Midday breaks/naps logisitics

[SkiTeton]

For those who head back to their resort for a mid-day break or nap, how do you plan your exit? Do you always end with an attraction or meal near the exit gate? What if your touring plan has you at the back of the park when it's time to head in?

Also, how much time is used getting from the park(s) to your resort(s)? I know it can very greatly (MK to Poly; Epcot to AKL; etc) but I am wondering what do you budget for time when you take a midday break?

 

[Los213]

Depends if your driving or taking the buses, but i would say plan about an hour each way and a couple hours for the actual break. We're usually at the parks for rope drop so we typically head out the parks by noon and plan to be back at a park for evening EMH by 5 pm, that way we avoid the hottest parts of the day and the crowdest as well. If we don't have any evening plans and the weather is nice and crowds are low we like to just stay in the park as long as the kids want and go without a break, that way we spend the entire evening relaxing in the resort.

 

[harrowgirl]

We usually arrive at rope drop or slightly afterwards. We tour until 12:30ish (give or take). We don't plan our touring around when we are leaving (i.e. we very well may be at the back of the park when we want to leave)....we budget about an hour each way for travel, and want to have at least a 2 hour break. We plan to be back at the parks between 5:30 and 6:30. We usually are staying offsite.

 

[piglet1979]

We usually leave the park around 11:30 or 12. Sometimes we eat before we leave. We come back around 5 or 6 for our dinner reservation and then stay late. We do get to the parks at rope drop. This last trip we went to the pool on our break. the kids swam and my husband watched them. They are 8 and 10. I took a nap on one of the lounge chairs. My kids did not need a nap and were great staying up.

 

[loves to dive]

To start with, throw out that rigid plan, it's ok to have an outline and have your meals and FPs planned but I can guarantee if you have kids everything is not going to go as planned. I recommend just using your plan as an outline but when the kids start showing signs of getting cranky, leave. Nothing worse than cranky kids and they aren't going to get better if you try to push them. You know your own kids so you'll know the signs. If you have a plan that says take a break at 1:15 but the kids seem to be doing fine, maybe stay a little longer. If you have a plan that says stay until 2 and the little ones are cranky right after lunch, leave. As far as how long it's going to take there are so many factors it's impossible to know. Maybe you are at a MK resort but you take the monorail and it gets delayed. Or you go to the bus lines and the bus just left so you have to wait for the next one. Or you are one the road and there is a traffic jam. Same sort of applies to if you are driving yourself, there is just no predicting. It's entirely possible you go back to the resort, take a nap and maybe want to go to the pool instead of back to the park so you throw those plans out the window. It's vacation and especially with little ones, it's important to plan on plans going sideways.

 

[amy1981]

We rope drop and then always use a touring plan as a guideline, I am a firm believer in having a rough outline of your day. We usually head back somewhere between 11 - 1, it really depends on the crowds and if we've seen enough for the morning...somedays you can go longer and on others, everyone has had enough after a few hours. When we went in February crowd & temps were great so we could stay in the parks longer than Spring Break. We start working our way back towards the front of the park when we all agree we've reached our max or lines/ heat are getting to us. I like having lunch in the parks, but that again depends on crowds. If there's a huge line up everywhere around 12:00 and QS places are packed then we usually just eat at the resort, they're usually MUCH emptier at lunch time. Another thing we sometimes do on MK days is have lunch at a monorail resort QS. Capt. Cooks & Contempo Cafe have great food and are quick to get to from the park.

 

[Tucker24]

Depends also on how old the kids are. While staying on the monorail we left between 12-1 to take break inside the hotel air conditioning. One of us stayed with the kids and got them settled watching a little tv while the other got lunch to go from the quick service hotel. We enjoyed quiet lunch time while chilling out in the room. Since our kids were 3 and 5 we decided not to tire them out at the pool so we could go back to the park around 4. We had ADR at the park stayed for a bit and then they REALLY enjoyed the fireworks and electrical parade from the hotel or beach area. Keep in mind my kids REALLY love the electrical parade and it was one of the highlights from the trip. They are also a little scared of the fireworks so it was nice to see from the hotel.
We stayed at the Poly and Captain Cook's had a lot of good food options
And keep in mind that the bus or monorail may take a little longer than expected. a few times the monorail broke down and we had a minor breakdown ourselves along with it

 

[declansdad]

Wow I think planning to that level will guarantee a not-so-happy trip.

