Do you keep your young kids up later at Disney?

laxfanmom · May 20, 2019

We are going to Disneyworld next month with 17 ppl - aged 81 down to 4 months. All of my grandkids (5 of them) are my two son’s children and I have very little (virtually no) say in decisions such as bedtime. The oldest two granddaughters are 5 1/2 and almost 5. They both have sisters that are 2 1/2ish. I believe that all of the kids will be put to bed by 7pm every day that they are there. They will never see the fireworks.

A little family history here - all of my adult children (who will be on this trip) went to Disneyworld with their grandparents when they were 5, and all stayed in the park until the fireworks almost every day of their trip.

Do you extend your kids bedtimes for a special occasion like this?

cmarsh31 · May 20, 2019

Nope. They'd totally meltdown the entire next day and it would be a disaster. My kids didn't nap and couldn't recover. When they were little we enjoyed Disney at their pace. Now with teens, it's all late nights and no rope dropping.

Alison S · May 20, 2019

Definitely not for a 2.5 year old.

5...depends how late the fireworks are.

The fireworks won't be very special with screaming kids!

But go with the flow...who knows what will end up happening once you're there.

Jax1023 · May 20, 2019

I have 2 kids- 7 and 2. We have very early bedtimes normally- no later than 7.

At Disney, we do one late night per trip- followed by a down day with a long nap. If I kept them up more they’d be whiny disasters and that’s fun for no one.

Honestly if we got to our late day and they weren’t holding up we’ll, I’d scrap it and head out to bed. I’d rather have happy well rested kids who missed fireworks that grumps who saw fireworks.

iujen94 · May 20, 2019

When my kids were that age, we were really strict about bedtimes. My kids were nightmares the next day if they stayed up too late. We pretty much stuck to bedtimes while at Disney. If there were early-ish fireworks one night, we might try to catch them one night, but that was rare. It just wasn’t worth it to us to keep them up and have them (and us) be miserable that night and the next day. On the other hand, my sister’s daughter could stay up super late and be fine. So I’d say, trust that the kids’ parents know their kids best, and let them make the decisions.

daisy2013 · May 20, 2019

At that age, we do one late night for fireworks followed by a sleep in/pool day. However, we did let the kids stay up later than their normal bedtime, but would have an early dinner and leave the park to go back to our resort for some pool time and shower/bath before bed.

AllieBoo · May 20, 2019

I guess I'm the exception. We always stayed late when my kids were little, and it never bothered them. I have a photo of my then almost 3 year old with Mickey and Minnie at MK after Midnight during an EMH. She loved it, she has the biggest smile on her face and we had no issues the next day; we just slept in a little later than usual. I say try it one night and see how they do, they may surprise their parents.

TwinkleKS · May 20, 2019

Like others have said, when my kids were very young we would pick one night as a late night, or one trip we stayed at the Contemporary where we could watch the fireworks from our room - so if they were up they saw them ... Depending on where you live, there is also the time difference that might help you. Fireworks at 9 in Disney are 8 at home for us, so the kids may only be staying up an hour later to see them.

Selket · May 20, 2019

My kids at that age could easily stay up. It was also useless to take them back to the room for a nap because they wouldn't nap either (not after they were 2.5 years old). Clearly not all kids are like this. I suppose like the differences in adults and bedtimes - kids can be the same. They might be able to stay up fine for fireworks or it could be a nightmare....who knows? The parents get the final say of course. However it sounds like an excellent excuse to plan more trips as they get older right?

Or perhaps you are concerned that the parents cannot be with you at night? There used to be in room sitting services with lots of reviews here on the board - maybe on the families board. We used that once for a night time party and it worked out fine.

SG131 · May 20, 2019

Yes, for special things like vacation, bedtime is not nearly as strict at home. Though at home, bedtime was stricter during the week than on the weekend especially in the summer when we would go to the drive in or other fun things. We did a midday nap and then went to MNSSHP until midnight. If they weren't night owls I probably would have rethought that. Seeing the fireworks at the castle are magical, I wouldn't want them to miss that.

KrazeeK120 · May 20, 2019

My son has been on 2 trips - 18 months and the week before he turned 3. He hasn’t seen any fireworks. His normal bedtime is around 7:30 and we stuck to that at Disney. I didn’t want to chance ruining a day with a too-tired kid.

