Afternoon arrival-what should I plan to do??

[janine29]

Hi!!
I travel to Orlando Sanford on 22nd May and arrive at 2.30pm. We have hired a car and are staying at the Quality Inn International on I-Drive. As this is my 1st visit to Orlando (2 adults & 10 year old daughter) has anybody got any suggestions for what to do on our first afternoon / evening??

 

[hipporina]

Hi!

We will be arriving in the afternoon as well. Our plan is to go to Downtown Disney and do a little shopping for autograph books and such, maybe eat at House of Blues, and then hit the pool. Somewhere in there we will unpack too!

On our last trip, we went to Fantasia Gardens and played a round of mini-golf and that was a lot of fun.

Kristy

 

[nativetxn]

Hi janine29, welcome to the DIS. I'm very glad you found us.

I think what you decide to do the afternoon and evening of your arrival day will depend on a couple of things.

For example, are you in the UK? Will you be enduring a 9 hour flight to Sanford? Will you have to go through customs?

If you are in the US, how early do you have to be at the airport, or how early to you have to be up to get to the airport?

Do your children travel well? My son usually slept through every flight we ever took but there were lots of other children who did not sleep, whose ears hurt duing the take off and landing. Who got off that plane a lot more tired and cranky than they were when they boarded.

Don't forget that after you get your luggage and hire your car, you will <i>still</i> have at least 30 minutes to drive from Sanford to Orlando. Are you planning on stopping at a grocers before you check into your hotel? Even the shortest list can take a while in an unfamiliar grocery store. Then you still have to find your hotel, get checked in, and unpack.

So, take all of these things into consideration to plan your afternoon and evening activities. You may just want to grab something to eat, let the girls swim for a while and retire early.

On the other hand, you might want to drive over to the Boardwalk and enjoy the fun to be found there, go shopping at Downtown Disney, hit Belz outlet or take a tour of the Disney resorts.

I wouldn't want to use a day from a hopper pass for an afternoon and evening. But you may want to

I'm sure some of our veterans will have some great suggestions for you.

Katholyn

 

[Steven Barrett]

janine29,

If you're talking about spending the afternoon and evening at Walt Disney World, here are a few suggestions: play miniature golf at Fantasia Gardens or Winter Summerland, visit Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach water park, take a hayride or carriage ride (call 407-824-2832 to reserve) in Fort Wilderness, see Cirque du Soleil at Disney West Side (expensive but the best show in WDW), walk around Downtown Disney West Side and Marketplace (free!), explore Animal Kingdom Lodge then eat a fantastic buffet dinner at Boma, reserve a character dinner at 1900 Park Fare in the Grand Floridian Resort (you get to meet Cinderella and friends for autographs and photos) or Chef Mickeys in the Contemporary Resort (Mickey Mouse and friends) then watch the Electrical Water Pageant from the beach in back of these hotels (it passes by the Grand Floridian at about 9:15 P.M. and the Contemporary at about 10:05 P.M.). That should be enough ideas!

Steven Barrett, author of the "Hassle-Free Walt Disney World Vacation" and the new "Hidden Mickeys of Walt Disney World" book, both published by The Intrepid Traveler Publishers

 

[Daxx]

We arrive at MCO at approx. 10:30 am. We figure that by the time we get our luggage, get the rental car, drive to ASSports, it'll be close to 12 pm. Since we won't get into our room, we'll just freshen up in the bathroom at ASSports check in. We don't want to waste a day on our PH's, so we'll avoid the parks until the following morning.

We're trying to get DS on the Pirate cruise, but so far it's booked. We'll probably call from the hotel to see if they have any cancellations. If they do, ds will go on the Pirate Cruise and we'll ride the monorail and check out the resorts and have lunch. After the cruise, we'll get our room and maybe go to the Belz Character Outlet store.

If ds doesn't get onto the cruise, we'll get lunch off campus and hit the Belz Character Outlet store to see what kind of goodies they have.

