time/schedule non napping toddler in wdw......help???

emmamc252

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 23, 2010
Messages
291
So i'm trying to do a final, final plan :rotfl2: for our upcoming WDW trip.
it will be myself, DH, dd2.5 and ds 6 months.
Now ds will sleep and eat anywhere so he's fine but I am trying to figure out the best way to plan our days to optimise the experience for dd.
1st things 1st, we are coming from the uk so dd will have all the time shift etc to deal with first, no idea if she will sleep on the plane or how she will be so the first day or so I have no clue what to even try and plan!
2nd, at home she does not get woken up, she wakes when she is ready, and she also tells us when she wants to go to bed so her times are aproximates. she doesn't fight sleep at all but she goes to sleep in bed, she's not one that falls asleep in the car etc. We JUST came back from a weekend away here and its pretty apparent she is VERY unlikely to fall asleep on the buses etc as i was kind of hoping and is probably going to get tired at 8/9pm at the latest.
3rd, I know you can't be totally "Planned" for with a toddler but we want to have a rough idea.

my main area of concern is basically do we go ut early, come back for a swim/rest and go back out, or do we go out a bit later and spend the whole day in the parks then just do the resort at night??? i'm favouring the first option as it will allow us to go to dtd etc at night but i'm really thinking if its plausible to come back to the resort, chill out and head back out, with bus times etc????

dd's current schedule looks something like this
wake up 7;30 - dressed and go downstairs
8;00 breakfast
8;30 ready to go
10;30 snack
12-12;30 lunch time
3;30 snack
5;45 dinner time
7;30 bed time

she sleeps about 11.5 to 12 hours a night. she hasn't had naps in a few months , its probably been about 12 weeks since she fell asleep in the day at all. she will "crash" early if she's had a few late nights, like go to sleep at 5;30 and sleep right through, for example after our recent weekend away (so after 3 nights up until 9;30ish) or after fmaily wedding when she was up til about 11.

she will fall asleep on the buses on the way home is she is tired enough i think.

so to be out and have the midday break it owuld be

wake up 7;30
ready and fed for 8;30
on buses for 9am
lunch at park 12 noon
12;30 finish lunch 1hr more at park??? or do we head home straight after lunch????
arrive back to hotel 1;30/2;30
2hour break swim etc then back out 4;30, arrive park or dtd 5;30 dinner time,
6;30 shopping/park stuff???
maybe i should alternate???
 
It will truly be difficult to give solid advice simply because your DD doesn't have a set napping time. When are you going to WDW? Is there a way you can get her on a napping schedule now for your vacation?

I know you said she doesn't fall asleep on the buses, etc. but she may surprise you by falling asleep in her stroller. On DD's first trip (she was 15 months) I had naps planned as she took one at the same time every day. My nap plan failed miserably because she was too excited to sleep when we returned to the resort, but she napped her usual 2 hours in her stroller without issue!

If your daughter isn't going to nap while you're out, you'll have to decide between heading back to the resort at the drop of a hat (since she lets you know when she wants to nap) or just letting her go in the stroller to see if she'll fall asleep (if she's tired enough, I don't doubt that she will!). I'd plan for RD mornings and early nights.


So i'm trying to do a final, final plan :rotfl2: for our upcoming WDW trip.
it will be myself, DH, dd2.5 and ds 6 months.
Now ds will sleep and eat anywhere so he's fine but I am trying to figure out the best way to plan our days to optimise the experience for dd.
1st things 1st, we are coming from the uk so dd will have all the time shift etc to deal with first, no idea if she will sleep on the plane or how she will be so the first day or so I have no clue what to even try and plan!
2nd, at home she does not get woken up, she wakes when she is ready, and she also tells us when she wants to go to bed so her times are aproximates. she doesn't fight sleep at all but she goes to sleep in bed, she's not one that falls asleep in the car etc. We JUST came back from a weekend away here and its pretty apparent she is VERY unlikely to fall asleep on the buses etc as i was kind of hoping and is probably going to get tired at 8/9pm at the latest.
3rd, I know you can't be totally "Planned" for with a toddler but we want to have a rough idea.

my main area of concern is basically do we go ut early, come back for a swim/rest and go back out, or do we go out a bit later and spend the whole day in the parks then just do the resort at night??? i'm favouring the first option as it will allow us to go to dtd etc at night but i'm really thinking if its plausible to come back to the resort, chill out and head back out, with bus times etc????

