If you had to pick a park for arrival day…

[Pickles516]

Ok, ok…I know the general consensus is that, with the exception of a few choice scenarios, doing a park on arrival day is less than ideal. For the sake of this conversation, let’s just pretend we’re super stubborn and ignore that advice.

If you were flying into MCO, arriving at the world around 10am, and just dropping your bags at guest services and running to one park, which would you choose? Assume you’d be at WDW for about a week, so your not trying to “do it all” in one day. Bonus points if you approach the question from the perspective of a family with children.

I’ll start with my thinking:

I think I’d go Animal Kingdom. I feel like this is a very “passive” visual type of park. There are only 2 or 3 rides that are a “must do” for me, and there aren’t too many rides in all. About half my family would want to do Everest, and I could spend that time with the Non-heights people to explore and check out some animals. It closes relatively early and I feel like we could accomplish all we want to do there even if we arrived as late as noon.

What would you pick? Do you think my opinion stinks? Share your thoughts!

 

[jaiminee krikit]

We usually do Epcot on our arrival day. We typically do 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day each HS and AK, and I don't feel like our early afternoon arrival gives us enough time at a park we only spend one day at. I also like to get to AK early to ride KS before it gets too hot and while the animals are more active. Though I will say our last trip, DD wasn't feeling well so we ended up not going to AK until around 5pm and we got to ride everything we wanted except Navi. The animals weren't super active on KS, so that was a bummer for me, but she got to ride EE back-to-back, so our visit was successful.

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I would go to whichever one is open the latest.

 

[dvc_cruiser]

We go with what is most convenient from our hotel. this trip we are at yacht club so its epcot . next trip is poly so MK. Just makes it easy for the first day.

 

[Pickles516]

Very interesting and valid takes so far. I’m doing a split between AoA and Poly. Part of my thought process was just getting the one bus park out of the way. Might pop into Epcot instead for a bit and then do another day there. The gears are turning.

 

[Andrewh2020]

Ok, ok…I know the general consensus is that, with the exception of a few choice scenarios, doing a park on arrival day is less than ideal. For the sake of this conversation, let’s just pretend we’re super stubborn and ignore that advice.

If you were flying into MCO, arriving at the world around 10am, and just dropping your bags at guest services and running to one park, which would you choose? Assume you’d be at WDW for about a week, so your not trying to “do it all” in one day. Bonus points if you approach the question from the perspective of a family with children.

I’ll start with my thinking:

I think I’d go Animal Kingdom. I feel like this is a very “passive” visual type of park. There are only 2 or 3 rides that are a “must do” for me, and there aren’t too many rides in all. About half my family would want to do Everest, and I could spend that time with the Non-heights people to explore and check out some animals. It closes relatively early and I feel like we could accomplish all we want to do there even if we arrived as late as noon.

What would you pick? Do you think my opinion stinks? Share your thoughts!

If your going with the thought process of getting the most bang for your buck, then you should totally go to the parks on your travel day. We've been doing it for years and it kicks off a week long vacation with a bang vs. a pool day or stroll at disney springs. (Boring)
We always take an early Saturday flight, with the intent of going to the parks the full day. I would recommend animal kingdom and if you do park hoppers then do ak/mk and finish with the fireworks if you enjoy enchantment. This is what our family does and it always kicks the trip off great. If you have kids under 4 this can probally be a little tough to do.

 

[kevtlas]

We almost always hit Animal Kingdom on arrival day, although last visit we did Hollywood Studios because it was our first time there since adding all the new Star Wars attractions.

 

[cdobert]

we like to go to Hollywood Studios. I book a late afternoon dinner reservation and we ride a few rides before and after dinner.

 

[loves to dive]

How old are the kids? I would be o.k. with AK unless you want to do the safari, as others have mentioned in the heat of the day the animals are not as active. What are your plans for the other parks? Will you have hoppers. Have you been before? What time of year are you going? It all depends on ages, etc. Personally, we always arrive between 1 and 3 and always go to Epcot but that is just because it's our favorite park and we always have hoppers.

