Theme Park Planning after a Redeye Flight?

Thanks everyone. After reading through all of these comments, I think it is probably too risky to stay in the parks all the way through Wishes. If everyone is up for it, then sure we could do it. But it will probably be a win even to be done by 7pm and be back at the resort by 9pm. Hopefully everyone would be good and tired enough then to fall asleep right away.

I'm also rethinking the mid-day nap. I think there's a risk some people will really need one, and if so it should really be a quick power snooze.

The total trip will be 4 days, leaving around lunch on the 5th day.
 
1) If the room is ready, I would head to the room , organize it and lay down for a few hours....then up and head into the parks for a few hours, dinner and depending on how your feeling fireworks, getting on the time zone...This works for us when we go the red eye route... Not our favorite, an extra day of vacation makes it worth it... we also upgrade our airline seats, so that we can at least rest more leg room makes a ton of difference, I normally cat nap, DH can sleep some... to ensure that we can get into our room, we have even booked a extra day, with super late check in so that our room would be ready on arrival...which is what we did when we went to Paris last year, we arrived at 6:00 am, we did put everything in the room, we thought that we were good to go, so we walked the block and half to the Arc de Triumph, and then found some breakfast, this is about when the jet lag started really setting in we had been up 24+ hours at this point, so we found the mono-plex ( grocery style store) and got what we needed, and walked back to the hotel, and went to bed, got up at 4:00pm, and got ready, and went out for several hours, dinner, and back to bed by 9:00pm, and we were good to go the next day...

2) If the rooms is not ready, check the bags, grab some breakfast and coffee, let the coffee work its magic... Head for the parks, hit some rides, I would personally stay away from the thrill rides, lunch, maybe some shopping, or a few rides, head back to the resort, grab your bag, head to the room... get settled and see what everyone wants to do... I would just stay at the resort swim, relax, grab a QS dinner, you can eat in the food court, take it and sit pool side, or even take it back to your room. Get some sleep and you should be rested and ready to go for the next day...

I would not make any ADR's as you really are not going to know how every is feeling...
 
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We have driven 15 hours through the night, arrived around 7:00 a.m., checked in, had breakfast and went to a park. We were usually back in the room by 1::00 or so (has always been ready by then for us) for a nap and then we go back out at night. However, we are in the same time zone.
 
I've done 2 redeyes from LAX to MCO one solo and one with someone else; both were 10 day trips. You will definitely be exhausted by early to mid afternoon depending on how much sleep you got on the plane. While I wouldn't take a nap necessarily you definitely want time to relax be it in the parks or back at the resort. I wouldn't rule out an ADR for dinner, for the group trip we had a ADR for Yachtsman at 7:45 and we were back to the hotel around 10. We did fine for the rest of the trip but weren't up early to make rope drop at all.

I will say don't try to plan day one too much and just go with the flow more. Just remember you get to spend day one of your vacation at Disney instead of crowded into a plane.
 


I always red-eye from the west coast. I plan on the room not being ready, and that I will be heading to a park as soon as I check-in and drop things off. I go back to the resort for a power nap as soon as the your-room-is-ready text comes. I have to have that nap, as I get super crabby when tired, even in the happiest place on earth.

The worst first day experience I've had was a couple trips ago when I had a dinner ADR at Garden Grill, but my room at POP didn't become available until 5pm! I'd been half sleeping in the lobby since 3pm, and was a mess. All I could do was rush to get cleaned up (I didn't dare sit down on that bed) and get back on the bus to EPCOT to be in time for my ADR - then didn't get seated until an hour after my appointed time. I was bone tired and hangry! I started to rally as soon as I got some food in my system, and my avatar is actually taken during that meal.

The best first day experience was my December trip, when I was staying at The Swan. I wasn't concerned about when the room would be available, because it's so easy to go back-and-worth between The Swan and EPCOT, but received some pixie-dust and got a room upon check-in. The rain/thunderstorm that was blowing thru was forecast to last until 1pm, so I got in a lovely long guilt free nap, then headed over and stayed at EPCOT until closing.

So I'm squarely on the side of naps, and also with keeping first day plans flexible, to see how things are going and how y'all are feeling.
 
I went to WDW for the first time in January and we flew on a redeye from Las Vegas, arriving at MCO around 5 am. We took MDE to our resort All Star Music. Our room wasn't ready so we changed clothes, checked our bags, and then hung out for a little bit in the lobby before catching the bus to HS. We made rope drop and rode SDD first thing and then did our other must-dos. We went back to the hotel after lunch when our room was ready and showered and changed before going to EPCOT for the night. We didn't make it until fireworks, but it was still a good first day. I wouldn't do it with kids, but this was just me and my brother (35/38 yo). I hope you have a great time! We had so much fun despite the cold rainy weather we had.
 
What do you think of this plan? Or am I risking too much?
I don't know if i would pack that much into one day. If you are able to get some sleep on the plane then even with that I would hit MK in the morning, Lunch and maybe a little more MK before going to the resort. At that point i would consider just a relaxing evening with getting to bed early maybe 8ish. You could check out some of the resort activities, get dinner and call it a night.

There is such a thing as Disney adrenaline, but it can only take you so far. I think to get a good night sleep will help with getting your clock on the right setting for the remainder of your trip. You can always play it by ear and go back to MK, but with your plan as is it wouldn't have you getting to bed until probably after 10pm.
 


I don't know if i would pack that much into one day. If you are able to get some sleep on the plane then even with that I would hit MK in the morning, Lunch and maybe a little more MK before going to the resort. At that point i would consider just a relaxing evening with getting to bed early maybe 8ish. You could check out some of the resort activities, get dinner and call it a night.

