How many children do you all have?

[kevin harrison]

Just reading through many threads in preparation for our trip and I see many pieces of advice that seem to be impossible to carry out if you have kids, so was wondering...Just for a bit of caring and sharing....

How many people here have kids? what are there ages?

I have seen the comment " a room is just for sleeping in" a few times lately - how do you reconcile that when your child needs sleep at 8pm - what do you do with yourselves?

I have two children, Hannah 6 and Daniel 23 months.

 

[Neoshoegal]

NONE!

 

[Dimplenose]

My kids are now 14 and 17. When they were younger at WDW we'd all go to bed around 10pm and DH would watch the TV quietly. I'm the early riser in the family and have in the past, when we've all been in one room, been known to sit in the hotel bathroom to read in the morning!

 

[epcot.girl]

None!

I'm not great with kids... they seem to like me though Not sure I'll ever have any of my own.

 

[kevin harrison]

I'm the early riser in the family and have in the past, when we've all been in one room, been known to sit in the hotel bathroom to read in the morning!

LOL- same here, especially first day after arrival, now days I have a walk around the hotel. You always find people in the same predicament.

 

[Snowy-girls]

Hi Kevin,
We have 2 girls,7+3yrs.Dd3 has'nt been to WDW yet(first time next year ).Dd7 was 3 when she went.We never done evenings at any park-as it was important to us for her to still have her sleep+by then she was shattered anyway.We would return from the parks about 4ish(we always stay on I-Drive)+then go for dinner,nosey around the shops+be back in our hotel about 7ish,Dd would then have a bath+bed by 8ish(only the arrival night would be about 10ish for her).Me+hubby would then sit and watch tv-get things ready for the next day,iron our clothes,showers+bed ourselves by 10-11ish as we were also shattered.
We found it all a bit tip-toey+that's why we decided to book a suite next year so when the girls have gone to bed,we have the lounge to ourselves.

Next year we will be trying US/IOA/Seaworld in the evenings,but by that i mean 4-8ish+see how we go,as our youngest will only be 4yrs.
Just because we are on holiday,we still try our best and stick to the bedtime routine,i don't see the point of dragging a poor,tired child around any themepark late at night.It stresses the child+therefore the parents.x.

 

[PoppyAnna]

Hi Kevin,
We have two girls eldest is age 5 and youngest is 3 in september.
We have travelled to WDW twice with both of them and prefer to stay in a villa for this very reason. Although they stay up later on holiday, they get very cranky and over-tired if they have too many late nights (especially with all the swimming, walking and excitement). They are not particularly early risers - they sleep from 7-7 most nights.
DH and I like "our time" when they go to bed and I couldn't imagine sitting silent in a regular hotel room when they'd gone to bed.
I can't see us staying on property until their ages are into double figures.

We go away this weekend and are spending our first holiday in a traditional hotel room with two king beds, I guess we'll all just go to bed around 9pm!

 

[kellie37]

ive got 4 girls, 16, 9, 8 and 3. we have stayed on disney both times that we have been and each time we have gone with family so our eldest has gone in with them. the other 3 girls have shared a bed. its been ok and when they are having such long days they sleep very solidly so when we watch tv doesnt bother them.
we want to go back to disney and it be just the 6 of us, so that means i will have to have 2 rooms and then i have to pay adult price for 2 of the kids.

 

[earthelves]

None

 

[milomummy]

We have one child, a son, who will be 5 in November. No more potential offspring as dh is no longer able
We usually end up sharing a room with him on our hols, and so far haven't found it difficult..always come up trumps with 2 double/king beds luckily in decent sized rooms.
Not done the WDW thing yet, we go in December for the first time, over Christmas and New Year. We have not made any definite plans and intend to go with the flow, and only do what he can. Nothing worse on holidays than seeing furious parents reprimanding tired and weepy kids, it's meant to be fun lol!

 

[islandmum]

2 boys, Blue and Toby - 5 and 4.

Last year we had bunks for them in WL in the same room as us, to be honest we didnt finish dinner until about 8 and by the time we got them all ready for bed it was 9, they crashed out and we just watched the TV until we drifted off not long after they did!

Disney for us means the kids can stay up late.

 

[amystevekai&bump]

We've got 2 boys - Kai (4) and Lucas (now 1 - but was 9 mths when we went to WDW!!)

This year was our first WDW trip with children and we actually 'experimented' with them - nothing sinister - just tried out different accomodation types!!

