Does your arrival day itinerary threaten to throw off the family schedule?

[Fargoman2]

It's difficult to have any complaints about a day that ends with a WDW arrival, but our flight schedule threatens to throw our family a bit out of whack.

We were originally scheduled for an 8:24 a.m. departure. That was relative heaven when you're trying to get a family of five up and going on time--and rested.

But now that flight is no longer offered. So..........we are now booked on the ONLY FLIGHT AVAILABLE--6 a.m.! That means up and showered and to the airport by 5 a.m. We have a 3 hour layover in Chicago before going on to Orlando. We'll be in by mid-afternoon, but I'm guessing we'll quickly be zombies once the adrenalin wears off.

My main concern is making sure my 5-year old naps at the right time. If he doesn't he'll take an odd-hour nap and won't go to bed promptly at night, thus threatening his demeanor for the first day of park touring.

I'm not looking for empathy--again, I'm going to WDW, I don't deserve any--but I am looking for ideas not to throw off the sleep cycle for our trip. Of course, I'm sure many of you will have much more difficult schedules to follow that will make
my problem seem pretty lame. And you're right, why AM I COMPLAINING about something that should be relatively easily overcome?

 

[mmeb144]

You do deserve empathy. WDW is for everyone, even you!

I would just plan an easy day the first full day, to compensate for the weird arrival day schedule. Maybe getting up at the usual time that you do at home, and keeping the usual nap time, if possible. That may be enough to get everyone going. Don't forget to take your nap, too. It makes for a more cheerful parent.

Marie

 

[Misty89]

i might be facing the same thing.....looking at a flight out of milwaukee at 7:00am. - we would need to leave our house at 4:30 am, to get to airport by 6:00am...
my family likes to sleep in......so it might get intresting.
but
i have set up now ( not going till nov29th) that we will hang and lounge ( hoping to be to CR by noon) and then head over to epcot late afternoon for Candlelight processional - will be a long day all around ( still thinking about switching days for the candlelight processional) so the next day we aplan to just hang all day and then head over to MK very early evening for the MCMVP. i am hoping even though having a rough arrival day, the sleep in/ no plans AM the next day will also get them back in the groove


Tina

 

[eeyore45]

I've been wondering the same thing, I too feel lucky tho, its just dh, dd 7yrs and me... I'm hoping w:e can sleep on the flight - we have a flight that leaves OHare at 6:22AM!! I know once we get to WDW dd will be too excited, so I thought to go to MK, but I know if we go, we will be so off on the unofficial guide, and our first day is one of the e-ride nights!! Usually dd can stay up later than dh and I - she makes it to 1 am regularly at my moms when she is competing with the older cousins and such, but not up at 4:30AM!!

I was also hoping that the length of stay pass we get would cover all 8 days we are in wdw!

 

[CamColt]

I agree with mmeb, plan an easy day for your first day. When we drive down, we go 24 hours straight(10:00am-10:00am) so no one really gets a good nights sleep in the car. We have always planned a relaxing first day of swimming, dinner, maybe a ride on the monorail if time permits. In the end we are usually so wired to be there, we arent tired at all. Its amazing what WDW can do for your energy level.
On our last trip we flew and had a 7:00am flight. That had me up around 3:00 and again, I wasnt tired. I should add Im someone who needs sleep. We actually ended up doing Spectro & Wishes that night so it wasnt an early night. Of course the cold that night probably helped keep us all awake, but...

 

[anditoo72]

Just a couple of thoughts, If it is in the budget and available why not book a hotel close to the airport for that night and you could sleep in a little longer?? Another thought is instead of one of the major parks, do a water park or downtown disney the first day, if you are afraid that his sleeping schedule will get that thrown off. My child (2 1/2) is at the stage right now where if he takes any sort of nap during the day he won't go to bed until 10-11:00 pm It is killing me. So I do things to keep him awake. Right around 2:00 when I know he is feeling a wee bit tired, I set up the pool in the back yard, it revives him until dinner time then that wakes him up. This is a long way of saying if it is not your child's nap time and he wants to go down find ways to keep him up and occupied, lollipops and games on the plane, hand held games, coloring books, snacks. I am suprised your 5 year old takes a nap still- My kids would NEVER sleep at night, if that happened. Maybe I just have extra active kids- my family keeps telling me that, I never really believed them till now

