Do you go to the parks the day you travel?

[Zippa D Doodah]

When we fly we always go MK and get the fun started when we arrive. When driving we pretty much hang around the resort, maybe go to DtD

 

[LadyRayado]

Usually not - we get in mid-afternoon, have dinner at the hotel or DTD, and turn in early. However this time I'll be in at 1:30, so I'm considering an evening at EPCOT.

 

[bauer1168]

We normally like to wait until the next day, so we can rest up before hitting the parks. We normally just go to DTD and have a look around the resort.
Out situation might be much different coming from the UK as once we've landed, gone through immigration etc, it's around 5/6pm

 

[KathyK]

It depends on our flights, but if we have time, we go into the parks.

 

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

Nope. We always use this as a lazy day...pool, maybe a meal at DTD.

 

[isaboo]

YES! We fly and usually get in early afternoon, have an early dinner at Beaches and Cream then head to MK. Can't wait to be there!

 

[JoWiJo]

It would all depend on when I arrive and how long my trip is.

I once arrived in the early afternoon, checked into the hotel, went to DTD for a lunch, enjoyed a few shops, then went DHS just to see Fantasmic. The reason I went into the park was that I was staying a week and had 7 days of tickets, which pretty much guaranteed that I would either get a short day, or waste one. In this instance, Fantasmic was only showing twice while I was there, and I really didn't want to go to DHS the other night it was on. So it made sense to visit that particular park that day.

On the other hand, I would like to go for about 3-4 days one spring to see the Flower and Garden exhibits at EPCOT. For a trip that short, considering how much time I'd spend on taking photos in EPCOT, I would want to maximize my tickets.

 

[POOHsie]

When we stayed at POR/POFQ, we usually went to DTD on arrival night. Easy boat ride. But we're staying at Pop this time. I'll get in around 1pm, DD arrives around 6:30. I thought I'd spend my solo afternoon at MK. It's the last day that Carousel of Progress is open during our stay, and I'd hate to miss it, corny as that sounds. DD doesn't care about CoP like I do.

DD hasn't seen AoA yet, so we plan to eat dinner there and walk around. That's a nice, relaxing start to our trip. We'll probably skip DTD this time, b/c of heavy construction.

 

[Buzzsgramma]

Our family of 11 sometimes more...have never gone to a park the day we arrived...even the younger kids or teens...
When we used to take very early flights ...no way...to tired...want to get as much out of that ticket as possible...
We go to the pool, have a nice dinner somewhere...unpack ..relax.

 

[LaurenT]

Depends. Our flight gets in at 11 am and we have APs. So I made FP ressies for 3 pm for 7DMT and a couple of others. We're doing dinner at Cape May and then an illuminations cruise that night, so we'll probably at least get to the new coaster, but then we'll see how out time is.
I wouldn't be doing it if I have limited days on my ticket or d I ha to worry about FPs selling out ... One benefit of the new FP system.

 

[kmb584]

We go to MK on our arrival day (flight usually lands at noon) but not on our departure as I like to take the 9:05a flight back to Philly.

 

[Networth]

We go to MK for like an hour or two on arrival day because it's close and it's quintessential Disney. We never go to parks on the day we leave so the vacations over rather not drag it out and we kinda "leave" vacation mode the day we leave the room.

 

[gtpoohbear]

It depends. The earliest we can get into MCO, even with a direct flight, is around 2pm (4 hr flight plus 2hr time change working against us). So that puts us at the resort by 4pm.

If we are using package tickets, we will usually go to Epcot for dinner that night, since one extra day in the passes only costs a few dollars anyway.

More recently, we have been working our way slowly through some 10-day NE tickets, so every day of tickets feels a lot more valuable. Generally, going to a park just for dinner wouldn't be worth it in that case.

 

[ZoZo]

I totally would if I got to Orlando early enough!

But since I travel from Washington State, it takes all day to fly there, even if I leave on a really early flight (darn that three-hour time difference!). Even if we take a non-stop flight, the earliest we arrive at MCO is 4:30. By the time we get to the resort, we're just too tired to do more than eat dinner and crash.

 

[usagibuffy]

We will be taking a red eye and getting in at 5:30am, so yes, we'll be going to the parks that day. I'm contemplating exactly what we'll do the last day, as we have 10 day tickets and 12 days at the resort, but our flight doesn't leave until 6:30pm. I don't like the idea of having to stay in the public areas of the resort for our last few hours before heading to the airport, but maybe we don't want to use a day's ticket on just 4-5 hours in the park.

 

[bluezy]

We drive from PA -- 16 hours. We do most of the driving the first day and then have about a 4 hour drive in the morning so we arrive at Disney World around lunch time/early afternoon. We didn't want to waste a day of admission on our tickets to only spend a few hours in a park, so we would check-in at the hotel, unpack a little, and then hop a bus to EP or MK just to ride the monorail. After we were finished with the monorail loops, we'd take a bus from one of the MK resorts to DTD. We'd walk around there, have dinner, head back to the resort for some swimming and then get to bed at a decent time so we could hit the ground running.

Then we realized that it would really only cost us $7 (at the time) per person to add a day to our tickets....so only spending a few hours at a park didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore. Now we arrive at the resort around noon, check-in, grab a quick lunch, and then head to Epcot for a few hours. It's a very leisurely visit so it's not tiring and we stay in Future World the whole time. We usually eat dinner at Sunshine Seasons and then head back to the hotel for a swim and early bed time.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We fly from Providence. Always take the first flight out in the morning. This year it will be at 6:30, so we'll land at 9:30. Plan on having lunch in MK! But we do make it an early evening. We'll spend a few hours in the park, have dinner, and then go right back the resort. The kids will probably swim a bit while I get us settled into the room. Then early to bed since it will have been such a long day. But we always, always go to MK on arrival day!

Then it's just the opposite when we leave. We take the latest possible flight. This time not until 7:45 pm. Figuring our ME bus will be around 4:30, so will pack up that morning, leave our bags at the desk and go to DHS for the day.

Definitely try to take advantage of each day we're there!

 

[Gottahavemorecowbell]

We usually arrive at MCO somewhere between 10:30-noonish. That leaves a lot time to head to a park. Normally, we head to MK around 4:00 until it closes. We've skipped going to a park on our travel home day on every trip I believe. It's just too stressful when we have to be ready for the ME by 3:00 p.m. or earlier.

 

[jtclark]

Last year it was just my wife and I and we were in DHS by 1pm. We had to leave the house by 4am to make our 8am flight but we managed to stay awake until about 10pm that night. We were tired but it was worth it. This year we are taking our son (20 months old) and we are not planning on visiting any parks on our travel day. We figure the long drive to the airport, the flight and all the other travel excitement will be enough for him for the day. We were thinking about visiting downtown Disney on our travel day but decided against it because of all the construction.

 

[itchin2go]

We don't ... not on check in day or check out day.

I don't consider it to be a good use of a ticket, and I only buy enough ticket days for what we actually need.

We're rope droppers, so arrival day is never ideal.

On check-out day, I'm ready to GO.