Places To Help Turn Your Kiddo “Off” at Disney World

Quiet places, shaded or air conditioned spots with a place to sit at Epcot, Magic

Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios.

If you’ve ever traveled with small children, you know the importance of finding these quiet spots around the parks. Your toddler is in the middle of a stimulus overload and is in desperate need of a power shutdown, shut their eyes, and give you an ever so important emotional break before your own mental breakdown. I’ve compiled a list to hopefully help with those transitions from “IT’S MICKEY! I MUST KEEP GOING AT ALL COSTS!” to quiet slumber tucked away in the corner of a park while the rest of your party child swaps Space Mountain. Each park has an area for this peaceful bliss if you know where to look.

Before I break down each park, let's learn about the Huggies Baby Care Centers. They are located in every park and are amazing. Large rooms with multiple changing tables, little dining areas with high chairs, a room with a tv if your kiddo needs a break in the air conditioning and super helpful staff. They are also equipped with a mini baby store so if you forgot baby food, formula, diapers, wipes, or anything else your little one might need, it’s there for your purchase. In Magic Kingdom, it’s behind Crystal Palace. In Epcot, it's in the Epcot Experience building near the entrance closest to the Mexico Pavilion. In Hollywood Studios, it's near the entrance to the front of the park. In Animal Kingdom, it’s between Pizzafari and the bridge to Africa by Discovery Island ( where the Tree of Life is). You can find them all in the Disney app by searching “Guest Services” then “Baby Care Centers”.

Magic Kingdom: Home of stimulation overload. There's rides everywhere, there's characters, there's sweets on every corner and not enough travel time in the stroller for your munchkin to shut their eyes.

- Carousel of Progress : Twenty minutes, seated, air conditioned and little show for you to watch

- The People Mover: Quiet, moves slowly, with lots of trips in and out of attractions consisting of tunnels of darkness.

- Main Street fire station: As long as a parade isn't in your future, it's a quiet place to sit with your napping little one.

-River's of America/Thunder Mountain Spot: Usually pretty quiet near the water with covered seating. If full, there's a couple picnic tables right next to it.

- Exit to Splash Mountain: Benches, a restroom nearby and even a small playground. Great spot if one is on Splash Mountain, one is napping ,and one that needs to run! CAUTION: This spot will get louder if/when the train starts running again.

The WORST is Fantasyland: Nothing but kids and parents all at the end of their rope as they wonder whether it was the best choice to push through nap time.

EPCOT: Where I’ve heard more kids losing it then any other park. Why? Epcot is not the non stop rides of Magic Kingdom, or the thrills of Hollywood Studios. It’s more of an “adult” park. Some culture, some education, and lots and lots of food and drink kiosks, not exactly up a 3 year old’s alley.

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Exit to Test Track: Air conditioned, benches, and an easy place to child swap. Usually there's a row of parents all doing the exact same thing with exact same goal, keep my kid asleep

- Aquarium for The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends: If you head towards the dolphins, there's a little round viewing area with benches. The only drawback is that your stroller will have to stay outside.

- Spaceship Earth: A quiet, slow moving ride though the history of communication and perfect for a munchkin to nap or have a bottle. You can get a vehicle for just the two of you and enjoy 15 minutes

The WORST is The Land Pavilion: You have to park your stroller a mile away ( or at least it feels like it when carrying a tired toddler), up a hill, then to walk down stairs or an escalator to sit in a crowded dining room with the constant influx of crowd noise exiting from Soarin'. Not ideal one bit.

Animal Kingdom: It always feels like the hottest park at Disney World. I don’t know why that is, but I have a hard time finding a place to cool off here.

Flame Tree BBQ seating area: Lots of seating, covered, and usually the most quiet next to the water.

Conservation Station, indoor area, next to the petting zoo: It's a bit of hike, but hop on the train and head to Conservation Station. There's an indoor building where they hold an animation class that's well air conditioned, not very crowded and stroller friendly.

Exit to Dinosaur: Lots of covered benches and water fountains. Most of the time relatively quiet unless there's a lot of other parents in the same area.

The WORST place is Asia right around Expedition Everest: Your seating options are rocks or a curb, lots of people hanging out waiting for the rest of their party to get off Everest, people exiting or running to the next Nemo the Musical showtime or the bottleneck space it creates with people passing thought to Dinoland USA or heading towards Africa. I have a child who has melted down every single time at this very spot.

Hollywood Studios: Probably the worst for options with finding a quiet spot and the park where you'll need one the most. Studios is a smaller park and you will feel that as you're racing another party for a shaded bench in July.

- One Man's Dream: It's right outside of the entrance to Toy Story Land. The attraction has a nice air conditioned walk through about the history and creating of some of our favorite theme park attractions. At the end of the hallway, there's a movie theater that shows a 16 minute movie about Walt Disney. Not bad, right? The only downside of this is you can't take your stroller in, however, the cast members are really accommodating and seem to know why some people are visiting One Man's Dream.

The WORST place is Toy Story Land: Not a lot of shade, not a lot of benches or seating or even an indoor gift shop to try and cool yourself or your little ones down. Filled with bright lights and loud noises from the rides, and no shelter from the heat. You're better off trying to find a spot anywhere else in the park. The only exception to that is Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, who only comes in second on the worst spot list because you can actually find shade there.

So there you have it. In my opinion the best places to find some peace and quiet at Disney World. If you have a little one who can sleep anytime, anywhere, consider yourself lucky. The rest of us will need to use this as a tool to help achieve Disney success. Let's face it, if your toddler is a tired disaster, the rest of your party will soon follow suit.