What daily schedule at WDW works best for your family?

[Iralyn]

I'm wondering what others have found to be the best daily schedule for their family.

In theory, I love the idea of going early for rope drop, then heading back to the hotel for a nap after lunch, then returning in the evening and staying late. Since we are going in August, being back in the air conditioned room for the hottest part of the day seems like a great choice.

BUT....my 6 yo is generally NOT a napper unless she is sick. When she was 3, we went to Jamaica and did late nights and were generally able to get her to nap in the afternoon but I think that is really the last time that she napped when not ill. Of course, we could just go back to the room for quiet time, etc., but I'm wondering how she will be able to manage the late nights/reduced sleep for multiple nights in a row. Should we be planning more sleep-in mornings? Give up the late nights? Something else that I'm not thinking of?

 

[Hibernians]

I think it depends on how many days you will be at WDW - the more days there, then it makes sense to have some sleep in mornings and leisure at the pool or enjoy a relaxing breakfast at the hotel. We tend to stay out late so the rope drops might happen once or twice during a 7 day stay. For a 7 day stay I think at least 2 sleep in days would help re-charge the batteries. The afternoon return to the hotel is an absolute must too.

BTW, we first started going with the kids when they were ages 6,6,5 and 3. Now they are ages 15,15,13 and 12. Experience tells us that its really essential to factor in some down time and let the kids enjoy unstructured, spontaneous leisure time either at the hotel or anywhere outside the parks.

 

[Disneylover99]

The daily schedule that works best for us is our daily schedule at home.

My kids are early risers, so we get to the parks at rope drop. We tend not to go back for a nap/pool time because we rarely make it back to a park. We tour until late afternoon and then head back to our resort for pool time and bed.

One day soon my kids will be teens. There will be a shift in our touring because they'll want to stay up late and sleep in. I'm looking forward to touring at night and watching more fireworks shows.

 

[glk2009]

We recently traveled to WDW with DD6 (for her birthday) and DD2. We planned some late nights but made sure they were the same days as rope drop mornings since we didn't go back to the resort for breaks. And we also made sure the following morning wasn't a rope drop morning. But we did have some rope drop mornings during our 8 day trip.

That was one of the main rules I followed when I was planning.

I felt that FP+ helped us to avoid too many rope drop mornings, but our trip was also when we legacy FPs were still around.

HTH!

 

[Lisa71]

We travel from CA and the time change plus DD is not an early riser means we do things later..rare to make rope drop..but we get there as early as we can..take a shorter break and some days play at the pool until noon then stay late. It works for us. It makes us happier. If it was just DH and I ..or even with DS we could do rope drop. It is not worth it to us to rush and we get done what is most important and have fun.

 

[GrtWtNorth]

If you find that she won't nap or do quiet time in a hotel, try to work in long, slow lunches in quiet air conditioned restaurants (boring is better). It allows everyone to recharge in the air conditioning before going back into the parks. It worked OK for my kid when she was 5, but I still couldn't keep her awake long enough to see the fireworks.

 

[DYOBL0305]

I'm also curious to see what's worked for others. This is our first trip with little ones, they'll be 6, 3, and 1. DD1 doesn't take naps anymore, DD2 naps once for a couple of hours, and the baby anywhere from 3-4 times a day (from 30 min to 1-2 hrs). I'm trying to figure out the best way to make the most out of our time there without wearing them (and ourselves) out too much.

 

[Scottishbrit]

We just got back a month ago. My Daughter is 5 and son is 3. Neither nap. My mom came with us since she works at Disneyland so we got in free. She is older ( 79 ) ut acts like she's 50. I booked a few morning character breakfast's and wanted to do rope drop and the safari first thing in the AM. Ya, no. Didn't happen. Of course my kids are up by 7am at home but not on vacation!!!! I had the tv on, hair dryer going, carrying a conversation and still....snoring away! So I had to cancel all the reservations and never made it to rope drop. What did work better for us was staying out later. Definitely didn't see that coming!

 

[kellyjeanie]

When we went in the fall my kids were 8, 5, and 2. What we gave up was the late nights. Hubs and I are usually night owls but what worked for us was getting up to try to get to the parks at open (or close to) and have one table service most days (it was great to sit and relax for a while). It helped that the 2-year-old fell asleep in the stroller after lunch pretty much every day - he doesn't nap at home but we wore him out, I guess! However, we were usually done by dinner or shortly after. We made it to F! mid-week and then the fireworks in MK our last night, but most nights we were conked out. We had 6 days in the parks so we didn't feel rushed. We took one full day off where we had a late breakfast ADR, did some swimming, and decided to go to DTD for dinner - it was nice to have a day to recuperate.

