Arrival Day Options

I often see questions on the Facebook groups that I belong to, asking what should a family do on their arrival day.  This particular query sometimes focusses on a certain time, or whether an expected arrival time at the airport or resort allows for the person to make a dining reservation.  These type of questions are valid and the answer depends on a few factors, the two most important being your anticipated time of arrival and how many park days you have planned out.

On our two most recent trips to Walt Disney World we bought five day passes.  But the first trip, when our kids were almost four, we were only there for 6 days including our arrival and departure.  We were arriving at Orlando International Airport early afternoon, so we expected to perhaps have time to go to Hollywood Studios and at least have dinner.  This was at a time where most restaurants could be reserved without a credit card and the risk of losing $10 a person.  But we also thought that we might just go over to Downtown Disney, and so I  made a dinner reservation there too.  In the end, our resort room wasn't ready and we opted to walk over to nearby Downtown Disney and not go to the park.  It meant a waste of a few dollars per person, but it turned to be a good decision, especially considering how tired we all were, after getting up so early in the morning for our flight.

On our most recent trip, with our kids about to turn eight, we stayed an extra day and decided that our arrival day would be spent in two ways, by the pool and in Downtown Disney.  We made our reservation at T Rex in DD, and had lunch by the pool while we ate, after unpacking.  We had gotten to our Downtown Disney Resort Area hotel around noon.  We knew we had the five full days for parks so this plan made perfect sense.  So visiting Downtown Disney or spending downtime or pool time at the resort or hotel are certainly arrival day options.

However, there are people who do not want to waste any of their potential park time, and so they go straight to the park.  This is particularly easy if you are driving, because you can head straight there. but for air travel, in most cases you need to get to your resort, hotel or accommodations, and then head to the park.  The other factor that may influence you is whether your family is prepared to stay late at the parks, and if there are later extra magic hours that you can take advantage of, on that first day.  And some people would rather plan a rest day in the middle of the vacation, for such things as relaxing, shopping, or even resort hopping, and this influences their decision to go to the parks right away.  As always, there are different strokes for different folks, but the arrival day is worth planning for, no matter what you decide to do.

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