Families that take breaks - can you help me with timing?

[dancer_mom]

If you are a family that takes midday breaks could you give me an idea of your daily schedule? I am considering different ideas for this trip.

Last trip kids were 4, 4, and 2. We did mostly 3/4 days leaving late afternoon or right after a very early dinner for time back at the resort and regular, early bedtime. We did one late night for MSEP which resulted in cranky kids at AK the next day. We called it a day early and let the kids just enjoy the pool on their last day.

This year we have park hoppers and kids will be 8, 8, and 5. At home they "go to bed" at 7/7:30 but stay up reading till about 8:30/9:00pm. I feel like if we stay all day they will done by 5pm if not earlier so considering a midday break especially since we have hoppers and could hit a different park in the evening. Breaks have just always seemed like a lot of traveling back and forth which is why I am looking for your family's schedules for ideas.

What time do you leave?

How long do you end up getting at the resort... 1 hour, 2, 3 etc.?

How long do you stay in the evenings again?

Are there some parks (like MK) that you don't break from due to the longer and more involved travel back and forth?

Thanks for any ideas

 

[BigAlsGal]

We usually do rope drop. Hit all the rides we can until about 11. Get lunch in the park. Head out for break around 12-12:30. Hit the pool for about an hour or so. Go back to the room and nap for about an hour and take our time heading back to the parks around 4:30-5. We usually eat dinner in the parks so I make reservations around 5:30. I usually make 1 FP time around 11am. The rest in the evening after dinner.

It really works out well!

 

[katclicks]

We usually arrive to the parks around rope drop, eat lunch in the parks and return to the hotel around 2. We rest and maybe hit the pool and head back around 5. We don't always stay till close, but return to the hotel between 10&11. My girls sleep so well at Disney! They are 5&9.

 

[monorailsilver]

I have always taken a break even when I was a kid and as an adult with no kids.

My kids ages for trips have been: 15 months; 4 yo, 22 mo & one cooking; 7, 4/almost 5 & 2 1/2 yo; 12, 9/almost 10 & 7....I think!

What we do is:

I get up at 6, shower, dh will get up and do his initial bathroom thing (ju it makes us not late so I don't care). When I get out of the shower he goes in. I wake the kids up if they aren't already but most times they have clothes in hand waiting to get dressed.

I get ice for our containers, dh is still showering/post shower routine. We eat breakfast in our room-pop tarts, cereal, oatmeal (I request a microwave for ds since he has allergies).

We are lt the door by 7:15 at the latest and at the park before opening or very close to.

Do our am park thing. Have lunch between 11-1 and return to our room and nap. I have learned my family can not do the pool in our break otherwise we'd be really miserable.

We then all shower, and return to the park between 4-5, find dinner and stay for the nighttime show and on some occasions we have watched illuminations and high tailed it out and have been able to watch wishes and then we go to bed.

I also only do 2 park days in a row and then it's a pool day. It gives the kids, dh included time to sleep in. I am up so I just do laundry and have it done by the time I go out to the pool.

I don't do dining as it is more expensive then paying OOP. And we don't know where we want to eat so once we decide which park we are headed to and what area we are in we find something.

 

[Shellyb84]

We hit RD every morning, we usually leave the park around 2 or 3. Head back to the resort for 2-3 hours at the pool and then get cleaned up for the evening. We either have an early dinner and go back to the park for a few hours or spend a couple hours at WS then eat a later dinner and then go back to the pool/hot tub. We're not concerned with bed times on vacation. If DD gets tired she'll go to sleep in the stroller.

There is just so much to do at MK we find it hard to get out of there as early as I would like.

 

[mm1971]

We usually planned breakfast in the park around 8AM or at a location that made it easy to get to the park right after. O'Hana is a favorite and just jump on the monorail. If we don't, we get there typically between 8-9AM. We ride and tour until lunch time, noon -1PM depending on the crowds. We head back and relax at the pool/resort, anyone that want to nap can. We then head back around 5-6PM and stay until everyone is tired and ready to head back.

