What is your touring style with kids?

[KenHutch]

As a rule I schedule a PPO breakfast every morning and we stay till park close. We do not park hop at all. We don't do the water parks but I do schedule a pool day/ do whatever you want to day. The girls liked it but the others not so much. My solution was to not schedule any fast passes until 11:00 hours. As to eating its simple, if you are with me I pay, if bed is more important to you well then you pay. The girls maternal relatives now bring breakfast bars with them and I save a fortune in food costs.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I'm curious just how many here do rope drop to close with kids (especially older kids, say 8+)? Or do you prefer rope drop, afternoon break and evenings? Days only? Evenings only? Rest days? Go every day? How do you do Disney?

Wherever I vacation with children I try to pay attention to their sleeping patterns in planning our itinerary. That's the guideline for me.

 

[mkla2015]

We hit the parks early (not necessarily rope drop but close to opening), get FP for 11, 12, 1, and walk out of the parks by 2-230. We hang out at the resort to swim or just chill until around 6pm then head back out to the parks while many others are leaving the parks or going to dinner. We always get park hoppers and plan what days to go to which park but nights are left open to decide day of where to go.

My kids are 7 and 9 now but we've had this routine since they were 2 and 4. The only difference now is that they usually go swimming during our midday break instead of taking naps. I don't see us changing this even when the kids get older- I think the midday break is amazing for everyone- kids and adults.

 

[Baduist]

1. Super early breakfast
2. Rope drop (were morning people)
3. Afternoon break (even without the kids)

On top of that: we have our days planned by the hour. We improvise within the plan, but having a clear plan makes things way easier.

 

[phins_jazy]

i'm a firm believer in rope drop, afternoon nap, then back for evening festivities.

 

[mom25kiddos]

We don't rope drop, and we don't typically do marathon days. I often move fast passes around while we are there if we change our minds on what parks to visit. We don't worry about seeing it all (we will be back) and we don't have overly exhausting days. We like to sleep in on vacation and with five kids, logistics of early departure is stressful-so we remove that element and go when we are ready. Wouldn't work if it was going to be a one and only trip, but for us, it has been great. We come home rested and wanting to go back.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I may rope drop AK this forthcoming trip in order to ride Avatar. It all depends on whether DGD thinks it's worth it since she is the only one who likes to sleep late.
Being flexible on vacation makes my life easier.

 

[amberpi]

Late nights. The whole family is a bunch of night owls and they all hate, and moan and witch about, the heat. The evenings are our time. We don't believe in waking sleeping kids, so they get to sleep in as long as they like.

 

[ktlm]

I'm curious just how many here do rope drop to close with kids (especially older kids, say 8+)? Or do you prefer rope drop, afternoon break and evenings? Days only? Evenings only? Rest days? Go every day? How do you do Disney?

Open to close for a week without rest days. We usually are in the parks some on arrival and departure days too. Depending on the weather, we occasionally will find an evening to go back the resort for the pool--- maybe an afternoon instead of evening if it is really hot and we need a break for a while. We are not the hour before rope drop crowd unless there is something we really want to do that we don't have a FP for and have to be near the front of the crowd (i.e. AK for Pandora). We are in the right at rope drop, or in the first 10 or 15 minute after rope drop crowd most days.

We learned when DD was 2 that she was a commando. Once she had a few minutes to wake up, she would be standing at the hotel room door with her stroller waiting for us and telling us to hurry up while we were trying to get ready. We tried the afternoon break once when she was 2 and it did not go well at all- she was extremely mad that we made her leave the park and stood behind the hotel room window curtain sulking and furious with us without napping for over 2 hours until we gave up and went back to the park. From that point on, we were open to close and she napped in the stroller. We used the stroller through her 5 year old trips. At age 6 and 7, she did not have the walking stamina to go from open to close. Typically she would not want to go back to the resort during the day, but she would be ready to go back and go to bed before the parks closed. If we were doing a party (MNSSHP or MVMCP)- we would go to a park in the morning-- go back to the resort to change for the party and rest for an hour or two and then head to the park for the party. By age 8 she had the stamina to go from open to close. She is 13 now. I will say though that we don't go to WDW in the absolute heat of the summer--- usually we are there in October, December or May. We go to Disneyland in the summer. The heat is not nearly as bad there. At Disneyland, open to close can mean 8:00 a.m. to midnight--- her Dad has trouble keeping up with those hours-- especially when she wants to do that multiple days in a row! Even if we are at California Adventure, she just wants to go over to Disneyland when CA closes to get a couple more hours in!

 

[monorailsilver]

My kids have no choice or say in the matter, lol! I am up at 6 and shower, dh grumpily gets up while I am in the shower and when I come out I open the curtains for the kids to start to wake. They get dressed and eat it they eat as we are waking out of our room (or after a few rides) and we try to be at the monorail, boat or bus by 7-7:15.

