Having stayed with the in-laws about an hour away, we were counting on our first day as a park day. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived about 8:30 a.m., intending just to get our tickets/meal plan materials and take a bus to AK, to discover rooms were ready.
So we headed to the rooms, dumped all our suitcases and stuff, then headed to AK. Put us behind our schedule, but then we didn't have to come back about 3 p.m. to check in. So it all worked out quite well.
Our standard practice is if we can arrive noon or earlier, we head to a park. If not, we check in, eat, then head to DTD or even to play minature golf or some such or just swim, getting to bed early for the next day.