Have you ever...

[butterflyminnie]

Stayed up all night the night before your flight?

I'll be working untill 10:30 the night before my flight and will have to leave for the airport around 3:30 am Thankfully, my parents will be driving to the airport and will have been able to take a nap in the afternoon. What do you do to say awake all night. I'm afraid that if I take a nap, I'll sleep through my alarm. I was thinking of getting a disney puzzle or game to pass the time... any other suggestions?

 

[happymom52003]

Pack! I always find it hard to pack ahead of time because of our busy schedule, so I am usually up most of the night before packing (even though I'd much rather be sleeping).
If reading does not make you sleepy, you could get out your Disney guide books and read them. Or you could visit these boards.
Watch your favorite Disney movies. Your idea of games is good....there are some fun Disney trivia games.
Look at photos from past trips. Watch Disney planning videos.
Or, like the commercial, you may find you are too excited to sleep!

 

[ThinkTink721]

Stayed up all night the night before your flight?

I'll be working untill 10:30 the night before my flight and will have to leave for the airport around 3:30 am Thankfully, my parents will be driving to the airport and will have been able to take a nap in the afternoon. What do you do to say awake all night. I'm afraid that if I take a nap, I'll sleep through my alarm. I was thinking of getting a disney puzzle or game to pass the time... any other suggestions?

That very thing could happen to me this year.
Our flight will leave around 6:00am on the morning of our trip.
I can't sleep when I'm excited about something as great as WDW.
I will probably recheck all of our suitcases & watch my programs that I have recorded about WDW!
Try to get some sleep though!
:snore: :wave:

 

[jonabyte]

Well we usually drive, and one year we were all packed and ready to go the day before so we decided to leave a day early
If I could not sleep the day before leaving I would probably be on this board and other disney sites getting myself more and more excited to go!

 

[SarahBella82]

Oi.

When we flew out in October, we had to leave home by three to get to the airport and make our six a.m. flight. I decided to stay up. It was rough for a while. I ended up watching reruns of the Tyra Banks talk show, Rachel Ray's $40 a Day, and old episodes of the Cosby show. Plus, I spent some time updating MySpace.

I pulled about a 40-hour day that day, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I got a doze in on the plane (I don't sleep well in moving vehicles), and I made a great dinner the night we arrived at my sister's house. It felt productive.

Naturally the sleep deprivation caught up with me the following week when I had to go back to work. During vacation, I ran on adrenaline.

Have fun!

 

[Chux]

Me and the gf went to DL this March, our flight was at 7, so I had to be up at 5. I was too wired and stayed up til I think 2(eastern) (Maybe 3). Slept for an hour or 2 on the plane out of 5. We hit the ground running (About 10 PST), checked our bags at GCH and went straight to DCA. Took a cat nap around 4(PST) Went to DL til they closed (11pst that night) then stayed up til 2 walking around DTD and unpacking.

So, We got about 4 hours of sleep, 24 hours up and about and was our first time to either West Coast parks.

 

[gettingsmaller]

You may be too excited to sleep, but I'd still try to get some rest...
Have your parents give you a wake-up call, set your alarm... get an old-fashioned alarm clock with the bells on it. I bet that you'll be 'listening' for those things while you're sleeping and won't sleep through them... of course, I could be wrong...

I definitely know the feeling, though... We'll be getting up... probably 4:30-ish when our trip comes, and I'll probably set about 4 alarms and quadruple check all of them before I try to go to sleep that night...

If I DID want to stay up, I'd probably just try playing PC games or something... unfortunately, I can play games and lose track of time...

 

[Champion]

Oi.

When we flew out in October, we had to leave home by three to get to the airport and make our six a.m. flight. I decided to stay up. It was rough for a while. I ended up watching reruns of the Tyra Banks talk show, Rachel Ray's $40 a Day, and old episodes of the Cosby show. Plus, I spent some time updating MySpace.

I pulled about a 40-hour day that day, but it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I got a doze in on the plane (I don't sleep well in moving vehicles), and I made a great dinner the night we arrived at my sister's house. It felt productive.

Naturally the sleep deprivation caught up with me the following week when I had to go back to work. During vacation, I ran on adrenaline.

Have fun!

I'd sure love to know your trick about fitting 40 hours into a single day!

 

[KCBroadway]

My husband and I are usually SO excited the night before a Disney trip that we have to force ourselves to sleep. We tend to do most of our packing the night before and then go to sleep pretty late. We always book an early flight so we usually don't get much sleep. The second we get to our hotel we usually drop our stuff and head to the parks!

 

[Chux]

If I DID want to stay up, I'd probably just try playing PC games or something... unfortunately, I can play games and lose track of time...

I did something similar right before our first Disney Cruise... stayed up way too late playing Splinter Cell Double Agent the night before.

 

[reptar77]

I'm too excited to sleep. I pack, close up my house, double check everything, go to 24 hr Walgreens or Walmart for last min items.
My husband finds this endlessly amusing. :ROFLOL:

 

[slappy magoo]

I would figure most of us don't sleep at all the night before going to WDW.

I remember the first time I went to WDW with my then-GF, now-wife, we got to bed around 12:30 and had to get up around 3:30. Even still, I woke up nearly every hour. Part of it was excitement, part of it was the fear of missing my flight.

I would think anything that will remind you of where you're going (an "eyes on the prize" kinda thing) might help you stay awake. Watch Disney movies or WDW planning videos (especially the classic shorts), record some of the WDW specials that play all the time on The Travel Channel and/or Food Network, visit Disney sites like this one or allearsnet.com, read reviews about attractions or your resort or restaurants you'll be visiting, listen to DIS Radio on the internet...if none of that work, drink some Jolt Cola with a couple of Vivarin.

 

[DisneyMusician2]

Hey, I always am up all night. I don't know where you are from, but I always sleep it off on the plane flight. Get a good night a couple before, and then I'm good with the 3 hours I get on the way down. Thank god for my fiancee, or I might be taking a trip back to NY...

 

[LoriMistress]

DH and I requested the day before our flight was because we would have to be at the airport at 10pm. Since we live in California, it's a three hour time difference that just feels like forever arriving. We're always exchausted after long flights.

Before any big trip (WDW, DLR, etc.) I'm like a little child staying up all night during Christmas Eve. I'm such a big kid, and I just pratically live on adrenaline. I can go without sleep for quite some time. Last time to WDW, our flight left around 6am and we had to be up at 3pm to get ready to go arrive at the airport at 4am so we could wait for our flight. I couldn't sleep at all. I was up probably up until 2am. I was just antispating just arriving!!! And I was so excited and couldn't sleep on the way to our honeymoon!

 

[SqueakyMouse]

Since we have to leave for the airport around 2:30 a.m. to catch the morning flight to Orlando, we usually just stay up. It's hardly worth trying to stay sleep for such a little bit of time. When we do sleep, we feel more groggy than when we don't.

 

[AndyP]

Yes I nearly always stay up most if not all of the night before I fly to WDW! But this is because I'm so excited and also because I need to finish packing hand luggage and so on But flying from the UK means I can normally get some sleep on the plane and also the first night in Florida, as it would be just too much to go straight to the parks when staying offsite!!

 

[LudwigVonDrake]

On my last trip in 2005, I had stayed up the night before and was awake for almost 48 hours straight. The first night was an EMH evening at MK, it was summertime so the park was open until 2am. I hit the wall at about 1:30 and was out like a light when we got back to the Beach Club. I never want to do that again!!!