Arrival Day Plans???

[RogueSailor]

Hi All, We are really unsure what we'd like to do on the day we arrive. Plane lands at noon, so I guess we'd be in our room by 2:30 or 3:00. Kiddos would like to chill at the pool, DH doesn't care, and I feel stressed and obligated to plan something *wonderful*

So I wonder, what does YOUR family usually do for the 1/2 day or so on the day and night you first arrive???

 

[butterfly71076]

We always take the early flight, we land at 10:30am. We unpack, maybe rest or pool and then dinner at Chef Mickey! After dinner we hit MK for a ride or two, then off to bed for a full next day! The first thing we do is see Mickey and the last thing we do before leaving MK on our last day is say good bye to Mickey! It's a nice tradition we have been doing since my sons first trip. Our upcoming trip will be his 5th!

Hope you have a wonderful time!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Hi All, We are really unsure what we'd like to do on the day we arrive. Plane lands at noon, so I guess we'd be in our room by 2:30 or 3:00. Kiddos would like to chill at the pool, DH doesn't care, and I feel stressed and obligated to plan something *wonderful*

So I wonder, what does YOUR family usually do for the 1/2 day or so on the day and night you first arrive???

Check in, rest for a bit, the head to DTD for a CS meal and browsing.

Just DO NOT schedule a TS meal that night!!

Maybe hit the pool or if you get settled enough, what about a round of mini-golf?

 

[nharding20]

Seeing Mickey first and last is a great idea! Thanks for your input! This helps me with my first-day-stress as well!

 

[phillymummer]

Since our upcoming trip is short- only 3 nights, we are going to MK on our arrival day. Our plan will *hopefully* land at 11:25, so we want to take advantage of the time we have and spend it in a park.

If the trip wasn't so short, I would prefer to just hang out at the pool, go to DTD, maybe do Dinsey Quest, and/or go play some mini-golf.

 

[jenjie]

We weren't originally planning to go to the parks on our arrival day, but with the that of Isaac we decided to make the most of our time. We later added another park day for only $53 for the whole family.

We spent the afternoon at MK, using fastpass and the Disney World Wait Times app. We finished everything we wanted to do in tomorrow land except for one ride. we took a small break and had dinner at our resort, then went to DHS to see fantasmic.

 

[xipotec]

IN the past we have rushed right into a Party, or a half day at the parks.

No more.....

Now we relax after the long trip, enjoy our resort amenities.
This year we will be going to the Spirit of Aloha. That's it.

Granted we have 8 days....so we use 3 for relaxation, I hate coming home exhausted from Disney like we used too.

 

[tinker_stinker06]

We usually drive down and stay in the hotel in lake city so the next day we only have a few hours of driving. Once we arrive and check in we have lunch at our resort and if the room is ready we unload the car and then head to MK. We usually make ADRs for tonys

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2 using DISBoards

 

[etxmomof2]

Great question! We arrive around 12:45 so I was also wondering what we would do for the day.

I look forward to the responses!

 

[Celidh]

We will be arriving shortly after lunch but will have been up since 4 or 5 am so will most likely be tired. Partner and I (no kids this trip) have an ADR for Raglan Road at DTD for 6 ish and will most likely look around DTD and have an early night to start our first day off rested.

 

[Princess on the Run]

Downtown Disney is a great way to start the trip without wasting a park-hopper ticket on a half day.

 

[Minerva Mouse]

Without knowing how much of the planning the kiddos have (or have not) been involved in my response is; If the kiddos expressed an interest in chilling at the pool, then I would let em. No need to plan anything special, special is spending time together and having a great vacation!

 

[PosadaGirl519]

We drive overnight from Long Island NY and plan on arriving in WDW anywhere from noon - 4:00. This always makes a park out of the question on arrival day. But we unpack, explore the resort, swim, eat whatever is easiest, and start to settle in by 8:00. All of the resorts are really cool to check out! You can very easily be happily occupied for hours. Some of the funner ones are The Boardwalk/Yacht Beach Club and Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[Haley]

I think on our arrival day we will swim or go to Epcot for a few hours. Then go to DTD and eat at WPE.

 

[Good Morning Dewdrop]

normally we arrive really early in the morning (5 - 6 am) - check in at the hotel (sometimes they actually have a room for us in which case we drop our stuff). Then we head to the parks. Do a park in the morning, park hop around lunchtime and then back to the hotel for swimming and an early night. Last trip we did a park in the morning, had lunch, went back to the hotel for a 3 hour nap then went back out to another park.

This trip we're arriving around 9:30 / 10 am so will miss RD. So we'll check into the hotel (AoA - LM - first day it's opened so hopefully the room will be ready immediately). Explore the hotel, have lunch there or hop over to Epcot. It's a Saturday so we'll do Epcot and AK if we do 2 parks. May just do one park and spend a significant amount of time exploring the resort - so excited to be staying there! We have APs and are down for 12 days this trip so in our case there's no time crunch.

On our first trip we arrived at 3:30 pm and went right to a park - only spent a few hours there but it was so magical!

 

[3Paige14]

We usually, depending on when we arrive, go to Downtown Disney for lunch/shop browsing or go to our resort, check in, go to our room, etc.

This year we had lunch at the House of Blues and checked in at All Star Movies. Then we spent the afternoon watching the race in our room.

 

[LisaTC]

Last year and this year as well, we are going to HDDR on our first night. DD loves it. I read all the warnings about not doing a TS or show on your first night, but our flights arrived in the morning by 10am and we did it. It worked out GREAT. So much fun, we may hit DTD since we are at POR. It would depend on the age of your kiddos...my DD is 9 and she did fine. Have fun!

 

[leeholmes1]

We have a tradition on the first day that we always eat at T-Rex. We usually stay at OKW and unpack maybe swim a little (depending on weather) then we head to DTD where we start to get a taste of the magic. I love this because it is the only tradition we have, anytime of the year.

 

[MCazer]

We usually go to Wilderness Lodge and have dinner at Whispering Canyon. And take pictures of the kids in front of the totem pole (right in front of gift shop). This is how we measure our kid's heights from one trip to the next. They have grown so much!

 

[Cherinva]

Our arrival day is spend in Downtown Disney...we love to start our vacation with shopping and having a nice CS dinner. After that we head back to the resort (by this time our bags are in our room), unpack and relax......we try to get a good nights rest so we can hit the parks early the next morning.