Best strategy for breaks

[mshanson3121]

In the summer? Curious what the best strategy is for crowds, summer heat/rain, sleep schedules of children etc...

Our kids both have SN and generally do well with late nights. They are not kids that will sleep in when they've been up late, instead, they get up the same time, if not earlier, and then turn into cranky monsters, lol. But... that said, they typically handle late nights better when on vacation for some reason. I think partially because there's so much stuff to see and do, and they're so tired from their day that they just collapse at night and sleep great. That said - the longest we've been away from home is 4/5 nights.

So... I'm curious, what others think is the best strategy:

Is it better to just plan on doing the parks during the day - say 9-4, having lunch at the park, and planning on doing indoor rides/shows during the worst heat of the day? I'm thinking this way we're back to the house every day for our "normal" supper, bedtime etc... routine.

Or, is it better to break in the afternoon? Do the parks say 9-12, go back to the house for lunch, an afternoon rest, lounge in the pool etc... then have an early supper and head back into the parks say from 5-9?

 

[Robo]

In the summer? Curious what the best strategy is for crowds, summer heat/rain, sleep schedules of children etc...

Our kids both have SN and generally do well with late nights. They are not kids that will sleep in when they've been up late, instead, they get up the same time, if not earlier, and then turn into cranky monsters, lol. But... that said, they typically handle late nights better when on vacation for some reason. I think partially because there's so much stuff to see and do, and they're so tired from their day that they just collapse at night and sleep great. That said - the longest we've been away from home is 4/5 nights.

So... I'm curious, what others think is the best strategy:

1. Is it better to just plan on doing the parks during the day - say 9-4, having lunch at the park, and planning on doing indoor rides/shows during the worst heat of the day? I'm thinking this way we're back to the house every day for our "normal" supper, bedtime etc... routine.

2. Or, is it better to break in the afternoon? Do the parks say 9-12, go back to the house for lunch, an afternoon rest, lounge in the pool etc... then have an early supper and head back into the parks say from 5-9?

We do option 2.

 

[Minniesgal]

We also do/did option 2. I say did as our little kids are now 19/16/11

We still leave the park for a late lunch and often just go sit at a resort for a few hours over a long lunch. We make lunch our main meal so we are free to go back late afternoon and don't need to worry about dinner

 

[lborne]

Yep - option 2. The heat and afternoon rains are one reason. The kids needing a rest and mom and dad needing a drink/rest. But realize that depending on the park and resort you are at, you could spend over 1 hr of your "break" traveling. In fact, that is probably the minimum unless you are at a monorail resort and going to MK.

Being at the park at rope drop is more important to us than staying up until midnight because we get so much done from 9-11. If we stay up late, then we usually don't get an early start.

 

[IBLarsen]

We tend to do a combination of both options. Generally do more of option 2 and taking a mid day break. Usually none the first day as everyone is still energized and ready to keep going.
For our upcoming trip we are planning a couple days to leave the parks early evening to have some downtime in the evening and normal bed times for the kids. But a couple days we are planning an afternoon break, especially on the nights we want to stay for Fantasmic and Wishes.
We have one day mid week that we will actually go to the parks a tiny bit later (which has never happened before), but feel like this is one advantage to FP+, to be able to have FP's waiting for us. We are doing this following a Fantasmic late night, and figure it will be nice to not get up so early and rush out the door. But this goes against everything I believe in when touring Disney!

 

[jtowntoflorida]

The heat at Disney during the summer is like the 7th Circle of Hell. We do option 2. Swimming is necessary to get some of the sweat off, and just taking a break doing indoor stuff doesn't cut it.