First night?

[Thorpy]

I'm a bit different in that I work opposite to conventional wisdom. Most people will suggest you should set your watch to US time as soon as you get on the plane and then work to that. I keep on UK time till day 2 or 3 (Day 1 being the day we arrive).

The way I look at it is that we're up dead early anyway to catch our flight, so staying up late on arrival just compounds this tiredness. I've seen people that then also go full tilt on day one, and basically run themselves down at the start of their holiday, and then have days where they feel ill. (plane germs usually get the blame, not tiredness!) If I stay up late on arrival I sleep for a few hours then end up staring at a ceiling at 4am wishing I was asleep. That for me means 2 nights of not much sleep, and that's not the way to make me happy.

If I go to bed pretty much as soon as I can on arrival, (7-7:30pm) then that's close enough to a late UK bedtime that I'm working with my body clock and get a full nights proper sleep. I then have a lie-in and still wake up at 4-5am, but this way I've had 8-9 hours good sleep when I do wake up. I am fully refreshed and ready to start my holiday. I then quietly unpack, have a wander round the resort, get breakfast, maybe go for an early morning swim, and am bright and breezy ready for the first park rope drop.
We then have another (not quite so) early night on that first full day, and adjust naturally over a couple of days. I'd rather be happy and refreshed and out of step with the locals than knackered, but in sync. We plan early morning stuff early on, and late night stuff towards the second week so it naturally fits.

[captbnut]

Originally Posted by Thorpy

I'm a bit different in that I work opposite to conventional wisdom. Most people will suggest you should set your watch to US time as soon as you get on the plane and then work to that. I keep on UK time till day 2 or 3 (Day 1 being the day we arrive).

The way I look at it is that we're up dead early anyway to catch our flight, so staying up late on arrival just compounds this tiredness. I've seen people that then also go full tilt on day one, and basically run themselves down at the start of their holiday, and then have days where they feel ill. (plane germs usually get the blame, not tiredness!) If I stay up late on arrival I sleep for a few hours then end up staring at a ceiling at 4am wishing I was asleep. That for me means 2 nights of not much sleep, and that's not the way to make me happy.

If I go to bed pretty much as soon as I can on arrival, (7-7:30pm) then that's close enough to a late UK bedtime that I'm working with my body clock and get a full nights proper sleep. I then have a lie-in and still wake up at 4-5am, but this way I've had 8-9 hours good sleep when I do wake up. I am fully refreshed and ready to start my holiday. I then quietly unpack, have a wander round the resort, get breakfast, maybe go for an early morning swim, and am bright and breezy ready for the first park rope drop.
We then have another (not quite so) early night on that first full day, and adjust naturally over a couple of days. I'd rather be happy and refreshed and out of step with the locals than knackered, but in sync. We plan early morning stuff early on, and late night stuff towards the second week so it naturally fits.

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Hi

That sounds good, have you done it many times? I've not flown in years and not to the USA in 25. Kids have never flown either. I imagine that the first day will be a very early start whatever time we get to bed.

[Crazydragon]

Last time we went we got to the hotel around 5 ish, unpacked then went out for something to eat and in bed by 9:00 planning to get up by 8 and off to Kennedy.

Did not work out as I brought a cheap alarm clock and set the alarm but as they run on 60Hz and we are on 50Hz it caused the clock to run fast and the alarm went of at 4:00 am. lets just say I was not the most popular on the first day!

Rich.

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by captbnut

Hi

That sounds good, have you done it many times? I've not flown in years and not to the USA in 25. Kids have never flown either. I imagine that the first day will be a very early start whatever time we get to bed.

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Yeah done it a few times. It helps that I know my way round most onsite resorts, as it's quite unintuitive to get to a destination all excited, ignore everything and go to sleep as soon as you can.

I've also done it the other way round, and this is what I prefer. You're right that you're up early anyway, having unpacking to do, gives you a way of killing that time while you're basically waiting to get started.

[Guest]

I like this idea. Thanks for the advice