How do you book flights?

[jle323]

Hi everyone! I just booked our stay for next September for 10 nights, from Friday to Sunday. I'm now questioning if I should get rid of that Friday night and go for 9 nights instead. I don't want to take my kids out of school that Friday, so we would have to take a later flight. I wanted to arrive Friday so we could have all day Satuday. When we went in May, our flight was Saturday at 12:30. By the time we made it to the resort, it was after 6pm so the day was gone. I could always book an early morning flight for Saturday (even though DH hates that).
Just wondering how other people plan their flights to get the most out of their Disney time!

 

[xlsm]

We prefer early flights. To compare our last two trips, in August 2014, we flew a direct flight that arrived in Orlando around 10:30am. We were checked into our resort, had eaten lunch, and were in time for our 2:30pm Fast Pass at DHS. We were able to do our three fast passes and a couple more attractions, get our dose of Disney atmosphere, and then be back to the resort by 6pm for dinner and early bedtime to prepare for our first full day. In July of this year, our flight was due to land at 10pm, but both of our flights were delayed. We did not get to our resort until well after midnight. It was really hard to get up the next morning, even though we "slept in" (in quotation marks because sleeping in at Disney is not really sleeping in to us, LOL!!)

 

[keepswimming76]

We once did a 9 a.m. flight on a Saturday and were inside the Magic Kingdom by 2:30 p.m. We enjoyed several hours at the park before calling it a night around 9. It worked well.

Next trip, we are taking an early evening flight and taking the kids out of school for the afternoon. We hope to be at our resort by 9 p.m. so we can enjoy a full day the next day.

 

[mzsarah10]

We prefer early flights. We usually arrive at our resort before noon and have a good lunch settle in or swim and go to dinner. It helps us get an early start the first full day. One trip we took a late after school flight. We didn't get to the resort until 11pm and we were exhausted.

 

[jle323]

Thanks all! For me the idea of getting to the airport at 4AM is fine, since I'm so excited I barely sleep anyway. But I know I'll get some grumbling from DH. It looks like early morning flight it is!

 

[pooh4evr]

We've done both- this time we are taking a 6pm flight, I will have to get our 3rd grader early from school, but the older 2 will be home, we have fall break. We like getting in at night. Check in, swim, eat and bed so we can rope drop the next day.

 

[Mousemommy1]

We were big fans of first flight down and last flight back. But, that was when we were a family of four and our girls are a bit older. Now, we have a baby boy and when we went in April, we found that getting the baby up at 4 am was not pleasant.
Our flights for next year are mid morning out (on a Saturday) and we will arrive at Disney around 1:00 pm (we have a 3 hour flight). Coming back (on a Sunday), we booked an early afternoon flight since we don't want to have to be at the Magical Express stop super early.
Our 11 yr old REFUSES to miss school, so that's not even an option anymore.

 

[jle323]

Talked to DH last night, and he is NOT a fan of flying out in the early morning. Looks like we may be back to the evening before. The kids get out of school at 3 and it takes us about an hour to get to the airport. A direct flight would be about 3 hours. I also don't want to land too late, as the boys will be miserable the next day. I'm trying to decide if I should pick them up early. I just hate letting the school know that, when they'll be missing a week already. At the same time, they'll only be going into 2nd and 5th grade. I still have a year to decide, but I like knowing my plans as soon as possible!

 

[mrsp1030]

Typically, it will be much cheaper to fly on a Sat versus a Friday evening too.

 

[mom2AidanAndEli]

We always fly out first thing in the morning, take the latest flight back we can. On arrival day, we get a 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. flight out, land around 9:00 or 10:00, catch the bus, check in, and have lunch at Magic Kingdom! Can't beat that. I also look at it as taking an evening flight and not doing anything that first night, I'm basically paying for a room for nothing but sleeping. If I'm paying for the room, I want to at least enjoy some of the day at Disney! Same thing for coming back later. I want to make the most of that last day. We usually have a flight around 7:00 p.m. or so. We get up, pack, check out, and head to a park until after lunch time.

Now, having said that, last month we actually took a 9:30 a.m. flight home. We needed to be back by early on Sunday, so were planning on just leaving Saturday night. But the way Southwest prices things, it was actually cheaper for us to pay for POFQ for one more night and take the morning flight than to just fly out on Saturday night!

