how do your kids adjust to the time change?

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

Thanks for all of this! I have been looking at the photos of the Disneyland Hotel, and my DD would love it because her favorite thing about WDW was staying at the Poly and hopping on the monorail...she loves the monorail. Plus, she loves Peter Pan, especially the crocodile and I noticed they have him in the pool area My only concern is how long it takes to get there. I researched flights, and I can fly nonstop from Boston and it would take over six hours, or one stop from Manchester and it would take over eight hours. This concerns me as DD has a hard enough time flying the three hours to Orlando...she is a funny four year old...she doesn't watch movies in the car or plane! She'll color a bit, but most of the time she just looks around the plane, chats with me, and asks about a thousand times when we're going to be there! I'm thinking getting a flight that actually has a stop might be good to break up the flying a little bit...any thoughts?

I would do the non-stop. Nothing worse that a connection that doesn't connect with little ones. Have you thought about flying in the evening - last flight out? We like red-eye when we go to Orlando, since we fly during their sleeping hours. After a while, they just crash anyway - mostly from the boredom and the flight. Best of luck in what you choose!

 

[Hound 109]

Going in Feb will actually help you, when traveling from East to West. You will already be "wired" to wake up early in the morning and getting in line before opening (MM day or non MM day) is the best way to explore the parks (IMO). DL will close @ 8 p.m., DCA @ 6, I think (except on Friday, Saturday). If you stay in the parks all day, you will be ready to crash when back to the hotel at 8, so not really staying up super late helps keep you more on a regular schedule. Friday night we did try to stay up late for Fireworks (only bad thing about Feb is Fireworks are weekend only - but if you come in on Sat/Sun to start your week you can see them then) - the adults made it, the little kids didn't. But we do the parks open to close each day - even though that is early morning to 8 p.m., a full Friday from early morning to midnight just wasn't in them.

None of this is significant enough change to sleep schedule to deter us from ever thinking of not going!!!! If it benefits you, you can go back to the hotel and nap for a bit, then back to the parks. We don't personally, but sometimes my parents do. Everyone has a different schedule that works for them. DO take your family to DLR, you will love it!!

I very much agree with this. The time difference is your friend.

Assuming you get up at a reasonable time prior to your flight, the family will "get tired" at a good time for getting up early your first morning. It won't be difficult to get up to be first in line at DL the first morning. (5am in SoCal is 8am on the east coast).

Over the course of your visit, you'll probably start to get acclimated....so definitely plan your early morning activities & touring your first two days.

Only downside is the return. It's a bear to get up that first day back.

 

[Huff]

The trouble I have is the girls love to stay each night until the park closes and rides shut down. Lately this has been midnight. We get to the car and they are passed out before I even make it out of the garage. I struggle to wake them up and into bed. Then since they were up all night we don't make it to the parks the next day until 10 or 11am and miss out on the shorter morning lines. Nothing to do with jet lag but how do you parents deal with kids that are night time lovers and morning haters?

 

[lovintheland]

Having done 2 trips to Disney from Australia in the past 2 years we have become experts on the jet lag thing. Not really, but we've found we just have to accept we are going to be completely exhausted for the first few days. Actually make that the entire trip. Both times we have had to have a nap the day we arrive. I know others do Disneyland on their first day but after flying 14 hrs and missing a nights' sleep I know I would be too tired and grumpy to appreciate it. Once we catch up on the sleep we still wake reasonably early everymorning (to get to Disney) and never went to bed before 10 pm sometimes midnight. Hey you're at Disneyland, you can sleep when you get home. The one thing my 11 year old son was looking forward to coming home earlier this month was "not being tired all the time". I'm always tired at home anyway, would much rather be tired and doing Disney.

 

[keptwoman]

I find 3 hours very easy to move to both for me and the children. We frequently travel between Australia and NZ which is a 2-3 hour time difference (depending on daylight saving)

Absolutely dreading the 14 hour difference between here and NY though for our trip in September. Dreading it! I'm really worried we will spend our whole 4 days in NY in a jetlagged stupor.

 

[DizOz]

When we travelled from Australia to DL with our 2 DD (Aged 5 and 9) we were worried about the time difference and wasting days getting acclimiatised. We arrived at LAX at 8am and headed to GCh checked in and went straight to DCA for the day.

We kept the girls going all day and had an early dinner at DTD. Youngest finally succumbed and fell asleep in her pasta about 7.30pm. So we headed to bed had 12 hours sleep and woke the next day pretty much acclimatised to the time difference.

 

[CalvaryMike]

A frequent international traveler on a plane once gave me a tip and it has always worked for me and DW. He said to start adjusting for the time zone before you arrive vs waiting to adjust when you arrive.

If you're going to arrive in the a.m., plan ahead to be rested when you arrive and don't go to sleep early. Go to sleep at your usual sleep time at your new time zone.

If you're going to arrive late, plan ahead and don't be too rested (even if this means not sleeping on the plane). Again, go to sleep at your usual sleep time at your new time zone.

When you wake the next morning, your internal clock will be set to the new time zone. This has worked great for me and I travel about a couple of times a year. It has also worked for most people I know too.

 

[keptwoman]

A frequent international traveler on a plane once gave me a tip and it has always worked for me and DW. He said to start adjusting for the time zone before you arrive vs waiting to adjust when you arrive.

If you're going to arrive in the a.m., plan ahead to be rested when you arrive and don't go to sleep early. Go to sleep at your usual sleep time at your new time zone.

If you're going to arrive late, plan ahead and don't be too rested (even if this means not sleeping on the plane). Again, go to sleep at your usual sleep time at your new time zone.

When you wake the next morning, your internal clock will be set to the new time zone. This has worked great for me and I travel about a couple of times a year. It has also worked for most people I know too.

Well that's good because that's what we plan to do. Fortunately we arrive in NY at 10pm after 25 hours of flying so I suspect our beds will be very welcome!