Quick question about which day you would arrive at WDW

[jacobsmommy]

We are wanting to book a trip to WDW next year right around Memorial Day. We could arrive either on Saturday the 27th or Sunday the 28th. We usually try to get the earliest flight so we can spend a good chunk of time at a park on our first day. We want to stay for 7 days/6 nights. Would you suggest arriving on the 27th or the 28th? Does it really matter? In 2006 we arrived on Memorial Day and the beginning of the week was great but it got busier towards the weekend after Memorial Day.

 

[DisneyCAL]

The perk to coming in on a Saturday has to do with 180 days out ADR's. Most people come in on a Saturday and therefore can make their ADR's 180 +10. If you were to do the Sunday you'd start on the ADR's a day later than most planning for that week. A sunday flight may be cheaper though.

 

[jacobsmommy]

I was just wondering if it made a difference crowd wise. I would really love to book for the week before, but our school district tends to have a lot of snow days, so our last possible make up day is the 26th, so I can't really book before the 27th right now.

 

[Accident]

Before I recently moved here, I almost always arrived early on sunday but generally because it was cheaper than trying to arrive early on saturday. I think if you can get in for a late lunch/early dinner time then you have more than enough time to do a really good first park day, especially on a sunday.

Now that i'm a local, the crwods from sunday night until thursday afternoon are very different than the rest and it's the type of attitude I like better. To a degree there is a certain rudeness everyone has the first 24-48 hours they are here which is when the exhausting hits and they just finally slow down a lot or stop judging everything and everyone around them. the bulk of people arrive friday night - saturday and as PP mentioned, if your really going after certain fastpass+ or ADRs it can be a very different success story arriving friday or saturday.

 

[DWillowBay]

Here's a whole different approach.... we like to arrive on a Sunday because the room is cheaper than a Saturday night. We typically stay 6 nights and therefore avoid 2 more expensive weekend nights. Everyone's got their own approach.

 

[IrishNYC]

We normally start our week-long vacations (regardless of destination) on Saturday, so that we have Sunday to recuperate. Next Disney trip starts for us on a Tuesday night with a flight down after school/work, and a return on Monday. We'll have 2 days off from school that week, so DD will only miss 2 days of school.

 

[jacobsmommy]

How big of a deal is the whole ADR and FP thing to start the week on a Sunday instead of a Saturday? We have only been once since they started FP plus and that was this past October for a four night stay. The only thing I wasn't able to get was Anna/Elsa FP for my daughter. We didn't do any ADR's that trip because it was a short stay.

 

[IrishNYC]

How big of a deal is the whole ADR and FP thing to start the week on a Sunday instead of a Saturday? We have only been once since they started FP plus and that was this past October for a four night stay. The only thing I wasn't able to get was Anna/Elsa FP for my daughter. We didn't do any ADR's that trip because it was a short stay.

I wouldn't put too much credence into that thought. Our last trip was booked well after the 180 mark and we got every ADR we wanted, including some PPO.

 

[Accident]

Here's a whole different approach.... we like to arrive on a Sunday because the room is cheaper than a Saturday night. We typically stay 6 nights and therefore avoid 2 more expensive weekend nights. Everyone's got their own approach.

now that you post this, it was the reason I was arriving on sundays. either the discount I used didn't allow for friday or saturday nights or the resort (and travel costs) were just lower for sunday...

+1 on this one, don't forget to try all different arrival, departure dates for both travel and disney to see what makes the most sense money wise.