dd's current schedule looks something like this
wake up 7;30 - dressed and go downstairs
8;00 breakfast
8;30 ready to go
10;30 snack
12-12;30 lunch time
3;30 snack
5;45 dinner time
7;30 bed time

she sleeps about 11.5 to 12 hours a night. she hasn't had naps in a few months , its probably been about 12 weeks since she fell asleep in the day at all. she will "crash" early if she's had a few late nights, like go to sleep at 5;30 and sleep right through, for example after our recent weekend away (so after 3 nights up until 9;30ish) or after fmaily wedding when she was up til about 11.

she will fall asleep on the buses on the way home is she is tired enough i think.

so to be out and have the midday break it owuld be

wake up 7;30
ready and fed for 8;30
on buses for 9am
lunch at park 12 noon
12;30 finish lunch 1hr more at park??? or do we head home straight after lunch????
arrive back to hotel 1;30/2;30
2hour break swim etc then back out 4;30, arrive park or dtd 5;30 dinner time,
6;30 shopping/park stuff???
maybe i should alternate???
 
We're in the same boat, DD will be 22 months during our visit in December and fights sleep. I don't know if it will be best to find a quite place at the park or head back to the resort.

My thought is that we head to the parks early since DD is an early riser. I don't know how my DH will feel about this since I am the one that gets up with DD while he sleeps. Head back after lunch or grab lunch at the resort and break for a couple of hours? Will the journey back to the resort excite DD and keep her from taking a nap?
 
Dd doesn't have naps at all. She just sleeps at night. This is where I'm struggling as most of the advice out there is regarding toddlers who nap in the day or for 5 year olds who can stay up later etc.
I'd like to come back to the resort to relax and swim with her, all day in a park seems way too much but I doubt she will suddenly start napping on holiday as she never does here, so she will be getting tired around 7-7:30 pm.

It just seems every time I write out a plan that we will spend half the day on buses as to fit in an afternoon rest we will only get 3 hours 9-12 and then 3 hours 4-7 in the parks/dtd
I'm just wondering if the split days are best for her?
There must be others with a toddler who doesn't nap?
 

Definitely be in the parks for rope drop when possible. We got sooo much done the first hour or two. We hit up Fantasy Land, arguably one of the busiest areas of the park, and got most of it done in an hour. We did this on two separate mornings and both times we were able to do the majority of the rides before 10am with little to no wait.

I have a 2 yr old and she just didn't nap or napped in the stroller and we stayed in the parks from rope drop until almost close.
 
My son will be 23 months when we go in January. My plan right now is to see if he'll sleep in the stroller. I don't want to leave the park and take the bus back to find out he's all wound up and won't sleep but if that's what we have to do then so be it.
 
Our kids weren't nappers either - they napped at daycare, neither napped at home.

At Disney:

7:00 am up
dressing and breakfast in room
9:00 rope drop
11:00 or 11:30 lunch
after lunch REST BUT NOT AT THE HOTEL this was often a train ride around the Magic Kingdom, trips on the monorail - our issue was that ten minutes worth of nap, which they would do the moment they stopped, was the kiss of death. We'd just hold them while we took endless turns on the WDW railroad, the monorail, boat or the bus.
after 45 minutes or so, wake up
tour until 4:30
4:30 earliest sit down dinner we could schedule - we always had hoppers and did Epcot in the evenings. So after our "nap" we'd go to Epcot, pop them into the stroller, and do Epcot, which is more restful. Then have an early Epcot dinner.
6:00 back at the hotel -
They were usually asleep by 7:30.

With this schedule, we'd spend two or three mornings in the MK, one at AK, and one at DHS. Our AK day was usually longer - we'd pop the kids in the strollers and go back onto the trails for the afternoon.
 
What about, rather then taking mid day breaks, pushing on in the parks and then calling it an early night. That's what we have to do.

We hit parks at rope drop (I let him sleep as long as possible, and then start making noise in the room when it's time for him to get up). I've been known to feed him a bagel on the bus (technically not allowed) or while waiting for RD. Then we stay in the parks until about dinner time (either leave right before dinner or dinner back at the resort). And many night's I'd even do an early dinner so back at the hotel by 5 or 6. That still gives an hour and a half to swim/play before bed time. (And on vacation pool=bath most nights).

I tried a mid day break once but he was too excited to rest at all. And usually after lunch we do some slower paced things - we all need a break then!!