We do plan our off day(s) for the days after EMH at MK. That way we can be up late and not worry about dragging ourselves out of bed early in the morning. If we decide to head to the parks, we'll do it late afternoon. Usually it's relax in the morning, Downtown Disney (D-Springs now) and some non park activities that do not require having to rush around.

 

[got15]

We usually hit the parks early (with a PPO ADR, RD, or soon after opening). We usually eat QS or a TS. We will hang out in the parks until 1-2pm, grab a snack or eat a lunch, and then head back to the hotel for pool/quiet time. As much as I would love for the boys (DS 6 & 2) to nap- they are too excited to (even the 2 year old). They will usually pass out in the stroller sometime during the day. What we have learned over the past few trips- is that my kids are NIGHT OWLS! We usually eat dinner around 6-7pm and head to the parks after. The only time this has deviated is when we do AK- then we head there for RD and leave around 2pm and hang out at the resort and swim all night.

 

[quagmire0]

Our kids have been younger on our previous trips, but our usual routine is to either have an early morning pre-RD breakfast ADR or be there at rope drop. We go until about 11am, then head back to the condo for lunch/naps/pool. Usually we've had at least one napper, so they go until maybe 2pm and we are usually heading back to the park around 2:30/3:00pm. A few more hours at the park, and then usually we have dinner at the park that we're at. Because our kids were/are younger, we usually go back to the condo after that. However, we did catch the ELP and Illuminations on our last trip. We'll probably look to see Wishes/ROL/Star Wars this upcoming trip. This schedule works great for us because we all usually need a break mid-day (even us BIG KIDS). It recharges our batteries for the second part of the day and gets us out of the parks during the hottest and busiest time of the day.

 

[2009CAN]

My kids were the same age as your kids (4, 4, 2) when we did our first trip with them and our days/experience sounds a lot like yours. Except that we had park hoppers that first trip and NEVER used them. The kids were just WAY too tired. And I agree with you that going back for a break and then back out just seemed like too much traveling.

We have done two trips since then and each time we've been able to make the days a *little longer.* And we did stay for the Electrical Parade/Wishes on this last trip (7,7, 5) and they were less cranky in the morning. We have never gotten park hoppers again because I just don't think they are ready for that kind of bouncing around from park to park.

Our kids don't generally get up until 8:00 for school so we kept that schedule and are not rope drop people. What I did on this last trip was to make our FP+ for later in the afternoon, just after lunch. I figured that we could stay later in the evening and then not have to rush to be anywhere early the next morning. This worked out pretty well for us.

We are heading back in December and the kids will be 7, 7 & 6. This time we are going to try and do the Christmas party but staying out that late with them makes me nervous a bit. They are typically in bed by 8:00, and read fall asleep by 8:30/9:30. But I think it will be okay. Also, we are going to block off two days at the resort and not go to the parks. This will be new for us but I think it will greatly help them to have down time.

 

[Pesky]

We're planning to repeat the process from before. Rope drop, grab lunch and head back around 1 or so, and then return to the park around 4. There are some days where I think we might forego the break and some days I think we won't return to the park after we leave. We're going to play that by ear.

 

[dancer_mom]

Thank you - this is all really helpful for ideas. I am thinking we might have some days where we break and sometimes not.

One follow up question - for those that take breaks and arrive back at the parks around 5:00 - what time are you exiting the parks? Are kids in bed by 9:00/10:00 - and if late were they able to get up for rope drop again?

 

[Shellyb84]

Thank you - this is all really helpful for ideas. I am thinking we might have some days where we break and sometimes not.

One follow up question - for those that take breaks and arrive back at the parks around 5:00 - what time are you exiting the parks? Are kids in bed by 9:00/10:00 - and if late were they able to get up for rope drop again?

The days we went back to the parks, we would usually exit around 10 or 11 depending on the hours, sometimes later, but DD was usually asleep by 10 in the stroller. We were at RD everyday. She's not a morning person (neither am I), but the excitement of Disney was enough to get us out of bed with little fuss We would eat Clif bars for breakfast while we were waiting on the bus/walking to the parks in order to not have to get up earlier to eat breakfast out or in the room.