 

[Teacup53]

I've done both and when we go back in January we are flying out friday night because if there are weather delays (as we ran into this past Jan) our Saturday early morning flight turned into a Saturday evening flight - we didn't even land until 11 - it was a LATE night with two little ones but we made it to Disney despite the snow storms. I know you are flying in Sept but keep in mind that there can still be weather related issues - thunder, tropical storms which can delay you so going the night before buys you a little time. We are supposed to fly Friday afternoon at 3:20 - hopefully it will go smoothly but am expecting it not to so that no one gets disappointed.

 

[Stacyleigh1999]

We just booked our flights for April and we chose 6am flight on Friday and my oldest will just miss that day of school as well. I'm hoping by getting them up early they will be tired on the plane and take a nap. they will be 6 4 and 2 so wishful thinking

 

[diznymom]

We never go to the parks they day we fly in. I usually take DS out of school early for the flight day. I check ahead w/ teachers to get any missed assignments before we leave. The airport is 100 miles away. We fly in, take DME to resort, check into resort and go exploring the resort and eat supper and try to make it an early night. We hit the parks early the next mornings and enjoy or vacation.

 

[jle323]

Thanks all! It's nice to hear all the different ways people arrive. I still think we'll go the evening before and take the kids out of school early...

 

[kmb584]

We fly early. The Philly airport is a 2.5-hour drive for us, so we always take the 11a US Air flight to MCO. We land around 1:15p and are at the resort by 3p at the latest. Arrival day is never a park day for us, but I do tend to schedule our dinner ADR within a park. In November, we're trying something new, and instead of the 11a flight we'll be taking the 7a flight on 11-7. I booked us a room at the Philly Airport Marriott for 11-6 and I'll drive us down that night after school and work. We land at 9:15a, and I'm sure we'll wind up at MK after our Chef Mickey's brunch.

 

[richmo]

Especially if my Disney time is limited, I like to take an early AM flight to MCO and a late afternoon/evening flight back home.

Going to Disney, I am also flying out of PHL. Given a choice, going to Orlando, I'll take a 7 AM or even earlier flight, as opposed to something around 9 or 10 AM...here's why: I have a one hour trip to PHL with no traffic. So, for a 7 AM flight, I'll want to be on PHL grounds around 5 AM, leaving home around 4 AM, getting up about 3:30 AM. That's early! Change the flight to 9 AM. I'll wan't to be at PHL around 7 AM. However, rush hour traffic is picking up quite a bit, so leaving home at 6 is a bit risky, so I'd probably leave a little after 5:00. Probably don't need that hour buffer, but you never know. So, I'd be up at 4:30 anyway. Might as well get up a little earlier and arrive at Orlando at least two hours earlier. I'm often in the parks by 11:00, so its almost a full day. Plus I tend to not sleep too great the night before a trip, so might as well get up and get down there. One other plus for the early flights is the plane tends to be there from the night before, so the potential delay of waiting for an incoming flight usually isn't there.

 

[mcjaco]

We typically go early in the morning, and then spend the day at DTD, before check in (we stay at our Marriott Time Share). When I was younger, we'd go to Sea World the first day before check in.

As for leaving, we try to do mid afternoon. That way we have time to have breakfast, pack up, check the room for anything left behind, and still have plenty of time to get through Orlando's awful security. And we're home in time for dinner, and bedtime.

 

[scrapquitler]

Hi everyone! I just booked our stay for next September for 10 nights, from Friday to Sunday. I'm now questioning if I should get rid of that Friday night and go for 9 nights instead. I don't want to take my kids out of school that Friday, so we would have to take a later flight. I wanted to arrive Friday so we could have all day Satuday. When we went in May, our flight was Saturday at 12:30. By the time we made it to the resort, it was after 6pm so the day was gone. I could always book an early morning flight for Saturday (even though DH hates that).
Just wondering how other people plan their flights to get the most out of their Disney time!

Keep in mind that a Friday flight might be a lot more expensive than a Thursday or Saturday flight. We just went to WDW last week, and we traveled on Thursday night because the flight was more than $100 per person less expensive than the same time flight on the same airline on Friday.


We like to travel to Disney early in the morning, then we have most of the day to spend in the park on our arrival day. Likewise, we try to schedule our flight home in the evening, so that we also get to spend at least some of our departure day in the parks.