 

[amym2]

When our kids were 5 and 7, we were sure they wouldn't nap during our WDW trip, but they actually did a couple of days (I did, too!). Over the years, what has worked best for us is to alternate break and no break days. On day one we don't return to the resort because everyone is too excited to rest. We stay in the park until late afternoon and then return to the resort (or rental house) for dinner and make it an earlier night. Day two we return for a rest, day three we stay until late afternoon or dinner, etc. When the kids were little, we would try to do evening entertainment (fireworks, etc) once or twice during the trip. Now that the kids are 12 and 10, we can make it much later in the parks, but we still take breaks some days. And we are at the parks for rd most days because our kids are still early risers, even after a late night.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Day 1 rope drop to close
Day 2 water park
Day 3 rope drop to close
Day 4 water park
Day 5 rope drop to close
Etc

 

[scrapquitler]

Our kids never were nappers (even as babies and toddlers) and we are all night owls, so rope drop/naps would never work for us.

We generally get to the park mid morning (10ish) and stay until closing. Our favorite time in the park is walking down Main St. in MK when it's empty after closing. Even when the kids were young. When they were little, they fell asleep in the stroller if they got tired (and I about passed out from shock because that never happens usually).

The one time we were tired and went back to the room so I could take a nap (on our adults only trip), it ruined the rest of the day for us because I was grouchy and out of sorts. We'll never do that again if we want to go back to the park later in the day.

 

[hbentleylll]

We head out early and do not come back for naps. We tried once (4yo and 1 1/2yo) & it was a horrendous choice. They were in no way settling down for a nap. The rest of the trip the fell asleep in the stroller or show. Worked better for us. We never use evening EMH and instead get them to bed closer to a normal time to be ready for the next day. We do pool when we come out earlier esp on day 2s of parks or AK day.

 

[Happyjen27]

We are nappers here. They never nap at home, but they nap on vacation. We just turn everything off, lay in the dark and set our alarms for 30 min. They don't have to sleep, but the do have to lay quietly until the alarm goes off. When the alarm goes off, they are always asleep, LOL. The alarm is on my phone, and it's on vibrate, so it only wakes me.

We can do one "turn and burn" night a week, meaning out late, and up early the next morning. My kids are sleepers, and they need 11-12 hours a night. I need to make sure I offer that amount of sleep consistently or they will be bratty messes.

So, here is how our week would go:

Arrival = early night
RD, nap, late night
sleep in, nap, late night
sleep in, no nap, early night
RD, nap, late night.

Or any mix and match of that. My kids always do great as long as I offer 12 hours of sleep.

Your situation is complicated a bit by the weather, so you might have to play it by ear a bit. Bear in mind that as "un-busy" as it is in the morning, it can be that "un-busy" as you get later and toward park closing. With an hour left before the park closes, posted wait times are rarely to be trusted, CMs are interested in going home on time and therefore will say a wait is 45 min, when it is sometimes only 10.

 

[MandiC]

Every child is different, when we did Disney our girls were 7 and 9 and our schedule was-

Day 1- Rope drop Epcot, stayed through IllumiNations, no break
Day 2- 8am Cinderella's Table, went back to the room after breakfast due to forgotten items, no actual rest took place , watched the fireworks from California Grill
Day 3- Rope drop Epcot again! finished World Showcase early and went back to the room for a few hours, thought of resting but the kids were more interested in swimming, back to Epcot for 7pm dinner reservations
Day 4- 8am Tusker House, done with AK about 3:30 and went to DTD for the evening
Day 5- rope drop MK stayed all day through the fireworks
Day 6- rope drop HS, left by 4pm due to rain

Not once did the kids say they were tired during the day. They were harder to wake up the last few days but when you are waking a kid up at Disney they are usually pretty excited for what the day holds

 

[kohlby]

It depends on the child. My kids will not nap if we go back - even at 2 years old. (My kids never napped in the stroller either - except when under a year old). It may be nice to cool down and then go back too - your child can rest instead of sleep or at least have a break from the park activity level. However, I have one child who does not to well if she doesn't get enough sleep. And none of mine will sleep in. For this reason, we focus on getting them to bed at night at a reasonable hour. It's also why going back to the room is a waste of time for us - mine don't nap and we can't stay out late normally anyway. That being said, the last night, anything goes!

 

[texasroni75]

We hit the parks every day. We rarely do pools at the resorts and almost never go back to the rooms mid-day unless someone is sick - even when I was pregnant and when we bring toddlers. But, we don't jam-pack our days at the parks. By not spending time going back to the rooms, where my kids won't nap anyway, we just do things more leisurely at the parks.

Days usually go like this:

7am, everyone up and dressed (showers are at night before bedtime). By 8am we are eating breakfast in-room or at the food-court/restaurant at the resort.

At the bus stop between 9 and 9:30. Parks by 10:00am. We hardly ever do rope-drop anymore, and if we do, it's usually just because the breakfast line was short and the buses came quickly.

Lunch between 11 and 1. I can tell when DH gets hungry and cranky, that's when I decide when we stop to eat - the kids aren't the complainers ha ha!

Dinner around 6. We snack in between and take lots of sitting breaks, people watching, slow rides, etc. in between the bigger thrill rides. Sometimes we stay until park close, and other times we feel done sooner. We make decisions based on crankiness levels of each of us.

For us, I think it helps that DH and I switch things up a bit. We'll trade kids (splitting up the older kids and the younger kids), so that neither of us is dealing with the less predictable and more energy-draining toddlers ALL day. Letting the toddlers run around and get their energy out also helped them to take nice naps in their strollers at some point each day!