Arrival day plans

[goofy4wdw2]

How do you spend your arrival day? We're arriving at MCO around 11:30 so I'm hoping we'll get to our resort by 1:00 or maybe earlier. I'm guessing we'll all be hungry (and excited)! Do most of you just grab a quick bite to eat and then head into a park? Or hang by the resort, have a leisurely lunch, and check out the resort before a full day in the park the next day? Downtown Disney? Please share what you like to do! Thanks!

 

[Alesia]

We always go to a park. Even on this last trip when we arrived at 9:00 pm after driving for 15 hours. We couldn't pass up the chance to get a few rides in.

 

[buzznina]

We usually arrive around midnight or later, sooooooooooo its unpack and go to sleep

 

[cyneswith]

This will be my first time staying on-site. I plan to check in, let the kids unwind, and if there's time between that and dinner time (at the resort), we'll wander the resort. We'll stay at the resort that evening, whether it's at the pool, campfire, fireworks, movies under the stars, wandering the resort itself (DS's favorite thing to do over our Christmas visit to San Francisco was run around the hotel common area.) There's a lot to do at the resort, so I see no reason to plan extra stuff that day.

 

[SweetMissy]

We don't waste a park ticket on arrival day. We normally just hang out at the resort and sometimes we do DTD. Hubby and I are going in 2 1/2 weeks and will be arriving to the resort at approximately 1pm. Since it's February, we're probably not going to take advantage of the pools, but we'll hang out at the resort and go to DTD for a little bit. Have fun!

 

[KayW]

We arrive into MCO around 10:30 so hoping to be at BC by noon. Probably a quick lunch and then we are off to EPCOT. Being close was the advantage this time. On all of our trips we always book the earliest flight so we can have time in a park.

 

[wencherous]

We plan on exploring our resort (WL), and AoA, then heading to DTD.
We won't make any ADRs or other plans for check in day.

 

[awalker1015]

This trip our flight lands at 9:15a and I am estimating we will be at POFQ around 11:00-11:30. No park ticket this day. Plan to hang out at the pool, explore resort and POR, possibly go to DTD for early dinner and definitely catch YeeHaw Bob.

 

[Lilly Belle 84]

We explored our resort, rode the monorail and went to CM for dinner, we're not commando types so it was a nice start. We also watched the fireworks from the Contemporary deck.

 

[Susiequsie60]

We're driving and hoping to arrive around 3 pm. We'll check in to the Boardwalk Inn (YAY) and then walk over to Epcot to use our FP's for the evening. That's exactly what we did last year when we took the same trip!!

Honestly, I don't think we've ever taken a WDW trip without hitting a park (any park!!) on our arrival day. Back when we had kids traveling with us, it was usually MK. Now that we're on our own - it's Epcot all the way.

FYI: For the price difference, I always go for tickets that include our arrival day AND our departure day (with Hoppers.) It's definitely worth it to me.

 

[BethanyLynnFit]

We usually explore our resort, eat dinner, maybe swim and then try to get to bed early so we can hit our first park in the morning!

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

Check-in at the resort, eat, explore, and then after we settle into our room we take a small nap and head to DTD for dinner.

Doing a park on the first day is just too ambitious for us.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We do WS and have dinner there. It really does not cost much more to add one more day on to a 5 or 6 day ticket. We always do our first full day at MK, but that one late afternoon-evening we like Epcot and mostly WS. We don't try to do the rides except the couple in WS sometimes. We wait until we get to our resort and then see where we can get a ADR for dinner in the WS. We will do an early dinner and then try to be back to the resort and in bed super early to start our first full day the next morning.

 

[robndani]

We usually arrive around 4:00. If we are staying close to park and don't have to get on a bus, we usually wonder over for a little bit. It's hard to stay away from the magic of MK or Epcot when you're right there! We definitely don't exhaust ourselves and don't usually make ADRs or FP plans, but we may grab a bite to eat.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[myrtleturtle]

We like to check-in, eat, explore the resort, take a dip in the pool, dinner and bed early. Our travel days usually start super early, so if I want to be at rope drop the next day, it's important to get a good night's sleep. It's a great chance to use the pool with fewer people.

 

[tinklvsu]

Usually we drive (10/11 hours) and arrive anywhere from 2-7pm, depending on how early we leave. We ALWAYS go to downtown Disney on arrival day. Its somewhere that we instantly feel the magic, can grab something good to eat (Rainforest almost every-time ) and just look around. It's hard for me to use a full day ticket, when we wont be there but for just a bit. Then again, we are those FULL DAY at a park, open to close, no park hopping kind of people.

This past time, we flew in. Our arrival was around 2-3. By the time we checked in with ME and arrived to our resort it was about 6.

 

[pigletgirl]

In years past, we would check in to the resort around 230pm, and organize our belongings.

Last year, we arrived at lunch time, we ate lunch at Pop, and then DD had her afternoon nap. During that time, I organized our park bags, unpacked our personal belongings and went over our itinerary for the week. DH picked up our mugs and took a nap as well. After we woke up, we headed to DTD for dinner at WPE and did a tad bit of shopping.

THIS year, DD and I are flying down 4 days prior to our package start date. I have an old friend from college who lives in Melbourne and she has kids close to DD's age so we're going to spend 3.5 days together! I think we'll spend most of our time at the beach. After visiting them, DD and I are driving to WDW and I'm thinking we'll leave there around 9am. I'm expecting to get to Pop around 10:15am. We'll get checked in, drop our bags at either luggage assistance or put in our room. Then, we'll head to MK for lunch and a few hours in the park. My mom will be meeting us via ME and she's expected to be at the resort around 5pm. After we get her (noting there isn't any delays...she's on a direct flight so I am holding a proper thought), we'll head back to MK for dinner (CHH) and be there for MSEP and Wishes.

We're excited!

 

[MandiC]

We went straight to DTD after dropping our bags in our room. This was largely because we could catch the boat to dtd from our resort otherwise I imagine we just would have spent some time exploring our resort and then doing dinner/s'mores and a movie. We knew we wanted to go to bed early on arrival day because of an early flight, time difference from home and a long day at the parks the next day.

 

[Trixie15]

We're planning on arriving around 3 p.m. We'll settle in, explore the resort, and then head to Downtown Disney and explore there. Dinner at Earl of Sandwich, treats and Goofy's Candy Company. Browse the shops, etc. Maybe take a dip in the pool if it's not too cold when we get back to the resort.

 

[MandiC]

Happy Disney arrival day Trixie! How exciting, you are probably on your way right now I do have a friend who lives near Orlando and she said it is pretty chilly right now, but I know what a native Floridian thinks is cold and what I think is cold is drastically different LOL and the pools are heated.