Breaks in middle of day and/or in middle of trip

[serene56]

with the ages of your kids 5 days on with 1 day off is pushing. There is bound to be meltdowns.

My DIL thinks that my gd wont be taking naps-- will be in school so she should be able to handle touring disney. What she doesnt understand is all the walking / standing in lines that she will be doing.

I am thinking of leaving the parks right after a parade. head to dinner then back to the resort for an early bed time so we can be at rope dro the next day.

Yu didnt mention if rope drop is important to you.
We leave on Saturday--- first touring day will be Sunday= Tuesday is a sleep in day (MNSSHP that night) Wednesday-- Epcot at noon. then back to rope drops on Thursday / Friday.

[3R1C]

We went when our kids were the same ages as yours. We tried to make them rest each afternoon, but found it a waste of time. They just would not sleep in the room. We found that just riding the buses around worked better (they always slept then).

We would often go back to the resort and do something different, but trying to make them sleep was a huge waste of time!

[amberg@eastlink.ca]

we've never taken mid-day breaks before, but this is the first time travelling with kids. i'm not sure what we will do this time, mine might both zonk out at the park, i just don't know. however that being said we are taking a day off to jsut relax, hit the pool and eat at dtd.

[megrod74]

I agree with the person who said you will probably have to play mid-day breaks by ear. Just don't try to burn the candle at both ends, and pay attention to your kids. Try not to let them get to meltdown stage. It is hard to take afternoon breaks when the parks close early, so maybe do some rope drop days and some sleep in days. November will probably be much cooler and it will be easier to tour all day. It could also be in the 80's, so figure the weather into your planning. Afternoon breaks are only breaks if you go into them knowing you'll miss 3-5 hours of park touring and you're ok with that. Once you decide to take one, commit to it

I have a 3yr old who has been to WDW about 10 times for 2-7 days at a time and my experience coincides with your friend's - we have adopted the 2 day on/1 day off schedule. 3 days in a row at a park for rope drop does not go well (for our family at least). However we hardly ever do late nights.

We will be there at the same time for the same number of days with our 3 and 1 yr olds. As mentioned we are doing 2 days in a park and 1 day off the whole time. Also we will do maybe 2 sit-down restaurants because for some reason at WDW they feel like work with the 2 kids I guess they just know there are better things to do.
I'm looking forward to the Nov park hours to better plan my trip, as I'm sure you are too! Have fun!

[daisax]

I always take a break, and I go in November.

Epcot is usually open until 11, so since you have park hoppers, just make Epcot your evening park. It also tends to be the hottest park (IMO), so seeing it in the evening suits me better.

I get a lot more out of trips when we open a park, stay through lunch, go back to the hotel for 2-3 hours, grab dinner, and then hit another park (either Epcot or whatever park is open until 8 or 9 that night -- they rotate). I get more done in two 5-6 hour blocks in one day with a break in between than I do going 10-12 hours straight.

[rotlex]

I know many are in favor of taking mid day breaks. I'll be blunt. Even with young kids, we never take mid day breaks, but rather, plan an "open day" during our stay, maybe two depending on the length of the stay, to simply swim, hang our at the resort, DTD or somewhere outside the parks.

Our reasoning? Mid day breaks are impossible for us. By the time we leave a park, get back to the hotel and back to the room, it's time to head back to the park already. We tried doing this on our last trip, and it is the last time we will ever do it. If we "need" a break, we simply find a nice indoor air conditioned attraction, restaurant or show, and take a break there. Even after multiple visits to WDW over the past years, I just think stopping in the middle of the day to go back to a hotel is a complete waste of time.

No offense meant to anyone that does this of course, it is just our experience. For reference, we have a 6 year old and an 8 month old. Our last trip was this past June, and the kids did just fine without the mid day breaks, by simply taking it easy, and not going commando etc.

[Planogirl]

We like to leave the parks early a few days (and we don't go back) or we might not arrive later on in a few cases. This only works if you have several days to do things which you do. I also like to be offsite here and there just to see other things.

WDW is tiring to me because of the crowds and running back and forth and it's nice to go somewhere more relaxing. It doesn't have to be the room of course.

[mi*vida*loca]

It really depends on a lot of factors for us. We have two kids that are 9 and 3. The younger one can nap in her stroller fine. We usually just play it by ear. The beginning of the week we are fine without midday breaks. By the last 2-3 days we do take them. Everyone is starting to get tired and we enjoy the down time.

If we go when park hours are short no we usually don't leave.

If we do an 8 am ADR and then plan to attend PM EMH at another park (depending on the EMH park and time) yes we do a midday break.

I always do a day off mid trip and we go for 8 days. That day usually consists of a bit of sleeping in, a pirate cruise for the kids and then we hit the pool or a water park and then dinner that night.

[megrod74]

I forgot to say that my oldest has only slept in her stroller 1 or 2 times in her life so that really drove us to taking breaks at the hotel. It's much easier if they sleep in the stroller!

