What does your family do on your first night at Disney?

[Flamingeaux]

We drive from LA and it takes around 10.5 hours. We usually get to WDW around 3 or 4. For a few years after arriving we would unpack and then head out to DtD for some light shopping and the Earl. Our last trip we got FPs for 7DMT for our first night. We also saw the Anna and Elsa Castle lighting ceremony and Wishes.

 

[han22735]

We always take an early flight and land at MCO around 9/9:30am then head straight to MK till late afternoon and then have a relaxing night at the resort eating dinner and swimming.

 

[tsme]

We spend our first night relaxing, walking around our resort, & going eat. I love just relaxing at the resort.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Usually we start at the MK after we arrive mid-afternoon. We've gone to other parks first but it just wasn't the same.

I also like to do that when I go solo too although my upcoming trip I will be spending my first afternoon/evening and 2nd day at Epcot for the Food and Wine Festival. That will feel strange to me for sure.

I like to end my trip by running into MK for a few hours - I usually leave to drive home around 1pm or if I'm flying, I leave an hour before whatever time my DME pickup is - usually around 3pm so I'll leave at 2pm.

 

[sharona]

MK!!!!! Nothing like walking down Main St. toward the castle to get us in the mood.

 

[MataHari22]

I used to go to the parks on my arrival day, but I just do not have the energy to do that anymore. Since I don't live near a major airport, I have to get up at 2 or 3 am and have to drive a couple of hours to get to the smaller airport, and then have to take two flights, it makes for a long travel day. I usually don't sleep the night before, so by the time I get to WDW, I'm exhausted. We just unpack and get settled. Eat at the resort and relax, rest up and hopefully fall asleep early, so we are ready for a full day in the parks the next day.

 

[Julylady]

We usually land at MCO sometime in the afternoon. We don't plan anything for the first night except relaxing, visiting the gift shop for snacks/breakfast items, walking around the resort, and swimming if the weather permits. In the past we would try to get the earliest possible flight so that we could go to the parks our first day. However, that never worked so well since we would have to get up at dark-thirty to catch our flight and then we would be exhausted and crabby the entire day.....no fun. Now, I won't book a flight that leaves before 8am. This is working much better for us!

 

[Rgonzalez79]

Do you arrive early enough to hit the ground running and head right to the parks? Or do you save a park day on your ticket and hang out at the resort for the night?

Read more here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/walt-disney-world/what-does-your-family-do-on-your-first-night-at-disney/

We normally head to Celebration for breakfast after landing. Celebration may not be what it once was but we still love it there, taking a little walk around the lake after eating, and just meeting some of the locals; if it's hot enough we let the princess play in the sprinkler/splash park.

After that it's Downtown Disney for a little walking and window shopping to prime the Disney pump. Then we try for early check in.

We're lucky enough to take extended vacations (10+days) so no parks on Day 1 for us, we like the build up of being so close to the parks but having to wait until the morning...it's like Christmas!

 

[itchin2go]

We spend our first night relaxing, walking around our resort, & going eat. I love just relaxing at the resort.

Us too! We always get in mid-afternoon, so it seems a better strategy to settle in, grab some groceries, have dinner and then get a good night's sleep. That way, we're ready for rope drop the next day.

 

[richmo]

It all depends upon when we arrive. Generally speaking, we get an early AM flight that will arrive in Orlando about 10 AM. We will often go to DTD for lunch (maybe Rainforest), do anything we may need at DTD Guest Relations, then go on to a park. Late afternoon we'll head to our room, whether onsite or offsite, get settled in, go out to dinner, then maybe go to a park for a nighttime show. Usually it will be Fantasmic or Illuminations, which get you out earlier. After all, if our flight was about 8 AM, that means we were at the airport about 6AM, which means leaving home 5 AM, out of bed 4:30 AM.

If the flight is much later in the day, as our upcoming trip is, we probably won't use a park day and will just settle in, possibly hit the pool if time permits and possibly a DTD trip.

 

[Sparkly]

We usually get a QS meal at our resort and bed, but I want to do something crazy in November and try to hit MK for Wishes. Our first full day will be a Christmas party night so no regular Wishes.

 

[PSUGuy]

We're always on the ground before 9 am at MCO and we're in the picture below by 11:30 am. Since we're there for Food&Wine our first day is WS including Illuminations.

Bill From PA

 

[GreatLakes]

We don't do parks on arrival day. We check in and then do some resort exploring heading to AKL and exploring the different savannas before dinner at Boma.

 

[twinboyz98]

No parks on arrival day. We usually go to DTD or sit by the pool.

 

[jeepwreck]

coming from the west coast it takes us a long time to fly so we usually get in. in the evening so we just take a quite night at the resort usually grab some diner and the walk around the resort and then off to bed early to start an early day in the parking the next moring .

 

[PoohsFan1]

Normally we head to a park on our arrival day since I always book the first flight out (usually around 6am) which we then will be in MCO by around 9:30/10ish (am). However for our upcoming trip we decided to relax and take it easy (if all goes well, ME will be dropping us off at CSR by around 11:30am) so we will be having fun in the pool then we have ADRs later that night at Fulton's Crabhouse in DTD so we will be strolling around there at night checking out all the new things that are going on.

 

[DisneyFive]

We hit the ground running. We want our first MK day to be a full day so we save that for the 2nd or 3rd day of our stay. Most trips lately have started with Epcot since it's typically open the latest besides MK. We typically get to a park on arrival day by 2-4pm, and Soarin is where we head! Love that ride! It really let's us know, "We're here".

Dan

 

[revdon64]

This trip we're flying in around 12-1PM. We have a dinner ressie at Raglan Road.

We usually get into MCO much earlier and do a park day on day one, but we've found that it just tires our kids out too much on day one and we spend three or four days catching up.

 

[angierae]

I will say our first trip, we arrived in the late afternoon, and we'd never been before so we had CS at Pop and then walked around the resort, and then later DD and I went for a swim while I stared all around me at the buildings going "OMG I'm finally here!" (I was 34 the first time I went to WDW, after a lifetime of wanting to go)

 

[CdnBuzzFan]

Well, our flights have always left around 6-ish in the morning so we usually arrive at our resort around10:30-ish. If we've bought water park passes, we change into our swim suits (that we brought in our carry-on bags) and head to TL or BB and then to everyone's favourite park, Magic Kindgom, for supper and as far into the evening as we can stay awake -- we usually leave home around 3AM.

If we haven't purchased the water park option, it directly to MK!

Our departure from the resort has always been around 6:30 AM so there is no park time on departure day for our family.