What to do on Day 1?

[DisneyDaze36]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

 

[disneynutz]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

We tend to take it easy the first day. What about hanging around the pool. It will keep the boys busy and let you relax a little. Have a wonderful trip.

 

[mjy]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

Just remember, just because you land at 11:00 a.m. and use the Magical Express does not mean that you will have a room waiting when you check in.

With your two young-uns, if you surrender your luggage to ME as well, you might want to make sure that you have some leisure, hanging-around-the-pool clothing out for them. You might not see your luggage and room until much later and with children that age, best to be prepared.

I agree with the previous poster that hanging out by the pool might be a lot of fun for them.

 

[eporter66]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

Our DD is 4, but we have taken her 3 times, and our 4th trip will be in October. We fly from upstate NY, and usually get a direct flight. As with your trip, we are usually at MCO by 11:00 am.

For us, our first day is to just get to the resort, relax by the pool, and have a nice dinner. We usually stay at WDW for 6 or 7 days, so we like our arrival day to be relaxing. It is just our way of doing things, since joining DVC and having made a number of trips to WDW, we dont need to get right to the parks. It really is a great way to start the vacation...

 

[ranthony]

The pool would be my boys', ages 6, 3 and 3, idea of a fabulous first day. Bring your pool gear/swimsuits in your carry-on and plan for an afternoon of r&r.

Then, you might want to schedule a dinner reservation somewhere along the monorail loop so that they can enjoy the ride around the monorail loop at a less crowded time. Ask to sit up front with the driver.

Don't forget about the Community Hall at the BWV. I've read great things about that too!

Have fun.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

How early will you be getting the kids up for the journey? Even if they don't typically nap, they are likely to be tired by the time you finally get to the resort (not sleepy, of course!). I'm going in August as well, and our flight leaves Albany at 6:30 am So, we'll get to WDW before noon, but will be ready to crash fairly early.

So, another vote for the pool. Check out the resort. Maybe rent a surrey bike. I wouldn't bother going to a monorail restaurant--you have plenty within walking distance. If it doesn't muck with your grand ticket plan, you might go into World Showcase and poke around. With little kids, we've always hit epcot as our first resort, because once they see MK, they expect everything to be like MK. Plan to go to bed early.

 

[kahluacream]

Another vote for pool time! With kids those ages, I would also plan a character dinner the first evening (maybe Chef Mickey's with a monorail ride) and early to bed for an early start the next day.

 

[lovin'DVC]

Our family's favorite thing to do on our first day is to explore the hotel. I would be prepared with swim gear, but also check out all the nooks and crannies of your resort - playground, hidden mickeys, arcade, gardens, fun little details of the resort's theming, finding (and riding) the elevator, asking at the front desk if there are any scheduled activities, etc.

We stayed at the Boardwalk Inn when my kids were 7,5,3,3 and they loved poking around all the different parts of that resort, walking around the boardwalk, and riding on the boat that goes from the resort to MGM/Epcot (we often just rode the boat, didn't get off at the parks!)

Terry

 

[micki1]

Okay so I must be a minority. We are in our 50's and our 2 kids coming with us are in their early 20 and we also take a 7:30 am flight but as soon as we check in, we head for the MK. I can't be that close and not go and my family doesn't dare ask. We get a towncar and check in. My daughter and I usually have shorts or capris in our carry on so we slip in to the ladies room while the guys get our luggage and change for the park. The park closes at 9 our 1st night so we'll do pool time when we get back. We go twice a year and I still couldn't stand not seeing a park my first day. Unfortunately for my family, I'm not ready to relax until about the 4th day. Have a wonderful trip everyone.

 

[BuzznBelle'smom]

See, my thought on going to a theme park is, if you go to one, go to the closest one. In this case, that's Epcot, or maybe the Studios. The OP has 2 preschoolers--I don't know the kids involved, but I, personally, would be prepared for for a late afternoon "letdown", and at least have in my head a plan for leaving the park and calling it an early night. the kids may be fine, but if they get a case of the crankies, I'd want to make a quick exit. That's why I would avoid a monorail restaurant (way too far to go if the kids have reached their limit).

