Day 1 Touring Plans
Because my first day of parks is still a weekend day, I decided to avoid the big three (MK, EP, & DHS) and stick with Animal Kingdom as my main park for the day. Now, I'm a minute for minute planner so I can anticipate everything I can fit into the day, then leave room for surprises.
5 a.m. - Wake Up & Get Ready
5:45 a.m. - Breakfast (either at my hotel or grab something nearby)
6:15 a.m. - Drive to Animal Kingdom, Park, & Walk to Gate
7 a.m. - Walk to Pandora - The World of Avatar
7:10 a.m. - Avatar Flight of Passage
7:30 a.m. - Expedition Everest
7:45 a.m. - Primeval Whirl
8 a.m. - It's Tough to be a Bug!
8:15 a.m. - Explore Discovery Island
9 a.m. - Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki's Planet Watch
9:10 a.m. - Explore Rafiki's Planet Watch
9:40 a.m. - Wildlife Express Train to Africa
9:55 a.m. - Kilimanjaro Safaris (FP+ Window: 9:15 a.m. - 10:15 a.m.)
10:30 a.m. - Kali River Rapids (FP+ Window: 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.)
10:55 am. - Na'vi River Journey (FP+ Window: 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.)
After I get off this ride, I'll look for a FP+ for DHS in the 7:45 p.m. - 8:45 p.m. window
11:15 a.m. - Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
11:40 a.m. - Maharajah Jungle Trek
12:05 p.m. - Lunch @ Satu'li Canteen
12:35 p.m. - Walk to Park Exit
After I finish Animal Kingdom, I'm going to head straight to Blizzard Beach! I don't intend to spend too much time there as there are only a handful of slides I want to ride, so I'm only budgeting 1.5 hours at the water park.
12:55 p.m. - Drive to Blizzard Beach
1:05 p.m. - Park, Walk to Gate, & Find a Beach Chair
1:20 p.m. - Explore Blizzard Beach
My attractions of interest include Chairlift, Teamboat Springs, Runoff Rapids, Toboggan Racers, Snow Stormers, Downhill Douple Dipper, and Cross Country Creek
2:50 p.m. - Walk to Park Exit
After I finish at Blizzard Beach, it's time for the much anticipated room check-in and NAP!!!!! I'm going to sleep soooo hard because I will have been up since 5 a.m. Between 3 p.m. - 5:15 p.m., that's nap time and shower/get ready for dinner time. If I can get out of Animal Kingdom a little earlier than anticipated, then I'll be able to get out of Blizzard Beach a little earlier than anticipated, and earn myself a little more nap time. If I can get in at least an hour of sleep, I'll be functional for the evening.
Now, I have a first night tradition of going to dinner at California Grill. For every trip that I've taken in September, somehow, I've had my first night coincide with
MNSSHP. This means that fireworks are MUCH later than normal (okay, it's only like an hour and and hour in Disney time can go quickly or slowly depending on what you're doing). So, I scheduled dinner at a regular dinner time and I'll catch the new MNSSHP fireworks when I attend the party later in the week.
5:15 p.m. - Drive to Contemporary Resort, Park, & Walk to Check-In
6 p.m. - Dinner Reservation at California Grill
I know what you're thinking: why are you giving yourself 45 minutes to get to the Contemporary Resort? Well, it's a 15 minute drive from Pop Century, which means it'll actually be 20 minutes by the time I figure out the new Magic Kingdom entrance traffic flow (it's been 4 years since my last visit and I heard they changed it for getting to the resorts), then I have to go through the security kiosk, find a parking spot, walk back to the entrance to the Contemporary from parking in the middle of nowhere, and get up to the 2nd floor, getting distracted by all of the memories on the way (I stayed at Bay Lake Tower once and absolutely love the mural inside the Contemporary on the 4th floor, so I have to go stare at it for a few minutes).
After dinner, I'm going to brave the weekend crowds and attempt to do a few things at DHS. I've planned my DHS morning for later in the week so the weekend crowds go back to work, but seeing how SWGE will be in it's second-ish week of opening, I know that park is still going to be nuts.
7:30 p.m. - Drive to Hollywood Studios, Park, & Walk to Gate
8:15 p.m. - Explore DHS with no plan except trying to bounce from FP+ attraction to FP+ attraction
If the crowds are really just too much, I'll slip into Fantasmic! for the 8:30 p.m. show.
9:30 p.m. - Find a spot to watch Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular
10 p.m. - Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular
Phew! That's a lot to do for arrival day, but I like to hit up everything early in my week so that I can back to places that were too crowded or I missed completely later in the week.