Parks on first day?

[izzy25]

We currently have a trip booked for October 20th-27th. (Friday to a Friday). Our flight is scheduled to arrive at MCO at 10:00am on the 20th, and i'm unsure if we should try to head to the parks that day or not. We have 5 day park hopper passes + a waterpark day which we will take advantage of. I would like a day or two of down days (one being the day we do MNSSHP Tuesday October 24th). I know the anticipation will be hard to ignore if we don't go to the parks, but i also don't want a day wasted if we get tired from early travel time. Just curious as to what everyone else does that first day.

 

[learningtolive]

We went to the park our travel day. Plane got in around the same time yours will, we checked into hotel, went to Walmart then ended up at MK.

 

[cwoww]

We do HS on our 1st day. we also get in around 10, grab a quick lunch at the hotel, and are in the park between 1-2.

 

[Klayfish]

Just my own opinion, absolutely I'd go to the parks. Not a big "down day" person. If I were in your situation, I'd do a 6 or 7 day pass (the upgrade is cheap) and head to the parks. Even if I wanted a "rest" day, I'd do a few hours in the park, then spend the rest of the day relaxing.

 

[hes122]

I was told to budget about 3 hours from arrival at ME to being either at or on a bus to a park (since you have to stop at the resort to check in). This was true for my March trip. We were tired at the end of the night for sure, but not so much that we decided to leave the park early. On the flip side, we budgeted sleep-in time the next morning knowing that we'd be tired from a day of travel the day before.

So really I think it depends on the ages of your party.

 

[rwdavis2]

Adding a day to the 5 day hopper is pretty inexpensive.

 

[izzy25]

If we decided to add the 6th day, can you do that when you are already there?

 

[luvgoing2disney]

We have found more like 2 hours between landing and arrival at the hotel, so yes, I would go to a park. Our flight will land around 9:30 and we plan to be eating our traditional first meal, a hot dog at Casey's, by a little after noon.

Yes, you can add the days when you get there.

 

[djc9699]

We always go to a park on arrival day. I make FP for a few rides late afternoon or early evening. We usually go to HS or Epcot to hit a tiered ride. This year we might do one of the Pandora rides on arrival day so we can do the other ride on our first full AK day. We can never wait to hit a park. Last summer we were delayed driving due to horrible rain in Louisiana and Mississippi so we rolled in at 7:00 am. We had driven all night. I laid down to sleep a few hours and my daughter sat on the bed and stared at me for two hours so I couldn't really sleep anyway. So I got up, showered and headed to the park around 11:00. We just come back to the room earlier so we can get a good nights sleep for the next day.

 

[hes122]

If we decided to add the 6th day, can you do that when you are already there?

Yes. We added at 7th day or our 6 day tickets at our resort. I think we waited longer in the line than it actually took to upgrade them. I think you have to have days left on your tickets though in order to do it.

 

[cincystamper]

We do Disney Springs on our arrival day. We can take our time, quit when we're tired, not use up a park ticket, and still get into the Disney vibe of the trip.

 

[AngiTN]

Before we had an AP we did not go to parks on arrival or departure days. My reasoning was if I was paying for the day I wanted to go all day, not a few hours. We drove at that time so we always planned a fun dinner for arrival day and shopping at DS for departure day.

 

[Micca]

I agree that going to a park on arrival down is pretty irresistible but I'll throw an alternative out there. Use your arrival day to make your Walmart run and gathering any other off property stuff you might want/need (thinking alcohol.) Get settled into your resort and have a look around. Not sure where you're staying but this might also be a good time to make a tour of the monorail resorts for the fun of riding the 'rail and maybe having a drink or bite to eat. This might also be a good time for Disney Springs. The best part of all is that you get back to the resort in time for an early bed time so you can make RD the following morning. This plan gives you a very definite Disney vibe while not burning any passes.