Even now at 5, if he's tired enough, he'll fall asleep in a stroller or on the bus, something he'd NEVER do at home.
 
my DD2 won't nap unless I am nursing her and she falls asleep. If i go to move her to nap on her own she won't have it and screams and cries, so she spent a long time not napping at all. Recently though, i stay and let her nap with me so she isn't so tired in the evening. When we were on a recent vacation, we had one day where we went back to the room since it was rainy.. she did not want potty time, or to nap, she wanted out of the room... so if that were a disney trip that would certainly be a waste of time to go from MK to AoA for hour of travel time back and forth so i am planning on being at the park a full day... however, my DD is like yours, she wakes on her own and goes to bed at 8pm, asleep by 8:20-30 on her own for 12 hours. I don't want to wake her for rope drop, so we will get to the parks when we are ready. She does not fall asleep in the car or anywhere else either, but the other day she finally did sleep in her carseat after a morning of chuck e cheese and Jump It.. so she was tired, and she did fall asleep on the way home. I think that at Disney the kids are going to get worn out so they are likely to nap. If she wants to nap with me or in her stroller we will take a break for that. On our other trip she did nap with me just holding her, we were at a restaurant and she was out the whole time... and normally wouldn't nap, but was worn out from playing all morning.
Have a great trip :)

not going to rope drop and letting DD get up when she is ready and once done with breakfast and ready to go... we would be getting to the parks late morning, so taking a midday break to the resort is just too much wasted time. If we were at a monorail resort then it would be easier. AoA is a bit of a trek from MK. We plan to head back after our early dinner. At home, if she naps, even a late afternoon nap, she is still rubbing her eyes at 7:30 and has no problem going to sleep at normal time.
 
Don't underestimate the power of vacation to totally throw your child for a loop!

We went 2 winters ago - ODD was 4 and hadn't napped in about 2 years. She took a nap (or chilled) in the stroller every day. They both fell asleep during a nighttime parade then woke up and we did Fantasy Land until midnight!

We fully intended to go back for swims and go back to the park. We left the parks around 3 most days and by the time we got back to the resort and swam we just decided to eat and relax (or do DTD).

My point is you can make all the plans you want - but sometimes you just need to change it up once you are actually experiencing it!
 
I suggest to just go with the flow and be willing to adjust as needed. When we went to Disney in April I had planned on taking my (then) 16 month old and no-longer napping 3.5 year old back to the room every day for rest time. We ended up only doing that on the first day then decided that was too difficult. We had to work hard to keep the 16 month old awake through lunch and the bus ride back to the resort. By the 2nd day he was asleep well before we were planning to head back. He ended up sleeping in the stroller for 2 hours and from then on we decided to just let him nap in the stroller or baby carrier and just go with it.

My older son did fine without naps. If he acted tired we just walked around with him riding in the stroller for a while to allow him to get some rest. I think he fell asleep one day in the stroller. You just never know how they are going to do so I suggest not worrying about it and just go with the flow.

I will add that we did have a a couple semi-rest days where we slept in and didn't go to a park until late or went to the water park in the morning but took the afternoon off. Those were days everyone got caught up on rest.
 
On our first trip, it was so stimulating for our 4 yr old son, that he wound up taking an afternoon nap nearly every day. Plus it was a rainy trip, so we spent a little more time in the hotel room.
 
OP,

I wouldn't feel like you need to plan for the nap. You know your kids best. If DD is about to hit meltdown due to being tired, decide then. Is a snack and quiet time at the park all she needs or is it a nap in a stroller or is it time to go back to the room? Family trip this past spring, my niece, 3 at the time and not one for napping, her parents handled everyday based on what was needed. If out late one night, maybe they slept in the next day. If home early, up for rope drop. If everyone needed a mid day break, back to room, nap, and out again. Was it perfect for the little one? No. At times she was cranky. But, she also didn't want to miss anything and was excited. Was it a great trip overall? You bet! But there was really no way to predict too much. They did their best, but nobody can totally predict how even their own kid is going to react to the huge excitement of a trip to Disney.
 
I have a dd that is 20 months, and she is to the point where she tells me she is tired. Usually she can sleep anywhere, but usually likes to be up from 6 am to 10pm. She usually takes a two hour nap during the day, but I always let her tell me. So this is what I will do, she can tell me and if she can't sleep in the stroller then it's back to the hotel until she's ready. If she's having a melt down, it's gonna be a longtime in the hotel anyways but short naps don't do it then. For me typically we will prob go open to close with her napping in stroller.

Op only you know what's best for your baby, but I think the open to 7ish time frame sounds good.
 





Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE









DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom