Just back, afternoon breaks

[rt2dz]

Yes, ITA... late mornings and some early evenings if you have the time work wonders as well.

Nothing like sleeping in, having breakfast and a swim before heading to the parks, or heading back early evening for some time at the resort for a swim, bike ride and some relaxing. I think that compared to a "normal" vacation WDW is so high intensity that we forget how much we enjoy a swim, or afternoon by the pool with a good book.

TJ

That's kind of what worked better for us. Not rushing to get to the parks in the morning or being their to the bitter end, depending on the moods of the kids. Having to be "commando" wasn't what we needed. It's just the "breaks" didn't work for us. Napping wasn't the issue. It was leaving the parks and going back to the parks that did not work for us.

 

[Kanga1]

DH, DD4, and I just returned from a fabulous trip! Breaks in the afternoon were a MUST for us! For ALL of us! Usually all 3 of us would nap...DH and I for 15-30 minutes...DD for 1 hour to 1 hour and a half. We were there for 10 days, and yes, we always went back to a park in the evening.

My DD is not a stroller napper...or even a car napper for that matter, so lying down in bed was needed for her. She does not normally nap at daycare but does with me on the weekends. I had talked to her even before we left on the trip that we would be coming back to the room everyday for a little rest. She didn't have to nap, but at least needed to lie quietly for a little bit, so she knew this was expected. It always worked...she was usually asleep in 5 minutes. It helped tremendously that we were staying at the Contemporary and spent most of our time at MK, so we could just walk back to the room in the afternoons.

We also burned the candle at both ends...up at 6 or 7 in the mornings for EMH or early PS and out late until midnight sometimes riding rides during the parades/fireworks. This worked great for us...no lines. So that rest time in the afternoon was crucial to all of us. None of us ever really hit that exhausted cranky stage.

 

[mill4023]

We didn't take afternoon breaks either. It was just too much work with 4 kids and with this being our first visit, it just seemed like we wouldn't have time to see everything. For us, I think what would work better than afternoon breaks is just making sure that you have some half days or some complete rest days planned. After spending a couple open to close days in the parks, it was nice to have a day where we left before dinner time and a couple days that we could just sleep in and relax.

The one thing that surprised me was how hard it was to get my kids to bed at night. I thought they would be so tired that they would fall asleep the instant they hit the bed, especially after late nights where we stayed to watch Wishes or Fantasmic and didn't get back to the hotel until 10pm or later. But even on days where we got up and out the door by 8am and stayed in a park until 9pm, they were still wired when we got back to the hotel and it would take them an hour to get to sleep.

On our next trip, I would love to have 2 full weeks so we could have plenty of rest days. I'm a firm believer in getting to the parks before opening instead of sleeping in, so it would be nice to have days in between when we could just not set the alarm.

 

[Jules123]

We just returned with our DS10 and DS (just turned 4 today). We tried staying all day at the park on our first day and it just didn't work for us. We then just got up early and were at the park near opening time and stayed until around 2-3 and then went back to the hotel. We never napped, just let the boys play in the room. We then would return in the late afternoon and stay until 11 or so. Our youngest was like the Energizer bunny. We did rent a stroller for him and that was a lifesaver. On our last night, we had planned on watching Spectromagic at 11 and he fell asleep sitting on the curb waiting for the parade to begin!