Red-Eye Flights

[hanned]

This Aug my family of five is flying from Seattle. I booked a flight that leaves at 10:00pm and arrives in Orlando at 6:30 am. I'm second guessing myself and wondering if we will manage to get a few hours of sleep and feel ok (probably on adrenaline from the excitement)to go to the parks first thing. Has anyone done this fly at night and if so any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

[SRCMOUSE]

I have done something similar but not to WDW. We flew back from Hawaii over night and doing so...you really feel drained because it is very hard to sleep on a plane. My suggestion would be, if you could get there and be able to check in and get 2 or 3 hours sleep you would be ok to roam the parks.

[rookie]

take it for granted that you will not be able to sleep once you get there.

So plan of action: if you can check in, do so take a shower and head out to the parks. Take a break in around lunchtime for a nap. Enjoy the late afternoon and evening and get to bed early. Hopefully this will get your clock reasonably on track.

Some people sleep great on planes (but you are talking about 5 hours at most so you will be tired and excited all at once when you land.

[E-OR]

Hanned, I just had a conversation with a friend yesturday that is taking that exact flight in 2 weeks. We have thought about doing this because we use up 1 day flying. We fly from Portland, OR to Seattle and then on to Orlando on Alaska. My concern is what to do when you get to Orlando if you can not check into your room yet. If we could check in and sleep for 4 or 5 hours and go to the parks in the early afternoon. Check in is not until 3 PM and I don't know how early they would actually let you check in. We have a hard time sleeping on the plane and would be totally wasted if we could not get a few hours of sleep once we got there. Plus east coast is 3 hours ahead so 6:30 is really 3:30 and I don't remember the last time I was actually up at 3 AM. I would love to find out how this works for you.

[hanned]

thanks for the input, I kind of regret this but the credit card is charged!!! We will make the best of it, what I do know is that last year we flew out of Seattle @ 6:30 am so had to be at airport at 4:30 and were up at 3:30 to get organized at the hotel so didn't get much sleep anyway and didn't get to POR til 7:00 pm that night. Wow a long day. I will let you know how this works out, not for 5 1/2 months. Thanks!

[gregburg]

This is what we did last October. Alaska flight that left around 10pm, then got in about 6:30am. This got us to SSR to checkin around 8am (didn't get our room til later). Then we were at the MK by 9am.

We stayed at MK until about 2pm, then went back to the resort and crashed for a couple hours. After dinner we went to the pool for a couple hours, then the kids were asleep by 9pm and up bright and early the next morning (we made opening at AK!).

Would we do it again? YES and will be this August. Our kids slept some on the flight, then they were "jazzed" up when we got there. They had no problem taking a nap (age 5, 8, 10) at 2pm, and went to bed super easy that night which made getting up the next day very easy.

Pretty much adjusted us to the timezone within that first day. Oh and I had no trouble [img]smile.gif[/img] going to sleep that first night either.

-Greg

[WDW crazy]

We have done the red-eye several times. We usually have a flight out very early in the morning and have to be at the airport by 4:30 AM anyway so we really don't even bother to go to bed at all. We are night people anyway. We can't sleep on the plane and yes we are tired but the excitement when we get there will take us through to the night. We will then usually go to bed pretty early and be up and rested in the morning. Sometimes you are able to check in a little earlier but there have been many times that we had to wait until 3:00 or longer for our room so we just went to the parks. If you have kids I would say to definitely go and take a nap when you get your room.

[SamG]

Just a suggestion that might help you sleep on the plane... Melatonin (sp?) It's a natural supplement (usually found with the vitamins at your pharamacy).

If I have to get up early the next day or am thinking about so many things I can't get to sleep (like waking up early), I'll take some and about 20 minutes later... [img]graemlins/sleepin.gif[/img]

I've never had any "hangover" type affects when waking up, and even after only sleeping 3-4 hours, feel very refreshed.

Just a suggestion.

[hanned]

Thanks again for the advice. I find even now that I have booked and paid for this trip I am having trouble sleeping...This happened last year, all I could think about was "Disney" It's crazy I know but I'm so exicted. My husband thinks I'm crazy. I don't know why this happens to me. Please tell me it happens to some of you as well???

[E-OR]

We are about 4 months away from our June trip and I am obsessed with WDW. I think about it 24/7 and read through my Unnofficial Guide book constantly. I have already started a WDW box with the little things I don't want to forget, ie..rain coats, water camera, laundry soap etc.. I am so looking forward to our upcoming trip, it will have been 1 1/2 years since we have been and that is simply too long. I love seeing how many times WDW Crazy has been because in the the past 8 years we have been 10 times and people that we know think we are crazy, especially because being from the West coast Disneyland is within a days drive for us. They haven't a clue. I love knowing that there are others like me!!

[PetefromRI]

I get the Crazies any time my wife says"so what do you think about a trip to Disney".We've only been a handful of times and our next trip is in 6 weeks.I've been living on the boards since we started planning in September and found that the Intercot boards are by far the best and friendliest.

[princess_lorbie_white]

Don't worry about the over night flight. i am doing the same thing in may. it really depends on if you can sleep on a plane. even if you can't just take it easy the first day at wdw and then have an early night . you'll be OK [img]graemlins/mickey.gif[/img]