Staying up late at DL with Kids?

[Mommy26]

I've read the best way to do Disneyland is to be there when they open and stay until they close. Then take naps in the afternoon. Did this work for those of you that have kids?

My kids are 8, 5 and 18 mos

(this is usually the opposite of what we do).

 

[joeysmommy]

HI,
We usually go in the off season during the week in September which in my opinion is the best time to go with little ones. At that time the park closes at 8pm so we do open to close with no problem for my 4 and 6 yr old.

We did go to DL last November, the Sat, Sun, Mon before Thanksgiving..never again! The last day I had to go without a stroller for my 4 yr old becuz it was too crowded to even maneuver thru all the people.
It was open 8-midnight but so crowded we wanted to get out of there.
We were there for EE at 7am, then went back to the PPH around 2pm, took naps and returned for dinner around 5 or 6 and stayed until 11pm.

If I had to choose the best time to go I would say in the off season even thought the parks aren't open very late. You can slow down and take everything in without being pushed and shoved. My kids were so cranky and tired the next day after staying up til 11pm it wasn't as enjoyable.
In Sept we just spent our time in DTD from 8-9:30pm then back to the GCH for bed.

Have fun planning!

Natalie

 

[biolabetty]

We stayed until 9 at Disneyland last night, and that was definitely the end of what my kids could take. They were grumpy, and wiggly (trying to stay awake), so we went home and they were asleep in the car within 5 minutes. I've only stayed until a late closing with them once, and that was because we were chaperoning a church group of 50 high school kids. I ended up with one sleeping on the bus with dad, and the other sleeping on my lap on Main Street. It's never worth it to us to stay the entire day.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

We only have a 3 year old, but when we were there in Oct, we did: up at 6:45 am, breakfast, and in line at 7:45 for 8 am opening (I know not early enough for some DISers, but we would make it through check-in by 8:05 or 8:10... close enough, then lunch at noon, nap 1-3 and back to the park until ~8:45 pm with dinner around 5:30 or 6, wander back to our room and hit the hay by 9:30 (after baths etc...) Worked for us...

--Lisa

 

[ALTkids]

We did it last July for 5 days. 3 kids 6, 4, 4. What I learned was: 1) don't wait too late in the afternoon for naps, 2) there IS a point at which you cannot wake up a child no matter how hard you try, and 3) the ART shuttle consumes valuable time.

All in all though, we got a lot done in 5 days during the busy summer season and had a GREAT time. But, we're all a year older now and going for 7 days this Friday. We're staying across the street from the main entrance (Park Vue Inn) and on 4 of our days DL hours are 9-11 as opposed to 8-12. Early entry (Magic Mornings) at 7am after a late night is brutal, so this year are two MM's (thanks GetAwayToday!) come after 11pm closings and are 9am openings. We have high hopes!

Good luck to you and have fun!

THE most important thing: BE THERE BEFORE DL OPENS!!!

 

[Bread&Butterflies]

I have never done it this way until our trip last week. Only one child though. 2 yrs old, and me, my ds 21, and his gf 18, but We ALL took naps on both of our full days there.

It worked out well because we stayed VERY close to the park (Carousel Inn). We did MM one day; were there at 7am & left the park by 11:00am and had a HUGE late breakfast (had toast before we left and oatmeal to go for dd(2yrs old)before we left (she ate it while we were in line for Peter Pan)After breakfast dd and I went and took a nap while the older kids collected a few more fast passes, then they came back and had a nap too.

We were there by 8:15 on the other morning and left about 1:30pm for a nap.

We returned to the parks at about 5:30-7:00pm and closed it down! There til midnight and dd was asking to ride the teacups as we were leaving! She was still raring to go after a several hour nap and some downtime from the stimulation that afternoon.

