things to do on first day

[josie21]

We will be arriving on Feb 6th. We land at approx. 11:15 a.m. so hopefully will be at our hotel (Pop Century) by 1:00 in afternoon. We have 4 day hopper passes, what park would suggest seeing first if we use one of our days on the day we arrive? Any advice on what we should do? This is our first time to WDW. Thanks.

 

[iggbees]

nothing to add, but i'm wondering this myself. we're coming in at 10 am (our flight got bumped up from arriving at 10:45) and i'm assuming we'll be at the hotel by about noon-ish. i'm not sure what to do for the first day, expecially since rooms aren't usually ready until about 3pm or so.

 

[UTgirl]

josie 21,

We are having the same dilema as you. However, instead of using one of our day tickets on a half-day we are opting (at the moment) to tour our hotel, pool, etc.. Then go to Downtown Disney for shopping and dinner that night. We have a long drive that morning - so we are planning to take it easy then be ready for the park bright and early!

 

[Stinky_Pete]

If it were me, I probably wouldn't use my park hopper for such a short day. Plus traveling kind of wears me out. Here are some fun things to do without using admission:

• Visit Downtown Disney
• Take a swim at your resort's pool (if it's warm enough)
• Tour other resorts

If you do want to go to a park, pick one that is open late. I believe that the Disney-MGM Studios has evening extra magic hours on Feb. 6, so you might want to go there. I think you need your resort key/ID in order to take advantage of extra magic hours, so you will need to check into your resort before going to the park.

 

[andysgirl360]

On our trip, we decided no parks on the first day. We arrived at WL at about 1pm but the computers had crashed throughout WDW, so there was a wait for our room. We had planned to swim for the afternoon, but ended up spending a few hours in the lobby, which wasn't so bad. We had supper at WCC and then went to FW for the Chip and Dale campfire. We didn't stay for the movie, but watched the Electrical Water Parade from the beach at WL. It made for a relaxing day and we had loads of energy for the parks the next day.

 

[Madsofa]

Can't comment on what we have done, as our first trip is in March. However I can tell you our plan for the first day is to check in, walk around the resort and we have ADR's for the Hoop Dee Do show that night at FW. We'll be ready to hit the parks running the next day though!

 

[Tess'smom]

Every year we fly in, check in, eat lunch at the hotel and hit the parks. My Dd loves to go to the MK on our first day. It is always so wonderful to walk down Main Street when you first arrive. We stay until they close the parks. Hate to miss even a few precious WDW moments!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

When we arrive, it will be before check-in also. It will be June too, so I know my kids will be thrilled to head right to the pool. Then we'll have lunch at the ASMu foodcourt, tour the resort, check-in. And this is a birthday trip for my 2 dd's, so we're going to have dinner with cinderella at 1900 park fare. And then try to get to bed at a decent time because we are doing MK emh the next morning!

 

[FormrCastMbr]

I like to spend the day by the pool and then head to the Hoo Dee Doo Review at night...Have fun!

 

[willful]

I totally agree with Tess'smom! Our first day is at the MAGIC KINGDOM!! I gotta walk down Main Street and see the castle to make it all real!

But we also have APs.

Getting back to the OP's question...

josie21, Will you only be at WDW for 4 days? If you have more days there than park hopper passes, then you need to ask yourself if 7 or 8 hours at a park or parks is a good value for your pass. Does that make sense? I think we tend to spend at least 5 hours at the parks each day sometimes more with EMHs. Which I agree with Stinky_Pete about going to EMH that night. If there is one at one of the parks that will maximize further your pass.

If you don't want or can't use a pass on the first day, some other great activities are:
Downtown Disney - The World of Disney store is HUGE and with a spitting Stitch over one of the entrances...and lots of cool items. If you have little kids...even if you don't, keep an eye on everyone because you can get lost! Ghiradelli's ice cream shop is down there as well...mmmm... Plus other fun stores and people watching...

You could also go to either the Poly or Grand Floridian and watch the Electronic Parade and Wishes. We relaxed on the Poly beach, watching both. Very relaxing and exciting. You can't hear the Wishes music though. The Grand Floridan is very nice as well! We watched Wishes near the pool after having dinner at Nacrossee's one night. I hear watching it from within Nacrossee's is nice as well.

Animal Kingdom Lodge also has some neat activities (I hear - I can let you know after our Jan 13 trip!). They have a culinary activity as well as animal night viewing.

Well hopefully my wordy response has helped abit for josie21! Since it's your first trip...and WDW can be overwhelming...keep asking questions! Have a great trip!!!

 

[josie21]

Thanks so much for all your advice. I'm still undecided what we will do, I guess I have a couple more weeks to decide. We do only have passes for 4 days at the park. Is there any theme park that takes less time to go through than others? I suppose this just depends on what you are interested in. We are in Florida for 7 days. We want to go to Sea World one day, does this involve a full day? and then maybe rent a car and travel around to see other sites. I just don't want to miss anything or not take full advantage of everything down there to see while we are there!!!

 

[Quacktatty]

I like to visit all the parks on my first day and take in my favorite attractions. You get some downtime while traveling between parks so it's not as much work as all day touring.

 

[willful]

josie21 - Since you have some weeks 'til your vacation, you have plenty of time to do research and decide. Unfortunately, 4 days at the World is just scratching the surface. I remember our first trip it was for only 4 days and I felt like there was so much more to do. I'm not trying to tell you that to depress you. Because you will have so much fun in those 4 days!! But to hopefully help you avoid the overwhelming feeling I felt on my first trip.

