort of flight time - I figure we will be at the Hojos for 1pm. Our plan is to unpack a bit, have a swim after the flight and get freshened up, then head to the park for any rides we can find with minimal wait time, grab a bit to eat and watch fantasmic that night, or go into DCA for the evening - not sure yet. We dont like to 'overplan', but this is our basic plan. Then we are hoping to get up and out to the parks early on Monday. We always have to have mickey pancakes on our first morning!

 

[tinkerbelt]

I'd check into the hotel, hit the pool, relax a bit before dinner, and then hit the park in the evening. You have a lot of time to spend in hte parks the rest of the week, so I think starting off your trip in a reaxed, low key fashion is a good way to go.

 

[ironpig70]

what i see is you have 5 day passes, if you do m-f or go for 6 day passes and go sunday. whats the cost to go from 5 to 6 days. we go in nov and our big switch from 5-6 was the minimal cost. i'd get unpacked and take a swim and freshen up and hit the park about 5 and then have dinner in the park or dtd around 7 come back for fantasmic or fireworks and stay late and knock out some of the bigger rides. wait times go down pretty good at night.

 

[vossjemi]

We'll be doing something similar! But, we're getting off the Disney Cruise Sunday 8/10 and then heading over to drop off luggage at the hotel and hit the parks. We may be tired because we have to get up and off the ship early, but since we won't be able to formally check into our room yet, figured we'd drop off luggage and hit the parks for a few hours, then go back to hotel when we can check in, and rest a couple hours/swim/or whatever before some light evening fun. We'll only be there until tuesday though so I figured we don't have much park time anyway so we have to maximize the time we have.

 

[CaliLuvinGirl]

We have flown in on a saturday and didn't go to the park at all. We just shopped around downtown disney and got out souveniers we would want, and had reservations for brennens jazz kitchen, which is soo yummy! I highly reccomend this place. It was upscale (pretty expensive, about 22 dollars a person) but really good. You will definately need reservations though. If you go, try the bananas foster, which is a really good dessert that they flambe table side, it is basically bannanas, brown sugar, butter, rum, over ice cream. It is 20 dollars, and said it is for two, but three of us had it and it was plenty. That is what I reccommend, shop and go to brennens!!!

 

[DisneyLover4Ever!]

I would reccomend, that you just spend the day unpacking-relaxing by the pool-and spending a day in DTD.
P.S. Dobie, looks like we are going to be at DL at the same time! Maybe we'll run into eachother.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

We are arriving on a Sunday, and plan to hit the parks right away. Our plane gets in around 8:30 am though. So I figure that's a whole lot of day that shouldn't be wasted! We'll probably try to hit the pool and walk around DTD too though.

 

[elliefusmom]

We are arriving the day before (Aug. 9) around noon. We decided to rent a car from SNA and go to the ocean. We've done Disney many times and have only gone to the beach once. I actually asked my 13 year old son what he wanted to do... go into the parks on a busy Sat. afternoon when all the fast passes will be gone... or go to the ocean. He immediately said the ocean and now that's all he talks about. My husband is staying home this time, so hopefully I don't get lost!


Tracy

 

[c0yote]

This will be our boys' first trip to DL, so when we get there around 3pm, we plan on touring Main Street, ride the train and just let the boys go and see anything they want that day. If there's a short line anywhere I'm sure we'll take advantage of it, but I'm not planning on many rides that day. Those will come in the opening hours the next day (when hopefully they'll have seen enough sights to let us move efficiently from ride to ride).

 

[Denton]

If you arrive at the Sheraton at 1:30 and your room is ready, I would definitely hit the pool for an hour or two and then head to the parks.

The first thing we do at Disneyland is take photos in front of the Mickey flower bed. We then take a ride on the Disneyland Railroad and enjoy circling the whole park. After that, we take a leisurely stroll up main street and let the family vote on which land we visit first. If the lines are very long, we just walk around and enjoy the Disney atmosphere.