what to expect from toddler - sleep - nights??

[emmamc252]

Hey fellow disneyholics!!!
SO I showed my mum my "plan" for our dec 2013 trip (2 weeks at wdw staying on site) and she basically asked me "where did you pluck this lot out from?"
The more I think about it the more I think she may have a point. SO if anyone who has been with a toddler before would indulge me please give me your opinions.
so it will be dh, me, dd 2.5 and ds 6 months. We have been with dd twice previously but then she was a baby (4 months and 13 months) so basically slept in the stroller etc so fitted around whatever we were doing.

DD is like me and needs minimal (for her age) sleep. she stopped her afternoon naps about 3 months ago, just before turning 2. I realise this is really young but she just doesn't need the sleep, she was having real difficulty getting to sleep at night, was then tired in the morning etc so on my mums advice (as I was the same) we tried her without them and she is SOOO Much happier!!!

why am i explaining this? well because for some reason i just "think" she may nap on holiday. mum says i'm kidding myself and that even if she falls asleep on the buses etc it will be half an hour and won't mean she can suddenly stay up until 10pm and still be up at 7am the next day.

now dd is not one to sleep in. if we go to an evebibg function, ni matter what 7;30 maybe 8am is the latest she will wake up and that would be highly unusual. so i do expect her to still wake up at 7;30AM aproximately.
We aren't going to be "military" about rope drop so will have breakfast and then head to the parks.
then plan to do parks, have lunch at the park most days then back to the resort for a chill out, swim (we're from england it will feel warm enough for us most days) etc and then head back out for the evening.
This is where my mum has pointed out the issue.
morning lunch etc is pretty much what dd is used to now. BUT she has dinner about 5;30-6pm and goes to bed 7;30pm at the latest, earlier if she is showing "the signs." so she gets about 12hrs sleep a night.
I don't think i could "Put her down" for a nap as such as she just doesn't do this now, I think it would be a case of putting the tv on and seeing what happens, her falling asleep on the bus etc. and as my mum said, she very well may not do any of the above.
so with our current "plan" we would be heading back out about 5;30pm when she is used to having dinner. we have adr's and plans to eat about 6;30-7pm so would only be getting out of the restaurants at say 8pm. then If we want to do any shopping or for her to see the parades fireworks etc its going to get later and later.
If we are out and she is tired she will fall asleep in the pushchair (I think) but how do I manage pardes, fireworks etc???

 

[Tpiejg]

my ds was the same way when it came to naps. He stopped napping by the time he was a year old and was in bed by 7 and slept til 7 in the morning. If it were me I think I would alternate between late nights and fireworks and parades, with earlier adr's and bedtimes. If there are any rope drops you want to get to plan them for the day after your daughter went to bed earlier. Hopefully that will cut down on you daughter being over tired and not enjoying herself. At every parade I have seen so many tired crying children, along with stressed out parents. It is sad, nobody was enjoying themselves. I think I would rather miss a few things and really enjoy what I did see than having exhausted kids and being stressed. You are lucky too, you have two weeks, which gives you plenty of time to see everything and give your daughter time to sleep.

 

[amym2]

My DD also gave up naps at 2, but when we went to WDW just before she turned 3, she was willing to nap some. She definitely wouldn't nap the first full day in the parks (too excited), but a few days into the trip and she napped, along with the rest of us. She probably napped 3 of the 7 days, and that was in a bed not on a bus or stroller (she would never sleep in a stroller) for a decent length of time.

Honestly your best bet is to be realistic that if she doesn't nap, you won't see much of the nighttime entertainment. When our kids were that age, we hit Wishes and that was about it. Now that they are 11 and 9, we are able to make it later. If you plan to come back when she is older, don't stress about seeing everything. Everyone will be much happier if you stick close to your usual routine. If she seems fine, go for it and try to make it, but plan to leave if she shows signs that she is tired or cranky. And by all means, have some snacks available at the times that she is used to having dinner.

 

[Schmeck]

My youngest was done with naps also by age 2, but she slept every day in her uncomfortable, cheap umbrella stroller at WDW!

If she falls asleep in her stroller, just go with it. Stay in the parks, see the fireworks, etc. If she sleeps through it, so what?

Since you are staying for 2 weeks, you have plenty of time to let her catch up on her sleep every third day or so. You just have to remember that you can't do it all every day.

 

[sb682]

DS is at the stage where he is about ready to give up naps, but there are days he still NEEDS them and fights sleep. We went to WDW for a short weekend in July and I had to put him in our car and drive him around until he fell asleep, then stay with him in the car because he will wake up if you try to move him. He would not sleep in his stroller at all.

