What do you like to do on arrival day

[RivGirl]

We always go to Disney Springs for dinner and shopping. I keep thinking we’ll try something different but my family likes this routine!

For Spring Break this year I booked an arrival night stay at All Star ahead of our full stay at Poly. So we can do DS still on day 1 as well as take advantage of the water park on our Poly checkin day.

 

[JediBonas]

We usually head over to Boardwalk to get food (pizza and pretzels for the kids and margaritas for the rest of us). Hoping the place with the giant mozzarella sticks is open when we get in tomorrow night!

 

[beccasmom]

We normally arrive right after lunch and hang by the pool or head to DS for lunch, depending on the weather (and our moods). We used to head to a theme park, but those days are long gone. Travel days are long and tiring and I’m not quite as ambitious as I once was!

 

[Karalee402]

We try to arrive as early as possible so we can enjoy a full day at our resort. My perfect arrive day would be an afternoon at the pool followed by an evening of resort hopping - either around Crescent Lake with a skyliner ride or around the monorail resorts. We try to leave as late as we can on our last day for the same reason - we try to get every single second we can out of being on property.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Rather variable, but one good option can be making a small grocery store run for basic drinks/water/snacks/fresh fruit/sunscreen. That can be a good time to eat an offsite meal. We find WDW lacks produce, so eating offsite is both an opportunity to save $ and get some good veggies. Berries are almost impossible to find at WDW.

If not doing a park, and you have a car, Silver Springs State Park is great place that is beautiful, and you can go through Ocala on the way or way back if you have lots of time or a non-park day. The glass bottom boat tour is fun.

Within WDW, we sometimes go swimming, or visit Disney Springs.

More recently, we try to drive by Epic Universe area to see the construction progress.

We have sometimes also done a nice TS dinner.

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

When traveling with my friends, we do have a sort of arrival day routine. We don't necessarily rush to take the first flight of the day, so we usually arrive mid-afternoon at the earliest.

If my sister who lives in Orlando is available, she'll very kindly be our Lyft/Uber driver, lol. First stop is ALWAYS Publix for groceries and Pub Subs before continuing on to our resort, which will very likely be the Grand Floridian or maybe the Polynesian.

Then it's getting unpacked, freshening up post-plane, and resort time! As much as I love EPCOT and DHS, I'm a self-professed monorail resort snob precisely because of all the great food and bev and activity options they offer. Nothing like kicking off your Disney trip with some Trader Sam's and Electrical Water Pageant. Plus, the Hoop-Dee-Doo is a must-do every. single. trip and it's so easy to commute to the Fort from the GF or the Poly!

 

[QueenofPrideRock]

Rather variable, but one good option can be making a small grocery store run for basic drinks/water/snacks/fresh fruit/sunscreen. That can be a good time to eat an offsite meal. We find WDW lacks produce, so eating offsite is both an opportunity to save $ and get some good veggies. Berries are almost impossible to find at WDW.

This!! Those pre-cut fruit bowls at Publix are the FIRST thing to go in my cart. And then their mini muffins, probably.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

This!! Those pre-cut fruit bowls at Publix are the FIRST thing to go in my cart. And then their mini muffins, probably.

If we start over at Universal, then we'll pop into the Whole Foods over that way. They don't have the best selection of bottled water, but the prepared fruit is great! They also have a lot of prepared foods. One that is kinda unique and really good is the fully prepared key lime shrimp, now over by the seafood dept. They are chilled, and marinated in key lime oil w/garlic. WF is not inexpensive, but they have a large soup/hot food/salad bar area, pizza, and more. It is also a decent place to pick up something like a birthday cake.

A classic travel problem is not having a knife to cut fruit. I do like that WDW now has tangerines. They are much better than the Sunkist oranges. There used to be an orange stand up on 192, but it was just so-so, and the FL oranges have been hit hard the last few years.

Another plus of a grocery run is good yogurt.

If we start at WDW, then Publix is one place we also shop. I can make do though with Target.

It can also be helpful to place an order for pickup. Just be aware, if the Target order contains perishables, then they only hold it for like 48 hours, I think.

Last year, we arrived late, and I tried a company that delivered direct to our hotel. It was a little pricey, but the order was great, and nicely packaged. The biggest downside was a somewhat limited selection. Otherwise, I'd use them again.

 

[AutieMom]

I believe at this time the free water park day has only been announced for 2025. Have you heard differently?

My package has the free water park tickets and I’m going in a week

 

[AutieMom]

When traveling with my friends, we do have a sort of arrival day routine. We don't necessarily rush to take the first flight of the day, so we usually arrive mid-afternoon at the earliest.

If my sister who lives in Orlando is available, she'll very kindly be our Lyft/Uber driver, lol. First stop is ALWAYS Publix for groceries and Pub Subs before continuing on to our resort, which will very likely be the Grand Floridian or maybe the Polynesian.

