Are We Nuts??? Early Flight to Orlando

[MicheleNJ]

We are going to WDW on May 6, and I booked our flight for 6:10 (or something like that) leaving from Phila. I wasn't thinking about having to get there 2 hours early, plus we live 45 minutes from the airport, plus we have a 5 year old and an 8 year old to wake up!!! We'll have to wake up around 3 a.m. - yikes!!! Does anyone else do this for Disney??

[AZKathy]

Yes, we do. We live out west and the flights are long, so the earlier we get outta Arizona, the better to have more time in Florida. We have to drive to Phoenix, to boot! Our flight in May leaves at 7:00, so we have to leave around 3:00 am to drive to Phoenix and be there early enough. Unfortunately, the kiddos are too excited to sleep while we drive to Phoenix, so it makes a very very long day for us all!

[MicheleNJ]

I know what you mean about the kids being too excited to sleep. I'd be pretty naive to think I could get them to either say asleep or fall back to sleep once we get them in the car! I doubt if they'll even be able to sleep on the plane - they never have in the past! One thing we can bet on is that they will sleep soundly that first night!

[LOVETHATMOUSE]

We usually take a 6:10 flight out of LGA to MCO. We have a car pick us up at 4:00 and usually get there by 4:20 AM. My dd usually goes to the airport in her jammies and I change her on the plane before we land. Because we go so early, usually the first day at WDW is a DTD, exploring or pool/hotel day. We are usually in bed early too so we can make at 7:30 breakfast at the castle! Early flights are the best.

[jel0511]

I haven't left that early, we usually take the first flight out of EWR which is 7:00. It does really stink getting up that early and everyone is exhausted!!! But just think, you'll plane will land around 9:00 and you'll be in the world by 10!!!! A full day in my book. Just go back to your resort for a nap in the afternoon, it will recharge your batteries!!!! I wouldn't plan any craxzy activities for the first night, we made that mistake EVEN with naps and by 7:00 the kids had had it and were VERY cranky!!! WE of course were eating dinner, so it was difficult to say the least!!!!

[georgiapeach60]

We will be doing this on Friday. We have a 6am flight out of Austin. Luckily it only takes us about 15 to 20 min. to get to the airport. I already told the kids they can sleep in thier clothes, sleepwalk through brushing thier teeth and thier father and I will direct them into the car and buckle them in. Who will do that for us is still the question:D I am still debating whether to get there 1 1/2 or 2 hours early. According to Continental the 6am flight is not considered a "peak" time but I don't know. I'm pretty anal about being at placed in plenty of time. Some people have suggested that if you live far from the airport with an early depart time to stay at one of the cheapie airport hotels that are real close and leave from there.

[scootert]

We almost always take the 6 a.m. I'm not really a morning person, but - I'm always glad we've done it. Fortunately, DH is a morning guy and drives to the airport, etc. We get to Orlando around 11:30 and have plenty of time to relax and enjoy the day. Leaving that early also allows for any flight difficulties (getting another flight, etc).

[DisneyJen]

We almost always take that first USAir flight at 6:10 out of PHL. We live about 50 minutes from the airport so we usually stay at the Marriott, which is attached to the airport, at PHL. Saves us the drive time and craziness in morning. Dh usually will walk over to the terminal when it opens at 5 a.m. and check our bags. DD, who is 9, and I meet him at secuiirty and we check in at the gate.

We usually can find a $75 rate for the hotel. Well worth the money in my book:D

[skeezixspud]

It depends on how many days you'll be gone, of course, but you may find that a Park/Fly deal is no more expensive than the parking fees you would have paid in any case. You drive in at your leisure the night before, pay to stay overnight, and park your car at the hotel at no add'l charge.

I now live very close to our airport, but that has not always been the case. I always liked P&F because it forced me to get my packing done earlier. I have a tendency to stay up until 2 am finishing up the last of it, then be a zombie on the first day of my trip.

[nisiemouse]

We are doing it in November and have flown that early before to disney. In Jan when we went we flew Southwest and our 8:00 am flight was cancelled after Sep 11 so we had to take a noon flight that arrived at 3:30 pm. I really missed getting to disney early. Have a safe flight!

[AZKathy]

Michele, last June, the kids were so excited, they stayed awake the entire drive to Phoenix, the entire 3+ hour flight to Atlanta, and then CRASHED on the flight from Atlanta to Orlando which is the most exciting part of the trip! I swear all three were fast asleep before we got off the ground in Atlanta!

[Snoozan]

I took a 6:00 am flight out of Hartford this past November. As we live an hour away from the airport, this meant getting up at 3:00am and we were to the airport by 4:30am. As we did only carry-on luggage and had E tickets, we did not have to wait in the baggage check-in line, but were thru security and sitting by the gate desk by 4:35am!!!

