An Exhausting First Day?

[Hisreputation]

We've got three-day park hopper passes for the first part of August. I'm trying to plan our days, but am having a hard time wrapping my mind around it all. Let me know what you think about our first day's schedule (a Sunday) at DLR. We're planning to use RideMax for our itineraries, but all I've got right now is Touring Plans. We're staying at the Best Western Raffles and plan to shuttle or walk to the park.

Arrive at 8:30 for park opening at 9:00
Do attractions from 9:00 to 11:00
Return to the hotel and grab lunch at an off-site restaurant
Spend several hours resting/swimming
Eat an early dinner of sandwiches at our hotel
Arrive back at the park around 5:30
Watch the Soundsational Parade at 6:30
Visit the attractions we missed in the morning
Get dessert to go from Jolly Holiday
Grab seats for the second showing of Fantasmic as the first showing finishes (around 9:30)

What do you think? Are we going to be utterly exhausted doing both the Parade and Fantasmic in the same evening?

Would love any input!

 

[Kittyskyfish]

You only have a small amount of time slated for rides. Why take a 6.5-hour break from the parks if you only have a 3-day park hopper?

 

[surfmontana]

It really depends on your family and the ages of the kiddos.

When we went our children were 6 and 9 and we had a 3 day hopper. We did open till close 2 days (shorter hours 9am-10pm) and one day took about a 3 hour break at our hotel when the temps reached 101.

I was shocked at the kiddos stamina, we put some miles on our shoes for sure.

 

[wakica]

We've got three-day park hopper passes for the first part of August. I'm trying to plan our days, but am having a hard time wrapping my mind around it all. Let me know what you think about our first day's schedule (a Sunday) at DLR. We're planning to use RideMax for our itineraries, but all I've got right now is Touring Plans. We're staying at the Best Western Raffles and plan to shuttle or walk to the park.

Arrive at 8:30 for park opening at 9:00
Do attractions from 9:00 to 11:00
Return to the hotel and grab lunch at an off-site restaurant
Spend several hours resting/swimming
Eat an early dinner of sandwiches at our hotel
Arrive back at the park around 5:30
Watch the Soundsational Parade at 6:30
Visit the attractions we missed in the morning
Get dessert to go from Jolly Holiday
Grab seats for the second showing of Fantasmic as the first showing finishes (around 9:30)

What do you think? Are we going to be utterly exhausted doing both the Parade and Fantasmic in the same evening?

Would love any input!

What about taking snacks in to the park so you can continue on a bit longer? We usually show up a half hour before park opening like your planning. We stop at around 11 to snack on granola bars and fruit or even a sandwich. We stay until around 1:30 and grab a snack like a dole whip to cool down as we head out of the park. Then we head back to the hotel for some cool down time at the pool. Then you can do the same as your later portion - have an early dinner at the hotel (pizza might be nice as there is a pizza place that's affordable right by the entrance). Then pop in to the parks for 5:30 pm.

I think with the pool break you won't be exhausted but I do think you need to take advantage of the time you were planning to leave (between 11 and 1). When you get back you will most likely want to do the less popular rides as the other ones will have longer waits.

 

[Californiacicle]

I wouldn't think you'd be too exhausted. We went from 8am-10pm our first day with a character breakfast at 7am, Soundsational at 4, and fireworks at 9:25 without any down time. That's us though. Every family is different.

 

[sheetz]

A lot depends on whether or not you get enough sleep the night before.

That said, if it were me I'd stay thru lunch and grab a quick counter service somewhere. Then take an afternoon break from 1-5:30. You can bring your sandwiches into the park and munch on them during the evening parade.

 

[Mugglemama]

If I was concerned about exhaustion, I'm not sure I'd go swimming as part of an afternoon "break"? I don't know about you but swimming wears my kids OUT. Seriously, they take naps after swimming...whereas, they can walk DLR all day.

Also, running errands outside the parks (like driving around to get a meal, etc.) feels exhausting to me when we do it (and we've done it a lot due to many of our DLR trips having to be "budget" trips...). We feel FAR more relaxed and rested when we are able to stay in the parks. When we need to cool off or take a break, we just do it...there are more than enough ways to do that inside the parks, IMHO.

If your littles need an actual *nap*, then obviously you'll need your hotel beds. But I'd definitely do as a PP suggested, i.e.: just pick up food as close to your hotel as possible along the way, and I'd (personally) leave swimming out of the equation entirely.

3 day hoppers are SO expensive...I wouldn't be willing to give up a huge chunk of the day to resting at the hotel if that's all the time we had. In my experience - carrying in enough food for our family of 6 for the whole day is less hassle than walking back and forth between hotel and parks, driving somewhere for meals, etc. (which, again - we've done many times...).

