At some point during a week at Walt Disney World® Resort, probably around one o’clock, probably in the middle of somewhere you waited all morning to reach, your youngest is going to end up asleep in the stroller. First-trip families treat it like an emergency. It is the best hour of the day, if you know what to do with it.
Ours came at Disney’s Hollywood Studios®, and it was hot. We were looking for some place to cool off, so we checked which dining reservations were available, and luckily we found The Hollywood Brown Derby. There was a nice table in a corner. We parked the stroller with my daughter in it and had a very nice adult lunch. She snoozed the whole time.
So here is the play for when your kid is asleep in the stroller. You do not have to head back to the hotel.
A midday break is only really doable if your hotel is on the monorail or the Disney Skyliner. Otherwise you are wasting too much of the day getting there and back. That is a personal decision for every family, and I like to be realistic about how much of your day the trip back to the hotel consumes. It is also an important part of picking the hotel in the first place.
1. Keep the stroller rolling
Motion is what is keeping them asleep. This is the hour for the slow lap you would never take otherwise. At EPCOT®, that means a walk around World Showcase: eleven countries, plenty of shade, and no lines involved. When one of the festivals is running, the food booths are right on the path, and you can eat your way around the lagoon without ever parking the stroller.
2. Split up for big-kid time
One parent walks with the sleeper. The other takes the older one straight to the rides the little one is too small for anyway. Ask a kid years later for a favorite memory of the trip and it is often this one: the hour they had a parent to themselves and got to be the big kid.
3. Take the trails at Disney’s Animal Kingdom® Theme Park
The Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and the Maharajah Jungle Trek® are walking paths you can take a stroller through. The adults get to stand still and actually watch the gorillas and the tigers. That is exactly the thing you cannot do with a wide-awake four-year-old pulling you toward the next ride.
4. Have the snack you could not justify
Order ahead on your phone, find a quiet table in the air conditioning, and sit down for twenty minutes. Get the treat you talked yourself out of this morning. Charge the phones. It is a vacation. Act like it.
5. Late afternoon at Magic Kingdom® Park, claim a parade spot
If the nap lands in the afternoon here, check the day’s parade time and park the stroller on a shady curb about thirty minutes before it. A kid asleep in the stroller is the easiest front-row seat you will ever get, and they wake up to a parade. Parade times change by day and by season, so look before you commit to the curb.
The one thing to pack for it
A clip-on, battery-powered fan for the stroller. It keeps the kid cool while they sleep.
The nap is when the grown-ups get their hour
That is the whole secret. A kid asleep in the stroller is not the day falling apart. It is the one hour of the trip that belongs to the adults, and most families hand it back without noticing.
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What did your family do the last time someone fell asleep in the middle of the day?
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