 

[Jane and Ian]

We have a similar problem, flying over the pond. We leave the UK at 11am with a 10-11 hour flight, we arrive into MCO at 15.25. I've planned that we will do a PS at California Grill the night we arrive, just to keep us awake! But if you see 3 people asleep with their heads in their plates, then that will be us!! The next day i've planned to play minature golf, visit DTD and then maybe hit MK in the evening for a parade, to ease us in gently! Well that's the plan anyway!! Lets just see what actually happens!!

 

[kilee]

I for one was unable to ever keep DS on a "sleeping" schedule during any trip. Had the same problem when I took my niece (18mo) this past fall. Lucky for me they've both always been happy-go-lucky laid back kids. So it didn't really effect them.

For the sake of the trip and the adults sanity. I'd try to be a little flexible on napping and ect. The standard 1pm nap might not always fit into the day's plans. There might be days that 4pm works better. If the kids doze on the plane after the lay over--- I wouldn't worry to much.

 

[Fargoman2]

Anditoo72, et. al.

Now I know I'm definitely not alone in my travel concerns...

FYI as a point of clarification...my 5 year old does not normally take naps...but if he is up at 4:30 a.m., he won't survive the day without one...I'm just worried that he won't nap until late, which would mess up the nighttime sleep...I'm trying to just relax and go with the flow--a foreign concept to me.

Regards to all...

 

[Nickunited]

That is horrible - I hope it all works out for you!

To prevent this from happening I make my arrival day just that - an arrival day. I pay for one more night and take a later flight. I then arrive - check in and dont worry about a park. I normally leave NY at like 3PM. By the time I check in its 8PM and I can take a look around the resort or go to downtown disney for dinner and some shopping. Just an idea!

 

[HenDuck]

I think the answer is to not worry. Just go with the flow and do as much as you can on your first day without frazzling everyone.

On our April trip to DL, we got a 8 am flight from Honolulu to LAX. This we felt was a perfect flight for DS (3 1/2) as we took a similar flight 18 months prior and he slept for most of the flight. Well...it seems the excitement of being on the plane and on his way to DL was just too much for him. He barely nodded off on the flight.

Then he fell asleep on the car ride from LAX to Anaheim. He was excited and raring to go when we reached the hotel around 5:30 pm. We got him to sleep a little later than usual that night but thought he would be fine the next morning.

Well, he got up at 4:30 am! Again, raring to go and not realizing that he was about 4 hours too early to see Mickey! By the time the park opened, he was hanging onto my DH. I was sooo bummed because I thought the first day would be ruined.

All turned out well, though. He pepped right up as soon as the countdown at the main gate hit "zero". He ran down mainstreet and never looked back.

We did, however, let him take an exceptionally long nap that afternoon so that he could readjust.

He was fine the rest of the trip!

So don't worry. Everything will be great. You will have to adjust a little the first day but don't try to overdo it. Hit the main things and then just enjoy. Take a nap too!

Have a great time!

 

[HenDuck]

at home, we never let my DS nap longer than 2 hours. He would stay up for the next 2 days if we did that.

However, at Disney, he regularly took 3 hour naps and we let him because he really tired himself out in the parks. That also allowed us to stay until park closing or as close as possible, sometimes til 11:30 pm.

We have different rules for vacation and do whatever works for us so that we can make the most of our Disney time.

So I guess my point is that Disney does all kinds of things to our internal clocks. We just have to try to go with it and enjoy it all.

Have fun!

 

[redskiesx25]

We had a 7:00 a.m. flight. Got up at 3:30 and were out the door by 4:20. Our plane was delayed 50 minutes, but we finally got to WDW. We stayed at PO riverside and we just stayed by the pool the whole day and went to DTD in the evening. Some of us were cranky, and i could never imagine doing a park that day it would be way too much. But the next day we were up and at it.

