Dilemma - help me replan or not!

[KalamityJane]

We have 6 day PH and MHP party tickets for the 9th. We get in Oct 5th at 2pm and were planning on going to the parks for the rest of the day. Park days would be the 5-8, 10th and 11th. The 9th, we were planning on Surf's Up in the morning, renting a cabana and spending the morning at the pool and then heading over to MHP at 3pm.

HOWEVER. The kids are 17mo and 4yo and our flight leaves at 6am - so they are going to be SHOT if we try and close the parks. Plus, we could spend Tues at DCA and then go over to DL when the party starts. We would then spend the 5th at the pool and then maybe a character meal (GK? - we have ressies for the 11th, I will try and change them).

The weather is ALL over the place. Anywhere from 71 and raining to 81 and sunny on Tues. I am guessing that is not a good predictor.

So. What would you all do?

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

With the ages of your kids, and the fact that you do have 6 days... I would probably keep it how you have it... It might be nice to have a slow morning in the middle of the trip, where you can sleep in, lounge by the pool... afternoon naps (if you can after sleeping in!) and then go to MHP... We've been many times with dd when she was little-ish.... and never tried to close the park (unless the park closed at 9.) We were always in the hotel room at 9:30ish, slept until 6:45... breakfast and hit the park in time for rope drop, and then did afternoon naps between 1-3:30...

You have a 6 am flight on the day you leave? I don't think I would worry... dd has been on a bazillion plane rides, and the time never really mattered... I always had her in her own car seat on the plane, and she knew that she just needed to chill there. Lots of extra snackies and new "toys" or games... and she was really content. No matter the time... and even though she rarely sleeps on the plane, she almost always does on the way home from somewhere... so yeah, she's "shot" too... but that isn't usually a problem.

 

[KalamityJane]

Yeah, the kids have been on many plane rides (my family lives crosscountry from us) so I am not so much worried about the early flight but more if they are going to meltdown at the end of the day. I was thinking if we get in and then rest for a while, then have a nice dinner and go to bed, they would do better than trying to run run run all day, kwim?

We did the parks, nap, parks until close last year and it worked out great, but the parks were mostly closing at 8 and 9 pm.

 

[Mary09]

Is it the 5th you're worried about the kids being too tired for the parks? They'll be excited to go to the parks, and so will you, having just arrived. Why not just play it by ear? If they're shot at 6pm, go back to the hotel. With 7 days in the parks, you should be able to come and go at leisure and still have time to see everything three times.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I don't know if I could purposely not go into the parks on my last day. I didn't look at the park hours but I think I would still spend the 11th at the park and just head back to the hotel at a reasonable hour. Heck on this trip thanks to the return flight being moved earlier we only have 3 hours in the parks, but we will be there!