Your signature says you're coming from England; have you factored in the time change? We took DS on a vacation when he was almost 2 and flew into Las Vegas, 2 hours behind our local time. We did our best to keep him up to his normal bedtime and get him on local time, but he couldn't stay up past 6 pm, and he got up at 4 am and wouldn't go back to bed! I wouldn't make any big plans for the first day after you arrive, especially if you're not sure whether she'll sleep in her stroller.

 

[msmama]

My son dropped his naps at an early age, too. If he were tired enough, he'd fall asleep on the bus, but, like you said, that didn't mean he'd stay up any later.

What works best for us most days, is to hit the parks as early as possible (generally within 1/2 hour of rope drop), tour until dinner time(ish) and then head back to the resort for resting. Once we got my son back to the resort, there was no way we were going to get him to leave again. Personally, I'd think that asking a 2 year old to change both eating and sleeping times is asking for trouble (at least it would be with mine).

Honestly, it wasn't until he turned 5 (this year) that we saw any nighttime shows. A tired and cranky kid just wasn't worth it to me.

That said, you're going long enough that I'd think you could play things by ear. If the littles show interest in fireworks a couple of nights, you could plan your days around that.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

It is so hard as parents to choose what to do. I'm in the same boat. My DH and I are going with our DD2 for her first trip. We have been there before many times so luckily we aren't commando style anymore, it is all about her. We were going to go for the Christmas Party but I don't really want to spend all that money to go for a couple hours, and I don't want to wear her out too much. She normally goes to bed at 8:00pm and is alseep by 8:20pm. She was giving up her naps for the longest time b/c she wanted to nurse to sleep and stay with me, but if i laid her down on her nap mat she would just get up and cry. It did make her zonk out and go to sleep fast at night though. If my some chance she would nap then we would still keep the normal bedtime, but it drove me nuts to have her awake in her crib another 45min to an hour since she wasn't SUPER tired. I'd hold her hand through the crib and wait for her to fall asleep so she wouldn't cry....well I recently had her not falling asleep from nursing and when i put her in her crib she still wanted me... so i just walked out of the room, closed the door. That simple, she laid herself down and went right to sleep.. even if she napped. It was SUCH a relief to not sit and hold her hand for so long. She protested the new routine a little and started crying but as SOON as i shut that door she laid down and fell asleep. Just wanted to share that.

So here is what we are planning for our DD2:

Arrival Saturday late afternoon: No adr to worry about, either Epcot or DHS til 8pm, if she did nap a lot on the plane and in the car then we may stay to watch the fireworks at Epcot, but if she did not then we will go to DHS which closes at 8pm.

Sun: Let her sleep til whenever she gets up, go to MK. Dinner at 5pm at Kona, monorail ride and back to the resort

Mon: same, different ADR

Tues: Animal Kingdom, late ADR with characters at Tusker House, stay til 5pm, go back to the resort for a QS dinner, a little pool time

Wed: pool time at resort, DHS around 1pm-8, 6:30 is Osbourne LIghts.. can't wait for her to run around and dance to those!! We'll leave after she's done with those

Th- Mk day leave at 7pm.. dinner at 4:20 at the beasts castle. no party, i think that is too much for her to stay up too late

Fri- Mk day or Epcot, we'll have a leisurely approach each morning and then we have a princess dinner at 4:45pm

Sat- travel day, early flight no parks

We are bringing Sprout Toddler pouches for her meals and snacks so she can eat at her normal times. She is accepting a little people food so when we eat, we'll give her some finger foods too.

happy planning

 

[RapunzelsGoodMom]

I went when my two were almost the exact same ages last year. It was fine but if I had it to do over, I would plan a "resort" day about every third or fourth day. DD definitely slept a lot more than normal (usually a power nap is fine but she was OUT for about two hours in the afternoon)... but she handled everything like a champ. We'd already planned PM back at the resort for DS' nap time so it worked out fine. But he had a meltdown one evening because he was NOT excited about sleeping in his stroller one more minute. I think it could have been because he was about 7 months old and a stomach sleeper from the minute he could flip himself over....but he REALLY didn't appreciate all the night-time entertainment. My easy baby SCREAMED for about 40 minutes straight after our third later night out when I woke him to put him in his PJs.

So my advice, don't forget to plan more down time than you think you need. Always easy to power up....but don't let ADRs or promises of fireworks, etc. run your kids ragged.

Also, if you DO go to night time entertainment, this year DS1.5 will be going in his PJs. Quick lift from stroller to bed!

 

[Crystal824]

We took DD to WDW last May. She was almost three. We kind of throw our home schedule out the window when at WDW. DD is very flexible so she is good. I must admit DD still naps. She gets about 10-11 hours of sleep at night and naps for about 2/12 hours during the day. We never took her back to the hotel to sleep; we just let her nap in the stroller.

