Mid-Day Naps

[pouncingpluto]

DD 3.5 doesn't nap anymore at home (we put her down for quiet time, but she rarely falls asleep), but in our October Disney cruise, she napped every single day. So I'm assuming our December WDW trip will be the same-- especially since we will want to see nighttime entertainment at MK and DHS. Getting her to nap is the only way we have a shot at her staying up late. We like our midday breaks at the room--we often end up napping too. It makes it more like a vacation than an endurance event.

 

[Kristina4109]

Each and every kid is different, so what works for one family may not work for another. My daughter stopped napping in her stroller when she was 2. She would nap only if she was in her crib. When we went to Disney, she was WAY too excited to nap. We'd try and she would wind up lying in bed singing it's a small world at the top of her lungs. But this is only my kid. This might be a "play it by ear" situation - try to see if the nap helps on the first day. If it does, stick with it. If it doesn't then see if you can skip it the next day. Good luck!

 

[Happyjen27]

God Bless you. I am a grown adult and I take naps mid day at Disney

Me too!!

I planned my first trip with 5 year old twins. I learned here on the DIS about the "rule of 4". Which was 4 hours in any theme park and that is the limit for most kids.

Yes, most kids. Some kids are fine with longer. Some parents are fine putting up with the behavior that might result when their kids are pushed past the limits. But, in my family, I found this 4 hour rule to be absolutely true. So, that's how I planned. Each child and parent has different tolerance for kids that might be overtired, overstimulated, or just plain overdone.

Needless to say, we always took a mid-day nap. Or, slept in a bit after a late night, and then left after our 4 hours.

Because I didn't want to exhaust my kids, and I wanted them up early in the morning to make Rope Drop, we still have not seen Illumination or Fantastmic! There's plenty of time for those things, it keeps us all looking forward to something new each trip.

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

We found our youngest had no problem napping on the go when needed and hanging in with her older and brother and sister from RD to close. This is probably because youngest kids are used to being dragged all over the place at home too. Our oldest had the "world revolves him" vibe going and naps were more necessary with him. Poor third children!!!!

Now that the kids are 12,10 and 5 we find leaving the parks kills the buzz. We are all on a high until we hit that bus/boat/monorail. Then our energy dies. We get back to the resort and no one really sleeps, but we get into lazy mode. We never have good evenings in the parks in lazy mode. So it is just RD to close with a resort day or two thrown into the middle of the trip.

 

[MommyMK]

We went last month and my 4 yo never napped, never fell asleep in the stroller or on the bus except for our Halloween party night and that was after 11 pm. We are not all day park people, we did 2 hour park days this trip, 9 am - 5:30 pm in the Magic Kingdom and 4 pm - midnight for the Halloween party, otherwise we averaged 4-6 hours a day of park time. We took one mid day break and that was only because we were transitioning parks from HS to Epcot and were walking right past our hotel (The Boardwalk). Otherwise we went in late or left early.

My four year old thinks nap is the worst word in the dictionary. She hasn't napped at home since before she turned 3, so no way was it happening at Disney.

 

[HatboxHaint]

If ours are tired they always nap on the ride back to the hotel....then when we try to move them to the room from the vehicle they wake up...so no actual nap at hotel and their nap was cut short. Other than let them nap in the stroller, I am not sure what the best solution is. Sometimes you just want to get out of the midday asphalt oven that are the parks regardless of actual naps taking place.

 

[HM]

We went when our kids were 4 and 6. We decided to take advice about resting midday. (Neither napped at home at this point.)The first day we tried, the kids were too wound up to stay still, let alone fall asleep. We did a quick swim and back to the parks.

We skipped attempting a nap after that and just stayed in the park. We didn't use a stroller, took the parks at the kid's tempo and had an awesome trip.