Arrival Day

[tabithamarie4]

That doesn't start until 2025 and if they have airfare from SW already booked, it's most likely 2024. I do not believe SW has fights out for 2025 yet. Though I didn't check, so I could be wrong.

We are headed there late July/early August. But heading to a water park might be fun!

 

[tabithamarie4]

We always schedule our flights to get to WDW as early in the day as we can. It's always before noon. We go to a park that day. Honestly, the parks are the only reason we're there.

We wouldn't be spending hundreds of dollars a night on these hotel rooms if they were out in the boonies in Oklahoma, we're there because of the theme parks.

Flying doesn't really tire us out a whole lot so we don't usually need to rest up after sitting on a plane for a couple hours.

We don't really need to 'settle in', or, get the 'lay of the land', or familiarize ourselves where the gift shop and food courts are.

We go to the resort and check in, if the rooms ready we put our bags in the room and go to a park. If the rooms not ready we have them hold our bags and we head to a park.

This is what I was thinking. We are going to be getting up REALLY early but I think we'll all be so excited to be there that we'll want to just get started! And we have stayed at Pop before so we know our way around.

 

[_19disnA]

If our flight gets delayed, do you think Disney would let us switch back and get rid of 1 day of our tickets?

I don't believe Disney does refunds on any park tickets. They might let you get a credit for a future ticket, but have to ask @ Guest Services to see what the specifics are.

 

[Mle8308]

This is what I was thinking. We are going to be getting up REALLY early but I think we'll all be so excited to be there that we'll want to just get started! And we have stayed at Pop before so we know our way around.

I believe you can modify your tickets (if they are normal length of stay tickets, not the special discounted one park per day tickets) as long as you haven't used them. So, if you do land on time, you should be able to add a day on to your tickets when you arrive. Either online or when you get to Pop, the front desk/guest services will be able to help. That way, if your flight time does get changed again or if you are delayed, you aren't losing the day you just added!

 

[bluezy]

`If our flight gets delayed, do you think Disney would let us switch back and get rid of 1 day of our tickets? I guess we could also use it on our departure day since Southwest also changed that flight so we aren't leaving until 6 (instead of 3)

If you have multi-day tickets you can just wait until you arrive and decide if you want to go to a park and add a day then. The cost will be the same whether you buy it before arrival or on the day you arrive. The other thought is, if you happen to buy them ahead of time and then decide not to go to the park on arrival day, you could use them on your "rest" day. You don't have to do a long park day before heading to the after-hours event. You wouldn't have to rope drop but you could spend 4 or 5 hours at a park and still have some time to rest before heading to your event.

 

[bluezy]

I like this idea! Stacking LLs beforehand!

It really worked out well for us (we did the same thing with FP+ when that was available). It made the afternoon/evening very relaxing -- especially since we knew we had a full-day planned there later in the week so there was no panicking about getting "everything" done that 1st day.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

This is a tough answer.

I usually like going to the park to start off the magical vacation with a nice firework show.

I might try resort day next time first, but not sure how I will feel about it lol

 

[beccasmom]

It kind of depends on who we’re traveling with and the time of arrival. We’ve arrived at the resort as early as 9:00 a.m., but usually it is early afternoon. With the grandkids, we probably would head to the MK or opt for the resort pool.

Otherwise, we usually do a nice lunch at the resort or DS and some decompression time at the pool. Shopping at DS comes to mind too, but travel day is tiring and although my intentions are good, I can’t really do shopping “justice” on arrival day.

 

[leebee]

We tried a park day once on arrival day. We were up early to get to the airport (It's a 2 hour drive from home) and got to our Disney resort (Boardwalk Inn) around 1pm, but the room wasn't ready so we just dropped our luggage. We went to Epcot but it was just OK. We all (me, DH, DD21 at the time) ran out of steam from a long travel day. We basically had lunch someplace in World Showcase, walked around a bit, then went back to the hotel for a little rest and to unpack. We went back into Epcot for Illuminations, but we were all pretty tired. Of course, we'd been up and traveling since about 3am, so there's that! I don't feel like we wasted a day as the multi-day ticket was so much cheaper then than it is now, but we also started our vacation fairly tired. I think if I had it to do over, I'd consider a nice lunch somewhere, then ride the Skyliner, Monorail, boats, etc, do something chill for the day so we'd be well-rested for the next morning.