 

[bluezy]

We think doing a park for a few hours on arrival day *IS* ideal (we've done it since our kids were about 4 years old. Now they're all adults.). We drive to Disney and typically arrive between 10-11 a.m. Our room has always almost always been ready when we arrived or very shortly thereafter so we actually settle in the room a bit, have lunch, and then head to Epcot for a few hours. We tour at a very casual pace knowing we'll be back at Epcot for a full day later in the week (and often hop there another time). We ride a few rides and have dinner and then head back to the resort (AoA) to get to bed early so we can hit the ground running in the morning. Thanks to Genie+ and a few really short standby lines (walk-on at Soarin'....never thought that would happen at 6:00 p.m.), we leisurely did 8 rides and had dinner all between 3:00-8:00 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon about 8 weeks ago. We think the $20 (or whatever it is now) to add an extra day to our 7-day tickets is totally worth the cost....even if we only spend a few hours in the park. I see a lot of people say it's not worth $100+ for a few hours in the park. But the reality is, it's not costing $100 if you already have a multi-day ticket...it's costing far less than that. If we had to get up at 3:00 a.m. to get to the airport that morning, we might feel differently....but I doubt it. We'd just spend a little less time in the park then and it would still be worth the price. It's such a nice way to ease into the vacation.

 

[Pickles516]

A ton of great discussion and perspectives here!

We’re 3 adults and 4 kids(2, 4, 7, and 9). Staying at AoA for the first leg of the trip, and(4 nights) and Poly the last leg(3 nights). We’re going October of 23, and have 5 day park hoppers. We have small kids and don’t want to be rushing constantly. The family has never been to WDW and I haven’t been in a looonnngg time. AK just feels like a less dense park to me(I could absolutely be wrong about this) and a good appetizer for things to come.

 

[snikki]

Magic Kingdom. Always MK. We’ve done 6 am flights and been in the MK by 11 am and closed the park down.

When we finally get to do an adults only trip I think we would probably do Epcot on arrival day.

Next trip we are doing an evening flight and hitting MK at RD the next day.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

We ALWAYS start at Epcot - fish and chips followed by Soarin. Whatever happens after that doesn't matter, but we aren't at Disney World until we have done those 2 things.

 

[Pickles516]

Magic Kingdom. Always MK. We’ve done 6 am flights and been in the MK by 11 am and closed the park down.

When we finally get to do an adults only trip I think we would probably do Epcot on arrival day.

Next trip we are doing an evening flight and hitting MK at RD the next day.

Thoroughly considered this because when kids think of Disney world, they’re really thinking about MK. I just think it would be too much for us. We have two MK days planned later in the week when we’re staying at Poly. I know we’re going to need breaks at the parks so I’m trying to get AK as the only “bus park” out of the way I guess?

 

[a_ashbiez]

We also do Epcot on arrival day.
Did it before kids, and continued the tradition with our daughter's first 2 trips! Will be doing it again in November... now with two kiddos!

We stay at the Epcot area resorts for this reason!
There's just something about waking over to world showcase for dinner on arrival day. Usually we do Frozen (always did Maelstrom RIP) and just take in the nighttime ambiance.

We are 100% "commando" open-to-close people... so this is our one night with no plans besides dinner reservations, and a great way to ease into it all

 

[loves to dive]

A ton of great discussion and perspectives here!

We’re 3 adults and 4 kids(2, 4, 7, and 9). Staying at AoA for the first leg of the trip, and(4 nights) and Poly the last leg(3 nights). We’re going October of 23, and have 5 day park hoppers. We have small kids and don’t want to be rushing constantly. The family has never been to WDW and I haven’t been in a looonnngg time. AK just feels like a less dense park to me(I could absolutely be wrong about this) and a good appetizer for things to come.

