do people spend ALL day in the parks?

[MichelleVW]

no way could I stay from opening to close......especially not in just one park.

 

[airtime]

We have done it, but we usually don't. Most of the time, we are tired and the parks are getting crowded by about 12:30 or so, so it's off to lunch and a nap. Then we get back at about 4 pm or so. If we don't do this, we're wiped out by day 3! This way, we're ready to keep going day after day.

Tim, who thinks a Disney daze ruins your Disney days!

 

[pearlieq]

No way!!! We usually get there at opening, enjoy ourselves through lunch and then head out somewhere between 1pm and 3pm. We go back to the resort to swim, nap, or check out boats or bikes.

Sometimes we go back in the evening, sometimes not. We usually catch dinner, go mini golfing, go to DTD, or just relax in the room. Since we starting going multiple times in a year and bought into DVC, we really don't feel any need to rush or kill ourselves. If we don't hit it this time, we'll hit it next time!

 

[NC State]

We do, of course we have no kids with us. We open the park and leave after the fireworks. We just take our time and take many breaks, we like to people watch!

 

[smileyk8]

We very rarely stay for the whole day. Mainly cos of heat and that really pick up around 1pm (we go late june early july). Also, if you head into the parks nice and early you can get the main things done by lunch time and then have a break and come back later for events and a more leisurely enjoyable stroll without the panic!

In fact, because not all of my family are disney loving creatures (despite my hard work ) we sometimes split days into disney bits and shopping or beech trips so they don't get all disneyed out!

 

[jones8491]

We stay all day when we go.......usually everyone is having such a good time that no one wants to leave! AND with the amount of money you spend on tkts......we hate to waste all that time getting back to the room. We usually try to take a day off between each park though to get some rest. LOVE DISNEY!!

 

[bytheblood]

We always do it. Never thought about it. I guess we are just energetic people.

 

[88Keys]

We went in April last year with a 3 and 5 year old and we never went back to the hotel during the day. It's easy to do IF....


1)It's not that hot
2)You plan rides well so that in the middle of the day you do longer, air-conditioned events. For example, Hall of Presidents, Universe of Energy, American Adventure, the Epcot Films, Beauty and the Beast, Disney Animation, Movie Ride. That way the young ones can get a little shut eye if needed.
3)You plan a nice sit-down meal around 5:30 which recharges you for the rest of the evening (especially character meals).

 

[MamaLema]

Not only do we do it, but we have kids 2, 7, and 9 and stay usually 9-9. When the kids say they're tired, we stop for ice cream or rest whenever they want for however long they want. We never force them to stay. Acually after 12 hours at the parks my kids want to know why we have to leave already

 

[loriandmatt]

we do!!! not always the same park all day, we like the option of hopping...but yes we are comando all day types. (even with the 18th month old - she is able to fall asleep in the stroller and be happy with that for naps.)

our family moto when on vacation:"we can sleep when we are dead - let's go do something!"

- lori

 

[HopperFan]

Yes we do, and that is with a handicapped child. We do take hotel days between parks for him and DH (last trip other DS and I went to parks without) so that helps. We take our time, we sit and rest with snacks, we don't rush our meals, we poke in shops and we are fine. Now we did do the break thing when we had a baby in tow.....so DH could nap and then we hopped. But we found now it is easier to do one park all day long. We've also had a lower key day, such as DQ from 12-6 so we rested in am and then had a dinner and kicked up our feet in pm. We come home from vacation pooped, but that's why we go there.

If we are doing a sit around and rest vacation then we go to the beach. and swim with the fishes......enter the ocean, enter the food chain !

 

[psiprez]

HECK YEAH!!!

We really time things to avoid the busiest times, so that we don't HAVE to rush.

We don't rush like crazy to get ready in the morning. We have breakfast in the room, and get to the park around 10:30am. Some days we have a late character breakfast. It is sooo relaxing to avoid the height of the morning breakfast/bus rush!

Then we eat a late lunch when the crowds are low. Same for dinner. The attractions tend to empty out at dinnertime and later, so we take advantage of that. And we stay until an hour or so after the park closes. That's right! The shops stay open up to an hour after, so we use THAT time to browse at our leisure. No crowds, no lines. There are usually characters hanging out to meet, again with no crowds, since everyone is rush-rush-rushing for the buses. By the time we do get to the bus, there is once again, no crowds and always an empty seat on board.

And of course EMH at night work great for us!!

 

[mousemom218]

We usually take 3 or 4 day trips, so we're there from rope drop to fireworks!
Our next trip will be a bit longer, so we will be there from opening til about noon, back to resort, then back again for dinner and fireworks!
I don't know about you, but once I go horizontal in my hotel, I can't muster the energy to go back into a park!

 

[welovedisneyx4]

We stay all day in the parks. We had been going in the fall, so the hours weren't as long, but this past Thanksgiving we did the all day thing as well. What helps us seems to be 2 days at the Parks and then 1 day of rest, 2 more Park days, another rest day and then the Parks on our last day. This past trip on our last day, we got to MK at 8:00am for EMH and then went to EPCOT until 9:00pm (we had already seen Illuminations) and then went back to MK until after 11:00. Now that was a long day!!! (But we had a blast!)

 

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

We have been known to arrive at 8:45 and not leave until midnight, and then it's the long walk through the parking lot, which is of course empty and we were of course parked as far away as possible. While watching empty bags float about like tumbleweed in a ghost town, all of us have whined at least once to be carried. But then we just turn around and do it again the next day. WE are truly a fanatical family, that has fun and suffers together!!

 

[nhdisnut]

Almost always! Often we will hop from one park to another (although we have never hit all 4 in one day - yet), but it is very rare for us to take a break in the middle of the day. We just love being in the parks! We have found, however, that when we are at WDW for a week or so, that we need to take at least a couple of days just to rest, maybe go to one of the water parks, or just hang out at the resort. Maybe we are getting older , but 7 days in a row of non-stop parks is more than we can do. On a theme park day, though, we don't stop!!

 

[Princessbaby]

We ended up staying from beginning to end almost everyday (4 days) because we just got so caught up in things we just never made it back to the resort. Especially with MK because it is kind of a pain to get there with taking the monorail or ferry across. This next trip we plan on taking a break in the middle of the week and enjoy our resort and maybe do some DTD shopping. We really paid for it this last time! We needed a vacation to recover from our vacation!

 

[nluvwithmickey]

We have done this almost every trip we have taken....I admit that it is alot harder when you go in the summer though.

We just got back and we were there from opening pretty much til parks closed. One night we stayed from 9;00am to 10;00pm. It went pretty well actually. With no crowds and no heat, staying in the parks all day is a piece of cake.

We have done it in the summer, but it is really harder. The kids really want to hit the resort pool....and so do we!

 

[pearlieq]

Just out of curiosity, what do you DO if you stay in the parks form open to close?

Even at MK, we've usually hit most everything we wanted to by lunchtime. Do you ride every single ride? Do you spend a lot of time in line? Do you line up early for parades/fireworks? Do you ride lots of things more than once?

Just wondering...

 

[LoriMistress]

I do. DH and I have lots of energy. Plus, we take time to sit down every once in a while and relax for a bit.