Disney Travel Day
One of the best parts of any Disney trip is your travel day! The anticipation has been building for months as you plan and finally, FINALLY you are ready to start your magical vacation! There’s something so special about just arriving and knowing you’ve got an incredible week ahead of you! So today we wanted to talk about what things you do on your travel day to Disney. Most people, unless they have an annual pass, will not be hitting the parks on their travel day. So what do you do instead?
What Our Disney Travel Day Looks Like
As soon as we step off the plane and see this view of the Orlando ariport we know vacay mode is activated!
We like to arrive at the airport as early as possible, like we’re waking up at 3 AM and getting there for 6 AM. There’s something really nice about being at the airport first thing in the morning. We usually get McDonald’s and then hop on the plane to head to MCO! Once you land at MCO, there’s a bunch of ways to get to Disney nowadays including Mears, a rental car, Uber or Lyft.
Now one of our travel day tips is to have tips because so often you need tips on hand for people helping with your bags etc. So having ones, fives and tens on hand is your best friend. A good rule of thumb is one dollar per bag and then you round up to the nearest five. So if you have four bags round up to five, eight bags round up to ten etc.
One thing we do to prep before a trip is place an online grocery order. And sometimes that order might only include water bottles and a few snacks but sometimes it’s diapers, yogurt etc. Bell services will hold onto that for you until your room is ready and then they can deliver it to you or you can pick it up yourself.
So once we’ve landed and have gotten into whatever our transportation is for that trip, if we’re hungry we will mobile order at the resorts quick service restaurant so that we can hit “I’m here” in the app when we arrive and go pick up our food right away.
Wandering the shops at your resort is a great way to relax and settle in for your vacation!
We suggest doing your mobile check in before you get to the hotel. You can do it on the app and most of the time right on the app it’ll let you know if your room is ready. If your room is not ready you can drop your bags at bell services and go zoom around for a bit.
Once we’re in our room we are unpacking. Not every single time but if a trip is 4 nights or longer it’s much more worth it to unpack. If it’s a quick weekend trip then we don’t always fully unpack our suitcase but it’s a nice feeling to “move in” to your room.
Then once we’re settled in our room we head to the main building to get our reuseable resort mugs, fill it with coffee or soda and then wander the gift shop(s) at the resort.
Now once we’ve gotten settled in, here are a few of our favorite things to do at this point in the trip!
Pool Time
Pool time is always a great idea on your travel day! (or any day really!)
This is one of our favorite things to do, we love spending time at the pool. To make it simple we pack our swimsuits together so they’re easy to find and grab. We’ve heard of some people even packing theirs in their carry on so that even if your room wasn’t ready but you wanted to head right to the pool you have your stuff with you.
Explore Your Resort
Some of the Disney resorts can be quite large and a little complicated to figure out so this is a great time to explore and get the lay of the land. Where are the busses? What’s the quickest route to the lobby? Especially with some of the moderate resorts you can be in a building nearly a quarter mile away from the main lobby! (Bonus tip: we highly reccommend you do this on a cruise as well because there is SO much happening on a cruise ship! We always say on your first day take a walk around and see where everything is!)
Movie Under The Stars
A lot of the Disney resorts will have activities going on throughout the week that you can participate in but one of our favorites is the Movie Under The Stars! Usually at the lobby you’ll find a board with all the details on where, when and what movie is playing etc. But that is a great first night activity!
Disney Springs is one of our favorite places to hang out!
Campfire
If your resort offers campfires this is another awesome activity! You can get marshmallows and smore kits from the cast members and enjoy roasting them over the fire.
Arcades/Activity Rooms
Every resort has an arcade which can be fun to hang out in and a lot of the resorts offer activity rooms where you can find crafts and coloring pages etc.
Disney Springs
This is a great place to go hang out on your first day! Of course you can shop there but there are always entertainers throughout Disney Springs, you can get a little snack or coffee and wander around. It’s a quick bus ride from any resort and a great way to spend a few hours to get yourself into the magic!
Mini Golf
There are two mini golf courses at Walt Disney World that are a great way to spend time! This is an additional cost, and we haven’t actually done this yet but as the girls get older it’s a great option for a fun activity for the whole family! Who doesn’t love mini golf?
From The Citizens of Disneyville
We asked our followers over on Instagram, @disneyvillepodcast, what they like to do on their Disney travel days and there were TONS of awesome responses!
Wandering the World of Disney at Disney Springs is sure to get you feeling magical!
We love to eat at Homecomin’ on our arrival day and stop at Wine Bar George’s walk up window for a frozen old fashioned!
If its an early flight, drop your bags at the resort and head straight to MK. If its a midday flight drop bags at the resort and head to Disney Springs.
Explore the resort or area we are staying and enjoy the pool. We usually use this as our get set and relax day before many full or early park days.
Take an early flight, unpack, relax at the resort and watch the fireworks from my resort (if I can).
Lowkey day at Disney Springs, no agenda just take it easy. Usually we’ll take the boat from Disney Springs to Riverside to get beignets and then have an early night to prepare for park day the next day.
One: order Amazon fresh, unpack and organize, walk around the quiet resort at night. Two: appreicate my feet not hurting yet!
My favorite thing to do on arrival day is spend my afternoon at Disney Springs, get my first Joffrey’s of the trip, pin trade and explore World of Disney before getting dinner at one of the resorts. Sebatians Bistro at Caribbean Beach is one of our favorites!
If I have an Annual Pass: spend an evening in the park. If I don’t have an Annual Pass: go to Geyser Point at Wildnerness Lodge.
Resort hop, grab dinner at a different resort than the one we’re staying at and then watch the fireworks from my resort!
Drop my bags in my room, grab a refreshing drink and explore the resort!
Disney freaking Springs baby!
Ride around in the Skyliner if you’re staying at a Skyliner resort!
We love to ride the monorail even if we’re not going to MK, it’s the first ride of the trip!
We always do the Resort Loop for supper when we arrive and then watch the fireworks from Grand Floridian!
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Did you know that the amazing travel agents over at our partner agency People Mover Travel can help you plan your next Disney vacation completely free? That’s right, planning services are totally complimentary! Visit the People Mover Travel website for more information!