Arrival day plan

[KSR0330]

What does everyone's arrival day look like? I'm thinking of an early afternoon arrival at the Poly and wondering what people like to do on their first day after traveling.

 

[ErinsMommy]

Usually we go to MK as that's the park that gives us that warm fuzzy feeling. =)

 

[TwoCortWort]

What does everyone's arrival day look like? I'm thinking of an early afternoon arrival at the Poly and wondering what people like to do on their first day after traveling.

We check-in and unpack. Then either hang out at the resort for a bit and eat a late lunch at the hotel or go to DTD then head over to Epcot.

 

[LisaCM614]

With an early afternoon arrival I would have lunch at Captain Cooks! Then I would hop on the monorail and soak up some atMOUSEphere at the Magic Kingdom! If you can time it so you can watch the Festival of Fantasy parade from Frontierland that is a great start to your Disney World vacation. Other things I like to do on a first day are ride the raft over to Tom's Sawyer Island and let the kids run around and decompress from a long day of travel. It is so well themed and nice and shady - great way to spend a half hour or so. We've spent well over an hour on that Island. It is a great treasure.

Here is our first day touring plan:
Arrive Poly
Eat lunch at Captain Cooks
Ride Monorail to MK
Go to Tom Sawyer's Island
Sit on a porch in Frontierland watch the afternoon parade
Follow the end of the parade to Its a Small World
Use a couple FP+
Head out to an early dinner and back to the resort to unpack and rest up for the fun!

 

[kiki02]

The bar - cold beer, purple or pink drink - a swim. Lunch for the kids. Shopping in the hotel store. It's all good.!!!

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Get in. Unpack. Drink beer. Go to the pool and drink beer. Go take a nap. Goto DTD and shop. Drink beer. Eat dinner and drink beer. Pass out for the next day which is day one for parks.

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

Always MK we tried a different park once... yup there was almost a revolt. We also tried relaxing on arrival day once... yeah that doesn't work.

 

[Sue M]

It depends on what type of ticket you have & Number of days. Whether you'll be tired from a long flight or drive?
Some people just like a relaxing first day to hang around resort, unpack, enjoy pool, restaurants, and possibly go to DTD.
Others go right to a park after arriving.
I usually have an AP, so I'd nip into MK even if it's just for an hour! Or any park. This August we'll arrive late morning probably and our first day AK has the lowest crowds so we plan on heading there. I check the crowd Calendar on Easy WDW to plan my park days.

Our second day we are planning a resort day to hang around and enjoy Poly. Weather permitting. Then head to a park at night.

 

[LJSquishy]

It depends on the time of arrival and how long the flight was.

We fly from WA State so the earliest we can arrive is about 5-6pm which doesn't leave much time that first day since we lose 3 hours. I think our plan is to get to the resort, familiarize ourselves a bit with it, then either have a counter service meal at the resort and turn in early -OR- if we're feeling excited and energized, maybe head to MK, have a counter service dinner and then watch MSEP which is my favorite thing. I'm thinking that will be too late for us to be out and still be up early the next morning so I'm okay with either plan.

If you have part of the afternoon/early evening, I would absolutely go to one of the parks!

 

[nkereina]

We arrive mid-morning on a Sunday, which mean we will have gotten up early to catch our flight. We'll be at our resort by 12pm, so I plan to hang around the pool that afternoon (weather permitting) and heading out to DTD for dinner at night. We'll come back and go to bed early and visit our first part Monday at rope drop.

 

[pigletgirl]

This year, we'll arrive at Pop Century around 4pm. We'll be driving in from Cocoa Beach and so we'll probably just relax for few hours before heading to dinner in DTD. We're going to Planet Hollywood with friends and then after dinner, we'll head back to Pop to swim and then head to bead for our first full park day at MK!

 

[spartankid34]

I am wondering the same thing, for the first time we will be arriving by noon time this summer, and have never been in before during the day. I am really excited to just have that relax time by the pool for a few hours. BUT I know that I can't do that the whole day. I am planning on just booking a couple FPs, for later around 5pm and a dinner for that night in a park.

 

[dano4]

What does everyone's arrival day look like? I'm thinking of an early afternoon arrival at the Poly and wondering what people like to do on their first day after traveling.

If we arrive late in the evening (which is always the case when it comes to our late May / early June visit), we check-in, unpack, and sleep. When we arrive in the early afternoon, we take advantage of the half-day remaining and hit-up a park. It's nice to be able to reserve attractions using FastPass+ (especially on this day).

 

[Ladcassidy]

Arrive late morning. Lunch at Raglan Road. Afternoon/ evening at the MK.

 

[KSR0330]

Thanks for all of the suggestions! Early this year, on our first visit, we went to MK after flying in at around 4 pm. We stopped at the room quick (stayed off site with a rental car) and hurried to MK. It really wasn't a great plan, as we hadn't eaten since breakfast at home and it started to get dark and we really didn't know our way around the park. I would like to go to MK again, but maybe after eating at Poly and taking some time to explore the resort.

I'm so excited to go back to WDW a second time. I feel like I'm so much better prepared to plan a super trip!

 

[cbellasmomma]

We are arriving at the Poly mid morning (I hope!). We are there for 6 days with 6 day tickets. So our plan is to check in (if the room is ready) or go to the park if it isn't. We have FP's between 2 and 5 but if we don't make them it isn't an issue. Then either back to the hotel to check in (if we haven't already) or straight to the GF for our 1900 Park Fare ADR. Then back to the Poly for Wishes on the Beach.

 

[jcjen519]

It really depends. sometimes we have an easy flight, magical express is easy and quick and we get to the room and want to hit a park. Other times we are kind of tired and want to eat at the hotel and hang out at the resort or in the room. we leave it open. I'm not really opposed to making reservations for arrival day. I make sure to give us a lot of time but I'm always prepared to pay the fee.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We always arrive early and hit MK.

This trip our plane lands at 11 am. I made our first FP+ for 3 pm.

My plan is to get to the Poly. Eat at captain cooks or go straight to MK and eat at CHH. Catch the FoF parade then hit our first FP at splash.

We have dinner ADR at BOG and a FP for wishes to end the night.

We always watch wishes our first night. It's a tradition.

 

[Sue M]

It depends on the time of arrival and how long the flight was.

We fly from WA State so the earliest we can arrive is about 5-6pm which doesn't leave much time that first day since we lose 3 hours. I think our plan is to get to the resort, familiarize ourselves a bit with it, then either have a counter service meal at the resort and turn in early -OR- if we're feeling excited and energized, maybe head to MK, have a counter service dinner and then watch MSEP which is my favorite thing. I'm thinking that will be too late for us to be out and still be up early the next morning so I'm okay with either plan.

If you have part of the afternoon/early evening, I would absolutely go to one of the parks!

We fly out of SeaTac, but usually go to Ft Lauderdale first for a week. But last time we flew direct to WDW, we had that Alaska direct flight. I thought we'd be too tired to go to the parks, so didn't plan on it. But we were wide awake, being 3 hrs earlier! Lol. Waking up for rope drop is a killer though!

 

[animalkingdom15]

I usually try to take the first morning flight out usually 6 am arrives 930 amish and plan a light day that day. The day usually involves a 135 pm lunch some where (this time it's Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano at 1:15) followed by a few hours at the park I'm having lunch at (this time DHS) and then ending with a 530 or 6 pm dinner somewhere (Chef Mickey's at 6:30). This allows for an early evening and a great night sleep so the real fun can begin the next day.