What do you like to do on your arrival day?

[chimommy]

After we get in planning on putting the kids down for a nap at the resort... going to get groceries... and than thinking of either going to dtd or epcot for dinner, or staying at the resort and cooking dinner there (we have a timeshare). I dont want to burn out my little ones too quick so I wonder if we should just stay at the resort and put them to bed early. Any suggestions?

 

[serenitygr]

We are planning on arriving at Fort Wilderness about 4pm. We'll get checked into our cabin, and pick up our golf cart, and then spend the afternoon just getting to know our way around. With 4 kids ages 6-9, I'm not sure how tired they'll be from the excitement of their first plane ride, and everything else... We have the evening open, with bedtime planned for about 8-9pm. We want to try to stick as close to school wakeups and bedtimes as possible, just to make it easier when we return home.

 

[MouseEarsForAll]

Arrive. Just kidding! Maybe we will hit the parks, or relax. It will depend on our arrival.

 

[KellyNY]

We usually arrive to resort around 2PM. We check in, go eat at food court, check our room, relax a bit and off to MK just to see parade and fireworks, sets the mood. We do not schedule any ADRs on arriving day, just taking it easy, but we must see castle and ride main street train.

 

[disneymomej]

Oooh, I have been debating ideas for arrival date forever! I LOVE the idea of taking the train around MK. I think I will switch our plans to include this! We have 8 day park hoppers, but I thought I would just stay out of the parks until our first full day. This, however, may be doable.

We arrive at BLT around 2ish. I thought I would let my 2 older swim while the little ones nap. DH will head back to the airport to pick up my baby sister who will also be staying with us. We then have a 7:20 adr for 1900 Park Fare. If we have time before the adr, I think we will take a trip on that train!

 

[mggeary]

I think as long as you get in by 2pm, hit the parks! No offense, but none of this relax at the resort or DTD nonsense. While a late afternoon arrival will make the popular rides a no go, you can still get in the mood with a parade, meet some characters, watch the fireworks, bang out some of the low wait rides. Epcot may be ideal. Go to World Showcase, meet characters, do a Kim Possible mission, and snack.

I think a character dinner like Chef Mickeys is a also great tradition for arrival night if you are not too tired.

This upcoming trip, we actually plan to split stay, with BC for the first few nights so we can walk to Epcot and get home quick after Illuminations.

 

[GAN]

We usually shoot to arrive late morning/early afternoon. Then we hang by the pool and have a cocktail for a couple hours and head off to the parks at night.

 

[flortlebap]

What time do you get in? How long will you have travelled? Is there a time difference? All this makes a difference.

We are just staying in the hotel and grabbing a pizza, but well have spent 20 hours travelling with 4 young kids and Orlando is 5 hours behind... So we wouldn't really be able to do anything else. Given the choice though, I'd do DTD or a park

 

[skater]

Our best trips are when we've spent arrival day enjoying the resort and getting in an early bedtime for the next day. It also gives us time to enjoy the pool and whatever other amenities are available to us.

 

[TurkA77]

I think a big determining factor is length of stay. My usual trips are 7-10 days, so without hesitation I head to DTD. Grab dinner at Bongos, Wolf Gangs, Planet Hollywood etc and grab an ice cream at Ghiradellis. My trip coming up is only 5 days since we are visiting other people while we are down there, so we are heading to DHS the first night cause its EMH. If your trip is short see if one of the parks has EMH and go there, if not a relaxing night at World Showcase is always nice.

 

[KEVD]

I'm always a fan of getting to bed early so we're all rested for the fun but busy week. We stay off site too so we typically let the kids jump in the pool for a bit, then have dinner out at DTD or at one of the WDW resorts. However, for our coming trip, we wont be arriving to our resort until around 4p - 4:30p (that includes stopping for groceries). So we'll definitely be keeping it low key this time around... let the kiddos have a quick dip and either order pizza in or go to a restaurant in the immediate vicinity.

 

[walkdmc]

Even if we arrive early in the day, we start by picking up groceries and usually don't hit the parks until nighttime. Lately, we've been going to either DHS or Epcot first.

 

[ireland_nicole]

We don't get in until 6 unfortunately so we are checking I and heading to POR for sOme make your own pasta and yeehaw bobs first set

 

[budcollector]

after getting checked in i like to head over to the MK for one of these,

 

[kmb584]

It depends on what time our flight gets in and then how long it takes to get to the resort and settled. I ALWAYS book an early flight but the Philadelphia airport is notorious for flight delays and not having an available aircraft. If we're on time I like to go to MK and enjoy some of DD's favorite rides before dinner, if not it's just dinner. Our tradition is a late dinner (8pm) at Crystal Palace as it helps pump up the little one for what's ahead. After dinner we head back to the hotel for BED because I make sure we're out the door by 8am at the latest every day.

 

[.:allisonr:.]

After we get checked into our hotel, we're planning on resting for awhile, then heading to DTD for the evening. We have ADR's at TRex, and are planning on calling it an early night, since we're planning on being at MK for rope drop the next day.

 

[LarryNabisco]

order the full bar package at CSR, and then relax

 

[chimommy]

What time do you get in? How long will you have travelled? Is there a time difference? All this makes a difference.

We are just staying in the hotel and grabbing a pizza, but well have spent 20 hours travelling with 4 young kids and Orlando is 5 hours behind... So we wouldn't really be able to do anything else. Given the choice though, I'd do DTD or a park

last time we left our house around 5am for the airport we got to our hotel around 2? We are changing time zones.. but its only an hour. Our kids will be 3 and 1yrs... so I dont want it to be too long of a day for them... I want to keep them going for the entire week =) we will be there for 7 full days!

 

[ginadv]

I love reading these arrival day threads!

Our last trip we arrived at FW cabins around 5:30 as we had an afternoon flight and had a 7pm Chef Mickey's ADR. I think Chef Mickey's is the PERFECT way to kick off a Disney trip--can't go wrong with the fab 5!

This time we're driving to Orlando from my Grandma's in Fort Myers so we'll arrive by noon to the cabins. If our cabin is ready we'll clean up a bit and then head to the World Showcase and have an early dinner at Via Napoli and then head back for bed. Though I'm tempted to stay for Illuminations, we need to be up for RD the next morning!

With a short trip and an early arrival, I definitely vote for a park on that first day. With a longer trip, relaxing at the resort, riding the resort monorail loop, and dinner at Chef Mickey's is great!

 

[Princess Sleepy]

It always depends on the plans for the rest of the week. The last three times we have had mid-morning arrivals and headed right for Epcot.

For our upcoming trip it will just be me and my BFF (a long weekend to run the Expedition Everest Challenge). We are staying at AKV and plan to start our kid-free trip with a game of tennis, drinks at the pool bar, and a 50-minute Swedish massage before we hit Boma for dinner.

Then we will be all relaxed for RD at MK the next morning.