We recently went to a nighttime baseball game and stayed in a hotel. He was up past 10 pm and did fine the next day. (He’s 3.5 now.) We are planning a trip for March of next year and may try a later night one night and see how he does.

quandrea · May 20, 2019

We maintained bedtimes when the kids were young at Disney. We figured the fireworks would still be there when they were old enough to stay up late. Now that they are 9, 9 and 15 we can stay out later. They still like going to bed early though. We are morning people!

DisLiss · May 20, 2019

My kids never slept in when they were little. No matter how late they were up at night for any reason, they would still rise with the sun in the morning, so there was never any chance to make up sleep in the morning for us.

So we tried very hard when they were small to stick to their bedtime, or within a short window of time past it. If they did stay up later one night, we'd try to find some extra rest during the following day. To keep them up repeatedly within a short amount of time would lead to overtired kids in our household. Especially since on vacation they're so busy each day. They're using up energy like crazy.

Now, if the kids are the type to just crash extra times each day in their strollers or on the bus or whatnot, then maybe a later bedtime won't be as big a deal, but I think I'd try it out with a fun busy weekend at home before trying it at Disney.

foodiddiedoo · May 20, 2019

AllieBoo said:
I guess I'm the exception. We always stayed late when my kids were little, and it never bothered them. I have a photo of my then almost 3 year old with Mickey and Minnie at MK after Midnight during an EMH. She loved it, she has the biggest smile on her face and we had no issues the next day; we just slept in a little later than usual. I say try it one night and see how they do, they may surprise their parents.

Same for me, my 3 year old stayed at the parks till 9 a few nights, and was never in bed before 9 on our last trip. Also, 7PM seems insanely early for an almost 6 year old to have to go to bed.

crazylady · May 20, 2019

When my kids were that age, we went to the park every other day. If we had a late night it wasn't a big deal because we had nothing to do the next day. My youngest was a stroller napper so we did full park days on the days we went

pixiemama91 · May 20, 2019

We are lenient with bedtime on vacations. During the school year my kids go to bed between 8:30-9 so staying up a little later is usually no issue. I am pretty good at running on very little sleep. My kids are pretty good at just going with the flow. We have always raised them around our schedules and not theirs so they are used to schedules changing often. But everyone is different.

sponica · May 20, 2019

I just sort of went with the flow with my then 20 month old (seriously she was one of those kids who NEEDED to be in her crib by 6 or 630). I wasn't determined to see any fireworks so that wasn't a dealbreaker on my end. I think we left the parks around 7ish most nights, back at the hotel by 8. She was definitely feeling the sleep deprivation on our last day, she slept in her stroller for like 3 hours (including lunch at Tiffins).

That being said, I would NOT push the bedtime issue. Seriously unless you're volunteering to deal with the cranky fallout the next day, it's not worth dying on that hill.

LSUmiss · May 20, 2019

Absolutely not for us. We don’t change bedtime for any reason. DS is 12 mos. His bedtime is between 8-8:30, but we start his routine at 7:30ish. First trip he was 7 mos & this trip he’ll be 14 mos. Can’t say what I’d do when he is older b/c it will depend on him. But, I do know that it’ll be a decision that DH & I will make b/c we know him best. MIL has dropped comments at holidays about our strict adherence to his schedule, but we know that’s what he needs.

Brett Wyman · May 20, 2019

5 year old and 2.5 year old and the answer is "sometimes". But we prep for it. For instance we did take them to MVMCP last November and we made sure they both napped very late in the day in order to handle it. We also left about 9:30, which is still 2 and half hours after their normal bed time. And the next day we slept in with no serious schedule.

Beachmom0317 · May 20, 2019

Our kids are 4 and 3 and we’ve gone 4 times with them. Each time they pass out by 8pm even if we try to keep them awake. They’ve never seen fireworks while we’ve been at WDW. I know that will change one day. So for now I put them to bed early and we enjoy walk on rides at rope drop since they're early risers (6am).

I think it depends on the kid. My friends just took their daughter to WDW for her 4th birthday and she is a night owl and they hit fireworks each night.

Do you keep your young kids up later at Disney?

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