To break, or not to break?

[suzicute20]

I like to do parks non-stop. But, then again, I don't have kids yet. So, we'll see if that changes with little ones.

 

[rt2dz]

My kids hate fast food, so we do sit down meals daily. It is the only way to get something down them they'll actually eat. I tend to schedule these as late lunches or early dinners. I'm cheap. I combine the meal and then just do a snack later. This really worked well for us.

But then, we were going at the end of May, usually our trips are in the cooler months, and I was going to be 6 months pregnant. I allowed myself to be peer pressured by the DIS into going back to the room for breaks. It was a disaster. None of my kids are on the same schedule rest wise. My kids were never ready to switch gears when it would be worthwhile--either from the parks to the hotel or vice versa. It was the only time we've ever had real meltdowns from our kids at WDW. After day 3 of this, I said screw it and we stayed in the parks. Wow, it was wonderful again. DS4 is high maintenance, and he is also so much easier in the parks than out of them.

So, we take breaks, but in the parks. Or we switch parks when the kids are getting irritable/bored (is that possible?). We don't go commando--no open to close--but we don't leave for those breaks, even in the hot months. If th kids need a nap, that is what a stroller is for. It's just not worth it to us; it leads to more problems than it solves. Kids are currently 7, 4 & 2.

 

[madalex]

Going to WDW is a vacation, mean I want to rest and relax for at least some part of each day. Going from morning to night in the parks without a break sounds too much like work to me.

 

[jimmalru80]

In ten previous trips, we have never stayed in the parks all day. We break after lunch and head back at dinner time.

 

[MKFan-PR]

We're not "morning people", so we usually arrive pretty late at the parks, and usually stay all day. When we've gone in the summer we've taken a break on a couple of days simply because it's just too hot and tiring (and I live in the Caribbean!).

Staying from opening to closing is too much for us (it's worse than work for me! I'm on vacation!), but some families are very active and actually like it that way.

 

[donac]

We usually do take a break. Even as the boys got older. They like to sleep but they can also wake up early if they need to. SO we do go back to the hotel and they may take a nap and I usually swim. This has always worked for us.

 

[Atotty]

It really depends on what time of year you go. Is it hot? Are park hours long or short?

Oct. some breaks...depended on if the aprk we were going to was open late or not.

Thanksgiving....no break.

May/June, we always take a break.

 

[GoofySon'sMom]

We don't take breaks - we don't have enough sense to do that. We might if we made it to the parks for rope drop every morning, but we don't. We tend to sleep in a bit, enjoy whatever we've planned for the day, and fall into bed when we've exhausted ourselves completely.

This is us as well. We very rarely plan to take a break but if we feel that we need one on a particular day, we will do it. Most days we are 'go go go' mode. If we were to make a rope drop or an early breakfast, we would probably take a break. I have found that if I go back to the hotel to nap, I really have to force myself to go back out again.

We do try to plan one 'down day' during the middle of our trip where we may play mini-golf or go to DTD and then hit a park for dinner & late night.

 

[goofy4tink]

I always have an AP so park entrance isn't an issue for me. If my trip is from November-March, then I usually go sunup to midnight (or whenever the parks close). But, I do hop from park to park.
For the months between then, April-Oct, I usually head back to the resort mid-day for a break. When it's hot/humid, you have to have some downtime. And with the parks open late, it's good to be there first thing in the morning, head out to swim and relax at lunchtime and then return to a park around dinnertime 'till closing.

 

[purvislets]

Before DD, we were up-and-at-em, ride-til-you-droppers, but now we take breaks in the middle of the day to relax (and nap!)

That way, she's not cranky and we can enjoy the rest of our time in the parks in peace. Otherwise, we'd be miserable the whole time with her screaming and crying.

Losing an hour or two at the hotel saves us so much mentally at the rest of our time at the parks.

 

[ReadingMama]

We take breaks with the kids. Last time it worked out and I certainly still felt like we got a lot done. Last time we just napped and saved the pool for a sleep-in day.

 

[Lintasare]

I found out during a trip in 02 that I need a nap in the middle of the day. And ever since then on all my trips we have always gone back to the resort around 2:30 for a couple hours to rest before heading out to dinner and another park.

 

[ntsammy5]

We very rarely get to the parks very early so we tend not to take breaks. We also almost always close whatever park we're in.

 

[Stack316]

Typically, we're up and out of the hotel first thing in the AM, and pretty much close the parks. In all my visits to WDW, I've never left a park mid-day to go back to the hotel and rest or swim . I hear SO many people do this, made me wonder how many "go-go-goer's" are out there who stick in the parks all day in order to see as much as possible during visits.

What's your preference?

We open the park and close the park -- no way do we leave?

For MK
Do people leave and miss the afternoon parade and the Dream Along with Mickey stage show?

How can these be missed?

 

[gingerale]

We don't take breaks - we don't have enough sense to do that. We might if we made it to the parks for rope drop every morning, but we don't. We tend to sleep in a bit, enjoy whatever we've planned for the day, and fall into bed when we've exhausted ourselves completely.

That sounds a lot like my group. We don't leave for the parks until between 9am and 10am and we stay until they kick us out. We are not really morning people and there aren't any kids slowing us down yet. We've been enough times now that we don't really feel the need to tour in total commando fashion, but we always seem to get done everything we want to do. We do try to plan in nice breaks, like a sit-down lunch to get out of the mid-day heat, a show in the World Showcase or a couple of trips on the TTA.