Disney with two toddlers! EMH question

[nikkispurrell]

We will be doing Disney over Easter at Port Orleans FQ and really trying to plan what is the best way to do the rides and which days would be better.

Which sounds better for two toddlers?

-Doing the EMH's, dining early, taking the afternoon off, and coming back for night shows

-Skipping EMH's (and visit less crowded parks), arrive late afternoon and rides until night shows.

Thoughts? Recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

 

[shellyj]

Do your little ones still nap? My instinct would be to head out early, back for a rest/swim/resort break for a few hours, then back out for the evening. If they don't take naps then I would do either early mornings and back to the resort for the evenings or hang out in the mornings and do the parks in the afternoons and evenings. If you are planning ADR, you could plan your sit down meals during the times when you aren't at the park.

 

[brockash]

For me, the going back and forth with little ones and strollers etc. was a huge pain, time consuming and just not worth it. If it were us, we'd still do rope drop most days, just because you can get so much done etc. and then we'd probably plan some down time to just rest, let the kids sleep in the stroller, walk around, just sit and ppl. watch etc. - There's lots of places to do this at the parks. and once they woke up, we'd continue with our day and stay for the night time stuff.

 

[Dis703]

We never do EMH, but we do get to the parks at opening and at that age definitely took an afternoon break for naps or just down time and then back to the parks for the evening. We generally go with the prediction of the least crowded park and that usually means avoiding the EMH park.

 

[Kerriowl]

I think that it depends on how your kids react to changes in their sleep schedules. My older child needed a set amount of sleep each day, but I could totally move it around whenever and he was absolutely fine. Some days his afternoon nap would get moved from his normal 1 until 4. He would nap, wake up, eat dinner, and then very soon after settle for bed. Not all children are flexible so you may have to take that into account.

At Disney, we skip EMH almost always. We do rope drop and often take a mid afternoon break for a nap or at least a rest. Some days we just did stroller naps. Then we come back to the park for the evening shows. It works for us, but each family is different. Depending on which resort you are staying at, going back for a break can be really easy or somewhat of a pain and time sink.

 

[nikkispurrell]

I think that it depends on how your kids react to changes in their sleep schedules. My older child needed a set amount of sleep each day, but I could totally move it around whenever and he was absolutely fine. Some days his afternoon nap would get moved from his normal 1 until 4. He would nap, wake up, eat dinner, and then very soon after settle for bed. Not all children are flexible so you may have to take that into account.

At Disney, we skip EMH almost always. We do rope drop and often take a mid afternoon break for a nap or at least a rest. Some days we just did stroller naps. Then we come back to the park for the evening shows. It works for us, but each family is different. Depending on which resort you are staying at, going back for a break can be really easy or somewhat of a pain and time sink.

Thanks for the advice! We are staying at Port Orleans French Quarter

 

[jvz82]

Totally depends on your toddlers I would say. How likely are they to nap in the park? How will they do if they skip their nap?

We personally like the EMH in the morning. We like to get there as early as possible! That's where we get most of our rides done for the day. As for taking breaks or not, it just depends on what your day looks like, what you want to see, how the kids will do late at night, etc.

When we went to Epcot, we ended up staying from 9am-7pm. We didn't go back to our resort for a break. Our toddler did not nap in the park (we tried) but he generally is pretty easy going without a nap. We decided we didn't want to stay late at night because we were getting up for MK super early the next morning.

So then we did MK the next day from 7am-12pm, back to the resort, and then MK again from 4pm-7pm for the toddler and 4 year old. Despite taking a long nap at the resort that afternoon, the 4yo was a mess and he needed to go to bed. He is one of those kids who just doesn't do well past his bedtime. The big kids and I stayed until after 11. We had a day off the following day so we were good staying up late.

Our last day of MK, we went from 7am-7pm, no break. Toddler slept on Carousel of Progress for a few minutes. We couldn't take a resort break because we checked out of our hotel that morning, and we had to leave by 7 because it was the Christmas party.

Maybe plan to play it by ear? Or figure out what's important to you and fit it into your plans somehow. If its important to you that you see at least one fireworks show, figure out the best day of your trip to stay late.

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

My advice is have a plan, and then be willing to constantly adjust it while at Disney haha! I agree with other posters, it really all just depends on your kids and what kind of sleepers they are.

We only had one toddler with us. (our son who had just turned 2) At home he has a pretty strict nap schedule. Around 1pm everyday in his bed and he sleeps for a few hours. I had our entire itinerary scheduled around us leaving for the afternoon and napping at the resort. Or doing rope drop at AK, DHS and then doing as much as possible then leaving for a little bit later nap at the resort and dinner our of the parks. (That all being said, my kid is like his mama he can fall asleep wherever )

Our first day (MK) we had an 8 am opening. So our little guy was tired much earlier than his normal naptime. I had planned a lunch ADR at Skipper Canteen at 11:30 thinking we'd be done eating around his normal naptime and we could get back to the resort for naptime. Nope this kid fell asleep in his stroller right before lunch. So my husband and I got to enjoy a nice quiet lunch where we got to have an uninterrupted conversation. The kid slept the whole hour. We saved him a little plate to go and he was able to eat outside in a non crowded spot when he woke up. We then didn't have to go through the hassle of having to take the bus, try and sleep and come back.

The moral of my long-winded story is that on full park days he just napped in the stroller and we made sure to leave the parks no later than 7:30 or 8. So we could get him back to bed at decent hour. Even on our half days he mostly ended up falling asleep in the stroller and we just adjusted our plans a little. We stayed at Old Key West so we found that we very rarely could get back to our resort at a decent time for napping in the bed. I think we accomplished it maybe 2 or 3 times out of the 8 days we were there. For us it was much more important getting him to bed at a decent time. We did miss all but one of the night shows, but I just knew if my toddler went to bed too late he would not be a happy camper the next day. (He has a 7:30 bedtime at home)