Arriving at MCO very early

[codycpreston]

I tried looking through all the threads so I didnt repeat. Any suggestions on what to do if im arriving around 6 AM at MCO? Is there a place to hang out at any resorts?

 

[Best Aunt]

If you arrive at 6:00 am (assuming your flight is on time), you have to work your way through the airport, maybe stop to use the bathroom, maybe get your checked luggage, maybe wait for transportation, then ride/drive to the resort. So it's not like you're getting to the resort at 6:00 am. And if's going to be a park day where you want to take advantage of early hours, you can leave your bags with Bell Services and go to the park. So depending on when the park opens, you might not be hanging out that long.

If you need to hang out at the hotel, every Disney hotel I've stayed at has a lobby area where you can hang out; some have other rooms as well. And of course there are outside areas also, depending on the weather.

Which resort are you thinking of?

 

[codycpreston]

If you arrive at 6:00 am (assuming your flight is on time), you have to work your way through the airport, maybe stop to use the bathroom, maybe get your checked luggage, maybe wait for transportation, then ride/drive to the resort. So it's not like you're getting to the resort at 6:00 am. And if's going to be a park day where you want to take advantage of early hours, you can leave your bags with Bell Services and go to the park. So depending on when the park opens, you might not be hanging out that long.

If you need to hang out at the hotel, every Disney hotel I've stayed at has a lobby area where you can hang out; some have other rooms as well. And of course there are outside areas also, depending on the weather.

Which resort are you thinking of?

We are at All Star for 2 days then transferring to our DVC Key West.

 

[cheryl.UK]

In the past we've checked in, stored most of our luggage, eaten breakfast then hit the pool until our room is ready

 

[Mrs.AMC]

Got a remote chance that the room will be ready.
We've had 6 or 7, resort stays in the past 2 years and in over 90% of the cases we've gotten in our room at the time I put on our arrival time when doing online check in. Or shortly thereafter. I always, 100% of the time, get a notice at the time I entered as arrival time. Either a notice that says room isn't ready or a notice with a room number.
Maybe we've just been incredibly lucky but it's been a wide range of rooms and even at very busy times. For instance, we had 2 different resorts, 3 rooms total, over Christmas week and got rooms ready early for all 3, 2 at our arrival time and 1 just a little later.

 

[brent02139]

i'd go straight to the resort, store your bags, then go to disney springs for some shopping. either disney merch or something you might have forgotten to bring.

 

[kwdw]

Leave MCO, go to resort. If room in not ready, leave bags at Bell Services. Then, it depends on park opening times. Either eat breakfast at resort and then hop on bus to park or just hop on bus to park and start your day.

If you aren’t going to a park that day, then different plan. If renting a car, head to a place for breakfast off property. I like First Watch. Stop at grocery store store and then head to resort. If room is not ready, leave bags and cold food at Bell Services. Go to Disney Springs. Now, you could go to the pool, too, instead of Disney Springs. But if that’s the plan, I would have everything you need to go to the pool and maybe get redressed later if room still is not ready.

Another idea if you aren’t going to park on arrival day, book a fun breakfast at a resort hotel. Maybe go monorail resort hopping, or ferry boat riding. I could have breakfast at one monorail resort, browse gift shops and take pictures at all three and that would take a few hours. There are nice places to just sit and a book at all of the deluxe resorts.

The All Stars aren’t great for a full day of hanging out unless you have kids that are happy to be fish at the pool all day. But they are good for hanging out for QS meal, browsing the gift shop, wandering around at taking photos. You could easily spend 1-2 hours hanging out without pool time first thing in the morning. The problem is your room could be ready at 7 am or 4 pm and you have no clue. Hence, when I arrive early when I know my room might not be ready, you need a plan for the day the includes leaving your bags in your car or at Bell Services and then going about your day.

Basically, there’s PLENTY to do. Just make a plan.

 

[elvispursley]

We tend to always take a redeye from the west coast and get in around 6 or 7am when we come to WDW. We generally don't get to the hotel until a good 1-1.5 hours after we land (we always check luggage as we tend to stay for at least 10 days). By that time, we are ready for breakfast somewhere. We get our bags checked and keep a day bag with swimsuits and a change of clothes in it. After breakfast we generally head to TL or BB to relax until our room is ready. Our teens get to have fun while mom and dad can cat nap and recover from the red eye. When we do get back to the room, we are all generally ready to head to a park for the rest of the day where we will have dinner (historically we always do Epcot). We're usually so tired we don't have a problem going to bed "early" and then have no problem getting up fairly early for the parks the next day, making the adjust from west coast time to east coast time a lot easier!