Would you?

mummabear · Jun 2, 2015

Stay in Anaheim or near the airport?
We will be in LA for an unplanned stop over in October. We will be landing (from a 12 hour flight) at 11:30 am (but breakfast time our time) and fly out to Orlando the next day at 8:30 (or maybe 9:30 can't remember).
Assuming that either there is a MHP or the parks are running RTN/DF maybe WOC that night we will head to DLR for the afternoon/evening (most likely if its MHP).
We will have a car (and 3 kids aged 1,4 &6).
Should we stay in Anaheim so its quick to get back to our room after the park or stay near the airport so it wont take us so long in the morning? (and 8:30 am is really 3:30am to us)

lorijohnhill · Jun 2, 2015

That's a tough one, but I think I would choose to stay near the airport. An 8:30 flight mean arriving at the airport at 6:30am. Add jet lag to that and it will feel mighty early!

sheetz · Jun 2, 2015

Stay near the airport. Honestly, I would probably crash in the hotel room and be too exhausted to even go to DL after such a long flight.

McNs · Jun 2, 2015

I would stay at airport too - it's not like you will close out the park with kids that age, plus they will crash in the car ride home. Just make sure you take it easy for the tired drive back to the airport.

Barnabe · Jun 2, 2015

Personally, I would skip DL altogether. It's just not enough time plus I doubt your kids would enjoy it. At their ages it sounds like they would have a better time blowing off steam at a park playground after being cooped up for 12 hours.

maltdizzy · Jun 2, 2015

Barnabe said:
Personally, I would skip DL altogether. It's just not enough time plus I doubt your kids would enjoy it. At their ages it sounds like they would have a better time blowing off steam at a park playground after being cooped up for 12 hours.

I might agree.

Are you coming in from out of the country? Dealing with Customs lines? Having to go to the rental car lot (they are not close to LAX)? The trip out to DL is ~45 minutes door to door from LAX without traffic. It has taken me up to 90 minutes at times (I used to live next to LAX).

I might suggest enjoying Manhattan Beach instead. But if you are going to try and do DLR, I would grab the airport hotel. At night, it should be an easy drive back.

figment_jii · Jun 2, 2015

I would also opt to stay closer to the airport. If for no other reason to not have to worry about driving through LA traffic to get the airport the next morning in time to make the flight. Assuming you're flying into LAX, it's a 45 minute or so drive on a good day, but it can be much longer. I'd want to be at the airport at least 3-hour before the flight to deal with check luggage, security, car rental return, etc. So if you stayed at DLR, you'd be looking at leaving around 4:30 am, to get to LAX in time for a 8:30 am flight. If you go to MHP, that means you'd finish up at either 11:00 pm or midnight, which isn't much time to sleep.

While I think it sounds like fun to make a quick stop at Disneyland, given that you're coming from New Zealand (at least I think I remember you mentioning being from New Zealand in another thread) and just finishing up with a 12-hour flight, I would probably opt to conserve energy for the WDW portion of the trip. MHP is a lot of fun, and the new shows are very good, but I'm not sure it's worth tiring yourself out at the start of your trip.

jdb in AZ · Jun 2, 2015

Before deciding, I would want to know what time the parks close the night you'll be in Los Angeles. If there's no MHP, chances are they will be closing early and won't be show WOC. Do your kids sleep well on flights? If they arrive tired and crabby, I sure wouldn't want to take them to Disneyland. How about you? Personally, I don't sleep well on overnight flights, and feel like a zombie the next day.

Would your return flight also have a stopover with a little more time between flights? Have you been to Disneyland before and/or is it likely you'll have another opportunity sooner rather than later?

figment_jii · Jun 2, 2015

jdb in AZ said:
Before deciding, I would want to know what time the parks close the night you'll be in Los Angeles. If there's no MHP, chances are they will be closing early and won't be show WOC.

WoC has generally been presented nightly even during the non-peak season. Of the four nighttime shows, that is the one that is most likely to be presented on a weekday in October. Fireworks and F! are usually only presented on weekends (Sat and Sun) and we do not yet know what PtN's schedule will be. (There have historically been fireworks for MHP, which have happened on Fridays in October, but those are not available for the general public.)

jdb in AZ · Jun 2, 2015

figment_jii said:
WoC has generally been presented nightly even during the non-peak season. Of the four nighttime shows, that is the one that is most likely to be presented on a weekday in October. Fireworks and F! are usually only presented on weekends (Sat and Sun) and we do not yet know what PtN's schedule will be. (There have historically been fireworks for MHP, which have happened on Fridays in October, but those are not available for the general public.)

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking they didn't do any evening shows when the parks close early.

mummabear · Jun 2, 2015

jdb in AZ said:
Before deciding, I would want to know what time the parks close the night you'll be in Los Angeles. If there's no MHP, chances are they will be closing early and won't be show WOC. Do your kids sleep well on flights? If they arrive tired and crabby, I sure wouldn't want to take them to Disneyland. How about you? Personally, I don't sleep well on overnight flights, and feel like a zombie the next day.