 

[hertamaniac]

I think it depends on the resort a guest is staying at. A resort day can be so relaxing and soothing that it charges the human "batteries" for the next day in a park. I like using a staggered resort/park stay. So for me, arrival day would be a resort centric day.

 

[bamafaninNOLA]

For the last 17 years, we’ve always caught the first SW flight out of New Orleans arriving by 9AM. We head straight to the resort to drop luggage off and then to MK as we do 2 days there and 1 day at remaining parks while there.

 

[_19disnA]

What also matter is how early you have to get up/depart for the airport when flying. You might be exhausted from the day's travel by the time you arrive. Even if only a 1-2 hr flight, it will already be a fairly long day when you consider how early you had to start out. Depending on the airport/airline, you may have a choice of flight times. Anything departing in the 'early' morning likely means you have already been up for several hours.

 

[elvispursley]

We typically have taken a redeye from Seattle and would arrive around 8:00am. Our usual plan would be to check-in to let them know we were actually here and ask politely if there might be a room available early. We've been pretty lucky to always have had a room before noon. We generally have breakfast and then hang out by the pool until our room is ready. Then we crash for a nap and head to a park for a bit and have dinner. We usually head back and try to get to bed "early" (which is hard given that one of us is on PST and the other is on HST). Other times we've gone to one of the water parks and just had a very chill day, napping, lazy river and maybe a few slides.

This year we're switching it up and taking an early morning flight and will arrive around 5:30pm. We're at YC and plan to maybe head over to Epcot for dinner or maybe we'll just hit the pool with dinner at the resort.

 

[neverlandsky]

Our young adult kids who btw keep vampire hours want no parks on arrival day.

 

[georgina]

I like this idea! Stacking LLs beforehand!

It depends on your park plan itinerary. We are arriving around noon on a Sunday and I will be stacking LL for HS that day. I have found it is the best park to stack for the afternoon/evening. We are offsite, with a rental car, so a slightly different calculation. We are doing one park per day, with an AH at MK for our only MK day.

 

[frannn]

Since we are staying at POP and have access to the skyliner, we will likely drop our bags and hit Epcot for a bit. The past 2 trips we have done the same and gone to Regal Eagle for a lunch including the burnt end fries. Sadly, since they are gone, we will be stuck sampling festival items

 

[Ochio]

Last July we few in early, arrived at resort by 10:00am and settled into room/waited for grocery delivery, were eating in DS at noon, and were riding rides at Epcot by 1:00pm. We were able to explore and ride everything except TT in the front of the park. Did not stay for fireworks so that we could be in bed early to be at MK opening the next day. Planning to do the same this summer. I think we added a day to our tickets towards the end of the trip. It was a great first day!

 

[Shughart]

We'll probably get to the resort around 12/1pm and leave our luggage with bell services. Have some lunch. We have a 5:30 reservation. I'm really hoping our room is ready before then so we can shower/get dressed and maybe also relax a bit. We have after hour tickets on arrival night, so we're taking the Skyliner from Boardwalk to DHS after dinner.

 

[way2tyred]

It depends on your park plan itinerary. We are arriving around noon on a Sunday and I will be stacking LL for HS that day. I have found it is the best park to stack for the afternoon/evening. We are offsite, with a rental car, so a slightly different calculation. We are doing one park per day, with an AH at MK for our only MK day.

Can I ask why you like stacking for HS most? I've only ever done this in Epcot

 

[Obi-J Kenobi]

We were scheduled to land at 3pm. But now Southwest has changed our flight so now we will be landing before 10 am

What would you do on your arrival day? Head to a park for a half day? Just hang out at the resort?

I would recommend that whatever decision you make, you think about what your next day is going to look like from a park experience and touring aspect. If you intend to rope drop and hit the park hard the next day, my recommendation would be to strongly consider a slower arrival day and make sure you get some good sleep and get your body right for the next day. If you overdo it the first day, you may regret that decision the next day.

That's my personal experience.