When time of day do you begin your trip?

[KeithVH]

Just kinda wondering about this today. Our first ever trip we arrived in the middle of the day. Since then we've always done the redeye and check-in by 8AM. But, with reduced flights this year, we're stuck with arriving at dinner and losing a day in the parks. What about you?

 

[Tater48]

Usually leave early in the morning, but for our December trip I have to work the day we leave. Go O.D. at noon and our flight leaves at 4:00P.M.. Arrive in Orlando at about 7:00 P.M. and then to the Resort via Magical Express. Losing the first day in the parks, but at least we will be there.

 

[happymom52003]

I would love nothing more than to have an early morning flight, but we prefer to fly direct, and the only direct flight from our area to Orlando gets us to our resort at dinner time or later. I feel like it is such a wasted day! I keep hoping that someday the flight times will change and we can get there early enough to actually do something on our arrival day.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I fly out by 8 am, land about 11:45, Be at the resort by 12:30, and end it at Epcot around 1:25.

 

[EPCOTPluto]

Early as possible. I prefer to hit all the major attractions and not wait later.

Besides, we know our rooms won't be given away to another fam. :lol:

 

[luvlifeinfl]

We now try to plan our arrival date to be a day to just arrive at the resort and just relax.

We had in the past drive 15.5hrs thru the night to arrive mid day and go straight to the parks. Foound that to be 2 stressful & exhusting. I want to enjoy the parks relaxed.

 

[blackthidot]

Id rather fly into WDW now at night as opposed to getting up at 4am. We get an extra dining credit as well this way! Plus its easier to get to Planet Hollywood and use that $15 they give us that night since its open till 1am!

 

[wolf2961]

Just kinda wondering about this today. Our first ever trip we arrived in the middle of the day. Since then we've always done the redeye and check-in by 8AM. But, with reduced flights this year, we're stuck with arriving at dinner and losing a day in the parks. What about you?

We always go to the resort and check-in, drop our bags in the room. If, however, the room isn't ready, we will just leave the luggage with bell services and head directly to the Park (MK). Not sure how long you are going for, but if you are there for more than 5 or 6 days, the cost of adding the Park tix for the arrival night is very minimal, and might be worth looking into. The major cost is lodging, once you are there for 5 or 6 nights, cost of an additional day ticket is in the $5 range, certainly worth going for a few hours.

 

[Mr_Tom_Morrow]

Since Im fairly close by,I usually leave about 7am,by about 8:15 I'm in general vicinty and head to the Shoney's on Irlo Bronson Hwy(best breakfast bar EVER!!!),then I hit the parks by about 9

 

[Jasonflz]

Being only 4 hours away, I usually leave at 9:00 or 10:00. The parks are usually saved for the mid-day although I have done them many times in the morning. (if I left earlier.)

 

[mickey7879]

We usually don't arrive til late afternoon or evening. I think only 1 time out of 15 (our honeymoon) did we ever go into the park the same day we got there. We just prefer to check in, check out the resort and get rested up before we hit the parks the next morning.

In '06, we went to Vegas for dh 30's birthday. We live in Maine, so we figured we weren't going to go all the way out there and not make a trip to Disneyland. We spent a few nights in Vegas before flying to CA. Of course, we couldn't leave the slots until 2 am, got to sleep at like 3, alarm went off at 3:30 so we could get ready and make our 6 am flight. It was only like an hr flight, but by the time we got to the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel, no rooms were ready yet (it was like 9 am). We gave them our luggage and although completely exhausted, we hit the parks. It was also in the middle of August, so extremely hot too! I had never been there, so we waited in lines for like 2 hrs sometimes. It was horrible. Not to mention we were both completely exhausted and not in the best of moods. We decided to head back around 2 or 3 to see if anything was available yet. Our room was ready, so to bed we went. We had planned on getting back up at 8 and hitting the parks again. Well, alarm went off and neither of us wanted to go out again. After a few mins laying in the dark, one of us spoke up and said we were starved. Got one of the best room service meals before crashing again. Thank God the next day we were much better and well rested. Had a great trip there before flying back to Vegas for a few more days. Had the best time of our lives that trip! Of course, this was all before we had kids too!

 

[mousebymarriage]

When we fly we try to get the first morning flight out which is usually around 7am or so.

 

[Mr Wizard]

We now try to plan our arrival date to be a day to just arrive at the resort and just relax.

We had in the past drive 15.5hrs thru the night to arrive mid day and go straight to the parks. Foound that to be 2 stressful & exhusting. I want to enjoy the parks relaxed.

Well. . . . . that's what we all ways say we're going to do. But I think the better half and I are somewhat worse than the kids on the TV commercial that are too excited to sleep. We leave Friday as soon as she can get off work ( which is now down to about 10:00AM ), drive till I need a nap at the rest area, then on to Florida and I4. That gets us to our motel around 7:00AM. We check in, take a couple hour nap by the pool and then on to the MK. We don' need no steenkin' relax day! Mickey's waiting !

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

I'm up at 5:00 AM on the morning we leave, if that gives you any indication.:lookaroun

 

[disneygirl1]

We are usually on the first flight out of Philly, which is about 7a, which means we're up and getting ready around 4am and arriving in Orlando about 9:45a... For this trip however, I did not want my DS to miss a full day of school, so we are on the 6:59p flight out, which puts us at MCO around 9:40p. Not the best time to arrive in my opinion, I rather be there early, but hey, at least we're in Disney!!! Only 14 days to go!!! :sohappy:

 

[DizneyPryncess]

I'm a phobic flyer, so flight types/schedules take priority over check in time for me. I need a direct flight, on a major airline, that's a certain type of aircraft or higher. I'm just a paranoid crazy girl about flying - so I basically arrive whenever I arrive. We've made a point to have our first day be a nice dinner at a resort, and maybe some Downtown Disney time. We rarely go to a park on day 1.

 

[DisneyWall-E]

DW and I get up at about 3:30AM to drive to WDW by 10:30ish AM depending if we stop for breakfast and bathroom breaks. Its not that long a trip but we do have to add an hour once we enter the Eastern time zone. So, all that considered we get to the park about lunchtime the day we leave. Only 16 days to go!:sohappy:

 

[danv3]

We like the first flight to MCO and the last one out!

For our upcoming trip, with luck, we should be in the MK by noon. When the room is ready at 4:00 we'll take a couple hours break, and then head back for Spectro.

 

[foreverbelle]

We usually get in and take our time getting to the parks, but we fly in during the morning and are in the parks by late afternoon or early evening. So I would say Mid day is more like our schedule.

 

[scpergj]

Since we are within a few hours drive, we usually leave when the kids are out of school and drive down, usually arriving around 6:00 PM. Also, we have AP's, so we usually hit whatever park is open latest the night we arrive.