Do you wake your kids up when in WDW?

[Luvin*Livvy]

I'm struggling with the idea of waking them up for breakfasts and or to get into the parks early, but I also know they want to do a bunch of things that require you to get there around opening (TSM, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, other character M&Gs) and not long after. My girls at home usually wake up around 8am (give or take), but if they are tried they've been known to sleep until like 8:30-9am, and I bring them to school a little later...I have a 3Y0 and a 6YO.

Sooooo..it got me thinking, do you wake your kids up? Set an alarm (ugh..setting an alarm while on vacation)? Or take the 'you snooze, you lose' road..and just go when you can and make later b-fast ressies?

Not saying one is wrong or right, just bored and asking....since I can't get on WDW site to keep trying for O'hana (which I've been trying for weeks and can't get)!

 

[kadesha]

I wake them up most days, but it's good to have a few days to sleep in too.

 

[TDC Nala]

If you miss an ADR at a restaurant that has a credit card hold due to oversleeping you'll pay the $10 per person no show fee, so when you make restaurant reservations you may want to take that into account as it includes all character meals.

 

[exwdwcm]

Yep, we wake ours up early (now 4). We do rope drop most days and have at least one sleep in day (which means maybe 8am, none of us sleep longer than that). We take a midday break everyday for 2 hours for him to nap or just rest, so getting up early isn't too bad. We can sleep in when we get home!

 

[autismgoesdisney]

We always go during slower times, but I have NEVER woken my kids up. When they were littler we made rope drop because they were up so early. Now they sleep until 7:30ish, we wake up get ready and then head to the parks. We go on every ride we want, and sometimes we go on multiple times in a row.

I don't know if I wake my kids they are CRANKY all day long and I just don't want to risk that on vacation, plus I like my sleep

 

[Luvin*Livvy]

If you miss an ADR at a restaurant that has a credit card hold due to oversleeping you'll pay the $10 per person no show fee, so when you make restaurant reservations you may want to take that into account as it includes all character meals.

I know! LOL That's one of the issues....but I made an 8:30 for 1900 Park Fare (we are staying at GF) and I made a 9:25 @ Hollywood and Vine so we can get a fastpass...and then go to bfast. If we can't make those 2......I fail and pay!

 

[Maggie'sMom]

Yes, I wake my DD up when we're at WDW. She's usually awake by 7:30 so I really don't have to wake her up much earlier than she normally would be. We had just one 8:05am ADR on our last trip and there was only one day that we had decided to do the AM EMH. Those were the only two days out of 9 that I had to get her up really early. The rest of the days she either woke up on her own or I woke her around 7:15. We made rope drop everyday and loved it.

When we started planning our May trip, I gave her the option, would she rather sleep in a little but stay later in the parks at night, or be back for an early bedtime but make rope drop? She chose rope drop.

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Do I wake them up??? I am commando drill Sargent in the mornings when we are at Disney. I am harder on them there than at home. They dont seem to mind though, but my DH wants me to chill so some mornings he sleeps in while we hit the parks. If anyone wants to stay with him they can but 9 times out of 10 they are up and ready to go with me.

The way I see this is we are only at Disney for a little while, and they have the rest of the year to rest.

This past trip, I did actually sleep in one day.

 

[hollywoodprincess91]

You can request a wake up call. At the designated time, the phone will ring and Minnie will be talking. The kids would want to wake up to hear Minnie on the phone.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We used to make 8am ADRs so we can eat breakfast before the parks opened, which meant we had to all wake up around 6:30am just to get ready (we are a family of 4 with 2 DDs). This next trip DH and I decided that we are going to not worry too much about getting to RD or having 8am ADRs (will make only 1 or 2 out of our 13 day trip) and sleep in a bit. We want to make ADRs for later times then we normally do and actually enjoy our mornings in Disney. Since we are DVC members and only stay in DVC resorts, our resorts have balconies and my favorite thing to do is to get up early and have a cup of coffee out on my balcony before everyone else wakes up. If we are all waking up at 6:30am trying to get to the parks before 8am, it is very hard for me to have my morning balcony time.

 

[nickymaria]

You know your kids. Will they be okay with less sleep? Will they lose it later in the day? In the end you want to ENJOY your vacation so anything that is going to work against that is not good. Personally, we turn in early at WDW - because we're there at Spring Break and I'm so conditioned right now to make rope drop so by the end of the day, after pool time and an earlier dinner (6-6:30) we're pretty wiped. Now when we're at home and it's a weekend or we're at the beach for vacation, I have no problem letting my girls stay up until 10 or so and sleep in. But when we're in WDW I enjoy avoiding crowds much more than staying up late so that's what we do. Only you can really know what's going to be good for your kids. Some families can do an afternoon nap or rest period and that works for them. Or you do two early mornings, then one sleep in, and alternate so no one gets too fried. Either way, you should have a BLAST so don't stress too much about it!

