Break Days

[MamaBelleRN]

For those with littles (in the under five years range), how many park days do you like to do before taking a break day? On our next trip we will have five ranging in age from 1-10. Thanks in advance for your input

 

[AZMermaid]

We like two days on, one day off

 

[monorailsilver]

I agree, 2 park days then a day off. I have done 3 but 2 makes it more restful.

 

[TwoMisfits]

I also agree. 2 days on is the max I'll do, b/c I'm worn out...once you carry kids who won't sit in strollers 1/2 mile to a parking lot or who won't stay still in a line for 20 minutes, you'll see how fast mom/dad wear out...

 

[loves to dive]

I only had one but we never planned breaks, they just happened when he or I was ready for one. We never took an entire day off although we would take a few hours off most every day.

 

[MamaBelleRN]

Our first trip was October 2015 with four kiddos ages 7 months, two, five and eight. We were there for seven nights and did one break day. This time, we will be there 10-12 nights (still deciding on length) and plan to break it up differently. MY DH did take our 2-year-old back to the hotel whenever he needed a break, but the rest of the kiddos would go from open to close. I'm planning three break days right now but was curious how other families utilize break days. We also brought a couple extra family members to help with the kiddos. While we went with a touring plan, flexibility was key to keep everyone happy and able to enjoy the trip. Extra adults makes that much more doable I also figure even a planned break day could turn into a park day if the crew is up for it. Am I correct in thinking you can add extra park days/park hopper to your ticket at the discounted rate if you go to GS before using your last day? We plan to buy seven-day base tickets.

 

[TwoMisfits]

What we've done on down days (we usually stay at Bonnet Creek)...
1. Enjoy the free resort activities (the pool parties, the movie at the pool, the magic show, the gatorland presentation, the free breakfast with games, bingo, smores roasting, etc)...
2. Enjoy the mini golf, playground, lazy rivers, water slides, ping pong, shuffleboard, and spray parks at the resort
3. Do Dinner and a Movie or Dinner and Minigolf at Citywalk (cheap double) - we sometimes split both parts, so we'll do one on one day and one on the other and enjoy some Citywalk time
4. Do a Cheap Dinner Show (with a deal) - we've done Capone's, Wonderworks Magic Show, Medieval Times, Pirates, and more - we jump on deals
5. Do a Date Night (after wearing the kids out during the early part of the day) - we've done Blue Men Group, Escape Rooms, Offsite High End restaurants for Magical Dining Month, Opening Night NFL game at a sports bar, etc
6. Spend a few hours at Disney Springs - this was finally a FAIL last trip b/c kids hated the refurb, but it has worked in the past
7. See family (we have local family in downtown Orlando and Melbourne)
8. Play games (cards/board/video) - we are a gaming family
9. Enjoy some offbeat no-walk attractions (for deals or free) - we've done the Orlando Science Center, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Wonderworks, a downtown art museum, a downtown park, etc...(I don't count Legoland as a down day activity b/c that's a lot of walking - but we've done it)...

 

[DisneyCAL]

Our last time we kind of went all out, but by the end of the week we were very done and cancelling morning meals etc. just to catch up or rest. So this time we plan on an early morning day followed by a late night day then a resort only day with lots of sleep. So 2 days on 1 day off.

 

[monorailsilver]

I'm planning three break days right now but was curious how other families utilize break days.

Our break days consist of nothing!!

Seriously, last trip we went for 10 days and had 5 park days and 5 pool days. 2 of the pool days were arrival and departure days though but departure day we left the pool at 3pm.

One non park day we did go to typhoon lagoon, left there at about 1 or 2 and went to the quiet pool for a bit and the downtown Disney (that what it was Calle then).

Another non park day, I did laundry at 6 am...I was up what else was I going to do?. It was fried and folded and I was at the pool for 8 swimming with the ducks...pure heaven...ok relaxation. Slowly my kids came out one by one as they woke up, ate breakfast and put on their bathing suit-they were 9, 11 & 13 and my DH sent me a text that they were coming and send my youngest on the straightest route along the beach, my kids don't wander. We left the pool area that day at 10 pm! My kids played the afternoon pool games from 1-7 or 2-7. Or whatever time they were.

Another pool day started the same as above but we had a 5om dinner at WCC so we had to leave the pool at about 3.

I love my pool days.

We are going next year and I am trying to go for 11-12 days just to have another resort day.

 

[lindsay0526]

Our next trip will be about 10 days, and we plan to only do park days during the week. DH has family & friends in the area and we are constantly having to share our time down there (not ideal when you want to "do Disney", but it's nice to have the breaks.) Our plan is to get there Wednesday, do two parks on Thursday & Friday. Saturday & Sunday will be available to spend with family & friends. Then the following Monday-Friday, we will do 3 more park days, and then pack up and leave on Saturday. The other two days during the following week will either be lazy days, maybe hit the outlets, maybe do a dinner show (if we get a good ticket price), etc.

