Early Flight - Advice Needed

[alliejay]

Need advice. United cancelled our 9am flight to Orlando for Friday, Dec. 9th. The flight is now at 6:25am. Yes - that is right, 6:25am. We have a 7 year old and almost 5 year old. We will have to leave the house at 4:30 to 4:45am to make the flight. My plan is to get the kids up at 4:15, dress them, and eat bfast in the car to the airport. I can bring snacks, etc for the plane. Our flight arrives in Orlando at 10am. I don't even know if we can change flights, but the next flight arrives in Orlando at 5:30pm.

So....would you:

1. Keep the 6:25am flight?
2. Try to change flights and arrive at the end of the day?
3. If you would keep the 6:25am flight what would be your plan for the day? We will start out at MK the day of arrival. How much time do you think we would get in before the kids (or us) loose their marbles ?

Thanks so much for your advice.

Miriam

 

[WantToGoNow]

I would keep the 6:25 flight. I would rather arrive early and have the entire day instead of our first day being all travel. That said, we have a 7:00 am flight. We are scheduled to arrive at 9:10 am. Our plan is to check in and head to AK for the day. We have an ADR at Chef Mickey's at 5:55 pm and will then head back to CSR for an early night.

 

[chocovrdmicears]

I would keep the early flight. We always take that early (6:30am) flight when we go to Disney. I have NO problem getting my kids up at 4:00am when they are going to to WDW - shocking I know. Getting up at 7:30am for school..well thats a whole different story.

We arrive the same time you will..by the time we get to our resort and check in, we grab lunch at the food court of our resort. Then we are on a Disney high and we head to MK to kick it all off...we spend a few hours there, head back to our hotel and go to bed early for our first full day.

The problem with getting in at 5:30pm (for our family anyway) is that by the time we get to the resort, have dinner and settle into our room, it is too late to really do anything in any of the Parks and we are all too excited to sleep...so we end up getting less sleep that way than when we arrive early.

 

[saving our pennies]

We had the same flight time and like you had get up super early and leave our house about 4:15. Granted, our kids are 12 and 8, but still, 4 am is early!

We ate granola bars in the car, breezed through the airport (check in/security) and had a flight with only 2 other children (which meant no screaming babies). When we got to Orlando, there was NO line for Magic Express and we got to our resort about 1 hour after landing.

The only thing I would recommed is that you are prepared for your room to not be ready upon check in. It may be, but ours was not.

What we SHOULD have done was to pull the kids swimsuits out of our bags (which your resort will hold) and let them swim in the pool while we rested in the lounge chairs by the pool but I kept thinking "any minute our room will be ready..." and it was several hours!

We could have gone on to one of the parks, but I had planned on taking it easy around the resort since I knew we'd be tired. We ended up getting our refillable mugs first, then walking all around the resort, grabbing lunch, visiting the arcade, the gift shop....the other floors.....Finally after asking 2 times over the few hours, they found a room that was ready, we got to our room and took an hour to nap and then hit the pool.

It all worked out for the best and I would always choose the early flight over the later one, but have a plan in place incase you cannot get into your room right away!

 

[HuskerFaninIL]

I would keep the early flight. Go to the park of you choice for a half day or so, get back to your resort in mid-afternoon and have a quiet evening.

Maybe they'll sleep on the plane! fingers crossed for you.

 

[alliejay]

I would keep the early flight. We always take that early (6:30am) flight when we go to Disney. I have NO problem getting my kids up at 4:00am when they are going to to WDW - shocking I know. Getting up at 7:30am for school..well thats a whole different story.

3

Yes - getting up for school at 6:45am is so hard. That is why I'm a little worried. But I think you are right, they will be so excited it won't matter. I also, don't want to take the later flight and miss out on a whole day - just like you both have said. Thanks! I feel better about making it work. I'm getting so excited. I made these reservations in Feb. I can't believe there is only 50+ days to go!

 

[hannahdrewmom]

We always take the early flight. We get the kids dressed once we get to the airport and we eat breakfast in the airport. (I'm not sure my kids would be awake enough to eat in the car.)
We normally arrive about 9am. So we get to the hotel by 10:30. We plan an early lunch/brunch at the resort. (Character meals are great when we can work those in depeding on our resort.) Then we head to MK for a few hours if our room isn't ready. We try to leave by 4. Back to the resort for a cs dinner and maybe a quick swim and bed by 7ish. If the room is ready we swim a bit after breakfast, nap, and then an evening in MK but still early to bed.
My kids are 4 and 2 and they power through alright but that early bed time is pretty strict!

 

[chocovrdmicears]

Yes - getting up for school at 6:45am is so hard. That is why I'm a little worried. But I think you are right, they will be so excited it won't matter. I also, don't want to take the later flight and miss out on a whole day - just like you both have said. Thanks! I feel better about making it work. I'm getting so excited. I made these reservations in Feb. I can't believe there is only 50+ days to go!

