Few things are more exciting than arriving at Disney World for your magical vacation. Each Disney Resorts Collection Hotel offers its own unique guest experience. No matter which resort you’ve chosen for your Disney Adult trip, you’re guaranteed to find plenty of things to do starting on day one!
Whether you drive, fly, or are a local, your arrival day will likely be a flurry of activity. You can streamline some of the process by completing the Online Check-In in advance. This can be accomplished right in your My Disney Experience app. Talk about convenient! This Direct-to-Room service means many guests can completely skip the front desk and head directly to their rooms (once you receive that “Your Room Is Ready” notification, of course).
Even if you arrive before your room is ready, you still have access to certain resort amenities, including the resort pools. So, let’s talk about some things you may want to do on your arrival day!
Grab a Meal or Snack
Visiting my resort’s Quick Service location is always one of my first stops on arrival day. Quick Service locations offer breakfast, lunch, dinner, and plenty of snacks, so you can find a tasty bite no matter the time of day. Many locations have unique offerings exclusive to that resort, so it’s definitely worth checking them out!
If you’ve purchased the Disney Dining Plan, you can begin using your entitlements even before your room is ready. Grab your Rapid Fill Refillable Mug and visit participating locations at your resort (or any Disney Resort) to start enjoying snacks, meals, and drinks anytime on your check-in day.
Explore Resort Activities and Amenities
As I mentioned earlier, you have access to many of your resort’s amenities right away, even if your room isn’t ready yet. Want to go for a swim? To access the pool area, use the “Unlock Door” feature in your app or your MagicBand. But wait…there’s more!
All Disney Resorts Collection Hotels offer recreational activities. Activities like poolside games, Movies Under the Stars, and nightly campfires are complimentary. Others including Mickey Tie Dye, painting, or boat rentals are available at an additional cost. Certain resorts even offer exclusive activities you won’t find anywhere else. How about observing the Purple Martin Nest Check at Caribbean Beach or learning about African culture from cultural representatives through String of Memories activities at Animal Kingdom Lodge? These are just some examples of things you can do during your trip! I highly encourage you to a look at the Activities Schedule for your resort to discover more.
Go Resort Hopping
After you’ve taken some time to explore your own resort, why not see what other Disney Resorts have to offer? You can do this by resort hopping. Resort hopping is the practice of visiting multiple Disney Resort Collection Hotels during your vacation. Instead of spending the day in a theme park, you travel between resorts to explore their lobbies, restaurants, shops, recreational areas, and themed environments. Our team loves using the Disney Skyliner or monorail to resort hop. Sounds great, right?
Resort hopping using Disney’s complimentary transportation is a great way to experience other Disney Resorts for free. You can, of course, spend money at a gift shop or restaurant, but you don’t have to unless you want to. I definitely have my favorite gift shops to visit when I’m resort hopping, though!
Visit Disney Springs
Another option is to head to Disney Springs. Disney Springs is popular shopping and entertainment district. Currently, you’ll find nearly 90 different retail stores including popular favorites like LEGO, Sephora, and UNIQLO. Disney Springs is also home to World of Disney, which offers the world’s largest collection of Disney merchandise!
It’s likely you’ll work up an appetite while you shop ’til you drop. Don’t worry, you definitely won’t go hungry while visiting Disney Springs! The district has numerous dining locations. Hungry visitors can find everything from snack kiosks and quick service locations to signature dining and celebrity chef-owned restaurants.
What about that entertainment we mentioned? If you have a competitive streak, you can challenge your traveling companions to bowl a game or two at Splitsville Luxury Lanes. Another option is the brand-new Level99 location. Here, you’ll find 60 themed games and challenges designed for adults who want a bit of friendly competition. If you want something less hands-on, you can check out live performances on stages both indoors and out. One thing’s for sure, a visit to Disney Springs is never boring!
A Disney Springs Caveat
One huge caution: as of June 28, 2026, Disney is cracking down on bus and boat transportation from Disney Springs to the Disney Resorts. You can no longer ride Disney buses or boats from Disney Springs to a Disney Resort unless the guest holds a resort, activity, or dining reservation at the resort where you are attempting to travel.
This new policy will impact resort hopping originating from Disney Springs, as you will no longer be able to visit a random resort (without some sort of reservation). There is a workaround, but it will take a bit of time and effort:
- Take Disney transportation back to your own resort first.
- From there, you can head to any of the theme parks.
- Once you arrive at the theme park, hop on another form of transportation that’s headed to your ultimate destination.
Get Free Waterpark Admission
If your check-in day is on or before September 8, 2026, you have another perk to enjoy. This summer, Disney Resort guests can enjoy free admission to a Disney water park on check-in day. Want to know what makes this perk even sweeter? Disney’s Blizzard Beach and Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon are both open all summer long, so you can take your pick of which one to visit!
Visit a Theme Park
Last but not least, you can always visit a theme park such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Visiting a theme park on your arrival day may or may not be the best option for you. A lot of it will depend on your length of stay, time of arrival, and what you’d like to accomplish at each theme park during your visit.
Before You Can Arrive, You Need To Schedule A Trip!
If all of these arrival day suggestions sound appealing, you know what you need to do. Plan a Disney vacation, of course! If you’d like some help with the process, click the button below for a free Disney vacation quote from Marcus with Purely Luxe Vacations.
Now that you’ve seen all the things you can enjoy on arrival day, you’re probably ready to hit the ground running. Before you head out to tackle that magical to-do list, remember that you can conveniently store your luggage with Bell Services until your room is ready. You can even use the Baggage Transfer service if you’re flying Southwest and checking into a select resort such as Disney’s Pop Century. Stay tuned to MouseHouseNews.net for more tips, suggestions, and reviews you can use to plan your ideal vacation. Be sure to check out the MouseHouseNewsNet YouTube channel for even more magic! We’ll see you real soon!
