Keeping Younger Kids Up Late

[AZMermaid]

My kids do not sleep in. They are up at 6am, even at Disney. We miss out on all the night time stuff, but I don't mind. We do the parks from RD to 4ish, have a TS dinner around 5:30, and then put them to bed by 7:30. We have fun all day and will just get to experience the night time fun when they are older.

This is us exactly and a big reason we bought DVC so we could have our own space once they went to bed!

 

[DisneyCAL]

Our kids don't sleep in even with a late bedtime. They could go to bed at 9:30 and they will still be up between 6:30 and 7am and hyper up. We will be planning one or two late nights with fireworks for our trip but thats all because if we did it every night, the number of hours of missed sleep would add up and you don't wanna see our kids on less sleep; it's like when the Hulk gets mad.

 

[Dustifer]

We are hoping to see Wishes once in the park (8 PM) with our 2 and 4 year olds in November. I'd love to see Illuminations, but as it starts at 9 PM, it's not worth the potential for a rough day the next day. They are up a 6:30 or 7 AM regardless of when they went to sleep. Just another reason to go back, right?

 

[Minnesota!]

We are rope drop and park close people. My kids just keep going from sheer joy, ha! Need to bottle that energy! Somedays we go back to the resort for some down time - wash up, let the kids lay in bed and watch cartoons for a few hours. Or, we might take them swimming. Or, we might just stay in the park and plop our bootys on a bench for an hour and people watch. When my kids are tired, they can fall asleep anywhere, anytime. So, if needed, they will put their heads on my shoulders and crash for a power nap.

At home, my older son can crash around 10 and be up raring to go at 5.

Weekends, he is never in bed past 615 or so - even when we are out with friends till well after midnight.

 

[livinginthecornfield]

Have you considered staying at one of the Deluxe resorts with a park view room? Our kids (5 and 3) LOVED being able to watch the fireworks from the balcony in their pajamas. A few days we were at rope drop and hung out for as long as we could....then we'd have a LATE long afternoon nap (430-630) somedays and be back in the parks by 8pm and would stay until Wishes.... But we'd get back to our rooms by 1030 and they'd still get up at 7am.... Any sort of nap schedule kind of goes out the window, but to have the option of watching fireworks from our room was always nice... Your kids will be tired regardless but hey, how often are they at Disney....kids adapt easily ...let them enjoy it!

 

[smiths02]

I'm glad to see there are a couple others who just do 1 or 2 late nights. My DS will be 8 and DN will be 6 but they are both sleep-lovers. I think I'm going to do Wishes on the first night and then play the rest by ear. I was starting to feel bad when reading touring plans, etc that say you "can't miss" Illuminations or Fantasmic! but knowing our two boys, I'm thinking they would rather get to bed at a decent time. Plus I don't think they will sleep in because they will be in the same bed and have a tendency to wake each other if past experience holds true. OP, thanks for the thread, it eased my mind a bit.

We saw Illuminations on our last trip...I thought it was boring. Lol
We are doing Pirates and Pals this trip.
I keep hearing about Fantasmic, but maybe next trip.
(To be fair, I just don't like parades and fireworks.)

 

[smiths02]

Our kids don't sleep in even with a late bedtime. They could go to bed at 9:30 and they will still be up between 6:30 and 7am and hyper up. We will be planning one or two late nights with fireworks for our trip but thats all because if we did it every night, the number of hours of missed sleep would add up and you don't wanna see our kids on less sleep; it's like when the Hulk gets mad.

This is us, except the adults would be cranky too. We know our kids won't sleep in (even though one could stay up all night). I can't handle it!

 

[ELSA711]

We have a hard time keeping our kids out at the parks past 8pm. Has anyone done MSEP and Wishes at 7pm and 8pm like it's indicated for 11/3 on the schedule, is it even dark then? I can't recall..lol

 

[ELSA711]

Speaking from experience, you CAN miss both Illuminations and Fantasmic and STILL have a magical trip to Disney World! My DS age 3/4 is an early to bed, early to rise kinda guy. He didn't enjoy either Illuminations or Fantasmic, partly because he was nervous and partly because he was exhausted. In contrast, my DD age 10 now could rock the night away! At age 5/6 (before little bro came into the picture), we did all the late EMH and the late parades/fireworks shows. She loves them! Alas, I'll have to find a way to compromise on our next trip. Wishes is our favorite of the 3 fireworks shows. Fantasmic is pretty intense and Illuminations is pretty loud. We also love watching the Spectromagic Parade and the water boat parade.
So, I agree with those who say, it totally depends on your kid!

Too funny,Fantasmic is our only must do late night but lucky for us in October that usually only means 7pm
We sometimes catch Wishes or Illuminations, but surprisingly Wishes is my least fav of the 3

 

[kwdw]

Just did this trip with a 5 year old that is usually in bed 8-9 pm. But she holds up well on an occasional late night - but we couldn't have done two days in a row. I'd just pick ONE of the night shows - and maybe either later in the trip or the night before a rest day.

 

[GeraldineW]

When our kids were young we choose to only do 1 late night of nighttime entertainment for MSEP and Wishes. We always made the late entertainment night the last night of our trip. We figured it didn’t matter if they feel asleep during the day on the plane or in the car on our travel day home, and we didn’t have to worry about the change impacting our entire trip.