Bedtimes at Disney

[supergoofy]

Like others have said you know your kids best but with ours we did rope drop everyday. I know its early but we found we got more done by going early. We then went back to our room for nap/swim/downtime. Sometimes the kids napped sometimes not. Then back to a park to close it.

My kids are 6 years apart so a pretty big difference. So we found a stroller worked wonders so the oldest could continue in the park while the younger ones(twins) slept. Mom and dad swapped off pushing stroller and taking her on rides.

Now we did this all at the Land which I know is different than the World. With the World I would suggest doing a late closed park followed by an early closed park the next day. And once you see the night activity you could skip it if need be.

 

[kohlby]

It comes down to knowing your kids. Some kids will nap. Some will sleep in. Some can handle being short on sleep. Some cannot. So, what works for one family could easily be a disaster for another.

My kids won't nap. My kids won't sleep in. My kids are naturally ready in time for rope drops. So, we are rope droppers and MUST get back to the room at a reasonable hour for our middle child. If she's short on sleep by even 15 minutes, then there will be suffering for her and everyone around her. My eldest, on the other hand, can get very, very little sleep and all is okay! I've heard the attitude that they can sleep when the vacation is over and that would actually work for my eldest. It would not work for me. And it would not work for my middle child at all. (My youngest is somewhere in the middle of those two).

So, we're back around bedtime most nights. We'll make an exception or two. One exception will be just a little later. (And this is for the middle child who goes to be the earliest of the three. It will still be fore the eldest's bedtime). The other exception is the last night - anything goes! We can deal with a cranky child on the drive back if needed.

I was told that my kids would nap at Disney even if they didn't nap at home. I was told that they likely would fall asleep in the stroller. Nope. I know kids like that exist - I've seen kids asleep in their strollers all over the parks. But even when I went with a 2 year old, there were no naps and no sleeping in the strollers. (I've also had three trips with 3 year olds, not always the same 3 year old). We did try going back to our room several times and it just wasted time for us.

*Due to the age difference between my 1st and 3rd, my eldest would go to the hotel pool with one adult when the younger ones went to bed. It made the room quieter for sleeping and didn't force him to bed early. He loved it!

**We have made it to Fantasmic before, but when it was at 6:30 in the winter. Wishes is one of our later nights, I think it was 8pm on our last trip. We have yet to make Illuminations. We did make it to 9pm on the last night of our last trip - but just to 9pm, not past so we were close! We're thinking of the Halloween party on our last night this time though, so we're not planning on Illuminations.

 

[brockash]

We don't and have never done a "bedtime" at Disney. At home, we always do, but not so much on vacation and never at Disney. We go every year and started when the youngest was 4 months and oldest 3. We've never had a problem...the oldest is now 12. I really wouldn't want to miss all of the nighttime stuff anyways.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

We don't and have never done a "bedtime" at Disney. At home, we always do, but not so much on vacation and never at Disney. We go every year and started when the youngest was 4 months and oldest 3. We've never had a problem...the oldest is now 12. I really wouldn't want to miss all of the nighttime stuff anyways.

We agree! We are the same way. At home a strict bedtime but never at Disney. We have stayed at MK until 1am and everyone was great. We love Buzz Space Ranger Spin - and during that night went on it about 6 times. We love trying to beat our high scores. It is so much fun and no waiting. They did sleep in the next day but not past 9am. We don't like splitting up - so we are usually always together. DW energizes us. We make sure to see Illuminations, Fantasmic, Electrical Light Parade and Wishes every trip. We just can't get enough of Disney!

