Fall Break and Jersey Week in Orlando: Book Childcare Before It Goes
If you have visited Orlando in the first full week of November, you have met Jersey Week without necessarily knowing its name. New Jersey schools close for a teachers' convention, a very large number of families take the same week in Florida, and Orlando fills with the same accents and the same strollers all at once.
It coincides with fall break for a lot of other districts, which makes early November one of the busiest family travel windows of the entire year outside the holidays.
What That Means Practically
Three things get tight at the same time: hotel rooms, dining reservations, and childcare. The first two are well documented and most families plan around them. The third one catches people out, because it is not something you think about until you are already in town and want an evening.
From our side, the pattern is very consistent. Requests for that week arrive in a cluster, most of them for the same two or three evenings, and the specific character a child wants is the first thing that becomes unavailable.
When to Book
Book the sitter at the same time you book the hotel. Dates 30 to 120 days out can be reserved, and for early November that means acting in the late summer or early fall rather than in October.
If you are already past that window, book anyway, just do it before you travel rather than after you arrive. We do not take same-day bookings, so an evening out always needs at least a day of lead time, and during a peak week that margin is thinner.
What Families Use It For
Mostly one dinner. A week of parks with children is relentless in a way that is hard to explain to anyone who has not done it, and the single most common booking that week is a three hour evening so two adults can eat a meal sitting down.
The second most common is a park-day split. One parent takes an older child to the rides the younger one cannot do, and a sitter stays at the room with the little one. That works well as a morning or midday booking rather than an evening.
How In-Room Childcare Works
The sitter comes to your hotel room, resort, or vacation rental. Nothing happens in a lobby and you are not dropping anyone off. She arrives in regular clothes and changes inside, so the character reveal happens in front of your children.
Pricing is $199 for three hours with up to three children, $50 per additional hour, and $149 for a second character if you have four or more kids, up to six with two characters.
We come to Disney area resort hotels, Universal area hotels along International Drive, and vacation rentals in Kissimmee, Celebration, Reunion, Encore, and the Four Corners area. Full details are on the resort babysitting page.
A Note on Expectations During a Peak Week
We would rather turn a booking down than staff it badly. Three children per character is a real limit, not a pricing tactic, and during a busy week we will tell you honestly if we cannot cover a large group on a specific night.
If you have four or more children, or you are traveling with another family and want to combine, say so when you book. Two characters cover up to six children, and arranging that in advance is far easier than discovering the constraint the night before.
Related reading: finding a trusted babysitter for your Orlando vacation.