What's your plan for arrival & departure day?

[pennylane16]

Hello!

I'm trying to decide what we should do on our first/last day at WDW. Haven't booked our flights yet, but I think we'll be arriving early afternoon on arrival day / on departure day, will probably have at least until early afternoon til we need to wait for the Magical Express to MCO. What's your favorite thing(s) to do on your first/last day at WDW? Thanks

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Our flight lands at 10:30am. We will check into Pop and then probably be in MK by mid afternoon. I have FPs lined up for that evening. We will probably spend the first couple hours at MK doing stuff like CoP. Peoplemover, etc

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

It's tradition for us to head to AK park to ride Everest on arrival day since it's our daughter's favorite ride. In the past we have also eaten at Boma after the park, but we hope to book 'Ohana for arrival day next time.

Usually we just have breakfast or lunch at the resort and then leave on departure day. This time, though, we are staying at Boardwalk, so we're going to spend a little bit of time in Epcot before we head home. Got to fit in one more ride on Soarin' and grab some car snacks from Kringla Og and Les Halles.

 

[StraightToDumbo]

Mini-golf on arrival...Disney Springs on final day.! We stay away from parks on first day because we know we'll stay late and that will zap our energy for our first park day. P.S. We NEVER ADR on arrival day just in case of travel delays.

 

[fattymatty]

Arrival Day - Arrive at just after 5am - Going to brunch at Chef Mickey's and then either explore Disney Springs or Mini Golf
Departure Day - Our Departure is At 832am so not doing anything.

 

[kimieko]

We are arriving at 9:30 am. Staying at the Boardwalk so we are going to do Epcot F&W on arrival day. We leave early on departure day as well so we don't do any parks.

 

[agavegirl1]

We usually arrive noonish and start at Epcot around 4PM with a ride on Spaceship Earth followed by a couple of other FP+ then dinner in World Showcase somewhere. Then early back to the resort for some well deserved sleep.

 

[lubob]

On arrival day we check in go swimming then head over to Disney springs walk around then go to dinner. They Ghirardelli for dessert!! Departure day depends but usually go to MK one last time before we leave !!

 

[BrittyRo]

Arrival we try and get a 6am flight and arrive at around 10:30am go straight to MK!
Departure: We take one of the latest flights 7pm. Go to MK for the day

Classic start and end at MK

 

[lifepaused]

by the time our flight and we get into the hotel it will be about 2-3pm. Our first day is do food shopping and head to DS for dinner. Our last day which again is checkout by 11am, we will just pack and then head over to universal for our next leg of our stay. Our first full day is at AK and our last full day is at epcot with illuminations.

 

[Delirium]

We drive (roughly 15 hours), and have developed a pattern that works very well for us. We stay onsite during our visit, but our travel night in and our travel night out are spent offsite. We like to make sure we're rope dropping our first park day. In the past we would always get up super early at our offsite hotel in order to get to the resort in time to check-in, drop our luggage, and get to whichever park in time for rope drop. Last year, though, we approached it differently and simply treated Day 1 as a non-park day. We had 3 of those built into the schedule anyway, and it gave us a day to relax after the long road trip. We don't have a specific park for the first park day. We hit the one with the lowest projected crowds. And, we usually hop later in the day anyway.

On departure day, we once again split the day up, but will always close with either MK or Epcot. And, I mean literally close. We will shut the park down and then head to an offsite hotel about an hour up the road before doing the main drive home the following day. We find that this makes the last day in the parks much more relaxing if we're not worried about having to catch a ride to the airport or waking up in Disney and not getting to go to the parks at all.

 

[gatormom2tots]

We are breaking tradition this next trip...we always go to MK the first day. But this time we are headed over to POR to see Yeehaw Bob.We have 3 trips planned this year with APs so that allows us more time to "relax" instead of hitting the parks running.

 

[DanielNYC]

On this trip we're arriving at the Polynesian early morning on a Sunday, dropping off our bags and heading straight for the pool for a few hours. Late in the afternoon we'll head over to Disney Springs and see what that's all about (never been) and then have dinner at Homecomin'. Then back to the Poly for an early night in. Final day will be spent at Hollywood Studios. Get the rides done in the morning, then lunch at Brown Derby then walk around some more before getting on the road to Miami at around 5:00 or 6:00.

 

[GillianP1301]

The flight we take arrives just after 1:00pm. I grab our bags and rental car and I'm usually at check-in (I'm outside the US so have to go to check-in for magic bands) by about 2:30, get our room and drive to our first park with our first FP for about 3:30. We don't do a late night, but we have about 4 or 5 hours and still back to our room for a pretty early night. I unpack while my son is sleeping.

In the past, our departure day has always been Ohana breakfast (our flight leaves at 2:30 so on the road to the airport by 11:30), but we are always pretty sad and the past couple of years my son has cried through breakfast. So this year, I decided that it would be nice to really enjoy the Ohana breakfast on a morning we aren't leaving and instead added a 10th day to our tickets (only about $10 each) and we will do a very quick zip into MK (we are staying at CR) and spend 2 hours there riding our favourites before heading to the airport. I'm hoping that will make for a happier end to our vacation.

 

[Heather1101]

We usually check in at 3 and get settled in our room. I plan a dinner at our hotel or another resort hotel at 5 or 6pm. After dinner we usually monorail over to MK Guest Relations to activate our military tickets. Then we go back to our hotel and hang out in the pool/hot tub and watch the fireworks.

Departure day we sleep in and check out and hit the road.

 

[srauseo]

This year we are starting at Universal and we'll probably get the resort by noon after a very early flight. We've rented a cabana and plan to spend the afternoon relaxing by the pool before doing a character dinner. So - a very chill, easy entry! Departure day we are doing the Bon Voyage breakfast and hitting Disney Springs for a few hours before catching ME back to the airport around 1pm.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Arrival day we go to MK. With FP+ this is even easier IMO.

Departure day we try to head to MK for a few last minute rides. Even easier with FP+.

 

[cindyfan]

Flight arrives at 10am. In the past it's always been MK right after checking in, etc. But since the last couple years we've only gone during Flower and Garden and Food and Wine, we head to Epcot! Hit some of the food booths, relax through World Showcase and then monorail over to MK for Wishes (now it will be Happily Ever After). But this year..... since our arrival day is a Friday and a MNSSHP day, we may hit MK for couple hours till we get kicked out.... haha... then head to AK to maybe catch ROL. Being a Friday evening of F&W, Epcot will be too crowded by that time.
Departure day... depends on the flight time.... if possible (like 4p or later)we do AK for rope drop, then head to MK for lunch and last ride on Thunder Mtn. If flight is earlier we just hit MK at rope drop.

 

[Juliet0778]

We are arriving on Sunday. (Woo-hoo!) Our flight in is pretty early...we'll get in at 11. So our plan is to get the bus, hopefully check in an hour or two early and then we're headed to Disney Springs for some shopping and Raglan Road.

On departure day, we will have to catch our bus at 11 AM, so we're just doing breakfast buffet at our resort and hanging out.

 

[10MoreMinutes]

We drive (about 3.5-4 hours each way). In the past, we've done Epcot on arrival day (arriving at the resort around 2 pm). On one trip, we hit Disney Springs before we drove home, and on my solo trip, I did AK before I drove home. In November, we're going to be getting to Pop at around 1 pm and going to Disney Springs for the afternoon/evening, and before we drive home, we'll go to AK and leave the park around 3 or 4 pm to hit the road.