Does this sound like too much downtime?

[auralia]

Last time we went dd was 4.5 too. I had nap time planned and she was so excited she would have nothing of it! After 2 days we realized that she could commando a park from open to close! I had way too much downtime planned!

 

[HappyGal]

I love the parks but I also like the resorts -there's so much to see and do (especially at Christmas time). I personally think it's great that you don't push yourself and your family - take your time and savor every moment.

 

[hsmamato2]

I think it sounds ok...if you like to r-e-l-a-x..... which I have done in the past with young kids...and we had fun! we could kill HOURS hanging out by the hotel pool,eating lunch,playing on the playgrounds,just enjoying the scenery....hanging at DTD,(lego store!) riding ferry rides all over the WDW property...
but it is a lot of downtime. I wouldn't schedule as much downtime,I'd schedule some more park time, then take some downtime as I go along,if needed.
Think of the the cost to get there/stay there/eat there,and decide if just hanging out at Disney prices is your thing.
Like I said, I've done it in the past,when mine were little. Now,I take naps,and the kids go for 20 hours a day!

 

[hsmamato2]

OP, I think your plan is solid for the first few days, the value resort stay,just swim, visit all the other resorts,see what there is to see....why waste ticket money? Just be aware that hanging out at boardwalk all day isn't that interesting,nothing much is going on till after dark there. Personally I like to tour LOTS of hotels and gift shops. My whole family does! SO plan on visiting multiple places along the boardwalk,and you'll have fun! you can literally walk from the gate at Epcot through all the resorts along the marina,all the way to the gate at the studios! (stopping for lunch,snacks,and pictures along the way of course) there is a LOT to see there!(little kids love the resort lobby cartoons LOL)
And don't get me started on the 'monorail tour' of resorts that takes another chunk of time to do properly (love the boat rides too!)
We've had trips where we visit a park every day,and we've taken trips where we stay 2 week,and visit the parks maybe 4-5 times,tops.
have fun!

 

[Fjobe]

We are not spending $500 to add on 2 day park tickets to our All Star reservation just to go to a park saturday night when I can just add 2 days to our already existing tickets from WL. So we can't go to a park on Saturday but we will probably end up going for 1/2 a day on the friday we had a "free day".

I wanted to point out that you can pick your tickets up from your Wilderness stay early at a theme park or DTD guest relations location in the event that you did want to go to a theme park on Saturday. A previous poster said they could be picked up 3 days before the actual package begins. You could confirm that in the ticket sticky thread. We were able to pick up our tickets one day early last summer at MK. I had taken a screen shot of that portion on the ticket sticky with my phone so I would know what I was doing. The CM didn't really act like they knew how to do it, but they asked someone how to do it and it was done. They automatically transferred our tickets to our KTTW when we checked in to our package. They didn't tell us this and we tried using the original tickets when we went back to the parks. I'd keep the original tickets with me just to be on the safe side until you know for sure if they stuck them on your KTTW when you check in to wilderness.


I think your schedule looks like a very relaxing vacation. My husband wishes I was more like you!

 

[scdak]

Sorry to bore you but I know there are some people that enjoy looking at other peoples itenarary ( I know I'm one of those).

So my husband doesn't want to talk about disney this past year and always said he'll talk about it the day before. He knows I obsess about it and he is the total opposite and just goes with the flow.

Well, now that we are 6 days out, he decides to ask to look at the itenarary and wants to have imput about it! 6 days before we leave!!

So my question is, do we have too much downtime? He thinks we should go to MK more. I think its just enough time.....

Here goes:
me, DH and 4 1/2 year old DD

Friday- land around 4pm. Take ME to all star sports. Grab quick Service for dinner, end day.

Sat- Go to DTD early afternoon, walk around. Head to boardwalk inn to walk around (always wanted to visit it). go to the clambake at beach club for dinner. end day.

Sun- Check out of ASsp and get mears taxi to renaissance hotel at seaworld.
Check in as early as possible, head over to Seaworld for the day and night (also have free all day dining there). Late night

Monday- Sleep in, walk around resort (if its warm take advantage of their hotel splash pad). Get to Seaworld in afternoon. Dine with shamu dinner and then end day.

