afternoon resort breaks

steelernation

Earning My Ears
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Jul 2, 2014
Messages
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headed for first family trip in Oct 2015. myself, dh, ds (9), dd (14 months) and my mom. plan on doing each park once. wanted any advice/suggestions/thoughts on afternoon resort breaks. wasn't planning on doing one at animal kingdom, due to the short hours and the leisurely pace of the park. plan on doing early ADR at crystal palace before park opens. plan on doing electric parade, illuminations, and fantasmic. since i'd like to be out late in parks but there early in the morning, i was thinking of doing a break in the middle. just not sure how best to make it happen. dd could (and probably would) fall asleep in stroller. but ds has adhd and can sometimes get easily overstimulated. so for his sake (and ours) thought it would be in our best interest to leave the crowds a bit. if you've done breaks before, how and when?
 
We do breaks on most of our days. We leave around 12 or 1 and come back around 4 or 5. We usually swim for a little while and take a short nap and freshen up for dinner and nightime fun! We go in Sept when it's VERY hot but I think really everyone could use a couple hours of rest no matter what time of year.

ETA: But we are a rope drop family!
 
We've been taking afternoon breaks since 1977.... that's 53 trips so far and I must say, with or without youngins along we've always left the parks mid day....first off, it's just plain too hot, second is over stimulation of the senses, third is too many guest have arrived and jammed packed the park and lastly, we really enjoy our resort and the pool and relaxing around it and in it is a big part of our stay....

We enjoy picnic lunches at the pool, few drinks ( all this provided with groceries picked up in route) snacks....cooling off in the water, little snooze so we can go back in the evening for a few hours.....to us, it's senseless to burn yourself out in any park opening to close...
 
thank you so much. that's kind of what i had in mind...but i had read other posts where people were saying that breaks were useless and wasted park time. but i was thinking if you're there for several hours in the morning and then back again for several hours in the evening...what's a few hours back at the resort to chill out? thank you for solidifying my thoughts and plans. :)
 

If I could only give people one tip (and trust me, I've got plenty) it would be the midday break. Even if not to avoid crowds, it makes the evening so much more pleasant when you can relax and refresh midday. A tired park goer, adult or child, can easily be an unhappy park goer!

If you are staying on-site you are also paying for more than just a place to sleep. Why not enjoy your resort. Midday breaks off-site may not be quite as easy, but they still are quite a benefit.
 
thank you so much. that's kind of what i had in mind...but i had read other posts where people were saying that breaks were useless and wasted park time. but i was thinking if you're there for several hours in the morning and then back again for several hours in the evening...what's a few hours back at the resort to chill out? thank you for solidifying my thoughts and plans. :)

I don't find it to be wasted time at all! Any time on Disney property or on vacation for that matter is not a waste! Do what works for your family and have a wonderful time making memories! (plus anytime you "miss" something, it's always a good excuse to go back, right?) :goodvibes
 
A mid day break is a must for me. I like to leave the parks around 2pm, go back to my resort and relax for a couple of hours, then head back to the parks. I usually take a little nap just to get off my feet.
 
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Always! Even though my kids may not sleep--they are 17 and 22 after all, I will! We have 2 master plans:

1. Go early, have lunch in park, go back for a rest, then go back after an early dinner
2. Sleep in, have lunch in park or elsewhere (room, hotel etc) and go to a park for a while. May or may not stay late.

Actually there's a third thing that happens that isn't a "plan." Go sometime in the morning , I get sick of it Disney and the heat, but my kids want to stay. I go home for a nap and they show up later, making a bunch of noise and wake me up. :)
 
To elaborate a little......

A midday break allows you to take advantage of rope drop or morning EMH, and to stay until park closing, including evening EMH. Those are the most efficient times to tour the parks. Yes, you can still take advantage of both of those without a midday break, but both adults and children will get to some level of cranky if in the parks all day long, especially in the heat if you happen to be going when it's hot.

MK we are in at opening/EMH and we leave when the park starts to get crowded. That's usually around 11:00 or 12:00. Same for DHS. At Epcot we are there early and often schedule a late breakfast or early lunch, what with all the great places to eat. World Showcase doesn't get crowded, but we still head out by 1:00 to refresh and relax. AK is a bit different, seeing as we like to get all our stuff done there before we leave, so our break those days doesn't come until 3:00 or so. With FP+ we can now take advantage of low crowds in the morning and have great rides scheduled for the evening.

I'll tell you...nothing like getting to a park early evening, after a refreshing swim, nap for those who need it, nice meal.....and being in the park well rested with FP+ in hand. I always feel bad for the tired and cranky masses I see trudging through the park at that time. Sure, they are still at WDW having a great time, but it's not optimal to be there ALL day, IMHO.
 
