Arrival night: supper options? Fireworks?

Hello all, I will be bringing 3 girls (my daughters, 13 and 6, and oldest daughter’s BFF, 13) to Orlando at the end of August. We’ll be arriving Thurs afternoon 8/26, flying into MCO at 4 PM, and staying at Pop Century. We will have a day at MK, one at DHS, one at AK and a day at Harry Potter at Universal before heading home. Am wondering what experienced folks would recommend that we do that first evening? The girls all are excellent eaters of varied things, so considering making a reservation at Sanaa or another cool restaurant. We are not going to have a day at Epcot so also wondering if there’s somewhere outside the park that we could station ourselves to see those fireworks? Open to all interesting suggestions! Thanks in advance.

All the parks have fireworks. Ohana’s in MK is Great. Crystal Place is good. Get to Pandora in AK and ride Flight of Passage, it is a must. Of coarse if your Star Wars fans HS is also a place not to miss.

IF your flight arrives on time at 4:00 and you are taking DME, you may not be at your resort until 6;00. I wouldn’t plan anything but getting to the room and going to the pool.

So as to not confuse the author–AK does not have fireworks and Ohana is not in MK. I don’t think the OP is looking to hit the parks on arrival day.

3 Likes

You could try dinner at one of the Boardwalk resort restaurants and then hang out on the bridge closest to Epcot and watch the fireworks. You could then sprint to the Skyliner to get back to Pop before the masses leave Epcot. Another option is Topolino’s at Riviera.

Welcome to the forum!
I second Toppolinos for dinner that first night. You can hang out at their outdoor lounge and watch the fireworks after your meal.

1 Like

I just want to check that you know you’ll need park to park tickets for UOR if you want to do all the Harry Potter stuff in one day.

Yes this would be a good arrival night! Just give yourself time to get there! Never had it but could do pizza window at the boardwalk too then fireworks.

I agree with a 4pm landing you’ll not be to resort until about 6pm, but that still leaves plenty of time for eats and fireworks.

I would consider aiming for an MK area resort to have dinner and then stick around from one of the beaches or similar.

'Ohana would be a good one, and then hit Poly beach
Chef Mickey would be a lot of fun, and then monorail over to Poly beach
Cali Grill would be a splurge, and you can either go out on the concourse during your meal or return and show your receipt to go back up if you eat earlier.

And HS fireworks have not been announced yet. Should be back by then, but Fantasmic is not viewable from outside the park and the SW fireworks are low and tough to see from most places but within the park too.

true it is not in MK but rather Poly. I thought AK had fireworks as well but I guess it is only the tree of life show.

They don’t have fireworks at AK because of all of the animals there.

2 Likes

They did have Rivers of Light but there were no fireworks. I don’t know if that’s coming back.

My own kids were all about the pool so if your are the same I would plan to eat at the pool. Otherwise my vote is to take the quick skyliner ride to Toplolinos and watch fireworks from there.

1 Like