Travel Times-WWYD?

[squirrel]

We have the choice of two different flights leaving Seattle:

12:49pm-8:47pm (Atlanta)-11:32pm (Orlando) - (we would have to pay for an extra night stay at WDW)

9:50pm-5:30am (Atlanta)-9:52am (Orlando) - (3hr layover in Atlanta).

Keep in mind that we would have to leave a min of 4 hrs in order to get to Seattle before the flights-even earlier for the 12:49 pm with traffic.

We will be travelling with two 5 yr old, one that will sleep on the flight (doesn't matter what time, the other ? unknown what he will do)

I personally would rather add a day at the end of our trip and head home on a Friday, instead of the Thursday. If I am going to pay for an extra nights stay. My neighbour would rather add the extra night at the beginning.

What would you do?

 

[disykat]

I would pay for the extra night at the beginning of the trip and begin my trip well rested.

To me, the day you would supposedly gain at the end of the trip would be spent making up for the day you wasted being tired and cranky at the beginning of the trip.

 

[nessz79]

Wow, I would definitely do the first one to be well-rested. I would be exhausted if I did the overnight trip. Plus, you said you don't know how the other kid would be overnight...

 

[ajk912]

omg, I feel so bad for you, those are both pretty horrible choices. Nothing leaving around 9am so you arrive before 9pm or so? That's what I would be looking for.

Given the choices, I like the non-overnight flight better.

 

[squirrel]

I forgot to mention what we did last year.

We left the day before at 3pm and drove to Seattle and then stayed at a Park n Fly for a few hours, then got up early to catch a 7am flight. We arrived in Orlando around 5:15pm.

Both of these flight actually give us that extra day. I'm just worried that the 12:49pm flight will be harder to get to as we will be going with all the traffic into Bellingham then into Seattle. The 9:50 pm flight will just be like the year before but instead of paying for a Park n Fly we will be sleeping on the plane. Trust me we didn't get much sleep last year anyway. This year we would have that first day to hang out at the resort and rest and get a good nights sleep and then hit the parks.

My niece sleeps on the airplane. My neighbour doesn't think her son will sleep, but I think he will. He slept on the way home the last time, but she doesn't remember. My other problem with the late arrival flight is that they will sleep in that first morning and then their schedule will be to sleep in for the whole two weeks. That's what they did last time. All us Diser's know that you need to be at the park before opening to get on the rides and get all the things you want to do done. I don't sleep much when I'm at WDW. I was up early every day, my niece was sleeping in but not as late as the neighbours.

 

[adventure_woman]

I personally hate red-eyes. I have never done one with a child either. Can you do a park-n-fly in Seattle? You'll have to pay for parking anyway...

BTW - jsut reading about your horrible flight times and how long it takes you to get to Orlando really makes me appreciate the 2.5 hr flights direct to Orlando from Detroit!

 

[squirrel]

We did that last time! That's why the red-eye flight is about the same except we would have a few hours in the am/pm to wait til the room is ready at WDW. I personally think we will have about the same amount of sleep as doing the park n fly (what we did last year) but we will be at WDW a lot earlier.

 

[la79al]

I honestly think your second choice might work better. If you do the first one, the kids will sleep on the way to Orlando from Atlanta and then who knows what time you will get them to bed once you get to DW. The next day they will get up too early because they are excited and be cranky by lunchtime. The second at least you are in one place at night, the kids can sleep on the plane, get to Atlanta and run off some energy on your layover and then maybe nap on the way to Orlando. Then they get there at least somewhat rested. Plus it means you are not struggling to check in to your resort in the middle of the night and hopefully you can at least sleep a bit too. Keep in mind 3 things though, 1) your neighbors may just naturally sleep in late, vacation or not, 2)most kids sleep on the way home from DW, this does not mean they will sleep on the way TO DW (spoken from experience here) and 3) if you get to your resort in the morning, your room may not be ready for you. Good luck in picking one!

 

[squirrel]

I know we would have about 4 hours till our room is ready. I was thinking of grabbing breakfast (Ponderosa-I remember it being good) and then we could hit one of the outlet malls before checking in. My neighbours are planning on renting a car this time.

The flight to Atlanta is 4hrs and 40 min. I honestly think that is all we managed to get when we stayed at the park n fly in Seattle.

It also means taking another day off of school if we leave on the Wednesday and catch the 12:49pm flight. The flight home she (my neighbour) wants to leave Orlando later and that means the children will probably miss all or most of the Friday school day as we won't be home til after 1am.

 

[la79al]

You may find that your room is ready early. Last trip ours was ready before lunchtime. If you are only renting a car for that first day, it might make more sense to get breakfast at your resort and then spend some time exploring the resort or even hopping a bus to DTD while you wait for your room.

 

[squirrel]

The neighbours are going to rent for the two weeks as they are also doing US/IOA and Bush Gardens.

 

[squirrel]

Bumping for a few more votes. Only have 15 so far.