Length of stay?

[Koribelle86]

After being a lurker forever here I am finally posting with my first question! Going to Disney in October this year with my Hubby and two children. My son will be 6 (he has been to Disney twice already and can't wait to go back) and our Baby daughter who will actually be 15 months old when we go on our vacation.
Having never gone with a child this young I have been scouring these awesome boards with tons of helpful information! My question is to those of you with younger toddlers, how long do you stay for total trip time? We are going to be in the Disney area for 9 full days. We plan on definitley going to MK at least two days and one other theme park for another couple days and also doing Sea World. I am already counting on much of our day trips being only half day trips to try to avoid "meltdowns" with the Baby. I am also leaving at least 1-2 days open for just hanging around the resort for downtime. Does this sound like a reasonable schedule? We could actually try to go for 11 full days but I think that may actually be too long to be away from home.
Did you/were you actually able to stay in the theme parks for more than 1/2 days with your youngest children? What did you do about naptimes, etc... Any comments or suggestions most appreciated!
Thanks!

 

[becka]

Well we went last February with our almost 2 y/o for 6 days including arrival and departure days. We planned to use all 4 of our full days to hit the parks with a midday nap each day. After the first two days we realized that we all especially DS needed a full day break so we spent our 3rd day with a character breakfast, riding the monorail, touring resorts, visiting DD and the Boardwalk, etc.. It was a terrific day and really gave us all a chance to recharge. As a result I don't think we will ever do more than 2 park days back to back without taking a break day with little ones.

On our next trip we should be there for 7 full days and we will only hit the parks for 4 maybe 5 of those days. We will have at least 2 non-park days to recharge. Some kids may be able to handle a busier schedule but the parks can be overwhelming when they are little and even with a slow pace I think most kids would do best with at least 1-2 non-park days during a week long vacation. I would love to go for longer so we could have more park time but I don't have the vacation time.

 

[MKFan-PR]

Welcome!

Although I only have 1 child, We've gone when she was 9mos, 3 and 4.5 yo (and we'll be going back again in July now that she's 6). The length of stay seems just right. It's usually what we do.

Bring your own stroller(s) if possible (drive them carefully!), as it will help with the naps, when they or you tire and when they just don't want to walk or be carried.

Breaks during the day are strongly recommended (are you staying onsite? That helps a lot). Staying longer depends on each day and whether you think they can handle it. Basically it's a day to day thing. In our experience in our trip with DD at 9mos, we sometimes went back to the Resort for a break when she seemed like one, other times we just stayed since we saw she could handle it. We moved more or less with 'her' flow.

In short, you'll plan seems very good. If you feel you can 'push it' a little and stay a little longer, go for it. You'll be surprised!

If you see the warning signs and a meltdown approaching, just push the ABORT button!

Have fun!

 

[Clare D]

Hi
Our DS is 2 and we found that he was fine to spend all day at the parks. We did make sure that we took some packed lunch for him just in case we couldn't find anything suitable for him and fruit and yoghurts. I did try and follow his routine by the way that after lunch it was bum change, face wash and then settled him in his stroller for a nap and he was fine.
On the days that we took it easy I did make sure that he had a good daytime nap and was in bed early on those nights to recharge his batteries. You may be better off spending a full day and then having a full day of rest time in between.
Good luck