If you need suggestions for how to rest and relax IN the parks (short of laying down and actually taking naps), the folks around here have more suggestions than you'll ever need.

It's not going to be the parade and F! that leave you exhausted - it's going to be all the inconvenience of the back-and-forth to the hotel and off-site restaurant (and swimming, if you do that).

Just my opinion, of course.

 

[Hisreputation]

Thanks for all the input so far! Many of you mentioned the long afternoon break, so I want to address that.

We are renting a car for several days of our vacation, and it has to be returned by 1:00PM our first day at Disney. Hence the abbreviated morning touring hours.
From what I've read, lines are their longest in the middle of the day, and peak touring ends around 11:30. I've also heard that prime touring doesn't pick back up until after 4:30.
In all my planning, I tend to set aside plenty of time to get to and from appointments/activities. I approached our Disney planning the same way. One of my mottos is: everything takes longer than you think!

Thoughts?

We will be taking snacks (Disney on a budget!), and I like the idea of eating our sandwiches during the parade! As mentioned, for some reason, it's been really tough for me to figure all this out.
I've been playing with the TouringPlans program for our other days and most of them have us finishing after 11:30 (around 1:30). You all recommend pushing through until then?
What time do you usually return to the park?

Oh, youngest is 12. Thanks again!

 

[Hisreputation]

Thanks for the input Mugglemama! This forum has been great about quick, helpful replies to my questions. It's a great resource!

We will have to think about the swimming thing...maybe if it turns out to be too much on Sunday, we'll cut back Monday and Tuesday. In addition to returning the car, I see the "rest" time as a chance to break from all the stimulation and heat of the park. As someone who is already very headaches prone, this might be a trade off I'm willing to make.

I hear you about making the most of all that money we spent though! We're a family of seven mostly adults so anything we do is expensive. I've pretty much decided against any table service in Disney, and we'll be doing sandwiches for at least one meal everyday. Food purchased in Disney will be mostly snacks.

 

[scrappymel]

Thanks for all the input so far! Many of you mentioned the long afternoon break, so I want to address that. We are renting a car for several days of our vacation, and it has to be returned by 1:00PM our first day at Disney. Hence the abbreviated morning touring hours. From what I've read, lines are their longest in the middle of the day, and peak touring ends around 11:30. I've also heard that prime touring doesn't pick back up until after 4:30. In all my planning, I tend to set aside plenty of time to get to and from appointments/activities. I approached our Disney planning the same way. One of my mottos is: everything takes longer than you think! Thoughts? We will be taking snacks (Disney on a budget!), and I like the idea of eating our sandwiches during the parade! As mentioned, for some reason, it's been really tough for me to figure all this out. I've been playing with the TouringPlans program for our other days and most of them have us finishing after 11:30 (around 1:30). You all recommend pushing through until then? What time do you usually return to the park? Oh, youngest is 12. Thanks again!

If your youngest is 12, I would stay in the park alllllllll day. Send dad (or yourself) to take the rental car back and grab sammies out of the hotel fridge for dinner later. During the busy afternoon time you could eat lunch at a QS, use fastpass for some rides, take in a show or sit down attraction, or just find a shady place to rest. I wouldn't give up disney time for travel/hotel time. But, that's my style... Just a suggestion.

 

[Mugglemama]

Thanks for the input Mugglemama! This forum has been great about quick, helpful replies to my questions. It's a great resource!

You're most welcome! I've received all my best DLR advice here, too.

We will have to think about the swimming thing...maybe if it turns out to be too much on Sunday, we'll cut back Monday and Tuesday. In addition to returning the car, I see the "rest" time as a chance to break from all the stimulation and heat of the park. As someone who is already very headaches prone, this might be a trade off I'm willing to make.

I hear ya. Here's hoping you are able to get through your entire DLR visit without a single headache!

I hear you about making the most of all that money we spent though! We're a family of seven mostly adults so anything we do is expensive. I've pretty much decided against any table service in Disney, and we'll be doing sandwiches for at least one meal everyday. Food purchased in Disney will be mostly snacks.

After more than 100 trips into the parks, we've yet to do TS at DLR. We're not "foodies", though - and when we're at DLR we don't care much about food at all. Our last visit had to be gluten-free, which meant I packed most of our food into the parks and then we ate dinner at a CS (usually Rancho Del Zocalo - which is both affordable AND gluten-free-friendly). At present, we also juice and do green-smoothies regularly and are trying to figure out how exactly we're going to continue to pull THAT off during our next DLR visit ...LOL!!!

