Which flight would you take?

[MissionWDW]

The last two times we flew down was on Air Tran and on that 7am flight you are talking about. The first time it was only my daughter (6 at the time) and myself. The last time was this past October....it was DH, me, four kids (9,5,3,2) and my inlaws. The first time we only lived 15 minutes from the airport, but have since moved 45 minutes away. Which means, we would have to wake up at 3am in order to get to the airport on time. We decided to rent a hotel (which included parking our van and shuttle) the night before. We still had to wake up at 4am. Since we were late getting to the airport hotel, the kids barely slept. We managed to get to our hotel (Pop) without too many tears, we had lunch there and then napped. Later, we went to downtown Disney for our T-rex ressies at 5:30. So yeah, we did do it, BUT I really like your second option. In fact, DH and I have talked that if we do it again we might just fly down the night before. Yeah, we will pay for an extra hotel night in Disney, but we would do that anyway at a hotel airport for an early flight. See if you can push your Chef Mickey's ressie to the later one...that sounds great. You guys won't be rushed, enjoy the resort and end the night off with Mickey!!!!

 

[littlbugmom]

I will never fly airtran again. I can't even remember how many times they changed our flights.....going and returning! It was definitely over 4 times because after the 4th change, I started having little fits with every supervisor I could get in touch with over the phone. They actually changed our flights WHILE I was dealing with the 4th change! Their "solution" was to have us fly into one airport and drive to another airport to catch our connecting flight.

Never. Again.


Anyhoo......I'd take the second option and would probably even reschedule the dinner at Chef Mickey. We did a character dinner for our arrival day the first trip. It was a 5:30 reservation but we waited 45 minutes to get in. My 5yr old was exhausted. It was still wonderful but wow.....long day!

We like our arrival day to be a resort day. Arrive, unpack, explore...etc... Maybe dinner reservations at a non-character restaurant?

 

[ldo]

SWA is very family friendly--flying is a pain---take the 12:30 flight! Plus, with SWA, if you need to cancel--for any reason, you get a full voucher to use for 1 year--sometimes, we have booked a trip to WDW, then found a date later that worked better for us--no worries--just call and rebook with SWA (you have to pay going airfare rate, of course). My one Bad experience with SWA was when I was stuck on Long Island for hours due to weather delay on the East Coast---not SWA's fault at all--major Tstorms---a few weeks later, I had a LUV voucher in the mail for $75, wishing me better weather the next flight! I had not even complained. They sent eveyone on the flight one!

 

[Ceila]

It would be option 2 all the way for me!

I did option 1 on our first trip (kids were 4 and 8) and let me tell you, getting up that early was not good. The kids were too excited to sleep on the plane, so by the afternoon everyone was completely exhausted and really didn't enjoy things as much as they could have if they were better rested.

 

[DisneyFamily123]

I have NEVER had any problem with Southwest... AirTran gets TERRIBLE reviews, especially for being late or cancelling flights; therefore, I have never flown with them.

I also think getting up so early would make you all very tired that night. I'd rather get up early the next morning, well-rested.

All of Southwest's fares are one way... so you could do a different Airline (other than Airtran) to get there earlier, but use Southwest for your return flight maybe?

Southwest has a special early boarding for families with young children. I can also use my iPhone application from Southwest to get my return flight boarding passes while out at the parks and just print them later at the resort. The only possible extra charge I've seen is an overweight bags (more than 50 pounds), but it's usually not a problem because we check 2 large bags per person plus a carry on bag. They will let a few pounds slide... once they waited why I opened my bags and redistributed things so they were all under 50 pounds. It is also pretty easy to change flights if you want without a bunch of high extra costs for doing so.

On our last flight, my DS4 got to sit in the cockpit (once we landed!) with the pilot.

Quote from CR:
If JetBlue, Southwest, Frontier, or Hawaiian flies your route, look no further. All four of those airlines provided a superior experience, according to CR readers, at a price that’s often lower than their competitors.
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/travel/airlines-7-07/overview/0707_air_ov_1.htm

 

[mousebymarriage]

Whenever we fly we try to get the first flight out (usually 7 or 8am). I like the fact that we have a day to relax and swim etc. Also, first flights out in the morning are usually on time (but not always). However, I have heard some pretty negative things about Airtran as far as flight delays and cancellations. We usually fly JetBlue (my fav.) or Continental so I have no personal experience with either of your airline options.
Good Luck and have a great trip!