Did your 12 month old keep their home schedule?

[disneypolybride2008]

Hi, i'm planning all my dining adrs! I have to book soon. At home my baby sleeps from 7:30-7 and i'm wondering how your little one did while at Disney. She will have just turned 13 months, so i'm thinking she may be too young to be excited enough to change her schedule. What was your experience?
With our other daughter she was 2 and super excited and up at 5am w/ no naps! This year she'll be 4 so probably the same excitement will have her up early, so then if the baby goes to bed early and gets up early then we can get an early start.

 

[colleenr]

my son did ok - he was 13mos when we went. He would just fall asleep either on the rides or in the stroller for naps. We didn't go back to the hotel for naps. We didn't really try to keep his schedule. But at home he usually slept from 9:30 to 9-9:30. I was worried he wouldn't sleep in the pack n play but he actually did really good.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

my son did ok - he was 13mos when we went. He would just fall asleep either on the rides or in the stroller for naps. We didn't go back to the hotel for naps. We didn't really try to keep his schedule. But at home he usually slept from 9:30 to 9-9:30. I was worried he wouldn't sleep in the pack n play but he actually did really good.

how did he do with characters? did you do character meals?

 

[colleenr]

he did really good with the characters - he wasn't afraid at all. He loves mickey. Yes we did character meals. We did breakfast at tusker house, Hollywood and vine breakfast and did CRT. We also did some character meet and greets. I personally think its too hard to stick to their schedule but we aren't strict with it at home either - we try to follow it but are ok if we don't and he is too. We did take a day in the middle of the trip to do nothing - no parks. We just relaxed which I think helped. We also had a 3 year old with us too.

 

[Thing 1]

I would try to make your reservations around the same time you eat dinner at home. Say if you eat at 6:00, try to make them around 6 as well. You can then decide if you need to end the day with dinner or if everyone is up for a park or night time activity.

 

[luvmy2babies]

My son went at 10 months. He’s never been one to get upset if his sleep schedule varied a bit. He would just fall asleep if he was tired and we were still in the parks, usually he was in the ergo carrier at the end of the night because I put him there to exit and get on the bus.

But food was another story. I learned don’t let this child get hungry or you have something on your hands. He’s still that way now at 5 years-old. So the previous poster has a good suggestion to keep ADRs around the time your children normally eat. I always do that and it worked well. Just have a snack on hand in case a restaurant has a delay. We eat dinner around 6 and I would usually make the reservation for around 5:30 or 5:40 as we generally did either buffet or family style restaurants for table service. My son was good with the characters at 10 months, a little nervous around certain ones at 2.5 and then all in at 3 and 4.

 

[puffkin]

We travel to Disney a lot. My kids have been there at all ages. We typically eat close to our normal "home" times but we don't stick to our normal bedtimes at all. My kids are pretty adaptable and adjust fairly well....but I agree, they don't do well if they get hungry!

 

[Jenna319]

Were also going with a 1 year old (for Halloween). Planning to do 530 dinners and a lot of character meals. Next month we are taking a small vacation and it will be a test to see if she can stay up past her normal bedtime of 630-7. Can't decide if I want to do a MNSSHP....

 

[brockash]

Hi, i'm planning all my dining adrs! I have to book soon. At home my baby sleeps from 7:30-7 and i'm wondering how your little one did while at Disney. She will have just turned 13 months, so i'm thinking she may be too young to be excited enough to change her schedule. What was your experience?
With our other daughter she was 2 and super excited and up at 5am w/ no naps! This year she'll be 4 so probably the same excitement will have her up early, so then if the baby goes to bed early and gets up early then we can get an early start.

We have 3 kids (8 months - 13 year old) and we go to Disney every year. Our little ones have always done fine working with whatever schedule we have going on for the day. There are not many days that we really sleep past 7, and we usually aren't in bed before 10/11pm, so them getting up earlier than when we would wake them up was really never an issue. When they're tired, they just fall asleep in the stroller and we keep going, never been an issue and we've never experienced them being crankier etc.

I will say I'm not the type of parent that works around my baby/toddlers schedule though either. At home we all have a routine/schedule, but while at Disney that goes out the window for us and has always been fine (we do take a stroller for our kids through age 4 though, for naps etc.)

 

[msmama]

My sons first trip was at 10 months and like others have said, he kind of just fell asleep when he wanted/needed to - in the stroller, on rides, in shows, etc. But we did keep a fairly normal dining schedule. We often didn't do late nights either (still don't). We'd usually leave the parks after dinner time (we don't do mid-day breaks). Maybe one night time show per trip is our limit.

