Do you keep your young kids up later at Disney?

We have not...yet. My kids are 2 and 5, they go to bed very early and rise very early. They occasionally stay up later due to a special occasion but they never sleep later in the morning as a result, so they end up with a net total of less sleep than usual, which isn't great for their behavior. We are headed to WDW this summer and I'm considering letting the 5 year old watch the fireworks if she can stay up late enough, but that's only an option b/c we are staying at a monorail resort and we'll be able to view from the resort. I wouldn't want to keep them in the parks that late and deal with the crowds and slow exit on top of everything.
 
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. :)

My 5 year old is the exact same way - he will NOT sleep in for anything. Ever. He's up by 6 am every day. If we let him stay up too late, he'd be a tired disaster the next day, especially since kids use SO much more energy on vacation. However, I have friends who's kids are night owls and could stay up without a problem and would sleep in, so it can depend on the kid.

Remember it's the parents who will primarily be dealing with the early morning/cranky kids if they stay up too late, so please understand their decision.
 
We don't intentionally keep DS2.5 up past his normal bedtime on vacation. He would be an utter disaster. If he settles in for some stroller sleep, we are golden and DH and I will stay for fireworks. If he doesn't seem to be settling in, one of us (sometimes both, it depends) leaves and takes him back to the room so he can go to sleep. Bedtime at home is around 7. On vacation I'll let him go as late as 7:30 at the park and if he isn't asleep by then, off we go. Otherwise it spirals into the next day, he is up at 6 AM like clockwork. It's just not worth it for us to ruin the whole next day or two in order to see fireworks the night before. I'm not saying anyone else's priorities should be the same as mine, to clarify. I think everyone's situation regarding sleep habits is different.
 
I tried to raise mine as flexible children. Naptime and bedtimes were never really a strict thing. We do parks open to close with a nap in the stroller as needed. They won't be able to do this for many days though so at some point we have a sleep in or leave early day. At the same time, we went through a phase when middle daughter was terrified of fireworks so we skipped them at all costs for a few vacations. Maybe you could all switch out so one adult/couple goes back to put kids to bed and everyone else could watch fireworks.
 
With a group that large it would seem you could split up and those that wanted to stay could stay and others could leave. We've never been huge on the fireworks; the combination of the crowds and late nights has never been that appealing to us with the kids. But we do let them stay up later than normal when we are at Disney, not always on purpose either, we just tend to run a little bit more relaxed schedule when vacationing. If we do have a late night, we plan for a late/relaxed morning the next day to compensate. We always do mid day breaks too which I think helps. And a lot of times when they are little they will fall asleep in the stroller which means you can stay longer. I have found that I enjoy myself the most when my kids are enjoying themselves and I think most parents would agree with that sentiment. Have fun!
 


The parents know the children best and will make the decisions accordingly. In general, sticking to routine is best for children, but in my experience Disney tends to get kids out of their routines so we tend to go with the flow. For example, I have taken my kids back to the room planning on their regular bedtime only to have them completely wired from all the stimulation and unable to fall asleep for an extra two hours. I have also had my son fall asleep in the stroller at 10 am because he's tired from all the stimulation even though he normally doesn't nap till 1:00 if at all. I've had non-napping children crash at 4:30 then wake up at 6:30 raring to go, in which case we went back to the park and delayed 7:30 bedtime. When we are at Disney, I let my kids sleep when they are tired, and if they are awake with energy, we take advantage of it. A few trips ago this meant we took a 4 month old and a 2 year old to fireworks. While we are flexible, though, I very much respect and appreciate the approach of keeping to a schedule. Every kid is different and every family is different.
 
When my children were growing up staying up late was a something that happened occasionally as opposed to every night of a vacation. We took them to a fireworks competition in Monaco one summer when they were between the ages of 3 and 8 (we lived in Europe at the time). It lasted for a few successive nights and I distinctly recall the youngest only stayed up for half of one exhibit before he fell asleep in the middle of a nonsensical giggle. His older brother didn't fare much better after the 2nd night so we sold our tickets and stayed at our friends' home, watching what we could from their garden. Taught me a valuable lesson about my expectations not meeting that of my kiddos', LOL.
 
We have only been once with our kids, so far, usually we are very strict with bedtimes, but we did keep them up later a couple of nights and they actually told us they didn't like that. It was good reminder to just meet our kids where they are at, this is the time of life where it isn't fun for anyone if our kids stay up late. Either way, it doesn't sound like this is within your control. Trying to hold onto that is also not much fun.
 
