What does your first day at Disney look like?

[DizzyDis]

Hi all!

I am planning our April trip and now that I have FP+ booked (Yay!) am finalizing what we will be doing when. We arrive just before noon, so as we are traveling with littles and want to get nice and settled we are not planning a park day, rather a "get settled so we can have a great, reduced stress week" day.

So, my question is, what does you arrival day look like, particularly when you arrive early enough to do something, but not so early that you want a park day?

I am thinking groceries and other essentials, but also any great places to stop (especially restaurants) between the airport and WDW, since we do not plan on really leaving the bubble much once we get there.

TIA!
DizzyDis

 

[pigletgirl]

Gosh, lots to do.

- Explore Disney Springs (though it may be busy)
- Explore your resort and swim
- Dinner at another resort?

We like an early bedtime so we're fresh and ready for a day in the theme parks!

 

[monorailsilver]

I shoot for the earliest flight so we can arrive anywhere between 10-1 depending on what the flight gods want to do that year.

Our first day after check in is to go to the pool, refill our mugs countless times and then we do chef mickeys for dinner. I convince my dh to let us watch wishes and then we go to bed so we can get an early start.

I have no desire to go to a park because I am already tired from the early wake up and inability to fall asleep. Plus we don't need to do a park since we typically do 5 park days with off days every few days.

I have no desire to go to downtown Disney/Disney springs because I am tired and that means walking and shopping. I'd rather be swimming, hop on the monorail, eat dinner and then return for more swimming or sinking because someone aka me ODd on crab claws or whatever they are called!

 

[Paigevon]

We drive in (less than three hours if we drove fast, no stops; so I plan for four) and I still 100% feel that relaxing on arrival is the best plan! Especially because we're following with pre park opening ADR the following morning.

On arrival day we're swimming, maybe a ponie ride, dinner ADR at Whispering Canyon at the Wilderness lodge, and then the Chip n Dale campfire sing along party at Ft Wilderness (we're staying in a cabin there) before bed!

 

[DuffyForPresident]

That's a great time to explore a hotel you've never seen before, and maybe even have dinner there!

 

[DizzyDis]

Thanks all for the replies!

 

[bbak30]

We like to drive and arrive around 2pm. From there we check in and head to Magic Kingdom and have a nice dinner that night. We usually turn in earlier than normal because we were up so early.
It also depends where we stay!

 

[cyneswith]

We're going to check-in, unload. Grandma is going to watch the kidlets in the room while I take the monorail to MK to get our tickets Come back, make FP reservations. Explore resort, have dinner, swim, maybe watch Wishes from resort. LOADS to do.

Staying off-site, we've done DTD. Loads to do there, too. Done DTD about 4 times, know I didn't do all of it, and it has changed dramatically anyway.

 

[JWigs]

We are coming in a week (yay!) And had originally slotted a redeye from the W Coast to arrive by 645am. Thinking we'd take MDE and be at our resort by probably 8am to drop bags and head to our first park (AK so we could get on an early safari and also have an easier park for our first day).

Problem is that delta changed our flight and so now we take off sooner and land at 5:45 am which means we will probably land even sooner since it'll be the first flight of the day and they always come in sooner when it's a redeye.

I'm not upset about it but we'll definitely be zombies especially my little DD who will still be thinking it's about 330am in Seattle.

I say do what you think your group can handle. Mine can handle bag drops and coffee and then the bus ride to AK. For us it's a slower park (not as many rides) and allows us to get a park "done" without having to stay all night. We'll leave around 4pm to hotel and rest/shower and have dinner at Ohana ADR at 830.

 

[crazymomof4]

It's funny bc just this morn. DD15 and I were discussing our "first day"....

We try to get a very early flight out of Philly so we can be checked in to our resort before noon. But like you, we don't want to go into the parks either. It would be exhausting to do even half day in a park after getting up around 3am. We like to enjoy some resort time and chill on our arrival day. Last trip ('14) we checked into BC, got lunch at Hurricane Hannah's and relaxed by the pool.... oh... and another thing (one which I don't plan on repeating this year).... we went sneaker shopping! My DD remembered at the airport that she didn't pack her sneakers (only the flip flops she was wearing) So on our arrival day, after lunch, we checked the gift shop at BWI, the gift shops in Yacht and Beach Club and then finally at a shop in Dolphin we found sneakers her size! As it turned out we had so much fun exploring the resorts (it was our 1st time at BC). We were giddy, partly bc of being tired and partly because of all new sights we were taking in, around each turn. She had been crying and upset over forgetting her sneakers but as it turned out, the time we spent shopping for the new sneakers is now one of our fondest Disney memories. It's funny how you can make lemonade from lemons, isn't it?

This morning DD and I were saying how, for us, the first day is really one where we soooo enjoy and savor the anticipation of what is coming. It's like having a wonderfully wrapped gift sitting in front of you!.... a 43 square mile gift!!! LOL

 

[quagmire0]

I dunno, we're (or may it's just me) crazy. We go straight from the airport to Magic Kingdom. When you're talking about the difference between, say, a 7-day pass and an 8-day pass, it's pretty negligible. But that first day we really just walk around a little, hop on some rides that don't have long lines, and then go to an earlier dinner. So, we get a more slowed-down taste of Disney that day. After dinner, we go check into the condo, get settled in, and then get the kids to bed. I go out and make a grocery run and then the real madness starts the next morning.

 

[Tara1988]

We drive. It's about a 4 hour drive with 1 potty break. Last time, we went to epcot since I didn't think we would want a full day there. This time, I'm trying to decide between DHS and relaxing at the resort. I like to do an evening at the park when we check in because the kids would be too excited about being at Disney world to just "relax". But I imagine it might be different after you deal with airports and major traveling.