We return at around lunch time, swim/nap. Then shower and return at around 5ish to a park.

Last August, I planned it so it was a park every other day and they could sleep in. I was still up and did laundry at 6am and was at the pool for the 9am opening.

My kids get it, they know early=less lines. My older 2 who were 17 and 15 in August wanted to ride SDD and rock n roll again so I told them we needed to be at the boat at the BC by 6 this one morning and I didn’t have to wake them! They got up and dressed while I was finishing in the shower.

 

[NickC]

Our kids are now 9 and 11. We RD every park day. For AK and DHS, we leave for dinner and do not return to a park (unless we are staying at BC/YC or Contemporary where we can walk over to a park). For MK and Epcot we stay a little later, but not until closing time. We always have at least one sit down meal to give us a little break. We also plan a non-park "rest" day. That day is still jam packed, but we do sleep in a bit and do things a little slower.

 

[goodeats]

It varies. Some days we rope drop, take a break at the resort, and then go back to close the park down. Sometimes we are there opening to 2:00 and then don't go back. Some days we sleep in and get there after lunch and stay until close. It depends on the weather, everyone's temperament (including adults!), what park we are going to, and what FP return times we have.

But I always stay on site, and I would generally take a break at the hotel if I had kids with me or not. I don't enjoy being in the park the entire opening to close day. Maybe if it was chilly out and only open 9-5 or something, but I stay at Deluxe resorts so I can enjoy the pool and other amenities.

 

[siren0119]

We do RD-close when we are in the parks (at the last trip our boys were 10 and 8). We build in one full day "off" and one "late start" day so that there's some downtime. But when we hit the parks we hit them hard

 

[joedplumber]

We open and close the parks. We don’t park hop. Just one per day. MK we do two days. The other parks one each. Yes our Disney trips are parks parks and parks. Lol. But we love it. We will have one day off in middle. Well do the pool or Disney Springs.

This is us! Kids are 11 & 14... Funny though, it used to be hard having the kids keep us with us when they were little and now things are swinging the other way. lol

 

[Sandiz08]

First trip was commando, with break in the afternoon. All other trips have been breakfast adr, or breakfast in room. 9 to 10 pm fast passes. All day parks or leave for afternoon break and come back at night. We have several pool day/rest days scheduled in our trip and visit all four parks. Magic kingdom twice.

 

[PollyannaMom]

I'm curious just how many here do rope drop to close with kids (especially older kids, say 8+)? Or do you prefer rope drop, afternoon break and evenings? Days only? Evenings only? Rest days? Go every day? How do you do Disney?

It has really changed for us over the years as DS has grown. A few times, we've done really long days, but that's been when were were in FL visiting relatives and just went to the park for a day. I don't know how people do it multiple days in a row!

When staying on site when DS was little, we'd do rope drop to mid-late afternoon, and called it a day. He was an early-riser no matter what, so that worked best for us. We also took a rest day in the middle.

Now that he's a teen, we've been favoring late start-late end days, and over the years, we've even thrown in a few half days and mid-day break days as well.

I never used to like the mid-day break strategy, because it seemed like wasting a lot of time on transportation, but sometimes, it's just the ticket. (For example - if you're staying at AKL, late afternoon is a great time for the animals! And if you have different stamina levels in your group, everyone can go together in the morning, and then just those who want can go back for the evening.)

Disney Touring Potpourri? lol.

I like the idea of afternoon breaks, but I know my kids prefer not to. For my daughter (ASD), it's just too much transitioning back and forth. So for us it'll either be like a 9-4 or a 1-9 type thing.

The great thing about FP+ is that either of those are fine now! I'd just plan based on which is generally your family's more energetic time of day at home, and whether the evening shows are important to your group or not.

And don't be afraid to split up for part of the time! Sometimes families get it in their heads that they have to spend every second together, but really it's OK for the group to split up occasionally to get everyone what they want/need.

 

[mshanson3121]

And don't be afraid to split up for part of the time! Sometimes families get it in their heads that they have to spend every second together, but really it's OK for the group to split up occasionally to get everyone what they want/need.

Yes, we're actually planning on splitting up at HS, my DS really wants to see F!, my daughter really wants to see the fireworks, so DS and his grandfather are going to F!, and DD and I will go watch the fireworks.

 

[YesterDark]

Rope Drop until fireworks.
All fast passes early. Then I just fish the 4th+ fastpasses all day, no normal lines.
Character meal for lunch/dinner. The other meal is more relaxing then (sit down quickservice areas).

 

[CatherineinNJ]

Super relaxed and casual touring style...we took our 5 year old to Disney for the first time last summer, and we're returning for a shorter trip later this year. We only did one early morning for MK. We also did a hotel "rest" day. This time, we plan to do similar.

 

[KarenAylwood]

Here now. In short: survival.