There is such a thing as Disney adrenaline, but it can only take you so far. I think to get a good night sleep will help with getting your clock on the right setting for the remainder of your trip. You can always play it by ear and go back to MK, but with your plan as is it wouldn't have you getting to bed until probably after 10pm.

I'm still thinking about maybe not scheduling a redeye then. Maybe it's just as "productive" to arrive around 5:00pm, have a dinner and stay in the parks until closing, with some drinks and entertainment at Disney Springs afterwards to tire ourselves out.
 
I'm up in Montana, and by the time I transfer through Denver I'm in the same boat re: losing a day to travel. In the past I've always just taken the earliest morning flight I can, because morning flights tend to get delayed less often than evening flights. Last year I accidentally ended up doing a redeye down to Miami for my first Disney cruise (my flight to Denver was very badly delayed, making me miss my connection by several hours, and I was extremely lucky that an airline employee went out of her way to get me on a late flight), and because I wasn't expecting to have to sleep on a plane I hadn't brought a pillow or any sleep aid, and I was WIIIDE AWAKE for the entirety of that midnight flight. I used the power-through strategy and didn't lay down or rest my eyes until after dinner; I was able to handle what turned out to be 36 total hours of wakefulness, but the first afternoon of a cruise is a lot easier than a park day at WDW, so I don't know if I would have been able to do it at WDW.

One thing I've found in recent travels is that resting my eyes genuinely helps even if I don't sleep (often it's actually better if I don't). Just sitting or laying down somewhere quiet and shutting my eyes for ten or twenty minutes a couple times throughout the day can help head off the grouchiness and headache. Sometimes naps help, sometimes they make it worse, so I can't really advise you on that, but I would say to set the expectation that you're probably only going to make it to about 6:00 or 7:00 at the park. If your party feels like conking out for the night at 8:00, just let it happen, though I wouldn't head to bed any earlier than that. After a red-eye and park day you may need more than the usual 8 hours anyway.
 
Oh my gosh this is the thread I needed! I'm planning my Disneymoon and we're also from CA. I don't sleep well on planes and he's never been to WDW. I've been going back and forth between going to the parks if we get a red eye or just exploring the resorts and getting an idea of how efficiently transport works.
Thank you everyone! This is the real world knowledge I needed to find!
 
Thank you everyone for the great insight!

We've decided not to do a red-eye, but try to get on the earliest flight to arrive in time for dinner. We figured if we did a red-eye, we could probably make it for rope-drop, but the risk is we'd be too tired and grouchy. By arriving at the parks around 5:00pm, we can stay out until midnight and get 7 hours of quality fun into our visit.

Plus, one of us will have her first time at WDW and I don't want her first experience to start with jetlag. I remember seeing a video review on DIS where the travelers were so unimpressed with Tokyo Disney Sea, and they were also emphatic about how exhausted they were not having slept for more than a day. I don't think they put the two together, but I'll bet that sleep plays a huge role in how we feel about things even when we're not aware.
 
My husband and I took a red eye (we live in WA) and it was really rough for us. We had planned to sleep on the plane but couldn't sleep for more than a few minutes at a time, partly from excitement but mostly because it is loud AF on an airplane and people are constantly in the aisles for the bathroom, snacks, etc. Our room was amazingly ready when we arrived to the resort around 7-8am so we took a 1hr nap before going to the parks...I literally almost couldn't force myself up, I truly wanted to just stay and sleep. We did fine in the parks all day BUT it ruined our following morning because we were so tired. It was hard to get going for Day 2.

Our next trip we did the normal flight where we arrived around 5-6pm and once we got a quick service dinner at the resort we went to MK for the nighttime stuff (electrical parade). We were only there for a couple of hours max, then went back to the resort for sleep. The next morning we got up fine and were ready to go without dragging. It was so much better.
 
I think it depends what kind of travelers you are.

My sister, parents, and I went a couple years ago on a red-eye from Seattle. Arrived at MCO somewhere around 5 am so we were at the hotel by 6 am. Obviously we weren't able to check in so we bussed to MK, rode the monorail to Poly, and grabbed breakfast at Kona Cafe. We walked over to SOG to get our Universal tickets with my parents' military discount. Then walked back to Poly and used their bus to hit one of the water parks. My parents took a nap on the lounge chairs (doable in the fall when it isn't quite so hot) while my sister and I ran around the park. Finally got the text that the room was ready so we went back to the room to nap/shower. Then went to MK for the entire night. No "jet lag" or messed up sleep schedules for us, we were able to hit the parks hard for the rest of the 9 day trip. However, that is our experience. Everyone is different so I would evaluate the travel style of everyone in your party.

Another family on the plane with us actually started their room reservation the day they flew out from Seattle (i.e. one day before arriving at MCO at 5 am) so that they could go straight to the room to sleep. Not worth it for me but doable/reasonable for some.

We are getting older though so, this time around, we opted for arriving in MCO around 6 pm and resting the night before :P
 
Interesting to read people's insights on this topic. The one time we went to WDW (10 years ago) We took a redeye from LAS to MCO. We made it to HS around 10 (I think) and stayed through Fantasmic. It worked out ok, but it was just DH and I and the rest of our days were morning EMH, nap, then evening EMH.

We hope to take our 3 kids in 2020 and would probably fly from San Francisco. I don't want cranky kids on the first day of a 2 week trip, but I also like the idea of them sleeping on the plane and being tired enough for bed that first night. I was thinking of a resort and water park day on check in. But then reading how some book FP and get something done the first day I was thinking that could be nice too. Thoughts about flying cross country with kiddos? Check in day?
 

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