Balancing Pool and Park Time

[Nana2Callie]

I admit that I'm a die hard park fan and love to spend every waking moment in the parks; however, my traveling buddies (DH and GD) really enjoy the pools and relaxing. So, I'm trying to better plan this trip to have some extra time at the pools without compromising our time in the parks. How do you do this?

 

[maxiesmom]

Have some time where they are enjoying the pool and you go to the parks by yourself. Easy.

 

[monorailsilver]

The last few trips we have taken have been 8-10 days, with the last one being 10 days. We had 5 pool days and 5 park days. Arrival and departure days are always pool days for us.

I will do a max of 2 park days before I need a day off, granted I am still up by 6, bathing suit gets on in and I go and do laundry.

The last time I did 3 park days in a row I was exhausted but we leave our room by 7/7:15 depending on park/mode of transportation, come back between 12-1 and nap and then return at around 5 until 10 or so.

 

[DisneyCAL]

Depends on how long your stay is and when it is. If its more than 6 days put in a full resort only day. If its short, go to the parks without. If its super hot out, plan midday breaks and do swimming then. We went in September (Hot) and did midday breaks, 7 day trip and there was only one or two days without the pool.

 

[elmom]

I vote for the mid day rest and pool time. And you can always go yourself while they rest.

 

[Julylady]

Since the arrival of FP+ we have started touring a bit differently and its working great for us. We buy park passes for every day we are at WDW (except travel days). We divide each day into 3 parts: morning, afternoon, evening. We spend 2 of the 3 parts of each day in the park, with the 3rd part at the resort swimming or relaxing. This allows us to have 3 reserved fast passes for each day. And, the kids know they an swim at the resort at least a couple of hours every day. This works better for us than the old 3 day on, 1 day off approach we used to do.

 

[donac]

We did a lot like Julylady. We will start off early since we are early risers. Maybe have lunch at a park or come back to have lunch and then some pool time. We would then go to a park for dinner and some rides.

There were some days where we had a snack and then an early dinner and went back to the hotel to swim.

 

[caliope]

We did a lot like Julylady. We will start off early since we are early risers. Maybe have lunch at a park or come back to have lunch and then some pool time. We would then go to a park for dinner and some rides.

This was our strategy too and it worked great. We were up and out early, had a fairly generous breakfast, hit the parks until around noon, then went back to the resort for a light lunch (mainly snacks) and pool time. In the evenings we had early-ish dinner ADRs then time to enjoy the parks at night.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Since the arrival of FP+ we have started touring a bit differently and its working great for us. We buy park passes for every day we are at WDW (except travel days). We divide each day into 3 parts: morning, afternoon, evening. We spend 2 of the 3 parts of each day in the park, with the 3rd part at the resort swimming or relaxing. This allows us to have 3 reserved fast passes for each day. And, the kids know they an swim at the resort at least a couple of hours every day. This works better for us than the old 3 day on, 1 day off approach we used to do.

This is pretty much what we do as well! Sometime park in morning, pool in afternoon, DS8 to kids' club, DH and me dinner at night. Or pool in morning, park afternoon into evening. Sometimes DS and I will do a park in the morning, we all swim in afternoon, DS goes to kids club, DH relaxes at hotel while I go to a park. Breaking it into three parts allows us to do everything we want to do at a more relaxed pace and allows us to enjoy more than just the parks as well!

 

[loves to dive]

I agree it depends a lot on how long you are going to be there. When my son was little and more into the pool then now, we would just let our bodies decide for us. If we were tired, we'd just go back to the resort for a little pool time. It was never scheduled or at the same time, it was just what we felt like doing.

 

[Thing 1]

It so depends. We have a pool at home and our kids can swim every day for about 5 months out of the year. We also go Winter. We swim very little at WDW. When our oldest was little, we would sometimes swim a bit if we stayed at a resort with a special slide or cool pool but we have gotten away from even that. Even though the pools are are heated, most our trips are cool to cold and its just not worth it. We really would rather spend most of our time in the parks and when we rest...we rest in the pool. Our youngest DS goes hard in the pool and he is tired, not rested after a few hours in the pool. It is soooo different for others that might not get to swim otherwise or go in Summer.

 

[Shanti]

Our favorite is to get up early for breakfast and then hit the parks for a few hours. Between arriving early & having FP+, we're able to get a lot done in the first 4-5 hours, then we call it a day and go swimming at the resort & later have a nice dinner. Maybe we'll return to the parks that evening if we're dying to play more or watch fireworks, but not every night. It is a vacation. We like to have some fun and thrills on our Disney trips, but also relax. We also want to spend our time together- that's what counts the most.

