Arrival too late to enjoy Park?

[carolb3]

My family is going in February -- we have a 3 year old and a 6 year old. We have a 5-day park hopper.

I need to decide on when to fly to Orlando to make the most of out tickets:

We can:

1. Fly out early of the first day of our tickets. We would fly out at 6:15 a.m, and arrive at Orlando at 10:45 a.m. -- check in and go to the park. (I'm not sure how long it takes to get from airport to AsMo, then check in, etc.)

Or, our other option is:

2. Fly to Orlando in the late morning the day before, arrive in Orlando at 4:45. Go to parks the next day. The difference in airfare is around $300. Plus, we would have to pay another $103 for an extra night's stay.

Will be getting enough use of our tickets if we go with plan 1, or should we spring for the extra airfare $ and go for plan 2. Also, are the pools open in February?

Thanks!!

 

[Sandi]

It's so hard, isn't it. You want to make the most of your Park Hopper and still enjoy yourselves. Personally, I wouldn't plan to go to the parks on a day on which I was flying out at 6:00 in the morning. My family would be tired and almost cranky by the time we got to the resort. When we've done the early flying thing, we treat the day almost the same as when we fly in later: Go to the pool, relax, and plan for the next day. (Yes, the pools are open in February and the pools are nicely heated so even if it's a little chilly, a swim is fine.)

Even if you don't use all the days on your Park Hopper, the tickets never expire. So, when you go next time (which you will), you'll have an old day at the old price to use.

The most important thing to remember is that you don't have to do everything 'cuz you'll be back later.

In the end, you can see that I'm not choosing either of your plans. I would fly in as described in #1, but not go to the park until the next day. You'll save $$ and sanity.

 

[TLHB70]

We always fly in pretty early. We make it to the hotel in time to eat lunch there. Then we go back to the hotel to rest, hopefully nap. After a nice rest we usually go to DownTown Disney to look around or we go swimming in the pool at the hotel. Of course, we get to bed pretty early so we will be well rested and ready to hit the parks the next morning. I am afraid that getting up early and flying so early would put a tiring damper on any park plans for that same day. I know that my kids couldn't do it.

 

[goofiesgirlies]

I absolutely agree. There is no contest on this one. You have no idea how tired you and your kids will be that first day. The kids will be more than happy to spend time in the pool and relax. Find a good place to eat or even explore DD. Get a good rest and be up and ready to go early the next morning.

It will be worth saving your excitement, not to mention park tickets, for the next day.

 

[jellymoon]

Well, we broke all the rules of family rest on our trip 9/24 to 10/6.
We have four children: 7yods, 4 yodd, 26 mo dd, and 18 mo dd. . .

We live on the West Coast and took a 9:45pm red-eye arriving in Orlando at 7:45am. We couldn't check into the hotel as it was too early. We went directly to MGM studios. We had breakfast, did the movie ride and the Playhouse Disney stageshow, met some characters, walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel (HIFS) to check in and rest for awhile. After a few hours rest, we had dinner and headed over to Epcot. We planned to stay just an hour or two, but ended up hanging out there until after closing through terrible rain storms, etc.

We did get moving late the next morning--- not arriving at AK until almost 12:30pm.

We left on a 7day Disney Cruise on the fourth morning. so, we still had one day left on our park hopper. After disembarking from the cruise, we headed back to the parks as our flight wasn't until early the next morning. . . 7:15am. We did Epcot in the morning, early afternoon and then finished out the trip at Magic Kingdom. We stayed through closing to see the fireworks and didn't end up getting to our hotel until after midnight (the Hyatt at the airport), and the bellman came to take our backs to the check in counter of the airline at 5:45am.

DH and I were (and still are) exhausted. The kids did great, had a great time and never got whiny. The point of the early morning and late night flights were for the kids to sleep on the plane--- which they all did. So, overall, they were much better rested than their dragging parents. DH and I didn't really want to return to the parks the day we arrived--- we were sooooooo exhausted. But the kids were bouncing off the walls and ready to go. It was easier to entertain them at the parks (sit quietly on rides) than at the hotel (supervise swimming, mini golf, etc).

 

[TerriBelle]

We tried to visit a park the same day as flying once and my DD fell asleep in her stroller for the MK parade! We had a 7:00 flight from BWI so we arrived pretty early. We checked in and went over to MK. She was so tired from getting up early that by the time we got to the park she crashed. We had a package back then that included park tickets so we thought we would go to the park.

Since that trip we always plan the travel day as a none park day. We plan a dinner at a resort that we are not staying at (Boma's - AKL, Chef Mickey's - CR). This gives us a chance to check out the other resorts and get in the mood.

For our upcoming trip in November, it was $300 cheaper to fly Friday night instead of Saturday, so we are trying a later arrival than we are use to.

We have been to Disney once during Feb. We were able to swim about 1/2 of the trip. It made it a little harder to plan ahead what days to use as swim days. If you get a warm day, you just have to be prepared to swim and possibly change your schedule because the next day might be cold.

 

[carolb3]

Thanks for all your advice! Yesterday I booked a flight. You convinced me -- you are flying in the previous day and the next day will be our first park day. Thanks again!