Best time for breaks?

[NicholeB630]

We are going for a full week the first week in December so 6 days at the park. What is the best time for breaking for little ones? I want to utilize our time the best and don't want to spend to much down time. Is after lunch good or maybe lunch in the room followed by break? Here is what I am thinking we'll do.

Monday - Epcot, long day possibly no break, dinner at Akerhaush
Tuesday - MK, 8am crystal palace, break, back to MK dinner at BOG, late night for Christmas party
Wed - Chef mickeys breakfast, no park in am, half day break, Epcot in the afternoon/evening and dinner at Garden Grill
Thursday - MK rope drop, BBB some time, break, CRT for dinner, possibly not a late night, wont do Christmas party twice
Friday - HS 8am breakfast Hollywood and Vine, break, dinner & fantasmic
Saturday - Animal kingdom (possible no break, dont think it will be a full day there) Dinner at Ohana

 

[mm1971]

We are going for a full week the first week in December so 6 days at the park. What is the best time for breaking for little ones? I want to utilize our time the best and don't want to spend to much down time. Is after lunch good or maybe lunch in the room followed by break? Here is what I am thinking we'll do.

Monday - Epcot, long day possibly no break, dinner at Akerhaush
Tuesday - MK, 8am crystal palace, break, back to MK dinner at BOG, late night for Christmas party
Wed - Chef mickeys breakfast, no park in am, half day break, Epcot in the afternoon/evening and dinner at Garden Grill
Thursday - MK rope drop, BBB some time, break, CRT for dinner, possibly not a late night, wont do Christmas party twice
Friday - HS 8am breakfast Hollywood and Vine, break, dinner & fantasmic
Saturday - Animal kingdom (possible no break, dont think it will be a full day there) Dinner at Ohana

We always found lunch time and early afternoon was the best time. You can cool off in the pool, have a relaxing lunch and relax for a while. It is always the busiest time at the parks so you would be able to avoid the longest lines of the day as a bonus. If it is an evening EMH day somewhere, we may wait until 5/6PM to head back into the parks.

 

[MandiC]

Are you completely set on all those breakfasts? Early breakfasts were rough for us and my kids (we only took our older two ages 7 and 9) aren't all that little. We left right after the fireworks on Epcot/Magic Kingdom nights and we were just SO tired trying to get to 8am reservations and we only did 2 8am breakfasts.
On your Wednesday it might be worth doing Epcot in the morning/early afternoon and then taking a break before dinner. We did a half day in Epcot on our second Epcot day and then we went and spent some time at the pool before going back to Epcot for dinner.

 

[Nomne]

How old are your kids?

 

[NicholeB630]

They will be almost 6 and 2.5. I think we're going to do a park the night we get there to give us a full break day Wed.

 

[DaniMoon]

It really depends on your family. My kids are early risers and my youngest likes to go to sleep early, he asks to go to bed.

So for us, we were at the parks 9 days. We did rope drop every day, as we were always up in plenty of time. We did a lot of late breakfast ADRs because only my youngest likes to eat first thing in the morning, so he got a poptart or granola bar, which held him over til our breakfast ADR. We would stay in the park til 1 - 2 pm and then would head to the hotel. If we had a dinner ADR, it was an early dinner -- 4 o'clock, then we stayed in the park all day and headed back to the hotel after dinner and just chilled at the hotel.

You know your family best. I knew going in that late nights were not going to be something we could do and have a happy kid. We did two later nights -- one night we did the Electrical Parade and we did the Pirates and Pals cruise. We spread them out and he was fine.

I followed their lead, realized that they liked the pool as much as the parks, so when they wanted to go back to the hotel, we did. It was an awesome 11 days -- not a single tear or tantrum.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

based on our 17 month old grandsons trip, going back to room was a bust. he fell asleep on bus back to room and would not go back to sleep. that made for a very long night. remember that you have about 20 minutes of down time before you can get child to bed. it is not like finish lunch and going right to child's room. how would your child do with eating lunch out then riding home 20 minutes and then going to bed? just something to think about. we ended up doing stroller naps which worked better for us

 

[tzolkin]

I agree with MandiC about all the early breakfasts. My break time suggestions would not work at all in your case due to the breakfasts.

Our plan when our kids were younger was to hit am EMH and then we were usually headed out of the park around 11 (just as the masses were pouring in). I know 3 hours doesn't seen like much time but we were always able to move quickly and get in more attractions during those few hours than we could in twice that time later in the day. However, if you're doing early morning breakfasts you would need to stay in the parks much later than 11 to get anything done.

We have only ever done one character breakfast but we scheduled it for the latest time (around 11 I believe). We still did our am EMH at MK and then hopped on the boat over to Grand Floridian.

 

[NicholeB630]

Well we are early risers especially on vaca. My kids def dont sleep in. We went to San Diego over Christmas break and we were all up at 4am everyday but that was due to time change as well (we live in VA) Out of 7 days I think we are only planning two early breakfasts. I want to do Crystal palace and experience an empty MK and we will do that a day it opens at 9 and hope to get a 8am ADR. Than we may do Hollywood and Vine first thing. I possibly thing I want to get my daughter in a 8am BBB but I am afraid the day I want to do that there is EMH so I dont know how that will effect our planning and getting things in first thing? I have changed things around a bit and I am thinking we'll do this pending I get the ADR I want ....

Sunday - Fly in afternoon
Go to Epcot
Akerhaush dinner

Monday - Epcot
take a break midday
go back eat at Garden Grill

Tuesday - MK
Crystal palace 8am ADR
break mid day
come back in afternoon BOG dinner
Christmas party night (late night)

Wednesday - Full day off
Chef Mickeys breakfast

Thursday - MK
BBB 8am or 11/12 time
midday break
CRT for dinner

Friday - HS
mid day break
fantasmic dinner package

Saturday - AK
Dinner at Ohana at Poly