Of course, that night my sister & I were useless. I think we were in our room by 7:00pm, sprawled on our beds watching TV and getting rested up for the rest of our trip.

I always take the early flight to WDW-makes you feel like you've got an extra day there!

[Rock'n Robin]

We did that in December. We had a car take us to the airport and it picked us at at 3:30. We have 3 kids, ages 3,6 and 9.
The plane left at 6:45. (we flew out of Detroit which is 80 minutes away). The good thing was getting there before 5 the security lines were short! I guess later in the morning, even an hour later, it gets to be a nightmare.
DS (3) slept most of the way down, but not the girls. That night we did MVMCP, and by the time we were at the 10:30 "twas the night before Christmas" I had three kids nodding off! DH took them back to the hotel and I shopped before getting back to the Poly at 11:30 PM! The next day we all slept until 9:45--UNHEARD of on a regular Disney vacation, but welcome on this one--it was only a 4 day trip for the holidays, and we knew we were coming back in July!
I'd do it again--even though our plane was delayed a little in Atlanta and we didn't get to ORlando until 12:15, we had a lot of time to resort hop before MVMCP.
Robin M.

[minster22]

We always take a 7am flight out of Boston and last trip we did a Park & Fly stay at the Hyatt in Boston. We live on Cape Cod which is about 1 1/2 hrs away, on a good traffic day, and in Boston with the Big Dig and all alot of things can go wrong. Staying at the airport the night before made for a much less stressed trip the next day. Another plus for taking the earliest flight in the am besides seeing Mickey before NOON!! is that if there are any problems with weather, plane etc there are lots of other options for flights. We always keep it very simple the first day at WDW, a little lunch in Mexico then relax by the pool for the afternoon.We have learned from past trips that we are just too tired to rush over to Fantasmic or MK and just try to get into vacation mode very gently.

[inkkognito]

We typically do the same thing. It wasn't bad before 9/11, but now it's more of a hassle with having to get to the airport so early. We have started booking our flights the night before whenever possible (we do DIsney cruises), but we already had several booked for the morning-of this year, so here is what we do:
We get a hotel near O'Hare via Hotwire (there is a great Candlewood Suites there, right down the street from the parking lot we use). Then we head out there, have dinner on the way, and try to get to bed early. That way, even tho' we're still getting up before dawn, it's not as bad because we don't have a 45 to 60 minute drive. We did this for our Jan. 17th trip and it worked out great, so we're doing it again next weekend. For the next two after that, we are flying out the night before the cruise and stayed at a hotel by MCO (again, we get great deals via Hotwire). It's a hassle, but well worth the trip!
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.*****************

[Patti PB]

We are doing a 7 am out of Vegas in March, and the airport is about 30 minutes away. To make matters worse, I'm working until 1 am the night before!!! I doubt I'll even go to bed---what's the point!?!? Just wish we had a non-stop, so I could sleep!

Patti

[Uncleromulus]

This is how we almost always do it flying out of BWI in Baltimore--up at 3:00 AM etc. The traffic to the airport is nil at these hours, and getting to WDW before 10:00 adds one entire day to our trip.

[gamas]

We were so excited we were finally going to the World I book our family ( dh, 2 DDs, ages 7 and 4, and myself) on a flight from PIT to ATL to MCO... that left at 6 from PIT and we had a layover of almost 2 hours in ATL and arrival in MCO at 11:15.

The worst part was we live about 2 hours from the airport and did the Park N fly thing so we ending up leaving our home at 2 am...

My daughters were so excited they didn't mind getting up that early and the only onewho slept our 4yo for about 1 hour on the plane...

It really made for a long day and we were all pretty cranky come that evening...

[DeeP]

We always take the earliest flight to Orlando at 7:00 AM and the latest flight back from Orlando at 6:00 PM. We love it, it gives us almost 2 extra days at WDW. We arrive at WDW by 10:30 AM the latest, check into our room and hit one of the parks. After spending the morning at one of the parks and having lunch we go back to our WDW resort and our room is ready. We then either nap in the room or nap by the pool and then take showers, go have dinner at one of the WS restaurants in Epcot, watch Illuninations and then go back to our resort and crash. The next day we will sleep in and have a nice breakfast at a WDW restaurant and continue our vacation. The night before we leave, we pack everything up and our last morning we eat a small breakfast at our resort them go to a park and enjoy ourselves, have a big lunch at a WDW restauant, enjoy the park for a few more hours and then head out to the airport. We leave Orlando and are home before 9:00 PM to sadly ease our way back into the real world. :(

[Pollyann]

