Very early flight with kids?

[LeslieG]

Just looking for input from those who have taken a very early flight with small children. Mine are 5 and 7.

I have a flight booked now that will get us in our first day at around 8 p.m. Now I'm wishing I had added one more day. I'm thinking we could probably get a stand-by flight that morning, but it would leave at 5:35 a.m. We live fairly close to the airport, probably leave the house a 4 a.m. I was thinking a long noontime nap and then hit a park.

This plan would give us virtually an extra day without having to change our flight and incur change fees, etc. I'm just wondering if it would be too much to ask of the kids.

 

[PlutoPony]

The biggest hurdle I see is what happens if you don't clear the stand by list and got up early for nothing?? I would only do this if you call the night before and it looks like almost a certainty that you'll get on the earlier flight. When DS was 4 we left home at 3:30 a.m. for a 6:30 flight out of Baltimore. We just made sure everything was packed the night before and DS had his clothes all laid out so he literally got up 5 minutes before we had to leave. This was a cross country flight so he spent spent most of it asleep, which worked out well - plus at the time he was an early riser anyway. He loves to travel and go places / do things so anything that's an adventure is fine by him thank goodness! I took OJ and breakfast type food along for him so we didn't have to rely on airline food coming along when he was hungry (this was a few years ago when we still got a small breakfast). We've got a 6 a.m flight this summer out of Dulles , a little closer but still too early (frequent flyer miles are paying for it tho) and now that DS's older I think it may be more of a hassle than when he was younger!
Have a good trip!

 

[Hannathy]

We've flown early flights with kids very often and I like them. After the excitement of the airport and getting on the plane and getting their drink from the attendant they usually crash!

One thing I have found is let them sleep in the clothes they will wear on the plane. Put on something soft, knit or comfy shorts and T in summer and sweats in winter. This way you just roll them out of bed and into the car and you are off. If you want you can change them into better clothes once you get to the hotel.
Have fun!

 

[danj1997]

We had a 7am flight with a 1.5 hour ride to the airport with a 3 hour flight to
orlando. We made out well up at 3:30am my 5 year old stayed awake all the
time. When we arrived at CSR at noon we were fortunate to get into our room at 1pm and rested for a couple of hours then out and about. Our original flight was at 6:30pm very happy we switched to the early flight. I think that if we had to wait the entire day to leave it would have been worse.
Once we arrived we were able to take our time. Rental car, eat and so on
things went smooth and we plan to do the same this year.

 

[averill94]

I love early flights-
We put the kids to bed in the clothes they wear for the flight-
Last time I got up at about 4:30- Got the kids up with just enough time to go to the bathroom- My DS woke up at airport and my daughter was only one so she slept until we got on the planeat 7am.

We are taking the same time flight this October! Couldnt imagine hanging around ALL day and then going.

At least time I knew enough not to book our return flight early- we will leave early evening.

Have fun

 

[princesssue]

we went three years ago. my 6 year old was 3 my almost 4 year old was 10 months old. we got them up and 4:30 and left. my older DD was so tired and not it was not a great first day. not what i expected for her first day at disney!!! now, some of it could have been some disappointment that she did not see mickey the first day....who knows. this time, my flight is at 12:45, we will arrive at 3:30. i anted the 10:30 flight, would have been perfect, but couldnt get it. 3:30 is a little later then i wnated to get there, but we will check in and go right to MK. hopefully it will work out. trial and error, i suppose!!

 

[dlrhine]

We go to WDW 3 times a year and all the time we always take the first flight out in the morning at 7:00am. Our girls are currently ages 5 and almost 4 and it works out so nice. We live in Harrisburg PA and fly Southwest out of Baltimore so we go to Baltimore the night before and do a park and fly hotel that includes parking at the hotel in the cost of your one night stay (this ends up being only about 20-30 more than the cost of parking at the airport for 10 days, since all of our trips are 10 day trips) We sleep at the hotel and we get up at 4:15, roll the kids out of bed in what they are wearing for the flight and get the 4:30am shuttle to the airport. We check in two hours ahead and then go get something to eat. They start to board the airplane about 6:30 am and we are off at 7am. Because the girls are up earlier than they are use to by the time we take off they are back to sleep and sleep most of the two hour flight, which means DH and I can both sleep. We get to MCO at 9:10am, do a grocery stop, go to the hotel check in, and go right to MK. We are always able to check in right away because they have to do a VIP clean of our room because of my DD allergies and they do that the night before. We'll come back and sleep at about 2:30-4:30 and then head out for dinner or to the pool in the evening. It works great for us. And our girls have been doing this since the oldest was 10 months and then once the second came along 16 months after her sister she also started this at 10 months.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

We always take the earliest flight. We usually take the 7:00 am flight. We usually stay at the Airport hotel the night before (it saves us with parking too) and we just take the shuttle over. In January though since it was a short trip we just got the kids up very early (its about an hours drive tothe airport). We left at 4:30 am. It was fine. We checked in and the room wasn't ready to about 3:30. The kids took a short nap from 4:00-5:30 and they were good to go. I like taking an early flight in and a late flight out so we get full advantage of the first and the last days.

 

[chop456]

Early flights for us! I love getting to WDW late morning/early afternoon, take a nap if needed and get started on our vacation with a visit to MK and dinner at Chef Mickey's!

 

[swillis]

I always fly early with my kids. Usually in the 6-7 am range, even though that means we have to get up around 4 in the morning. It's a ritual, and the kids like driving to the airport in the dark. I think it adds to the excitement of the trip.

You may find the fight is not as crowded as a later flight, and maybe you could spread out on the plane.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Hi-we haven't taken an early flight but we did do a red eye last Jan. We'll never do that again! The direct flight was great but not only did my DD6, then 5, sleep less than 2 hours, but my mom and I found that we didn't sleep more than 1/2 hr. What was nice was that the flight attendant let us know prior to take off that the flight wasn't going to be full and my mom could move to a dif seat and therefore my daughter could spread out. (Love Song!)

I think my mom and I suffered from sleep deprivation that first day-we had an incident with the keys to our rental van-won't get into it but it cost us $95 and we had the keys the whole time! We were able to check into our room at POP at 7:30 a.m. which was great, but we all immeadiately took naps. Maybe I would try it again if it wasn't for the 3 hour time dif between FL and CA. We felt that we lost that first day.

This time (Sept) we are talking about taking Song again, but the 10:30 a.m. flight and stay overnite in LA. In order to get to LAX on time, we have to allow an additional 3 hrs for driving, parking, and shuttling, etc. and we are only 30 min. from Ontario.

 

[madalynns mom]

One thing I have found is let them sleep in the clothes they will wear on the plane. Put on something soft, knit or comfy shorts and T in summer and sweats in winter. This way you just roll them out of bed and into the car and you are off. If you want you can change them into better clothes once you get to the hotel.
Have fun!

Great idea!! We're flying early in the morning (7 am ish )I'm definitely going to use that one. Thanks!