When we went to WDW 2 years ago with my daughter who was 4 we spent three days in a row at MK. We had nice sit down character meals and took plenty of sit down snack breaks. Sat watching parades etc and were fine. Granted as we walked back to contempoary every night she was asleep in the stroller (never happens).
This time we are going to parks 4 days in a row and will have to contend with the buses (POFrench Quarter) We’lll have my daughter 7 and son just turning 4 on the trip. Double stroller for both and plan on doing character meals, snack breaks. etc. We don’t want to leave mid day since buses are a pain and we want to do a lot of things in the park (all at leisure pace in TP) We keep being told we are crazy but it’s by people who go for 7-10 days. We’re going in November so it wont be that hot.
Also, we wont plan on staying for fireworks etc., sadly b/c my kids can barely stay awake for fireworks ont eh 4th of july at home LOL So Rivers of Light and “maybe” last night at MK we may push it but no super late nights.
Anyone else not taken midday breaks and lived to tell the tale?
I don’t have kids BUT DH and I never took a break. We did shows and indoor things in the afternoon to combat the November Florida heat (75-85 everyday). We went from RD to park close 7 days straight and it was wonderful.
No kids, but I never take mid-day breaks. My trips are usually short (4-5 days) and I really don’t want to take that much time away from the park. Also, I only go Nov-Apr, so I don’t have the heat issues. If I had the luxury of 7 to 10 days, I might be more likely to schedule breaks, but I would prefer no-break park days mixed with no-park days to relax.
Until our last trip we always went for 2 weeks, open to close every day. I could have done it last year too, but DH (who has a health condition) couldn’t and even DS11 was struggling. We go in summer so it’s very hot and the parks are open long hours. In November I’d guess you’ll be fine.
We don’t take midday breaks. Just do what works for you. When my kids were the age of your kids, they wouldn’t nap if we did take a break, so I figured why bother? We didn’t stay for fireworks because they would wake up at 6:30AM whether they stayed up late or went to bed on time. We just left when we were tired. When they were 4 and 7, we did fine with that routine until the middle of day 4 when they both had a meltdown. At that point we bailed and went to the pool. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
My kids, 4 and almost 2 on our last trip took naps in the stroller. We had early mornings or late nights, never both in 1 day and they did great! This year I’m doing the same thing, they are 5 and 2 1/2
I have preschool age kids and go in winter. We take a break if we plan to stay until 10. We relax in the park mid afternoon (i.e. stroller break) on days we power through. We always have a car, so sometimes they’ll fall asleep on the drive back to the villa. They rarely actually nap there.
I never take midday breaks. My 4yo son wouldn’t want to do it anyway! He has never liked napping. I tried to leave one day and he had a meltdown. We have TS meals and snack breaks like you mentioned. He runs himself to the point of exhaustion and naps in his stroller.
We planned to take breaks every day but actually did not a few times due to,
getting to the parks late (10 or 11am) and not feeling we had been there long enough for a break or that if we left we would come back
being off-site guests with a car, that MK ferry trip eats up so much time we didn’t feel we would actually get much of a rest.
Our second day at MK we found a chill corner of Pecos Bill’s after lunch and the parade and let the little ones nap in the stroller while we sipped tea/lemonade and the older ones did Pirate’s Adventure and POTCaribbean.
We have on many occasions recently opted for a late start and stay on through night time, or an early start with a late afternoon departure.
The past two trips, though, we returned to taking midday breaks and it’s really amazing. I think we prefer it when we have an early start (ie we rope dropped for FoP and were at bus by 0630)
We are not a rope drop family, so we get to the parks mid morning after a leisurely breakfast at our room, have a lunchtime ADR every day, and basically have dessert for supper. We dedicate at least 3-4 nights of the 8 day drip to staying up for a late fireworks show at one of the parks.
Our kids will be 10 and 13 for our next trip in August 2018, so they can hang, We never went to WDW when they were small and would have needed to use a stroller, so can’t really comment on the wisdom of the midday break with little ones.
I think it depends on the individual and the type of family you have. We tend to stay put once we are back to home base at the resort so I would be afraid to waste a park day if we went back in the middle of our day.
2 weeks straight open to close with DD4.5 and we survived.
We had the stroller with us while in the park and she just slept as we walked around when she felt like she had had enough. Although at the end of it, my feet were pretty ruined.
we are planning another trip with no mid day breaks and going for 4 days (1 park each day). we also plan on going from rope drop til close each day. we have sit down breakfast and dinner planned each day so that will be our breaks. we did the same thing when the kids were 2 and 4 and they never nap at home and wouldnt you believe it…they napped the whole time. we had a double stroller and they just napped when they wanted to which was fine for me cause then i kinda got to rest and enjoy my vacation without having to worry about where they were, etc. we also have planned mk rope drop and then staying for mnsshp which we did the first visit. the kids missed the parade cause they were sleeping but i relaxed with my starbucks so all was well. now this year we have another child who is 2 and the others are 6 and 8 so we will see how that goes. I dont understand leaving because its a long trek back and worth to the hotel and they wouldnt nap in the room and who the hell thinks swimming is relaxing…not me. swimming is so much stress for me making sure they are not drowning and they kids get so worn out from it. i can swim at home i dont need to do it at disney where i spend a ton of money on tickets. i would be thinking…wow i wonder what rides or food i could be eating instead of sitting by a body of water that they have in my state also. but whatever floats people’s boats…i dont judge. so i say take the stroller and have them nap and have fun.
I’ve gone with a 23 month old, 11 month old and soon to be 4 year old. Never took a midday break. They slept in the stroller when they got tired. My son actually fell asleep on pirates of the Caribbean when he was 23 months old.
We went last year in first part of December with 2 -4 year olds. They would fall asleep briefly in stroller some days It takes a lot to leave, get on bus, get settled in the room then back on bus go back thru security etc… so I tried to just schedule no extra long days. The first day we left magic kingdom and went to mickeys back yard BBQ. It was over around 8 so we had a fairly early night. The next day we had emh and we arrived by rd so we had pretty long day but then 3rd day we went to Hollywood studios and did everything we wanted by 1:30 or so and did go back to resort but we didn’t plan anything for that night. We could have gone back to one of parks for a while but using our touring plans we never had to wait long in lines and we really did all we planned to do so we watched movies under the stars and let my granddaughter swim. It was nice to have one short day. Then we rd the next morning and stayed all day again for the next two days. We were there for 5 days. So that worked for us. 4 or 5 really long days in a row probly would catch up with you. But taking a partial day break in the middle really helped us. No major meltdowns and the girls had a blast!!