Then it's getting unpacked, freshening up post-plane, and resort time! As much as I love EPCOT and DHS, I'm a self-professed monorail resort snob precisely because of all the great food and bev and activity options they offer. Nothing like kicking off your Disney trip with some Trader Sam's and Electrical Water Pageant. Plus, the Hoop-Dee-Doo is a must-do every. single. trip and it's so easy to commute to the Fort from the GF or the Poly!

I’m the same. I love the monorail resorts.
What is Trader Sam’s?

 

[goofyernmost]

I used to plan my arrival time to be mid-afternoon if I'm driving or flying. Then when I get there I can almost always check in immediately be it onsite or offsite. Unwind for a short while to brush off the travel fatigue. I would never go to any of the parks on arrival day because at the cost of tickets it would just be a waste of a days admission. I might go to Disney Springs if onsite or just get the lay of the land offsite. Find a place to have dinner and rest watch TV and just unwind. Go to bed, get a good nights sleep and be recharged and ready for a day of touring the parks. I do the opposite leaving. If I'm driving or flying I like to get an early start and get home early enough to not be exhausted the next day, especially if I had to go to work the next day.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

We fly from several states away so we generally just rest, enjoy our hotel and dinner, maybe watch fireworks from the hotel, depending on where we’re staying.

 

[croschek05]

We drive from Long Island straight so we usually unpack, eat at a character meal, and then have a relaxing pool night.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Grocery shop. Unpack. If we get in early it is straight to the pool! Dinner later but we never make reservations as we fly and never know how that will go.

First full day is usually a park day. Enjoy!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Usually go to a park. Once you are there for 7 days it's not much to add an additional day to your tickets.

Last trip we flew in later since DD had school so we just checked in, had dinner and went to bed to RD MK the next morning. I really liked not going to a park on arrival day and planned on exploring our resort (AKV) and maybe hitting up DS for our next arrival day. Well I ended up booking a very early morning flight which has us at MCO at 8:30 am. I also got a really good deal on park tickets which has more days than we are there. So our plan is now to explore our resort, hitting up MK to get some new ears, take pictures and just take in the atmosphere (2-3 hours max) then go back to AKV to swim and dinner at Jiko.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We fly from several states away so we generally just rest, enjoy our hotel and dinner, maybe watch fireworks from the hotel, depending on where we’re staying.

Same here! The most strenuous thing we do is unpack. We have to get up about 4:00 am in order to get to WDW by afternoon, so it's been a very long day.

 

[NJTOAD]

Hi all. What do you like to do on arrival day if you’re not going to the parks? Anyone have any traditions?
We’ll be arriving on a Sunday late afternoon but we aren’t going to parks until Monday.
Thanks

Depends on time of day, but late afternoon check in, we would get settled in the room, and if the weather is good, sit by the pool and likely have late lunch/early dinner right at the hotel. But we are in our 60's

 

[kylenne]

Our flight down is fairly short and we are usually out on the first one so generally get to property by 11am. We almost always drop our stuff off at Bell Services and head into the nearest park until the room is ready, but the last few trips we have gone to Epcot regardless of where we're staying just to ride Cosmic Rewind and eat lol. It became a tradition to do the VQ from the airport lounge or sometimes in the air on in flight wifi. Sadly that one is done now that it's gone to standby starting today so we will probably go back to vibing at the nearest park for a bit until we can take a nap in the room. We begin at BWI next trip so will probably just snack around festival booths. Our TA booked us a ticketless package and we got the mini golf etc so might do that. It'll be a new thing for us. I can't imagine not heading into a park on arrival day though, I am usually too antsy to sit around the resort waiting for the room. Disney adrenaline overcomes the exhaustion of traveling to me.

The only reason we are not heading to Typhoon Lagoon is because we get in on the Sunday before Memorial Day and I'm concerned about crowds there. We're going to use our other water park entitlement the day we switch to Poly, instead.

 

[Robber Baron]

We always get early flights.

We aren't much for 'settling in', or, 'getting the lay of the land.' We are at WDW for the parks and that's what we're doing.

If we arrive before, say, 2:00 pm, (though we are usually earlier), we're checking in and heading to a park.

Though I do like a lot of the resorts, if there were no parks I wouldn't be staying at any of them.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

Same here! The most strenuous thing we do is unpack. We have to get up about 4:00 am in order to get to WDW by afternoon, so it's been a very long day.

A couple of years ago we went and stayed offsite one night and then went to a non-Disney activity for half the day before checking into our Disney hotel. It was kind of nice to get that extra afternoon time to enjoy the hotel. Makes me jealous of people who live closer.

We are doing a split stay this year BWV to VGF and thinking about using the free water park admission for our hotel-change day.