Do you take mid-day breaks?

[mbrou24]

Me and my fiancé went in December and almost always took a mid day break. We would do a park in the morning/ afternoon then go back to hotel for an hour or two. Then we would hit the park we had a dinner reservation for or the park with EMH

 

[momto3gr8boys]

We love mid-day breaks, and always plan for them. We get hoppers, so we go to one park in the morning, take a swim break and then hit another park at night.

The only times we don't do breaks are in the cooler months when the park hours are shorter and the heat doesn't wear us out.

We are flexible though...if we decide we need to sleep in and spend a morning at the pool, we will. If we are having a great time and don't want a break, we will do that too. This trip I am planning two non-park days (one full resort day at Poly and one TL/DTD day). Having those two days may affect how we feel about breaks on the other days.

I think it's a good idea to schedule them, and then if you don't want to take them, just stay where you are.

 

[W.E.D.]

Love the breaks! We are there for RD, a.m. EMH if possible, and then we head back to the resort around 2 or 3. Grab a nap, and then we head out again. We always use park hoppers because we typically do our rides and attractions at one park, and then post-nap dining at EPCOT.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Always took breaks, back with our children, now as empty nesters and then with family and grandchildren.... See no reason to stress out and try to get it all....

Few hours at RD till around noonish and back at a park around 5-6 pm is plenty... Overstimulation and excitement not good and as seniors, need the break.... We always go deluxe and really enjoy the resort and pool.... If we're not in a park, we're at the pool.....

 

[OklahomaTourist]

Regardless of when the kids were little, up to when they're (now) teenagers, we take a middday break. The heat can get pretty intense, the crowds, the intangibles that make you say "eh, let's come back later," grab a bus and head back to the hotel.

We were complete noobs when we visited WDW the first time in '01, took our kids (5 and 3), and tried to make a full-day of it, and it was disastrous. Kids were tired, hot, cranky, and I thought I'd lost my mind for having driven them 1500 miles for a miserable vacation. Fortunately, cooler heads (my wife) prevailed, she suggested a break back at the hotel, which we did, and we went back that afternoon and had a great evening. For the rest of our week, we took an 11AM-Noonish break every day for about an hour, and we had an awesome rest-of-the-week.

 

[clareita]

We were complete noobs when we visited WDW the first time in '01, took our kids (5 and 3), and tried to make a full-day of it, and it was disastrous. Kids were tired, hot, cranky, and I thought I'd lost my mind for having driven them 1500 miles for a miserable vacation.

One of my husband's favorite parts of a trip to WDW is the inevitable moment when we see a tired, cranky, screaming child and their equally frustrated parents and he says, "Ah... the Happiest Place on Earth."

 

[Luvin*Livvy]

Every day! Every trip! We usually head to parks around 9 and stay til 1...go back to resort and the kids swim...then nap until about 5 and then we head to dinner (ressies are usually around 6:30-7pm) and back into the parks until they close! We try to plan our park days based on EMH at night, rather than during the mornings!

 

[Comeundone87]

Does anyone who doesn't stay on site take a mid-day break? We are going end of June/begining of July and know it will be HOT and CROWDED. I'd love to be able to take a break during the day and go back to the off site villa with a private pool that we are staying at that's about 20 min away. How does that work with parking? Is there a chance we can't get back in the park due to capacity issues?

 

[Magic3forme]

we normally take mid day breaks. We have season passes, so we dont go commando anymore.

we like to take a break to swim -- nap! ( especially is there are late nite EMH).

in the summer I dont do well with the heat --- so we like to leave the parks by 1230 and go back around dinner time.

 

[denise5374]

We take breaks. My kids are now 20 and 16 and we go in August. SO by about 2ish or so we are hot and tired, head back to the resort, change into bathing suits, grab a cold beverage of choice and head to the pool. We usually have ADRs for dinner so we then head back. We don"t do hoppers so we usually go back to the park from the morning or head to mini golf or DTD. Have been doing this way since the kids first visit when they were 4 and 6 months old.

 

[Just_Trish]

16 trips starting when my DD was 7 and we have never, ever taken a mid-day break! We are both naturally "goers" and are in the parks from opening until they kick us out!

