Do you like early flights?

[Becky_Boop]

The family is divided between early flights and later flights. One side (that includes me) says that early flights are better- no crowds, you get to WDW earlier, and there's something about getting up early to fly to the happiest place on Earth that makes you soooo excited. We like a flight at about 7:00 AM.

The other side likes slightly later flights. They argue that waking up so early leaves you tired and cranky, starting the trip off on the wrong foot. That's just about their only reason, but it's a good one. They like a flight at about 3:00 PM.

So, what time do you like for the flight to WDW?

 

[twoeeyy]

We try to get as early as possible on the way down and as late as possible on the way back.

This Oct we will get a late flight on fri. so that our daughter does not have to miss school. this way when we wake up Sat. we will be there as oppossed to flying out Sat AM

 

[jobie61]

I usually look for an 9:00 AM flight out of Philly. This way we get to MCO a little before noon and over to the resort for early check-in. We rent a car, so we don't have to wait on the ME bus. We get the kids up at 6:00 AM to get ready.

Comming home is the opposite. We take the 8:00 PM flight out of MCO to PHL. We like to spend a little time at the park before heading out to the airport.

 

[TAKitty]

We like afternoon flights. Usually between 11:00 am and 1:30 p.m.

 

[kjs1976]

The earlier the better...however, I do seem to hit the wall then about 7PM on that first night if I haven't been able to sleep on the plane. The best flight we've taken was a 10AM flight on Airtran which put us at MCO at just after
2PM. It seemed to be just right in terms of travel and we had less fatigue.

 

[goofyinohio]

We started flying in the night before. Rather than get up real early and trying to get the earliest flight or waiting till noon time and missing most of the day we pay for an extra night and fly in the night before we want our vacation to start.

 

[dcgrumpy]

We take the earliest flight down and the latest flight home

 

[jakenjess]

We tend to take the earliest flight out and latest flight home. Ideally I'd like a flight out at 8 or 9 AM, but at our little airport the choices are limited. The early flight is 6 AM, and then next one doesn't leave until 11:10, so with the layover that eats up most of the day. We are tired by mid-afternoon, but we are usually too wound up so we hit a park anyway and call it an early night.

We have taken the late flight once, which was okay, but we were still tired in the morning from getting in so late!

 

[Lewisc]

It really depends how close you are to your airport and the time of the next flight. I wouldn't want to have to wake up more then 1-2 earlier then I'd normally wake up for work. My answer would be different if the next flight wasn't until sometime in the afternoon.

I normally take the first flight of the day but occasionally I'll take the last flight, after work.

 

[MommySiobhan]

Last year was our 1st trip but I looked for the earliest one down and the latest one coming back, wanted to make the most of our time!

Guess what happened?

We were running 'just on time' and we did not allow enough time for security. I had no idea it would take as long as it did. Trying to take the shoes off of all of the little ones and fold up two strollers for them to go through the surveyor, we would have just been ok BUT they pulled my dh aside to search him, what?
We MISSED our 6am flight.

We waited in Detroit Metro until 12 noon which was the earliest they could get us on a connecting flight to TENNESSEE. We waited in Tennessee for 2 HOURS until we could get a flight to Orlando. We ended up reaching our hotel at 7:30PM.

It was the worst traveling day imaginable. I was SICK SICK SICK when we got there. Out the door at 4am with only an hour or so of sleep with a newborn, 1 y/o, 3 y/o and 5 y/o. Let's just say you can all imagine how much fun that was.

I was really bummed though. I couldn't even muster up the energy to go from POR to Boatwrights for dinner, I felt so bad.

Anyway, having said that (Sorry!!), we will be sticking to early flights out and late flights back we'll just allow MORE TIME for sure. Oh and I won't stay up packing all night the night before.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We're coming in from the west, so we usually lose 3 hours going to WDW. We like to get the first flight out in the morning so we don't get to WDW too late in the afternoon.

On the other hand, since we gain 3 hours coming home, the later the flight out of Orlando, the better.

 

[pooksma]

We take the earliest flight down and the latest flight home

Us too!

 

[AllyBri]

If you normally fly down on a Sat. morning, try flying down on Fri. night. Pay the extra for the night and you can start your vacation a little early and no one has the early morning tireds.
You will never want to do another early morning flight again.

 

[dougsmom98]

I think I am in the minority. I like to take a midmorning flight down so that I still get in at a reasonable time (before 6 pm), and we like to take a fairly early flight home. We never try to do anything on our travel days, it is just too much. Getting in at 6 pm or sooner allows us to get to our villa and unpack. DH take the kids to the pool and I run to the grocery store. We get to bed early and are set to enjoy the next day. We like to get an early flight to go home. I am not the type of person that can relax and enjoy myself on a day that I know I have to head home. At that point, I just want to be there. Regardless of what I like, I honestly just go with the best price. We travel during vacation weeks so we take what we can get at a price that we can afford.

 

[Marilou]

We like early flights, but not so early that we are trying to run on 3 hrs sleep! We aim for something in the 7-8-9 am range, gets to MCO before/around noon. Settle in at the hotel, then off somewhere for dinner & some shopping at DTD. I would never try anything strenous like hitting the parks after 1/2 day of traveling, but like to get a lil Disney action!
Heading home, we aim for mid-afternoon, so we are back at the house by 7pm.

 

[missmun52]

Last year I took the 8:40 am flight fr. NY getting to Orland at about 11:30am.I woke up pretty early and took the rail to the airport wich was very easy. I loved getting there early as we were able to hit the park for a few short hours then have dinner.

With all that being said we will be getting on the 10:30 am flight this time. I will get about 2 extra hours of sleep, I will get to eat Breakfast at home instead of buying burger King (which I dont eat along with Mc Donalds, Wendy's ect.). A part of me wishes I bought the earlier flight but I think this may be a little better on us

 

[Cara]

We generally ALWAYS take the early morning flight out and the evening flight home. However, this year our flight leaves at 8 p.m. on Friday. I will pick up my daughter after school, go home to finish last-minute packing, eat a meal out, and head to the airport. We should get to our airport hotel before midnight, and we will sleep in a bit that first day.

 

[Andrea]

We drive to orlando, but when we fly to las vegas we both like leaving around 7 am or so

 

[clkelley]

We like the late flight out in the evening. I like to leave work at 5pm, drive to the airport and get to WDW and get into my room, so we can start the day at WDW at 6:00 am. (For us this means driving to Nashville, but it's worth it.)

If we were to wait till the next morning to fly out, we might as well drive, cause we can drive part way the evening before, then finish the drive the next morning and get there the same time as flying that morning.

I also like very late flights coming home too. No sense killing a whole day of vacaction at home with an early flight. We can rest on the DME bus, on the plane, and at work on Monday morning

 

[CaliforniaDreaming]

I like something around 10:30-11:30am. Get up at 7am or so, and still going strong that first night at WDW.