 

[Misskitty3]

The rental car needs to be returned by Sunday at 1pm? If so, I would return it Saturday night or Sunday morning before heading to DL.

 

[sheetz]

This might seem like sacrilege but you might not have to show up at rope drop on Sunday if you plan to stay until closing. Even if it's crowded at DL in the afternoon you can spend time watching shows and doing the people eater attractions like Pirates, Haunted Mansion and Small World. Or you can spend time at DCA until late afternoon and then hop on over to DL for the parade. After all, you did buy the hopper option so might as well use it!

 

[wenrob]

The rental car needs to be returned by Sunday at 1pm? If so, I would return it Saturday night or Sunday morning before heading to DL.

This. Seems like a lot of trouble to do it in the middle of your day. If your family is anything like mine you might get what we like to call "Disney ADD" where you get easily distracted by all the magic going on and all the best laid plans get pushed back. I'd be all stressed out worrying about returning the car on time.

While I agree that a six hour break is excessive, I don't think you need to stay in the park all day either. We break from around 1 or 2 until 4 or 5, have dinner and go back nice and refreshed. For us it feels counter productive to fight the bigger crowds and heat during that part of the day. This depends on your family and what their tolerance levels are. Mine are pretty slim when it comes to a mix of heat and crowds which is kind of ironic since I'm a Las Vegas native. I also agree with a PP that you don't have to be there for rope drop. We arrive just as the park is opening and go to the park that does not have early entry. Again not everyone's style but it works for us.

 

[CAFarmerGirl]

I would also return the car early. You never know what FP's you will get and the return time may not align with your plans.

You also won't get much ride time in between the parade and Fantasmic. The park will be packed and the lines will be really long. The FPs may not even have a return time until 11pm or later (if available).

My kids are never ready to go back early our first days at the parks.

 

[JandD75]

I agree with the posts here--return the rental car the night before. And I would try to stay in the parks all day if possible. If you get tired during the day, there are shows and other 'sit down' attractions which provide entertainment and time off your feet. And you can always simply sit at a qs table or bench to catch your breath. I also recommend protein snacks, like cheese sticks and beef jerky, to help your group keep going. You can eat snacks or even a light meal while standing in line or waiting for the parade.

 

[YukonMommy]

Here are my thoughts:
*Return the car either the night before or in the am.
* ride the rides
*Bring in sandwiches for lunch, find a quieter location to eat and relax.
*Ride rides, catch a show (Mickey and the Magical Map is amazing)
*eat supper at a CS at the park (it was priced out on here before and the difference of a meal off site and on site are not that much!)
*watch parade
*ride more rides
*get dessert from Jolly Holiday
*Fantasmic!

*on a side note if you are thinking its to late a night after the parade have a few people in your group wander over to F! and grab a sit down spot (take a blanket!). The rest can go on a ride or 2, send a few people about 40 minutes before F! starts for dessert to eat while watching the show!

*your original plan does not seem exhausting, but that depends on your family.

Whatever you choose to do it will be a magical time!

 

[Hisreputation]

Thanks again for all the additional input!

I was concerned about the amount of time in between the parade and Fantasmic; I guess we'll won't plan on doing too much between those two.

Thanks for the gluten free tip! I eat GF almost exclusively at home, and planned to splurge a little at Disney, but it's good to know others have successfully done DLR gluten free.

 

[Mugglemama]

Thanks for the gluten free tip! I eat GF almost exclusively at home, and planned to splurge a little at Disney, but it's good to know others have successfully done DLR gluten free.

There's an entire Dis thread about GF in DLR (I haven't read it, but I've seen it pop up from time to time...).

 

[SweetAlex]

Although we tend to stay away from DLR during summer because of the busy-ness, I can't imagine you could honestly get many attractions in in 2 hours. Maybe 4 at absolute most, if lineups are 20+ min, which they would most likely be (main attractions might be much more than that). I just can't imagine only being there 2 hours our first day there. So much to see and do!

Our littles were 3 and 7 the first time we went and they went ALL day for 5 days straight. Yes, my littlest napped in her stroller once or twice each day but my 7 year old was totally fine. There is just soooo much to do. There's a lot of "down time" while waiting in lines. Time flies by. By our last day there, we're always bummed about the things we didn't get to do and that's with 5 day hoppers. I'm wondering if by the end of the third day, you'll feel the same way and regret taking such a long mid-day break on your first one.

If you can, I fourth taking the car back a day early, if possible. And then just wing it on how long you stay in the morning. If you're kids need a break, go for it, if not, I really don't think you'll regret staying all day