Anyone fly red-eye with their kids?

[Donnaly66]

Ok, I thought this was a good idea at the time and now I'm not so sure. My DS will be 3 and my DD will be 4 1/2.

We are going to WDW this June - our flight leaves Portland, OR at 11:55 p.m. and arrives Orlando at like 10am. We have one transfer in Dallas about 1/2 thru the flight. Their normal bedtime is 8pm, so I plan to try and keep them awake until we leave.

I figured that because this is such a long flight across the country, it might be better to do red-eye so the kids could sleep. Am I fooling myself? I can just imagine the "I'm too excited to sleep" scenario and running up and down the plane in the wee hours of the morning!

Oh well...tickets are paid for...no changing now!

 

[la79al]

i don't imagine them running around the plane, but I don't know how they are going to last the next day if you are going straight to a park. You might not want to try to keep them up past bedtime but instead let them sleep when they can.

 

[Nicolepa]

I figured that because this is such a long flight across the country, it might be better to do red-eye so the kids could sleep. Am I fooling myself? I can just imagine the "I'm too excited to sleep" scenario and running up and down the plane in the wee hours of the morning!

Oh well...tickets are paid for...no changing now!

I'd be more worried about the "I'm so tired but I can't get comfortable" scenario. (Ask me how I know. )

We did a red eye when my dd was 1 and it went great. We did it again when she was 2 and ds was a baby, not so great. So we were crazy enough to do it a 3rd time it was a nightmare, not to mention we were exhausted! The first two times we flew into Ft Lauderadale and handed them to the grandparents and went to bed. The last time we flew into Orlando and it took us a couple of days to recoup w/o the grandparents there.

I would try to bring their pillow from home if you can manage it. At least then they will be able to lay it up against the window and be somewhat comfy.

 

[MamaLema]

We did one of those once and it turned out really well. Our kids were 3 and 5 at the time. The slept the entire flight- didn't wake up ONCE from 10 pm to 6am in the morning

 

[Windy City Heather]

My girl friend and I flew with our dd's 3 and 10. We flew out of Chicago on a 9:00 something flight and got into Orlando about 12:30 am. My dd was 3 and slept the whole flight, I think she fell asleep before we took off (which is not uncommon for her). Her dd slept about half the flight. Both woke up when we got off the plane and stayed up until we checked in and went to bed. We then slept in a little in the morning (8:30 am). Also, as I am writing this I am remembering that my dd had a really bad cold and was giving a dose of motrin an hour before the flight, per doctors orders. I really don't know if that did anything because she almost always sleeps on planes. Now the girls did better the next day then we the adults did. We were ready to go to bed the next night. I don't think I would do it again. It was too much on me.

 

[Priorityonecb]

My daugher and I did a red eye from Colorado to Hawaii at Thanksgiving. Red eyes are usually not crowded, so we found an empty row, stretched out and slept. Even then though, we would not have been able to go to the parks the following day. Maybe plan the following day as a resort, swimming, Downtown Disney day.

 

[TiggerFamily]

My DH wanted to book a flight that got us into Orlando at Midnight, I said no way the next day would be a waste DS's 4 and 6 would be way to tired. It's their first trip to WDW so they wouldn't sleep on the plane. So we got a flight that gets us in at 4PM so we can check in and have dinner and early to bed an up early the next day for FUN. I can't wait. Nancy

 

[Donnaly66]

By the time we check in to OKW, it will be noon time - time for some lunch, a nap, swimming and then probably downtown Disney. I wasn't thinking we would go to a park that day. Getting a good night's sleep that day to start off the next day sounds like a great idea!

 

[mjh8955]

We tried it once coming back from Vegas to Chicago. We didn't have a great experience and probably won't do it again. Our flight left at 1:40 AM. Our kids were 5 and 8. We had a hard time getting them up around 11PM when we left for the airport. We tried letting them stay up but they crashed early. They did sleep on the plane. The problem was that DH and I didn't get any sleep at all. The plane was too crowded and noisy. We were exhausted when we arrived in Chicago and we still had a 3 hour drive home. If you can sleep on the plane you will be o.k., otherwise you may end up being exhausted and ruin your first day of vacation.l

 

[lorrainesy]

I take the red eye all the time from Colorado to New York, my nephew goes with me to visit his aunt and uncle. It works great for us we leave Colorado at 23:30 hrs he is asleep by midnight and then we wake him up when he get to JFK at 06:30 hours. As priorityonecb already stated the red eyes are usually not crowed so we just find an empty row, he takes a pillow and blanket puts his feet on my lap and he is asleep shortly after we take off. He has been taking this trip since he was 4 and it has never been a problem. We have also taken the red eye from Puerto Rico to New York and that worked well also.

 

[helenm29]

We did a red-eye with my 4 year old twins, my 3 year old niece and 2-10 year old boys! just one word...Benedryl! it's a wonderful thing! actually, the hardest part was when we had a 3 hour lay over in Dallas in the middle of the night. The kids had just started to doze and we had to get off the plane! NOT HAPPY! we are taking a red-eye in October but now they are 13 and 19 so no problem I hope!

 

[my4boys+1]

They should sleep if you can keep them up til you leave, I was thinking about Red Eye due to prices but I'm flying alone with the kids so my dh nixed that idea.