My carefully planned itinerary went out the window!

[maybees02]

I had planned to hit the parks early, go back to our resort for a nap, and then go back for evening hours and any fireworks, etc. However, I had not really reckoned on the force that is my 4 year old son.

First, he hated, hated, hated waiting for and riding the bus. It caused a huge fit every time we lined up. I'm not sure what the problem was, but he had a definite bus vendetta.

Secondly, if he fell asleep in the middle of the day, it caused him to be up til midnight or later, giving him no sleep for the early mornings I wanted to do.

After our first two nightmarish days, we quickly revised our plan, got up early, stayed through dinner, and went back to the resort, getting him to bed early for a better day. This meant that we grown-ups had to write off any evening celebrations and attractions, which was sad, but we all had a better trip this way. Wise use of fastpasses and air conditioned attractions got us through the hotter and more crowded afternoons. We got to enjoy the resort pools with very few crowds.

I guess this means we have to go back in a few years when he is older to catch the evening stuff!


I also learned that if you don't mind spending the $$$, character breakfasts are a wonderful thing. First, entering the parks early gets you past the crush of people at the turnstiles, which both my kids hated (can't say I blame them), plus you can relax in a/c while the characters come to you! Also, for all 3 character breakfasts we had in the park (one 8 a.m., one 8:10 a.m. and one 8:25 a.m. time), we were done by 9 a.m. and walking out into the park just as they lowered the ropes! So it worked out perfectly for us. I ended up scheduling an extra character breakfast on the spot that I had not planned just because it was SOOOOOOOO much more convenient and relaxing than standing at the rope in the big lump of people.

This is just my opinion and experience with my very hard to please 4 year old son. He would have been just as happy to stay at the resort and play with his Pirates of the Caribbean playset! He is very wedded to his routine, and heat and crowds and waiting just pushed him over the edge. So, I had to make a few quick adjustments to save the trip! I just wanted to share in case anyone else has a child like this!

 

[01Sweetpea]

Nothing kills a vacation more than a miserable child.

My kids are older, and I have an itinerary for our upcoming trip, but I know from 2 years ago, at the first sign of a melt-down...and boy can teenagers have them, it straight to the pool we go.

 

[OzFan]

Glad to hear you were able to adjust your schedule. It seems at no matter what age, every child has their stages and quirks. A couple of years ago all my daughters wanted to do was stay by the pool all day. I thinking ???? We have a pool at home we can do that there for a WHOLE LOT LESS!
The character breakfast is a great way to meet, greet and eat in a extremely less stressful way. I'm glad you did have a nice trip, and look at it this way, now you can plan your next trip!

 

[CarolA]

Good for you! There are other parents who I see sticking to thier schedule no matter what!! (As if you can FORCE a four year old to have a good time)

 

[tkitty]

We are arriving on Sunday, and will have my 4 yr old grandson, his mom and dad,too. I know that plans need to be flexable. I think we will be like the OP, I'd like to go back to the parks after a resort rest each afternoon, but I think the same thing will happen. We'll just do what works best.

 

[disnut1149]

Thanks for your report! I'm taking my DGD 3 1/2 and I have resigned myself, especially after reading your report, that I might not be able to follow my itineray (laminated) the way I want to. Six months of intense planning might not work out as I have planned. I was going to do the early AM character breakfast, but thought if we don't make it, we would miss it altogether. So, we'll get there for rope drop and have our character breakfast around 10:30 and 11:00. We will probably be ready for a break in the heat. I'm glad you ended up having a good trip!!

 

[pepperw23]

Nothing kills a vacation more than a miserable child.

My kids are older, and I have an itinerary for our upcoming trip, but I know from 2 years ago, at the first sign of a melt-down...and boy can teenagers have them, it straight to the pool we go.

Ha Ha, My DS (sweet kid normally) stayed in meltdown mode, his idea of a good time was going from one roller coaster to the next, skip the sites they are "boring" and then had the nerve to tell us to "slow down" when he was trying to text his girlfriend! haha. We put up with that garbage for about three hours... The "girl" as we like to call her lol, just wanted to shop. Teens, gotta love em'..WARNING to parents of young kids...You have not SEEN a meltdown yet..trust me. But we love em' anyway.

 

[Noelle]

You did the right thing my changing your schedule. The first WDW trip we took our youngest daugther when she was 3. She hated the stroller and wouldn't go in it at all. She'd become exhausted and still would not get in the stroller to nap. She wouldn't let us carry her. It was just too much excitement for her. I thought we'd be okay because she'd been to Disneyland so many times before. She made everyone miserable. My husband and I finally gave up. We decided to spend more time at Port Orleans by the pool and salvage what we could of our vacation and our sanity. It by far wasn't the best vacation, but we went back 6 months later for Christmas and I planned very little. We took our vacation at her speed and we had a GREAT time. Now that she's older, the kids get upset with my husband and I when we start saying things like "Hey, let's head back to the hotel for a break. Mom and Dad are getting tired."