Again, I'm thinking about young children--older kids and adults would be a completely different thing. Keep in mind, too--when you ask preschoolers the best thing about a WDW vacation, most of them say, "the hotel pool". So, sticking close to the hotel, exploring, swimming, are probably going to be plenty for young kids.

 

[PEANUT1]

we are arriving in orlando at around 11am too. I expect to be at the Beach Club by 1pm. (hope our room is ready). If it is, we will swim and nap and then head out for dinner and MK for fireworks and parade.

If our room is not ready, we will head right to MK for a few rides then back to hotel for swim and early bed.

We ALWAYS go to MK on our first day. It just isn't Disney until we are there. I agree with my 4 yr old when she says "Mommy I just want to go to Disney World. (meaning MK of course).

The only time we didn't go to MK first was in October bc my 1 yr old arrived in orlando and proceeded to have a 103.9 fever. We decided it was best to just put her to bed.

 

[Simba's Mom]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

What we did on our first day as a family really benefitted us the whole trip. We just took some transportation around for a couple hours to give the kids the "lay of the land" and to experience getting on/off transportation with strollers and kids. A monorail ride around Epcot is a lot of fun.

 

[DoOverDreams]

Another vote for MK! We always start our trip there. I don't know why, but that is the place that starts us off right every time!

 

[Cricket2]

What is your ticket situation? If I had a limited # of days or an expiration issue, that would sway my decision as to what I did on a first day. Of course an AP eliminates that issue.

 

[Kurby]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

almost always when we arrive it's around or just after lunch and since we now have a child we've been doing things a bit differently.

now - we have lunch at the resort, unpack, explore the resort a little and have some fun at the pool until it's time to get ready for dinner then head to DTD for ADR there. After dinner we hit the shopping. We always buy a christmas ornament as a remembrance of the trip and have it shipped to our hotel. our trips are usually 10-14 days and we'll go twice but the first time is always the first day to get it out of the way and kick start the mouse fun. without wasting one of our park days which we save for full days not half days.

basically anything you do will be fun as long as you don't spend it in your room

 

[bpmorley]

We are travelling to to WDW August 31-September 6 (Sunday - Saturday). Our flight lands at 11:00 and we will be using the Magical Express. Our hotel is BWV. We will be a party of 4 - Myself, DW and our twin boys, who will be 4 at the time of the trip. What should we plan on doing the first day? Should we go to a park, stay at the resort, etc?

BTW - This is our first trip to Disney with our boys. We are veterans as a couple but beginners as parents.

I guess, to me, it would depend on what kind of tickets you have. When we have AP's we'll go to parks everyday. If we only have a couple days on a pass we won't waste it on when we can't get full days in. You may not get to your resort til 12:30, so you've already missed 3-4 hours depending on EMH's. I would take it easy around the boardwalk, hang by the pool, go to beaches & cream. Later on you could catch some of the fireworks from outside international gateway to EPCOT.

 

[DisneySJB]

We arrive in Orlando early for our June vacation also. I decided to make 4pm dinner reservations, so we have a couple of options. We can go to the park as soon as we get there and call it an early night after dinner or rest a little while before going for dinner and stay for fireworks.

 

[RLRDA]

We have never gone to a park on our arrival day since we are usually up early to catch our flight and don't arrive at the resort until mid-afternoon. We are beat by that time. We've never had APs so we don't like to burn a park day. We want to be well rested for the first "full" day of our trip (day 2) and we always make that day a visit to MK.

For arrival day we explore the resort, go in the pool (pack bathing suits in carry-on), unpack once ME delivers our luggage. We usually make an ADR for a nice dinner. Since you're at BWV there will be plenty of activity and entertainment on the boardwalk in the evening.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[vandy]

We just take it easy the first day. We will head to DTD and check out the sights there, go to the resort's pool, ride the monorail, go to the Boardwalk, play mini-golf and so on.

 

[ljcrochet]

I would go to a park the first day. I say this having traveled to Disney with twin toddlers. The cost difference between a 6 day and a 7 day park ticket is like a 6 or 7 dollars for the 4 of you. My girls are way to excited to see everything, they would never be happy relaxing at the pool.