How do you fit down time into your trip?

[Sparkly]

We're staying onsite this time so can take advantage of going back to the resort for a break. It'll depend on how tired we are and what we have planned for that day.

 

[Just(donald)Ducky]

We went in 2006, and kind of accidentally stumbled onto the best thing for us.

We arrived in mid-afternoon, explored the resort and had a bit of downtime.

Chef Mickeys to get into the disney spirit.

MK at rope drop, we took the bus.

Planned on eating lunch and continuing to go through the park (it was jan.)

We got into a fight because of my "GO GO GO" attitude. (outside of the jungle cruise... she got on the ride furious with me, got off the ride laughing and having a good time.... Thank you DR ALBERT FALLS!" We said 'screw it... lets go back to the hotel and relax.'

We waited for the bus. and waited. and waited. and waited. Went back to the hotel, was bored (too cold for swimming) so we went to DTD.... I had never been there before. We had an awesome time! Ate at Earl of Sandwich, then had an AMAZING sundae with 8 scoops of icecream and 8 toppings..

So we did that for the rest of the trip.

Rope drop for the park of the day (planned out in advance to hit EMH)

Back to the hotel to chill for a bit

DTD

To the EMH evening park.

and we drove everywhere. Forget waiting for the bus!

 

[BMWTeamLeader]

Our family is doing a seven night eight day trip. On our arrival we are staying poolside getting settled. Departure day we are going to downtown Disney. Then in the middle of our trip we have a ft. Wilderness day planned: horseback riding in the morning, picnic lunch in the aftenoon,Hoop de doo revue in the early evening capping off with chip and dales campfire . I am taking three first timers and the goal is to not tire them out so they'll want to come back!

 

[wdwlver]

Simialar to other, we divide the day into thirds: morning at one park, afternoon at resort, evening at another park.

We have a rental car, so that saves time going back to resort. We leave morning park by 2p. Return around 5p (if we are ready) with dinner ADRs around 7p. That way, if we are still recouperating or swimming, we can leave a little later for evening park.

For us, it is not just "down-time". It's variety. Dividing day into thirds and using park hopper, makes it seem like a longer trip. We never feel like we have to get it all done, b/c we know we'll be back to that park later in the trip. We know we can go high pace in morning, b/c we will be breaking after lunch. Works for us.

Exactly how we do it. Except we are usually back at resort by 1....

 

[texasroni75]

We typically do 7 day trips. Our first 3 days we rarely do any real down-time because we are on our Back-in-Disney-high and are too excited to want to "waste" time back at the room. But by day 4, we usually need it. Those days, we head back to the resort between 3pm and 5pm (depending on when we arrived at the park that day and what time we ate lunch). We do pool time, or nap in the room, then head back to the park for a CS dinner and/or a big dessert and evening entertainment. Since we have hoppers, many times it's a different park than where we started our day.

 

[scrappinannie]

October will be my family's third trip to WDW and I still haven't mastered spending time at the resorts. The kids love the parks, but also really enjoy time at the resort too- so...

How do you plan for resort time? (we are going for 7 nights arriving on the Saturday of Columbus Day weekend)

Do you come back during lunch break each day? (In the past we have spent all day at the parks- leaving very little resort time)

Do you spend your arrival day at the parks or resort/dtd? (we have an early arriving two hour flight- 10am- kids are used to waking up early, in past have checked in and gone straight to MK to soak it in- now wondering if we should just take arrival day off)

I'm worried that if we plan a whole down day in the middle of the trip that it'll rain the whole day. Guess I just need to be flexible with plans.

So much to fit in! We need a month at Disney I think.

This is what we do, seems to work fairly well. Just remember I haven't read through the other posts so sorry if I repeat something that's already been menitoned. Also keep in mind I'm not looking at any crowd calendars or recommended days to visit each park, I'm just giving you an example of how we plan our days for 7 days:

Day 1 (arrival day): We usually arrive mid to late afternoon, so our room is ready. We check in, get settled, then head out for dinner at DTD. After dinner we walk around DTD, enjoy the sights, maybe grab dessert and then head back to our resort.