Tuesday- Check out of Ren. and take mears taxi to Wilderness Lodge and check in. Walk around WL then hit Epcot by 1pm hopefully. Dinner at Garden Grill. Stay for illuminations. End day

Wednesday- ohana for b-fast, MK all day, Chef mickey for dinner. watch fireworks somewhere at CR. end day

Thurs- Sleep in. walk around resort. Visit monorail resorts by 2pm. ohana for dinner 5pm, MVMCP until as late as we can handle. end day

Frid- Free day. Do laundry, swim if warm enough, when it gets dark go to fort wilderness and do the campfire sing a long and movie outdoors. maybe check out the lights at fort W. end day

Sat- sleep in and have lunch at whispering canyon at 1130. head to holly wood studios until close to see osborne lights. end day

Sun- Tusker house at 930am and stay at AK all day. Head back to resort and get a good nights sleep.

Monday- MK. BBB at 930, CRT 1030, MK all day until close.

Tuesday- Check out and head home.

Any suggestions?

I am one of the few that thinks your plan sounds good, I just returned from 11 days at the World and despite the fact that I thought we had some downtime, it really ended up being very little time and we were exhausted to the point of not truly enjoying ourselves towards the end of the trip, and this trip was just 2 middle aged adults. We drove our own vehicle every day but one and that was easy, I see that you don't have a car so are dependent on Disney transportation, that alone is time consuming, fun yes, but it still adds alot of time to your day. SeaWorld is awesome , we dined with Shamu too and it was one of the highlights of our trip, we knew the exposure to the whales would be great but we thought the food would be mediocre at best, boy were we surprised, it was very good and loads of choices! We also experienced all the Disney meals that you have planned.......yes 2 adults at character meals, and we had a BLAST! We fell in love with WL after taking the tour that they offer free at 9am on some mornings. The kids activities there looked like they would be so much fun. We had plans on doing the campfire with Chip and Dale but simply ran out of time or was too exhausted to do it.

I hope you and your family have a great time, have you thought about a photopass plus for pictures? Many of the photo packages that are included in it are places you are eating, I am about to start editing our pictures to add borders, signatures etc but I know that we have over 275 pictures on our card before I edit. And the price has gone down if you buy in advance although I think you are going soon so you might not have time to buy in advance.

 

[KellyNY]

My daughter only likes to go on 4 or 5 rides at disney. She LOVES parades and shows and Seaworld will probably be her favorite park because of all the shows truthfully! We will have 3 MK days to loop around the 5 rides she will go on and she will want to see all the characters more than the rides.
When I say sleeping late, I mean until 830am tops. my husband hates rushing out after waking up so after gathering all of our stuff, getting ready, eating and taking a bus to a resort, we won't get to a park until probably 1030 at that rate. I don't need to wake my child up at 7am on vacation to get there at rope drop to "like disney parks".

90% of our ADRs are based around my daughter and are character meals. We don't do upscale restaurants at Disney.

Yes, we are staying in a deluxe and want to enjoy the resort as well. There is a lot to see there, a pool to swim in and there are activities during the afternoon for kids and their parents to participate in at the deluxes. She will also love to see the juggler and entertainment at the boardwalk as well. DTD will be fun for her since santa will be there, christmas carolers, etc. Going on rides isn't the only part of disney.

The reason we have so many split stays is because it was last minute decision b/c flights are cheaper and we were orignally going to drive. We added SW two days before WL b/c this may be the only time we can go to seaworld at christmas time and have heard the show are great. We had the money to book at Renaissance for a couple days, so we said why not? We did not want to go to Seaworld Friday and sat and then move to Disney sunday b/c SW will be mobbed the day after thanksgiving

We are not spending $500 to add on 2 day park tickets to our All Star reservation just to go to a park saturday night when I can just add 2 days to our already existing tickets from WL. So we can't go to a park on Saturday but we will probably end up going for 1/2 a day on the friday we had a "free day".

I don't see whats wrong with visiting other resorts near christmas time. There is so much to see at the world. have you ever gone near christmas time? For example, GF has "make your own gingerbread houses". I truly think my daughter will enjoy that.

Anyway, thanks for all the advice everyone. We are very excited to go to Disney especially our first time at christmas and first time as a family at a deluxe! Getting very excited. Now on to packing........

