Afternoon Break - Returning to Saratoga Springs

[MrsRyan]

We're staying at Saratoga Springs for the first time in May (5/10-17). We're taking DS4 and DD 22 months. We're spending the majority of our time at MK but I'm worried about naptime/breaktime. I was thinking we'd return to SS mid-day and then go back in the evening. I want this to be a relaxing trip and I want to reduce the cranky-factor.

That said, I also don't want to spend a ton of time traveling back and forth fro MK to SS.

Who's stayed at Saratoga Springs? What's the travel time like? What about other parents considering an afternoon break. Are you going to do it or try to stay in the park?

 

[bookem]

We went in 2013 and stayed at Caribbean beach resort, our DD's were 4 and 2 at the time. In our ten days there we went back to the room for nap time after lunch about 4 times. On these days we had planned evenings like Christmas parade and firework shows, so we were up late after the naps. It was very hard to get 2 very excited girls to take naps mid day!! We had much better success getting back to the rooms early and getting them in bed by 8pm. We took our time but the 2yo was still cranky a few days. I think 4 is the magic age! As we entered the gates to the magic kingdom the first day, our 4yo proclaimed " this is the happiest place I've ever been" and the smile never left her face. We had such a good time, we bought into the DVC and are going back this year so the youngest can experience that same magic when she's 4.

 

[6disneykids]

While I respect not wanting cranky kids, I have 6 and have been in all stages of childhood from a 6 week old to teenagers, what you need to keep in mind is the travel time between what park you are in and the resort. If you have your own car, it is easier, but it can eat up a lot of time. The strategy that helped us was taking a park break mid-trip. Going to the playground and pool, just not doing much. It can take the better part of a hour to get from where you are to your room. The other factor to take in consideration is the time of year you are going, most of the parks close earlier in the less crowded months.


Happy planning

 

[Feberin]

We went when my kids were almost exactly the same ages (4 years and 23 months). We took an afternoon break one day and I felt it wasn't necessary. My toddler would sleep in the stroller or in a carrier and our preschooler wouldn't sleep when we returned to the room anyways.
The one day we went back our toddler took a four hour nap while our son spent an hour swimming and watched like three hours of shows on the ipad. I felt like this was a poor use of time while we were in Disney and I disliked him having so much screen time period but we were at the All Star Sports so he had to be quiet while in the room.
It also felt like it took a long time to get back to our resort and just a lot of work. We probably pushed the kids pretty hard they were definitely exhausted by the end of our trip and each night crashed when we returned around 8 pm excluding our last night when we stayed up for fireworks and they crashed on the bus ride back to our resort. However they were actually really well behaved and we had almost no meltdowns. They were actually better behaved in Disney then at home. I would try staying all day the first day and see how things go for you.