Your favourite tradition when you arrive at WDW.

[dopeylover]

We like the first day to be settling into the resort, swimming, maybe dinner in the room or DTD... I CANNOT imagine a trip without MK being our first park! It screams 'you're here! you're home' to me like no other park. Our first things to do when we get in are meet Mickey, get fudge, and a Dole Whip, and proceed from there...

OMG I MISSING IT SO MUCH RIGHT NOW!

 

[draybook]

The first thing I look for when entering Florida is the palm trees. I love palm trees, because they remind me of growing up in SoCal. Generally our first day on property is spent at DtD.

 

[GrumpyFan24]

Arrive in the morning, get checked in and hang out at the place for an hour then HEAD TO MK. MK is the welcoming, you know your back. And making sure not to hurry around the park on your first day so you can enjoy the time.

 

[nc_disneyfreak]

another great thread!

so many great ideas folks! my family and i have only been once (april 2010) so we dont have alot to go off of...but were going for our second trip in two months...(april 28th -may 5th) What we do is usually catch flight out of raliegh nc around noon and arrive at MCO about 130...so after transportation to our resort (all star sports this time) we check in around 3 pm, take a quick look in the gift shop to get even more excited lol, then grab our refillable mugs, head to the room and then we swim till about 5-530....change and head over to dwntwn disney for some much missed earl of sandwich !!!! grab desert and hit some shops for our first day in the world! then our first full day is obviously MK...57 days to go!!!!

 

[Goofnut1980]

I love to get to POFQ and grab a fresh refillable mug, top it off with some diet coke and a lemon. Sip as I walk around the entire resort. Then grab a bus to Epcot. It's weird, I don't like going to MK till the next morning. I love taking one lap around Epcot and planning what shops I want to hit when I come back. We usually have dinner reservations planned at Epcot on that first night and stroll around. I always take my camera to tinker with the settings to make sure every picture comes out just right. Now to me.. That's magic!

 

[JiminyandTink]

Typically for me it's been a long journey by the time we arrive, so we use the first night to relax.

So for me, that means picking up my refillable cup, getting some food and then just taking it all in. Then maybe a swim and back to room for my first of what will be 1000 viewings of "Must Do Disney" on the TV.

 

[jeniidisney]

We've never stayed on site at a Disney hotel, however much I'd love to, we always go for 3 weeks and it's a lot cheaper just to stay in a villa and drive everywhere (as we go to all the other parks too). We usually arrive in Orlando (from the UK - hi everyone!) around 3pm. Once we've got the hire car and were on our way, we always go straight to the villa, drop all our suitcases just inside the front door, stare at the grass outside that looks entirely different from the grass over here!!!, get back into the car and head straight to Wal-Mart! We spend a good hour or so in there, buying a load of useless stuff that we don't need but that are too good to miss at like $1 each haha! Then head back to the villa, unpack everything, and sometimes go for a swim if we have enough time and THEN finally....we head into the Magic Kingdom on our first night, no matter what, to get our first buzz of Disney magic - my favourite, Wishes.

 

[bdearl41]

We normally always go to MK first and ALWAYS go on TTA. my fiance and I have been doing this for a few years.


One day, we might try going left into Adventureland instead of Tomorrowland..but probably not. It wouldn't feel right :lol:

I always go left into adventureland, i tried going right once, it was very odd.

 

[disney1077]

As soon as we get our room keys we go to our room to drop off our carry ons and then head to animal kingdom and go straight to expedition everest

 

[woodardfamily]

When we arrive we usually make our first stop at DTD and eating at Earl of Sandwich.

 

[mad626]

As soon as we get to Disney World we go to the Magic Kingdom and ride It's A Small World.

 

[Jenna]

We've only ever arrived in Florida (from lil old Northern Ireland) in the late evening/middle of the night so I've never headed straight to a park.
We usually go on a magical mystery tour to find our villa, getting lost at least 6 times.
Drop off our cases and head to Walmart to get some supplies for our stay, water, breakfast foods etc. Then either go to dinner or come straight back and unpack.
WDW wise we tend to visit EPCOT first and ride SSE, however last trip we went to MK first as my mum was celebrating her birthday that day and it's her favourite park!


Out of interest, what direction does everyone head whenever they venture off in to the lands of the MK? We ALWAYS go left, without fail.

 

[skinnymarie2000]

First ride every time, Haunted Mansion!!!!
We must get a Dole Whip on every trip!

 

[real mad hatter]

Good Call.

