If you had to pick a park for arrival day…

[snikki]

I just want to add that if your family has animal lovers, I would strongly encourage you to rope drop at AK instead of arriving mid-morning. My oldest son (18yo) is the person who loves Galaxy’s Edge the most. He wants to spend 85% of our vacation time in that one land… it’s his happy place. However! Even he says that AK in the early morning is probably the most magical place in Disney. He loves the ambiance, the animals, the lower crowds… all of it

It’s worth the bus ride

I agree about AK in the AM but I think AK at night takes a slight edge. This is why we plan one RD there and two evenings (if AK is open at night during the trip)! I would not do AK on arrival day if that were my only AK time I would have that trip.

 

[Dotluvsdisney]

We almost always hit Animal Kingdom on arrival day, although last visit we did Hollywood Studios because it was our first time there since adding all the new Star Wars attractions.

We visited AK on our departure day (live in 3 hours driving distance) and enjoyed it for just the reasons you listed: lots to see and passively enjoy. When my son was young we loved taking that train to the petting zoo area. Last time we visited, a CM recommended lunch at Flame Tree and caught the kite show across the water. While walking around the park we also saw a live band with characters float by on one of the streams. We enjoyed so many magical surprises! Hope you do too!

 

[disneygirl2022]

I definitely agree with doing Animal Kingdom as an arrival day. There really isn't that much to do or see, whereas in other parks, even if you don't have a lot you want to do, I think I could happily just stroll around. I think with getting on a ride like Avatar Flight of Passage would be a bit harder if you arrive later in the day, but, you could easily just purchase a Lightning Lane for it or wait a little later at night. But, the entertainment may make up for it if you like watching theater.

 

[bluedolphin32]

When we finally get to do an adults only trip I think we would probably do Epcot on arrival day.

That was our choice for our trip that was just DH and me recently. The other factor in that decision is that it was a Monday and we got to use EEH and stay until 11. It was a long day after getting up early to fly, but we did everything I had planned (not everything, but enough). I stacked our G+ while we were on the plane.

For our next family trip, we are doing 2 days at Universal before moving over to Disney, so it's not exactly the same as a fly/drive in arrival day. After two busy days at Uni, I'm thinking we may start with AK because we can show up anytime after rope drop and still have time for everything, we want to see Pandora at night for the first time, and it will give us an early enough end time to get to bed for rope drop the next day.