getting over jet lag...

[hkkatie]

So, we were originally planning to come a few years from now during the summer, but now we're thinking of early 2016 before our youngest two turn 3. (Free! Yay!) But our time will be shortened as we're working with our kids school holidays, and we're debating if the jet lag struggle will be worth it. We are 12 hours different from Orlando. How have you dealt with jet lag? And is there a good way to help little kids get over it faster? If we keep to our original plan and come a few years later, we'll already be in the US for a few weeks before we hit WDW, and so jet lag won't be a problem. Opinions?

 

[amerikiwiroo]

I'll be honest: In my experience kids suffering jet lag is a lot harder than adults--but don't let it stop you! I grew up in the USA and now live in AU so we make the flight at least once a year. I've found it's the first 2 nights that are the hardest. Some tips I've found:

(1) Don't be surprised if they don't sleep soundly until 5/6am the first couple of nights and don't fight it. Mine will fall asleep at a decent hour as it coincides with nap time at home and then wake up at midnight-1am and be wide awake until 5 or 6am. Once I accepted it, dealing with it became much easier. I tend to put on a movie and drift in/out of sleep as they watch. As much as possible, try to get up at a decent hour and make use of a buggy for day naps during the adjustment so that they're outside in the sunshine vs. on a bed in a deep sleep.

(2) Their tummies take longer to adjust than the basic day/night conversion. My son in particular took longer to adjust as he kept waking up during the night really hungry! Now that I know this, I leave a bowl of dry cereal or a cup of milk by his bed and he can have some when he's hungry and go right back to sleep. This was a huge eye opener for me and made the adjustment much much easier for all of us.

(3) consider a flight that arrives at your destination in the late afternoon/early evening. They'll be shattered from the travel whether or not they sleep on the plane so if you arrive near dinner then you can just feed them and they'll crash at the right local time. For us, this means a much more difficult plane ride as you're entertaining for 15 hours rather than sleeping (during their day as opposed to night) but makes the jet lag adjustment much easier.

(4) Bring black out curtains and big clamps to attach them to the windows. Nothing worse than a kid finally falling asleep at 5am only to be awoken at 5:30am because "The sun is out!!"

Good luck!!

 

[hkkatie]

Thanks so much for your help. Some really good tips! I figure by the time we arrive in orlando, we will have been traveling for about 24 hours, and we will likely arrive late night. (Coming from Asia). So the hope is that they will be so exhausted from travel that they will sleep really well when we get to the hotel. But who knows how it will work out exactly.

Can I ask about your flight route? Seems like all the flights I can find (at a reasonable price) fly East over the Pacific Ocean, and have a stop on the west coast of the USA. Wouldn't it be easier if we flew west over Europe and landed in Orlando? What do you usually do?

 

[amerikiwiroo]

Yes, we fly via the Pacific Ocean as well with a layover in California. I'm surprised to hear that you follow the same route from Asia--like you, I would have thought going via Europe would make more sense. We generally have two flight choices.
(1) Depart in the evening from home, arrive in LA/San Fran at about lunch their time and then 6-8 hour layover before red-eye flight to East Coast.
(2) Depart in the morning from home, arrive LA early morning, connect in 2-3 hours to East coast and arrive dinner time east coast time.

The advantage of 1 is that they sleep more on the plane since it's night time in home time zone. Disadvantage is staying awake all day for the connection and then arriving on the East Coast in the morning. I've tried staying the night in LA to break it up and think it makes the flight on day 2 much harder.

Trip 2 is a much more hands-on long-haul leg but it gets all the travel done faster and helps on the jet lag front. It makes it seem that the flight was all just part of a very long day and then it's time for bed once we arrive.