O.k. good info. Obviously the littles are going to enjoy MK the best but since you are going to be at Poly at the end of your trip that would probably be the best time to do that. October will most likely still be hot but maybe not as much rain since hurricane season will be over. You are going to be there 7 nights but potentially (not counting departure day) that is 6 days but only 5 day hoppers. So now, you have to decide if you want a full day off in the middle to enjoy the resorts or if you want that arrival day to be a non-park day. Littles usually are ready to do something after getting off a plane but will get tired pretty early as well. Keep in mind MK is going to close early at least one if not two of the nights you are there for the Halloween party. You are probably going to want to go back to the room in the middle of each day to rest with the littles if possible. Resort switch day is going to mean there is a possibility that part of that day you will not have a room since it's no telling when your room at Poly will be ready. You will have access to both AoA and Poly pools during move day so there is that.

Given all that, it's a tough decision. If you didn't have littles, I'd be inclined to say move day can just be spent in the parks until your room is ready but there is nothing worse that a hot cranky little one. So the question is, do you want to burn one of your 5 days on a half day? Or do you want to use arrival day as a park day and use that move day as a pool rest day? 3 nights at Poly is only giving you two full days there and really one of them being move day, it's not going to be even that. I guess it comes down to burning one of your 5 days on a half day. Is AK a half day park? Some say yes, some say no. Afternoon is not the best time to be there especially during the hotter months. The littles are going to enjoy the animals more than the rides there and they aren't going to be active in the afternoon and the trails and Safari close earlier than the park. AK lends itself to hopping pretty well, spend the morning there, go back to the resort around noon or one to rest/pool then hop over somewhere else later in the day. I'm thinking with the ages of the kids, Epcot is going to be a half day park. There are a number of rides there they would enjoy but, for most kids, they aren't going to enjoy World Showcase as much as the adults. My son always loved it even as a little but he loved learning and talking to CM's about their countries.

 

[Miffy]

I used to always go to MK on arrival day. Now I always go to DAK. But the reason I go to DAK is that it's my favorite park and I want to get as much time there as possible.

The park reservation system has prevented me from using the I'll-just-wing-it strategy I used for a long time.

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

I love reading everyone’s responses!

I’ve got 6 kiddos (11-21yo), so we usually talk about what everyone wants to do first during our planning conversations

Arrival days are pretty exhausting for everyone, but we hit up a park anyway! If it’s just my hubby & I, we’ll go to MK or EP first… MK is our favorite (& I’m not really in Disney until I’ve walked down Main St USA ) but we love the festivals at EP… so, it will depend on which resort we’re staying at, and we’ll (usually) choose the closer park.

If my boys are along, we normally go to HS first bc of Galaxy’s Edge (ie- the key to their hearts!! ). My girls struggle to choose btw all 4 parks- they love them all! So again, we’ll usually choose a park we can get to quickly from our resort …although 1 daughter went totally rogue last year & didn’t care what was closest- she was bound & determined to start off at AK!!

As you can see, our basis *usually* = most anticipated park + resort location


p.s. you mentioned dropping bags off at guest services (which is at the parks), and I don’t want to nitpick, but I think you meant bell services (which is at the resorts). Trust me- you do not want to go through security with luggage!

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

I just want to add that if your family has animal lovers, I would strongly encourage you to rope drop at AK instead of arriving mid-morning. My oldest son (18yo) is the person who loves Galaxy’s Edge the most. He wants to spend 85% of our vacation time in that one land… it’s his happy place. However! Even he says that AK in the early morning is probably the most magical place in Disney. He loves the ambiance, the animals, the lower crowds… all of it

It’s worth the bus ride

 

[musicguy856]

I enjoy HS if I only have a couple of hours on arrival night due to lower wait times. Also it's a good feeling to get in line for Rise 5-10 minutes before closing and be part of the group that is costing Disney extra money to keep the ride operational after park closing to clear the standby line out after ILLs are done for the day, instead of paying them $15 and possibly having the time change on you after hitting the button to finalize the transaction!