Red Eye vs Day Flight

[AussieFan8]

I hate red eyes for 2 reasons:

1. I am incapable of sleeping on a plane

2. Check in time isn't until 3pm. That's a LONG day without a hotel room. You'd have to book the night before to have a room ready when you arrive.

I learned this lesson even with early morning flights. One time, we thought it would be great to take the early flight to Orlando and arrive at about 9am and get almost a full day in the parks. For us, that was a big mistake. We were banking on a quick nap in the room at some point, but our room wasn't ready until after 6pm. We just dozed in the Wilderness Lodge alcove chairs waiting and waiting for the room to be ready because we were too tired to go the parks without a nap and thought the room would surely be ready by early afternoon. Nope. We probably would have gotten more park time that day if we had taken a later flight.

 

[DLgal]

I learned this lesson even with early morning flights. One time, we thought it would be great to take the early flight to Orlando and arrive at about 9am and get almost a full day in the parks. For us, that was a big mistake. We were banking on a quick nap in the room at some point, but our room wasn't ready until after 6pm. We just dozed in the Wilderness Lodge alcove chairs waiting and waiting for the room to be ready because we were too tired to go the parks without a nap and thought the room would surely be ready by early afternoon. Nope. We probably would have gotten more park time that day if we had taken a later flight.

Yeah, I wouldn't take an early flight if I was in the same time zone. But flying from CA means arriving after 9pm unless you take the early morning flight. Luckily, our 7am departure will land in MCO at 6pm, so all we need to do is get to our room, unpack, have dinner and then go to bed. I never plan anything other than dinner on our arrival night.

I like the early morning flights because they have far fewer delays/cancelations than later flights, but it is a killer to wake up so early. I can never sleep the night before I travel so it's as thought I took a red eye anyway.

 

[Cheburashka]

There is less service from flight attendants on red eyes. Less food & drinks, etc., so if you're unable to sleep, it's going to be even less pleasant than a daytime flight. It's also miserable to try to sleep on a plane if you're not in a lie flat seat.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I do the same thing. Fly into Orlando late at night, stay at low cost airport area hotel that night and uber to WDW next morning after a good night's sleep because I know I will probably be all day in the park my first day. Getting in at 6am after a red eye is not for me.

It's worked out for us this way so many times. My inclination is always to fly early morning on my check-in day, but there have been enough times where the flight a day earlier + the extra night hotel is STILL cheaper than whatever I was going to book on the original arrival day. So now I always check. When booking flights for our upcoming trip, morning flights on our original check-in day were something like $100 more per person than afternoon the flights the prior day. So we booked the earlier day, and used the difference (~$400 since we're a family of 4) to book a Disney hotel for the extra night. We added a day to our vacation and still saved a bit of money.

 

[dizneedoll]

There is less service from flight attendants on red eyes. Less food & drinks, etc., so if you're unable to sleep, it's going to be even less pleasant than a daytime flight. It's also miserable to try to sleep on a plane if you're not in a lie flat seat.

Less or no meal service is a good point! The meal service really helps break up the time for me.