Who's had a REALLY early flight and still did a park day with kids?

[Nancyg56]

We always take the first flight out, so we are up EARLY. I never scheduled much on our arrival day, just some resort exploration, swimming and dinner. We hit the park early the next morning.

I was always afraid that if we pushed too hard DGD would crash.

Now that my DGD is older, we schedule park time, but none of us stay late. we get our FP out of the way and then back for a nice dinner.

 

[MaizeRage25]

We didn't do this with the parks, but did try it with a 4 day cruise on the Disney Magic. We left for the Airport at like 4AM with a 4yo and the 1st 2 days of the cruise were a total bust. I would not recommend doing this unless your kids are very happy in the AM. We made a pact afterwards to ALWAYS fly in a day earlier at a reasonable time.

 

[kevind2112]

Years ago when the kids were younger we'd grab the first flight out of Boston, 6:00am I think? Land in Orlando at 9:00am, checked into a room and off to a resort by noon, and usually stayed till closing. The kids were 5-7 and 12-14. We had no problems at all. Our kids are warriors though. Even on our first trip, the 5 year old flat out refused to be in a stroller at any time. She walked the entire time. Heck, even *I* was looking for a stroller later in the day!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Last year we had to be at the airport for 5am. We spent the night before at a hotel across the street from the airport, because we live 45 minutes away. That was still a really early morning, though. I purposely made that a swim and explore resort day and I think my DD5 (at the time) could have gone to a park. She was pretty energized until 8pm or so. Next year we are going straight to Universal and hope to get the 6am flight out of New Orleans again. I think we'll be ok until 8 or 9 and then you're ready to crash and do RD the next day anyway

 

[kniquy]

We had and early flight for our NYE trip with our (at the time) 9 yo twins. We were up at 4:00 am and at the airport by 5am. We arrived on NYE at 11am. The boys really didn't sleep much on the plane. Honestly they were so excited that they and myself were running on adrenaline. We did relax at the resort until early afternoon and then headed over to Epcot until almost midnight. We knew we wanted to get an early start the next day so we were in bed by 12:30. Considering you are there for such a short time, encourage them to nap on the plane and plan for making it an early evening so that the kids can get a good night sleep and you can get a full park day in the next day. At their age they should be able to tolerate a little tiredness better than say a 3 or 4 yo who would just have a total melt down when tired or hungry.

 

[d-train]

I have done this every time I have brought my HS choir to WDW - on spring break times. We would land in orlando by about 9AM, in MK by noon until closing.

Doing it again spring break 2017! Except landing at 7:45AM - hoping to be in MK by 11AM this time!

We are all exhausted - but I don't have to worry about them that night because they all crash as soon as their head hits the pillow!
Me too...LOL! But I never seem to run out of energy at WDW... ;-)

 

[crazymomof4]

My "kids" are early 20's and teens but when we take an early flight (in Sept it was 6:05am) we plan things other than park time. Usually we hang at the resort pool, try a new place lunch. This upcoming trip our flight is 6:35am. We are checking into PoP. Then will walk over and explore AoA (never been there), have lunch at Landscape of Flavors and catch the Art Class with a Disney Animator there. If we have stamina for it, maybe go to Disney Springs (haven't been since the changes), wander and have dinner there. After that we will probably be ready for early bedtime. Don't want an exhausting 1st day to carry over as lethargy for the 2nd day.

 

[TXHauntedMansionFan]

We did this in September for a quick 3 day trip with our 3 year old DD. We caught the first flight out of DFW at 7 am (family got up at 4:30 am) and then landed at MCO and went straight to MK after checking in at French Quarter (didn't stop in our room). We went to the MNSSHP that night and I have to admit that not only was our DD done with things by about 9 pm, the rest of the adults had run too hard as well.

It was definitely a lesson learned that we'll either take a more reasonable flight or take the first day easy if we're going to be up that early.. however, if you think your group can handle it; go for it! It definitely maximized our park time.

 

[WDWRook]

My kids are 10 and 6 and we did this. Up at 5am and head to the airport. I think we arrived at Poly around 12:30 and we ate lunch and relaxed a bit (no sleeping too excited) to get ready for MNSSHP. We stayed the entire time and didn't get back to our room and in bed until 1:30am. It was a long day and the kids were really tired by the end of the night. It didn't help that it was insanely hot. My youngest ended up getting sick/vomiting in the middle of the night. We had planned for a later start the next day and a waterpark. I wasn't sure we were going to even make it but we did and she did fine until that night - she was completely exhausted. Honestly, I'm not sure I would do that again - it was a long day for the adults too. I might be more willing to try it if the weather was cooler. The heat and humidity adds an extra element that makes it really tough. We also found that letting the kids have junk food - fries/cokes helped settle their stomachs and gave them a boost of energy in order to make it through the night.

 

[SwimAruba]

We have done the exact same itinerary with 5:55am flight out of NYC! My 3 year old fully understood the night before that I would be waking her up to leave for the airport, and adrenaline kicked in right away. She also slept a bit on the plane. We hit the ground running for MK and had a wonderful day! We do typically head back to the hotel for dinner and stay in during most evenings given our daughters age. For our next trip we will likely do the same and stay in the first night, have later evenings other nights of the trip as our daughter will be 5 and an infant to snooze along the way, too

 

[MareSINY]

I've done early morning flights like that with my nieces when I've taken them on solo trips. We usually get DME to the hotel, check in, drop off our carry on bags and head to the park. We'll take a midday break for lunch and rest and then head back to the park later in the day. They all were so excited to be at DW that they didn't think about how tired they should have been. The adrenaline was pumping and we had a great time!

 

[NashvilleMama]

The good thing - for me - is that it's a party day next Friday, so we have to leave the park at 7pm no matter what. It'll force my kids to crash early instead of me being the bad guy if I see things going downhill fast! It's a relatively short day in the park for us (11am - 7pm) but with a 4am wake-up that day and a FULL day planned for early RD the next morning, I think I'm going to be happy about it.

 

[lacy1101]

We're four adults flying out of Nashville on the 16th at 5:55 a.m. Our plan is to check in and head straight to MK, hopefully arriving around 12:30ish. Stay in the park until about 4:30pm, go back to the resort for a little R & R, and then return to MK around 7:30pm for a couple more rides and Wishes.

 

[AngiTN]

We're four adults flying out of Nashville on the 16th at 5:55 a.m. Our plan is to check in and head straight to MK, hopefully arriving around 12:30ish. Stay in the park until about 4:30pm, go back to the resort for a little R & R, and then return to MK around 7:30pm for a couple more rides and Wishes.

Southwest? We are on the same (or similarly timed) Southwest flight on the 22nd
We land at like 8:30 in the morning and do plan on MK that afternoon
It may help that we live in Eastern time so FL being an hour ahead won't impact us, it's our "normal" time

 

[lacy1101]

Southwest? We are on the same (or similarly timed) Southwest flight on the 22nd
We land at like 8:30 in the morning and do plan on MK that afternoon
It may help that we live in Eastern time so FL being an hour ahead won't impact us, it's our "normal" time

Yes, ma'am! We land at 8:55am ET. That may be the earliest we have ever arrived, but I think the next flight out didn't have us arriving until 11:20am ET . . . that's a little late for me lol. We may pay for it by the time we get to bed that night, but I still feel like the earlier the better. We'll have to leave for the airport around 3:30am so that means probably getting up at 2:30am! While I'm usually not much of a napper, I do hope I can get a little rest that afternoon when we go back to the resort for a few hours before going back to MK around 7:00pm. It will probably be the only night we will get to see Wishes . . .