 

[ammag]

Our first trip dd was 5 DS was 15 months. We kept to a rope drop to 5/6 schedule wiht naps in the stroller in the parks. We did one night out and rested in the afternoon, they didn't nap so was a waste for us.

Anyhow for us making sure they went to bed at a normal time (7 for us) helped make our trip much more enjoyable. Not ONE meltdown!

 

[disneypolybride2008]

Our first trip dd was 5 DS was 15 months. We kept to a rope drop to 5/6 schedule wiht naps in the stroller in the parks. We did one night out and rested in the afternoon, they didn't nap so was a waste for us.

Anyhow for us making sure they went to bed at a normal time (7 for us) helped make our trip much more enjoyable. Not ONE meltdown!

How was the 'night out' since they didnt nap?
I guess i will settle on keeping their schedule like you did. They will likely get up early and so we'll do a 5/6 dinner and get them asleep by 8am, up by 7-7:30 and out the next day. DD1 can nap in the stroller and DD4 doesn't nap. Then i will plan to sneak out after they go to bed and DH can stay with them. I am just getting nervous about that since DH doesn't know what to do for a crying baby! I can soothe her in seconds, the power of mama, or nurse her if needed. I already told DH i plan to go out and he's like 'leave her with no food?' but i said she doesnt eat at night anyway. He can give me his phone and call me if she wakes and is crying. However it could be up to 1/2 hour for me to get back which is a long time for her to cry. I don't want to go to bed at 7 though! She'll be fine as long as HE doesn't wake her up! Then on our last night i may let DD4 stay up for fireworks on the beach and the water pageant, that being Halloween. Then she can catch up on the bus, airplane, or car ride home.

 

[colleenr]

we did though try to do lunch and dinner around the times we do at home. Cause like other say they can get miserable when they are hungry. We did keep snacks in the bag though like fish and stuff.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

"We did keep snacks in the bag though like fish and stuff."

 

[ammag]

How was the 'night out' since they didnt nap?
I guess i will settle on keeping their schedule like you did. They will likely get up early and so we'll do a 5/6 dinner and get them asleep by 8am, up by 7-7:30 and out the next day. DD1 can nap in the stroller and DD4 doesn't nap. Then i will plan to sneak out after they go to bed and DH can stay with them. I am just getting nervous about that since DH doesn't know what to do for a crying baby! I can soothe her in seconds, the power of mama, or nurse her if needed. I already told DH i plan to go out and he's like 'leave her with no food?' but i said she doesnt eat at night anyway. He can give me his phone and call me if she wakes and is crying. However it could be up to 1/2 hour for me to get back which is a long time for her to cry. I don't want to go to bed at 7 though! She'll be fine as long as HE doesn't wake her up! Then on our last night i may let DD4 stay up for fireworks on the beach and the water pageant, that being Halloween. Then she can catch up on the bus, airplane, or car ride home.

The late ngiht was ok. We left just after wishes started actually they were too tired and my daughter doesn't like fireworks. We went back to WDW, shopped on Main Street, might have done a ride or two then we sat by Casey's with hot dogs, waited for the elec parade which they absolutely loved. I didn't force them to stay for wishes, we left and they slept instantly. It's also a lot of stimulation not just the physical walking or time out. Re,e,near to rest when they need, feed me when they need. They get tired of lines, I make sure to let the kids run and play with freedom whenever I can. Splash areas, the old rose garden, even taking the monorail ride loop let's them decompress a bit.

 

[ammag]

On the other hand,,,our last trip was only two park days and kids were 6and 2 years three months, we decided to stay as long as we all could..we were there from opening show to the kiss goodnight, 15 hours. I was shocked we all made it, it was an amazing day! Now the next day.......

 

[disneypolybride2008]

On the other hand,,,our last trip was only two park days and kids were 6and 2 years three months, we decided to stay as long as we all could..we were there from opening show to the kiss goodnight, 15 hours. I was shocked we all made it, it was an amazing day! Now the next day.......

...was???

we are planning 1/2 days at the parks and the other 1/2 for pool. i am thinking possibly doing our last night, halloween, at the mnsshp and then they can sleep on our travel day. -may make travel day better if they're both asleep!

 

[ammag]

Lol the next day was hard. We went to animal kingdom it was 50degrees, we went an hour late, I got sick fast pass didn't work (was still testing) so in hind sight we might have done too much the day before, but it was largely bad luck as well. But I don't regret it because that long day was magical

 

[disneypolybride2008]

Lol the next day was hard. We went to animal kingdom it was 50degrees, we went an hour late, I got sick fast pass didn't work (was still testing) so in hind sight we might have done too much the day before, but it was largely bad luck as well. But I don't regret it because that long day was magical

sounds rough!