Hotel night before flight or not???

[canadaman]

My family is flying out of Buffalo July 19 2011 at 7:35am on jetblue. Buffalo is about a 3 hour drive for us. Originally we planned on getting a hotel by the airport the night before and then leaving the car there and using the hotel shuttle to the airport.

No we are thinking about just leaving home at 1am or so and just driving to the airport. Reasons for this are that none of us will sleep that night before anyways so we thought we may as well just drive down. This way we save the cost of the hotel.

We are a family of 5 with the kids being 10, 8, and 6 years old. We are a little concerned with the kids getting up that early. Especially the 6 year old. The older 2 went to WDW 3 years ago and we drove and left at 1am or so and they were fine. They were so wired with excitement that the early wake up time never did bother them.

Can you guys share some advice as to which way would work better for us??

thank you

 

[dsneygirl]

Personally, no I would not get up at 1am to drive 3 hours. How will you all be doing by about noon or 1pm? I would definitely spring for the hotel. You'll still have to be up by about 5-5:30 so you can get some decent sleep.

I would find the 3 hour drive more exhausting than the flight. You will have already been travelling for about 8 or 9 hours by the time you get to WDW which would not start the trip off well for me.

 

[Ted in Halifax]

I think you risk "Kid Meltdown" on Day 1 ... not a great start to the trip. I always do the park and fly ... anytime I over stress the sleep cycle of the kids it didn't go well.

My advice ... get there the night before, spend a night in a hotel (park and fly), getting up at 6 am is way better than 1am.

 

[OntFamily]

Ditto on the advice to drive the night before. Also, if you book a "park and fly" rate, the extra cost for night's stay will be offset partially by not paying for parking.

 

[Sue M]

We make the 3 hr drive down to Seattle, and always stay over night- both ways.
Going down, we book early morning flights, and don't want to be up for 24 hrs. I think it would take me 2 days to recover, then add in the time change for us. No thanks. We sleep. I just take an antihistamine, they knock me out.

We also stay over when we return. Like to take a late afternoon flight home, so don't arrive till 10 or 11pm. Again don't want to drive 3 hrs after flying 8+ hrs. But not as long a day traveling for you.

I found some Marriotts just a little outside the immediate airport, but close enough that hotels have shuttles - that let us park for free. Springhill Suites and Town Place Suites. And their parking lot is patroled.

 

[TreesyB]

You could also consider it as an extra day on vacation. Get into the hotel earlier, and visit the US city you'll be flying out of. Maybe you could even get some non-perishable food items that you can't bring across the border. I like to do the park and fly, I don't feel the stress about crossing the border, get an adequate night's sleep, and maybe get a swim at the pool. I consider it the first day of the vacation!

 

[Sue M]

You could also consider it as an extra day on vacation. Get into the hotel earlier, and visit the US city you'll be flying out of. Maybe you could even get some non-perishable food items that you can't bring across the border. I like to do the park and fly, I don't feel the stress about crossing the border, get an adequate night's sleep, and maybe get a swim at the pool. I consider it the first day of the vacation!

Yeah, we do too. We feel like our vacay starts the moment we hit the road!
We'll make a stop to the Premium Outlets along the way down, then go walk around a mall near the hotel, which has a Cheesecake Factory and Bahama Breeze nearby. Have dinner at one of them!