OK, we must be the atypical parents. My children never had a bedtime and still don't DS 11 DD 14. They have always just gone to bed once they were tired. Neither of my kids are night owls unless there is a reason to be. Typically, my DS goes to bed at 10pm and wakes up on his own at 6:30am and my DD goes to bed around around 9:30 and wakes up at 6:30am as well.

But in regards to Disney when they were little we would stay open to close. They had no problem napping in the stroller while we would do all our shopping.
 
There are hundreds of kids at Disney nighttime shows so obviously many parents are not strict about bedtimes when on vacation! I've seen many parents change their kids into their sleeping clothes before the fireworks. If your grandkids will have their strollers, ask if the parents can keep them out late one evening, and let them fall asleep in the stroller if they need to. Do a later start the next day. Because of all the excitement, kids can be surprisingly flexible at Disney as long as they are hydrated and fed!! I've never had a schedule for my children. They slept when they were tired, ate when they were hungry, and adjusted easily to getting up at 3AM to catch a flight, or need to wait an hour for lunch. Even now being in school, they go to bed around 9 on school nights, and whenever on the weekends. My son(4) still takes a nap every day, and my daughter(8) will take a nap too if she's tired on the weekends. I don't know if this would have worked if I was not a SAHM, but it turned out to be the best idea for my family because we travel a lot! At Disney, late nights are our favorite, and I've scheduled 3 nights of our July trip with 1AM+ nights, and we will still manage rope drop most mornings!
 
When my daughter was very little I kept her on a strict bedtimes. In our case it was because she suffers like me with insomnia. When we 1st went to Disney in 2006 when she was 5 we did the opening to closing thing. But because my daughter won't get close to fireworks (the closest she will still get is dinner at Ohana) it was not an issue.
 
On vacation, regardless of where we are (Disney World, Hawaii, camping in the mountains, hanging out at the beach), we let the kids (DD7, DS9) stay up late - meaning up until about 9:30 - 10:30 instead of the usual 8:30. They aren't in school, so I'm not worried if they are a bit sluggish in the morning. I let them stay up late on Fridays and Saturdays too.

When they were babies (2 or 3), they'd usually fall asleep in their strollers before the fireworks anyway.
 
I tried to raise mine as flexible children. Naptime and bedtimes were never really a strict thing. We do parks open to close with a nap in the stroller as needed. They won't be able to do this for many days though so at some point we have a sleep in or leave early day. At the same time, we went through a phase when middle daughter was terrified of fireworks so we skipped them at all costs for a few vacations. Maybe you could all switch out so one adult/couple goes back to put kids to bed and everyone else could watch fireworks.

I don't think it's so much a strict bedtime as my kid has a magic window in which she can easily go to bed. You push it, she ends up overtired and WILL NOT SLEEP and we all suffer the next day....

But she put herself on a 6/630 bedtime schedule....at 4 months old. Believe me I didn't complain
 
It depends on the kids, I think.

We have a 4 year old who has been 4 times and a 2 year old who has been 3 times.

We usually only plan on staying up for one night show per trip, toward the end.

My kids are early risers, even when they go to bed very late, so we try not to push it very hard at night. We know we’ll always be at rope drop based on how early they get up! :)

We plan our 3 FP for morning/early afternoon (usually 2 before lunch, 1 right after.) The rest of the day is fluid. If the kids fall asleep in the stroller, we may stay at the parks later. If they don’t nap in the stroller in the afternoon, they’ll fall asleep before the fireworks even happen, miss them anyways, and then it’s much harder to get them back to sleep at the hotel. With no stroller nap, we usually leave late afternoon. My kids do not nap or rest well during mid day hotel breaks.

My sister and I were night owls as kids and also slept in. Growing up, my parents kept us at the parks late.

Everyone is different.
 
We really don't stick to bed times for the kids when at Disney, but we also don't go to parks early anymore. For the last few trips to Disney World I don't think we walked into a park before 5:00pm. If we were trying to do rope drop then you for sure want them to get to sleep at a decent time. My kids like the fireworks, and they will still sleep in a stroller if they get tired. We haven't really had the epic breakdown at Disney, but I think it's just because we don't really push it too hard. We just go with the flow and do whatever rides we feel like doing. We will make our FP reservations, but if we don't make them all we really don't worry about it. It helps that we are DVC members and I think we have been to DW around 30 times or so at this point.
 
I am lenient on bedtimes on vacation (and a lot of other times too), but there were times when one or both of my kids needed to go to bed by a certain time or the adults would pay for it the next day. Other times, napping before and sleeping late after a late night was no big deal. There have been some times when one or the other of them fell asleep in the stroller and slept through the fireworks (we were standing right in the hub one of those times).

I say trust the parents. They know the kids best. And, more importantly, they are the ones who really have to live with/deal with the consequences of a tired kid the next day.
 

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