Jetlag when flying direct from Downunder to the East Coast of U.S.A

[Travel Mum]

After reading all these wonderful trip reports, I'm considering possibly adding on a few days in New York before our WDW/cruise holiday next September. I've never flown from N.Z to the East Coast in one go before but, due to time restraints, we will need to for this trip. However, I'm really alarmed by reading of the extreme jet lag that many people posting are experiencing. If we stick with our current plan, we will arrive into Orlando in the evening and I've allowed the next day to have no plans and to just adjust our time clocks before hitting the parks the day after. However, if I add New York, we'd also arrive in the evening but I'd need to plan on hitting the ground sightseeing the next day. I always presumed that we'd arrive exhausted after all the flying, crash into bed in the evening and have a good nights's sleep so be almost on local time the next day. However, reading of posts done at 1am due to jetlag has made me doubt that plan! As adults, we could force ourselves to keep going through the day to get our body clocks sorted out but I know I couldn't force the children (aged 13, 10 and 6). New York is too expensive for us to spend a day in bed so I'm keen to know of experiences of others who have done this journey, expecially with children, and to hear how the jetlag affected them. Thanks

 

[Ms. Shuttergirl]

I totally assumed the same. We flew in at 5pm, I thought we would have a huge night sleep and be up and fighting fit but alas, it hasn't worked out that way. I am typing this at 3.50am LOL. I'm not too worried about it although DH is getting frustrated with it but he is a big baby about sleep. DS8 is lying listening to his Ipod in the hopes of sleeping again, I've given up and jumped on the DIS. I think if you plan most of your activities for an early start and could be done by 1pm or so then you would be fine. That way you could rest, the kids could relax and play, watch tv for a while, etc, then out the door for dinner and some shopping then off to bed.

Wish I could help with an answer...

 

[dollarmite]

Last year we flew from Brisbane to New York with our children aged 8 and 12. I too was dreading the jetlag aspect of it and was worried about wasting a day, but it actually worked out quite well.

We had a 4 hour stopover in LA (was supposed to be 2 hours but Qantas managed to bungle that again...).

We ended up arriving at our NY hotel at about 9pm. By that time we'd been on the go for about 36 hours, with only a bit of dozing on the plane. We basically went straight to bed and woke at about 7am the next day.

We felt a bit sluggish at first but hit the streets after breakfast and were on the go till about 9pm.

I usually find a good's night sleep after arriving in the US does the trick - I think there's a psychological aspect of "let's just get on with it and not waste any of our precious holiday", lol.

ETA: I actually found it better to fly straight through to NY than stop in LA for a few days first as I usually do. I normally arrive in LA early afternoon and find it worse trying to stave off the sleep at that time, whereas arriving in NY at night corralted more with bed time.

 

[Travel Mum]

I totally assumed the same. We flew in at 5pm, I thought we would have a huge night sleep and be up and fighting fit but alas, it hasn't worked out that way. I am typing this at 3.50am LOL. I'm not too worried about it although DH is getting frustrated with it but he is a big baby about sleep. DS8 is lying listening to his Ipod in the hopes of sleeping again, I've given up and jumped on the DIS. I think if you plan most of your activities for an early start and could be done by 1pm or so then you would be fine. That way you could rest, the kids could relax and play, watch tv for a while, etc, then out the door for dinner and some shopping then off to bed.

Wish I could help with an answer...

Thanks Ms Shuttergirl, I appreciate your input. That sounds a do-able plan to start early in the morning and then be done by early afternoon. Of course the positive part of this is that by the time we'd get to WDW, our body clocks would hopefully be sorted and I wouldn't need to allocate that first rest day to get over jetlag.

 

[Travel Mum]

Last year we flew from Brisbane to New York with our children aged 8 and 12. I too was dreading the jetlag aspect of it and was worried about wasting a day, but it actually worked out quite well.

We had a 4 hour stopover in LA (was supposed to be 2 hours but Qantas managed to bungle that again...).

We ended up arriving at our NY hotel at about 9pm. By that time we'd been on the go for about 36 hours, with only a bit of dozing on the plane. We basically went straight to bed and woke at about 7am the next day.

We felt a bit sluggish at first but hit the streets after breakfast and were on the go till about 9pm.

I usually find a good's night sleep after arriving in the US does the trick - I think there's a psychological aspect of "let's just get on with it and not waste any of our precious holiday", lol.

ETA: I actually found it better to fly straight through to NY than stop in LA for a few days first as I usually do. I normally arrive in LA early afternoon and find it worse trying to stave off the sleep at that time, whereas arriving in NY at night corralted more with bed time.

Oh Dollarmite I'm so pleased to hear that the theory does work for some people! And that's great to hear that you find it better to fly straight through because I had assumed it was better to stop for a night in L.A. but just can't take a day off WDW to do that!

 

[platypus67]

I've lived in Australia for 20 years now and have traveled back to the east coast on average of every 12 - 18 months. I probably suffer least out of the three of us, with DH being the most affected. From experience having a couple of days to relax at the beginning of a trip can make all the difference. Our most enjoyable holidays are always those with one or two do nothing days at the beginning of the holiday. If I stay awake until night I will still wake up at around 2 am and same if I sleep during the day. Personally I don't think you can force your body to accept the time change straight away, you just have to let it happen.
This trip we are flying straight to Orlando arriving at 8:30pm. The plan for the next day is do nothing except head over to Epcot for dinner. The next day is AK as we know that is usually a slow paced day.
I know of people who swear by a tablet called No Jet lag. (It is appearently a NZ product.) I've never tried it.
If you have the time to relax for a couple of days then I would definately do it.

 

[Travel Mum]

Thanks for your advice Platypus and I'll be really keen to hear back our your jetlag went on your upcoming trip

Another way we could do it is to keep the plan to fly straight to MCO, with the next day as a rest day before hitting the parks the day after. After our Orlando stay and our Caribbean cruise, we could add a few days in New York on at the end because we wouldn't be at all jetlagged by then and could make the most of our limited time there. However, it always seemed to make sense to finish the holiday with the relaxing cruise and New York seems to be a very busy type of holiday. Any thoughts

 

[platypus67]

Personally I would do NYC at the end. I think if I only had limited time like a couple of days it would be far better to experience it feeling good and not be fighting jet lag as well. That's just me and everyone handles it differently. Our first trip as a family to WDW in 2007 we only had six days so we hit the ground running. Big mistake, dh was grumpy because of lack of sleep, dd got a cold and that with the jet lag was miserable. This is our do-over trip so we are taking it easy and although we will want to get straight into it, will take the time to rest first.

 

[Jade+3]

Can't help with the jet lag issue as we stayed overnight in LA. But, I do think doing NY last is a great idea - to walk off all the cruise food!!

 

[aussiegirls]

I know of people who swear by a tablet called No Jet lag. (It is appearently a NZ product.) I've never tried it.

We used that stuff. In Australia it is called Jet-Ease, and it was amazing. None of us had any jet lag at all when we arrived in the US and none of us had any jet lag at all when we arrived back home - in fact we arrived home on the Sunday and we all went to work/school the very next day (Monday) with no issues at all.

They are just chewable tablets that the kids actually liked and kept asking for more of . One pack was enough for all 3 of us and we still have half of it left.

I don't know if it really was the reason we had no jet lag or if it was some sort of placebo effect (though if it was a placebo it wouldn't have worked on the kids), but I will definately be using them again this time.

It's also homeopathic, so there is really nothing in there that will hurt you at all

xxx