Favourite Arrival Day Activities?

[DisneyMama811]

Our first day will be a non park day, our flight arrives at 11am and my only "plan" so far is dinner at T-REX at Disney Springs. I'd love to hear about your favourite arrival day activities if you don't hit the parks on day one

 

[PollyannaMom]

Usually Disney Springs, same as you.

But one year we did the nighttime safari at AKL, which was really cool!

 

[OppR2nist]

We basically gorge ourselves at Disney Springs. Lunch at T-Rex, Gideon's, Everglazed, The Edison, dinner at Raglan Road. Looking forward to trying Salt & Straw soon. We've got the rest of the week to walk those calories off.

 

[Jonfw2]

Day one for us is resort pool and dinner. Earlyish bedtime for the first park day!

 

[DisneyMama811]

Day one for us is resort pool and dinner. Earlyish bedtime for the first park day!

yes I'm hoping early bed time since it's an early flight and it's international we have to be at the airport at 5am so I'm hoping the kids will be exhausted by bedtime but I bet they'll be too keyed up

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Lunch at Rix Sport Cafe at CSR because it is so easy to make a same day reservation there and there is hardly anyone in there. I usually make the reservation as we are leaving MCO. Then we walk around that resort for a bit. Head over and check into our hotel. Then that night we catch the YeHaa Bob show at POR.

 

[kanerf]

Since I seldom get in until the afternoon, I just go to my room if I can, get my stuff from bell services and put it away and then go eat dinner. That is usually all I have time for.

 

[Stratman50th]

Back in ancient times when we stayed at resorts we would drive. We got in usually around 10:00am. Wore park clothes in the car and carried a pool bag. Always waited around to get checked in but I think mostly we hung out at the pool. After we unloaded the cars into the room we went to whatever park had EMH, grabbed a meal at a counter service location and that was normally day one.

 

[Figmentv]

We arrived at WDW at 3:00 pm on 6/29 and decided to do a monorail tour. We took a resort bus to MK, got on the resort monorail and stopped off at the Poly and GF for a quick look. We then switched monorail at TTC and did the loop around Epcot. It was a fun, relaxing way to get ramped up for the parks.

Went back to POFQ, grabbed the boat to DS and grabbed dinner.

 

[tguz]

We drive and arrive the day before our Disney check in. We like to spend the day on International Drive. In Dec 2021 we rode the Ferris Wheel at Icon Park, visited Hogan's Beach Shop, and shopped/ate at the Outlet Mall.

 

[figmentdream]

We don't usually plan to do much on our arrival day. Either our flights get delayed, or we hit major traffic (if driving), so we usually fly by the seat of our pants. Disney Springs, the Boardwalk, hitting the pool, or doing some shopping are our go to activities. My kids like to explore whatever resort we are staying in and hit up the arcade. One time we rented a surrey bike and took a spin around the boardwalk. This time we are staying at the Contemporary and may just take a ride on the monorail!

 

[LuthienDragon]

Our first day will be a non park day, our flight arrives at 11am and my only "plan" so far is dinner at T-REX at Disney Springs. I'd love to hear about your favourite arrival day activities if you don't hit the parks on day one

Hilarious, this is usually our plan too! We get there early, we MIGHT go to the Outlets specifically for the Disney one and after that Disney Springs - Gideon's, Earl of Sandwich, Disney Store and TRex are our planned stops.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Depends when we get there. Usually the pool, a quick service somewhere nearby (Riviera’s QS is quite good and the Skyliner is a fun “free” ride if we are in the Boardwalk area), and if we have the energy, we will catch the fireworks the first night. Watching them from the beach at Poly is a great way to get into the spirit of a Disney vacation.

 

[Halle]

Have lunch at a restaurant on our way to the resort. Go to the resort pool and have a Bloody Mary!

 

[ktink]

We have always gone straight to the parks. In January, we left our bags w/ Bell Services & went to AK. For our upcoming September trip. We are going to DS & having lunch @ Raglan Road and then going to AKL to enjoy the pool.

 

[Aela]

So what is the big deal with TRex? I always see people going there. Isn’t it just Rainforest with Dinosaurs? Is it because the kids are into dinos, or is it something I am missing? We have multiple Rainforest cafes here (Houston) so they aren’t really special for me.

 

[OppR2nist]

So what is the big deal with TRex? I always see people going there. Isn’t it just Rainforest with Dinosaurs? Is it because the kids are into dinos, or is it something I am missing? We have multiple Rainforest cafes here (Houston) so they aren’t really special for me.

It's essentially that. Instead of a rain storm every half hour, there's an extinction level asteroid impact. It's dumb and goofy, but my family loves it.

 

[DisneyFamNYC]

Day one is usually a non park day. Polite Pig for lunch or early dinner depending on the time we get in and walking around Disney Springs.

 

[huladansa]

Our first day will be a non park day, our flight arrives at 11am and my only "plan" so far is dinner at T-REX at Disney Springs. I'd love to hear about your favourite arrival day activities if you don't hit the parks on day one

Usually we arrive to the resort in the evening around 6:30pm. We make our first stop EPCOT for dinner. The last 2 trips we had ADR’s for ROSE & CROWN PUB. But for our next trip (in 5 weeks), we arrive MCO 7:00am so we will rent a car, start the check-in to our Disney resort (probably leave our luggage since it will most times be too early to check-in to our room), head to one of the two outlet malls (or do both) to shop at DISNEY’s DISCOUNT WAREHOUSE, do some shopping at Super Walmart (they have a HUGE section of Disney souvenirs), then head back to our resort, finish checking in and decorate our resort window.

 

[mouschievous]

I know this is super old, but we were coming from the west coast and arrived later in the evening. We were staying at WL, so our first night we checked in, had dinner at Whispering Canyon and then went outside to watch the light parade on the water. It was a really nice way to kick things off.