Even for the One More Disney Day, we went literally all 24 hours (more like 26 hours...) up and active only sitting to eat or potty! LOL!!!

That said, we don't (and can't!) swim. But I cannot fathom taking park time out to swim because don't most people have access to pools either of their own, friends, family, YMCA, etc...as a non-swimmer, I don't think that I can ever grasp that concept! (No offense to those who like to swim at Disney at all!!! By all means, swim away if you enjoy it!)

 

[kaybird]

We tended (and still do) to take fake breaks. Most of my TS meals are midafternoon, or we like to do Universe of Energy, Carosel of Progress, or American Adventure as a great down time. Always gives us a perk up!

 

[clareita]

But I cannot fathom taking park time out to swim because don't most people have access to pools either of their own, friends, family, YMCA, etc...as a non-swimmer, I don't think that I can ever grasp that concept! (No offense to those who like to swim at Disney at all!!! By all means, swim away if you enjoy it!)

YMCA, town, friend's pool is to a Disney pool (esp. at some of the deluxe resorts) as the rinky dink seasonal amusement park near my town is to the MK (or Epcot, AK, HS). There is nothing quite like relaxing with a drink by the pool at the Polynesian looking at the castle in the distance.

 

[bennifer]

Nope, never done the breaks, but I'm seriously thinking about changing that. My ODS was 5 on our first trip and he was a machine! He never once complained that he was too tired or too hot. If anything, he has always been the one taking us on the forced marches thru the parks every day! For our trip in Sept, he won't be along (college, sniff), but the YDS will be 4, and he is quite the opposite of his brother, and I can't imagine that he's going to have fun if we go commando every day!

 

[Ginny Favers]

Last time, we did rope drop most mornings, and were ready to go back to the hotel by noonish, when it was really crowded. Usually we'd eat lunch first, go back, and have some time by the pool or nap. Then we'd always go back to the park for dinner. I think the trick to getting back is to have dinner reservations at the park where you plan to end up. Being on the DDP, we were kind of forced to.

 

[BrerNashville]

Our recent strategy has been to hit RD and make lunch ADRs in the park between 12 and 1 which serve as a hard stop to our day. As a bonus, the prices are generally cheaper than the dinner prices (and with the TiW card, that much better). After lunch, we head back to the resort for swimming and relaxing. We eat dinner quick service either at the resort or back in the park. Another bonus is that dinner QS places are generally less crowded than lunch Qs. Also, if we've snacked all day, maybe we just skip dinner, or just continue snacking. This schedule seems to preserve a lot of flexibility for late in the day, which is when things seem to break down for us based on tiredness, hunger (or lack thereof), etc.

 

[rdevine10]

For us its pretty much works like this:

Short trips (aka 1 or 2 park days) we go ALL day with no break!
Those trips have several non park days of relaxation and pool time built into them.

Longer trips (more than 2 days) we always build an afternoon break into the day. It REALLY helps energize us, and as others have said, playing in the pools is part of the vacation! Those of us who live in cold weather areas dont get to go that as much at home (ie: our next trip is 8 days of parks, and we will take breaks!)

 

[~April~]

mid day breaks are a MUST for us. dd needs down time or she gets to be a grump which will ruin the moods of the rest of our family. Its nice to cool off in the pool also.

 

[luvgoing2disney]

No breaks. One of the first busses over and stay till close. We can swim and nap at home. Commando style for us!

 

[jennygirlmt]

Does anyone who doesn't stay on site take a mid-day break? We are going end of June/begining of July and know it will be HOT and CROWDED. I'd love to be able to take a break during the day and go back to the off site villa with a private pool that we are staying at that's about 20 min away. How does that work with parking? Is there a chance we can't get back in the park due to capacity issues?

I was wondering the same. It sound like we are staying in the same place. 40 minutes to get to our car, 20 minute drive back, then taking a rest, then an hour trip to get back into the park, I feel like that will be more effort than just staying in the park. But we are going with a 2 year old and 4 month old. So I know we won't make it till fireworks or close (10pm and 1am, I can't imagine anyone going from rope drop at 8am to 1am!). I'm just not sure what to plan for our day. We'll have 8 adults in our group as well.