What do you do when they're sleeping?

[jhrabosk]

So, after spending some time on DisBoards, which I found totally overwhelming, I've determined that taking my 4-year-old back to the hotel to nap is probably unnecessary. She often goes without naps anyway, and if she's tired, she can doze in the stroller. Ok.

But what about when she goes to bed at night? Especially if she doesn't nap, there's a good chance she'll be in bed early. What do we do other than go to bed or sit in the dark? I had wanted to book a Deluxe resort so that we'd have a patio/balcony, but we just can't swing it, so I think we're doing a Moderate.

Any advice?

[SnuggleBuggles]

How long will you be going? My thoughts are that if my kid could handle it (and mine can), I would keep chugging along, straight through till normal bedtime (or later). We could probably keep that pace up for about 3-4 days. Then we would need a day to veg. But, ymmv depending on your child. My older ds is very much used to go, go, go when we travel and handles it well, even when theme parks are involved.

Beth

[clc053103]

I honestly preferred the afternoon nap- we would go back to the hotel, the older kids would go to the pool and my little guy (3) would nap. We would then all shower (and the older kids might rest briefly too) and start out fresh for dinner and parks/other activity afterwards.

It honestly depends on your touring style- if you want to hit every corner of a park, stay out through dinner and return earlier to the hotel, then I would skip the nap. We prefer a more leisurely approach with rest/shower/change of clothes in between- we also do a lot of signature dining which requires business casual- and then we are good to go till 10 or 11.

As for what to do after bedtime, if it's just you and DH, one of you could go explore or have a drink at the hotel, but otherwise, I guess you would need to do somethign in the room. We get a villa instead so there's always a room for the adults to hang in while the little ones go to bed. But that would be more costly than a moderate.

Disboards can be overwhelming at first but it's a great source of info. there's also a couple of disney lovers over here that really enjoy helping, like myself! so ask anything!

[Momof3Labs]

Even at 5yo, DS1 needed a midday break most days (but he wasn't a stroller snoozer either). By the time we got back to the room and got ready for bed, it was well past their normal bedtime and so we'd usually just head to bed, too, so that we could all get up and go in the morning. Some nights we'd watch TV after the boys were asleep, or play cards in the bathroom area, but mostly we slept when they slept!

[belovedgandp]

We went with a 3 1/2 year old and a 3 month old almost two years ago now. My 3 1/2 year old stopped napping completely by 2 years 3 months. He went strong all day for six days straight.

We shut down the parks 4 of 6 nights. Honestly, by the time we got back, I wanted to sleep. DS crashed hard and fast. I'd putter, cleaning up, nursing baby, loading pictures on the computer, but would be asleep within an hour of him. We'd get up about an hour before we needed to wake him, so that we were showered, dressed and ready to head out the door. All he had to do was get clothes on and eat something on the bus. Basically we got 1 1/2 to 2 hours less sleep a night than he did and it worked fine.

[JTsMom]

DS hadn't napped for a while before we went last year, but he did in the stroller at Disney. A couple of days we did an afternoon break, and a couple we didn't. The days we didn't, he napped in the stroller. I thought at least planning for the break worked better for us. One day, he was too miserable to stay, but didn't want to leave either, so we rode the monorail to Epcot and back, and he was asleep almost instantly. He slept for quite a while after that.

We went in December, so the parks closed early, but we did rope drop every single park day, and a couple of days, did breakfast even earlier than that! Usually, by 8, he'd had it. We all crashed the minute we got back to the room.

ETA: You'll probably be more ready for bed than you'd think, but if not, you could always bring some fold up chairs and sit outside on the walkway/balcony thing. There's also in-room babysitting available.

[egoldber]

Even at 5yo, DS1 needed a midday break most days (but he wasn't a stroller snoozer either). By the time we got back to the room and got ready for bed, it was well past their normal bedtime and so we'd usually just head to bed, too, so that we could all get up and go in the morning. Some nights we'd watch TV after the boys were asleep, or play cards in the bathroom area, but mostly we slept when they slept!

WDW is exhausting for grown-ups too.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Helllloooo, you can always visit the BBB and tell us about your adventures or read up on the latest drama on the laptop or iPod.

[Octobermommy]

We took my 4 yr old earlier this year from rope drop to closing everyday and when we got back to the hotel we all wanted to crash. We really didn't have a problem going to sleep then at all.

[HannaAddict]

WDW is exhausting for grown-ups too.

Yeah That! We just did Disneyland last week and my almost five and a half year old who doesn't nap, crashed hard when we came back to the hotel in the late afternoon. Neither of my children ever were stroller snoozers and we all benefited from getting out of the extreme mid-day heat and crowds. The kids slept from about 3 to 5 ish, or whenever we woke them up. We would get ready, have dinner and then they had a second wind and we hit the park. They stayed up late, late, late, but it was cool and we were able to get on rides without much wait and generally had a great time. By the time we got home at 11:30, we all were ready for bed. We had a two room suite but never watched a lick of TV while we were there. Bedtimes went back to normal on our return without any problems. But the first two days home both kids were exhausted and even the five year old wanted to "rest" a little after noon and took naps. We are back to normal now. (FWIW, I would have never, ever guessed we would be closing down Disneyland, but it worked out great!)