My flight leaves MCO at 7.45pm on Saturday evening and arrives 8.50am. I’m not planning to go to any of the parks that day.
Should I try to sleep as much as possible during the day? And then get what sleep I can on the plane?
When I get to Manchester I have a 90 minute drive and I’m back at work on Monday.
Ideally you would sleep 6 hours on the plane, then you are waking up in the morning back on UK time.
This never works for me, I can’t sleep on the plane at all. I can’t sleep in the day either. So generally I’m just up all day, all night on the plane, all the next day back at home, and go to bed about 9. I still feel like death the next day though.
If you can sleep pretty easily, you’ll probably be ok with a couple of hours in the afternoon and a few hours on the plane. Don’t go to bed when you get home, try to stay on UK time and then get an early night.
Past experience suggests I’ll get two or three hours in two or three separate sessions of low quality sleep. I think I’ll try to have as lazy a day as possible during the day. A big meal + booze on the plane usually makes me sleepy and I have a Night Nurse tablet that gets me drowsy, so I might add that to the mix.
It’s difficult isn’t it. I always have a few days off when I get back. I don’t sleep well at the best of times!
This is my experience as well. First day in the UK is horrible, but if I fight through it it makes the transition go as quickly as possible.
The latest travel advice is to avoid food and booze on plane flights altogether - the food is terrible in the first place, and your digestive system shuts down during the flight which can add to the jet lag. If you go with the Night Nurse, be sure to take it far enough in advance so that it wears off before you arrive in the UK - I made the mistake of taking a sleeping aid too close to flight time, and arrived groggy from the mess. On top of not having slept on the plane anyway…
It mostly depends on how you sleep on a plane, and that varies from person to person. When I travel back to the Midwest from Hawai’i, it’s on a red eye and, at best, I doze. So I’m miserable that day back.
I don’t do anything out of the ordinary that last day away, other than enjoy where I’m at. In your case, I’d definitely try to hit the parks for a while. (I mean, that’s why you came, right?)
Doze on the plane, drink plenty of water, and do the bare minimum that first day. Unpack, restock groceries, etc. And plan to head to bed early in the evening. I’ve actually found that it does a hard reset on my system, and when I get up, I’m suddenly back on my home time zone again. I’d be REALLY careful about that drive home in terms of taking anything to help you sleep on the plane.
When I go England, we slept on the plane. If you want to sleep you can go to parks or Disney Springs and then you will be sleeping on the plane.