 

[DizneyLizzy]

We usually do rope drop. Hit all the rides we can until about 11. Get lunch in the park. Head out for break around 12-12:30. Hit the pool for about an hour or so. Go back to the room and nap for about an hour and take our time heading back to the parks around 4:30-5. We usually eat dinner in the parks so I make reservations around 5:30. I usually make 1 FP time around 11am. The rest in the evening after dinner.

It really works out well!

This is exactly what my family does We go back to the parks around 3:30/4 since we are out by 7. It's usually plenty of time. Our mantra is always: Leave while everyone is still happy/having fun.

 

[mm1971]

Thank you - this is all really helpful for ideas. I am thinking we might have some days where we break and sometimes not.

One follow up question - for those that take breaks and arrive back at the parks around 5:00 - what time are you exiting the parks? Are kids in bed by 9:00/10:00 - and if late were they able to get up for rope drop again?

We were typically back, settled and in bed by 11 PM. Had no problems getting up. If we stay for EMH and end up midnight or later, we typically do not get up for RD and will either plan it as an off day or just go late afternoon/evening.

 

[patdoc98]

OP, when are you going?

Park hours (especially on party nights) can be a big factor.

 

[dancer_mom]

We are headed there last part of Nov into December. There are a lot of party nights while we are there so we for sure won't be breaking on those days. We are not doing MVMCP so we are using the party days for hopefully lower crowds at MK (I used to work at Disney World about 10 years ago and I remember those days were really light crowds at MK but not sure if that is still true).

This is my preliminary plan:

Day 1: MK (party day) (RD till 4pm)
Day 2: Epcot (RD till 6pm) - This day I am wondering if we should break and come back
Day 3: AK (RD till 5pm) - This day I am considering a break as late hours and ROL should be happening but that would make 2 late nights in a row
Day 4: DHS (RD till 2pm) Break till 6pm - MK (MSEP and Fireworks)
Day 5: Resort and Rest till 1:00pm - Epcot till 7:00pm
Day 6: MK (party day) (PPO Breakfast till 3pm)
Day 7: AK - Relaxed arrival till about 1pm - long break - MK evening - late night of final rides etc.

I think my kids have transitioned into being able to stay up later but we always second guess keeping them up late because we simply never do it at home. That's why I was curious if people that take breaks put kids to bed past 9pm and if you make RD the next day.

All the feedback has been really helpful

 

[cjbcam]

We usually do rope drop. Hit all the rides we can until about 11. Get lunch in the park. Head out for break around 12-12:30. Hit the pool for about an hour or so. Go back to the room and nap for about an hour and take our time heading back to the parks around 4:30-5. We usually eat dinner in the parks so I make reservations around 5:30. I usually make 1 FP time around 11am. The rest in the evening after dinner.

It really works out well!

This is exactly what we do. I love it. I would rather take the breaks and have happy kids then force them to go all day. I also don't think my DH would ever want to go if we didn't take breaks. I am considering going all day a couple of days with my oldest our next trip but I too really like the breaks.

 

[TheWorld101]

I like renting a stroller from Orlando stroller rentals or a similar company, and reclining the seats to nearly flat for my kids to nap, and stay in the parks. The traveling back and forth really does take a lot of extra time. This has worked for us. We rope drop and stay late for night shows.

 

[Susan Storm]

I am very curious about this as well. I love the parks at night, and I love beating the crowds at rope drop. I have a 10-year-old, 8-year-old and a 2-year-old and I'm wondering if RD mornings/long afternoon breaks/evening entertainment will be too much for them (especially the 2-year-old). I would love to hear anyone's tips or experience, this thread has been really helpful!

 

[dnllmz]

Great idea for a thread. I have a 3 and 6 yo and was wondering how to break up the day. They don't normally nap but I don't think they could hang till the evening entertainment without a break.