We've never stayed on site at a Disney hotel, however much I'd love to, we always go for 3 weeks and it's a lot cheaper just to stay in a villa and drive everywhere (as we go to all the other parks too). We usually arrive in Orlando (from the UK - hi everyone!) around 3pm. Once we've got the hire car and were on our way, we always go straight to the villa, drop all our suitcases just inside the front door, stare at the grass outside that looks entirely different from the grass over here!!!, get back into the car and head straight to Wal-Mart! We spend a good hour or so in there, buying a load of useless stuff that we don't need but that are too good to miss at like $1 each haha! Then head back to the villa, unpack everything, and sometimes go for a swim if we have enough time and THEN finally....we head into the Magic Kingdom on our first night, no matter what, to get our first buzz of Disney magic - my favourite, Wishes.

Yeh,three weeks sounds great,we just do the two weeks but the first two trips we did one one week on site and one week off site,then by our third visit we stayed on site for the entire vacation and that was it,we were hooked.Living inside the magic bubble is awesome.:wave:

 

[MarkTwain]

Let's see...

Go to Taco Bell after driving into Orlando :lol:
Go to one of the Disney outlets to buy $2/$3 pins we use to trade for the rest of the trip (we sound really cheap so far lol)
Check in to DVC resort of choice
Unload the car and drag our stuff through the door
Poke around the resort to see how it's held up since our last visit
Maybe go swimming or something, enjoy the Boardwalk activities or Wilderness Lodge grounds depending on where we're staying, etc.
Go to walmart to stock up fridge (we eat cook of our meals in the room - thank you, DVC)
Eat out somewhere

Our first days aren't generally known for being the most glamorous. :lol:

 

[Stellajack]

We've never stayed on site at a Disney hotel, however much I'd love to, we always go for 3 weeks and it's a lot cheaper just to stay in a villa and drive everywhere (as we go to all the other parks too). We usually arrive in Orlando (from the UK - hi everyone!) around 3pm. Once we've got the hire car and were on our way, we always go straight to the villa, drop all our suitcases just inside the front door, stare at the grass outside that looks entirely different from the grass over here!!!, get back into the car and head straight to Wal-Mart! We spend a good hour or so in there, buying a load of useless stuff that we don't need but that are too good to miss at like $1 each haha! Then head back to the villa, unpack everything, and sometimes go for a swim if we have enough time and THEN finally....we head into the Magic Kingdom on our first night, no matter what, to get our first buzz of Disney magic - my favourite, Wishes.

Welcome jeniidisney!:wave:
We try to get flights & DME arrivals around 1 p.m., swim and relax for a couple hours and then shower, change and head to dinner @ Whispering Canyon, Boma's, or (a couple of times) the Hoop Dee Doo. When we return to POR we try to do late trip to DTD before turning in.

 

[Kramerica]

Well, seeing as we live on the opposite corner of the country (Washington state) we fly. And seeing as I have a horrible, crippling fear of flying, I am heavily medicated. A combination of large amounts of klonopin and ambien. The whole day practically doesn't exist for me. But since it's such a long flight, we usually get to the room pretty late and I just pass out and sleep off the meds. So it's literally me taking some pills at home, then the next thing i know I'm waking up at the happiest place on earth, only remembering maybe a quick sight or smell of something that happened along the way there. It's very strange, really. But for me, at this point, it's what I've come to know, and I wouldn't want it any other way. But I guess my tradition after waking up? Well, at that point I'm so well rested and have so much adrenaline from realizing where I am, I am dying to go to epcot. I like to just sit for 15 minutes or so In the innovemtioms plaza and listen to the music. Feels like home there..

 

[finaldynasty]

The last three years we have checked in around 1 or 2, had lunch at our resort's quick service resturant- which includes getting our mugs, hit the pool, walk around the resort, take showers, eat dinner at our resorts table service resturant and watch either Disney Channel or Disney TV. We usually don't hit the parks until the our second day, but my DW and I have agreed that we should have dinner our first night in Ep-a-______ as my youngest calls it. So it looks like we will have dinner at the Garden Grill or with the Princesses. I'll keep you posted.

All in all, what i love about everyones comments are that there is diversity of thought in how anyone can approach his/her families first day at WDW. I can't wait to get back to the Happiest place in the world!

 

[Mikester71]

Since we drive down from Canada and it takes us a full day and half of the next, we tend to follow the same pattern each trip. We usually arrive at Pop Century around 1-2pm on a Saturday and try to get everything unloaded from the van into our room before heading over to "Everything Pop" to buy our resort mugs for the trip. After filling them up and checking out all of the new merchandise in the Pop store, we usually take a nice leisurely stroll around the Pop grounds before making our way to Downtown Disney for the night. Upon returning from there, we usually call it a night and try to get a good night's sleep so that we can hit the ground running early the next morning in the Magic Kingdom!

 

[SMS55]

I always go left into adventureland, i tried going right once, it was very odd.

Same here. I always make a left. We arrive bright and early and open the park. By the time the crowds arrive we've done Big Thunder, Splash along with Pirates, Jungle Cruise and Magic Carpets with no wait. We walk onto most of the rides I mentioned.