Do not be worried. I bet you a chocolate covered mouse ear that you will have NO problems getting them up and moving for Disney...and if you are anything like me, YOU will be too excited to sleep that night anyway.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[MARsMama]

My kids are 6, 9, and just turned 12 (while at Disney) and our flight left at 6:30am, which meant we were up at 4am. We didn't arrive until 12:30pm and we got to our resort by 2pm. We didn't schedule a park for that day, we got settled and then went to Downtown Disney.
Getting there earlier than we did, though, allows you to hit MK and enjoy it some and still head back to the resort for an early night.
I would keep the early flight

 

[GoofyforDisney3]

We are taking a 6:20 flight since it was either that or take a middle of the afternoon flight and not arrive until 7ish at night. We will need to get up at 4:30. Planning on having everything 100% packed and ready to go (even in the car) before bed Thursday night. Also, I will have our clothes laid out and I will shower the night before. That will mean only needing to do something with my hair, brushing teeth and a quick face wash. Can't even imagine eating that early in the morning, so I plan on taking something on the plane for us to eat. I also have no problems sleeping on the plane, so hopefully we will get a little cat nap in on the way.

We are planning on going to afternoon tea at the Grand Floridian and then the early Cirque show. After that I'm sure we will be toast and will head back to the resort for bed.

 

[vacationclub]

I would agree with most posters here in taking the early flight. We routinely are airborne a 6am or earlier. It's tough, but worth it to get more time in the day...you're just tired.

I'm more interested in why United just flat-out cancelled your flight. What city are you flying out of? Was it a direct flight or connecting though a hub?

 

[HuskerFaninIL]

One last idea. When we were looking the flights would have had us get up at 2:30 ( we have a long drive to the airport) so I ended up findiing a flight that took us out later in the evening the day before.

Instead of checking into Disney we got a $50 Hampton Inn room and slept and headed to check in at OKW the next AM. If you need Magic Express you might find a cheap room at a value resort for room only.

 

[Order66]

If the choice is a 6am flight, or a late flight........I generally choose the late flight......the day before. Then we squeeze a whole extra day of vacation in. My kids favorite arrival is to get to the resort, order a large pizza and eat by the pool and swim. If it's more like early evening, we might head to DTD and eat at T-Rex and they go to DQ for a hour or two. On our first trip (with the kids) we rushed right to a park for 1/2 a day. Now that we've been a few times, we like to just chill the first night knowing we'll have a packed vacation the rest of the time.

regards

 

[scootch]

I would leave the night before and stay an extra night in WDW. Being tired early on in a trip can mean disaster for the remainder of the trip.(Friends tried this and their kids were cranky for days) Is there a hotel in the airport you are flying out of? That is the only way I would ever take a flight that early with small kids.

 

[mjp12831]

This is actually a huge benefit for you - it gives you a whole extra day.

For reference, our kids are now 10, 9 and 7. We've gone the last 3 years and all of them had 6:30 ish flights, meaning like you that we had to get the kids up at 4am.

It's not a problem for us - the kids are so excited to go that the night sleep before isn't great anyways. We also get up early when there for am emh every day so I can attest that this did not make for a miserable (tired kids) trip in any way.

You can be in MK by 11:30 or noon at the latest. For reference we always go to HS the first day and leave the park after the 9p (summer) Fantasmic show - it's an early night for us.

 

[DisneyGuess]

I'd keep the early flight. We're flying out on a 7am flight, getting in at 9:10am as well. We'll head to the resort, check in, hope room is ready & probably do lunch at DTD, early dinner at POR, then early to bed to get ready for the next day! We have a wide range of ages, the older boys, DH & myslef would be fine to go to a park for a bit. I think the 2 yr old would eventually melt down after getting up at 4am, lol.

 

[budafam]

I agree with keeping the early flight. I wish our airport was closer... we'll be getting up at 3am and SURPRISING my 5 year old son (this is all after a surprise party I'm throwing for my mother in law the day before!)
I'm hoping to be at Pop by 12:30 and if our room isn't ready, we're just going to try to take a nap in the shade somewhere, lol... it's going to be a looong night for us with MNSSHP tickets. Gosh I'm crazy but that's what Disney is all about

 

[kymom99]

Taking an early flight TO WDW is easy. Taking one HOME is torture! One trip the only flight we could get home was at 7:00 AM. We had to meet the Magical Express bus at 4:30 or something awful like that. Talk about depressing! Everyone waiting with us looked so downtrodden!

 

[anne60]

I would opt for the earlier flight. I travel a lot and it is more likely your flight will get delayed/cancelled later in the day. For me it seems like seven of ten delays happen when I am flying out in the evening (after 3 pm).

 

[kpm76]

Take the early flight. We just did a 6:30am flight 2 weeks ago with our 4 yr old and 13 month old. We had no expectations for the day other than head to MK for a few hours and leave when everyone hit their max. We were in the MK by noon and everyone lasted until 7pm. Went back to the WL, got a good night's sleep and hit the parks again the next morning at rope drop. Our kids are really great travelers and we do so often so they are accustomed to early and long flights. If you think it would be a total disaster for your kids, I would take a later flight the day before, otherwise you lose a whole day traveling. Have fun!