And hopefully this is the first of many trips for you! What has helped me is to make a list of must do's and don't necesserily need to do. This helps me prioritize my days there. Like I know Expedition Everest is very important to me so I make sure to hit up the AK EMH to get as much EE as I can stand! Also you can get lots done in 4 days if you hit it full speed. But that gets exhausting. The best advice I can give is to lay out what you expect from this trip...See nearly all of it at a break neck speed? See most of it at a relaxing pace?

It's hard for me to break down the parks as you asked. AK can be done nearly in 1 day or less. Especially since it closes earlier than the other parks. We usually get AK done on an EMH morning...so we're there from 8am - lunch time. Then we come back on a night EMH to get more stuff done. Not all, but most. Same with MK. Get the character pics and non-EMH rides and parades during normal hours. Then hit Space Mountain, Buzz, Stitch (?), Thunder Mountain, etc during the night EMH hours. I think Disney MGM can be mostly done in a day...and again save the Rock'n'roller coaster and Tower of Tower for EMH evening (or even morning). I'm not saying you can't do the big ticket rides during the normal hours, but with limited time there, the EMH will help. You probably won't be there for all the park's EMH days. But take advantage of those you can. Also definitely use FP! For example, arrive at Epcot as close to opening as you can. Rush over to Soarin' and get a Fast Pass. Then go to Test Track or Mission: Space and ride one or both 'til it's your FP time.

Get the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World - that helped me in my early trips. I hear Tourguide Mike is good too. Keep asking questions here. There's INCREDIBLE amount of great info here

Again with my wordy response. But planning for Disney (and helping others plan) gets me excited!

 

[mysparky]

Last time we got in around 10:20 and we were at the hotel by 12. Room wasn't ready so we headed over to ESPN for lunch (we were at the Boardwalk) and then spent the afternoon at the pool.

Another thought may be to grab lunch when you get in and then head over to one of the two mini golf courses (one by the Dolphin/Swan, the other by Blizzard Beach).

 

[Kailani6]

Hi Josie,
It is only $4 more for a 5 day park hopper pass, is it possible to upgrade your ticket?
Soo for a family of 4 it would only cost a total of $16 for everyone to go for a half a day. Not bad!

~Farley

 

[almburr]

MK all the way, nothing like seeing the castle as you approach. You are truely at Disney.

 

[disneymomej]

Thanks so much for all your advice. I'm still undecided what we will do, I guess I have a couple more weeks to decide. We do only have passes for 4 days at the park. Is there any theme park that takes less time to go through than others? I suppose this just depends on what you are interested in. We are in Florida for 7 days. We want to go to Sea World one day, does this involve a full day? and then maybe rent a car and travel around to see other sites. I just don't want to miss anything or not take full advantage of everything down there to see while we are there!!!

Depending on the age of your kids, mine are 5 &3. MGM was only a half day for us, as was AK (it closes earlier than all the other parks anyway). If you have little ones like us, perhaps think about 2 days at MK, 1 at Epcot, and 1/2 each at MGM and AK. We loved AK, however, and this time we plan on spending more time there. If your kids are older they might enjoy Epcot more. Regardless, MK and Epcot are the biggest parks, they will take the most time

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

It takes us a day and a half to drive down and we need something relaxing after all that driving even if we do have AP's and could scoot over to MK to catch the parade, as we have done in the past.

Now our newest first day at Disney thing is to take a bus to MK, ride the monorail a few times around, sometimes both of them. At some point we get off at the Poly and eat there, according to what we feel like eating, and then get down to the beach at the right time to lay back in the beach chairs for a perfect view of the fireworks over the castle and then see the EWP. It is magical and we are almost always the only people on the beach.

Boardwalk, people watch, get a foot long and a dessert from the bakery later on and just enjoy the ambience.

POR/FQ, if you are in a New Orleans kinda mood, go over and get a Muffaletta, some beignets and beverage of your choice, sit out in the courtyard, near the river even, and dream.

I have on my to do list to miniature golf and time it for when Fantasmic occurs so that we might be able to enjoy the sight from afar. Sometimes a different perspective on something makes all the difference.

I would just pick something that you really enjoy that will not require the use of one of your day's, ticketwise, and go for it.

Slightly Goofy

 

[kimis]

We usually get to WDW around 4:30 P.M. so after we check in we head to DTD. We eat and walk around for a while than head back to POR. Which we love. By the ME has our suitcases in our room and we can unpack. We go to bed knowing we will get up early the next morning and the magic begans again!

 

[Cindy's Mom]

Now our newest first day at Disney thing is to take a bus to MK, ride the monorail a few times around, sometimes both of them. At some point we get off at the Poly and eat there, according to what we feel like eating, and then get down to the beach at the right time to lay back in the beach chairs for a perfect view of the fireworks over the castle and then see the EWP. It is magical and we are almost always the only people on the beach.

This is exactly what we do. But we eat at Chef Mickey on our first night. We ride the monorail, stop off at the Poly and catch the EP and Whishes on their beach. Just last year we deviated a bit and watched the fireworks from just outside the gates at MK, it was kinda cool.

I like day of arrival to explore the hotel; swim, eat, and to get the rest you won't be getting for the next few days.