Resort Break or Stroller Break?

[buzznina]

personally i never recommend going back to the room for a nap.

my family has always done stroller naps with young kids and its worked out fine. (including when i was a little kid)

when kids are tired they will sleep anywhere any time.

in fact it often seems to be harder to go back to the room with a tired child.
i've left a park at 1pm (staying on property) and had to deal with a 20 minute ride with little terrors that screamed the entire time because they were so tired. had the parent just found a place to sit inside the park the child probably would have just zonked out in a few minutes and woke up refreshed. instead the child probably now has a raging headache (i know i did lol) and snot all over them and the parent is probably more frustrated than ever and needs a nap themselves at that point.

We stay onsite and tried going back to the room for the first few days and it failed horribly We found that it made all of us cranky, not to mention that it felt like we wasted so much time, definitely was not relaxing. It was stroller naps from then on. One of us would find a place to sit (with a snack of course) while the other would go shopping or even do a ride.

 

[Mordu]

Play it by ear. Our last trip we did both Stroller and hotel breaks. Our first few days we did stroller breaks, our last half we went back to the hotel.
My 6 year old ended up sleeping really well on the bus back to CSR. Our two year old napped in her stroller in Morocco and Mexico in Epcot.
If you are staying offsite- I'd say you are better off trying to get them to nap in the stroller. Just find a good restaurant to sit at (or if you have a good stroller with shade, you may just be able to walk around the park) My kids seem to fall asleep for naps better when they are moving.

 

[mandis77]

We had big plans on our first family trip to go back for naps/pool time but once we got there we were having so much fun we didn't want to leave! Thankfully my youngest was able to nap in the stroller with no problems. I'd play it by ear, since you are staying off-site it will be pretty time consuming to take a break.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Do your kids usually fall asleep in strollers? If you think your kids will sleep in a stroller than go for it. Our 4 and 2 year old did not fall asleep once on our trip last month. Not once! They got cranky, hot and tired but never got comfortable enough to sleep in the stroller. We had a city mini double. We did nap breaks at the resort but the parks were open late so it wasn't an issue. They were much happier at night because they had real naps in the AC and in a bed.

 

[SusanneF]

My kiddos will be 9,8 and 4 for our trip. The only day I'm worried about is the Christmas Party day. We likely wont do rope drop because we move slow in the am, but are there other suggestions for 'chill out' time to take a break without going all the way back home? I've heard about a boat ride? Other suggestions?

 

[Hawkeyegirls]

Its a lot of working going back to the resort via bus or if you are driving! By the time you walk out of the park, to your car (or the bus) and unload, its an hour almost. So its for sure not worth leaving. I would get there early and if you have to leave before the park closes, that do that and don't plan on coming back.

 

[DisMom456]

Definitely follow the kids' lead and don't be afraid to change your strategy day-to-day. My girl is not a stroller napper, so we did the AC lunch, leave at 2pm plan;but we never made it back out to the parks (unless it was a walk into Epcot from the Boardwalk hotels). On our last trip, we spent the mornings swimming, had an early lunch and nap, then hit the parks during the afternoons/evenings. If the kids can sleep in the car, maybe you could squeeze a nap in between a park hop? Or a few rounds on the monorail?