 

[izzy25]

I agree that going to a park on arrival down is pretty irresistible but I'll throw an alternative out there. Use your arrival day to make your Walmart run and gathering any other off property stuff you might want/need (thinking alcohol.) Get settled into your resort and have a look around. Not sure where you're staying but this might also be a good time to make a tour of the monorail resorts for the fun of riding the 'rail and maybe having a drink or bite to eat. This might also be a good time for Disney Springs. The best part of all is that you get back to the resort in time for an early bed time so you can make RD the following morning. This plan gives you a very definite Disney vibe while not burning any passes.

This is kinda the route I was thinking. We are staying at Caribbean Beach resort (booked well before we knew about the construction). I had thought about possibly booking an ADR for that evening at one of the resorts close to the Magic Kingdom so we could watch the fireworks. We do plan on going to the parks on our departure day, because we have a later flight home (8pm departure). It would only cost me $58 to add a 6th day for 4 of us so I may just wait it out until we get there and if we decide we want the extra day, then just add it later.

Thanks for everyone's opinions!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Once I'm on WDW property I have to go to the MK. An extra day is about $10 per person once you get past 4-5 days. It was worth it to us.

When my kids were younger we would go to XH's uncles house and stay 1-2 days, hang with them, then get up early and check into our resort. We would always go straight to the MK by 10 am but every single time my kids begged for pool time. lol It never failed. We're in WDW! Let's go to the MK! Nope.....they wanted the pool. We would do midday breaks at the pool so they got their pool time but it shows that it's not all about the parks to everyone in the party.

Last trip my kids were older and we had a 10 am arrival but our flight was delayed by 12 hours. We had planned to hit MK but that didn't happen. Instead we went straight to bed and hit MK AM EMH RD.

 

[TravelDad]

I'm not sure what your financial situation is so at the risk of sounding insensitive, the difference between a 5 day and a 6 day is very small. If you are ok doing something else, by all means keep your 5 day. But for us, once you get to that 5 day mark (unless you are on a buy 3 get 2 or something) the price difference is quite small.

 

[izzy25]

Once I'm on WDW property I have to go to the MK. An extra day is about $10 per person once you get past 4-5 days. It was worth it to us.

When my kids were younger we would go to XH's uncles house and stay 1-2 days, hang with them, then get up early and check into our resort. We would always go straight to the MK by 10 am but every single time my kids begged for pool time. lol It never failed. We're in WDW! Let's go to the MK! Nope.....they wanted the pool. We would do midday breaks at the pool so they got their pool time but it shows that it's not all about the parks to everyone in the party.

Last trip my kids were older and we had a 10 am arrival but our flight was delayed by 12 hours. We had planned to hit MK but that didn't happen. Instead we went straight to bed and hit MK AM EMH RD.

If we do decide to do a park on our arrival day, MK would be the one we'd be going to. My daughter will be so excited to see the castle again because to her, that is Disney.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

We always go to the MK on our travel day. I'm no good until I see the Castle. We usually take a 7 a.m. flight arriving about 9:30 and arriving at the hotel about 10:30, but last trip we flew at 5:30 a.m. after waking up about three to get ready, get to the airport, etc. We found that even though we'd been on the go since the middle of the night adrenaline and excitement kept us going with little effort. I guess I don't recommend it for people with young kids, but we're a couple of Batty Old Commandos.

 

[izzy25]

I'm not sure what your financial situation is so at the risk of sounding insensitive, the difference between a 5 day and a 6 day is very small. If you are ok doing something else, by all means keep your 5 day. But for us, once you get to that 5 day mark (unless you are on a buy 3 get 2 or something) the price difference is quite small.

I calculated it out, it's an extra $58 total to add the 6th day for 4 of us, so I'm pretty sure we will be doing that.

 

[DisneyAnytime]

We have done it both ways. Our last trip and our upcoming trip in May, we had/have a room only the night before our package stay. This year we will probably go in to HS on arrival day even though our flight doesn't land until almost 5:00pm, assuming that the Star Wars fireworks are that night because we really wouldn't stay that late at HS otherwise as it's our least favorite park. Our last trip, we drove down and got in late afternoon/early evening and just chilled at the resort, went over to DTD/DS and relaxed and got ready for RD the next morning.

We had originally planned on driving this trip as well but I found a great deal on airfare for the 6 of us so that was a happy wrench in my plans.