 

[blessedby3]

I wake EVERYONE up when we are at WDW
We usually take our kids out of school and go so they are already used to getting up early, and it works to keep them on the same schedule for when we return home. If I didnt wake them up, they would easily sleep late (I have teens) but I get them up by 7am at the latest and we get to the parks at opening and get lots done. Thankfully DH is an early riser too. Heck, I would love to sleep in late, but we are paying premium prices at WDW and I want to get the most for our money. I dont want to stand in line for 50 mins (if we were to sleep in and go late) when we can walk on rides just by getting up early.
We do take breaks mid day, so they can opt to swim or nap if they are tired

 

[pattibehan]

My kids are teens! My DH and I get them up some days..we warn them the night before that it is an early day. On their sleep in days, my hubby and I go to a park, enjoy a stroll, a nice meal and things we want to do, then we go back to the hotel, get the boys ready and continue with our plans for the afternoon and evening ! Hang in there..when they are older, it is MUCH easier!! And they still love Disney because we let them tour the parks the way they want!!

 

[Pikester]

Myself, my husband and my DS10 are early risers. My DS14 could sleep all day if I let him. We always get up to hit rope drop. It's what we do. When we did Universal last year DS14 was 13 and since we stayed on property there and he was use to how to get to the parks we let him sleep in one morning and he found his way to the park we were in. He just called me on my cell when he got to the park so that we could meet up. Won't be able to do that this year at WDW since we are staying off property.

Since we get to the parks early we tend to leave and have pool time in the afternoon. Sometimes we go back to the park and sometimes we don't.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

Sometimes I do but our kids are used to getting up early they are up around 630am everyday for school (we have a long commute to school & only so many tardies before truency officers will visit) and when they are at thier other house they have to go to babysitter before school, so it's not that big of a deal. We do RD most days or am EMH's and the kids have seen the benefit of it so they don't mind at all. They went to WDW w/ thier mom's family and had to stand in line all day and didn't get to do hardly anything, DD was 7 I asked when they got to the park, she said not at rope drop!

We do take a break everyday though and swim and if the kids will nap we let them, we do have a mandatory 30 min rest laying in bed, they can watch tv if they want, but it's quiet time for 30 minutes to chill and often DS6 will fall asleep. DD will be 10 this year and we are still going to do it, as much for us as them!

 

[ktlm]

DD (6) has never been a morning person and even though it is only a one hour time change for us we found out really quickly on our first trip when she was 2, that pre-park TS breakfasts were a BAD idea for us. I wake her up to get her in the parks by rope drop. She is one that you wake up and then you have to give her a little bit to really wake up and get going (not just at WDW, this is how she is at home). We bring resort CS breakfast up and eat it in the room while she is getting herself moving. Once she gets moving she is usually at the door telling us to hurry up as we are still getting ready. The one time we did an early TS breakfast (Tusker house), is the only time I can ever recall her being cranky for a good portion of the morning on a WDW trip. We still do Tusker house breakfast because I like it, but now we don't ever schedule it before the park opens.

 

[hooch11bear]

We used to get up at the crack of dawn and make sure we were at the parks nice and early. Now we do schedule a few days for breakfast and then head to the parks, but we also leave some days for a little extra sleep.

 

[brockash]

Absolutely! We all get woken up. The adults by the alarm clock and the kids by us. Disney is not a "sleep in, take it easy" kind of vacation. It's a "get up and lets go do stuff" type. We all know this and everyone has always been fine with it. On really long days (when the park is open really late for EMH's) we do usually go back to the resort and take a nap, but we're always at RD.

 

[dvcdisney]

We have to wake them up most of the time. And it's not even early. We would wake them up at 8-9am and we'd eventually get going around 9am. We've never done a rope drop and I don't see it happening in the future as well.

They are usually tired from the night before and they go to sleep 2 or more hours past their regular bedtime, so they are sleepyheads in the morning. They are used to sleeping for 10-12 hours at home so sometimes, it's difficult to get them up, even in Disney.

 

[camnhan]

YEP!!
I drag everyone up every day!!! DH is the worst but don't want to waste a minute!