We (me, DH, DS(11), DS(9)) arrive next Monday (23rd). Flight lands around 10:30 am. The plan was to do Blizzard Beach for a few hours in the afternoon before checking into our resort and having dinner at Steakhouse71 at 6:30 pm. The forecast suggests the weather might be cold enough for them not to open Blizzard Beach that day. If does, we will go (Canadian so high 60s/low 40s is still plenty warm enough for us to swim lol).
If it doesn’t open, what would you do instead? We rented a car so it doesn’t even need to be at Disney, although we are moving to Universal later in the week so wouldn’t likely go there early.
Some ideas so far:
-WinterSummerland and/or Fantasia (DS9 loves mini-golf).
Resort hopping to see Christmas decorations (already had this planned for the evening, but can always rest at night instead as we planned to rope drop MK at 7:30 am the next day).
Disney Springs (none of us love shopping, but we could see some of the Christmas trees, take the kids to the Lego store, get some treats).
Also, how much time would you set aside for Blizzard Beach if doing it on a park day? We will likely try to fit it into one of our park days as our kids are more excited about Blizzard Beach than going to the parks again. (They’ve never done Blizzard Beach). I figured we could probably do it on the 25th before AK (which has EEH so we could stay until 9 pm).
I like all of your ideas and they are all what I was going to recommend - if you don’t have a park ticket, that is. If you do, I would suggest having lunch at your resort or at an MK-area resort QS and then dipping in for a couple of hours of fun before your dinner.
Can’t answer your second question. We’ve never done a waterpark and are looking forward to 2025 when we can check it/them out for “free”!
One thing I would think about that isn’t on your list is off site shopping. I would maybe do some of that (groceries and souvineers) in addition to the resort crawl. We take long trips though and always purchase some essentials via grocery delivery. I perpetually find myself conflicted between unpacking/getting groceries delivered and going straight to the parks. I like to keep arrival day pretty flexible due to flights being rather unpredictable. But I would worry about a delayed flight A LOT and I know not everyone has the same type of anxiety.
Depending on where you are staying, you could rent a family bike/buggy (I don’t know their actual name) and drive them around either Port Orleans Riverside or Boardwalk. They may have them in other places as well. I also like taking the boat to and from Disney Springs to different resorts. If you’ve never eaten at Olivia’s, I would catch a boat at Disney Springs to Old Key West and eat there, check out that resort and then boat back. You could do a similar thing with the resorts near MK. Ride the monorail and visit all three of those resorts and then hop a boat to Wilderness Lodge or Fort Wildneress for a meal. I highly recommend Hoop Dee Doo dinner show, if you haven’t ever done that (or even if you have!). It could be a fun way to spend part of your day.
Never underestimate this. We just like to chill and maybe dinner. You don’t want to tire yourself on the first day and you’re already tired from traveling.
I personally wouldn’t try to squeeze this into a park day. I think 6 hours is adequate, plus travel time and that’s the whole day. For me, anything less than 4 hours would be more hassle than it’s worth. But we aren’t Rope Drop to close people, lol.
Arrival day mini golf sounds fun!
We’ve only played WinterSummerland and it’s great. I’ve heard one side of Fantasia is very easy and the other side is for real golfers- super difficult. My vote would be WinterSummerland.
We’ve rope dropped a water park and stayed through lunch before heading to a park mid-afternoon. That was plenty of time for us but we find a couple of hours enough time for water slides and pools.
I’m thinking it would be enough for us too. We have 2 full waterpark days later in our trip at different waterparks, but the boys want to experience some of Blizzard Beach. Hoping the weather improves and our original plan works out, but we will see.
The nice thing about Blizzard Beach is that it opens later than the other parks (10:00 I think), so you don’t have to rush in the morning to rope drop. We have gotten there around 9:30, found a spot for our stuff when they let us in and done three or four slides very quickly. Then a spin in the lazy river and maybe some time in the wave pool. Lunch around noon-1:00 and at another park by 2:00ish.
The only issue is transportation. We always take Disney transportation to parks but on water park days we have driven.