First half day at Disney, WHAT TO DO?

[Caitsmama]

Uh ya, for the mere $10 difference, i would vote to go to the park too then!

 

[Cinderumbrella]

OP's scenario is our situation every year. In my mind, the only reason to take that early flight is to go to a park!!

After we check in we head right to MK. We have to walk down Main Street and see the castle or the vacation hasn't started yet!! Then we go over to Toontown and say hello to Mickey. Next, we head back to Main Street to catch the parade (usually taking the train from Toontown to Frontierland and walking through Liberty Square to get a funnel cake to eat while we wait for the parade to start)

Then we hop to another park for dinner. This year it is MGM for a quickie dinner at the Pizza Planet, see the Osborne lights and hopefully catch the early Fantasmic (but we may be too tired at this point!)

Then the next day we are up early for a 8:00 AM at Crystal Palace and we finally ride the rides at MK...

 

[Praying Colonel]

The OP said he is going to be there for 8 days...including his arrival day. The price difference between a 7 day park hopper & a 8 day park hopper is $2!...Yep...$2!

For $10 the OP and his family could go to any park, even if it is just for a few hours.

My vote...go to a park.

That was our thinking, too. We knew we weren't hitting any park on arrival day until around 2 or 3, but we also knew we could have $8 worth of fun between the 4 of us in that short period of time. So we went to the parks, and I'm glad we did.

 

[Karnak]

If I went to a park on this day, it would be Epcot, and I'd have a dinner reservation at one of the excellent resturants there.

My second choice would be to visit Disney Downtown, having made dinner reservations at the House of Blues and having tickets for the Circus just across the street.

Enjoy.

 

[Disney Crazy Family]

I would go to the Magic Kingdom mainly because it is SAT and the
park usually stays open a little longer, and a lot of times it is
allways a night that the night time parade is held. Even to go and
just walk around and get a good spot for the night time parade
We allways start with a sat and the night time parade and end
on the following sat before we leave to catch the parade one more time
before we leave.

 

[Mickey'sMonkey]

Send the 2 kids off with the Mother in law and you and your wife can do night time things during the day!