 

[wallskm]

We do pretty strict bedtimes at home but vacation is different. On our recent cruise they didn't make it to bed until 10:30 most nights and they were just fine. I try and not do a bunch of late nights in a row though. They don't get grumpy usually so it works out for us. Last time we went to WDW there was a night we didn't get back to the resort until 12 am!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

I'm in the opposite camp from most of the posters here, but it's because I do know my child so well and she desperately needs adequate sleep to be able function at WDW. When we went in 2008, I threw the bedtime out the window and it was a really rough trip. Since that trip, the only time I'll let her stay up really late is on our last night in the parks. We usually make that a MK night and stay for Wishes. On our last trip, her normal bedtime was 8:30 and I stretched that to 9:00 or 9:30 on most nights, but there was at least one night she was so tired that she was in bed by 8:00 at her own request. We are at the parks for rope drop almost every day so the early bedtimes are essential.

Now that she's a little older, her normal bedtime is around 9:30 so she'll probably be up until 10:00 or 10:30 on our trip this May.

 

[JillShari]

We went to WDW a month ago. I have a 4 and an 8 y/o boys.

We learned that even trying to push bedtime at home too much was NEVER a good thing. And we wanted to discourage meltdowns to add to everyone's overall fun.

So, we arrived as close to rope drop as possible as my kids are the 7:30am risers. Then went on everything we wanted. I made ADR's for lunch. Then we always went back to the resort. One day, we totally chilled in the pool and didn't go back out. Twice my youngest who hasn't napped in at least 2 years, took 2 hours naps! (If he had taken a stroller nap, it would have lasted 20 mins and he would have been crankier than usual) And we had the oldest lie down at least to rest.

Those two rest days were the ones where we were able to be flexible and plan a park to visit in the evening. Those were great nights... and mostly because on the others, my kids were in bed at their regular 8pm and 9pm respectively times and my DH and I went to bed early with the kids which helped us keep our energy.

The parks got so crowded after 11am... so we avoided the crowds, still went on all our must see rides, and got a chance to enjoy our resort and I know my kids enough to know that had we tried to stay up most nights without a break or without naps, by the end of our vacation, we'd have all been miserable.

Do what you know will create the best time for the whole family.

 

[AshleeH]

We don't do bedtimes at Disney. We've been back at the hotel and watched fireworks from our balcony and we've closed the parks after midnight. It really depends on the plans.

 

[DisneyGal24]

We keep bedtime the same (about 8:30) except for one night. We try to make the fireworks at one park once. My kids are early risers no matter what time they go to bed. In fact, the more tired my son is the more he wakes up during the night and the earlier he wakes up. We find it's better to stay on schedule for the majority of our trip. It keeps everyone happy!

 

[imthemamahere]

As many others have pointed out, you know your kids best - so you're really the best one to judge whether they'd be happiest with a throw-bedtime-out-the-window schedule, a stick-strictly-to-normal schedule, or something in the middle.

I think it also depends on what kind of vacationers you are, as a family. There are park commandos who have to do it ALL, and there are those who are happier when they take things slow. If you'll be lining up half an hour before rope-drop every morning and staying on the go all day long, it's likely that your kids will need their normal bedtimes to keep up! If you favor a more take-it-easy approach to vacations and intend to sleep in, spend downtime at your hotel, etc, your kids might be fine if they're getting to bed a bit late...

For us, we're more relaxed vacationers, and we go with a sort of in between approach. I wouldn't stay out late every single night, because my son (almost 5) is, by nature, an early riser who rarely sleeps past sunrise. But, I know he's pretty flexible when it comes to bedtime, so we'll throw a few late nights into the mix. For us, it works because Disney is pretty much the only place where he'll nap during the day (unless he's sick). That's true for most kids, because of the walking, the crowds, the sheer excitement of it all... It's exhausting! So we know we can keep him up a bit later because he'll catch some zzz's in the middle of the day - typically when we get into the car to drive back to the hotel to freshen up before dinner. After an hour or more of afternoon naptime, there was no way he'd fall asleep at a normal hour anyway.

Our last trip, we probably got my son off to sleep around 10pm most nights, instead of his normal 8/8:30 bedtime. But one night, we stuck around 'til about the end of Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at MK, getting on the monorail to the TTC at around 12:45am. My son, then 3 1/2, fell asleep on the monorail, but had stayed up (cheerfully!) until that point. He wanted to see the characters and ride Dumbo over and over, so he didn't give in to being tired until we'd wheeled him out of the park.