We would generally make rope drop, stay all day, eat dinner, and often leave when she got cranky. If we wanted to see a night show, we would either sleep in, come back and "rest" a bit at the hotel during the day or stay out late and sleep in some the next day. DD was great. It really depends on the kid though. If she is rigid about her schedule, you may just have to come back early.

We also only went for a week so with the second week, you might have to give her more rest.

 

[bumbershoot]

If we are out and she is tired she will fall asleep in the pushchair (I think) but how do I manage pardes, fireworks etc???

Well, something will probably have to give.

Figure out what your time change will do to how you feel. We are coming from the west, so if we want some easy late nights we do them at the *beginning* of our trip. As the trip wears on and we get used to eastern time, we've already had the late nights and it's not a struggle. Where will your easy late nights fall?

We don't have anywhere near a time change as you, but we found early we can't do late nights and early mornings day after day. We fall apart. For us, emptier parks are far more important to us than late shows, so it's simple to work out our priorities. With teensy kids like yours, even though fireworks are nice and all, it just might not be worth it *on this trip* to do the later night things.

 

[DopeyDame]

I realize we are in a different situation, because I know we'll be at Disney many many times, while I'm guessing you want be since you have to fly from England. So take our experiences with a grain of salt...

When DS was 2, I decided it was a lot more important to me to have a fun, positive trip then to see everything. And he is a nightmare when he doesn't have his sleep! So there was one night when we did stay up for the fireworks, but they were at 8pm, so it wasn't too late. Other than that, we were back at the hotel by 8 every night, and put him to bed reasonably close to his normal schedule. I can't imagine the meltdown we would have had if I had tried to get him to behave in a table service restaurant at 8:30 at night.

We did, though, take advantage of the fact that he got up early, and I'd suggest you guys do that. If you're up anyway, get yourself out of bed and make it to the parks shortly after rope drop. You'll get SO much more done in that first hour or two, and it will fit better into your son's schedule.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[lovebug21]

My son was done napping by 3 and we were worried about late nights as well. We love the parks at night and were worried we would have to miss them but we he just fell asleep in his stroller. He would also sometimes fall asleep for a nap during the day in it. We tried going back to the hotel for naps but he would fight us and we were all miserable so we just decided to see how he would do just staying out and it was great. We would even eat dinner while he slept in his stroller. We saved eating, shopping, walking around until latèr. If he woke up we would go on some rides. We just went with the flow and it went so much better than expected.

 

[bumbershoot]

I realize we are in a different situation, because I know we'll be at Disney many many times, while I'm guessing you want be since you have to fly from England. So take our experiences with a grain of salt...

I'm guessing you have signatures turned off...the OP has a ton of past, regular, trips in her signature. I don't think the flight bugs her.

 

[DSNY4ever]

I am confused about your dinner ADR times. You say she usually goes to sleep at 7:30 at home, so why did you book your ADR's so late? What time do you eat dinner at home? Won't she be getting pretty sleepy and possibly cranky when you are dining?

I think with all toddlers you'll have to play things by ear. We have ADRs and nighttime shows planned...but we are also prepared to miss all of them if he is just too exhausted (yes, I have had to mentally prepare myself to miss out on Fantasmic!). We plan to let him fall asleep in the stroller whenever he wants and we have 3 break days planned where we are just going to enjoy our hotel, let him nap (in a bed) and do whatever he wants. I hope he will be as "go with the flow" easy as he was in Disneyland, but 2 is a trickier age than 1!

Make a plan, but be flexible and you will have fun. It sounds like you know the parks well, so you will be fine!

 

[Chabby]

We were there last week with my 2.5yo. This is what happened most days: we would do RD or an early ADR and then tour the park. He was in the stroller most of the time, but loved walking to get on rides. At some point he would get tired and fall asleep in the stroller, maybe around 11 or 12, and my parents and I took turns to stay with him while the rest rode the attractions.
We had late lunches so he was awake for that and then around 2 we would go back to the hotel to chill out. He played during that time, and around 6pm we would go back to the parks, eat quick service dinner, do rides, watch shows, etc. and he would finally fall asleep in the stroller again.
We carried him asleep in the bus, back in the stroller and then to bed.
He would wake up at around 6 or 7 the following morning ready for more fun!

I don't know if he could do it for 2 weeks, though...

 

[SCmom3]

We went in May and took three kids (just turned 4, almost 3, and 15 months). We went back to the MK every evening after dinner. The first night, I wasn't sure what to expect. Our older children had stopped napping but passed out every afternoon in their stroller while in the parks. They are normally in bed by 7pm and asleep soon after. However, at Disney, they were up later and each fell asleep in their stroller and were pushed out of the parks, onto the ferry to the TTC, through the parking lot, loaded into the van, driven to the condo, carried up to our room, and not once did they stir. Disney just wore them out so bedtime was easier for us on vacation than it is at home. In the mornings, they were up as usual and ready to go.