How early is too early getting to WDW?

[Boopuff]

My family is gun-ho to get to Disney. We get up at 4am to take the very first flight out. Makes for an exhausting first day! Anyone else take that early as heck flight? It’s just hard not to pass up as much time as possible at Disney!

 

[mom2rtk]

Our flight in January took off at 6:15 AM Central time. That was an early wake up call for sure! We stayed almost until park close at DHS that night. A very long day to be sure.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

We always take the earliest flight out, especially when we travel during winter. Gives us more time to get to WDW in case of weather delays at our home airport, etc. We wake at 3:30am and leave our house at 4:30 am (central time).

We usually take DME and drop off our carry ons with bell services. Sometimes we go to a park, sometimes we just eat lunch at the resort and go to Disney Springs. Sometimes we don’t have a park ticket that day but add it when we arrive! A few weeks ago we did book FP in advance for our arrival day because we were staying at BLT and could just walk to MK. Too tempting to not have a ticket that day!

We landed at about 10:00 am. We got to our resort by 11:30. Dropped off our stuff at BLT and walked to MK. Had lunch at Casey’s, did our 3 FP and a few other things, and watched FoF. Then our BLT villa was ready and we went there, unpacked, rested a bit and ate dinner at Contempo. Walked back to MK to watch the 8:00 HEA and went to bed early to gear up for the next day. It was perfect.

 

[Disneylover99]

We take the early flight out, generally because it’s a direct flight and it’s the cheapest flight of the day.

 

[Jimsig]

Most of the time we have flown in the night before and have arrived any where from 6 to 9 at night. Get settled and a good nights sleep and hit the parks running the next day. I just hate feeling exhausted that first day and feeling like I am behind the 8 ball the next couple days. But I get why people do the first flight too.

 

[DisLiss]

That's too early for me. We're fairly early risers, so our travel plans are made to work with our normal routine. We'll have to leave our house no later than 7am on our travel day and that's a little later than we normally leave for school & work, so it works out perfectly for us. (Especially since we get up earlier than we need to each day in order to all eat breakfast together and for the kids to have some free time before school.)

I just don't do well without a decent amount of sleep each night, so I wouldn't want to start such an active trip already tired.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Earliest we will fly out is 6:30am and we don’t like to do that anymore. We live 45 minutes from the airport, so if we can’t stay with family the night before we have to add that time to travel day.
Next trip we won’t fly out until afternoon and make a relaxing day out of it.

 

[JillyMouse]

We used to always take the early flight out also (from MKE), but now have settled on a mid-day flight. Keeps the hubby from getting too grumpy!

 

[spiders]

I once did a solo trip and flew out on a cargo carrier. It was an overnight flight. The flight left at about 3:30 AM so I left the house about 1:45 AM to get there by "showtime" -- we got to MCO, I took a cab from the cargo ramp to the passenger terminal, got the Magical Express and was at WDW about 6:30-7:00 AM. My plan was to change (I was wearing a suit & tie), drop off my bag, get some coffee and go to rope drop. Well, when I checked in they gave me a room. The opportunity to sleep was just too good to pass up. I slept for about 3-4 hours and then headed to the parks.

Under normal circumstances with kids, about 8AM is the earliest I'd fly out with them.

 

[Boopuff]

I'm always hopeful that I'll get the text that says my room is ready while I"m on the Magical Express. I'be gotten it a few times (which is fantastic then I can get in the room right away!) But most of the times I have to wait until 4.

 

[1911]

We take the red eye landing at 5:30 to 6:30 am at mco

 

[brockash]

My family is gun-ho to get to Disney. We get up at 4am to take the very first flight out. Makes for an exhausting first day! Anyone else take that early as heck flight? It’s just hard not to pass up as much time as possible at Disney!

Always. We've traveled from a variety of airports and have gotten in as early as 530am (red eye) to 130pm... most recent trips have been around 9/10... Our next trip we land at 815am.

 

[Heather07438]

Usually the earliest flights we get are 6-8am.

Back in the days when we used to try squeezing every drop, we'd fly out late the night before and stay one night in a cheaper hotel for sleep before waking up 6am to hit the parks.

One trip we went so crazy that we stayed for MK EMH until 2am before boarding our 5:30am flight. We didn't even have a room that night, lol We rope dropped MK that last morning at 8am and stayed thru to 2am! The next morning we got home and slept like a dog- all day long. It was a fun trip.

 

[Leigh L]

Usually the earliest flights we get are 6-8am.

Back in the days when we used to try squeezing every drop, we'd fly out late the night before and stay one night in a cheaper hotel for sleep before waking up 6am to hit the parks.

One trip we went so crazy that we stayed for MK EMH until 2am before boarding our 5:30am flight. We didn't even have a room that night, lol We rope dropped MK that last morning at 8am and stayed thru to 2am! The next morning we got home and slept like a dog- all day long. It was a fun trip.

If the parks were still open this late, I'd totally try this! What a fun experience that must have been!

The earliest flight we can get is usually around 6 a.m. and often do that since it gets us in Orlando about 7:30 - 8 a.m. We'll do a full park day once we arrive.
We are early risers, but still paranoid about oversleeping for those early flights. We set like 4 alarms at least LOL

 

[richmo]

I've/we've often taken the earliest flights, especially on trips of limited time. Last time we had a 5 AM flight out of PHL and we're close to an hour away from the airport, so we left home about 2 AM. Landed at MCO around 7;15 (it was a little early). As I recall, we grabbed the rental car, stopped for breakfast at the McDonald's at Crossroads Plaza, then arrived at Epcot just before park opening.

Didn't necessarily want to go that early, but the airfare was right and we still managed a pretty full day at the park, just taking a break in the afternoon to check in to the hotel. Another nice thing about the early flights is they're much less often delayed as the plane is already sitting at the airport overnight, so you're not waiting on an incoming flight.

 

[Bullseye]

Yes we always get the first flight out around 5:30am and arrive around 9am. We want to get there as early as possible and get the party started. We don't do a park on arrival day. Instead we do a waterpark until our room is ready. In the evening we go off property to do our grocery shopping and have dinner.

 

[chaoskids]

We love taking the early flight. We’re flying out at 5:40 am next trip and hope to be at AK by 930ish. Its a great way to start a trip.

 

[holden]

The nice thing about the first flight of the day is that they are rarely delayed!

 

[lorenae]

I hate doing it, but we are a bit over 1.5 hours away from the airport and we have two flights a day on most days- 5:55 AM and 5:30 PM or something like that.

So we have to be out the door no later than 3:15, but earlier is better. It’s a killer.

This May, I found one that leaves at 11:50 (central) and arrives at MCO at 5:30 (eastern). It’s a Sunday so that may be why- but I like it a lot better!

 

[Brett Wyman]

Nope our 9:30 am flight arrives MCO about 11:15am