We (surprisingly ) didn't enjoy the villa - we are used to being on-site and felt rather detached from it all. Plus I never felt totally safe all being on the ground floor and in seperate rooms (infact DH slept in a room with Kai and I shared a room with Lucas - so much for privacy!! )

We did, however, love the poly - we found the balconies great whilst we were trying to settle them - and the poly has probably the largest rooms on-site so we had plenty of space. (Another thing that I hadn't considered with a crawling/coasting baby - carpets are much better than the tiles that are in most villas - I had to be right beside him at all times in the villa - to catch him when he fell - relaxing (NOT!!) )

All in all we found taking them to WDW, much easier than we had anticipated - but then we have been several times before and no longer feel in a rush to do everything - so we could go at their pace.

OOH - one more thing - I never expected IOA to be so great for the little ones!!! - Infact I would say Seuss' Landing was Kai's favourite part of the whole trip!! - UO rules!! (especially HRH - but then I might have mentioned that somewhere before!! )

 

[Zeebs]

We have two boys, 11 months and 2.5 and are staying in a condo offsite.

We decided this because of budget, the need for space (inlaws coming too), so the kids can have their own room and go to bed at a reasonable time.

Because they are so young we knew we wouldn't make use of the evening EMH so this was another reason to stay offsite.

We have one late night planned when we go to MNSSHP. They kids do not sleep in if they have a late night but they do go back to bed for a nap usually around 10.00 am so we have planned a rest day after the party.

I really hate having to sit in the dark, especially early in the evening while the kids get off to sleep.

Kirsten

 

[Dimplenose]

We (surprisingly ) didn't enjoy the villa - we are used to being on-site and felt rather detached from it all.

I thought being in a villa would be the answer to my early rising but it wasn't. I would be up a good 2 hours before everyone else and got more lonely in the villa than walking around the hotel grounds or grabbing a coffee from the hotel cafe.

 

[AlanUK]

One

DS 2 1/2 we will be sitting on the balcony overlooking Disney's Boardwalk whilst DS is snoring away!

A room is not just for sleeping in IMO.

 

[LORNA ANN]

Hi Kevin,
2 kids DS 16 & DS 23 mths, Been to Disney many times went the first time with our eldest when he was 6 & first time tried to do too much to the extent that some nights we would to carry him back to the room in tears as he was so tired,I know not very good parenting, but we thought we would only do it once !!! & wanted to do everything.
Now DS no. 2 has been twice first time in ASM room was slightly lacking in space but he was only 6 mths & we had family with us so had a connecting room to sit in, in the evenings. Next time we went DS was 12 mths we had a 4 nights in a studio at the BC & yes we had to sort of tip toe about in the evenings & paniced everytime some one went to bathroom that they would disturb him, so when we moved to one bedroom apartment at SSR it was bliss put him to bed normal time 7.30 & we sat & watched a dvd & because we were all up early everyone including our then 15 yr old was ready for sleep by 10, infact sometimes he was telling us to go to bed !
This time we are having all 14 nights in 1 bed apt at SSR & cant wait.

 

[alibeau]

Hi Kevin

We have 2 little girls they were 4 & 2 on our last trip which was in Jan this year. We have rebooked to go again in Feb next year and we can't wait

We have stayed in villas for years, we like having the comforts of home around us and since we had the girls it's suited us even more. We can stick to some kind of 'routine' whilst away and they can go to bed at a reasonable hour and we can have a drink and watch a movie etc

Really couldn't picture staying in a hotel room with them but there again, that wasn't really our thing before we had them anyway........

Oooo I'm all excited about going back in Feb now you've got me thinking about it

Ali

 

[Princess Fiona]

We have 3, 2 girls 13 and 11 and our little boy who will be 2 in Jan. We tend to prefer villa's now, or al least condos which we tend to have on the coast. This just suits us all, we like to 'go home' after the parks, the girls might swim or just crash out. We like our adult time (usually involves a bottle of sorts ) And we are refreshed for the next day. We did do the all in one room thing for a few days on our honeymoon at RPR - great hotel but not that romantic with Spongebob on in the background

 

[orlandothebeagle]

NONE!

me too, just borrow dear niece for the disney cruises!!

 

[Lisash]

We have two (19 and 12 now) DS was 7 on our first trip. We've never found room sharing a problem. We usually chill out in our room at the end of the day with the TV on low. DS is usually so tired he's asleep in minutes