I'll tell you...nothing like getting to a park early evening, after a refreshing swim, nap for those who need it, nice meal.....and being in the park well rested with FP+ in hand. I always feel bad for the tired and cranky masses I see trudging through the park at that time. Sure, they are still at WDW having a great time, but it's not optimal to be there ALL day, IMHO.

I so agree with this! I don't think there are all that many that make it from rope drop to close- and I'm going to bet that getting there early and coming back to close a park gives us just as many hours as someone who show up at 10 and leaves at 7-8 because they're hot and exhausted.

We take a midday break every day, every trip and always have.
 
In all our trips we take mid day breaks MOST days...really depends on what we are doing that day or had done the day before. Example...if we plan to stay super late and watch fireworks and close out the park, then the next day we sleep in and do a park a bit later. Most often Epcot World showcase (since it opens at 11) and have a slower paced day. OR...we plan for the following day to be a resort day. If we are up early, we definitely need a rest mid day..we go back and nap and/or swim and have a snack, sometimes we go back to parks, sometimes we don't. We did open to close once, we were all miserable and our youngest threw up from exhaustion, heat and lack of sleep...now we go very relaxed and have yet to miss anything we want to do!
 
I would add that the pool time is something that my kids (3 ages 5-8) get really excited about - as much as going to Magic Kingdom itself. Afternoon breaks let them experience that each day.
 
I think taking breaks would be great! We've never done afternoon breaks because my husband wants to be in the parks ALL DAY. We're planning afternoon breaks this year though. The boys are SO tired by the time we get back to the room after going, going, going all day, and end up cranky. My oldest DS is also usually disappointed in the lack of pool time we get.
So I say YES to breaks!! :)
 
It didn't work the day we tried it, everyone got very grumpy and had meltdowns and nobody napped! So my experience was maybe worse than the typical :) however we only did one late night we were more a rope drop to 5 kind of schedule. If you find it to be too time consuming an alternative is finding places to get some peace and quiet in the parks or to leave and for example, ride the monorail. Ride it all around everyone sits in the ac, kids can relax or nap. Ride to a resort, sit and relax there all of the deluxe resorts have some quiet spots and CMs are helpful if you tell them you want a spot to rest for a little while. This is best for decompressing or being less stimulated of course. Then within the parks there are places you can kind of get a break. Don't forget to let the kids play in the play areas this worked wonders for us! Walking in the rose garden at MK (unless that's now part of the construction) going to tom sawyers island was great we got to explore, sit in the rocking chairs, have a snack and relax. The splash area at MK is good too though they will get soaked. We brought flip flops and a second outfit for that. Epcot has lots of little areas like the path behind Canada, the maze in the UK...I agree I wouldn't leave animal studios it's definitely a shorter day and less overwhelming park.
 
We always schedule an afternoon break. It varies, usually we just leave our first park whenever things start getting pretty crowded. Usually it ends up being about 1pm. We stay at the resort for a few hours and hop to a different park later on. If we had all older children we might not go back for a break each day but it's worked out well for us. Often we do the pool during our afternoon break and it is usually less crowded than it can be later in the night.
 
We usually schedule a break. We like to get to the parks early, tour and have lunch, then go back to the resort to enjoy the pool, take a nap, or just relax, and tehn get ready to head back out for a meal and maybe another park. I think it all depends on how you view your vacation. My family includes the parks as part of our vacation, but that is only part of our trip. We use a vacation as a way to relax, so our resort time, our dining, and park time are all important.

I will say that my family could not go all day every day. We would be at each othr's throats by the third day.
 
DH & I used to go from rope drop to park close but not anymore...

We hit rope drop and take a midday break. I highly recommend it.
 
We used to go all day in the parks and stay offsite. We thought breaks would be a waste of park time. It was kind of exhausting and I wasn't really crazy about going to WDW, even though it was fun at times. When we started staying on-site, we started breaks. Now we all like going there so much more. It's still really busy, but it's so much more fun and relaxing. It does take a big chunk of time out of the day, but it's worth it. I think it can take about 4 -5 hours usually(2 for travel, 2-3 for pool, rest, etc.). Sometimes we eat in the food court at the resort for dinner or we go back to the park or another resort for an evening ADR before heading back to the park for the evening. BTW, we didn't even start the break thing until our kids were teenagers(although, when they were younger, we only took them there a couple of times...too exhausting).
 
Doesn't work for us, but we also don't stay from opening until close. We go for opening time and usually leave the parks around supper time. Last year we started to add hops into most of our days, so we do one park until early afternoon, and then drive to the 2nd park we want for the day. We don't really tour much after supper though (some exceptions, but not many), so we use the evening to unwind at the resort, swim, etc... and then get to bed at a normal time for my son and then we're well rested for the next day.

If we start to do later nights (which we may as he gets older, he's 7 right now), then I will probably go with a midday break strategy.
 

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