There is nothing wrong with visiting resorts and you do not have to prove love for Disney by running from ride to ride or being there at the rope drop. Everyones style is different. I can only repeat what other poster said, you can get your tickets earlier, so you can use them on your first 2 days if you want. You will be able to add days to your tickets later. Have fun!

 

[monica9]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I called Disney last night they are trying to tell me my 5 day park tickets ( included in our package with free dining) won't start until Tuesday. I explained our situation and he said I can't use them even if I pick them up three days ahead. I'm def going to read the thread after work about picking them up. Thanks so much for the help!

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I called Disney last night they are trying to tell me my 5 day park tickets ( included in our package with free dining) won't start until Tuesday. I explained our situation and he said I can't use them even if I pick them up three days ahead. I'm def going to read the thread after work about picking them up. Thanks so much for the help!

The phone CMs will not tell you that you can get your package tickets early. I was told flat out last year that I could not get them early, yet had no trouble at all doing so.

 

[PoohsFan1]

Adding more days to your ticket makes the vacation more relaxing. You don't have to fit as much in. Also, it is better to get to the parks at opening, then leave in the afternoon for a nap, then come back late. This is MUCH more relaxing than arriving at noon and staying for the rest of the day.

This ... for families with young kids, at least ...

This works for us too and we have kids not as young as the OP's .

 

[B-Ride]

ok I need some suggestions. I am not changing the parks we go to each day since we have ADRS already but for the "down" days, what should I do.

I didn't realize that it will only cost us $60 more for a 7 day park ticket vs the 5 day we orginally have. Can I purchase two more days and use one maybe the Saturday for half a day before DTD and then that Friday that is our "free' day? Will that make it less of a relaxing vacation yet still give us time to recouperate?

You know your family better than we do so you need to decide. I would definitely suggest going with 7 or 8 day tickets and just taking things easy. The more days you have the more relaxed your pace can be.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Friday- land around 4pm. Take ME to all star sports. Grab quick Service for dinner, end day.

Sat- Go to DTD early afternoon, walk around. Head to boardwalk inn to walk around (always wanted to visit it). go to the clambake at beach club for dinner. end day.

I would go to DTD for dinner on Friday and spend some time shopping then (rather than doing 5 hrs of shopping on Sat as a previous reply indicated would be the plan). 5 hrs of shopping is a long block for a 4.5 y/o, and while there is some entertainment in DTD, it would be too long for the 4.5 y/os in my family.

Saturday you could finish up shopping at DTD (in a shorter block of time) between like 10-1, then have lunch over on the boardwalk and walk around there and then do dinner. If you did manage to pick up your tickets early, you could always do a 1/2 day at Epcot here. You said your daughter loves shows, and there are many shows in the different WS pavilions. I'm sure she would love a bunch of them! (And they are quite difficult to see all in one day)

Sun- Check out of ASsp and get mears taxi to renaissance hotel at seaworld.
Check in as early as possible, head over to Seaworld for the day and night (also have free all day dining there). Late night

Monday- Sleep in, walk around resort (if its warm take advantage of their hotel splash pad). Get to Seaworld in afternoon. Dine with shamu dinner and then end day. [/quote]

Sounds good to me. Sleeping in on Monday will hopefully give your DD a chance to recuperate from the late night on Sunday.

Tuesday- Check out of Ren. and take mears taxi to Wilderness Lodge and check in. Walk around WL then hit Epcot by 1pm hopefully. Dinner at Garden Grill. Stay for illuminations. End day

Wednesday- ohana for b-fast, MK all day, Chef mickey for dinner. watch fireworks somewhere at CR. end day

The only thing I'd be concerned about here is the late night at Epcot, followed by what sounds like an early morning at Ohana. If it were me, I would have planned the sleep in morning for Wednesday instead of Thursday and done Ohana for breakfast on Thursday (and then done Ohana for Dinner on Friday). But, your ADRs are made and likely can't be changed, so there's nothing you can really do.