 

[iheartdisney44]

We usually do not do a park on arrival day. Instead, we check-in, grocery shop, nap, and basically rest. We try to have a sit-down meal on arrival day and this is a great time to go and visit other resorts and check them out without feeling like we are missing park time!

 

[J. Iminy]

It sounds like we go against the grain a little. We tend to stay at BWV. Our kids are very young, so we usually don't take a plane before 9am. We arrive at MCO around noon (from NY), catch DME and then check in and head to Epcot by around 3. We tend to have a 6pm or so dinner reservation somewhere and some fast passes that we may, or may not, end up using. However, we look forward to Disney for so long that we don't want to just hang at the hotel. We won't do a lot that first day, but do make it into Epcot for a couple hours before dinner. However, if we couldn't walk there, I'm not sure we would actually do that. Walking makes it so much easier (no buses, boats, monorails or long treks to deal with what could be cranky stroller-ridden kids at some point). Other than dinner, we have no plans and reserve the ability to head back to the resort if the kids can't handle it (but so far they have always been ok-- lots of adrenaline).

The day after arrival day is always MK, arriving very early and seeing welcome show. Because, for us, it just has to be. The kids couldn't take the suspense of waiting till later in the week.

 

[loves to dive]

We drive down, it's about a 7 hour drive and we usually just stop for potty and gas and maybe go through a drive through. We usually get there between 2 and . I have an AP and my son usually has some sort of length of stay PHs. Normally, we will check in and go straight to Epcot since we usually stay in an Epcot resort. When I go solo, I do split stays with either a value or a moderate for a night or two then move over to an Epcot resort. On those trips, I go to a park after I check in but there is really no telling which one. The only trip we haven't gone to a park on arrival day was last May. Son, DIL and myself had a split stay of two nights in a 1 bedroom at AKV and 3 nights (which turned into 4) at BWV. I scheduled the special safari that only AKL guests can go on which includes a huge 5 course dinner. By the time we were done with that, my son was done. He has a back injury and between the drive down and the bouncing in the truck at the safari, he was in extreme pain. We will be there this Sunday, starting the trip at CBR for two nights (which is a new resort for us) then moving over to Swan for 4 nights. We know we will go to a park but don't really know which one, probably Epcot since we are coming just for F&G. Could end of at MK though and just knock it out first.

 

[princessesandpascal]

This year, we have an early flight so we're off to the MK on our first day. Our first FP starts at 3:00! We have EMH on our first night so we're probably going to relax a little at the resort if our room is ready, and then going to go as late as we're able to. The next morning we're not having super high expectations about where we 'have' to be since our lunch reservation isn't till noon. We're both in our early 20s so sleep is essentially optional for us at this point.

On trips where I don't do a park on the first day, we usually get to the resort, go to our room, unpack a couple things from our carry-ons, and then head to Disney Springs (I still want to call it DTD!). And then an early night to get ready for our next morning. The only reason we aren't doing this is because of our early flight.

 

[eyeblaura]

I know you said you don't want to do a park day but we also have littles so we do MK the first night and hit a few rides and see the electric light parade and wishes. They are usually pretty hyped up and we haven't spent a full day at the park so the late evening isn't a big deal and that way if we never do it again while there we've at least done it once.

Works well for us but we don't take a midday break like some people do nor do we usually make it early enough for rope drop.

 

[snowman]

Our arrival day will be on the quiet side. We don't go to the parks but this year I am considering the Pirate fireworks cruise. Otherwise it's early dinner and bed so we can have a fresh start in the morning.

 

[bluezy]

We usually arrive around noon (we have a 16 hour drive that we do over 2 days). We used to just hang out at the resort -- unpack, swim, explore; then hop a bus to Epcot or MK and do the monorail loop. We'd get off the monorail at one of the resorts and then take a bus to DTD/DS to have dinner. Then back to the resort for swimming again or unpacking and get to bed by 9:00 so we were ready to hit the ground running at rope drop the next morning.

Then we discovered the joy of spending just a few hours in a park on that arrival day. As others have mentioned, adding the extra day to your tickets is an insignificant cost. We usually head to Epcot because we find it relaxing. We schedule our 3 FP's for late afternoon/early evening. We also have dinner at Sunshine Seasons and we're often back at our resort by 7:30-8:00. That leaves us time for a quick swim if we want to or we just hang out in the room and get a good night's sleep. Though if everyone is wide awake, we'll stay at Epcot and watch Illuminations from the Future World area so that we can get to the buses ahead of the exiting crowd and still get back to the hotel at a decent time. We really like getting a few attractions taken care of that first afternoon. It makes our full day at Epcot less stressful, yet it doesn't exhaust us to spend 3 or 4 hours in the park on arrival day, it eases us in to our vacation. We actually found that we got more tired out trying to do non-park things on our arrival day than we do going to the park for a few hours.

 

[tinkerbella16]

It has always been a tradition to do Epcot on arrival day. That was also my plan for my trip this past November. But I arrived at POR, my room was ready and I just wanted to stay and relax and enjoy the resort until taking the boat over to Disney Springs for a dinner adr. It was so nice changing it up for once to relax and not rush straight to the park.

This year we will have an 18 month old with us, so keeping it relaxed and not rushing is key. We have the first flight out of Philly at 6:05am, so we should arrive at MCO at 8:30am. We prefer the early flight and stretching out our arrival day. We are staying at Beach Club, so hopefully our rooms will be ready so we can relax at the resort and enjoy the pool and unpack. We have an ADR at Garden Grill that evening around 5:30, so we can just walk over to Epcot before dinner. I am so excited to be staying so close to Epcot this trip. We can get a few rides in afterwards and head back to BC, get a good nights sleep before our morning at MK.