 

[Libby]

Hi,

We are flying from Australia so have a 15 hour flight to LAX, then about 5 hours to Orlando. We will have to leave our home early in the morning and hopefully get some sleep before we hit LAX (though much of flight is during daytime). We arrive at MCO around 4pm so will settle into our resort and have an early night (hopefully). Then we will get up by 9am at latest and head to MK. Will see how we feel but hopefully back at the resort around 4-5pm. Maybe a swim, some dinner and an early night if still tired. Then hopefully by the next day we will back to getting up around 7am to take advantage of early mornings.
This is our 3rd trip to WDW and our secret has always been to get onto local time as quickly as possible even if it means going to bed early a couple of night so we don't sleep in. Our last trip we arrived at the WL around midnight and took it took my dd3 a few night to settle into the new time zone. Hopefully arriving in time to get a normal nights sleep should help this time.

Libby

 

[babybunrab]

It's me missing my nap that I'm worried about!

We're planning on a 'no park' day the first day. The only thing we've got planned is lunch at RFC in DTD. Other than that, pool (if there's no lightening--DS says he'll swim in the rain if they let him!) and exploring WL, checking out FW, etc. Now, my DS is 9, but I still think after the traveling (we'll have been on the road and planes for almost 12 hours by the time we get there--not Australia, for certain, but still a long tim) he'll need--and want--a chill out day. I know I will.

 

[disney4us2002]

At least two people mention arriving at the airport one hour ahead of flight. I have always been told to arrive 2 hours before flight. Considering we have three airport options yet each is at least one to one & one-half hours away, we never schedule a flight til at least 11am.

I would have to consider a hotel closeby if we left before 9am. There are several around our airports that offer free parking if you stay the night before a flight.

As for the sleeping issues, I would probably say you have pretty active children. I've been doing daycare for 7 years and I haven't ever had a two yr old that didn't nap at least 90 minutes. Some fives still nap if they arrive before 7am daily because they are wiped out by 1pm. My own kids are great sleepers (12 hours at night often) and can nap anywhere, thank goodness!

 

[The Sweetness]

Just *know* how long it will take you to get into whichever park you wanted to visit on arrival day (if any) It may also be nice to just chill and splurge for a dinner with *chef mickey* (if staying onsite) then get an early start next day.

 

[OffToDis]

Just trying to help wheneverr we arrive around mid day
we take the nap an because epcot is open until nine
we go to that park on the first day around 6 or 7pm and catch
illuminations, then its back to the resort and the rest of the
days are well planned and illuminations has been done good luck

 

[LisaZoe]

With the 3 hour time difference for my DD (almost 3) and me, I'm kind of thinking of the travel day's early rising as a start to adjusting to WDW time zone. I'm also thinking we might do AK the first day since it closes earlier than the others so no feelings of "wasting" a full day of the PHP for a part day . Also, it sounds like AK is a bit more low key than the other parks (I may be wrong since I've never been there) so thought that might help any residual travel crankiness - for me as well as DD.

My biggest concern is the long time spent on the planes. At least we have about an hour layover to stretch (if all goes as scheduled). I've already stocked up on some Disney toys from the Disney Store clearance sales. I'll have those in reserve to give my daughter to play with on the plane.

Anditoo72 - My daughter is also one that is fighting the afternoon nap for the past month or so. Some days she'll take one but usually only if we've had a very busy morning. However, I expect her to sleep quite well after all the fun at WDW!

 

[N&B'smom]

I'm with you all on this one. I'm a schedule FREAK when it comes to my kid's bedtimes and such. It seems to have always worked well being on a schedule. I'm also worried how it will effect my little one who will be 13 months at the time. We also have an early flight, 7am but it's only a little over 2 hrs. I figure that since we'll have to get up early and get to the airport early for security reasons, that maybe dd and ds (5 yrs) will nap on the plane. They are both VERY good sleepers. I'm hoping this is the case then as well! At least if my dd naps on the plane or the ride from the airport that will give her a boost until later on when she can nap properly. We plan on taking time after lunch everyday to hang at the resort pool while she naps. (other family members will be with us and will most likely stay in the room then) We'll head back to the park after she get some sleep! Of course, who knows what will happen! Time will tell! Whatever happens at least we'll be at DW!!!!!

Shelby