The Early Flight Debacle... How Do You Prepare For The Wake Up?

[IvyWinter]

So I'm taking a 7:30 A.M flight from JFK to disney in just about 3 weeks and im kind of dreading the wake up. Growing up, I lived in Queens, about a 10 min drive from JFK, and had the luxury of not having to get up too early to get there. Now, I live in Manhattan, hate the idea of a $50+ taxi (which will take me like 45 minutes anyway) and would rather take the LIRR from Penn to the air train. Anyway, that puts me at taking a 5:30am or so LIRR train, to get to the airport a little after 6am. Which means likely getting up at 4:30. I get up at 8 am for work every morning so i am NOT used to that early and it's been years since ive taken such an early flight.

How do you all deal with it? Do you schedule earlier mornings a few days before to get used to it? Do you just go to bed normal time, wake up early and sleep on the plane? Do you say screw it and take a 5 hours energy or something? I just would love to know how you "prep" for early flights!

 

[Disneytam]

So I'm taking a 7:30 A.M flight from JFK to disney in just about 3 weeks and im kind of dreading the wake up. Growing up, I lived in Queens, about a 10 min drive from JFK, and had the luxury of not having to get up too early to get there. Now, I live in Manhattan, hate the idea of a $50+ taxi (which will take me like 45 minutes anyway) and would rather take the LIRR from Penn to the air train. Anyway, that puts me at taking a 5:30am or so LIRR train, to get to the airport a little after 6am. Which means likely getting up at 4:30. I get up at 8 am for work every morning so i am NOT used to that early and it's been years since ive taken such an early flight.

How do you all deal with it? Do you schedule earlier mornings a few days before to get used to it? Do you just go to bed normal time, wake up early and sleep on the plane? Do you say screw it and take a 5 hours energy or something? I just would love to know how you "prep" for early flights!

This made me laugh! I have to get up EVERY morning seven days a week by 5 am so in all honesty I can't really relate but in two weeks we have a really early flight to Disney and I will have to get up around 3:30 am. I would just set a couple of alarms and get up that morning early. Seriously though you are going to Disney so if you are anything like me you will be chomping at the bit ready to get up and get going! I can't remember the last time I used an alarm clock, and I won't this time either I will just wake up around 3:30.

 

[IvyWinter]

This made me laugh! I have to get up EVERY morning seven days a week by 5 am so in all honesty I can't really relate but in two weeks we have a really early flight to Disney and I will have to get up around 3:30 am. I would just set a couple of alarms and get up that morning early. Seriously though you are going to Disney so if you are anything like me you will be chomping at the bit ready to get up and get going! I can't remember the last time I used an alarm clock, and I won't this time either I will just wake up around 3:30.

Haha, glad i could give you the laugh! I'm very lucky my work starts at 9:30 (though ends at 6:30, thats the trade off) and I live 30 minutes away, so this is the latest ive ever gotten up for a job...and therefore it's made me lazy chomping at the bit, true! but i do HORRIBLE on a small amount of sleep. Im immediately miserable within 3-4 hours of waking if i don't get 7-8 hours of sleep, so im dreading not having that happen and being too excited/too used to my regular schedule to sleep!

 

[monorailsilver]

We had a 8am flight last April and we are 45 min from Hartford. We spent the night at the airport. My son had baseball practice and by the time all 3 kids no my mother were showered it was 10. I don't sleep well the night before and was up before my alarm.

Is there anyway you can spend the night at the airport?

 

[IvyWinter]

We had a 8am flight last April and we are 45 min from Hartford. We spent the night at the airport. My son had baseball practice and by the time all 3 kids no my mother were showered it was 10. I don't sleep well the night before and was up before my alarm.

Is there anyway you can spend the night at the airport?

Im considering it, whether dropping $100 for a hotel nearby or just sleeping IN the airport. Since im leaving on a monday it's possible i can get out there sunday. Just trying to decide if i want to do so!

 

[Disneytam]

Haha, glad i could give you the laugh! I'm very lucky my work starts at 9:30 (though ends at 6:30, thats the trade off) and I live 30 minutes away, so this is the latest ive ever gotten up for a job...and therefore it's made me lazy chomping at the bit, true! but i do HORRIBLE on a small amount of sleep. Im immediately miserable within 3-4 hours of waking if i don't get 7-8 hours of sleep, so im dreading not having that happen and being too excited/too used to my regular schedule to sleep!

Doing poorly on little sleep I can relate to! On our trip two years ago we had to leave the house by 5:00 am and I just had so many little things to do and it was the first time that we had left my son home by himself to take care of the farm that I just never got to bed all night and figured that I would catch three hours of sleep on the plane. BAD idea! Let's just say our first day at Disney was a little bit rough to say the least. I will not make that mistake again.

If you spent the night at the airport would you get any sleep? Everyone is different but for me I don't think that would help anything because I would be a cranky mess by morning.

 

[bumbershoot]

Im considering it, whether dropping $100 for a hotel nearby or just sleeping IN the airport. Since im leaving on a monday it's possible i can get out there sunday. Just trying to decide if i want to do so!

Spend the money. Get more sleep. Start your vacation early.

Don't sleep in the airport.

 

[Jennunc]

We got delayed coming home from Disney last month. From 1pm Friday to eventually 5:30am Saturday. We had to get up at 3am & had a 3:30am taxi back to the airport. Oh and we got to the hotel the airline set up for us after 9pm With our 5.5yr old and a 12month old. Normally we'd go to bed early & set a few alarms. Obviously not an option. We set lots of alarms & armed ourselves with a Starbucks once we hit a reasonable morning hour. Granted you know about your situation in advance, but generally we just make do & power through as best we can. If it will mess up your schedule & in turn your trip the extra expense of an airport hotel may be worth it to you.