The following morning was one of fewer than 5 times in his nearly 5 years of life that he's slept past 8am!

But that was only one super-late night... I don't think *I* could have stayed on my feet if all our nights were that late!

 

[puffkin]

We are far from commando at DW as we go 2x a year. We lead a very strict, regimented life at home. Work, school/daycare, sports practice, dinner, homework, bed pretty much year round. If our house wasn't run close to a military operation chaos would ensue. But for whatever reason, my kids are so adaptable on vacation. Bedtime goes out the window. We usually stay fairly late in the parks, as my DS8 says, "ice cream just tastes so much better at 11pm". It doesn't matter what time they stay out, they are up in the mornings so we usually make rope drop at a non-EMH park, or very close to it. We do take a long afternoon break pretty much everyday though. My DS21 months will nap but the older one usually hits the pool, plays in the community hall, etc. They have no problems slipping into and out of vacation mode, its something I have always been extremely impressed with them about. I have no idea why or how, my only guess is because we as parents don't stress out about it too much and they are very adaptable to new situations because of daycare.

 

[firepuppy]

I know my son is older now, but we were at Disney when he was also younger and I can tell you that we never had a bed time. I also did not stress about it and when I was uptight about bed time I could see him getting the same way. I learned that very quick and it has never been a problem.

Enjoy the time you have with your little ones.

 

[lahobbs4]

We may be the mean parents, but we try to stay on as normal of a schedule as possible! We let it slide one day last year... stayed at Epcot through their naps then stayed for fireworks and waited over an hour for the bus to pick us up. They were AWFUL. They just could not handle it and it stressed us all out. I felt like a crappy mom for trying to push them. Bad move for us!

This year we won't be doing that again! We purposefully chose an MK resort so we can watch the fireworks from our room, get in bed at a decent hour, and be back up for rope drop!

 

[2009CAN]

My three kids were aged between nearly 3 and 4.5 on our last trip. Our kids usually go down at 8:00, sometimes 7:30 or 8:30. NEVER later than 8:30. I had planned to take naps at our resort after lunch. It only happened once, even though we came back to the room after lunch every day.
This year when we go back, our kids will be aged nearly 4 and 5.5 years old. I know that there will be no napping, although we might try to go back to the room again. I so want to do that Christmas party, but I know that for us, it’s NOT worth the tired cranky mess we will have on our hands if we keep them up late. One will be completely fine, one will be a wild card, but likely a mess, and another WILL be a hot freaking mess. So, we’ll be the mean parents making our kids go to be around 8:00 while at Disney.

I think what it boils down to is YOUR child and doing what’s best for him/her. If we were on a trip with just our “go-with-the-flow” daughter, we’d stay up late and do a party. But there is no good that will come from keeping the other 5.5-year old child up late.

 

[Dizduke]

Often have wondered what to do with our gal on vacation, almost 2. When we went last year we stuck to the 6:30-7pm time frame. We just got back from HHI and did 7-7:30 with no issues. Figured when we go back to WDW we will let her stay up until 8pm. Only bummer is the park is the BEST at night Last time the in-laws were able to watch her while we went out the firework shows...that was awesome.

 

[dvczerfs]

when I was a kid ( I'm now pushing 50 ) we have always done rope drops. stayed in the park till around 12-1pm, head back to the resort or hotel pending on how far back you want to go..till about 4pm. head back to the parks around 4-4:30 and stay till about 9pm.
it seemed to work well for us when I was a kid and still does the trick years later. kids , moms and dads all could use a nap. it solves a lot of problems.
rope drops...... you can get more done in the first three hours then you will all day. everyone had a little snooze so less chance of someone being grumpy and now with fp+ make your fp for the late afternoon, early evenings.

the family will give you a hard time about a "nap" at first but just do one day with staying in the park all day and you wont have a problem going back after that.