MK until midnight with kids?

[gaelicgoddess]

When we visit Disney World in March, the Magic Kingdom will be open from 9am-12am. We plan on spending 2 days in the MK, so there is no rush or reason to cram everything in in one day. I have never witnessed "rope drop" and would really love to be there for that. However I would also really like to be there for the late hours to see the fireworks, parades, and maybe enjoy some rides for a second or third time. Am I crazy to try and stay until midnight with kids when I plan on being there for rope drop? We are staying on grounds and can take a break if needed. My kids are 10, 8, and 4. Actually the 8 and 4 year olds will both be celebrating birthdays while we are there.

 

[JEWLSVERN]

Our arrival day MK is open to 1am. We plan to try to stay late if the kids are in an ok mood. They are 6, 4, & 1. We have a single and a double stroller where they can go to sleep. Just hoping for some adult ride time.

I think at least the 10 year old. We were DL locals growing up and we always stayed for the fireworks, even the little kids.
Just play it by ear. You can always leave if they start melting down.

 

[Canooknic]

If your kids can manage it then go for it!

There is no way my boys would manage (I'm pretty sure I have the only 5 year olds on the planet that actually asked to go to bed early on Christmas Eve!! ). We stick to our regular routine as much as possible, they are in bed within an hour or so of their home bedtime.
Our friend's children are the same age and they just keep going so staying up until midnight is no problem for them

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We did it a couple years ago. Actually got on the boat at 11:45 pm. The 6 year old fell asleep on the boat. She went full bore right up to that point

 

[melifeld]

My DS6 is able to go until park closing on late nights if we take a break in the middle of the day. I think it would be difficult if we tried to go all day without stopping.

 

[Holly Quinlan]

When we were there they were open until 1AM we got there at rope drop and stayed until around 2pm then went back to WL for a nap walked into magic kingdom again at 5pm and stayed until 12:30am my DH was the one who was grumpy and wanting to leave at 10pm but DS 3 was good to go

 

[UCDSmalls]

We took our daughter in Sept 2010 when she was 2. I thought we would need to head back early, but she always seemed to have more fun in the evening. We did go back in the middle of the day for a nap, but she would make it to 11 or 12 every night and she was only 2.

 

[squirrel]

I spend the whole day at the park. I even do EMH until 2am with my niece. Love those EMH! She would nap in the stroller. I tried to plan a late night like that on a day that was before our rest day. That way we weren't having to get up and rush out the door to the park.

We often had the bus to our selves or close to it.

 

[tms295psu]

Really depends on your family/parenting style. Our kids get to stay up late until they crash on occasion at home. Friends of ours plan there lives around the kids schedules and they never miss their scheduled bed time.

We plan our days to end when everyone has had enough. Be open to staying late but if everyone gets crabby it's okay to leave early.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We found it was best to roll with how everyone was feeling versus clock watching. Sometimes we went back to the hotel earlier for the night and sometimes we took a midday swim and stayed til 1 am. One thing that is not apparent at a glance is that we are not from the EST zone and so mornings were tougher for us so no extra magic morning hours (we did schedule early character breakfasts around 8am but that was as early and mobile as it got for us) and night time hours were easier.

 

[sturowski]

When we go every year, we stick to our home schedule as much as possible to prevent meltdowns,bad moods,etc. really depends on the kids.. Last September I really wanted to try and stay late for fireworks but both boys were just too tired again and wanted to go back to bed... We Made it for the parade.. Keeping my fingers crossed that this September we will make it up when they are 5 and 7!

 

[laughinplace199]

It really depends on your kids. When DD14 and DS12 were little, they needed to stay close to their regular schedule to avoid meltdowns. We'd plan for 1 late night per trip, but for them "late" was 9:00 or 10:00.

A few years later, we had another DS. He could go like the energizer bunny (and then crash in his stroller) because he really wanted to keep up with the big kids.

 

[Deb & Bill]

If you have to take a bus when the park closes to get back to your resort, you will have to wake any sleeping children in strollers and load them on the bus carrying said stroller. And the buses will be crowded. If you have a car, you can take the boat/tram/whatever back to the parking lot and load up the kids in the car.

