DW and I are expecting our first, but we have traveled with our niece and nephew before so some experience with kids. We, whether it's just the two of us or the family with kids in tow, almost always make our arrival day a non-park day unless we can be in the park before noon, and even then we sometimes wait. I will say that we travel a lot around Christmas (DW and my sister are both teachers and we live in TX so vacation to us means somewhere not hot and humid, aka no summer trips), and we really enjoy going to some of the different resorts and seeing the chocolate and gingerbread sculptures at that time of year. We also will go to AKL and just look at the animals for a bit, we've walked around the boardwalk and just eaten a slice of pizza for a light lunch and looked around. Since the pools are heated we aren't shy about a dip though it can be a sprint back to the room if it's cold out. We have walked on the beach at the Poly, gone to look at the mural in CR, just taken a lap around the monorail to see everything and start to get into the vacation spirit, so to speak. And, at least for DW and I, our tradition is always Disney Springs on our first night. We enjoy Raglan Road for dinner and always, no matter what time of year, visit the Christmas store to buy an ornament souvenir for the trip so that they have time to personalize it and deliver it to the hotel for us. Our niece and nephew have enjoyed doing those things with us as well, but have also been happy to watch the Disney movies playing in the lobby/common area.