[alleghator]

Originally Posted by megrod74

I forgot to say that my oldest has only slept in her stroller 1 or 2 times in her life so that really drove us to taking breaks at the hotel. It's much easier if they sleep in the stroller!

Oh, is it ever! My kids never could sleep in the stroller.

[Mickey Gator]

It would be wonderful if every child at WDW had a brake in the day so the meltdowns that ensue in the evening would stop. How wonderful it would be if the sounds of whining and crying kids (who were not given the option to take a nap by their "we have to do everything in one day" parents)stopped, and all the patrons of WDW could enjoy their visit. And this is coming from a parent.

[dyna]

We always take breaks mid afternoon unless it's a rare day that we slept in lounged around then went to parks at dinner time. That has only happened one visit that was this past June with triple digit heat indexes all week. It was just to hot to go to the parks till the sun started going down.

Usually when we go during the cooler months the days that parks close early we go to DD or tour the other resorts on monorail etc usually don't buy park hoppers.

We also don't usually take the day breaks the few times we did take 1 day break mid stay DH was not content to take things as easy as I would have liked an seemed we ended up doing just as much walking anyway.

I'm going to suggest something no one else has suggested I think it might be a good idea for your family to split up in the am most mornings. Say Dad goes with the older ones 1 morning at the MK an Mom stay in Fantasyland with the littles then next time at MK switch then do a 3rd morning at MK everyone pretty much staying together or start out together 1st time an then do the sharing off later in stay that way EVERYONE in family gets the full benefit of the park.

Maybe split up some at DS too big kids will want to do the rollercoaster an ToT that littles can't but there are some shows there for the littles that the big ones might not be interested in.

It not so much an issue at the AK or Epcot.

[LisaInNc]

I am a firm believer of taking breaks even when the park hours are shorter. To me being in the parks when we are tired, hot and cranky is just not what I want on a vacation. We break every day for a few hours and take a manditory nap. My child is always refreshed and ready for a long evening. Between DTD, The Boardwalk, swimming and EMH there is plenty for us to do after the parks close.

Having a rental car really helps because we can get out of the parks and back to the room pretty quickly.

We also take a day off in a weeks vacation. We sleep in, swim, go to DTD and just take it easy.

One valuable lession I learned in parenting is my daughter has a limit. We all do.It's that point right before we melt down. For adults it's a lot higher than with little kids. When I am respectful of her limitations...for example how long she can sit still in a restaurant, or how late she can stay up....things go sooooo much smoother.

[mi*vida*loca]

Originally Posted by dyna

We always take breaks mid afternoon unless it's a rare day that we slept in lounged around then went to parks at dinner time. That has only happened one visit that was this past June with triple digit heat indexes all week. It was just to hot to go to the parks till the sun started going down.

Usually when we go during the cooler months the days that parks close early we go to DD or tour the other resorts on monorail etc usually don't buy park hoppers.

We also don't usually take the day breaks the few times we did take 1 day break mid stay DH was not content to take things as easy as I would have liked an seemed we ended up doing just as much walking anyway.

I'm going to suggest something no one else has suggested I think it might be a good idea for your family to split up in the am most mornings. Say Dad goes with the older ones 1 morning at the MK an Mom stay in Fantasyland with the littles then next time at MK switch then do a 3rd morning at MK everyone pretty much staying together or start out together 1st time an then do the sharing off later in stay that way EVERYONE in family gets the full benefit of the park.

Maybe split up some at DS too big kids will want to do the rollercoaster an ToT that littles can't but there are some shows there for the littles that the big ones might not be interested in.

It not so much an issue at the AK or Epcot.

We did that one morning in MK. I stayed in Fantasyland with DD and DH took DS to ride some rides.

Also we don't go during high peak times or during the extreme heat so not taking a midday break when we are in the parks 9-7 isn't a big deal. My DD does fine.

[fla4fun]

Mid day breaks - it depends. It depends on the time of year (summer/winter), whether I'm using EMH (longer day=necessary break time), how many days I'm there (shorter trip - mid day break, longer trip - day long break).

I find if I'm there when it's really hot, I take advantage of morning and evening EMH more often to stay out of the hottest part of the day. I'll go back to the resort, shower and freshen up, have a leisurely lunch or early dinner, then I'm ready to tackle the parks in the evening. If it's cooler weather, I'm more likely to either leave the park early or arrive late, rather than taking a mid day break.

I always take at least one day out of a week or longer trip for a down day. For example, I'll be there August 4-14, and I'll probably use Sunday or Monday for my down day, depending on the weather forecast. I don't travel with children, so my down day is usually spent enjoying and photographing the resort, and maybe buying a new book at the gift shop (my guilty vacation pleasure ). If I see on the extended forecast that there's going to be a particularly bad weather day (extremely hot, extremely wet, etc.) I try to work my down day around it. If I'm there for less than a week, say 5 days, I'd be more likely to take a mid day break and not a down day.