3 hour time difference for us. How do you cope with a different time zone.

Twinprincesses

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 30, 2005
Messages
2,167
We have a 3 hour time change going from Indiana to California. How do you cope in the AM with the time difference. What do you do while everyone else is sleeping?
 
Stay up late your first night so you sleep in and are more on CA time for your trip. :)
 
I actually had no time adjusting at all. Actually I did better on Pacific Time than I do on Eastern.

But I'd go to bed at 9 pm PT which is Midnight ours... and wake up at 6 am PT. That would give me just enough time to get ready, grab breakfast, and then walk to the parks.
 
even thought I've lived in CA for over ten years now! Mega early bird! When I'm at DL and I wake up at my usual 5:00, I walk all over the grounds of the DLH, so peaceful at this time of day! The coffee place opens at 6. To take advantage of early hours, you'll need to be up early anyway...

But I agree that you should try to stay up late your first night there. It seems to be easier for people to go west than east...
 

For us it's a 22 hour time difference, so we always find we struggle with jetlag. Make the most of the early starts to get breakfast and into the parks for opening :)
 
Also a 3 hours difference for us...

The idea of going to bed as late as possible is good but even when we try to do it, we're still up around 6.

Even if it gets us tired, we prefer to be up at 6 so we can be at the gates right in time for opening!
 
We actually found it pretty easy (3 hours for us too). The first couple days we were all up by 5:30am (which isn't bad since 5 year old DS is usually up by 6:30 at home). We got up, had a liesurly sit down breakfast and had plenty of time to get to gates at opening.

By end of week DH and DS slept until almost 7. I still awoke at 5am, but I have a light for my Kindle and enjoyed a couple hours of peaceful reading.

We were always asleep by 8ish which seems really early, but I think it helped us cope with the time change. DS wasn't up to WOC of Fantasmic so we didn't worry about fitting that in.
 
It is not the trip out I have a problem with, it is the jet lag when you get home!
 
We have a 2 hour time difference and we love it! It's easy for us to be up early, have a leisurely breakfast or even a swim in the pool and still make it to the gates for opening!
 
We typically go to bed early the first night after the long day of travel and are pretty adjusted after that.
 
we have a 2 hour time difference and we love it! It's easy for us to be up early, have a leisurely breakfast or even a swim in the pool and still make it to the gates for opening!

+1
 
You've got an asset, not a problem. It's really hard for us to travel from the west coast to WDW and deal with the time change that direction. It is so much easier to come to the west coast and get up early. You can easily use early entry, have early breakfasts, swim if it's warm weather, walk through the lobbies of the resorts, shop, etc. And if you are coming in off season, the parks close at 8pm - unlike WDW where they stay open much later at night - so if you take advantage of early entry you will make the best use of your time in the parks.
 
We will be heading to DLR for the first time in June and coming from Chicago it will be a 2 hour time difference for us. Thank you all for the wonderful trips on how to cope with the different time zones. However, I am with the PP that said that it is not the time difference going to DLR that will haunt you but the return is another story.
 
I agree it's the return that will get you. Our kids adjusted great to the 3 hr difference going there. We got back home yesterday and it was hard to get the kids out of bed this morning to get to school. My 3 yr old was insisting that it was still bedtime because it was still dark out. I cannot wait for daylight savings time to revert back.
 


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