We drive and stay off-site so we are pretty flexible in our plans.

 

[Kerriowl]

We never took a whole day off (except to transfer between Disney and Legoland). We just took breaks each day and if the breaks needed to be longer, they were. We have done 7 days twice with kids (2 and 5, then 4 and 7). Since the extra days are so inexpensive to add after day 4 it never made sense to me to not have tickets for everyday you are there. We are going again in June and have 7 days at Disney followed by a break day and then 3 days at Universal. That might do me in.

 

[jvz82]

We have 4 young kids (under 8) and took a break day after 2 days at the parks. It wasn't a total break though. We slept in a little, had breakfast at Cape May Cafe, then hung out at the resort later morning and all afternoon. Spent time at the pool. Then had dinner at Boma. Went to bed early so we could wake up early for MK! So we were still busy, but not exhausted like we were after a park day.

 

[Lupeix]

With the under 5 crowd I like breaks every day, sometimes returning and sometimes not. So you can do pool everyday also and maximize fast passes. Once you have 5 day tickets adding one day costs nothing, so I found that doing 3 fastpass attractions plus a few more is enough for a preschooler and knowing you will visit again the same park makes everyone happy. Plus we never stand in line for longer than 20 minutes. That said if you are there a week or more, one day without a planned park makes sense, but I find that going everyday is actually fun when you keep it short. We never go to the parks the day we arrive or leave though.

 

[myrtleturtle]

We are never able to go for long trips like some others, usually five nights with a 4 day ticket. We only do half days in the parks, rope drop until 1 or 2. Then it is nap (sometimes they sleep, sometimes its just an hour laying down with a coloring book etc), pool, dinner, bed. My kids wake up every day at 6am, regardless of what time they go to bed. So we try to keep them on their normal bedtime routine of 7pm, then mom and dad sit on balcony with wine. It works for our family.

 

[monorailsilver]

With the under 5 crowd I like breaks every day, sometimes returning and sometimes not. So you can do pool everyday also and maximize fast passes. Once you have 5 day tickets adding one day costs nothing, so I found that doing 3 fastpass attractions plus a few more is enough for a preschooler and knowing you will visit again the same park makes everyone happy. Plus we never stand in line for longer than 20 minutes. That said if you are there a week or more, one day without a planned park makes sense, but I find that going everyday is actually fun when you keep it short. We never go to the parks the day we arrive or leave though.

We take a mid day break every park day but we also need a non park break day where everyone can sleep in if they want and we just veg at the pool.

 

[Lupeix]

We take a mid day break every park day but we also need a non park break day where everyone can sleep in if they want and we just veg at the pool.

We sleep in every day! Doing only fast passes plus whatever is not busy means we don't need to go super early. We don't always come back either. This of course only works because the majority of headliners are out of the question and the kiddie attractions can have very short lines even in busy times. It works even better when you can walk to at least one park. Last year in our break day DS decided he wanted to go to Hollywood studios, so I took him and everyone else stayed. Being on the boardwalk made this super easy. We were there the week after the 4th of July and didn't wait more than 20 minutes for anything. Child swap meant DS got to ride twice a couple of his favorites that DD couldn't ride

 

[Dave Lewis]

Just returned from Disney with a 2 and a 4 year old, we didn't schedule break days but ended up taking only 1 over a week trip. What we found helpful was to listen to the kids, when they seemed tired we left the parks. That was usually around 1pm (arrived at opening). Having a double stroller really helped them take "breaks" between rides

 

[DoryGirl1963]

My husband & I are middle aged & in pretty good health & our children are grown, but we've found by our third straight day in the parks we're getting a bit...snarly? We've decided two back-to-back days of the "crush of humanity" is really our limit, so we're building in a break day in the middle of our 5 day trip this year

 

[hibareli]

We'll be there for two weeks and have 10 day park tickets so we plan on going during the week and resting on the weekend. My DD is 4.5 so we'll rest throughout the day when it's needed!

 

[PollyannaMom]

... we've found by our third straight day in the parks we're getting a bit...snarly? We've decided two back-to-back days of the "crush of humanity" is really our limit, so we're building in a break day in the middle of our 5 day trip this year

LOL - Us too! We call it the "Day 3 Curse". Our next trip is going to be quite short (only 4 full days) so we're not going to skip a whole day like we would if we were there for a week. But we're going to try to do a water park on day 3 and see if that helps - late start, early end, and water...should work, I think! We'll see how it goes.

To the OP, I definitely agree with break days! Exact schedule for your group would depend on adult-to-kid ratio, whether you're splitting up for some things, and general family stamina - but I think two full days to one light one is a good place to start.