Park on day of arrival?

Our flights gets in Orlando at 825. Do you suggest we do a park on arrival day and two “off park” days during the week.
If you are getting in that early then i would definitely vote to go to a park as well as get tickets for all days of your trip (minus departure day) and not plan any non park days. The reason for this is for a few reasons.

1. Once you are adding on more park days it is relatively cheap.
2. You will get that many more additional Fast passes which will make your park touring a little easier.
3. Pandora land you can only pick one of the ride for a FP, I would presume this will be the same situation with the new TSL which will have just opened -- thus again -- more park days = more FP and you will be able to accomplish more. Even if you want a rest day you can go to a park in the morning and then make it a pool afternoon or vise versa - sleep in and morning/afternoon at the resort and then evening at the parks. The ages that your kids are at they will likely be able to handle being in the parks everyday.

Our last trip with our 9yo twin boys we had planned for afternoon resort time, but once we were out into the parks we were on the go and didn't return to the resort until late at night. We were tired but we had so much fun seeing and doing everything we wanted.
 
We never used to do rest days, but on our last trip we did two rest days on our 14 nights stay and on both days all the kids were wanting to get to a park.so, maybe half rest days for us from now on...
 
Sorry I have to add that we have to be at the airport at 3 am. So we will be up at 145 am. That’s the main reason I was debating a park day. Does that change anyone’s opinion? If not I think I will add an additional park day!
With this in mind, along with the idea that your room likely won’t be ready that early anyway, go to the park for a few hours and use your 3 fast passes. But maybe plan to call it a day early and go back to your hotel, get settled, and go to bed early. This means you will want to add that extra park day to your ticket because then you can think that your first day ticket only cost you about 20 bucks each and you won’t feel you have to get your money’s worth by staying late on your travel day.
 
We never do parks on arrival or departure day. Both are days to do other things like resort hopping or Disney Springs. Travel is unpredictable and a delayed flight or traffic problems can push your actual arrival time way past your anticipated arrival time. I would rather just have nothing I have to do on that day and when I do get in just do something relaxing.
 


Our last big trip with my cousins, we landed in Orlando at 8:30AM and went to MK for lunch and the afternoon. We were exhausted by 7:00PM but it made it a bit more magical that we went to 'the' Magic Kingdom on the day of arrival. It made it feel more Disney! The only reason we're not doing a park on arrival for our trip in August is that we're driving down and we know we're going to be too tired and may not get in until 3pm-4pm. We do have dining reservations for dinner though.
 
I would keep your five day and go to the park the first day and decide during your trip if you want a rest day. I will say I love having at least one day to recoup on a Disney trip.

If you decide no one wants to chill at the hotel you can always add on another day to your ticket mid trip. Tickets can be added to or modified 14 days from the first use.

But if you want those fastpasses booked then i would just upgrade the ticket ahead of time
 
We also land at 8:25 am. We are going to the MK that day. Then back to the room for a nap if we need it and then plan to close out MK. My DD12 is a trooper (pure night owl) and I can stay up pretty late with minimal sleep. We will see how it goes!
 


We usually land 8 - 9 am, staying at Board Walk. After a grocery stop and check in, we're at the IG before 11:30 at which time we hit the 'ride' shown below. FP choices are Soarin', Space Ship Earth and Land.

Bill From PA
 
Once you have 5 days paid for, it’s sooo cheap to add 3 more. We never do an off day and usually do our arrival day. Having those extra days means more FP, less need to rush and a better opportunity to take mid day breaks in the heat. I say get 8 day passes.
 
Once you have 5 days paid for, it’s sooo cheap to add 3 more. We never do an off day and usually do our arrival day. Having those extra days means more FP, less need to rush and a better opportunity to take mid day breaks in the heat. I say get 8 day passes.

I agree. Even if you just go to the park in the evening and do your 3 FP+ it's so worth it IMO.

Last trip I did two rest days because I got 8 day hoppers through a TA exclusive. They were $60 cheaper than UT and 8 days was the most we could get. Looking back I should've paid the extra and got 10 day hoppers through UT. This trip we are doing the same 8 day hoppers through the TA exclusive. We are doing 9 nights, 10 days. We also have MVMCP. We plan on not doing a park on departure day. I hope that doesn't bite us in the butt since DD did request to go to a park on departure day. I'm hoping to do PM EMH until 2 am the night before (looking at last years calendar) so I'm hoping by the next morning, departure day, we will be exhausted and just happy to have a nice lunch, walk the boardwalk or stop into Disney Springs before our flight home. I've never been to DS and am not a fan of shopping but DD loves to shop.
 
Hello all. This will be our fourth trip to Disney. This time around my kids will be older! 15, 12, and 7. We will be down this time Monday, July 2nd - 9th. I have chosen to do 5 Park days. We never do one day we leave. I am debating if we should do a park day of arrival. Our flights gets in Orlando at 825. Do you suggest we do a park on arrival day and two “off park” days during the week. Or not do a park day of arrival and have only one off day. I just don’t know!

Given that it's just 20 dollars per ticket, I'd get the extra park days (but, as others have pointed out, you should still wait until you're there and upgrade at guest services). It's worth it for the flexibility it gives you, especially with a teenager along and are staying onsite.

You mentioned that you will be up at 3am on your travel day, so I expect you'll want to nap when you get there. But your kids may not. Your 15 year old is old enough to take the others to the park without you, especially since they'll all have cellphones.

Even if you all decide you don't want to go to the parks and you still want an off day later in the week, 80 to 100 dollars total is a small price to pay in order to have that flexibility. Maybe some of you will want a rest day and others won't, so you could upgrade some tickets and not others, as the need arises.
 
Even with the very early start, your kids will be very excited to be there and not in the mood to take a nap. I would spend the afternoon at least in the park, especially since the cost is not that great. I would call it an early night though.
 
We're doing something similar - arriving around 8am on our arrival day. however, we will be taking a red-eye flight from California and are choosing to spend the day relaxing at the pool, napping, and then heading over to Disney Springs before our first full park day. We are also just two adults so kids don't factor into our plan.

To each his own. Do what is best for your family.
 
Sorry I have to add that we have to be at the airport at 3 am. So we will be up at 145 am. That’s the main reason I was debating a park day. Does that change anyone’s opinion? If not I think I will add an additional park day!

Our timing is usually similar. Up around 3 am, leave around 4, catch a 7ish flight, and get into MCO around 9/9:30. We’ve always been lucky and our room has been ready when we get to the resort, so we settle in a bit, grab some lunch, take a “nap”, and then hit a park around 3/3:30. We don’t have our flights yet for December (waiting for Southwest to release flights) but we’re hoping for similar timing.
 
Last time we went, our plane got in at about 5 AM (It had departed about 11 PM the night before). Most hotels won't let you check in that early (people staying in the hotel the night before you will likely still be sleeping) and so we knew we wouldn't have anything to do for a while. We got a park ticket that day and did RD that day and managed an early check in at our condo at about noon. We took long naps and returned to the park in the evening and it worked perfectly. With so many days on the park ticket, it really doesn't cost that much extra to add another day.
 

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