Break day absolutely necessary?

[lsulindy]

That's way more relaxed than our schedules. If we stay till MK closing, we'll go in later the next day. That's our "break day". First trip we hit the pool once. This trip none. When we're at Disney, I don't want to waste time doing anything but Disney. First trip with kids I thought I HAD to go back to the room for a rest. Going back to the room for a nap didn't work for us at all. Disaster. We did stroller naps. And, I never understood resting with a swim. My kids are exhausted after swimming. But, we've never gone in the summer heat either. I know that would change our touring style. But, sitting around at a hotel while we're at Disney would drive me batty. But, some people are the exact opposite. You have to figure out what works for your family.

 

[bullcat_02]

The answer is YES for me. I have no children and I still feel the need to have a break day. On my nine full day vacation last year, I took two full days off from the theme parks. In the mornings, I visited one of the water parks. The evenings were spent either shopping at DTD or seeing Cirque. I am not able to visit the parks very often....I have multi-years between each trip. The days I do visit the theme parks I like to make rope drops and see the evening fireworks. So I'm going a good 12+ hours those days. Break days are very necessary for me.

 

[pepe of ohio]

The answer is YES for me. I have no children and I still feel the need to have a break day. On my nine full day vacation last year, I took two full days off from the theme parks. In the mornings, I visited one of the water parks. The evenings were spent either shopping at DTD or seeing Cirque. I am not able to visit the parks very often....I have multi-years between each trip. The days I do visit the theme parks I like to make rope drops and see the evening fireworks. So I'm going a good 12+ hours those days. Break days are very necessary for me.

We've done over 40 trips to WDW and always break from the parks around noon to return back around 6pm.....see no need to live and die in a park....we always stay deluxe and the resort is part of our vacation...it more than a sleeping showering place.....we stay for extended periods, 9-12 night so with the time allotted, we get plenty of park time in to suit us.....a shopping day, a play day, a pool day.....no matter it's great to get away from the crowds and masses of lines of the parks to enjoy oneself doing nothing creative at all....we look forward to those days as much as park days.......makes everyone happier to have a break.....it's a vacation..

 

[cluvsdisney]

OP - your schedule looks pretty relaxed. I'd keep that plan in mind but play it by ear while you are there. If you are all good to go...keep going. If not, take a break.

maybe I'm missing something, but why do people need a break from their vacations?

I believe the OP means a break from the parks - have a day of rest instead of hiking around the parks all day.

 

[Diegosmom]

We just got back from our first trip and we were trying to see everything...yeah not going to happen...

As I was sick on in the begining, hubby in the middle and DS near the end. But this is what we did.

Left house at 6am and arrived at Resort around 5 did check in, dinner at resort and pool. Planning on bed early but we are late night people so it was like 11.

Day 1
AK (9:10-5:30 then dinner at Rainforest cafe, left AK at 7:30)...back to hotel for more pool time.

Day 2
EP late start at 11am, planning on staying till after fireworks but at 5:30/6 DS wanted to go back to hotel and swim...we did test track on way out and left wound 7/7:30 more pool time at resort.

Day 3
DHS 12:00 real late start because we were all feeling sick. stayed until 6:30 (park close at 7) then did more pool time

Day 4
MK hubby was really bad so we did 10:30-5:30 and then to the pool

Day 5
DHS hubby was horrible so we let him sleep got to DHS at 8:30 (open at 9) and stayed till 1:30 (hubby met us for part) then back to hotel for swimming and lunch and then DS and I left hotel to go back to DHS till close (7)...on this day DS feel asleep on bus ride back and went right to bed lol.

Day 6
MK 9-5:30 we were planning on leaving earlier and started heading out around 3 but we grabbed lunch watched the parade, watched the show, shopped...it was 6 by the time we got to the hotel and then we had to be at the poly for 7:15 didnt end up getting back to hotel till 10.

Day 7
We were totally dragging got to Epcot around 9:30 stayed till about 3 back to hotel for swimming...

Day 8
We hit DTD on way out (which I wish we didnt we were all so tired and crabby).

If I had to do it all over again I would hit the parks at rope drop and either leave right before lunch and do lunch at the pool or eat lunch at park then do pool and go back to parks after pool. We missed all the night stuff...but I think being sick also had a lot to do with it...oh well always next time.

 

[delmar411]

I think your plan is a no go because you aren't hitting rope drop each morning. Relax in the afternoons not during the only time all day you may have to collect fast passes and avoid standing in hour long lines.

But that's just me. I'd rather get up early every morning to enjoy the short waits and then take a nice relaxing break in the afternoons/evenings while everyone else descends on the parks.

And my kids (6,7,8 & 14) would not go for the slow pokey mornings. They are up and dressed and raring to go at WDW.

 

[MartDM]

I think your plan looks good. We've followed similar plans for our trips with DS (now 4 but has been at 1, 2, & 3 years of age) and he's done just fine.

I think allowing for some afternoon downtime each day and not overdoing things at night is FAR better than having a busier schedule each day and then taking a whole day off. The kiddos do better with a something similar to their regular schedule.