Michele:
I'm flying with my DD (5 yr old) and DS (7yr old) on May 6 from PHI at 6:15am. I have no idea how I'm going to get myself up, let alone the kids. I like DisneyJen's idea about staying at the Marriot (though I have never stayed there before). We live about a 1 1/2 hour drive away from the airport (we'll have to leave at 2:30am if we leave that morning). I really want to be able to do a park on May 6th (we're only staying until May 9th) so I do not want to be too tired when we get there. Good luck on your travels!:o

[TZMOM]

I just made reservations (I can't believe I just did this) w/USAir leaving out of Philly at 6:10 a.m. getting into ORlando at 8:24 a.m. I've been watching ticket prices for about the past 5 or 6 mos. & the price I got for the 2 of us ($323.00) was the best I've seen since right around the time those idiots bombed the WTC. I can't actually believe I'll be up in the "3's", but now that I've committed to it, I have to admit, I'm getting excited - it'll be hard to wait until 5/18/02 to get there now!!!

:pinkbounc :pinkbounc :pinkbounc :pinkbounc :pinkbounc

[nluvwithdisney]

Count us in. We pick as early of a flight as possible to get to Orlando. Next trip in August will be a 7AM flight from Chicago. This way we can have a full day at one of the parks.

[NJmouse]

We did what DisneyJen did last April. We had someone drop us off at the Marriot and we spent the night got up at 4 and had no problem catching our flight. You can get a better nights sleep that way. This May 11th we are flying out of AC on Spirit at 7am We only live 15 mins from there.

[Rock'n Robin]

Come to think of it this isn't nuts at all. On our first WDW trip we didn't get to Orlando until around 3, and left at 2PM. That meant our first evening in the parks, and no park time on our last day. Now we know better--get to Orlando about 11:30, and then not leave until at least 7PM.
Robin M.

[Jackie824]

We are going to Disney World in March. I booked our tickets via Orbitz in August, to get their cheapest rate from Norfolk, Va to Orlando we had to take an early morning flight or late afternoon. I opted for the earlyone,because we get there at 10:05am, but we stop in Atlanta for an hr(I think). Well when we first booked it was suppose to be a 5:50am flight, a few months later Orbitz sends me an e-mail saying flight times have changed to 5:40am, OUCH!:o We live about 15-20 minutes from the airport and we will leave our car there. I wouldnt dare ask anybody to drive us at that hr. I know they state that they want you there 2 hrs ahead of time, but I need to call and check to see if Security will be there or ticket people will be there at that time. The Norfolk airport is VERY small, kinda like going to a shopping mall. I know it will be an early morning for me and dh and kids, but well worth it once we are onthat plane to Disney.

[sueg]

We always took the 7 AM flight from Newark airport to WDW. But about 2 yrs. ago, I found a late flight (9 PM) & we started flying down the night "before" our vacation. I got some really good prices on Delta, so the extra nt. accomodations were more than off-set for our family of 4. Since 9/11, the airline scheduling seems to have changed (Just like everything else in our lives!). It would cost soooo much more to flyout the night before. So we are back to the 7 AM flight. We get up quite early during the wk. at home, so now that the kids are older, I don't expect as much crankiness from taking the early AM flight.

[cookie2001]

My best advice is to get to sleep as early the night before as possible. I always have last minute packing to do despite my best intentions. We took an early flight last trip and let the 2 dds sleep in a T-shirt and just put on jeans when they woke up. When we got to DW they were fine but we were beat. I thought we would enjoy getting there early and we did enjoy a swim in the pool but it would have been a lot better if we had gotten a little more sleep the night before.

Just my 2 cents.

[Beanie]

Well, we live about 3 hours from Manchester airport, so we always "park and fly"...I always try to get a very early flight as I like to be in Florida when it is still morning! :D So, we just stay overnight, usually at the hotel closest to the airport...it makes it much easier for the two kids (4 and 2)! :)

Have a great time! :)

[MycatlovesEeyore]

We always try to take the 6:00 am flight out of Greensboro. We will be landing in MCO about 7:40 and that will give us time for just about a whole day to do what we want. Whether it be a park day with our annual passes or a "settling in" day it is nice to get the travelling over with early. We also wait and fly out late on our final day. That allows us to get the most out of our visit.

In your situation I would definitely check into the "park and play" options at the hotels near your airport. That would seem to be a nice solution.

[MycatlovesEeyore]

We always try to take the 6:00 am flight out of Greensboro. We will be landing in MCO about 7:40 and that will give us time for just about a whole day to do what we want. Whether it be a park day with our annual passes or a "settling in" day it is nice to get the travelling over with early. We also wait and fly out late on our final day. That allows us to get the most out of our visit.

In your situation I would definitely check into the "park and play" options at the hotels near your airport. That would seem to be a nice solution.