staying at the resort all day instead of going to the parks

sambisc

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 20, 2011
does anyone ever stay at the resort all day instead of going to one of the parks? thought of doing this for a "down" day.
 
We often have non-park days during our trips (the longer the trip, the more non-park days). Sometimes we'll stay at the resort and have a VERY lazy day: sleep in, late breakfast, stroll around the resort, swim, soak up some rays, read, nap,.....

Other times we'll do a bit of that and then leave the resort for something else: golf, DTD, water sports. Maybe a dinner show in the evening. Things you're too tired to do after a full day in the parks. It's a great way to recharge after a few hectic days of park touring.
 
sambisc said:
does anyone ever stay at the resort all day instead of going to one of the parks? thought of doing this for a "down" day.

Nope. Never. I think its a waste of time personally. Lol. I came to Disney to do the parks, not chill at the resort. That just us. For the record, we take an afternoon break each day. We go to the parks in the morning and night. So we don't feel the need to take an all day break.
 
sambisc said:
does anyone ever stay at the resort all day instead of going to one of the parks? thought of doing this for a "down" day.

I'll do a half day at the resort, but any longer than that and I start to go stir crazy knowing how much there is to do if I just hop on a bus!

If you've got kids who are entertained by resort pools and arcades, though, I can definitely see it being a nice way to spend a day.
 


my goal is to visit WDW and not do parks at all.....we'll see if that ever happens! I LOVE hanging out at resorts,and being lazy!
 
We have a few days every trip that are down days. We are dvc members and go once or twice a year. It is nice to relax and enjoy what the resorts offer. This upcoming trip we have 4 non park days planned.
Last thanksgiving we did a 3 day trip at old key west with no parks. It was wonderful.
 
Depends on where we are staying.
Our vacations at POP - no way...rooms to small, resort too loud - not condusive to a relaxing at the resort kind of day. That being said - when we booked it, we knew we were planning on a go..go..go kind of vacation.
This past trip we stayed at AKL because we wanted to factor relaxation into our trip. It was fabulous. I could easily spend a full day there..in fact, if I was a gazillionaire I would still be sitting poolside as I type this.
 


I would also say it depends on the length of your trip, and what resort you are staying at. On our longer trips of 10+ days we may have a no park morning/afternoon, then go to dinner and a park at night. Sometimes (in summer) we will go to DTD or a water park during the day.
Last August we were staying CL and never made it out to the parks much at night. We'd get back to AKL mid day, or late afternoon and hang out at the resort.
 
I did an entire week in July without entering a park. We stayed GF RPC and rented a pool cabana every day. It was a nice getaway.
 
We never had a day where at some point we don't go to a park. On days where we are planning to go to a party, like MNSSHP, we don't go to the park until it's time for the party. Our next trip will be in September and our last night will they will hopefully have MNSSHP. Since we will be leaving early the next day, we will sleep late, eat lunch at the resort, and have some pool time before heading to MNSSHP.
 
We always plan one resort day. However, that can include Downtown Disney too.....the kids like to have one day where they can swim or and play in the arcade and not have to rush to eat or leave. That said, we did the waterpark option on our last trip and will do it on the next. AWESOME!!!
 
We started doing this a few years ago, and these are sometimes my favorite days. It's great to know we can sleep in as long as we want, have a nice late breakfast lounge at the pool a bit, and then we usually head to DTD for dinner and just to "get out" lol.
 
We do that alot on our 11 day stay, its nice having down time and pool time. Plus DH is a big fan of sleeping in and napping :rotfl:
 
We love down time at the resort especially when we stay at the Beach Club. We still usually stroll over to Epcot for dinner but love hanging out at the pool all day. We’ve done the same at POR and taken the boat to DTD in the evening and WL and boating it to Contemporary and having dinner at one of the monorail resorts. We also go to Disney a lot so we don’t feel like we have do every ride/show each trip because we know we will be back. I personally could stay a week at the Beach Club floating in the pool.
 
We usually do 2 days at a park, one day to relax, then 2 more days at a park. It works well with our little one. We spend all day at the park. Alternating between rides and shows.
 
We do it every trip. Although generally do a park that evening. My favorite kind of day is to spend the day at my resort, then go to MK for EMH that night or sometimes DTD.

We have been known to also just be at the resort all day and evening, the nightime movies by the pools//beaches that each resort offers make that option very doable for us.

Our trips are always at least ten nights so a down day is a must for us. When we have two week trips, its a must because they don't sell a ticket that is long enough to cover all our days.

I'll add that we have stayed at every level of Disney resort and we have done this down day at every level. Although I will say the values are great in the morning, as the day wears on it gets harder to feel the peace and quiet! At the mods and deluxe's we do main pool until after lunch then head to one of the quiet pools.

Another note I'll make is that the pool games all the resorts do also have us escaping to the quiet pools in the afternoons if we want peace and quiet. Our kids are older now so the pool games aren't much of a draw anymore.
 
Sometimes - we usually use that day to go to DTD and resort hop at the Deluxes. We enjoy the resorts more than parks sometimes! Especially when we are traveling with our little one.
 
No, we have never taken an entire day to spend at the resort. We only go once every other year so we feel like we need to maximize our time while there. We spent more time at our resort this past trip because we stayed at AKL. For the first time, we planned a sleep in day after a late night light show (helpful with little ones, so glad we did this; it helped us all). On that same day because AKL had craft, cultural, and animal activities for the kids throughout the day, we took advantage of that and stayed at the resort to do the activities until around 2:40 and then headed off to the park. There's no way we would have stayed that long at the other resorts we've stayed in the past (Pop and POFQ) because they don't have all the kids activities. While it was nice to pause some, I couldn't have imagined staying at our hotel any longer. It's all what works for your family, though, and makes your vacation enjoyable.
 
Arrival day is when we spend the most time at our resort. Can't do the parks this day, so we'll explore the resort, take photos, and hit DTD that first night.

I try to schedule 2 afternoons as breaks, but most of the time we only make one, or sometimes skip both......too much of WDW to see!

We tend to carve out more downtime if we stay deluxe. Plus, I'll schedule ADRs for restaurants during the week, and that makes us spend more time at the resort. How can you stay at AKL and NOT make ADRs for Jiko and Boma?! :goodvibes
 
I love having some down durning the vacation, so if we do a park all day one day the next day is usually our hotel day. Go swimming, play tennis, walk around the resort and take in the amenities that are offered. Also on our non-park days I like to go into Orlando, hit the malls do some shopping things like that are a great way to relax and take it easy. I much prefer to have a relax/hotel day between each park day so I don't get to exhausted and worn down (I don't care for doing the parks back to back).

Plus on non park days I love to resort hop, shop in other resorts gift shops, walk around and take pictures, see the scenery and check out other resorts to see I'd like to stay there one day. Other non park days are spent at the resort pool all day and that's perfect too!

I love the parks and want to do it all while there, but I cherish the non park days just as much!
 

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