flying at night with kids?

[so_are_you]

good bad?
we have the option of a 1 am flight to WDW its a 7 hour flight to Toronto then a 4 hour lay over then down to florida in at 1.30 pm
or we can leave at 10.30 am and still have a 2 hour lay over in Toronto and get in to Orlando at 8pm
I was leaning towards the 1 am fight but I am second guessing every thing lol
the kids will be 4 and 7 and we have flown with them before and they are fine gove them a leapster and gameboy and the airline we picked had satilite tv with treehouse tv (like disney channel but the canadian one)
we are just not sure what the best way to go it
if we got in at one I was thinking I would add a day to our park hopper and have a nap in the room then go to one of the parks for dinner

 

[monorailsilver]

If it were me, I'd rather arrive at 8pm vs having the kids up all night or have disrupted sleep.

And if I did take the 1am one, I'd not go to a park that night & would just want a whole day of rest at the resort/hotel vs adding another fun filled day (aka tiring day). Flying is tiring even to an old grumpy soon to be 40 yo dh.

If kids were not in the picture or if they were a bit older, I'd say sure take the 1am flight.

 

[everylastbreath]

Those are the only options? If so, I would vote for the night flight, atleast you don't blow a whole day of your vacation traveling there. I would guess the kids might fall alseep on the plane, good luck.

 

[YolantasKids]

I vote for the red eye. Most likely your kids will sleep during the flight.

We are taking our kids on the red eye this May to Cancun. I am about 99% sure that I will have sleeping kids, which means no one to deal with on the flight!

 

[GoinToDisney]

Your kids will probably sleep through the flight, but will you. The question to ask yourself is do you want more time there or do you want more energy to enjoy the time you spend there? I can tell you that we chose more time there this trip and it was a mistake. We had much more fun on the days following our earlier nights.

 

[barnaby1]

Take the day flight!!!!

I am all for nightflights where the children can sleep but they are going to have a very interupted late night (with a stop over as well). You will all be wrecked the first day there.

 

[all4fun]

We're flying a red-eye from west to east coast in about a month with a 4 (almost 5) yr old, 10 and 14 yr old boys.... so if you can wait a month, I'll let you know how it goes.

For the life of me, I can't remember why we scheduled our flight this way. I always prefer to fly during the day. I'm not to worried about the boys, I think they will sleep. It's myself I'm worried about, LOL. I'm gonna be taking some Calms Forte before the flight, and might even buy the 4kids version for the kids as well.

 

[juliana_sd]

I wouldn't do the night flight... you will all be up reeeeeally late, won't sleep well on the plane, and what if your room isn't ready when you get there?

 

[disykat]

We took a red eye once - because of ff miles. We'd never choose to do it if we were paying for our flights and had other options. Our whole first day was a WASTE. It wasn't the kids - it was me. I was exhausted. It was a really lousy way to start a vacation. Considering we got there at 8am, it really was an ENTIRE day wasted feeling icky.

 

[brehan9403]

Would your kids sleep in the airport for the 1 am flight? I'm sure mine wouldn't and I don't think I'd want to either. That would be my last resort but that's me.

We are flying out at 7pm and arriving at 10pm this time and that will be interesting enough.

 

[DevilDuckie]

The problem with a red eye isn't the time on the plane- it's when you land and it's 1 am and you have to get your luggage and your rental car and the kids are so exhausted they can barely stand and start crying...

Yeah. We did it and won't do it again. It was dreadful. We got to the hotel at 3 and didn't get to the park until past noon.

 

[ADisneyQueen]

Am I understanding correctly that you would leave your home airport at 1 Am? YOu would have to be there by 11? My kids could not do that. Theyneed to be asleep by 9. The disrupted sleep would be awful. I would take the day flight.