Us "grown ups" thought it worked out well too, as we rarely stood in line for ANYTHING more than 30 minutes even with the Spring Break crowds, with being there at non-peak hours and taking advantage of collecting so many fastpasses in the am, and using them in the pm in conjunction with the child swap passes. We did Nemo right before closing last Thursday night and only waited 25 minutes , the next day the line was over a 2 hours WAIT! So for having a toddler that is not quite used to patiently waiting in line, it worked out better for her and my sanity to get up early/stay up late and wait in line less.

I will always use this game plane from now on, even if there are no kids with me. Have fun!

 

[rentayenta]

I've read the best way to do Disneyland is to be there when they open and stay until they close. Then take naps in the afternoon. Did this work for those of you that have kids?

My kids are 8, 5 and 18 mos

(this is usually the opposite of what we do).

My kids are 11, 9, and 6 and sometimes we work this way and sometimes we don't. I may get blasted but I do have my flame retardant undies on but I still bring a stroller for my younger two. Here's why: my DD 9 has very poor stamina due to an illness she had as baby. She is also very tiny due to a current and totally unrelated condition. She looks 5 y/o tops. My oldest DD never wants to break and nap so I have found that having a double stroller for the younger two to rest allows their little legs the break they need in order to be able to hang out all day. Now sometimes we do go back and swim but rarely take a nap or anything. When DH goes with us then its possible to split up, one stays in the park with our oldest and one of us goes back and rests with the younger two.

 

[brenda1966]

Yes, we leave the park midday and take a nap. And that means everyone lays down for a nap, including mom and grandma, etc. We may even go for a quick swim too if it's a really hot day.

This has worked well for us at DL during July when the days get very hot and the days are very long.

Now that DD is 6 we have done some long days at WDW where we didn't leave the park for a nap (mostly because it's so hard to get in and out of that park). But we've had to plan a sleep in day the following day or an early evening to follow.

 

[PrincessSitka]

We go early and stay late and take a nap in the afternoon. Oh and we hit the pool.

 

[Dukland]

Last time we went was summer 2006, and we only had the two kids then, ages 5 and 2. I know the day we did EE/MM we were there at opening, left for lunch and a nap at our room, then came back and stayed late. I honestly don't remember if we closed down the parks or not.

During the trip, when my 2 year old needed to nap, Dh would often take him back to the room and they would nap, while my 5 year old and I did our own thing.

This year should be interesting, as we've added one more to the family. When we go in June, my kids will be 7, 4, and 21 months. And my youngest is a big time sleeper! I am envisioning lots of family naps this time around. (Which is kind of sad for me. My poor dh always has to practically drag me out of the parks! )

I will be doing some careful planning this year. I have purchased 3 character meals for us, and I am counting the days until I can set up our PS for these. We have 2 extra days built in, so we can go to Sea World, and visit the American Girl store in LA.

 

[Brady's Mom]

We do not open the parks. We have tried and it just doesn't work for us. I find the lines and waits longer than if we just go in a little after opening. We usually walk on all of the rides that people have stood in line for. (Waiting to get in for MM or to open the park.)

I like to not have to wait in a huge line for security, or the tram, or to get in, or on main street for rope drop, or in line with all the people that have stood in line for all of those things.

We take a leisurely breakfast, hit the parks, sometimes take a nap if the park is open late, and usually leave before closing to avoid aforementioned crowds.

I don't know if this means we are not hard core disney fans or if we just have a different touring schedule than others.

Oh and btw, our sons are 19, 11, 5, and 3. The stroller is our friend!

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I've read the best way to do Disneyland is to be there when they open and stay until they close. Then take naps in the afternoon. Did this work for those of you that have kids?

My kids are 8, 5 and 18 mos

(this is usually the opposite of what we do).

Hi again Brady's mom. I think you are going the same dates we are, Dec 7-12 and that is during the week so I think the park will close around 9pm or something like that. Yes a lot of parents do push their kids while they are in the park because it's not often that they are in DL but just be aware that if you push your kids too far you might burn them out and then it wouldn't fun for anyone. If you really want to open and close the park you might consider going back to your hotel for a couple of hours during the day to let everyone relax a little.

By the way, this is my 500th post