Arriving on a later flight

[2littleboys]

Normally when flying to Orlando we arrive around 3pm local time.

This time we are flying indirect to Miami and won’t arrive until 7pm. Taking into account immigration queues and the transfer to our hotel I'm presuming we will be exhausted.

Just looking to hear others experiences of arriving on a later flight, do you “do anything” that evening or just collapse into bed to save yourself for the next day?

[loldis]

I always choose a later flight when I can, find it much easier than struggling through from mid-afternoon. By the time I do check in, maybe get some food and settle into the room, it's a reasonable time to go to bed.

[PPM]

Prefer a later flight. Yes you may be tired but you will also be tired if you arrive earlier. You won’t have any immigration queues as you will arrive in domestic, so just collect bags and go.
We would just settle into accommodation, and depending on time either out for a quick meal at the likes of IHOP or have aPizza delivered.
That way you should be fresher in the morning ready to start your holiday.

[boo2]

Circumstances usually mean we always arrive late to Orlando. We did arrive from Manchester once on an early flight but we were so tired that we just had something to eat and had an early night. We live in Scotland so drove down to Manchester the night before after work and stayed in an hotel so we were probably already tired.
I’m now used to arriving late grabbing something to eat and straight to bed.

[sully301]

last time we flew it was with Norwegian and it was terrible. Longest wait in immigration ever. We were absolutely knackered and didn't arrive to our hotel until 10pm. It was only because it was cheap we did it. Would always try earlier in future

[grant_w]

All we want to do on arrival day is get to the villa, and pop to the Walmart to stock the villa up. We've never considered doing anything else that day.
We're arriving fairly late next year too so it's up to the driver whether we manage to get out and get shopping. One year we arrived late and we really didn't fancy staying up to go shopping, so we went to bed and went the next morning at stupid o'clock

[NewtoOrlando]

We usually drive to our hotel about an hour away, get food, have a beer and flop. Normally up and out the next morning before 8. But we’re never in any particular rush to get to Orlando either.

[Gill H]

Both our trips so far have involved us not checking in until 10pm. The first time we were delayed 5 hours by snow. Second time the plane arrived 6.30 and immigration was quick but customs was crazy, it was 9pm by the time we got to Magic Express and then sat there for half an hour before moving.

First time we were at POR. We got some food from the food court and found our way to the room.

Second time was SSR, they took us to the room on a golf buggy. We found our way over to Marketplace and went to Wolfgang Puck Express for pizza. It was bitterly cold weather and they had sold out of a lot of things. Got back to the room by about 11.30 but we were still up at 3am making coffee!

[duchy]

We don’t ever plan anything more than check in, food and a swim or explore the property the first night. We know with jet lag we will be awake super early the next morning and want to make the first full day a good one , not run out of steam early in the day.

[sky13]

Generally I tend to be on flights that mean I get to my resort around 7pm-ish. In the past, I've done both extremes on arrival day - collapse into bed (maybe with a quick stop at the food court for food) and wake up extremely early the next morning to hit rope drop; or go to MK and stay until close!

I tend to not plan anything for the first night. If I'm up to going to a park then that's great and I'll do it, but if I'm too tired I won't push it. Although I think I may have booked one Disney After Hours for arrival day before (if my memory doesn't fail me)...

It's hard to know how tired/awake I'll be on arrival due to the length of the journey and the jet lag (I fly to MCO from a little bit further away than the UK so it's a longer journey and more time zones though). On occasion I have been extremely well rested from the flights and completely ready to go on touchdown at MCO!