Afterwards, we'll either go to DTD to peruse the store and let DS play in the fountain or head back to the hotel for a swim and relax by the pool.

We have PS at Chef Mickey's at 8:30 pm for dinner and, if we don't get an autograph book at DTD, we'll get one at the Contemp. Afterwards, we'll watch the Electric Water pageant from the Contemp. and then back to the hotel where we'll crash.

 

[janine29]

Thank you all so very much for your replies We are flying from Manchester, England (approx 9 hr flight) Thanks again - this is a brilliant website

 

[pigby]

Janine - are you on the Virgin flight - sounds like you'll be arriving similiar time to us (except we'll be there in July). Good luck on those plans for the first day - usually all we can do is have a dip in the pool and go to McDonalds! We're then in bed by 7pm - but we make up for it subsequent days - up at the crack of dawn following day - AK is a good bet.


Sue

 

[donna in Oz]

A favorite first evening for us is to go to the Poly, enjoy a wonderful (!) meal at Ohana and then stroll down to the beach to watch the Electrical Water Pageant.

If you make your PS early enough, after dinner you can hop aboard the monorail at the Poly, then change to the Epcot monorail at the TTC. Enjoy a ride through Epcot, then return to the Poly. Be sure to ask to ride with the driver; if the front cab is already occupied, you can simply ask to wait for the next one. (Won't be longer than a few minutes). If you ride up front, be sure to ask for a monorail co-pilot's license for your daughter!!!

If your timing is good, you can then go to the beach for the EWP performance. We enjoy doing this, simply because it makes us feel like we're at Disney without entering the parks, and also because we're usually tired from the flight and this particular plan doesn't require a lot of exertion!!!!

Is this your first trip??? Either way, you're going to have a wonderful time!!

 

[walt's assistant]

Though we are still 6+ months out, we are planning to arrive on a Monday around 1-2pm ET. As we will be at the YC, we are planning to eat lunch, enjoy the pool, and possibly go to Fantasia Gdns if time allows. Dinner will be super simple.

We'll definitely be early to bed as we have a 7 and a 3 year old and want them fresh for early entry at either AK or MK.


WA

 

[GarrettJD]

We're arriving at MCO at almost exactly 12 noon. We're going to check in, settle down, shop at Downtown Disney for a few hours, then turn in early, with visions of Mickey dancing in our heads

 

[steve_rob]

As a fellow Brit who's been to Florida more times than he can remember, I'll warn you this :

Don't plan much for the first afternoon.

You'll arrive at Sanford at 2:30pm you say. Give it an hour to clear customs, pick up luggage, find hire car. Another 45 minutes at least to reach I-Drive (more if it's your first time driving in the States). That makes it about 4:30pm by the time you're checked in at your hotel, but with the time difference, your body will be telling you it's 9:30pm.

Add to that the fact that you probably had to get up at some ungodly hour like 4am in order to check in for the flight back in the UK that morning (been there, done that!) so despite the overwhelming rush you get from the exictement of being in Florida, you will still be incredibly tired.

Best thing, is to get something to eat, go to a supermarket to stock up on goodies (assuming your hotel room has a fridge), unpack and then veg in front of the TV. If you've still got your eyes open at 7pm then you have my congratulations - you're a stronger person than me!

However the upside of falling asleep early is that you will wake up in the small hours of the morning. (No, I'm not joking!)

This means you have time to finish the unpacking you didn't do when you fell asleep in your suitcase last night, grab an early breakfast, and head out to whichever park opens the earliest (normally Animal Kingdom) and beat the crowds - you'll probably have done all the major rides before half the people turn up!

Above all - have fun and don't push too hard. It takes two/three days to adjust to the jet-lag and get fully into the swing of things, and if you try and go 150% from moment one you'll burn yourself out. Take it easy at the start and you'll have the best holiday you have EVER experienced.

 

[janine29]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I think I'll end up going to the supermarket, going for some food and then falling asleep at steve-robs advice!