On your arrival and departure, do you arrive early/leave late?

[dblr]

We flew out of BWI in Oct. we had the 1st flight out on Air Trans so we stayed @ a hotel close to the airport that also gave us parking for the week,by the time we landed in MCO got our luggage and rental car ( We wanted to have a car) and got to SSR around 11 or so our room was not ready so we met other friends @ DDD for lunch and shopping I would have rather been @ the pool but tried to keep everyone happy.

 

[Cruelladeville]

Grand Rapids has a 5 AM flight out, arriving at 9:45, and we usually take that, although it's brutal if you have children. Then we take the 7:30 PM flight home, to arrive at 10:30, and we actually arrive home at 1 AM.(we have to drive north) don't do this with kids, though. It's not worth it!

 

[CarolMN]

If it were me, I would not book the last flight out - August can be stormy and I do not want to be stuck in the airport overnight if that last flight gets cancelled for some reason. Especaily true if school starts on Monday and I still had stuff to do to get the kids ready.

 

[edk35]

If it were me, I would not book the last flight out - August can be stormy and I do not want to be stuck in the airport overnight if that last flight gets cancelled for some reason. Especaily true if school starts on Monday and I still had stuff to do to get the kids ready.

Well after SW flights went up yesterday....my wide open 79 bucks are now wide open and 105. LOL So we are keeping our current departure time.

 

[wendydarling826]

For our full-length vacation in August, we always take a very early flight and head right to a park when we arrive. We don't care that our room isn't ready, we like to have the full day to enjoy. If we had little kids, that might be a different story, though, I think I'd want to be able to get into the room when we arrived. On our last day we get a late flight. Last year, our AP's had expired, so we spent the whole last day in SAB, changed for the flight in the Fitness Club and returned home feeling very relaxed.
For our "mini" getaway, we get a late afternoon flight after work and a flight back as late as possible on the last day. Next week we'll be getting back home after midnight and will have to go to work in the morning, but it's worth it to have every minute possible in WDW!

 

[snowwhitemom]

I arrive so super early feel like we get an extra day....late flights are great ...everyone is so tired it is sleepy heads all the way home....nice.

 

[WOW]

So many ways to look at things........and things change all the time. When we first started going to Disney we used to ALWAYS take an early AM flight and return as late as possible, depending on school, work, etc.

We gradually started to leave later and later and return somewhat earlier as well. Everyting depends on what is going on in our lives at the time.

Our first trip the kids were 6 & 7 and now they are 27 & 28......so we have lots of mileage and we have changed our way of doing things many times......Now it is even more chaotic since the kids now have jobs, friends. etc etc.........Ya gotta just go with the flow....

 

[ACDSNY]

We don't have much of a choice since we're coming from the west coast. We have to take the early morning flights or we don't get in until midnight. We usually take a 6AM flight going and a 5PM flight to go home. Our next one we're taking the red eye.

 

[newholidayx2]

In April and Aug our flights are 730am and 7pm

not sure what im doing with nov - so far it seems cheaper to fly night before

 

[maraki527]

I always leave home on the earliest flight and leave DW on a flight that is in the middle or early evening. If you take the Magical Express for a flight that leaves at 5:45 it will pick you up at least three hours before your flight leaves. When i go in may we depart at 5:20 and land at 10 or so and are going to go straight to a park and come back in the afternoon for check in and a quick nap and go to extra magic hours.

 

[edk35]

I always leave home on the earliest flight and leave DW on a flight that is in the middle or early evening. If you take the Magical Express for a flight that leaves at 5:45 it will pick you up at least three hours before your flight leaves. When i go in may we depart at 5:20 and land at 10 or so and are going to go straight to a park and come back in the afternoon for check in and a quick nap and go to extra magic hours.

Did you use ME? We have always stayed at SOG these past few trips so we arent' eligible for ME so we hire a car service. How is ME? Do you get to the airport really early then? I hate that. LOL I hate the waiting around. I know I heard that ME picks up at several hotels maybe that is why you have to leave that early? Does it take a while to get to your DVC resort when you are picked up at airport?

 

[tomandrobin]

We try to leave as early as we can to get to Disney!!

Coming home we it varies, but we usually try to leave around late afternoon or early evening. We like to get home around 9pm, gives us planty of time to settle in before work/school the next day.

This past New Years we had a late fight out of MCO. We got home around 12:30 am, we were all wioed out the next day. But we wanted to maximize that trip.

 

[dianeschlicht]

We try to fly out as early as we can get (sometimes 6:30), and try to get as late a flight as possible on the return, but often that is only early afternoon. We got lucky for our May trip, and we leave at 7:30 AM and our return flight leaves Orlando at 5:30 PM.

 

[alldiz]

I always take the 1st flight out on SW....

It used to be at 6:40am....SW...changed it to 7:20
We are always tired....but i need to check in EARLY

In fact when bus stops....I make the marathon sprint
to checkin....DH...gets bags...I get my own

So far.....room has always been ready....I just knocked
my wooden head...should be ok for next time now

Going home...I dont like to be without room on last day for some
reason....so we always leave in afternoon....
Kerri

 

[Starr W.]

We take an early flight out and a late morning-mid afternoon flight back.

 

[MinnesotaChill]

I don't have time right now to read throught all the responses, but I have a suggestion for the day before you leave. At our airport, it is very expensive to park and because we are 5 with, normally, a lot of luggage, it is very hard for us to get a ride to the airport. We stay at a hotel the night before at the airport. Many of the hotels have a deal where for a special rate (read, more expensive) they keep our car while we're gone. They then pick us up at the airport in their shuttle and if it is winter, clean off and start our car for us. I love this option because with three small kids, I've found that when we have early flights it is just too easy to forget the last minute stuff (loveys, toothbrushes, etc.) I actually sleep better at the hotel, knowing that we are 5 min away from the airport. We don't worry about traffic, my husband heads over early to check in the luggage while we finish getting ready and then we all meet up at security. I love that I know that when the hotel room is empty I have everything. I also have the whole day before the trip starts to run around the house and clean everything up before the kids get picked up at school for the trip to the airport. Sometimes, I've even been known to clean carpets before we leave!

Extra bonus: no worries about traffic or weather problems on the way to the airport!

This works out so well for us that it is worth the extra money.

 

[gianna2006]

We take the earlies possible flight out of NY - this year it's at 6:55am . We will arrive around 9:30am, take ME, check in at VWL and spend the day taking it easy. We eat, check out the resort, go to DTD....whatever we like as long as it's not park related (we like to ease into the vacation! ). Whenever the room is ready, we unpack, freshen up and go to a nice dinner, and call it an early night so that we can get up early and go to the parks!!!!

Coming home we leave MCO as late as possible . This year I'm the only one who has to work the next day, (the kids and my husband are off) so I'm the lucky one to suffer...but at least I really get to make a full day of it on departure day !!!

 

[JimC]

When we fly we usually leave in the AM on an early flight 6:00 am to 8:00 am. Better to get on the road early before the air traffic system starts to back up. Returns are usually early afternoon or late AM depending on where we are.