We currently have plans for our family of 4 adults to fly into Orlando (staying at the Boardwalk Villa) and arriving at 7:30 a.m. in the morning. This essentially means we are staying up all night to catch our plane out of Atlanta. I’m starting to have regrets about doing that! I think we’ll be exhausted by the time we get half-way through the day. I know that we could sleep the first day, but we are meeting friends who are first time Disney visitors and we don’t want to do that. Plus, we have dinner and show reservations in Animal Kingdom for the River of Lights that night.
I wonder if it would be worth it to change our flight to arrive one day earlier-- the evening before-- so we could get in and get some sleep first. If we did that, is there a place we could reserve that isn’t so expensive so we could essentially just sleep, then transfer our luggage the next day to the Boardwalk for the remainder of our stay?
Would love some advice!
I would probably fly in the night before. Even after a full night’s sleep, RD to closing can be exhausting; trying to do that after an all-nighter would be brutal. Plus, if your flight arrives at 7:30, the likelihood of you being at the park much before 10:00 is slim, which means you would miss valuable rope drop time. I stayed at the Embassy Suites on Kyng’s Heath Rd one time and really liked it; it’s about a 5-10 min drive to the WDW gate. The Caribe Royale is literally across the street from WDW and is also a viable option. I’m not sure what the rates are, but I’m sure they’re less than the BW… That being said, you might want to check out one of the WDW value resorts. That way you could take advantage of the DME from the airport, you’d be as close to the parks as you could get, and Disney will take care of transferring your luggage.
We are driving in the night before and staying at Pop for one night. I didn’t want to spend the money for the deluxe resort we’ll be staying during the rest of the week when we would not be able to use the amenities or really do anything that first night. Plus, I’d like to experience Pop 
The key here is that Disney will move your bags to the next resort for you. So when we wake up, we will take our bags to bell services and head to the park. That night we will go to the deluxe resort and our bags should be waiting.
If your in Atlanta why not drive this way you have a car to go to the parks so you would not have to wait on Disney transport. I live in NJ with a family of 3 it is cheaper for us to drive then fly. For you it would be about a 6 hour drive. If you think that you need to be at the airport 2 hours before your flight, and a hour on the plane, then 30 min to get off the plane and out of the airport and 20-30 min on MDE. It’s only 2 more hours to drive, and you save how much on air fare? Oh and don’t forget if you park at the airport you have to pay for parking and/or transport to and from the airport.
In April, we are flying in from Seattle. but that takes all day. Get in about midnight, staying at an airport hotel with shuttle. in the morning, will take shuttle back to airport to MDE
We couldn’t get our GF room the first night of our stay but I was firm on our arrival date due to airfare cost. So we spent the first night in a Little Mermaid room at Art of Animation. This was perfect - we didn’t spend a lot of money on a room we’d barely be in, we still got to use Magical Express (important to us due to carseat needs otherwise) and they transferred our bags to GF the next day while we were at the park. Plus, we did the dining plan and this strategy cut our costs for a day we’d barely be there. (Didn’t pay for a day of dining plan we wouldn’t use getting in late, didn’t spend a lot on a hotel we’d hardly use.) I’d definitely do this again if I got in later on my first day. It was easy to just pack our “first day” things in one suitcase and not unpack before moving to our “real” room for the week.
This looks like a job for Pop Century!
I’m wondering, as Joe did, why you would choose to fly rather than simply drive if coming from Atlanta? Cheaper, and quite possibly faster when you factor in time to airport, waiting time, etc.
Of course…we drive from Michigan. Much cheaper than flying.
We are staying at POP on our arrival night and switching to BCV in the morning in April. I payed $140. And we get to check out Pop!