What time to arrive at resort on arrival day - choosing flight time

[my523]

I just can't decide and looking for opinions. We do not plan to go to a park on arrival day. Family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids 10 and under). I do understand the room may not be ready if arriving before 3:00pm. If you could choose, what time would you choose to arrive at your hotel on arrival day at WDW for a week-long vacation?

 

[SLThomas318]

Depends on how long the flight is and if any time change is involved? We try not to start a week long vacay tired. Our kids are 5 and 7… we have about 1 hr 15 min drive to the airport and about 2 hr 30 min flight to Orlando. Our kids usually get up around 7am so I try to pick a mid-morning flight (10:30 am or later) so that we are getting up and out the door like we would any other day. This also puts us in Orlando mid to late afternoon so that our room is usually ready by the time we get to the resort. We get settled and do the pool on arrival day. This is our ideal scenario, but sometimes we just go with the cheapest flight so we have flown super early and late.

 

[lanejudy]

We also do not go to a park on arrival day. But we tend to arrive late-morning or early afternoon. We pack swim suits and spend some time at the pool when we arrive, or check our carry-ons and head to Disney Springs for lunch. Only once has our room not been ready early but that is just a bonus and not expected.

 

[Birdsg223]

Our room was not ready until 5pm back in February. We got there around 1, we waited a bit and headed to Epcot to kill some time.

 

[PHXscuba]

One thing to consider right now is flight delays and cancellations. The earlier the flight, the less likely it is to be canceled. I've heard this many times lately, the latest from an airline employee friend this morning who said all the "backup" crews/workers they have for the day are being used by noon, meaning any problems after that time could result in major disruptions at that airport. I would put my money into nonstop early flights if I had the option, especially considering getting onto another flight as a family of 6.

PHXscuba

 

[lostprincess_danie]

We never do parks on arrival day. We usually pick flight arrival times around midday. We eat lunch in or near the airport then head to the resort. Thankfully our rooms have usually been ready before 3. Until then we explore the resort, sit down for a quick service drink or snack.

 

[beccasmom]

We try to book an early flight and that is a good tip right now with rampant cancellations. Our commute to the airport is under a 1/2 hour, so it’s not a huge burden to book an early flight (normally 7:00 a.m.-ish). The flight is just over 2 hours. We typically don’t plan a park visit on arrival day (we used to visit Epcot in the evenings, but not so much anymore). We‘ll do a nice lunch somewhere and/or lounge by the pool. We’ve had about even luck with the room being ready early, but not usually until early afternoon. Some lobbies are particularly nice to linger in - we could sit in the Wilderness Lodge lobby all day!

 

[MICKIMINI]

Always take the first non stop of the day if possible. If you can't get a non stop, try to still get out first thing in the morning and hopefully change planes at a nicer airport (we always get stuck at BWI). I'd rather get there early and have lunch at DS or Capt'n Cook's at Poly or head over to AKV Jambo House to eat. Bring your pool items in carry one so you can start vacation immediately. I'd much rather arrive with nothing to do then get stuck at an airport yikes!

Enjoy!

 

[Specter]

We have always tended toward the extremes, and favor the early side but we have done a super late arrival once, too, and it worked out well.

We have enjoyed trying to get out on the first flight of the day, and because DW is a notorious worrier, we would be at the airport at 5 for a 7 am flight, which meant leaving home by 3:30. When we arrive early we have done different things, but most often we just tour resorts or go to Disney Springs. Our long standing tradition is dinner at Raglan Road on arrival day and buying a customized ornament for our Christmas tree. However, since we always go for at least 7 park days, at that point it is so inexpensive to add one more day that we have occasionally done a half park day at a very casual pace and still gone to DS for our dinner and shopping.

On our most recent trip in March, though, we took a late flight out. A part of me genuinely cringed at the idea of paying for the hotel on a day when we literally checked in after midnight, but at the same time it was a fuller night of sleep than if we had taken the 7 am flight and then we casually had breakfast and still went out to DS.

This will be a bit hypocritical as our November trip we are, once again, arriving late (11 pm) but given travel woes lately I would probably say to take the earlier flight. That is part of what we liked about earlier flights when we opted for that timeframe. We thankfully did not have a cancellation in March but there was a delay, though at that time it was due to traffic near the airport as there is a ton of construction going on there that is just maddening.

 

[k5xs]

We try to arrive mid-afternoon so we can unpack, get settled, and head to Epcot for dinner.

 

[Elephantay]

We've almost always left very early, arriving at Orlando before noon. We usually go to the pool while we wait for our room, then have an early dinner at our resort, shower and get in bed very early and watch a movie or something. Then we get a good nights sleep to start rope drop on our first day. We typically dont make that first full day a late night either, and get out of the parks by early afternoon and hang at the resort for the rest of the day. As the week goes on we stay up later lol.

A couple of times we have gone straight to a park, but that was back in DME days
We liked the olden days when you could go to MK for your 3 fastpasses and eat at BOG at five, back to resort and in bed early. When you buy a week long ticket and got FP it seemed like a good 1/4 day option.

So my advice is get there asap then adjust for a night or two, if you have a week there.

That being said, we are getting old. And I said I dont want to leave for the airport at 4 am anymore so we will see what happens next time!

 

[brockash]

I just can't decide and looking for opinions. We do not plan to go to a park on arrival day. Family of 6 (2 adults, 4 kids 10 and under). I do understand the room may not be ready if arriving before 3:00pm. If you could choose, what time would you choose to arrive at your hotel on arrival day at WDW for a week-long vacation?

Always pick the earliest. We want to be in the bubble as long as possible. There's tons to do that's not at the park. You can swim, go to Disney Springs, male a reservation for meal, take a loop around the different modes of transportation. resort hop.

 

[TOBS2010]

We also prefer to find an early flight out---not 5 a.m. early, but ideally sometime around 8-9 a.m. That usually gets us to our hotel between 12:30-1:30 p.m. We pack our swim suits in a small carry-on so that in case our room isn't ready we have something to do. Usually our first afternoon/night we go over to DS for dinner and then call it a relatively early night so we can rope drop the first full day.

 

[Narcoossee11]

I vote for an early flight.
Airlines are so rough these days. You want to be on the earliest flight to build in some cushion for cxl, delays, weather.

It is a different flying world now.

 

[Bmramaut]

We always do early flights and arrive ahead of check in. We will typically do an early lunch and walk around Disney Springs. We never do the parks arrival day either. If possible, try getting a hotel the night before to lessen the early flight time wake up!

 

[pigletgirl]

If you are adamant that you would like your room ready prior to 3pm, when you do online check in you can add that as a request (note: its will outweigh any others you may have, so YMMV)...

BUT, we now fly from the west coast so we get in late afternoon and the room is always ready for us. We typically either do a QS in Disney Springs or at the resort and maybe some pool time. I like to unpack, pack the park bag and be ready for our first full day.