If flying from the west coast, do you try to visit a park the first day?

[CJN]

Hey, neighbors!

Hey Guys in Stayton and Salem!! I'm in Sheridan now but grew up in Stayton!

This year we take a flight out from PDX at 11:45 the day prior to our check in at WDW. We land at MCO just before 10:00pm and we will check into the Hyatt inside MCO and spend our first night there. We will get a good rest and get up early and check into magical express and once we check into our resort we will be ready to hit the parts with a good nights sleep.

The Hyatt on the first night might be our plan, also. If Delta doesn't mess with the schedule too much we arrive at 11pm. I might book the Hyatt or hotwire an airport hotel. But we're staying at the Swan so I'm also thinking of booking Beach Club the first night so we can take ME, sleep in a bit and then just walk over to check-in at Swan.

Oooooh how I wanted to fly out of Salem in August but when I was ready to purchase, it was $416 roundtrip out of Salem vs. $240 out of Portland = PDX it is .

When is your next trip?

The fares out of Salem have really been going crazy the last few weeks. We booked at $297 and feel good with it considering parking fees and our travel time to and from as compared to PDX. Right after that it jumped up to around $850, then $550, then $900, then $315, then $535. Checking the price has been a daily source of entertainment. Our trip is Jan 20th to 31st, which is why I'm wondering if Delta will still be serving Salem by then with all this airline/fuel craziness. Maybe we'll end up flying out of PDX after all

Oh, and I know some of those Foltz and Birkholz folks very well.

 

[restful urchin]

Hi Guys from Salem and Stayton. I went to HS in Scio!

I live up north now, (way north!!!) but am flying out of PDX with my nephews (from Albany, ha!) at 0610 on Delta, (don't want to think what time we will have to leave Albany..... )and arriving around 530 pm or so.

I plan on winging it. It depends if we are on time, how long it takes to get to the AsMu FS, etc. Since the boys are teens, if we are all up to it, we'll hit a park. If not we'll eat the all stars, maybe swim, walk around, and do whatever. It helps to be with older kids since we can really wing it much easier.
If we do hit the parks my goal is Spectro!
Have a great trip no matter what you decide!
Liz

 

[CJN]

a lot of peopel have given u advice (i haven't read them though haha) but here's mine:

If you are arriving anytime after the afternoon, . i wouldn't go to a park. reason being, . . . the pass start counting your days once you go to a park So for example, if your pass is valid for 5 days, . . then going to the parks from 3 pm to watever pm, will be counted as one day. You've lost the morning half of the day!!

But extra days can be added to your ticket so reasonably I would never let that stop me from doing something I wanted to do in a park. Of course, we like staying in the boardwalk area and are suckers for Illuminations. So it's a no-brainer that's where we end up the first night on trips when our flight times allow - yep, using up the first day off our ticket.

 

[eeyoregon]

Oh, and I know some of those Foltz and Birkholz folks very well.

LOL! I work with Jennifer (maiden name Foltz) Birkholz.

 

[disneegrl4eva]

I'm not sure how to go about scheduling our first day (flying in on Tuesday, December 9th). It'll be myself, DH, MIL, BIL, DS 9, and DS 5.

We could take an early flight, land at 4:00pm, check-in, then hit one of the parks. On the one hand, everyone will probably be really excited that we're finally there, adrenalin will be pumping, and they'll want to go go go. On the other hand, it could be quite exhausting for everyone, and we could be completely pooped out for Wednesday (December 10th), the first full day of our vacation.

Or, we could take an early flight, land at 4:00pm, check-in, then just hang around our resort (CSR). We could go swimming, have an early dinner, then off to bed so we can get plenty of rest for our first full day at the parks. Of course we would be coming from the Pacific time zone, so if we went to bed at 9:00pm, to us it would be 6:00pm, and maybe the kids (and adults) wouldn't be able to go to sleep. (Or maybe we'd be so tired from the early flight that we'd be more than ready to hit the hay.)

Or, we could take a late flight, land at 10:30pm, check-in, go right to bed, and be well rested for the next morning. However, everyone might be too excited to go straight to bed.

I'm just not sure what to do. Anyone out there who could help us out and give us advice?

haha funny seeing you on this side of the boards are you going to the mini ladies trip in june? Its way too hot for me at that time and I cant go next march because we are going to wdw next year and I have to save ALL my money for that but I have been planning this for awhile now and we intend to fly out on a red eye and becaue we're getting in so early in the am, we will check in then hit the parks all day till our room is ready then rest a bit before we head out again but will call it an early night...we plan on doing DHS that day and they close the park at 8 so that will work out well seeing as it will be 5pm here you know??? I think your second option sounds good due to what time your coming in so maybe you could take benadryl and give it to the kids too and you will be able to go to sleep that early