What does your family do on your first night at Disney?

[KingLlama]

We've only gone in off-season, so we've always done one of two things....

A)Nice sit-down dinner somewhere(usually at a resort, maybe at Downtown Disney), then back to our resort to swim and get a good night's sleep before our first day in the parks....

or

B)Since it's off-season, and not every nighttime show is offered nightly, we may go hit one of those if it's the only night of our stay when it's available(we did this for Fantasmic one year, MSEP another)

 

[SoarinSC]

Usually, we'll either hit DTD/DS for dinner and a stroll around or just hang out at the resort to recoup from the drive down and charge up for rope drop the next morning.

 

[ForeverAlice]

We arrive early and catch the afternoon parade and ride Peter Pan! We leave before wishes so we can start early the next day!

 

[Frank4202]

We do one of two things.

1. Go to Disney Springs and grab something to eat followed by potentially some mini golf or

2. Go to Animal Kingdom for the night. Its our least favorite part so we do Everest, Rapids, Lion King show, and the Safari before calling it a night.

 

[Cherinva]

We usually fly in, so it depends on what time of day we get there. If it's early in the morning, then yes.....we hit the ground running. If it's later in the day or early evening then we hang out at the resort, have dinner, unpack and relax.

 

[Accident]

We center the first day around a specific restaurant we are in the mood for. If that's in a park, then we lightly take in that park. More often than not, we dont adr it and decide on site.

Weather might also change our plan, especially if arrival day looks like it might be the only night for our favorite evening show/fireworks/etc.

Aka, we go with what we feel after arriving.

 

[Go Big Blue]

Our first day we usually take it easy! Most often we get an arrival time of mid day, by the time we get to the hotel my DS is ready for the pool or lunch. We try to stay in BC and our last trip we did have a peaceful stroll into Epcot for the evening but after swimming and getting ourselves settled. This upcoming trip (staying YC) we don't get to arrive until evening so i'm planning a nice stroll to Boardwalk for dinner and to take it all in and early to bed. Hit the ground running the first full day! We usually do not go to a park on departure day either. The last 2 trips we have saved a round of mini golf for departure day! Which is a highlight for my DS!

 

[Amspaugh]

We stay at POFQ. So we like to take the boat to Downtown Disney and then we go to Boma for dinner. It sets the stage for a great week,!

 

[SoCalTrojanSkip]

In the past, we've always taken the red eye out of LAX and arrived early the next morning, checked or luggage and headed out the Magic Kingdom for COP and the people mover...
This year, I decided I couldn't do the red eye thing anymore so the plan is to arrive and since we are staying our first night at POFQ we are probably headed to DTD to check out Jock Lindsey's or Morimoto....

 

[WifeHatesDisney:(]

On my up coming trip next weekend I will be arriving about 6 hours before the rest of my family. I'll get us checked into OKW then head to Trader Sam's to check out the new bar. Then, I'll hop over to Disney Springs to check out the new

 

[Squggl3]

We usually arrive around 10am, check into hotel and unpack and re group for an hour or so. then we head to DTD and have dinner at Chef Mickey's around 5-6.

 

[misskma]

Day 1 is usually a check in, unpack, explore the resort and maybe DTD kind of day! We drive down, so we're usually exhausted!

 

[DisneyHardin]

We hit the ground running. I always try to get the earliest flight of the day into MCO which usually puts us there about 10 AM. We usually check-in at the resort and then head to Epcot (we always go during Food and Wine) to try a few booths.

 

[bushdianee]

It depends on what time we arrive. Many times we've landed about 1:00PM so we will go check in and then hit MK or AK. If it is later then we will stick around the resort have dinner and swim. This year we got in later and actually saw Wishes from the ME bus. It felt like a special welcome! We had a quick dinner and went to bed so we could be up and ready the next morning.

 

[piglet1979]

We typically do not go to the parks on the arrival day. This time we got in around 9 am. We got breakfast (off site) stopped at the grocery store and then we were able to get in our room. We went to the pool and relaxed for a while. We had about and 18-20 hour drive. We did go to dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Then my husband went to bed and I took the kids to see the movie by the pool. It did not last long because they were tired so we all went to bed early for our next morning in the parks.