Would your return flight also have a stopover with a little more time between flights? Have you been to Disneyland before and/or is it likely you'll have another opportunity sooner rather than later?

Kids will sleep well on the flight, in fact will sleep for all but a couple of hours. We don't have a stop over on the return leg (except a couple of hours at the airport.
We have been to Disney lots, we will have another opportunity at some point but not when MHP is running (assuming it is run that night) and depending on what they do with DL forever we may not get a chance to see it.

figment_jii said:
While I think it sounds like fun to make a quick stop at Disneyland, given that you're coming from New Zealand (at least I think I remember you mentioning being from New Zealand in another thread) and just finishing up with a 12-hour flight, I would probably opt to conserve energy for the WDW portion of the trip. MHP is a lot of fun, and the new shows are very good, but I'm not sure it's worth tiring yourself out at the start of your trip.

With the time difference it will be the start of our day, even closing out the parks for MHP would be earlier than we could get the kids to sleep. We have a 5 pr 6 hour flight the next day to rest and we have nothing booked until 4pm 2 days later (for MNSSHP) although hope to head to SW for their party on the 31st.

TechGuy · Jun 2, 2015

I would look at the costs of the hotels near the airport, it may be more cost effective to stay "nearer" to the airport than "at" the airport. Just an option.

If the hotel has a dedicated shuttle, you can return the car the night before your flight, that would be one less thing to do in the morning with family in tow.

tiffjoy · Jun 2, 2015

Having just gone to Japan and experienced needing to keep the kids awake when arriving at our nighttime but Japan's early afternoon, I could see going to DLR as long as I had no expectations other than to keep the kids occupied. I would definitely stay at a hotel by the airport (as close as possible) because your morning is what is going to be stinky. Jetlagged hours at DLR really aren't that big of a deal, like I said, as long as you have low expectations of getting things done.

figment_jii · Jun 2, 2015

mummabear said:
With the time difference it will be the start of our day, even closing out the parks for MHP would be earlier than we could get the kids to sleep. We have a 5 pr 6 hour flight the next day to rest and we have nothing booked until 4pm 2 days later (for MNSSHP) although hope to head to SW for their party on the 31st.

I think it's a tough call. Attending MHP sounds like a lot of fun and given that it's not something you can do on a regular basis, I can see where it would be a draw. As long as you think you can rest on the airplane and recover from two long flights and a very short night of sleep, then it would probably be fun. For me, I know that I would be exhausted by the time I get to WDW. The overlay night would be very short on sleep (maybe 5 hours at best because MHP ends at either 11:00 pm or midnight and you still have to get back to your hotel, clean-up, and get to bed, and then get up early to get to the airport) and I don't sleep on planes very well, so by the time I got to MCO, I'd be short on sleep and already tired.

tiffjoy · Jun 2, 2015

Just as a note for those saying they would be tired. Keep in mind the OP probably isn't planning on sleep anyway because they need to adjust to the time change. With kids, they are going to have to go do something to keep them up and moving and able to go to sleep at night rather than sleeping in the daytime just off the plane.

If you have to do something, might as well be DLR. I would pick that over the beach with tired kids, personally. Plenty of relaxing activities to do at DLR to decompress if needed.

figment_jii · Jun 2, 2015

tiffjoy said:
Just as a note for those saying they would be tired. Keep in mind the OP probably isn't planning on sleep anyway because they need to adjust to the time change. With kids, they are going to have to go do something to keep them up and moving and able to go to sleep at night rather than sleeping in the daytime just off the plane.

Yes and no...my point is that MHP doesn't end up 11:00 pm or midnight depending on the day of the party. So while I would also opt to get everyone's body clocks changed over on that first day (i.e., not going to bed until a "normal" bed time for a 4 and 6 year old), I probably would opt to be sleeping closer to 10:00 pm or 11:00 pm given that they have to be at the airport around 5:30 am the next morning. I suppose they could opt to leave the party early so they get a bit more sleep or they could opt to skip adjusting they internal clocks until they get to WDW. I know what would happen to my family if we opted to go to MHP in this situation, but each family is different. So as long as it's not going to compromise the rest of the trip, it would be fun.

calilou · Jun 2, 2015

I say go for it! You know your kids and what they can handle. I'm the trooper type and would be happy to make the drive back to the aiport while my kids snooze after a day of Disneyland HalloweenTime fun. I would definitely stay at the airport so that your morning is easy. LA traffic is unpredictable and crazy so taking that out of the equation before your flight is best.

Would you?

mummabear

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lorijohnhill

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sheetz

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McNs

NZ

Barnabe

I'm with the band

maltdizzy

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figment_jii

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jdb in AZ

It could end up curdled

figment_jii

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jdb in AZ

It could end up curdled

mummabear

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TechGuy

45 Year+ DL veteran

tiffjoy

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figment_jii

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tiffjoy

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figment_jii

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calilou

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