First Day Blues

[JRawkSteady]

How many of you guys go to the parks on your first day in WDW? My DGF has never been to WDW and I really feel like I should rush into the park and show her everything!! But I also know that we'll only have half a day, and we won't get to experience a full day of magic...

What do you do?

 

[kangaroodle]

We don't ever rush to a theme park on the first day we arrive for that very reason...too rushed. Over the years we have learned to not even go to a theme park the NEXT day. Out kids (now 6 and 9) are still tired from the travel day. We will go to Blizzard Beach or somewhere a little slower paced and then go to a theme park the day after that. Of course, we usually go for 10 days so this works well. We have done the quick 4 or 5 days trips where its a park every day...HATE that! Way too tiring! Why don't you book a fun character meal for the first evening...still fun and magical without feeling rushed.

 

[Frantasmic]

If no kids are involved, pick a different park if you can. We get into WDW about 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday, and we plan on going to AK. It closes early, so we know we can recover from the travel. If we have energy, we can head over to MK for the evening or to DTD for shopping.

Or just walk down Main Street and take all that in the first day. There is a lot to do and see just there.

 

[cleo]

We do the same. Skip the parks the first day, possibly even the second day, depending on how tired everyone is (some of our family make a Trans-Atlantic flight). If we're not too tired we head to the parks on day 2.

We didn't always do that, but we found everyone is MUCH more able to tour well for the duration of the stay if we're not all crabby from trying to do too much, too soon.

 

[LadyDulcinea1]

If its your DGf first trip, then I say wait until she can experience a whole day at the park. Depending on your arrival time, maybe use that first day to explore your resort or go to DTD, this way she'll also have little teasers of what's to come, since you can see Spaceship Earth, ToT and other resorts from the roadways

 

[Honeybehr1]

We always head right to the park - unless we get in at night.

THis time we are getting in at 10:30 and going to the hotel to get our meal plan activated and then going to the parks and staying for MNSSHP

 

[kirbsam]

I say go to mk, and take a leisurely walk down main street, get the feel for the layout. Hit a few rides or see a parade. Take a few pictures. She will feel the magic, believe me.

 

[fitzkerry]

JRawkSteady, are you arriving am or pm. I see you're staying at the Polly, do you have length of stay tickets? If you do, I suggest a nice lunch and maybe some pool time at your hotel after you unpack, then at dusk wander over to the Magic Kingdom and just enjoy sharing that first sight of Main Street and the Castle with you special person. Walk up and down looking at the shops, take a stroll thru the lands without going on any rides, just take in all the great detail! Then if your lucky, it will be a night with Spectromagic and you can enjoy it followed by Wishes, then back to your hotel for a nightcap!

 

[missypie]

I'd unpack, swim, enjoy the resort, then eat dinner at an Epcot world showcase restaurant and them watch Illuminaitons.

 

[MagicAndPixieDust70]

It all depends on what day you arrive and what time you arrive

If you arrive early in the morn and its on a Saturday and its the

only saturday you will be there you need to go to the MK later in the day

in order to catch spectromagic as Sat is generally the only day it

is scheduled. get the idea

 

[ReneeDisney]

We usually skip the parks on our first day as well, event though we usually arrive early in the day! My suggestion would be to check-in and explore your resort, get a bite to eat, take the monorail to othter hotels. Really show you DGF the "WORLD" so that she can take it in slowly!
Also, we always have dinner our first night in Downtown Disney after some Disney Shopping!
Hope you have a wonderful trip!

 

[Star Wars Guy]

We'll hit MK usually within an hour of getting checked in to our resort. Sometimes that's not until 3:00 pm or later. We've found that we are more leisurely about the park during that time because we know it wouldn't be possible to do everything in that short of time. It's kind of like putting your toes in the pool to test the water. We ease in to the park - take our time going down Main Street, get a bite to eat at Casey's, and then begin at Adventureland (PoTC usually first).

The magic usually hits as soon as we see the castle from Main Street.

 

[txdznydude]

We always head to a park upon arrival. I want as much of the magic as soon as I can get it!!! We're two adults with no children. We usually arrive in the world early afternoon. Spend some time in a park, back to the resort to unpack, swim and/or nap then head back out again that evening. It's usually the next morning that we sleep in and take a more leisurely pace.

 

[JRawkSteady]

Thanks guys! Your input is really helpful!

Plane hasn't been booked yet, but we'll be arriving around noonish, so we'll have the late afternoon/evening/and night. Fortunately, we don't have to worry about tickets, because I work for Disney Theatrical in NYC and get sliver passes

I think I'll take your advise and tease her with Main Street, take a stroll around the park - maybe go on ONE ride and then hit DTD/PI. The next day we'll start fresh at MK

 

[Goofy DS]

I can't belive so many people skip the first day at the parkand some even skip the NEXT DAY!! OUr kids would be crawling out of their skin!
Of course we have always only been able to do shorter trips, usually get in (fly) 11:00am or so on a Thursday, stay Th, Fr, Sa, Su, and leave late (6:00) on Monday, then take Tuesday off to do laundry and unwind before heading back to *#$@!
Our first day is usually at MGM do a few rides etc... eat and see Fantasmic!

I guess if we drove 16 hours or so we would try to relax on the first day, but after all of the anticipation, it would be like having Santa come and say "sorry we can't open gifts 'till 12/26"!

 

[JRawkSteady]

Oh yeah - we're staying 10 days as well (just thought I'd throw that in)

 

[Hopefully]

We always hit a park on the first day too. We usually arrive around 11 AM, check in and get our documents and then head out. Since we are staying at the BCV, we usually walk through the International Gateway to Epcot, and the magic begins for us. We come back around 5, go to our room and unpack, relax abit and then head out to dinner in World Showcase.
We too often sleep in the first morning. We are a party of 3 DH, DS (an adult in his 20's) and myself
This works great for us.

 

[LoveWDW]

We will only have 4 full days, so that first half day I like to use. Since it is a half day, I feel that it isn't as tiring as a full day, so we go to a park for a few hours and return to the resort if we start feeling tired. If water parks are one of the planned activities, it makes sense to me to use the half day for water parks.

 

[Jennasis]

This talk of not going straight to the parks (especially MK) is just HERESY!!! hehehehe! I would go completely MAD if I did not drop my bags in the hotel and beat a hasty path directly to Main Street USA upon arrival. I am just not "at" Disney until I walk under the railroad tressle and see the castle.

I can see how some may consider this "rushing". Our flight arrives at 7am and we should be at the hotel by 8-8:30am, so we will still have a full day ahead. We plan to hit MK first thing, return to the hotel for dinner, swimming and canoodling!

 

[DisneyWisher]

How many of you guys go to the parks on your first day in WDW? My DGF has never been to WDW and I really feel like I should rush into the park and show her everything!! But I also know that we'll only have half a day, and we won't get to experience a full day of magic...

What do you do?

If you don't feel like hitting the park how about a monorail trip. Take the monorail from Poly to TTC (yep the long way) I'm sure your GF will get a kick out of traveling through CR. When you get to TTC hop the monorail to Epcot. Its a nice round trip ride. Let her get a taste of what the World is like. One day to escape the heat we jumped on the monorail at Epcot and rode round trip to TTC and back. When you take the monorail you get to see so much of Epcot. We love it.
We love Poly concierge. Though its a luxury we don't get to do too often because I'd rather stay Value and go 4-6 times a year.