Back to the room for naps? Must we?

[scarlet_ibis]

We have never gone back to the room for naps. We've taken our kids as young as 10 months and as old as 5.5 years. If the kids get tired, they nap in their strollers and that gives us (the parents) a chance to do the things that we'd like to do -- like tour around Epcot.

I've always viewed it as a stupendous waste of time to go back to the resort in the middle of the day for any reason other than illness. You're going to blow probably two hours waiting for and taking the bus (assuming you're not in an Epcot or MK resort), plus naptime.

My mom (hi Mom!) always gets on our case that we "go too hard" while we're down there, but it works for us.

 

[Trixie15]

We never have, even when ds was a baby. But it's personal preference - you know what your kids will be able to endure, and if you don't, then you will after the 1st day!!

 

[scarlet_ibis]

I like the idea of finding some quiet place in the park to doze off since journeying back to the resort and again back to the park is awfully time consuming.[/url]

I haven't read the whole thread to see if specifics of this have been covered, but the Carousel of Progress, the WDW Railroad, and the monorail are great for nappers. Well, maybe the RR is a little on the loud side. I think the boats tend to be a little noisy as well.

 

[Colinsmom]

I saw your siggy - are you at BWV? Here's what we did when we stayed at the Swan: we got hopper tickets, and were at a park fairly close to rope drop. We'd go back after lunch sometime for a break (at 5yo, my DS wouldn't make it much past dinnertime if we didn't take a break, even though he rarely slept; at 6yo, his endurance was much better) and then walk to either DHS or Epcot for the evening. It was soooo nice not wasting that extra time traveling between parks for our evening.

My 2.5yo napped almost every day back at the room. Note that neither of my kids have been stroller nappers, so if we don't go back, they do NOT nap mid-day.

 

[enchantingodin]

We don't go back either.

In the 2 'big' parks I always get a 2ish ADR for a TS. Noon to 4 are the hottest and most busy times of day in the parks. And a 2pm ADR is usually pretty easy to get since it's an "off" time. So eating while the parks are jammed full and HOT is a good idea if you ask me.

Then once the kiddos have a full tummy we head to a less popular ride/show. American Adventure/Impressions of France/Universe of Energy in Epcot. Carosell of Progress/Hall of Presidents/People Mover (what do they call it now again?) in MK.

They don't always go to sleep. But it's the time relaxing that is important.

All that being said you know your kids/family best. Play it by ear and see what happens.

 

[Deb & Bill]

In 20+ trips to WDW since my son was 4 yrs old (he's now 15), we have only NOT gone back to the villa (we're DVC) for a break on one trip for one day. We had checked out of the villa and were staying for one extra night at an offsite hotel, so taking that break was more difficult. So we hit the MK on Christmas Eve at park opening and stayed until 9PM that night. We had the Family Magic Tour that morning, LTT for dinner than night and everything in between. We were all so exhausted that night, that I barely got our stuff packed to leave the next day (and we had to have Santa time the next morning). We had planned to hit the parks one last time on Christmas morning for a few hours before heading home, but we blew that off and headed home at 8AM.

This family has never tried that since and we always head back about 12:30PM for a swim or a nap. Even my teenaged son relishes his afternoon naptime. When you leave around lunchtime, it's like swimming against the salmon trying to return to their spawning site. It's almost hard to get through the crowds to catch the resort bus. If you stay, you'll be competing against all of them for the cooling snacks, dark places to rest, park benches to rest your feet.

If we want to break the family vacation rule - No whining, no fighting, no griping - staying in a park all day is one way to break that rule.

It's not just the kids who need a break, parents need them just as much. The park will be there when you return a few hours later.