Please help,,, when to fly w young children

[ValDisney]

Hi everyone,
I'm planning on going to Disney in oct. I already reserved my room for oct 3-12.
I have to send my kids to school that day.
I am traveling alone w them. DD 8 and DS 5
MY question.. should we fly out at night on the 3rd so we are there on the 4th and maybe can start our Disney experience or shoudl I just wait until the mornign of the 4th and make that a low key day.
They are not commando children and would never be able to have an early start and do parks at night.
If i came in on the 4th, We would hang by the pool and do Chef MIckey's and DTD.
I was just concerned about getting into Disney late w young kids.
Thanks for your help.
Valerie

 

[Snoozan]

If you don't mind losing a day for travel, I'd say take an early flight on the 4th and use that day for travel, with an early dinner at Chef Mickey's and maybe some pool time. If you travel later on the 3rd, you may end up getting to your resort rather late, between air travel delays and transportation to WDW. That's not much fun with sleepy children & luggage. Just my opinion!

 

[SqueakyMouse]

I would go with whatever plan leaves you the most rested. For us, flying at night is almost always preferable. However, this is because our two choices are leaving really, really early or pretty late. When we fly out in the morning, dh and I are lucky to get a couple of hours of sleep. We live 2+ hours from the nearest airports AND we are in a different time zone from the one with the best selection of flights. Thus, a 7:30 am flight actually means leaving our home by 3 am at the latest. While we get a nearly full day in at the parks, we spend most of the day feeling groggy and out of sorts. The flip side is that an evening flight leaves around 9:30 pm. We won't arrive in Orlando until 11 pm. While it feels like 10 pm our time, everything for kids (including food!) will be shut down by the time we arrive. My children tend to get hyped-up when traveling. I don't look forward to getting them to go to sleep shortly after arriving. Again, go with the flight arrangements that are easiest for YOU. You need to be rested in order to deal with the kids.

 

[stacy6552]

I'd travel after school. Get in. Get a good night's sleep and be off and running the next day.

 

[SB in KY]

You might want to see what flights are available. We usually liked to go down the night before anf often stayed at an airport hotel the first night (quick, easy and cheap)...much faster that trekking out to Disney late and then you could head out for a great day the next AM after breakfast. Also we seem to find better prices on evening flights usually (but not always)

With Disney's current room assignment strategy you would stand a much better chance of getting your room request with an early AM arrival than a late night one and then you would either have to get them to move you to a different room the next day, or stay in a not so great room for the whole week.

Another thing to keep in mind with AM flights...if you arrive at 11AM and aren't going to do parks, you will want to have a contingency plan for the day since it is quite possible/probable that your room will not br ready until 3 -4PM.

 

[southjerseymom]

I say go with the evening flight. I just find it so hard to get up at 4AM to get to the airport and get checked in. By the time we get to Disney DD2 is wired and DS4 really wants some down time. The last 2x we checked into our hotels (BC and Poly) our rooms were not ready, it was raining, and we didn't settle in until way after 4pm. Our plan of pool time and relaxation really didn't work with our little guys. (I think it would if they were older and they wanted to go straight to the parks). I think you are going during a good week - so your chances of getting an upgrades/preferred room may still be good even if you check in late. You get in a mind set that you are "losing" a day because you get there so late...but for me travelling with young ones I would rather start out fresh in the World than fly in early.

 

[powellrj]

I would leave 1st thing in the morning. If your airport is far from your home, we usually just priceline an airport hotel so we are there 1st thing in the morning. I like to arrive during the day, so if there is a problem, its easier to handle when things are open and people are available to talk to. If you arrive late at night and there is a problem with your rental car, hotel room etc.... it can be harder to take care of these things at night when there aren't as many people available to help.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

The last 2x we checked into our hotels (BC and Poly) our rooms were not ready, it was raining, and we didn't settle in until way after 4pm.

Our AKL savanna view room in May was not ready until after 4. However, our room was ready by 9:30 am last fall. There's just no telling.