I’m curious how your first day or so on the ground is. Looks like an ~8-hour flight from London. That means that if you leave at noon London time, and the plane lands 8 hours later, it’s 8 PM London time, and 4PM Orlando time. By the time you get settled into your hotel, it’s approaching the kids’ bedtime, but still broad daylight in Orlando.
Does it take you a day or so to acclimate to the jet lag? Does it take you a while to handle driving on the other side of the car & road? Any other difficulties?
You know, this question really has nothing to do with Disneyworld. Or not being from the U.S. Why don’t you change your question to reflect that jetlag is - surprisingly - something which can happen to people from the U.S., and people not going to Disneyworld, AND to people who may not be traveling at the specific times of day you mention.
I’m not from the US, and I’ve been to Disneyworld. From Australia, via New York. I don’t remember noticing any British tourists.
Jetlag affects people differently, and how you manage it depends on what time of day you leave, and when you arrive. You’ll get better advice if you’re more specific.
I doubt most Brits go to Disney on the day they arrive. Quite apart from the jet lag an 8 hour flight plus several hours travel and airport before take off wipes you out. Visiting Disneyworld would generally be part of a week or more in Florida. Well it was when we went!
On the wider question driving on the right was not too bad (I’ve driven on the continent) but driving the unresponsive tank of a car was a pain for the first day or so. So were the wierd and ever changing speed limits!
The consensus on jet lag is that it is significantly easier to shift your day later than earlier. The kid’s bedtime might be 4 PM in Orlando, but keeping them up until a reasonable local bedtime will work better than trying to go the other direction.
We don’t go to WDW on the day we arrive, as we’re always there on a 2 week vacation so have plenty of time for the parks. We’ll have spent the better part of 15 hours travelling in all - Wake at 6am, airport at 8am, flight at 10am, 8.5 hour flight, 2 hours getting off plane, through immigration, collecting suitcases, collecting hire car. Up to another hour getting to hotel, checking in and going to room - so we’re all dead on our feet by the time we get settled in.
We spend the day of arrival unpacking, stuffing our faces with Fritos, root beer and fun breakfast cereals all purchased from the closest Walmart, napping, and splashing around in the hotel/villa pool if we’re feeling particularly energetic. Then we try to get an early night so we can rise early enough to collect our tickets and be at the parks for opening the next day.
We have a 4 year old. We don’t worry too much about bedtimes or sleep schedules, as they tend to get screwed up by sleeping on the flight over, jet lag, exhaustion from the parks etc. She’ll take naps in the buggy a couple of times a day then generally gets a night’s sleep anywhere between 11pm and 8am locally. Jet lag once we get home is way more of a bitch, and it’ll take a week or two to get her back into her usual sleep pattern.
My husband’s used to driving in the US so it takes him five minutes to feel at home on the roads.
I’m not from the US, but when I went to EPCOT and Disneyworld, it was in the company of a bunch of supposed adults (all of us old enough to vote in our respective countries although some not old enough to drink in yours); we were in Orlando to attend a professional meeting and jet lag wasn’t an issue, since we were coming from Miami :p. I met many people who’d come from Europe specifically for the meeting and who intended to visit one or more parks, but usually on Saturday, having already spent several days in Orlando. Most of them had also come one or two days in advance of the meeting’s start.
Most of the Spaniards I know who went to DW (generally, before Disneyland Paris got built) made it part of a longer trip, that specific visit wasn’t just off the plane. NY-Orlando used to be a very popular combo.
I’ve been to DW several times, once or twice with my children, but never on the day we arrived in the US.
I have a couple of rules of thumb for long East-West flights:
Try to avoid too many flights on the same day. If you need a connection anyway, you’re probably connecting through an interesting city. Take advantage of the fact and stay there for a few days
Don’t plan anything important for the day you land.
More to the point, if you’re at all capable of sleeping on a plane, flying East to West is a lot easier (IMHO) than West to East. Essentially, if I have a 12-hour flight leaving Israel at ~midnight and landing on the East Coast at ~6 AM (never takes off on time… :p), then if I can rest poorly during those 12 hours it’s still almost equivalent to resting well for 6 hours or so… which means I start my day at 8 AM after leaving the airport and after having what sorta, kinda passes for 6 hours of sleep.
Rick, from Canada, about 2.5 hours away by jet and we drive on the right side of the road.
And I could not disagree with AK84 more. If you have kids from 4 to 7, Disney World is indescribably awesome for them. They will love it. My daughter still speaks of her visits at 4 and 5. I’m 40 and MY visit there when I was six is still one of the most vivid and happy memories of my life. It’s worth it.
