Extended Evening hours and kids- how did you strategize the day?

[CATANDSAL1009]

We plan to do the extended evening hours when we go to the parks in June. My kids are 8, 6, and 3 and none of them nap. We are staying at BLT as well. For those of you who have done the extended hours at the park, how did you break up the day and would you have changed anything? I was thinking maybe an early afternoon break back at the hotel and pray they nap even for even an hour or two, but I don't know if that will happen. lol. Thanks. =)

 

[sponica]

I know my kids won't nap.

I am not beneath putting my kids (5.5 and 20 months) in PJs and putting them in their stroller for the evening extended hours.....

 

[CaptainAmerica]

We plan to do the extended evening hours when we go to the parks in June. My kids are 8, 6, and 3 and none of them nap.

In all seriousness, my kids (7, 4, and 2) are up at 6:30 AM. It doesn't matter in the slightest if they go to bed a 7:00 PM or Midnight. They'll be up at 6:30. Only you know your kids, but I would be very nervous to try doing extended evening hours and risk creating a sleep deficit that leads to tantrums and meltdowns in later days.

 

[CATANDSAL1009]

I know my kids won't nap.

I am not beneath putting my kids (5.5 and 20 months) in PJs and putting them in their stroller for the evening extended hours.....

That’s a real great idea!!!

 

[CATANDSAL1009]

In all seriousness, my kids (7, 4, and 2) are up at 6:30 AM. It doesn't matter in the slightest if they go to bed a 7:00 PM or Midnight. They'll be up at 6:30. Only you know your kids, but I would be very nervous to try doing extended evening hours and risk creating a sleep deficit that leads to tantrums and meltdowns in later days.

OMG YES!!! My oldest son is like that! 6am or 5:30am everyday! He will wake up early morning at the same time no matter what time he goes to sleep. I think I’d feel more comfortable going back if they would all nap. Last year my now 8yr old was complaining bc the fireworks at the end of the night were too loud and he wanted to sleep whereas my 5yr old at the time took a 2hr nap in the park and was completely fine at night. Luckily my mom will be coming with us this year and won’t be doing the extended hours so I always have the option to leave anyone that needs to sleep back at the room with her.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

OMG YES!!! My oldest son is like that! 6am or 5:30am everyday! He will wake up early morning at the same time no matter what time he goes to sleep. I think I’d feel more comfortable going back if they would all nap. Last year my now 8yr old was complaining bc the fireworks at the end of the night were too loud and he wanted to sleep whereas my 5yr old at the time took a 2hr nap in the park and was completely fine at night. Luckily my mom will be coming with us this year and won’t be doing the extended hours so I always have the option to leave anyone that needs to sleep back at the room with her.

"Inviting Grandma along to babysit" is Disney trip planning Black Belt level. I, too, am proficient in this ancient art. I salute you.

 

[SLThomas318]

We were moving to Beach Club the day of Epcot extended hours. We had a low key morning, checked out and did lunch at Disney Springs. We settled into the new room and did the pool. We didn’t even go to Epcot till 7. My boys were 4 and 6 and did fine. I think having a low-key day helped… they weren’t exhausted or over-stimulated from hitting the park all day. They did pass out in the stroller on the walk back. We didn’t rope drop the next morning… think we headed to AK around 9 am. We’ve always liked late nights in the park… we take the stroller and if someone is over it, then they pass out. Really depends on your kids though.

 

[Beamerball]

We were moving to Beach Club the day of Epcot extended hours. We had a low key morning, checked out and did lunch at Disney Springs. We settled into the new room and did the pool. We didn’t even go to Epcot till 7. My boys were 4 and 6 and did fine. I think having a low-key day helped… they weren’t exhausted or over-stimulated from hitting the park all day. They did pass out in the stroller on the walk back. We didn’t rope drop the next morning… think we headed to AK around 9 am. We’ve always liked late nights in the park… we take the stroller and if someone is over it, then they pass out. Really depends on your kids though.

Would love to hear about your extended hours strategy at Epcot. We are planning dinner there at 7 then want to make the most out of deluxe hours.

 

[Meglen]

We had a relaxing pool/resort day than went to the park at close.

 

[SLThomas318]

Would love to hear about your extended hours strategy at Epcot. We are planning dinner there at 7 then want to make the most out of deluxe hours.