 

[SwanVT2]

What does everyone do whose DH and DD are kinda slow morning people? DD up by 7 but takes until 8 or 8:30 to get out the door! Hard to travel back to hotel for break and night at park because dd is only 4.

 

[DisneyOma]

I admit that I'm a die hard park fan and love to spend every waking moment in the parks; however, my traveling buddies (DH and GD) really enjoy the pools and relaxing. So, I'm trying to better plan this trip to have some extra time at the pools without compromising our time in the parks. How do you do this?

Give them a time limit for the pools. You can swim in a freakin' pool at some cheap motel, IMO. If you plan to go back to your resort in the middle of the day, fine, give them an hour, every other day. As you can tell, I am not a pool/sit on my butt doing nothing while I'm at Disney person. Why do something so booooooring when there's so much fun stuff waiting?

 

[monorailsilver]

What does everyone do whose DH and DD are kinda slow morning people? DD up by 7 but takes until 8 or 8:30 to get out the door! Hard to travel back to hotel for break and night at park because dd is only 4.

The first park trip my dh took with me...well he learned. MK opened at 9 and I wanted to be there by 8:30. Well, 8:30 rolls by and dh is still in the bathroom because he needed to have his am session with the toilet (we were dating then). We didn't get to the park until after 9, yes the horror, I know! There were lines. He learned that day that he needed to be up earlier to visit the porcelain bowl!

Now he has it down and while I am showering he is waking and doing his thing (I am OK with that because it gets him moving). By the time I am done showering so is he and he is in the shower and done by 7.

As far as my kids, they just know that we are leaving by 7 or 7:15 depending on the park that opens at 8 and if we have to take the monorail or the bus.

We eat breakfast in the room, I ship cereal, etc... so while DH and I are getting ready the kids can eat and then get dressed. They don't shower in the am either.

We don't do a park every day so they know they can sleep in on the non park day.

And we nap mid day on park days so they can catch a few zzzsss...

 

[DSLRuser]

Pool time is almost more important than park time for us.

Arrival day is always right at noon, and we hit the pool till sundown before going to the parks.

we hit the parks around 9 ish. And are usually back at the resort by 1pm for pool time. We then go back to the park at sundown.

we pick 2 days out of 8 where we sleep in and go to the pool at 11ish, then the parks at sundown.

Departure day again...spend all day at the pool before we hit the road at 2ish for the drive hime.

 

[cedricandsophie]

We are going in March for 10 days and will go to parks once. I don't care if I go at all but my husband insists. We do AK for early entry and do Safari and Everest quickly. Walk the trail to look at the gorillas. Maybe do the dinosaur ride. Then we typically head to Hollywood studios for rock and roll roller coaster and Twikight zone and the great movie ride. Have lunch at brown derby. go back to room for awhile. Head to Epcot for single rider on test track and have dinner. Either stay for fireworks and call it a day or if MK has a late night head over there to close it out. The rest of the time we go to pool, do movies at Disney springs, play tennis, watch some spring training baseball and go out to dinner every night. If I could avoid the parks entirely I would.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My kids are 15 and almost 13 now. We are planning our 10th trip for June, and it looks like we will be doing as much waterpark time as regular park time. We are planning to hit a park at opening, play until lunchtime, then go to a waterpark for a few hours. We will go back to the main park most evenings for fireworks. We did this three times on our last trip, and it worked out well. On our second MK day, we will sleep in a little, be at a wp for opening, stay until 2 or 3, then go to MK.

 

[jvz82]

It's funny because I grew up going to Disney every 2-3 years and we almost NEVER spent time at the pools! We pretty much just went non-stop all day at the parks every day. That was normal to me. I have now tried doing this as an adult with kids and it was exhausting. But to be fair, we have only spent 2 days at the parks the last two times we went to Disney world so we really didn't have any extra time to spare.

This time around, I decided it just made sense to spend less money on park passes and plan to have days that we didn't go to parks. So we will stay either 4 or 5 nights, but only get 3 days of park passes. Two days will be spent going to Disney springs, maybe hitting a character meal at another resort, and hanging out at the pool. I think this will balance out the busy park days. Depending on how early we get to the parks, we could possibly come back to the hotel in the afternoon for a rest/pool time if the kids need it. Our youngest will be almost 2 at that point and definitely will still need a nap, but he may be too old to fall asleep in the stroller or on quiet rides like the last time we went with an infant.

When I was a teenager and all my other siblings were teenagers or older kids too, we just went all day and nobody thought anything of it. That was what we were there for! We could go to a pool anytime.