 

[Ensusieasm]

Im considering it, whether dropping $100 for a hotel nearby or just sleeping IN the airport. Since im leaving on a monday it's possible i can get out there sunday. Just trying to decide if i want to do so!

Instead of staying at an airport hotel in your departure city, consider flying late afternoon or evening a day early and spend your hotel money on a Disney Value Resort. In the morning Bell Services will transfer your luggage to your Disney Resort and you can go strait to the parks. You can even sleep in. Either way, you wake up already where you want to be and start your vacation off right!

 

[goofy4tink]

I always used to book early morning flights. As I got older, I started having 'airport sleep'.....I would wake up every few hours, worrying that I had overslept!!! Not so good. Now, I don't book a flight that has me getting up earlier than 5am!
I would seriously consider spending Sunday night at a hotel close to the airport.

 

[dis_guy]

+1 for getting a hotel room at or very near the airport. We live some distance from out nearest airport and it's what we do every time we have an early departure. Considering we usually go to Disney during our winter, it's reassuring to go the night before and not worry about roads and weather the day of our flight.

 

[hsmamato2]

I don't know.... I like the novelty of a very early morning flight...since we don't usually getup and drive to the airport before dawn, it's something fun and different, and it feels like a 'real' vacation when we do that! Then I just nap a bit on the plane to destination, but I am a fan of early morning departures,to get wherever I'm going. I set my alarm for the day of, but I never need it,I always wake up a few minutes before anyway. For our family a 3:30 a.m. wakeup for a flight is considered normal lol (not our everyday lives tho!) I don't stay at the airport the night before since I wouldn't sleep anyway for that short night, so what's the point? We drive about 45 mins to get to airport too.

 

[jdb in AZ]

The early morning flights are just one of many things I hate about flying, but they're a necessary evil so I just put on my big girl panties and muddle through.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I'm another one that doesn't sleep well the night before anything that requires getting up much earlier that usual. When something like that happens I know I'm going to be tired and just deal with it.

OP...can you change your flight to a departure after work the night before? Then get a cheap hotel at your destination for that one night.

 

[pigletto]

I don't sleep very well the night before but dh is the worst. He might as well not go to bed at all. He gets anxious and it ruins his sleep. We've done the airport hotel for our early morning flights and that helps because even though we have to be in the airport at 6am, we are just across the street.
This upcoming trip we leave at 9:45 am. We'll still have to be ready to leave the house by about 6:30 am, but that won't be an issue.

OP, I agree with dancin above, maybe switch to the night before, or pay for the hotel to be close to the airport in the morning.

 

[nkereina]

If I have to get up early, I make sure I wake up early the day before. This will make me tired by the end of the night, which means hopefully I'll fall asleep easier and faster so I don't lose as much sleep having to get up early the next day. I do this every Sunday so I don't have as hard of a time getting to sleep for work on Monday

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

This made me laugh because unfortunately I get up between 4:00 and 5:00 every day to get a few hours of work in (I work from home) before the kids get up. But I'm probably more of a morning person, at least when my allergies aren't acting up.

My thinking for your situation is: if I were you I would need some time to shake off the sleep and feel human, and before an early flight I'd be worried that if I woke up too close to the time I needed to leave, the morning fog would cause me to forget some hugely important, yet easily forgettable thing (phone, charger, keys, wallet, purse). My morning brain has caused me to do some truly stupid things, which I won't get into here. I think you should plan to set your alarms so you wake at least an hour or better yet, two hours, before you need to leave the house, then plan to take a little nap on the plane. Although a flight to Orlando is bound to be full of families with children, kids are usually pretty docile in the morning so your chances of achieving peace and quiet and REM sleep on an early flight are better than they would be on a late afternoon flight--especially with noise-cancelling headphones and a window seat. If you're still not rested when you get to Orlando you can grab a coffee or energy drink at the airport but if you're anything like me the excitement will give you an instant energy boost when you step off the plane : )

 

[Lynne G]

I am also an early bird. If need to get up even earlier than I usually do, I set my alarm. If I know I really have to leave, I set it 15 minutes earlier than I really need to do, so I have some fudge time. I guess I just move fast, as I know I need to leave, and that gets me awake enough to leave when I need to. Then I sleep on the plane, and never schedule a late night on the day we arrive. We just relax and then go to bed early and be bright the next day. If missing is that important, than I would spend the money, and stay closer to the airport.

I actually like the very early fights. There's usually less traffic to get to the airport, and security usually has a smaller line.

 

[bookgirl]

I am not a morning person, but I am a fan of predawn flights. (usually not crowded, usually originating flight, and usually gets you where you are going early enough in the day to make it an actual vacation day)

I set an alarm, and my iPhone alarm, and I'm lucky that my folks tend to be up early (stepdad often has to work at night and my mom tends to go with him) so if they are up they will call me as well.

However I am just like the commercial. If I know I have something important in the morning I tend to wake up every hour or so and check the time because I too excited/anxious about oversleeping to actually sleep. LOL

 

[kar915]

I enjoy getting up early but last Disney trip I booked a 5am departure from MCO. This was by far the craziest early flight I have ever booked.
Nothing and no one is awake at 2am to leave for airport.