We were there the Monday after Thanksgiving. Remy was still a $ILL, so we bought that for 7pm. We walked over from Beach Club so we started with Remy. We grabbed a beer at one of the festival stands (the lines were crazy long at a lot of the stands). Then we walked on Soarin', the Land, Nemo, and Spaceship Earth (that whole area of the park was pretty quiet). Harmonius was at 9:45 pm... it was starting as we were coming off of Spaceship Earth and we quickly ran over and watched maybe 5-10 mins of it. Our boys love Test Track and kept asking when it was time to ride it, so we bailed on Harmonious and went over to Test Track. That worked out well because we were able to ride it back to back. As we were getting off the second time, people were starting to line up to have their bands scanned so that was the official start of the extended hours. We grabbed some pop-corn and walked slowly over to Frozen... it was also a walk-on. They do close world showcase so we had to walk all the way to the front to go back to International Gateway (thank goodness for the stroller cuz the boys were tired at this point). I feel like we walked into our room around 11:30ish. It was a great night!

I think if you wanted to do Remy, Frozen, Test Track, and Soarin' all in the 2 hours it would be tough with how spread out all the major attractions are. If you don't care about Harmonious, def use that time to knock out one of the headliners.

 

[L & B Mom]

My family takes an afternoon nap break. We leave the park at lunchtime and head back in time for dinner. The adults actually sleep while the kids have quiet time. Both my kids are night owls so the late nights don't bother them, even when they were little. On our first trip (dd5 and ds3) DD didn't crash until we started leaving the parks around midnight, then she climbed into the double stroller and fell asleep. DS crashed about 9 pm and slept in the stroller. We put a blanket over the stroller (it was cold that year) to keep him warm and block out some of the noise and light. He did wake up for the fireworks but went back to sleep afterward. We took the double stroller with us for years so the kids had somewhere to crash once it was time to leave. It is handy when trying to leave the parks if the kids are contained and you don't have to worry about getting separated. We stay at the campground so most nights we just rolled the stroller onto the boat, sleeping kids and all.

 

[kendie_mac]

There are few different strategies.
We are bringing grandma along, so she'll hang with the 3yr old at the resort & go to bed at normal time. We're not planning any rope dropping the day after an EEH. Even if we are awake at the resort, relaxing and being slow is a different vibe.

Also, keeping in my mind that the benefit of the EEH is to ride certain attractions, so we'll skip those during the day instead of having a super heavy, stressful day trying to fit everything in. We can be more "stop & smell the roses" day. Enjoy the atmosphere. Let the kids spend more time having free play & exploration. Try some new snacks. Enjoy the character meal that day.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We plan to do the extended evening hours when we go to the parks in June. My kids are 8, 6, and 3 and none of them nap. We are staying at BLT as well. For those of you who have done the extended hours at the park, how did you break up the day and would you have changed anything? I was thinking maybe an early afternoon break back at the hotel and pray they nap even for even an hour or two, but I don't know if that will happen. lol. Thanks. =)

It's anyone's guess how they'll do but my kids pretty much stopped official nap times by around 3ish but would doze some in the stroller. For the long days, even now that my kids are teens, we still break up the day and if we do RD to late evening, we will do a midday break back at the room or have a break from the park, especially in the summer months. A long day at the parks is a lot for everyone. I've learned over the years that my kids adapted fairly well to longer days but they also had their fair share of meltdowns and I could tell when they were "hitting the wall". I say plan for a midday break but if you notice they're extra ornery or out of sorts before, maybe you just bail and head back earlier than planned. The MK EEH are very low stress so if you can, do try to take advantage of them.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We usually start our park days at 7pm or so after a leisurely wake up, brunch, swim, and early dinner. Our 6 year old did great and loves the extended evening hours. (It was 11-1am at MK and she was more energetic than me!)

My only advice is don’t do the sit down shows. We watched Country Bear Jamboree and I definitely felt my adrenaline slow. Going on ride after ride was much easier to stay awake for.

 

[ShannyMcB]

Even without naps an afternoon recharge is so helpful! Back to the room late afternoon for some TV, a snack and a bath/shower. Ready to go go go from just before dinner until whenever!

 

[DisWeaver]

We plan to do the extended evening hours when we go to the parks in June. My kids are 8, 6, and 3 and none of them nap. We are staying at BLT as well. For those of you who have done the extended hours at the park, how did you break up the day and would you have changed anything? I was thinking maybe an early afternoon break back at the hotel and pray they nap even for even an hour or two, but I don't know if that will happen. lol. Thanks. =

We have done both extended evenings with the kids (4 and 7) for our October and January trips this year. Rope drop, then back to the room by 1-2 pm. They’ll usually nap from 3 to 6. Quick dinner then back to the park for the remainder of the night. They do great with that schedule.

 

[DocDCT]

Late nights in the parks are a wonderful experience for the kids, but I think that a nap is necessary to make sure that they are not too tired or too cranky to enjoy it. The nap is even more important for the older ones, because they cannot just fall aspleep in the stroller.
So what if your kids don't nap? Well in my opinion too many parents assume that once kids stop napping every day, they will never take a nap in any case. First of all, a day at WDW is much more tiring that their regular school days. Then, consider that the older kids may be able to understand that a nap now means more fun later if you talk to them in advance.