Not sure if they'll make it through that one last day you have, which is a pretty full schedule, but they can always have a power nap in the stroller if they need it, right?

 

[saraheliz]

Thanks, everyone!!
We are planning on hitting RD every day except our Epcot days...it's just tough because my oldest is a SERIOUS sleeper- she'd sleep 14 hours a night if we let her, so I want to balance enough fun with enough sleep.

Now I just have wait a couple more months.

 

[PIRATEGIRL007]

We never take a full day break and our kids have been giong since small. We do take a break almost everyday in the afternoon for 2 hours or so to cool off and rest (it's usually summer) and that is more than enough for us.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Thanks, everyone!!
We are planning on hitting RD every day except our Epcot days...it's just tough because my oldest is a SERIOUS sleeper- she'd sleep 14 hours a night if we let her, so I want to balance enough fun with enough sleep.

We have a long sleeper, too, and what we found is (1) her sleep needs were a little less at WDW than at home; and (2) she seemed to compensate for less sleep at night with naps, which she had essentially dropped before we went on our trip.

We did not hit rope drop at EPCOT, either. I think we got there around 9:30 or so. It was fine. But we did go in October and it wasn't super busy there in general.

I will say that our kids are the biggest stallers on the planet at home. It takes forever to get out the door with them. It's very frustrating. At Disney, though? They were sitting in the stroller waiting (impatiently) for us to be ready to leave every morning.

After coming back, I told friends that Disney is like the kid version of Vegas--you can go go go with little sleep, and seemingly little consequence.

 

[LoriNKY]

I once ended up taking a break day... Not by choice! My 13 month old had a 102° fever and she and I spent the day in the room while everyone else had fun. After a trip to urgent care, she was diagnosed with a raging ear and throat infection. Neither of us cared for that kind of break!

Aside from illness, we go to WDW to GO to WDW, so we don't take a day off. My kids would flip out if we skipped the parks for a day. Neither of them naps anymore (though I wish the 3 yr old did), so our kind of breaks lately involve a round of mini golf or a leisurely trip to DTD. We usually make a brief stop at the room to switch into warmer clothes for evening activities and a snack.

Really, our idea of a break is more about breaking up the day.

 

[mill4023]

To answer the original question, no, it's not absolutely necessary.
Your schedule looks pretty relaxed and I think you'll be fine.

We usually do break days because other than our last trip in June, we usually stay in a park for the entire day. We always try to make rope drop because you can get so much done. But we also love being in the parks at night. With young kids, we always found it to be more trouble than it was worth to leave the park and come back later.

So instead of doing half days or afternoon breaks, we usually prefer doing a couple of full park days, followed by a "break" day. But by "break" day, I don't mean that we would do nothing. Just that we would sleep in as long as we wanted and have a leisurely day, maybe with an afternoon at a water park, or some time at DTD, or even an evening in a park. We found that after 2 full open to close park days, sleeping in and recharging a little bit made everyone happy.

IMO, most normal people will have a much better, more relaxing, less stressful vacation if they plan some "down" time. Whether that's doing some half days, taking afternoon breaks, or having a "break" day, doesn't really matter.

 

[Spunky946]

We went this past Christmas from dec 24- Jan 1 and we ended up taking one full day off from the parks. It was so crowded, we decided as a family we needed to take a day away from the crowds. My kids are 7 and 3. We stayed off property and my ds had seen a Pirate mini golf place on the highway and we wanted to try it out. So we swam in the am, did mini golf and had lunch and came back to let dd nap. We then went to downtown disney and had dinner at T-Rex and did some shopping.

for us it was nice and relaxing. Then again we are not commando types and we did what was right for us. I'd play it by ear and see if you need it. HOpe you have lots of fun.

 

[Chelley00]

We've never taken a break day. We make sure and schedule early evenings off if we make rope drop that morning, or we might sleep in if we were out late the night before, but my kids would go mad hanging around a resort or villa for a whole day.

 

[mcraige]

We never take a day off (our vacations tend to be relatively short), and rarely take a break in the middle of the day. DD can sleep anywhere -- in a booth at a restaurant, on the sidewalk waiting for a parade, on some of the rides, on the bus -- so when she gets tired, we pause so she can nap and then we go again.

 

[disneybirds]

Like many have said, you need to know the level of activity your kids can take. Your schedule doesn't seem too stressful, so it will probably work for your family. We always take a break in the afternoons and head back to the hotel for the kids to swim. We also always schedule a day in the middle when we don't go to the main 4 parks. We will head to a water park for 3 or 4 hours, back to room to relax and then head to a resort for dinner. We have lots of fun on those "off" days as well. There is so much to do outside of the parks.

 

[pigletto]

Depends on the type of trip and the length for us. The last 2 trips were 11 nights and 14 nights. We took 4 break days on the 14 nighter and spent most afternoons napping or in the pool. On the 10 day trip we only took one break day, but still made our afternoon rest time.
I think we'd honestly be fine without a break day, as long as we stick to those afternoon breaks.