Am I the only one???

[Maribel]

When it was my DH and me, we usually picked a park and stayed there all day. It didn't make sense to go back to the hotel. However, we always traveled on January, so the afternoons where very nice and it was the only decent time to ride the water rides (splash mountain, etc).
I thought this last time I went that I would try to get back to the resort because it was my first time with my baby (18 months) so that she could nap during the afternoon in nice air conditioner. However, since she tends to wake up as soon as the sun comes out when she is not sleeping in her own crib, by 11:00 am she was ready to take a nap and usually did so in her stroller.
So it didn't make any sense to me to break the day.
Besides, when you are getting fastpasses, you will most certainly get some for the afternoon.
If I want downtime, I stay one day without hitting the parks and stay in the resort.
But I do recognize that when we stayed at the Dolphin, we when in the morning to MGM, get back to the resort to cool off and then epcot at night for dinner and illuminations. But still, the boat ride from/to Dolphin to any park + security + walking from turnstile to wherever you what to be in the park... it's a bit to much. I much rather finding a nice place with air conditioner in the park (the place to take photos with the toy story characters in MK worked quite nicely as did any of the pavillions in Epcot) where I can take the stroller in for the baby to rest comfortably is enough for me.

 

[DisFlan]

This is definitely true. We've done 3 days in a row and we were exhausted. So I understand why a lot of people like to take afternoon breaks. The difference for me is that I just don't see going back to the resort, then back to the park again as being very restful. Maybe it's just me, but getting 4 kids and 2 strollers from point A to point B, whether it's by car or bus, is stressful and tiring enough that it's not worth any rest we would get.

For us, the best plan would be to have rest days instead of afternoon breaks. Our last trip was 9 nights and included 5 disney park days, 1 sea world day, and 1 universal day. I'm planning 11 nights for our next trip just so we can have more rest days.

We were also past the age of strollers 20 years ago! That makes a big difference. We're looking at grandchildren in the next few years, so we'll (gladly) be back to stroller duty.

DisFlan

 

[mill4023]

We were also past the age of strollers 20 years ago! That makes a big difference. We're looking at grandchildren in the next few years, so we'll (gladly) be back to stroller duty.

DisFlan

Yep. Without kids, it's certainly easier to go back and forth.

 

[sln88]

we also go all day, but in the fall, so the parks are not open so late, and it is not so hot

I think if I went back to the room and laid down, I would be too lazy to get back up!

I figure if I pay for the day, I will stay all day and enjoy it, but we will probably have a 'down' day and maybe go to typhoon lagoon and relax a bit- maybe the day after mnsshp

On the day we go to MNSSHP, we also don't do a park during the day because that would be too much

 

[Marseeya]

We really enjoyed our style of doing things. We got up early, got to the parks at opening, left at noon or 1:00, relaxed at the resort (come on! It was AKL!), then went to dinner at another resort.

Our original plans were to go back to a park after dinner and finish up the evening there, but I'd gotten the chicken pox before we left and my stamina wasn't up to par at all.

We had 8 day park hopper passes, so we felt absolutely no need to be in the parks all day long.

 

[crazymomof4]

I think it's one of those personal preference things.

In all of our trips to WDW, both before kids and since, we have never left a park to go back to the hotel or house and then returned later in the day. We usually do take longish trips (10 days-2 weeks) and we don't stay in the parks bc we feel we have to "cram" everything in. Instead, we take our breaks, if needed, throughout the day, within the park we are in. We take a long, relaxing lunch at a sit-down restaurant, or sit on a shady bench and people watch, talk to each other and take in the surrounding sights and sounds. Very enjoyable!

Daytime naps are out since most of us wake up more groggy than before we slept.

We schedule non-park days into our vacation so that we can relax, re-coup and enjoy the pool at the house or resort.

Nope, like the OP, once we are in a park, we're there for the day and when we used to get the park hoppers, we too would go to EPCOT until closing bc it was the last to close.

Different strokes for different folks.