No afternoon breaks - am I crazy?

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

When my kids were little, we did breaks back in the room and sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. My DD would always fall asleep in the stroller when she reached her nap time but my son needed to be out of the park to calm down and nap. On the days when he didn't nap right away, one of us would take him to the pool - he loves to swim and that would usually tire him out enough to take a short nap afterwards.

I think your plan will work since you are ending your park time earlier than we did.

 

[DreamIsaWish]

Mine never napped in the room at 2, only the stroller. Afternoon breaks were more trouble than they were worth to me. Walking out of/back into the park and your resort adds more mileage than you realize-plus it's the hottest part of the day. Shortened days worked much better for us on the past 2 trips. We took ac breaks in the longer, sitting down attractions or restaurants (scheduled ts or as). In the heat, with the kids, it was much less exhausting to hang in a few hours past nap time and then crash for good at the hotel.

Mine never napped in cribs, even at home. Stroller napping is the way to go. Or, a nap in Hall of Presidents, Universe of Energy, etc. For us, the evening is the most magical time. Even from an infant, Electrical Parade and Wishes are must-dos for my kids. But, we never rope dropped. We start a bit later (although I've never had early rising kids), and take the little ones through to closing. Once the sun sets the temperature is perfect and the ambiance is so nice!

 

[ChasingLeslie]

Be flexible.

My kids are 8 and 5 (stroller free). I planned from RD to about 1-2pm, thinking they would want to swim or rest in the afternoon. They actually preferred to stay in the park all day (6-7pm). We also tried to observe their usual bedtime, and that was a disaster! They were still too worked up and slap happy. We ended up pushing bedtime back by more than an hour and letting them watch TV to relax.

 

[Eoywin]

Our last trip my DD was just turned 5 - we took the mid-day break every day except our last park day. We rented a stroller, hoping she would nap. She did not and was super grumpy and tired by the end of the day.

For us, breaks/naps are key! She's going to be almost 8 for our trip in two months and we are still taking a mid-day break.

 

[AshleeH]

Definitely play it by ear. We always do a midday break, but it's not for everyone. And I wouldn't plan on the 4 year old not napping - she may go from open to close (lots of kids do), but my younger son stopped all naps on his own at age 2 and he napped everyday in Disney when he was 4 years old and 5 years old. I have many pictures of him sleeping in the stroller. If it makes adults want a midday nap - it definitely has that effect on kids.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

It sounds to me like you are perhaps counting on sunny weather. Afternoon storms around 5pm are pretty common. Sometimes they are very short lived, other times they last well into evening.

For us, summer breaks are less about napping, and more about dodging heat/storms/peak crowds.

What you plan can work, and by all means, do what works best for you. Your plan wouldn't work for us though, as we prefer the parks after dark, including the fireworks.

Then again, I'm not a big an of September's limited PM hours. I don't know your dates, but you may find a limited selection of MK PM hours available to you, unless you pay for a MK party.

That you also have grandparents with you might also present a challenge, perhaps. Young and old might find the afternoon heat and storms a bit of a challenge. If anyone is using a mobility device, mobility devices and downpours don't mix. Traveling to the World Showcase of Epcot in the pouring rain, with a mobility device is not advisable.

Today, the high is supposed to be 92, but the real feel is 101 degrees. Expect September to be similar. Average September highs are 91-89, so almost the same as July.

That said, you are correct, 5pm ADR's+afternoon breaks are a bit of a challenge. It can take (depending on which WDW resort) easily 45min each way to go from the middle of parks to your hotel, plus a bit of a safety margin. Count back from 5pm...45+ 45 is 3:30pm. As in, you have to leave the parks before 3:30pm to have any break at all. Leaving at 3pm = 30min break (in the room). You likely have to leave by 2:30pm to get one hour in your room, if you have a 5pm ADR, but it depends a bit which park/which hotel. (some commutes are longer than 45, some might be shorter.)

 

[beck00]

We don't leave in the afternoons, and stay all day. We rope drop and let the kids nap in the stroller with fans if needed. Last trip they were 7 and almost 3.

 

[jennygirlmt]

We did your plan, but it was in Dec and it was cool. Our kids were 4 and 2. We got there at rope drop and left around 5. We never did dinner in the park and kept bedtime. It seemed like way too much effort to go back and they wouldn't last at night anyway, whether they napped or not.

I expected the 2 year old to nap in the stroller but she only did once, on the last day.

We are going back in Feb and hoping to hit wishes one night since it would be around 8, but not even banking on that!

 

[jwolfpack]

We've been with kids those ages several times and have found that a good mix of the 2 strategies works well for us, particularly on longer trips. We always do rope drop. Some days, we power through nap time, stay in parks until dinner time, then return to room to relax & have normal bedtimes. Other days, we return to our room from noon to 4pm-ish then return for evening stuff. Our kids can nap in strollers OR make it though night time stuff, but not both on the same day

 

[AmyA]

We have been taking our kids to WDW since our youngest was 2 (13 years ago!!). We always travel during times where evening hours are limited so the mid-day break has never really worked for us. Instead, we plan a couple of late mornings and end up doing fewer and fewer rope drops as the vacation goes on. We also are willing to leave the park if anyone gets too overwrought, which has always happened at least once per trip!

 

[poppinspenguins]

I know people on here love to promote the afternoon break...but we never do it.

As others have said....more work than it is worth. Walk back to car...load eveything up,drive to resort, unload, walk to room etc. Mine would wake up the second we get out of the car. So if we attempt a break we would actually get a partial nap and a cranky kid. Both,of mine have slept great in baby carriers and strollers. Nap time leave the other open to baby swap. I might consider at a monorail resort, but would prob still think it was more,of a hassle than its worth.

