How tired are you on the day of arrival??

[bsmartin2000]

Here is my question: How tired are you on the first day of arrival. We need to be on our flight at 6AM and we arrive at MCO around 11:20. This is the first day I will have grandkids with us, age 5 and 1. Normally when we arrive we are ready to go go go! Not sure if I should do an ADR for later that evening or just eat at the resort? What do you do?

 

[eddiemcgarrigle]

Our day of arrival is never spent at a park due to not checking in until about 6pm (providing there is no delay at the airport). After a 45 minute drive to the airport, three hours of hanging around, an 8 hour flight, 90 minutes to get through customs and a final 20 minute drive to the resort, we are usually only fit to mosey around the resort or Downtown for a few hours and then retire to bed.

 

[JimJam]

Our flight usually lands around 9:15 at MCO (From Pittsburgh) and by the time we go through all of the Magical Express (We are the last stop on our Bus) we are situated at the Beach club around 11 - 1130. We usually change and take a walk to Epcot or the Boardwalk and just hang out and acclimate to the great weather

 

[bigorangeandy]

When we drive down in the past we haven't hit the parks, its time to unpack and get ready for the next day. Our last trip down though, once we got unpacked the kids caught the bus to MK EMH and me the wife rested at the hotel. That's a plus for the kids being much older now, they can go and do things like heading out at 10pm to catch a few rides in the evening.

 

[Twhitty]

If you get in MCO at 1130, you can count on being another hour or hour and a half getting to the resort and checking in. I would use that day to explore the resort, swim and eat at the resort and hit the ground running the next day.

 

[Skibum1970]

One of our problems is that I am pretty well worn out from work and trying to get everything wrapped up prior to vacation. So, after getting through the flight to Orlando and the Magical Express to our wonderful resort, I am a little drained. So, we typically plan on just hanging out at the resort that day or we might head to the Magic Kingdom towards evening. I hate to lose time but resting that first day enables us to actually go to the parks fairly rested for the rest of the vacation.

I guess that I'm getting old. Or lazy. I'll take lazy as that doesn't sound as bad.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

When we lived on the outskirts of the Metro-NY area, we would be very tired when we arrived. When you have a 6:00 AM flight out of a big airport like Newark or JFK, they want you to get there 2-3 hours before your flight. So, if we were going to have to be at Kennedy at, say, 4 in the morning, we would wake up at 2:30 so we could quickly get dressed, drive in to the city, park in long-term parking and take a shuttle to our gate. By the time you touch down in MCO, you've already been up for a full work day. We'd be dragging by dinnertime. If you make a dinner reservation, do it at Kona Café so you can guzzle some press pot coffee.

Now a 6:00 AM flight means we have to leave our house roughly an hour before our flight to navigate our tiny regional airport in Montana. Then we have two long flights to rest (because there's no such thing as a direct flight when your airport of origin is Billings; you have to go thorugh Denver, Salt Lake City or Minneapolis). Even leaving at 6, we might not touch down in Orlando until late afternoon or early evening. So it's much easier to hit the ground running when you finally get to Disney World property.

 

[Ajax Redux]

We used to catch the 7am Airtran flight from Flint that landed at MCO around 9:30. That flight's gone the way of the Dodo. So now we'll board at 6am, and arrive at 1:33pm after a layover in Atlanta. Once we get squared away at POFQ we'll probably be closing in on 4pm. That's too late to burn a day on our park tix. We're planning on unpacking, catching some pool time if the weather sees fit to let us, followed by dinner at Fultons, dessert at Ghirardelli's, and perhaps a nightcap at Raglan Road. A good night's rest will find us ready to R&R the next morning.

 

[docdebbi]

Our kids were indeed really wiped out when we got there the last couple trips! But not as much as their parents and grandmom(me). We like to do something in the parks on the first day too. So last trip we tried something new and LOVED it. Instead of leaving early sat morning we left late Friday evening after work and stayed at the Hyatt in the airport. We got it cheaply on Priceline. The advantage with staying right in the airport was that we walked off the plane and right to our beds. We did stop for five minutes to check in, that's really all it took, and put the already asleep kids right in bed. I am sure a long drive would have woken them. The hotel retrieves your luggage from baggage claim for you. It worked really well for us, so if you haven't already booked your flight think about it

 

[SMS55]

Usually we arrive around dinner time or a little later. It's a 3.5 hour drive, so we leave once the kids leave school. We have dinner, head over to DTD and pick up our tickets if need be. I've gotten up at 4:00am and driven up for park opening, but then we are tired by mid day. I'd rather get a good night's sleep and be ready for rope drop the next morning.

 

[HatboxGhost]

When my wife and I arrive at our resort after driving 20 hours, we are tired however we are so pumped up to be in Disney that it keeps us up for a few more hours. We usually check out the resort, go to the arcade and play some video games, and finally eat. This year we are arriving a little earlier than we normally do so we MIGHT run over to MK and ride HM a few times and get our SOTMK cards.

