do you keep toddler out late???

[EmmMOM2]

We have taken our children to Disney twice already, this will be there third time.
My DS is 5 and DD is 2.

Last year I took my then 4 year old to "fantasmic" and didn't get back to the hotel till almost 10pm (well after his 8pm bedtime) and while he fell asleep FAST he was a BEAR from the time the show ended until he hit the bed, crying and throwing himself around for NO reason...overtired i'm guessing.

My question is should i keep my kids out ONE night of our trip to try and see the spectromagic parade?? Should i just bring the older one ?

What do you do with your little ones?

Mine have a consistant bedtime of 8pm and rarely EVER miss it.

Is the parade worth it if there is crankiness the next day??

TIA :thumbsup:

[Lakin]

Send the little one back. They'll enjoy the rest more than the parade.

[SoaringEpcot]

We do keep ours out late, but we do go back an take a late afternoon nap. We had a stroller so he could nap any time in between. How ever I dont think he we make it through late night shows or parades, but he did fine going from ride to ride.

[Imagineer1981]

Great question, mine is going to 18months and I think we are just going to play it by ear. His bed time is also strictly 8pm and he rarely misses it except maybe on a weekend by an hour or so. I hope he is not a monster!

[kathiep]

I've always tried to get my little ones into bed no more than an hour later than normal. If there's something special we want to do that keeps them up extra late, I always make sure that they sleep in the next morning. (I guess mine show their overtired-ness more in the am than at night)

[LibertyTreeGal]

Well, it is never worth it to have a child exhausted beyond reason -- for you, the child or for the other guests. We are really big on getting down time during the day, and we find that when we do that we can nudge bedtime a bit, but we still keep our eyes on the kids. If they are getting wierded out, we ditch plans and go back to the hotel :mickey:

[prprincess]

We have never, but we're going to try it this time around. We can usually get them back to the hotel to nap mid-day, so I'm hoping we can pull it off. I haven't seen any of the fireworks shows at WDW in about three years because I get them to bed early, :( ...but yeah, I'd rather not risk them being super cranky and miserable, so we'll be playing it by ear.

[bwk99]

we went in May and DS had just turned 4. Any day we planned on staying at the park past 8:30, we made sure he had a nap during that day. I would highly recommend a nap for both kids on the days you are planning on being out past their typical bedtime.. at least some down time for the older one..

[Belster]

My kids are the exact same way....we NEVER miss bedtime...except for when we are at WDW. We get up early and stay out late, late, late!!!

Of course this is up to your individual children and how they will react. We have found that it does not matter about bedtime at WDW because they are soooooooo excited to be there that they are just not crabby there. We do however, take a nap in the middle of the day.

[g8rgirl29]

We had no problem with keeping DD out late at 3 and 4. We always made sure she had a nap, plus she rode in the stroller and could nod off whenever she got tired. Also we knew if she started to get tired it was just time to go back to the room. We never told her of our plans to go see a night time event, that way if she was too tired she never knew she was missing out on something. You just have to go with the pace they set for you when you have kids at that age I think.

[MNNHFLTX]

We never did when my son was small. Even with naps it was just too much for him sometimes and it wasn't worth a cranky kid the next day.

[DisneyAndRedSox]

I think it totally depends on the child. I was blessed with a DD that stopped napping at 2 months old and can stay up to 10pm evey night w/o a melt down. Nobody would believe me, then I went to a beach house with 4 friends for 2 nights (all have kids the same age). They were in shock over my little party animal! :party:

So yes, I do keep her out late, but I always have a stroller that reclines incase she crashes! It does catch up with her every now and then!

[Georgesgirl1]

I really think you have to play it by ear and know your child. When we were little we went in at park opening and left at park closing and napped in the stroller. But that was back in the days of only MK and Epcot, so we would go into the park one day and then hang out at the hotel the next day to rest.
For DS-who was 6 months on this trip-we went to the park early, went back to the hotel and let him take a long nap, and then went back into the park until closing. It worked great for him, but he is a very laid back baby.

[Disney Doll]

We do keep DS (15 months last trip) out late two nights, once for Wishes and once for Illuminations. However, we plan ahead and take a later nap those days. As long as he's had a good nap he's fine. We also hightail it home as soon as the fireworks are over. Plus, I never schedule our MK day and our EPCOT day back to back that way he's not out late 2 nights in a row.

[estein80]

My DD (now 13 mos.) has a fairly strict 8 o'clock bed time. There are occasions where she stays up at later. The last time she was out late, was at WDW, we stayed to see Spectromagic. I have to say that she was not overly interested it, but she did like to see everything lit up. We are taking her back in October for MNSSHP. I am planning on having a very easy going morning, hoping that she sleeps in and gets her morning nap, will probably try to take her swimming to tire her out. We are not going to any parks before heading over the MK by 5 for dinner and then the party.

I have to say that overall, it depends on your child. My DD is fairly easy going and that makes this easier. If your little one is not as easy going, you may want to skip the late nights.

[poohbearkris]

I took every year since he has been 1 1/2. I think 1 hour past their usual bedtime is the most I would push it. First, they really don't take their normal naps, at least mine didn't. And when I took DS at 2 1/2 when I was pregnant with DS #2, he would be fine while we were out, but then completely melt down on the ride back to the hotel. I was also tired from being pg and did not deal well with the situation. I learned a lot from that trip especially feeling like the parents that I have seen that I didn't want to be - pushing their kids beyond their limits. Realistically in the end, the young kids are not going to remember everything and aren't going to know what they missed.

