Insane idea. But .. can you hotel nap for 4 hours to help you get through?
Then get up and try to get London time from there.

If you’re able to get your sleep schedule, here, earlier and earlier, I don’t see the issue with getting in a half-day nap to tie you over.

First day of any Europe vacation is usually rough. I just slog through the first day and go to bed early the first evening. A nightcap of NyQuil helps ensure a good sleep.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with PP who said 8pm. Eat dinner at 5 or 6. Just take sleeping pills on the plane and make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep. You will not only be fine but have fun. Freaking out about it won't help.

OP here. This was the original plan but the new flight takes off a 6:10pm our time and it’s only 6 hours long. So to get 4 hours we’d need to be asleep by 8pm. It’s not that we aren’t willing to try - we are - but it just seems difficult. I’m so annoyed at Virgin. We chose them over others because they had one of the later flights. Ugh.

I agree with PP who said 8pm. Eat dinner at 5 or 6. Just take sleeping pills on the plane and make sure you get at least 4 hours of sleep. You will not only be fine but have fun. Freaking out about it won't help.

When the pub closes at 11

We were going to arrive in Ireland at 6am, so I booked the queen bed room for the night prior, figuring all four of us could pass out for an hour or two on the bed and couch, saving a few bucks on a pretty expensive downtown Dublin hotel. I had a second room with two twins booked but not for the early arrival day. Well then our flight got cancelled and rescheduled for 24 hrs later. So I was out 3 nights of hotel, groan. And that flight was a connection so with a noon arrival, which I would never have gotten the extra night in that situation.

Get a cheaper room for the one night and sleep for a couple hrs would be my pick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Our mid range hotel is costing almost $600/night (to sleep all four of us) so there is no way I will convince my husband to pay for another night just to nap. We may live to regret it, but he will never go for that I'm sure.

Then you will be completely miserable and you need to make it until at least 8pm. If you fall asleep anywhere between when you check in (4pm or so) and 8pm, you are screwed. So stay out of your room.

We were not planning to go to the room, just drop our bags at the hotel. It would be too early anyway. One blog I read recommended the hop on/hop off bus on arrival day so I think that is our plan to get an overview of the touristy stuff, be outside in the daylight, but nothing too exhausting.

Hop on hop off bus put me to sleep when I did that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can sleep at a cheaper airport hotel, then after you wake up, get the train into London.

OP here. If we do this, what is the correct length of time to sleep? Won't we be super groggy when we wake up after just a few hours?

It takes the edge off. You wake up a bit groggy, yes, but it wears off and is a much preferable feeling to how you would feel around 5pm powering through. For me about 3 hours is good.

What I do, not sleeping much if at all on planes, is shower and caffeine up, have a good breakfast and start walking around sightseeing. Dump stuff and breakfast at hotel. Then a nice light tea with strong tea in afternoon. If you are light eaters, a full tea with sandwiches in a pretty hotel might do ya. Hotel, unpack, shower, look at telly, bed at 8:30.

I tend to nap after checking in, around 3 or 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Our mid range hotel is costing almost $600/night (to sleep all four of us) so there is no way I will convince my husband to pay for another night just to nap. We may live to regret it, but he will never go for that I'm sure.

Then you will be completely miserable and you need to make it until at least 8pm. If you fall asleep anywhere between when you check in (4pm or so) and 8pm, you are screwed. So stay out of your room.

We were not planning to go to the room, just drop our bags at the hotel. It would be too early anyway. One blog I read recommended the hop on/hop off bus on arrival day so I think that is our plan to get an overview of the touristy stuff, be outside in the daylight, but nothing too exhausting.

You are all likely to fall asleep on the bus.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Our mid range hotel is costing almost $600/night (to sleep all four of us) so there is no way I will convince my husband to pay for another night just to nap. We may live to regret it, but he will never go for that I'm sure.

I go to Europe all the time for work and always ask for early check-in. I have never not gotten it. I arrive at the hotel between 9 - 10, sleep until 12-12:30, and then I’m good to go for the rest of the trip.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can sleep at a cheaper airport hotel, then after you wake up, get the train into London.

OP here. If we do this, what is the correct length of time to sleep? Won't we be super groggy when we wake up after just a few hours?

Everyone is different! We did a flight like this once to Rome, landed at 8 AM local time, got to our hotel around 9AM. We slept until around 11:30 AM. Definitely groggy but good enough to get through the day.

Anonymous wrote:You can sleep at a cheaper airport hotel, then after you wake up, get the train into London.

OP here. If we do this, what is the correct length of time to sleep? Won't we be super groggy when we wake up after just a few hours?

You can sleep at a cheaper airport hotel, then after you wake up, get the train into London.