? for West Coast DISers

[jeeperwy]

When you go to WDW do you try to change your "internal" body schedule to Eastern time? Or do you just stay on your "normal" schedule? We will be coming from Wyoming so there is a 2 hour difference. I hear lots about getting to the parks at opening, but do I get my kids up at 7 (their bodies and mine will still be thinking that it's 5!!!!), or do I let them sleep until there regular get up time of 9 (7 for them)? This also poses a problem for setting up ADRs. Will we eat at our "normal" time, or adjust to Eastern time?

This seems so trivial, when I write it down, but I have thought A LOT about it!!!

Thanks for any advice!!

Kari

 

[dairyou]

The time difference for us is 3 hours and it seems the first night is always the hardest. We try our hardest to go to sleep at 10:00 EST, which is 7:00 our time. At times the kids are so excited to get going that they wake up on their own We take a different approach now and we just get up when we get up.

Have a great trip!

Deb

 

[jeeperwy]

Thanks!!

Anyone else????

 

[Ride Junkie]

I'm in CA, so it's 3 hours for me too. We try to adjust to the east coast time and get to the parks early. First day is tiring, but you get used to it. The hardest part is trying to fall asleep the first night!

 

[Kenswing]

We usually take the redeye out of Seattle. We try to sleep on the plane-doesn't always happen. Then we stay up as long as we can when we get there. If we absolutely must, we'll take a 2 hour nap, but try to switch to Eastern time as soon as we can. We usually go for 11 days, so it wouldn't do us any good to stay on Pacific time.

Ken

 

[kelmac284]

I am also in CA and we have been twice. To get there the only flight we can take is an EARLY morning one like between 6 and 8 a.m. which gets us to Orlando around 4:30 EST. That is only like 1:30 our time but by the time we get settled eat etc we are MORE than ready to go to bed.

By the next day it seems we are always up by 6 or 7 Florida time which if you do the math is only like 3 or 4 CA time. I don't know how we do it, if it is cuz we are excited or cuz we got to bed early the night before (body clock wise) but we always manage to just fall right into it.

I really don't remember ever having bad jet lag even coming back the other way.

The only time I have ever experienced bad jet lag was when I went to Europe and it was such a HUGE time change but I have never had a problem with the 3 hours.

Good luck and have fun. I would just plan your day on Florida time and I am sure you will adapt.

 

[Randy K]

I'm Ca. and 3 hours also, on my 1st and only trip to the world I didn't change our schedule just planned a water park and a little extra sleep for the 1st full day after our arrival. We get there too late to do anything the 1st day other than dinner. We were fine and fully adjusted after that. I plan to do the same the next trip. So my advice is don't adjust anything just plan a little extra sleep for your 1st night and you should be fine.

 

[DawnAK]

DH and I fly in from Alaska and we have a 4 hour time difference. I find that we adjust pretty well arriving there, we really suffer on the way back. I think on the way there adrenaline just kicks in and gives us the extra energy to go longer days and making us more tired at night. However, on the way home it is hard to stay up til a "normal" time since 10pm home time is 2am vacation time.
This year we leave home at 3pm and arrive in Orlando at 7am Orlando time (3am home time). So, we fly all night and arrive so early in the morning that our room won't be ready. We plan on hitting the parks that day. I am sure we will be plenty tired to sleep that night...no matter what time it is!
I think on vacation all "normalcy" flies out the window and you just sort of have to play it by ear.

Dawn

 

[safetymom]

When I fly anywhere where there is a time change I adjust my habits to that time zone. When we go to Disneyland we go by California time. It takes a couple of days and when we get used to it our vacation is over.

 

[Stacerita]

I think you should decide what would work for your kids the best. Only you will know if they will be able to handle changing their schedule for the time zone or if it would be better for them to stay on their regular schedule. My sweetpea is pretty much a go with the flow and can adjust. Our schedule at home is pretty different day to day so that helps. Last trip we took the red eye and arrived at 6am est. And we were off and running all day. Got back pretty late that night and slept hard till wake up. We were up before 6am (that would be 3am west coast time) But since the flight was a red eye, we were on a go go go status and had a great first night sleep......we had no problems adjusting our schedules. But, sweetpea does well with that. Test your kids out a bit and get a feel for it. You will have your answer.

 

[KPeterso]

My next trip will be my first coming from CA to FL. Used to be IL to FL. That was only an hour, but I always adjusted to the time zone. I will most definitely be adjusting. I go during quiet times, so if I did't, I don't think I would have too much park time. It may take a day or so, but I see it as the only way to go!

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We took advantage of our CA body clocks to eat at "weird" hours - by eating off of the EST typical meal windows, we were able to get our ADR's for all the places we wanted, and also walked into a few spots without fighting a lot of crowds. We tried to get up early and adjust to EST, but it was very hard on 2 of the 4 people in our group. In the end, we mostly stuck to our CA schedule and took advantage of the evening EMH's instead of the mornings. It meant that we couldn't use the touring plans we'd chosen (since most require you to get to the parks for opening), but we coped!

 

[Rudegrle]

We like to fly the red eye out of seattle as well. This way we get some sleep on the plane and it almost feels like we are getting an extra day. If we fly during the day it takas an entire day to travel, what a waste. This also helps w/ the time difference. It's just easier to adjust. As they say, "When in Rome..."