 

[coilback]

You have quite a bit of good advice on here, but I'll throw my two cents (maybe three with inflation) in as well. NORMALLY, I never use the first day as a park day. For once, I feel like if I'm not there for most of the day, I'm not getting value out of the tickets I paid for. For two, I like having the ability to sort of take an "appetizer" before getting the full meal so to speak. What I mean, is basically, do like some others have said and sort of "wet their appetites" before going to the parks. My old tradition was to spend the first day in Downtown Disney, usually checking out the new merch and going to DisneyQuest. DisneyQuest has made me very sad last time I saw it (it really is a shell of its former self), so I doubt I'll go back there, but for grandkids, it might be perfect (it's basically an arcade, but has lots of cool stuff there like the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars). It is a little pricey, though, so I'm not sure what your budget is. You can always play in the arcade, walk around the resort, go to the pool, etc. There are some really good places to eat in DTD as well. If you want some theming, there's always T-Rex or Rainforest Cafe. Me personally, I always loved the anticipation that built up the night before going into the park. I used to work there and I STILL get that same giddy feeling the night before going into the park when I come back. We are going on a Disney Cruise which stops by the park in May and I'm already counting down the days. It really comes down to how many days you'll be there, what they like, etc. My routine is - arrival day - Downtown Disney, first day - Magic Kingdom and maybe Epcot, then from there I just play it by ear. I prefer Magic Kingdom first just because it will always be what I think of when I think of WDW (My first visit there as a kid was pre-Epcot, so MK was all there was).

 

[coilback]

Let me add, that the last trip we did (in September), I decided we had enough days and MK was doing an extended EMH, so we decided to do a marathon run through MK. We were there 12 straight hours and ran all over to stuff in as many rides as possible. My GF got to see a lot of stuff (it was her first time), but we both had blisters on our feet the next day, so pacing IS important, heh.

 

[Figgy1]

This trip we are driving and will be hitting the Disney area by noon stopping at DTD for a few items, going to the grocer and checking in around 4 grabbing a quick bite to eat and straight to bed as the next am we wll be lined up by 6am for SWW! Let the insanity begin! But for the op I'd schedule a dinner at CM see the fab 5 and gear up for the rest of the vacation!

 

[BigRedDad]

Usually, I am not at all tired. We usually fly in the morning and are good. This time, we are arriving at night. By the time we get to the room, it will be about 10PM. The initial plan was to do Typhoon Lagoon the next morning because it opens at 10AM. Now, it is too cold for that and need to wake my daughter up earlier. I think she will be fine. It will probably be an AKL day. That lets us get back earlier, we can plan some other activities around the resort.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

We are always go, go, go when we arrive. Granted we don't have any little kids with us so that might make it a little easier. In September we got up at 3:30am and once we landed at 10:30am we went right to DME, checked in, brought our stuff to the room, took the bus to MK and were walking through the gates at 12:30pm. didn't go back to the hotel until later that day when I had a migraine. So we actually ended up nixing the plans for DHS that night but I wasn't tired and we could have done it had my head not felt like it was going to explode. usually when we're at Disney we're very energetic and whatnot. The way I look at it is.... you can sleep when you're dead!

 

[durangojim]

Really depends on arrival time. Usually we get to the resort in the afternoon or early afternoon. Then we're not too tired. In 3 weeks though we won't be arriving until closer to midnight. I think we'll be wiped out.

 

[littleroo]

Our kids were indeed really wiped out when we got there the last couple trips! But not as much as their parents and grandmom(me). We like to do something in the parks on the first day too. So last trip we tried something new and LOVED it. Instead of leaving early sat morning we left late Friday evening after work and stayed at the Hyatt in the airport. We got it cheaply on Priceline. The advantage with staying right in the airport was that we walked off the plane and right to our beds. We did stop for five minutes to check in, that's really all it took, and put the already asleep kids right in bed. I am sure a long drive would have woken them. The hotel retrieves your luggage from baggage claim for you. It worked really well for us, so if you haven't already booked your flight think about it

We do this, too. We stay at the Hyatt at the airport in Pittsburgh the night before we leave. It is a really fun way to kick off our vacation. The kids swim and we start to relax! The next morning is a piece of cake! Go down the elevator and walk into the airport for our early morning flight!!

 

[popcenturylover]

On our last trip in September we had a 6:30 a.m. flight but, we had to be up by 3:30a.m. to be ready to leave by 4:30a.m. on our hour long drive to PITT airport. Anyway, it was a long morning but, when we got there we were all so excited that we were ready to get to the parks. We came back to the resort in early evening had a swim & went to bed. Exhausted but, worth it to get a whole day in on arrival day!

 

[bgraham34]

I am never too tired when I arrive. My most recent trip I got to BWV around 1am and we ended up going out for a drink and then went to Hess to get a snack. It usually takes me a few days before I start getting tired at the world.

 

[disneygirl1024]

When we get there we are tired, but never to the point where we just don't do anything. Depending on what time we get there, we either go to one of the parks or DTD.