How long do you stay at the parks?

[teamhayes]

And do you take breaks to swim or nap your kids?di you go back out after?

[teamhayes]

We aren't going until October but i tentatively planned out the week

My h thinks my expectations are way to high and the kids will crash each day by 6-7 and I shouldn't even try to make dinner reservations

He thinks we should leave the park each day around 2 go back to the hotel to swim and either grab something toneat at the hotel or perhaps hope the kids fall asleep in The stroller and grab a quick service dinner or walk around Epcot at night

I was thinking get to the parks around 8 and go all day (specifically mk) and leave around 6 for dinner bed by 8 rinse repeat

Up in the air how tonattack animal kingdom Epcot or has

I don't think we need the whole day there but there are night shows they would like but the parks are so far from the resort it feels like if we leave it will be time to come baxknby the time we get back to the hotel

And yes I am over thinking this

[curbsideprophet]

How old are the kids? Where are you staying?

When we went in Oct we took breaks most days. I think we spent a full day at AK without a break. We did do some dinner ADRs but we tried to make them around their normal dinner time.

[teamhayes]

Kids will range from 7 months to 5.5 years at travel time

We are staying at the Poly

Since we are there during not spooky halloweeen my closes for us at 7 but if we go go go after 3 days the kids are going to be toast

I guess I need to figure out what's realistic and how long it would take to leave swim and go back to a park if we wanted to do nighttime entertainment and dinner

[teamhayes]

Oh and the 5.5 hasn't napped in years but the 4 yr old could potentially fall asleep in the stroller

[curbsideprophet]

Even staying at the Poly I would plan for at least 4 hours to get a true break. Given that you will have kids of napping age I would plan for a break most days. Is MK open late any of the nights you are there? Will you have park hoppers?

[revolution]

My kids have been between 1 and 7 when we've gone. We do parks for 5 days and we don't take a break. We are there at rope drop and go until they are tired so anywhere between 5 and 8. MK days we stay at least one night until close and watch fireworks.

[L From The D]

Went this past summer with an 8 and a 5 year old.

We did PPO breakfasts or rope drop nearly every day and stayed in the parks until 4-7pm, with one TS meal per day. I planned all our FPs for the morning/early afternoon (no later than 2pm), thinking that the kids would tire and/or want to go swim, but they were little park warriors and wanted to stay later each day. We went back to MK one night after 1900 PF dinner and stayed until about 8:30pm then left to avoid the night parade crowds.

[teamhayes]

So the last 2 replies make me hopeful

Did you guys do dinners or just go back to the hotel

[DarcyLongfellow]

We never take mid-day breaks. But we go for more frequent, shorter trips, so any crankiness is short lived.

When we took an itty bitty baby (DD2 was 4 months old), she napped in the baby carrier. When our girls were young toddlers (under 2), we had some success with stroller naps. After that, we just pushed through.

We usually get to the parks around 10 and stay until 6 or so.

[ilikedonuts]

My 5 year old only napped once last trip because I made her the day of our Halloween party.

[ilikedonuts]

we almost always do evening stuff (75% of our nights are late nights) so we usually go back to the room for rest (or pool). But we also stay at blt so it's easy to get to.

[turkletsmom]

We go about once a year, so DS has been at 10mos, 22mos and 34mos. We don't take breaks but luckily he naps in the stroller. We do much better with lunch ADR since I never know how he'll be doing at night and we only do late nights at EPCOT or HS since we normally stay at the Boardwalk.

[L From The D]

Dec 30, 2016 22:50:56 GMT -5 teamhayes said:

So the last 2 replies make me hopeful

Did you guys do dinners or just go back to the hotel

On our 8 day trip, we did 2 DSp dinners (one QS, one TS), one resort TS dinner, and one park TS dinner. The other nights we snacked in the park or had QS dinner at the resort.

[lala]

We always do midday breaks & it's a combo of naps/swim/rest depending on ages. Even before kids we took rests. We get to the parks 30 min before it opens, stay until 1ish and then go back into the parks by 5, sometimes earlier. My kids do go to bed by 7 at home, but this is pushed in Disney. No way I'm missing all the night stuff. They do some stroller naps or fall asleep in the strollers in the evenings. We do a dinner reservation or 2, but at 4:30/5. We are also not big on eating many meals at the resort - more if it's a resort with good options - but def not counter service resort daily. We do a lot if Epcot quick service/snacks.

MK will not close at 7pm every day during Halloween - prob 3-4 nights a week. Definitely go a night it's open like normal to see the fireworks. You might watch the Halloween fireworks from
The poly, too.

[Wines Not Whines]

My son is 6 years old. We usually get to the parks early, we take mid-day breaks to go back to the hotel and rest, and then we go back into the parks in the evening for dinner and more activities. He's usually fine until around 9 pm.

[firedancer10288]

When my kid was a toddler we would go early and then come back for a mid-afternoon nap and dinner. Now we go hard all day open- close.

[nsl]

I think this is truly a matter of knowing your kids and how well they handle that kind of stimulating day. The first time we went with just DS 1 he was four and still napping for over an hour every day at home. We rope-dropped every day because he was an early riser, but never did more than five hours straight in the parks because he wore out and needed quiet and rest. We did fireworks one evening, and he fell asleep in my H's shoulders.

The second time we went DS 1 was 8 and DS 2 was 5. DS 1 could have gone from rope drop to 8-9 without trouble, but DS 2 needed to head back to the hotel by 6:00 at the latest. I didn't plan late dinners or to see fireworks/evening shows because I knew he wouldn't be able to stay up for them. We'll do those things on a subsequent trip when he's older.

My best advice to you is to keep your plans flexible. Meeting the needs of four kids must be challenging on a normal day; meeting them at Disney will be even more so. If your H is objecting to the plans, at least strongly consider the possibility that hat he's correct about them being too ambitious for your family.

[livinitup]

I like doing the rope drop at MK, lunch at the park, afternoon nap/swim at the hotel, and return for evening parade and light show. Same schedule for EPCOT. I do the whole day at AK, since it's not crowded and closes early. That's usually our dinner by the pool night. If we want to sleep-in, it's usually not a park day and we have fun with a walk around Downtown Disney or Boardwalk.

[jeaniebueller]

We stay all day and leave for the night. Not a fan of leaving and coming back.