When do you prefer to arrive?

K

Kev1417

Active Member
I have arrived at the world early morning, mid afternoon and late at night when the parks are already closed. I think i prefer arriving late at night the best. When we get to check in no one is in the lobby and I get to walk around Boardwalk alone with the wife. We take a stroll around Yacht/Beach taking in the peacefullness of the resorts. LOVE seeing spaceship earth in the background all lit up. When we finally make it back to the room NOTHING beats waking up to the magic and heading out to the park in the morning for your first full day.

So what does everyone prefer? Getting there super early to hit the parks after traveling? Travel in the morning and hit the parks after lunch? Or getting there late knowing you can check in right away and wake up to the magic?
 
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D

DisneyDebNJ

Well-Known Member
Doombuggy13 said:
We always fly into MCO as early as we can, then make our departing flight as late as possible so we can stay at the parks longer on the last day.
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This ^^^ We take the first flight out and land in Orlando around 8:30-9am. The trip home is an afternoon flight. I get back home in time to do some grocery shopping and pick my dogs up from the kennel.
 
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ctosh

ctosh

Well-Known Member
i really don't care what time as long as its a day early...lol ... I want to squeeze in all the Magic I can. If our check in is on a Sunday like our next trip, we will be there Saturday and send a night at another resort just for the heck of it. We will chill by the pool and eat at DTD. Ohhh now I'm excited!!!
 
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disney magic 06

disney magic 06

Well-Known Member
We don't have a lot of choice aswe have a transatlantic flight, we usually arrive at our resort around 4pm, quickly unpack and shower then head off either for the Magic Kingdom or Downtown Disney, depending on where we are staying and how tired we are.
I suspect if we had a choice we'd all prefer to get there a little earlier, midday would be nice. Or even earlier :D
 
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YoungNY

YoungNY

Active Member
I would prefer to get there early and leave late, but being that I fly out of a small airport I don't have many choices. Luckily my flight always gets in mid morning but unfortunately leaves at noon.
 
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allgiggles

allgiggles

Well-Known Member
We drive to Disney so we typically arrive around lunch time. We check in and if our room is ready (it usually is), we unload the car and do a little unpacking. Then we have a late lunch and head to Epcot. If our room isn't ready when we check in, we have lunch and hang out around the resort until it's ready. We always arrive on a Sunday and Future World always seems to be very empty on Sunday afternoon/evening (we even managed to get a FP for Soarin' at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon in May during the F&G Festival one year) so we typically head there. We usually get back to the room by 9:00 so we can get a good night's sleep and hit the ground running in the morning. We used to check in, have lunch, and then just head to DTD and maybe a few loops on the monorail before heading back to the resort for a swim and relaxation, but then one trip we tried going to a park for a few hours and really liked being able to cross a few things off of our "must do" attractions list that first afternoon/evening.
 
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6laurac

6laurac

Well-Known Member
I love to get there early if we fly so we can make the inevitable Target trip and see a night time parade. If we drive we get there to late to do anything so we start fresh the next day.
 
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captainkidd

captainkidd

Well-Known Member
Doombuggy13 said:
We always fly into MCO as early as we can, then make our departing flight as late as possible so we can stay at the parks longer on the last day.
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We used to do this, but we changed. Getting there early is still the same, but we like to leave on the 2nd flight out of the day. First flight out is too early. No time for breakfast, and you have to get up at like 4:00AM. Staying until the last flight, you get all hot and sweaty at the parks, and it just makes for such a long day by the time you get home.
 
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JiminyandTink

JiminyandTink

Well-Known Member
I like to get there as early as possible to start enjoying the fun. On the other hand, it can't be so early that I have to be up in the middle of the night to catch my flight, that way I'm just a zombie when I get there anyway and that's not as fun.
 
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Pooh Lover

Pooh Lover

Well-Known Member
We normally come in on a Saturday and stay until the following Saturday so I like to get there as early as possible and have as much of a full day as we can. My husband hates this because that usually entails getting up extremely early and, by the end of the day, we are usually dragging. I have considered exactly what you talked about....arriving the evening before and just enjoying the resort and getting ready for a full next day. Between my husband's out of town job and the lack of flights that would accomodate that, we've never been able to swing it. Great idea though!
 
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K

Kev1417

Active Member
Original Poster
we (my wife and i) find that flying later in the day is nice. we dont' have to wake up super early. we know that the parks will most likely be close to closing time so we don't get upset sitting the magical express for 20 mins waiting for it to depart. the ME only has a handfull of people on it or we are the only ones. there are no lines, we just hop right on. Check in is a breeze and we aren't too exhausted when hitting the parks after a day of traveling.
 
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coltow

coltow

Well-Known Member
We normally take a 6am flight out of Boston. That gets up to hotel, checked in and at the pool by 11:30am. We normally are also at MK by late afternoon. This year however we are trying something new. We opted to take a cheaper flight from Manchester, NH. It leaves at 12:15pm and will arrive at MCO at 3:20pm. We will head to hotel, check in, eat dinner then hit the pool for a bit before settling into the room, we plan on starting EARLY the next morning.
 
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journ116

journ116

Well-Known Member
We like to arrive before noon, enjoy our resort amenities (because the rest of the vacation is spent at the parks), and "settle in." For departure day, we prefer mid-afternoon, because the thought of getting up at 3 a.m., waking the kids & husband up shortly there after, and waiting for D.M.E. with only 3 CM's visible in the whole resort, has run its course. Plus, check out isn't until 11 a.m., so why not take advantage of the time and get your monies worth? and, if my kid is gonna miss a whole day of school anyways, why not stay just a wee bit longer before returning to reality? (just some thoughts):rolleyes:
 
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Tinkerbella16

Tinkerbella16

Well-Known Member
We always take the first flight out between 6 & 7am so they we can be there by 9 and checking in by 10 and to the parks we go. Its only a 2 hour flight for us, so we are always able to have somewhat of a full day the first day.
 
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