I found a great priced flight into MCO but it arrives at 12:30am. Am I crazy to book it? We will have 2 young kids with us and will be staying at POR. What’s the best way to do this if I decided to book it? We have always arrived during the day. Thanks so much.
You know your kids better than anyone else.
I personally love late-arriving flights, but I don’t have kids. Weekdays late arriving flights mean you might be able to still go to work that day and save vacation time!
My last question: are you planning on driving? I don’t like to drive in a new city late at night when I am tired, but at least there is no traffic.
I’ve seen parents at the airport who let their kids travel in their pajamas. This way, the kids can sleep and be comfy on the plane AND the parents don’t have to change sleeping kids in the hotel room.
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I’m really not sure how the kids will be. They have never travelled that late before but we plan on easy resort day the next day. We also plan on riding DME but not sure how that works either that late except you have to pick up your on luggage.
How young and are you crossing time zones? We’ve traveled pretty extensively with my DS3 including overseas and it seems to me very random which times he will/won’t sleep on a plane. Obviously it was more likely when he was younger. We had an overnight flight this winter and he slept a little on the plane, but woke up when we got off. Then fell asleep on me in the Tula, but woke again when we got into the car. So the next 2-3 days were catch up sleep (which was fine since we were there for 3 weeks).
Obviously crossing fewer time zones helps, but I prefer to schedule daytime flights. You are potentially looking at maybe only 4-5 hours of sleep the night you fly and I personally as the parent wouldn’t want to start a trip that behind on sleep!
It will be a 3 and 5 year old and crossing only one time zone. We will be losing 1 hour.
Would it work switching 1st disney resort night for Hyatt at airport. Hyatt there has gotten good reviews from Liners.
I realize sometimes rate based on length of stay at disney, or it’s a package, so that wouldn’t work.
But popping the kiddos into an airport hotel might work. Stayed there once, but I can’t recall if it was very easy to get to Hyatt w/i the airport. Maybe others would have that info.
We always arrive after DD4’s bedtime. She usually falls asleep on the DME, which is a bit of a nightmare since she’s very unhappy when she wakes up at the resort. The trip before last we arrived even later than usual, so we booked a room at the MCO Hyatt and this worked really well. Super easy to get to, and the room was very comfortable. We took the DME the next morning, checked into Copper Creek and were at Animal Kingdom early enough to get a ride or two in before lunch. I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to do it again, although we’re arriving at MCO slightly earlier this time so will be heading straight to Animal Kingdom Villas. 
We came from west coast and got in late. We stayed at an airport hotel that night, then went back to airport in morning to take DME to resort. Room was ready late morning and that was a resort/Disney Springs day.
Another vote for staying at the airport Hyatt that night. Then sleep in a bit and take the Magical Express or rent a car and head to WDW. The Hyatt is great, very quiet despite the location above security.
Definitely see if it saves you any money before you do anything though. I looked at that option since my flight is not scheduled to land, but the least expensive thing I could find was more than half my total room stay cost at POFQ. For one night.
No thank you. I’ll DME or Lyft it to the resort when I land.
(Not to mention with Passholder Play Time scheduled at 8am on my first full day, I’d have to be up ridiculously early to get to the resort and drop my stuff off with bell services, then head to Studios. Even if I drop that, with my Tusker House ADR it would still be a super early morning.)