I don't think you need to be that rigid in your planning.

 

[happymommy]

We rarely took a planned midday break when the kids were little. We went with the flow, and never stayed out late or kept them up much past their normal bedtime. This means they didn't see fireworks, but that was fine for our family to wait until they were older really. Plus, I was pretty tired out and enjoyed a couple hours of quiet time once they were asleep! They napped in the stroller (we had a nice double one).

First trip when they were 2 and 4, we stayed at the BWV, so if we did go out again it was just to walk to Epcot. Taking a bus back and forth twice would have been a bit much for us.

 

[Minnesota!]

The key to a fantastic vacation is not not over plan...just let things happen as they happen. Planning everything out only leads to disappointment and constant watch-watching.

Just plan on heading back, or to a quiet corner of the park, when your child starts showing the signs of needing a break. Might be at 1030a, or 130p.

We have done both, but honestly, we preferred finding a quiet corner of the park at that age.

 

[AshleeH]

Depends on our ADRs and QS wants and needs. We stay in the Contemporary area for ease of access, so it's just a matter of walking back when we're done there (we drive to the other parks - I will never rely on Disney transportation again after wasting hours and hours out of previous vacations). If we have an ADR or FP in the park, we hang around until that time. If not, we play it by ear and when the peak crowds start rolling in, we roll out. We might stop at QS in the park if it's appealing and easy or we might grab something at the Contempo Cafe on our way back to our room.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

with young kids getting to resort without them falling asleep and waking up as you get off or out of transportation is can be a down fall to naps at resort. we had that happen with a 16 month old at the time and he screamed for the whole 2 hours we planned to nap and fell asleep at dinner later. after that we tried stroller naps which worked out better for us

 

[Neotericisis]

Our kids are 7 & 8 and can't do a full day at Six Flags. We suspect this will be the case for their first trip to Disney as well. We are going with a group of 15 (I say this loosely as I did our own FP schedule for the 4 of us and just emailed it to the group so they know which parks we are doing when). I fully expect the kids to get cranky in the heat so I plan to arrive at rope drop, head back to the resort (timeshare off property) midday, and come back in the early evening and stay until close. I don't have exact times for anything besides our FP (which while I appreciate having a guaranteed spot, even the schedule of the FP are a bit rigid for me). The kids will start to clonk out on their own around 3-4, so to avoid that we will leave some time around noon to allow for travel time, and perhaps some pool time. Once that midday heat hits they will be wiped out so having the bed conveniently upstairs at our resort is good as opposed to choosing them to navigate through the parks and traffic with cranky kids. I want them fully alert and happy come fireworks time.

 

[cyneswith]

with young kids getting to resort without them falling asleep and waking up as you get off or out of transportation is can be a down fall to naps at resort. we had that happen with a 16 month old at the time and he screamed for the whole 2 hours we planned to nap and fell asleep at dinner later. after that we tried stroller naps which worked out better for us

^This is why a monorail hotel (and low traffic timing) was a top priority for me.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

^This is why a monorail hotel (and low traffic timing) was a top priority for me.

he fell asleep in lesstime than it takes to do the loop to last hotel from MK. hope your plans works better than it did for us. I am talking about less than 15 mintes worth of sleep and not going back just screamed the whole 2hours

 

[bab736]

We had successful hotel naps (contemporary) once in the trip when she was two and not at all when she was 3 (BLT). But since we'll have a 2-month old DS, I'm more worried about him than her. (And the parents, grandparents!)

While we could keep going and could do stroller naps, I think all of us are going to need a break and some real quiet. We're staying at BLT again so nice walk back from MK.

I'm debating coming back from Epcot though. I know it's still monorail, but I'm not sure it's worth it to come back.

So what we'll do is not plan any ADRs or FPs between 1-4 and play it by ear.