How To Plan Your Disney Vacation So Your Baby/Toddler is Well-Rested!

Baby Sleep TipsTips For Baby SleepSound Machines

Apr 28

Hi, I’m Hannah, a mama of two boys ages 1 and 2. I’m so excited to guest write on the Mindful Sleep blog about our recent trip to Disney World. I’ve been to Disney around 20 times over the years, but this trip was my first time taking my kids. As many of you know, a great Disney trip takes lots of planning, and one thing I overlooked… planning for SLEEP with my littles!!

I’m thrilled to share our experience and give you tips to ensure your family has a magical trip to Disney with quality sleep!

THE RESORT

We stayed a Disney’s Beach Club Resort. I highly highly recommend this resort! The location is unbeatable in my opinion as you can walk to Epcot in less than 5 minutes, the pool is incredible, and you can also enjoy Disney’s Boardwalk.

I do feel it is best to stay on Disney property if your budget allows. It makes it sooo much easier with little kids getting to and from your hotel throughout the day.

SLEEPING ARRANGEMENTS

Our room was a typical hotel room set up with two queen beds. Our 2-year-old slept in one queen and our 1-year-old slept in a pack-n-play next to me. More on how this worked later… (hint: not well)

*There are options to book accommodations on Disney property that have one, two, and three bedrooms through Disney Vacation Club. I’d highly recommend checking out Dave’s Vacation Club, which allows you to buy points from Disney Vacation Club. It’s a much more affordable way to have more sleeping space during your stay.

I must start by sharing that our 1-year-old son fell off the changing table and broke his leg two days before we left for a trip. Yep - my mama heart was broken, but he was such a trooper. After getting the cast, my wonderful sleeper just couldn’t get comfortable. Because of this, I knew sleep on our trip would be a challenge.

How Sleep Went During Our Disney Trip

FLIGHT

We booked our flight to Florida at 10 am, which was perfectly in alignment with our 1-year-old’s nap schedule. He is taking 2 naps per day (usually around 9:30/10 am and 2 pm). I’d highly recommend trying to book your flight around nap time. Our 2-year-old enjoyed snacks and watching movies on the iPad. He barely made a peep the entire flight. It worked well for us!

NAPS

Our one year old took his first nap of the day on the go. He napped well in the stroller and also took a few naps in the baby carrier. Our 2 year old typically takes one afternoon nap around 1pm.

When I take trips to Disney, I enjoy going to nice meals (especially meals with character dining). Instead of trying to make a dinner reservations work with the kids, I opted for a brunch reservation so that we had flexibility in the evenings. I thought this worked SO WELL. We would get to the parks EARLY, do rides, and the go to our brunch reservation around 11am. After, we headed back to the hotel for both kids to take an afternoon nap. More on my ideal Disney schedule with littles later…

BEDTIME

This is the hard part… and phew, it sure was the one part of the trip I didn’t plan well. We quickly realized the challenge of getting our one-year-old and two-year-old to bed in the same room with us in it.

Yasmin encouraged me to purchase a SlumberPod before we left. Naïvely, I thought we would be fine not using one.

The biggest challenge was getting both kids to sleep for naps and bedtime in the same room. We soon developed the system that I take my one-year-old in the stroller with white noise playing on my phone, and my husband stayed back in the room to get my two-year-old to bed. When both kids were asleep in separate spaces, I would head back to the room and transfer my son out of the stroller and into the pack-n-play.

MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WAKES

The struggle came in the middle of the night when my one-year-old realized he could look over out of his crib and see me laying right next to him. He would get up, look over at me, and say Mom over and over. He woke 1-3 times per night the entire trip. To keep my 2-year-old from waking, I would run over and pick my little one up, put him in the stroller, and stroll the hallways until he fell back asleep. Let’s just say, I didn’t sleep much at all.

There was one morning that his sleep was so off, he woke up at 4 a.m. and didn’t fall back asleep. I decided to just call it a day. We sat in the lobby and waited for my older son to get up. Benefit - I had the lobby to myself. And this was a beautiful one!

What I Would Do Differently

**PURCHASE A SLUMBERPOD**

SlumberPod is a portable, privacy sleep nook that allows babies to sleep in their safe and familiar playard, mini crib, or toddler air mattress with room to sit up or stand up inside. It would have helped both of my kids have their own “space” in our hotel room.

**LEARN FROM ME…**

Seriously, if you take one thing out of this blog post, let it be to purchase a **SlumberPod** for your trip. Learn from my mistake!

purchase now

*Use code Mindful_Sleep$20 for $20 off your order.

My Top Disney Tips

Tip #1

BRING A NICE STROLLER

I almost opted to bring a small, travel stroller but I’m SO GLAD I brought our big stroller. It was so helpful for naps! I could lean the seat back and let my one year old take great morning naps. We used our Uppababy Vista stroller with the Rumble Seat attachment to make it a double stroller. For a more budget friendly stroller option, check out the Mockingbird Stroller! It’s basically the same thing for less than half the cost.

Tip #2

PURCHASE A SlumberPod

It makes such a difference when sleeping in hotel rooms with littles. YOU NEED IT!! Use code Mindful_Sleep$20 at checkout for $20 off.

Tip #3

GO TO HOTEL FOR NAPS IN THE AFTERNOON

Coming back to the hotel room around 12pm for a nap was wonderful for both of my kids. It allowed us to enjoy our afternoon and evenings in the parks with everyone rested. If I were to do it again, this would be my ideal schedule…

Ideal Disney Schedule With Toddlers

7/8 AM GET TO PARKS AT OPENING

Each park opens at a different time so be sure to check the schedule. If you stay on Disney property, you will be able to get into the parks one hour early which is called “extra magic hours”. Utilize this time! You will be able to get in so many rides with shorter wait times by getting there early.

10/11AM BRUNCH RESERVATION

If you are going to do a sit down meal at Disney with littles, do it at this time. I don’t know about you, but my kids do much better in the morning than they do in the afternoon or evening with dinners. It gave us flexibility with our evenings depending on how the kid were doing.

A few of my favorite places are…

Crystal Palace at Disney’s Magic Kingdom
Topolino’s Terrence at Disney’s Rivera Resort
Ohana’s at Disney’s Polynesian Resort (not character dining)

12PM NAPS AT THE HOTEL

Doing this made such a big difference on our trip! Be sure to purchase your SlumberPod!

3 PM BACK INTO THE PARKS

This is a great time in the parks to see shows, ride some rides, and just enjoy the Disney magic!

7/8 PM BACK TO HOTEL FOR BED

Depending on the ages of your kids, you may be able to stretch this one night to watch the fireworks show at Magic Kingdom or Epcot. Because of the ages of my kids, it did not work for us to do this on this trip.

Conclusion

The magic and memories we experienced on this trip was truly something that brought our family so much joy. It was MAGICAL! Seeing joy and excitement through the eyes of my kids was an experience I’ll NEVER forget. Hopefully this inside look at our trip will help your family not only have a wonderful trip, but also feel prepared to get great rest!