You can always all get a nap together in American adventure or hall of presidents

 

[Mikie]

Like a lot of PPs, we do what you are talking about and skip the midday break (takes too long, kids fell asleep on bus but not in room, kids didn't sleep at all, etc etc). However, I've traveled more mid-Sept through Oct and found it much hotter than home, but not unbearable. An a/c lunch or show/long attraction was sufficient for getting out of the heat and our kids stroller napped pretty well. We just went at or near rope drop, cooled off midday within the parks, and didn't last much past 7 or 8.

However, I *should* have done better about combining that strategy with a couple of sleep in days or leave by 1pm days for pool time. We always come back from WDW exhausted (and happy!) and my kids have been real troopers, but I've often thought "I REALLY need to actually take one of those down days DIS is always talking about!" . . . but we never do

 

[poppinspenguins]

Like a lot of PPs, we do what you are talking about and skip the midday break (takes too long, kids fell asleep on bus but not in room, kids didn't sleep at all, etc etc). However, I've traveled more mid-Sept through Oct and found it much hotter than home, but not unbearable. An a/c lunch or show/long attraction was sufficient for getting out of the heat and our kids stroller napped pretty well. We just went at or near rope drop, cooled off midday within the parks, and didn't last much past 7 or 8.

However, I *should* have done better about combining that strategy with a couple of sleep in days or leave by 1pm days for pool time. We always come back from WDW exhausted (and happy!) and my kids have been real troopers, but I've often thought "I REALLY need to actually take one of those down days DIS is always talking about!" . . . but we never do

Maybe that is why we can do full park days with toddlers...we do lots of down days. If we go for a week we usually do 2 or 3 park days max, water park day, beach day, and the rest are just pool or hanging out time!

I know that style doesn't work for everyone, but we still want down time at disney I have gotten to the point that I can't even fathom 4 straight park,days without getting tired thinking about it...so im sure it effects kids just as much or more!

 

[cdnjason]

We break in the afternoon to avoid the peak crowds, rain and/or hottest point of the day. Naps are secondary.

 

[Angel Ariel]

hi,
We are doing September 3-10 with my dds 2 and 4, husband and parents. We plan to rope drop, have air conditioned ADRs most days, stay til after dinners around 5-6 and head home. We are hoping the 2 year old will nap in the stroller or one of us will go back with her. The 4 year old doesn't nap. Since we plan to keep the kids on their early bedtime schedule if possible, I feel coming home for an afternoon nap/pool would take away too much park time.

I don't think you're crazy. Our DD just turned 4, and we haven't ever done afternoon breaks with her. She has always stroller napped well, and if she was awake and we needed to get away from stimulation for a while we would schedule a table service lunch, or do something like take a ride on the Liberty Belle around ROA, ride the TTA, etc. We got her back to the hotel in time for her normal bedtime, and things went just fine.

If your 2 y/o ends up not being able to nap in the stroller, you may need to adjust on the fly - not all kids do well with that. But if she is napping in the stroller, then you will likely be fine. To help DD nap in the stroller, we brought a light cotton receiving blanket and some chip clips and clipped the blanket around the front of the stroller (the back of the stroller, when reclined, is see through mesh so there was still air flow). This eliminated all the distractions she could look at that helped keep her awake and allowed her to drift off to sleep pretty easily.

Have a great trip!

 

[ArielSRL]

I think if you stick with the plan and leave the parks early evening, you'll be fine. Just find some cool resting spots throughout the day (restaurants, inside shows and attractions) when its hot or you need a break. For us though, we wanted to experience the nighttime entertainment and touring at night...its so beautiful in the parks, all lit up, so we did the break even knowing they may not nap (sometimes they napped, sometimes rested, sometimes swam). It worked out well for us. We always made it back to the park and stayed til closing or until the nighttime entertainment was over.

 

[anniemae]

For us, breaks feel a lot like a time-waster. Lots of travel time back and forth, kids NEVER napped, just jumped around the room. If you want to swim, that's worth it to go back, but to try to rest? Never worked for us. When the kids were little, I thought they would collapse on the bed and sleep, but that just didn't happen.

 

[Gracie09]

We tried an afternoon break once with dd. It was an absolute disaster. She screamed and cried on our way out of the park, into the bus and back at the hotel. She never fell asleep and everyone was miserable. We then just let her nap in her stroller. We would switch off riding big rides, shop or find a nice shaded area with a cold beverage and relax a bit ourselves.
We did rope drop, qs lunch (earlish) and an early sit down dinner 5ish. Then wander back to the hotel. Take a short swim, quick shower and off to bed. They went to bed a bit later than usual but not crazy late and fell right asleep. We were lucky to get firework views from our baloncy most trips so they stayed up for that a couple nights

 

[erinch]

Afternoon breaks never worked for us,and resulted in no naps and major hassle. What did work was the MK Epcot momorail. Virtually no one on it early afternoon. We would bring a book and take a bunch of laps with little sleepyheads sound asleep. That worked for MK, Epcot, and DHS, coming over to Epcot.

 

[mindeola]

Our kids would nap in the stroller and our afternoon break was for swimming and getting out of the craziness for just a bit. Even though they are in college now, we still take an afternoon break to swim or just chill for a couple of hours. Then we go back and stay till close.

It is different for everyone. Just see what works best for you! I probably would not do an afternoon break if I was leaving the park early.