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

[lauradis]

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!!

I would plan for 2 hrs. Transportation from airport to hotel. I always over est. little because it make for a less rushing around feeling.

http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/05-may-2015-crowd-calendar/

Looks like crowd levels will be 7-9 the whole time which isn't total madness.

Depending on who your traveling with for my group me, hubby and daughter 11yo.

I would plan to get to hotel for check in deal with bags. around 2 hr after flight lands

Explore resort, basically goof off daughter would want to swim and would probley have swim suit on under clothes - crazy child.

grab lunch and drinks around pool,

This puts me at around 4-5pm, room should be ready, clean up from travel and pool.

Head out to ADR at bog, or castle 7/730 adr

watch wishes

ride what ever is available.

Stay in MK till they kick me out. lol

 

[lauradis]

Now if it was just me going, I would land whatever time. check in at hotel. get on MK bus and stay till they kicked me out. Set my alarm clock for next rope drop day and repeat. I can sleep at home.

 

[vtownpatty]

We seem to be in the minority - we have never gone too a park on arrival day. We alwyas hit DTD for lunch or dinner and shopping (rode the balloon one year) then it's back to resort to explore and swim!

 

[Ozzygirl]

Our flight arrives at 11am Tuesday, we leave Boston at 6am which means a 4am cab to the airport We should get to the BWV by 12:30-1pm and plan on grabbing lunch if our villa isn't ready, then check in, pick up some breakfast stuff for the week and head to the pool to relax and have a cocktail, maybe a stroll around the boardwalk. If we aren't to tired maybe DTD for dinner or just head to one of the BW restaurants for dinner. Next day rope drop at MK!!!!! I'm taking my 76 yr old Mom so I need to try and suppress that hysterical commando in me and embrace my slower more relaxed person.........not sure how well that's gonna work I'm already jumping out of my skin with excitement

 

[lauradis]

Our flight arrives at 11am Tuesday, we leave Boston at 6am which means a 4am cab to the airport We should get to the BWV by 12:30-1pm and plan on grabbing lunch if our villa isn't ready, then check in, pick up some breakfast stuff for the week and head to the pool to relax and have a cocktail, maybe a stroll around the boardwalk. If we aren't to tired maybe DTD for dinner or just head to one of the BW restaurants for dinner. Next day rope drop at MK!!!!! I'm taking my 76 yr old Mom so I need to try and suppress that hysterical commando in me and embrace my slower more relaxed person.........not sure how well that's gonna work I'm already jumping out of my skin with excitement

This will be our third trip of suppressing the hysterical commando. It does get easier. But evening Magic hours belong to my hysterical commando, so if anyone in my party wants to run to rides at night, they can all others should stay in the resort and hide.

 

[IslandAdventure4]

We have done the pool the first day. Relaxed, had an early dinner, and got to bed early. We start bright and early the next next day well rested and ready to roll. We have also gone to what ever park had EMH at night on the first day. I guess it depends on circumstances. Young ones might not be able to handle the long day of traveling, and then a late night at the parks. etc.

 

[nkereina]

We always book a mid-afternoon flight so we arrive late afternoon/early evening and just go to DTD and get dinner. But if we were arriving at 9:30am and at the resort by say 11-11:30, I would do a park. The cost to add an additional day of tickets is minimal, so even if you use it as a day to relax and hit some rides rather than a "true" planned out park day, it will still be a good way to start the trip IMO.

 

[suledamo]

Love hearing what everyone else does. I have 3 kids 18, 15, 13 and we are staying through the next Saturday. We usually like to start at MK on our trips but I now I am thinking Epcot on our arrival for this one. With fastpass+ we can guarantee at least 3 rides and then we can have an early dinner somewhere in the world showcase. Doubt we will stay for Illuminations as we will have been up super early! we plan on one more day at Epcot later in the week where we can add that if we want to. only have a 6 day pass as of now, but willing to add more days if needed while there. Thanks again for all the imput. i really love hearing about what other people do. I do tend to be a commando type person, but the hubs is not so I am trying really hard to be a little more laid back this trip with more half days and late arrivals. wish me luck, lol!

 

[Huggups]

Last trip was the first time we did a park on the day of arrival but we did get in about 11:00 and got to our resort 1:00ish. We ended up doing AK that day and things would have been fine if we didn't run into some Magic Band issues which took more than a hour to fix. It was really nice though as AK ended up being open an hour later than scheduled. That park is really amazing at sundown! This time we're doing 10 days and since we only bought 6 Day Passes because we were originally going to do Universal but changed our minds, our should I say...I changed my mind. Even though we may add 1 more day and we also save a day because we plan on doing MCVMP, we have 2 days without park admission so I think DOA may be one of them. We may take in a movie at the DTD AMC. I've never done that. Unfortunately, it's too early for "Star Wars" but maybe "The Good Dinosaur"? Has anyone done a movie first night?