what to do arrival day? Plane lands at 9:30 am

[suledamo]

Would most people make this a park day? I am really torn, and not sure how long to allow for the magical express. We are arriving on May 23, and I see that MK has evening em's that day so thinking about heading there. The 24 hour day will have just ended that morning, will it be just as crowded anyway at MK? Any thoughts on other activities or parks to do on arrival day other than MK? Thanks!!

 

[nilla]

Are you staying at a Disney resort? We arrive early, too, and plan on taking the time to swim and explore Caribbean Beach, since it's our first time there.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Explore your resort. Toss a few back. Go to DTD. Toss a few back. Swim. Toss a few back. Or burn a park day. Toss a few back.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I always go to MK on arrival day. I have to walk down Main St and see the castle before I feel like I'm at WDW.

 

[tobikaye]

The rule of thumb is to allow about 75-90 minutes from landing to arriving at your resort via ME. So, if your plan lands at 9:30 am, I would plan to be at your resort by 11:00 am. I have arrived at a resort at 5 pm and made it a park day and other times I have arrived at noon after only a few hours drive and made it a DTD/relax day. Basically, you will have to decide for yourself what you would be best for your group.

If you think you will need more time to unwind, then you might want to plan to relax and do non-theme park things and start fresh the next day. If you think you would be raring to go, you could probably plan to be at a park by 12:30-1:30 pm. It could be a bit faster if you do not have any waits for the ME to leave MCO and your stop is the first one on the way to your resort.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We, too, usually arrive around 9:30 or 10:00. We'll go check in to the hotel, store our stuff, and head immediately to MK. It always feels so cool to have lunch at MK after waking up at home that morning! We'll spend the afternoon and then usually have dinner either in the park or a nearby resort (monorail or boat ride away!). Then we call it a day and head back to the resort right after dinner. We've been up super early to get that early flight so it's been a long day already. We go to the resort. I get us unpacked and settled in. DH takes the boys to the pool for a bit. Then we turn in early to be up for rope drop on our first full day.

This has become something of a routine for us and seems to work really well!

 

[FirstTimeDisneyVisit]

We always hang at the resort and later on the day head to DTD to walk around and grab lunch/dinner depending on what RSVP we have.

 

[JD3ofthem]

We usually stay at Yacht Club and when we have taken Magical Express Caribbean Beach is on our bus and usually the first resort the bus stops at. With Magic Bands you can have fast passes for later in the day so you know you'll get on a few good rides regardless of crowds. Depending on how long you are staying it may not cost much to add another day on to your pass. If it were me I would make it a park day and have fast passes set for late afternoon. You could still hang out at resort for awhile.

 

[GillianP1301]

We always do a park on arrival day and that's with an early afternoon arrival, so for sure I would head to the park getting in that early in the day. There's just no chance I could be on Disney property an entire day and not go to a park, I'd be way too anxious. We never do a late night on that arrival day though. A few hours in the park to know we have arrived, nice dinner and some down time at the resort before bed is our usual plan of attack.

 

[loves to dive]

We usually go to a park on arrival day. We tend to stay at an Epcot resort so we just walk over there. This trip we are doing a split stay with 2 nights at AKV and 3 nights at BWV. On arrival day I booked a Wanyama Safari http://www.aklresort.com/content/wanyama-safari at AKL for myself. I was supposed to go solo and since AKL is so far away I figured I'd do that instead of heading to a park. Now my DS and DIL are joining me and they haven't decided if they want to do the safari but I probably will anyway.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I always try to get an early flight so our first day can be a half-day park-day. I usually count on 90 minutes from touch down at MCO to arrival at your hotel by Magical Express.

 

[PSUGuy]

We always land between 9 and 9:30 am, hit Publix on the way to Board Walk, drop the bags off with the bell service, last Oct we actually got our room before 10:30, and we're in the Rose & Crown before the taps open at 11:30. We go for Food&Wine so WS is the perfect opening to our trip and with FP+ we have some rides in the bag without battling long lines.

Bill From PA

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Going to the park on arrival day is really the only thing I like about FP+! At least you have 3 guaranteed rides you get to do.

What I like to do is hit some of the things that can be a big time suck but that we want to see/do. Like watching FoF or the castle stage show. We like to go to MK on arrival because we play SOMK and so we'll get a card pack. The parade, stage show, plus three rides and SOMK is a fair amount to do in a half day.

 

[michigal23]

Our flight is landing at 9am, so we are planning on being at the hotel around 11/12. As we probably won't be able to get into our rooms, we are planning on heading to MK for a very laid back, "look, there's the castle. and here's all the people. let's stroll and see what happens " ... we do have a couple fast passes set for later in the evening, though (like meeting mickey in town square on our first night before the electrical parade starts).

 

[BoyMom81]

We like arriving at our hotel around noon, then going straight to MK. It just seems magical to us to ride our favorite rides and see wishes on our arrival day. We have also spent the afternoon at the pool then dinner at Chef Mickey. Prefer the park option.

 

[Canuck16]

If you have enough park days with your tickets then I would say go to the park and have fun.

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

Our flight is supposed to land at 9:30am as well, and the plan is to dump the bags at the resort and then hit the ground running! (Not literally. Unless the plane has really good coffee.)

 

[DisneyInDel]

We actually have the same time frame..landing at 9:30..at the resort by 11..

What we do, when its just my wife and I, is go grab lunch at Germany..brats and beers..and then meander around EPCOT.

We always use that day to ease in to the Disney magic, being we always have park hoppers and then hit MK and Wishes at night

Travelling without the kids and grandkids is a whole different trip for us. We arent nearly as tired at the end!!

 

[richmo]

We often arrive about 9:30 AM at MCO. But, working backwards, that means our flight took off about 7:00, which means we arrived at the airport (usually PHL) about 5:00, which means we left home a little after 4:00, which means the alarm went off at around 3:30. So...yes, we'll hit the parks (usually either Epcot or MK), but its not a late night. Might hang around until about supper time, then head back to the resort/hotel, unpack, have some dinner, then call it a night so we're not too spent for the next day.

 

[chelseabun76]

If it was me, and I had the park day on my tickets already, I would go and tour the World Showcase... because that's the one thing that I didn't get to do AGAIN this trip. LOL! We only hit Mexico and Norway. lol