Thurs- Sleep in. walk around resort. Visit monorail resorts by 2pm. ohana for dinner 5pm, MVMCP until as late as we can handle. end day

If your DH wants to spend more time in the parks, this would be a good day to go into MK just for a bit (I'm not recommending all day by any stretch!). But if you left your resort around noon, hit the monorail resorts for lunch/walking - you could head to MK around 3 for a 2 hr quick stint, hit the monorail back to Ohana for 5, then come back for MVMCP.

Frid- Free day. Do laundry, swim if warm enough, when it gets dark go to fort wilderness and do the campfire sing a long and movie outdoors. maybe check out the lights at fort W. end day

I'd keep this day as a changeable day. If your DD ends up wanting more park time/rides or something, you could go in just for a 1/2 day in the afternoon, and still get to do laundry/swim/campfire/relax.

Sat- sleep in and have lunch at whispering canyon at 1130. head to holly wood studios until close to see osborne lights. end day

Sun- Tusker house at 930am and stay at AK all day. Head back to resort and get a good nights sleep.

Monday- MK. BBB at 930, CRT 1030, MK all day until close.

I would probably switch Sat and Sun. Saturday would be a very long day, followed by 2 more long days in a row with little resting. I'd go to AK on Saturday (if you can change the dining reservation esp), then do the sleep in/late lunch/HS on Saturday, then MK Monday as you have planned.

 

[LLLSRL]

For our family it is definitely WAY WAY WAY too much downtime. Our upcoming trip will consist of 5 full days in the Disney Parks - from opening until closing time and we take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours whenever they give the option! Also we will be having a full day each at SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Universal, and Islands. We give ourselves one day of rest in the middle. This is how the last three trips for our family has been as well. Every family is different though (ours - except for my dad - isn't much for sitting around and relaxing) We travel all the way from Northern Wisconsin, so we do not get to experience Disney often. That could have something to do with the fact that when we go we want to get EVERYTHING in - don't know when we'll be back ! I'm sure no matter what you're family chooses to do, you'll have a GREAT time!

-LLLSRL's daughter.

 

[meredith1]

You have a lot of "walk around resort" time. I would hit MK on that first Saturday early and then, DTD in the evening.

My 4.5 yo daughter wouldn't be happy just "walking around" the resorts. I would but, it wouldn't go over well with her.

 

[monica9]

I was just looking at my past itinerary's and posts and saw this from 2012. After reading all of it, I have to laugh at both myself and the comments on here. This itinerary ended up being PERFECT for our family. It was actually the best trip we've taken yet (hopefully this next one beats it out). Our daughter definitely needed this downtime and now I know why she needed to sleep so much (found out her thyroid was not functioning at all poor baby. Guess it runs in the family) So for our family, this was a good itinerary but I have to say, thing's have changed now that she is older and her hormones are under control. We were able to go rope drop to close the last time we went and boy, commando is awesome! Now we have our 13 month old coming with us and our 4 1/2 year old is now 9 1/2 so we are going to try commando for most of the trip and a couple long days try to leave for 2 hours in the middle of the day this time around and just hope DD13m sleeps in her stroller.
loved Seaworld and the Renissance hotel was one of the best we've ever stayed. Loved Hotel switching and it wasn't a problem at all. Actually made the trip feel even longer. Looking back at this I realize it all just depends on your family and what they can handle. Because we knew our daughter needed a lot of sleep, it helped eliminate the whining and crying that I see other kids in the park doing and we were still able to see and do everything we set out to do. Let's just pray our younger dd isn't one of those this December!

 

[mjkacmom]

If your daughter wakes at 7, get to the parks early, cooler, less crowded, much shorter lines. Swim and explore resorts in the afternoon, when the heat and crowds are very high.

 

[siskaren]

Zombie thread alert - this thread is from 4 1/2 years ago!

 

[Karin1984]

Zombie thread alert - this thread is from 4 1/2 years ago!

That doesn't matter if it is the OP who revives it to look back on her experiences ;-)

 

[Thing 1]

Way too much down time. We do the parks every day with a couple hour afternoon break. We also mostly do rope drop. Saves soooo much time in line and offers much lower crowds. We did this plan when we had a child the same age as yours.

 

[pookybean]

so glad the op updated! as usual i read halfway through before realizing it was a zombie!

glad everything worked out for you op...now do everything the exact opposite, because thats how the second child usually likes it! lol have a great trip!