[mamasun]

Our first trip with kids was when they were 4 and 6- and yes we did keep them up late- closed the Princess and Pirates Party. We did go back to the hotel most afternoons for down time and they did ride in a double stroller all day. I believe the benefits of the stroller outweigh the cost. I always knew they were safe inside the stroller and not wondering off, the shade, getting from place to place quicker, and they did not get tired. If there is something that you really want to experience with your children that keeps them up just plan a later start in the am!

[jonahbear2006]

No rules apply during Disney. We actually prepare for this. We leave in 4 weeks and as of now the kids stay up till midnight, in preparation for it, take later naps than usual, and we take walks to prepare their little legs for walking in the sun. We don't stop because we have the children. They have a stroller, so they can take their blanket in the evening and cuddle up in the stroller and sleep if they wish or stay up if they wish. Either way, we have never had anyone act out or have a tantrum in Disney World. They have always been angels and when we get home they are always glad to have their schedule back.

[Kathy Jetson]

We get up at disney at about 8:30 and get to the parks around 10:30-11:00. Ds5 has not taken a nap since he was 3. We go all day in the parks till emh closing we bring a stroller so he can get out of the sun and relax when he wants. We are night owls so he is used to staying up late when there is no school the next day. We usually have to drag him out of the parks when they close because he does not want to leave. Also we go in late fall when its not hot.

[Madzac]

We play it by ear. Ive been twice now with kids. We usually keep them out late several nights... Wishes/Spectro one night, Illuminations one night and Fantasmic another. We have the plan that if someone is exhausted and cranky, one of us will head out. That has never happened. We make sure on these days we go back to the resort for a long afternoon break(like 1230-430 or 5) where everyone takes a little swim and then lies down. We go back at supper time and they do great! We then plan the next day to have a late character breakfast or something and not hit the parks until noon or so.

At home they never stay up that late, but disney is special for us. In May all three(7, 4 and 1) loved Illumiantions, Spectro and Fantasmic. My younger two fell asleep in the stroller before wishes started.

[sdewan]

Our kids (4 and 7) have a regular 8PM bedtime too, except when go to Disneyland to see the fireworks and don't get home until 10:30-11:00. And even that one night out is rough on them, so we make them take a nap in the afternoon to handle it better.

A whole week of doing that at WDW is even worse. Not only do we stay up past 10:00 most nights, we wake them up before 7:00 for early admission. A couple of years ago we would make it mandatory that they both took naps in the afternoon. Now, I'd say a nap is required every other day. The worst thing we can do is make our children exhausted. That will ruin the trip for the whole family. And towards the end of the trip when the kids say they need more rest, we'll take a morning off and not head for the park until 10:00 or so, or head back to our hotel by 8:00 one night.

[TheVBs]

I totally agree with the comments about playing it by ear and knowing what your child would be up for. When our kids were that young, they did nap in the strollers, or we'd take mid-day breaks at the hotel.

We do let them stay late at the parks, but we generally try to ease into it, so we might not do a late night the first day. If they're up late we definitely let them sleep in a bit the next morning. You're not likely to see us at a rope drop! But I would like to make it one day. :mickey:

[diz_girl]

I agree that keeping up a toddler up an hour past bedtime is the max and anything beyond is pushing it. That being said, I understand if you want to see Illuminations, but do it just one night on your trip and maybe do a non-park day (or a 1/2 day) the next day. And if you want to see Wishes, just go when it's held earlier in the evening, if they have them earlier when you go.

Speaking from personal experience, when we were at WDW in December, our son was 17 months at the time. He napped in his stroller during the day and we had him in bed around 8 p.m. at night. It just wasn't worth it to push him. We missed out on some things, but that was our choice, and we can always be up a little later on our next trip when he's older.

[jonahbear2006]

Our kids homeschool and after our hard day they go to bed about 7pm so it is a great treat for ours to be able to stay up all night and we have never had any problems with this. I have seen other kids get pretty tired early on in the evening. I agree that you do just have to play it by ear. you know what your kid is capable of, I feel, and you can always test the waters before you leave home, for a few nights, to see how the child handles the later hours.

[KAT1811]

Our kids homeschool and after our hard day they go to bed about 7pm

Glad to see that my children aren't the only ones in bed at 7!! Our youngest (4 months) is in bed at 6:30/7:00pm and sleeps all night! Our oldest 12 1/2 is in bed at 8:30pm on school nights! I was begining to think I was mean!!! :blush:

To the OP's question. . .

I agree with PPs that it really depends on your individual children. Each child is so different. We have 4 children and have been traveling the World since I was a baby so needless to say they have all been at just about every age. We tend to stay out late only a few nights on our trip and usually for something special like Illuminations or Wishes. We are also in the parks right at opening and go all day as the little ones nap in the stroller just as well as they do in a bed. One of us usually finds a quiet, shaded spot while the others ride the rides the little ones can't! I would play it by ear and see how your little one reacts. If you find the children are getting cranky and probably not going to make it I would head "home" but they could be just fine. I find that there are so many factors it is just way too hard to plan until that day.

I would certainly try to stay. I'm sure they would love the night shows. If they don't make it well, there is always next year. That's how we look at it.