Arrival night advice?

I'm torn re what to do on our arrival night, especially about feeding my kids.

We arrive at MCO at 8 pm on a Thursday night, staying at the poly. We will be using MDE. I'll have two teenagers with me. We are going to the airport straight from school, and timing isn't going to allow for a real meal ahead of time. Grabbing fast food is problematic because I have one vegetarian.

We have annual passes, so we would not be "wasting" a day to enter the MK, which closes at 12 am that day (for now).

We're going to want to stay up anyway to wait for our luggage to arrive and because again, they're teenagers.

WWYD that night?

We would go to MK.
 
I would also pack dinner to eat on the plane. Make some sandwiches, bring along some chips and fruit and your done. When you get in, I would absolutely still head over to MK...... for dessert. So many options at the main st. confectionary for yummy desserts!
 
We are arriving at about 6:00 later this month.
We are heading to MK to eat and grab a couple of rides.
DH will want Casey's but Pecos Bill's may be a good choice for your gang
 

If you can bring food on the plane or eat at the airport, try for that. As wonderful as Magic Kingdom is, their vegetarian options are not plentiful. The only things I will eat there are the margherita flat bread at Pinocchio, and the hummus sandwich from Columbia Harbour House (they do have a vegetarian chili, but it's too spicy for me)

Vegetarian QS options are fairly limited, so if you can wait until the next day to start, the monotony is pushed back a bit
 
I would eat at the airport before you take off or pack some food for the plane and then I would hit up MK as soon as you check-in. You're nice and close,so you should get a good couple of hours in before the park closes and you can grab some snacks while you're there. I don't think I would bother with an ADR.
 
If you can bring food on the plane or eat at the airport, try for that. As wonderful as Magic Kingdom is, their vegetarian options are not plentiful. The only things I will eat there are the margherita flat bread at Pinocchio, and the hummus sandwich from Columbia Harbour House (they do have a vegetarian chili, but it's too spicy for me)

Vegetarian QS options are fairly limited, so if you can wait until the next day to start, the monotony is pushed back a bit

Thanks for the heads up. This is why we rely primarily on TS restaurants, as you can only eat so many cheese pizzas and iceberg lettuce based salads.
 
Thanks all. I think I will try to bring food to eat in the car, and we will go to the MK and grab snacks as needed. If they are too tired we'll probably do room service.
 
They had this crazy idea of eating at crt at 11:15. Gotta love teenage girls.

Would the restaurant actually be open that late because of the extended park hours? If so, and you are truly all night owls, I'd go with it! It's a piece of Disney magic they'd always remember. (But, unfortunately, I have my doubts that CRT's hours would really be different than usual.)

Anyway, I personally would plan on grabbing whatever there was time for after we got through security at our home airport (with back-up snacks packed, just in case) and then playing it by ear once we got to Orlando. You might be famished at MCO, exhausted and ready to ask them to hold your ME delivery at the front desk and crash, or super-excited and ready to hit the park.

It's nice that you have annual passes, so you won't be wasting a day if you decided to go straight to MK. We never did that when DS was little, but now that he's older, the MK fireworks are an arrival night tradition.
 
Would the restaurant actually be open that late because of the extended park hours? If so, and you are truly all night owls, I'd go with it! It's a piece of Disney magic they'd always remember. (But, unfortunately, I have my doubts that CRT's hours would really be different than usual.)

Anyway, I personally would plan on grabbing whatever there was time for after we got through security at our home airport (with back-up snacks packed, just in case) and then playing it by ear once we got to Orlando. You might be famished at MCO, exhausted and ready to ask them to hold your ME delivery at the front desk and crash, or super-excited and ready to hit the park.

It's nice that you have annual passes, so you won't be wasting a day if you decided to go straight to MK. We never did that when DS was little, but now that he's older, the MK fireworks are an arrival night tradition.


We actually had 11:10 PM ADRs at CRT one night last summer. We ended up switching to an early dinner when it came open, but I can confirm they do stay open that late (at least sometimes).
 
We actually had 11:10 PM ADRs at CRT one night last summer. We ended up switching to an early dinner when it came open, but I can confirm they do stay open that late (at least sometimes).

Oooh, then I vote to do it! Cinderella's castle as midnight approaches...you can't get much more "Disney-esque" than that.
 
Don't forget that Downtown Disney is open later than the rest of Disney...I would hit Wolfgang Puck's, if you guys will still have the energy! I think I remember that Giordano's will deliver to the hotel lobby....they would certainly have vegetarian options. I do think the quick serve at Contemporary and Grand Floridian are 24 hours, so I would expect hot food until at least 10:30?
 
I'd pop over to MK since you'll be so close

Don't forget that Downtown Disney is open later than the rest of Disney...I would hit Wolfgang Puck's, if you guys will still have the energy! I think I remember that Giordano's will deliver to the hotel lobby....they would certainly have vegetarian options. I do think the quick serve at Contemporary and Grand Floridian are 24 hours, so I would expect hot food until at least 10:30?
We just spent 7 nights at CR. Contempo Cafe is open till 11:00 or 12:00, depending on night of the week. They have 24 hour room service, in one manner or another (menu is limited after midnight)
I think The Wave was also open till 11:00
 














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