Days 2 & 3: Park Days. Usually MK is our first full day.

Day 4: Non-Park day. We spend most of the day at our resort then head to the Boardwalk area or DTD for dinner. You could also have dinner at one of the parks and stay for fireworks or night time parade.

Days 5 & 6 are also full park days.

After the 6th day you've had 1 full day at each park plus one non-park day. If you want, on the 7th day you could return to a favorite park (we usually end up doing 2 days at MK since our kids are little. Before kids, we did 2 days at Epcot)

Depending on your departure time, the 7th day could also be a partial park day or a water park day. Lately we've been to AK when they close at 6pm or so, so since you still have quite a bit of time left in the day, you could also go to DTD or the Boardwalk area or just back to your resort to enjoy the evening (including swimming most of the year) there. We have never gone back to our resort for meals or mid day breaks. Our kids nap in their strollers and now hardly nap at all, so we stay in the parks and maybe just find a quiet show or have a quick snack if they need a break. It usually works. If we are dining at a resort, it's usually for breakfast (most resort restaurants open well ahead of park opening, so you can try and snag an early ADR and still make rope drop). We try to keep meals within the parks we are visiting that day as we don't do park hoppers.

We don't like to spend our arrival or departure days at parks, but that's just our preference. I know many people like to get the magic started right away and keep it going as long as possible but for now, we choose not to tour this way. If you can get away with adding an 8th day, you can plan for 1 extra day to do whatever you feel like THAT DAY! We did that once it was great. Also happened to be the one trip our DD got sick on, so we lost 2 full park days Luckily, I had one resort day and one "do whatever we want day" already in the plans, so we really didn't lose much park time. Had to rearrange a few ADRs, but the POR staff was very helpful in getting them rescheduled for us.

Don't sweat it out too much. You will have a great day no matter where you spend it and just try to "go with the flow" as far as your resort day goes. It will work out just fine.

 

[LisaTC]

Similar to ScrappinAnnie...

We arrive mid-afternoon on Saturday. Check in, unpack and head to HDDR. Sunday is usually MK day as we had MNSSHP tix and MVMCP tix for Sunday both times. Monday AK or EP depending on crowds. We have a down/resort day or 1/2 day on Tues or Weds. By then, we need a break, so we may hit a park early and leave after lunch and spend the rest of that day at the resort. We usually go to MK 2days, EP 2da, AK 1da, HS 1 or part of a day. So even if we have 7 nights, we only get a 6 day ticket because our first night we don't hit a park and our check out day we don't hit a park either.

 

[shyjade]

We seldom swim at Disney, usually only once per trip. We prefer to make the most of what we can't do elsewhere/at home: the parks.

We are early risers and don't like heat & crowds so we always do RD. We grab an early lunch then head back to the resort to rest & cool off before heading to a different park. Or, we cool off in a/c shows in the afternoon, have an early ADR and get a good night's sleep, especially since we go off season and the parks close early.

This year we hope to have a few later nights (and do mnsshp our final night) so I have planned one "down day" mid week. We will sleep in, do a tour & DTD, maybe some mini golf.

One of the reasons we have switched from the poly to all stars is I can't justify the cost when we spend so little time at our resort. When I want a resort vacation, we go somewhere all inclusive and enjoy the resort.

 

[hawkeyesparks]

We do it a little different depending on where we are going to be that morning and where we are going to be that evening.

But basically we will be at the parks early and stay through lunch. After lunch we head back to the resort and stay until evening meal, then we're back at it until late.

By doing this we build in a good 3-4 hour window of down time everyday.

 

[bella2117]

My husband and I have been to Disney but it's our first vacation as a family with our two boys. We are staying 8 days and our first and last day will be our downtime days. I can't say it's worked for us before because this is out first time but I'm confident we will have a good time no matter what lol. I don't want to leave the parks mid day if I don't have to. We are also doing animal kingdom early morning early afternoon and using that night for some downtown disney exploring.