"Break" Day thoughts...

[slbgnb]

So, my family has never done a break day. This year, I thought we might "kind of" do one. We arrive Saturday, 9/3 at 9:30AM and our only plan that day is dinner at 6:30 at O'Hanna...so that will be a relaxing day. But, then we'll do parks as follows:
Sun - Epcot
Mon - HS
Tues - MK
Wed - sort of a break day
Thur - Islands of Adven
Fri - MK
Sat - Universal.

Here's my question. As of right now...Wednesday is Chef Mickey at 10 and Morimoto at 7. Wed is supposed to be a super light day at the parks - and I'm tempted to make 3 FP's for Epcot, since Epcot is going to become difficult once A&E and FEA are open. Would that be too much to go to Epcot in between CM and Morimoto?

**Item to note - the parks are not open very late this time of year, so we won't have any late nights. Thur - IofA closes at 7 and Sat - Univ closes at 8:30

Thanks!

 

[JimmyV]

Since you are going to Epcot on Sunday, why not make a trip to AK on your light day? It is really easy to make that a super light day. You can walk from the Contemporary over to the MK bus depot after your meal at CM. Hop on a bus directly to AK. Get mid-day FPs for two or three rides. Maybe the Safari, Everest, (and if you don't mind getting wet) Kalahari Rapids. Walk along the Jungle Trek and the Forests Trail. Add in a theater show like Festival of the Lion King or Nemo, and then leave. From a Disney standpoint, that is a light day and will have you out of the park by 5:00. Plenty of time to change clothes if you want, and get to Morimoto. We always plan a nice Signature meal around our AK days because we know that we will be out of the park by 4:00 or 5:00 and will have time to shower and change into nice clothes for a good meal.

 

[vicb]

I think that is a good plan given the lack of late nights.

One time (pre-FP+) we had a late breakfast at Boma, toured AKL then took a bus to Epcot. We arrived around 12:30, did all the less popular stuff so on our Epcot rope drop morning we just focused on TT, MS and Soarin. It was actually a low key, low stress day.

Sometimes for our "down day" we do a water park at opening, stay till 3ish, clean up at resort then head to a park for dinner and late night or eve. emh.

I won't try to talk you out of CM but I will say it is one of our least fav spots. But I'm envious of your Morimoto reservation.

 

[slbgnb]

OK...good. Glad it can still be a relaxing day without taking the whole day off. I'm not a huge AK fan, so I don't think we'll hit that. I was mainly thinking Epcot because with Soarin, TT, FEA & A&E...all probably tier 1....we might really need a day and 1/2 there.

Thank you for reminding me CM (which we go to every time and love for breakfast - I really am a sucker for character dining though!) is at the Contemporary! We can take the monorail right over to Epcot!! And, I'm excited to try Morimoto...my family loves Asian and we've never been to a signature dining before, so it should be fun!

Thanks!

 

[2Gma]

Looking at your schedule that would be too many park days for my family in one week if you didn't take a break day (the most we do is 5-6) My kids are 8 & 6, not sure the ages of yours? how many days are your park tickets? hoppers? where are you staying? Adding traveling time between resorts, parks & ADRs is what gets old.

We are always excited day of arrival and want to "do something." I would keep the possibility of getting some afternoon Fps scheduled on arrival day if some good ones become available at Epcot or MK. Do those and then dinner. I would try to keep all day Wed free (or at least one day mid trip) to re-energize and relax so by the end of the trip you are not dragging. IOA and US will be nice towards the end because they will take less planning. You could always make Fps selections for your "off day" with the idea that you might use them and then decide not to go and cancel them.

I like your ADR choices, enjoy your Sept trip!

 

[slbgnb]

Looking at your schedule that would be too many park days for my family in one week if you didn't take a break day (the most we do is 5-6) My kids are 8 & 6, not sure the ages of yours? how many days are your park tickets? hoppers? where are you staying? Adding traveling time between resorts, parks & ADRs is what gets old.

We are always excited day of arrival and want to "do something." I would keep the possibility of getting some afternoon Fps scheduled on arrival day if some good ones become available at Epcot or MK. Do those and then dinner. I would try to keep all day Wed free (or at least one day mid trip) to re-energize and relax so by the end of the trip you are not dragging. IOA and US will be nice towards the end because they will take less planning. You could always make Fps selections for your "off day" with the idea that you might use them and then decide not to go and cancel them.

• Kids are 14, 12 & 9
• 5 day Park Hopper. We have 4 days planned, then 5th day can be used on arrival day or that Wed I'm talking about.
• AofA
• I did consider trying to go to a park on arrival day vs that Wed. My reason for leaning towards Wed - the parks are a 1 vs a 4/5. Seems like such a waste to not go to the parks when there are so few crowds expected...
• Maybe I will just make the FPs and then play it by ear and see how everyone is feeling...

Thanks for your input!

 

[JimmyV]

I'm not a huge AK fan, so I don't think we'll hit that.

You may not be, but what about....

Kids are 14, 12 & 9

Hard to imagine that that demographic wouldn't be excited to do WDW's single best roller coaster as well as the Rapids ride. When my daughter and her friends were 12-14 and I gave them a choice of Soarin' or Everest, it would have been no contest. Especially if they already had another day planned for Epcot. Two Epcot days and no Animal Kingdom days would have been a no-go for them at that age. Didn't matter what my opinion was.

 

[loves to dive]

I'd add AK on that off day too but I see no reason to walk over to MK, just hop the bus at CR. I'm a huge fan of Epcot and since I have a AP and my son always has PHs we always go every single day we are at WDW but I could see kids your kids ages enjoying at least Everest and even Dinosaur or Rapids more than Soarin or TT twice.

 

[slbgnb]

You may not be, but what about....

My oldest loves EE, but that's all she likes there. I love it too...

My 12 yr old won't even go on Splash...and she doesn't like Dinosaur either. She's just a big wimp!

9 yr old was too young for EE last time...not sure how he'll do on coasters this year.

None of them really cared about the Safari (we do live 5 mins from one of the top zoos in the country, so not sure if that's why). All 3 of my kids LOVE Soarin' though.

I'll double check with them just to be sure though...Thanks for the reminder

I don't think any of us liked Dinosaur though....I kind of thought it was boring and lame - maybe I'm not remembering it right...it has been 4 years....So, we would really just go for EE I think. Whereas Epcot has Soarin, TT and MS. Having said that....I will definitely ask them what they prefer - sometimes I get so caught up in the planning, I do actually forget to ask them!

 

[GillianP1301]

I would definitely say EP for partial of your "break day" is a good idea. I'm not a break day type person though. I much prefer more days but at a more relaxing pace. I often have days on my touring plan where we only go to a park for 3 hours or so before hopping to another or having a few hours at the pool before a nice dinner out. That works well for us.

 

[Tomh]

With only 7 days to spend, I wouldn't worry about a break day, I would go ahead and hit the parks every day.

We usually have one, or two break days, but we spend 11 or 12 days on vacation, with 10 day park tickets. Our break day is laundry, doing some stuff around the resort, and spending the afternoon / evening at Disney Springs. Sometimes it also involves off site stuff, like a trip to Wal Mart, Old Town, and we visited Typhoon Lagoon one year on our break day.