To Nap or not to Nap...

It's a tough one. My son was a great stroller napper; so we really didn't go back. The few times we did, both children would fall asleep as soon as they got on the bus and then be wide open once we arrived back at the resort. The worse was when we did AK one morning and returned to rest before a dinner at Chef Mickey's. The kids (9 and 2) would not settle down. Told my oldest to at least lie on the bed and put her feet up. No go. My only recourse was to go ahead and start the journey to the Contemporary early. Sure enough, as soon as we got on the bus to MK, my 2 year-old was out cold. We got to MK 90 minutes before our reservation so plenty of time for the youngest to rest. I figure we'll sit in the AC at the resort and people watch. Trouble was we still had to walk to the Contemporary and my oldest had a meltdown because wait for it....her feet hurt. Thankfully by the time our reservation rolled around, everyone was happy again.

All that to say, over time I found that going back out after returning to the resort just doesn't work for us as a whole. My son is usually up for any adventure. My oldest is like another poster above. Once we get back to the resort, that's it. It doesn't matter what kind of conversation we have prior to the trip or what kind of plans we have made. It doesn't matter what we are headed back out that evening to do. Missed Wishes one year because I left it to the last day and we did MK until noon that morning.

On longer trips it's easy. We have early days where we are in the park from opening to around 3 and then spend the evening at the resort. Or we have late days where we relax for the first part of the day, then head to the park an hour before dinner and spend the evening.

On shorter trips it is more complicated. Thankfully the last couple of trips now, she's old enough to remain in the room on her own; so my son and I have "mother/son dates" where he and I go out for the evening. She's also now old enough to look after him if I wanted to head out on my own; but I haven't done that yet. Everyone has to figure out what works for their group and sometimes it's by trial and error.
 
Totally depends on the kids. We had our triplets nap at that 4-5 age. Some days we kind had to force them to quiet down and fall asleep. They usually woke up in really bad moods and they'd still be tired in the evenings anyway. At 6/7/8 we started doing all day park days with them and they were fine.
 
We tried to skip naps when we took OS in 2016, back when he was 2, and... well, it didn't end well. He was exhausted by pretty early in the afternoon, and since he wasn't sleeping as well at night, it just made for a miserable mess. He always ended up crashing right at dinner time, so we'd get back to our room with a very tired, very cranky toddler who also hadn't eaten a real meal since lunch (we bought him snacks, of course, but snacks =/= actual meal).

I figure, even if your 4yo doesn't actually sleep, a quiet afternoon time away from the hustle and bustle of the theme parks will do him good. You can find a movie to watch on TV or visit a quieter pool, maybe use that time for bath time (if you're feeling brave), things like that. I always find that I enjoy my time in the parks more when I take a break in the middle of the day, and I'm ever so much more than four. Your LO will definitely benefit from having the quiet time in the afternoon, if nothing else.
 
I guess it depends entirely on the kid. My daughter (who was not quite 3 last year) ran just fine the whole week without a nap. The only exception was on the very last day...she fell asleepin my husbands arms durring the very loud fireworks show at the MK. Kids amaze me sometimes!
 
On trips when one of ours was still napping at home, we tried to go back and take naps and it never worked out for us. They were too out of sorts in new surroundings to fall asleep.
When we started just letting them fall asleep in strollers, on laps, on bus rides for cat naps, it worked out just fine. They did crash early and there were a couple trips we never made it to fireworks but that was ok! They fell asleep early enough to start all over again the next day!
 
We too are wondering if a nap everyday will be necessary or not. Right now we'll be going for 5 days in December and have a 2 hour nap planned for every day
 
Depends on the kid.

My son took a solid 3-4 hour nap everyday until Kindergarten. He was a VERY hyper kid and would just wear himself out. We took him to WDW at 3 years and left everyday for his nap. He couldn't/wouldn't sleep in his stroller. Too much stimulation. We only did two park days. It was a PIA but if he didn't get his nap we were all doomed. Even at home we skipped a lot of events that started at noon because we knew it would be torture on all of us. We didn't go back until he was 8. I didn't like having that huge gap gone from the day.

We took him back when he was 8 and DD was 2. She's a much milder kid. She napped in her stroller IF she napped. But we did do midday breaks by the pool everyday and they loved that. We all loved it. Now it's our ritual every trip. It gave the kids some downtime, gave us some downtime, away from the stimulation of the parks and by 4-5 pm we were ready for more fun in the parks.
 


Any tips for naps and parade viewing? The 3PM time is just so hard with naps!
Hopefully DD2 will nap in the stroller but she tends to get distracted easily...
 
We were able to get our little ones to nap in the stroller. Take a slow walk around the park and then use nap time for an ice cream and people watching.
 

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