 

[JoiseyMom]

Kids, what ya gonna do with them?? Our ds4 was pretty good last year. They only place he was difficult was MGM, it wasn't his favorite place, even though he loves Fantasmic. The kids wanted to pass on AK and do Typhoon a second time instead, so we did. We are pretty flexible when we go, and the kids have their favorites. Last year DS wanted to stay at MK and see wishes, and we stayed, but he fell alseep and never saw the show!

 

[minkydog]

Hats off to you for knowing when to execute Plan B. By having some flexibility and tossing your itinerary, you were able to have a great time and make wonderful memories with your son. Bravo!

 

[Leota]

Hats off to you for knowing when to execute Plan B. By having some flexibility and tossing your itinerary, you were able to have a great time and make wonderful memories with your son. Bravo!

Absolutely!
When DS was little, we played everything by ear based on how he was doing. He has health problems, so we were used to going at his pace, not necessarily ours. Doing things this way, he never had a WDW Meltdown & WDW has always been a place of Relaxation & Happy Memories for us.

When he was older & healthier, then I started doing some itineraries & doing more commando type trips.

Now he is almost 18, we do adult oriented trips or DH & I go alone and go at our pace.

IMHO, a Great WDW trip is not one where you "Do it all" but rather you have a great time doing what you do, even if that means missing things.

 

[Minnie824]

Was this your first trip w/your son? Last year was our first trip w/our DDs then ages 4 yrs and 20 mos. I had our itinerary planned too. I wanted to mention, our 20 mo also hated the bus. She did not sit still or quiet on any bus ride. She also was not fond of the monorail or any other form of transportation, or ride that seemed like transportation (kilimanjaro safaris). Also, we actually just skipped some of our dinners due to her as well. We did make it out early, had lunch then back for nap. But after her nap, the last thing she wanted to do was 1) ride in a stroller 2) ride the bus 3) sit down for a nice meal for dinner. Once we started letting her walk more (unbelievable how much she walked), it worked much better. We did opt for some counter service instead of trying the restaurants we wanted, but we just added them on our list for this year...the ones we want to really try, we're doing early on this year too. Glad you had a good trip still!

 

[cdrn1]

Is it that easy to get a character breakfast? I thought they all filled up in advance!

 

[smnornes]

You know what? We spent 7 days at WDW last year with our kids (then 4 and 6) and we didn't see one parade, nor one sparkle of fireworks. We are all morning people, so we were at the parks early and outta there by about 3pm. There is so much we didn't do, but we were ALL okay with that. We enjoyed ourselves, and that made our trip wonderful. We loved what we DID do.
Good for you for resorting to Plan B and being truly okay with it! It can be hard on us "planners" to have adjust our schedules, but it is so worth it to have happy children.

I wonder why the bus trouble, though? Poor guy! We're going back in October and I have evening activities planned. We're staying on site this time, so hopefully that will make it easier on us to get back to the parks if we can.

 

[ms.ojo]

when ds was 2.5 we thought he'd be up for EE every morning since he gets up at 6:30 at home every day. Nope, quickly realized getting to a non EE park before 9 was best for us. We still came back in the afternoon for naps and were able to stay up for evening entertainment. It was wonderful.

When ds was 4 and dd1 we again realized NO EE for our clan...but this time, returning for naps was also a hastle. So we adjusted the plan on day 3, no longer returning for naps...dd slept blissfully in her stroller during the afternoon, ds4 (also in a stroller) was able to make it through the day. We did some parent swap things while dd slept...and ds quickly fell asleep at night so dd did too! Key was taking a FULL day of rest every every 2 days of touring.

Returning when ds6 and dd3 we stuck w/ the 2 days on, one day off plan and it was great. DD napped as needed...we were all well rested. Works for us!

Next mth we'll be there w/ ds7 and dd4. This will be the 1st time ds won't have a stroller. I suspect we'll be taking daily breaks again. I may possibly rent a disney stroller for Epcot and AK. I just don't see him being able to make it. Even though we've started a daily walking routine!

 

[maybees02]

Is it that easy to get a character breakfast? I thought they all filled up in advance!

I thought so too, but Crystal Palace had availability! I think I may have been lucky, but I was very glad!

 

[thptrek]

Flexibility is key not only with kids and teenagers but also with adults. Sometimes you have to make mid-air corrections to your plans. If that fails then "if they fall behind you leave them behind." lol.

 

[1stluvispooh]

You know someone should tell you before you have kids that you should start streching now so you are flexable once the kiddo arrives! With parenthood comes flexablity or at least it should. And if you are blested, as I am with a special needs kid you become Gumbie!

 

[lauritagoddess]

When we went in March, I knew there was no way my DS would ever take a nap during the day or be willing to go back to the parks once we came back to the resort, so we arrived for the rope drop and stayed through the afternoon and went back to the resort and didn't get to do any evening things. I've been prepping him for our trip in 2.5 weeks about taking rests in the middle of the day. He's really excited about the idea of being a big kid and getting stay up late so I'm going try it out and see if he will nap and be able to do the fireworks, Illuminations, etc. I'm keeping my fx for it, but have no illusions that it will actually work. If not, no big deal. I plan for us to be back many times and eventually we'll be able to go in the evenings if not this time.