We never subjected our son to 15 hour days in the parks. We always headed back right after lunch for a nap or swim or both and then headed back out around dinner time to eat and play until whenever.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We'd plan for 1 late night per trip

This helped DD6 when we went. We did rope drop to midnight at MK, but we also had taken it a little easier the previous day (water park) and again the following day (water park after sleeping in a little). Rope drop to midnight EVERY day probably wouldn't have worked for us.

 

[tigerbelly]

We did a few late nights with our 4 and 7 year old boys in the fall. 12 and 1am. They did absolutely fine, and they have an 8:00 bedtime normally. I found the late nights to be absolutely valuable as far as low crowds and walk on rides. It was some of our best memories of the whole trip. We definitely took a couple hours off in the middle of the day. I would grab a drink at the pool bar and let the kids cool off in the pool while my DH napped. And then we'd get changed and ready for a night of fun. If you do rope drop you'll want to take that break between 2-5. That was our break time.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We rarely do really late nights with our younger guy on our longish trips but this week-end we are going to go for it. We will be in town just for the week-end and I backed out of buying APs so we are paying a lot for that one day MK pass so we do plan to get as much time as possible out of it.That's really not the way we roll most of the time, and if he needs to crash, we will leave. We are on site so a break or even an earlier than planned escape is not a big deal. I say play it by ear, be wiling to rent strollers for older kids if need be and see how it goes.

 

[mamalisa219]

We go back to the hotel for a rest in the afternoon. Late EMH in Magic Kingdom are great. Little to no wait. The little ones can sleep in the stroller if they want. It's a great chance for the older ones to get on rides. On an average late night we can do as much during those two hours as we can all day. I can see that taking a bus with the strollers being an issue. We stay at the Poly so just have to hop on the monorail. I would give it a shot, if it isn't working for your family, than you can leave.

 

[gaelicgoddess]

Thanks so much everyone for your responses! Some really great advice and things I really need to take into consideration. I'm glad someone mentioned being on EST. We live in CST time zone, so I need to take that into consideration. Not too much of a difference for us, but good to keep in mind when planning our daily itinerary. My boys are getting old enough that they want to stay up late, and can make it until midnight. But my youngest daughter will probably need a nap, so I'm going to have to really make sure I work in a good break. And that is a good idea about just making one of the MK days a late night. I may end up making our first day in MK wrap up at a decent hour, especially since we want to get up and go to HS the next morning. But our second day at MK is our last park day, so we could stay until midnight that night.

Thanks again everyone!

 

[squirrel]

When I'm at Disney I don't need much sleep. I guess I'm lucky the younger niece can sleep in the stroller and then be ready to go again.

Having to go back to the resort was a pain and I tried at least twice with the older niece and it didn't work so I just let her crash in the stroller when she was tired.

The both loved the PM EMH, especially at MK as they were able to ride what they wanted without getting off during the last hour. I'm almost 100% positive they both have the record for the most consecutive rides on Winnie the Pooh in the same honey pot. The younger niece broke the older nieces by one ride.

 

[gaelicgoddess]

When I'm at Disney I don't need much sleep. I guess I'm lucky the younger niece can sleep in the stroller and then be ready to go again.

Having to go back to the resort was a pain and I tried at least twice with the older niece and it didn't work so I just let her crash in the stroller when she was tired.

I agree! It is so much easier when they can nap in a stroller. Last time we went to Disney my oldest DS was almost 3, and my youngest DS was 15 months. It was so easy to just let them sleep in the stroller and not have to leave and come back. And I will forever cherish my memory of my 15 month old sleeping in my arms while we continuously rode the People Mover. <3

The both loved the PM EMH, especially at MK as they were able to ride what they wanted without getting off during the last hour. I'm almost 100% positive they both have the record for the most consecutive rides on Winnie the Pooh in the same honey pot. The younger niece broke the older nieces by one ride.

That's awesome!