Give up a park day for the pool... why?!

After 5 or 6 years in a row of touring 6 days straight from RD to fireworks, we decided a couple years ago to add in a down day. It has been the perfect addition to our trips. We generally stay at the Poly, so on our down day we usually go to a resort character breakfast or to Disney Springs in the morning for some shopping and then spend the rest of the day at the hotel. We just got back last week and DH spent the down day at the Oasis pool and I just stayed in the room and watched some TV and rested. It was fantastic.
 
Yes there are pools where I am from. But unless you belong to club/gym or own one yourself you do not have access to a pool. Our neighborhoods do not have community pools. So, yes, going to a deluxe or mod resort and having an off day by the pool is definitely a vacation for my family. We are not a rope drope crew and love our non park day. That's why I stay deluxe.
 
Doing the parks can be exhausting. Doing them everyday turns a vacation into an ordeal. I like to schedule our time 2 days in the parks and a day of rest/open activity. It allows for a much more relaxed vacation.
I typically go for 10 or 12 days at a time.
 


Not everyone has a pool, or if they do it might now have fun features like a splash area for the kiddos or a slide. We live in an urban area and the only pools are at gyms like the YMCA. We spend so much $$ on deluxe resorts, I like feeling like I'm getting my money's worth by enjoying the resort. We're doing a half pool-half park day on our HS day. It's nice to take a morning off after 2 days of straight touring.
 
Honestly, I am lucky because a close family member has a pool at their home, so we can usually use it May-Sept. However, it's still not a pool on vacation. I'm in the NE USA so if I travel to Disney/FL/CA in the fall/winter/spring, that sitting by the pool feels FABULOUS and is a true treat. I have a stressful job paired with a LOT of personal anxiety, and relaxing at a pool on a week-long vacation vs a few hours on a Saturday is truly more relaxing. Now that I am of drinking age and have been visiting the parks way more frequently as an adult, I find a lot of worth in sitting by the pool for a while with a drink in hand, watching the world go by. I/we don't tend to take entire off days but we also usually stay at a Value. We really enjoy the Value category, but I think if I stayed somewhere with more "relaxing" themes or in generally higher priced (so usually a nicer pool and pool food options) I would do a total off day. So yeah, some of us do have pools available but many of us don't, so I find it unwise to assume that pool time is a waste to many because "don't you have pools"...and all of us vacation differently. To each their own, and I want everyone to have fun in whatever way they enjoy!
 
We belong to a large HOA with access to 5 different pools, plus various local water parks. My kids love them and spend lots of time in them during the summer. However they are only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And we do not travel to WDW during that time of year - way too hot and too much fun stuff at home. When we travel to WDW it is cooler back home and the pools are all closed. So yes, it is a "treat" to get to do a summertime activity when its not summer.

Plus, yes, we do need a break from the hustle and bustle of the parks.
 


It all depends on touring style. My family only does about 6 park days, and we stay out of the parks in between each day to rest up and reenergize. We enjoy our vacation far more with that in-between break.

Some people like to "go-go-go" their entire trip with no downtime. That's great, too. My family couldn't keep up with that, but luckily for us there are others things to do besides hit the parks.

The easiest way to justify not doing a park is to have an AP OR limited amount of park tickets. That way, you don't feel like you're wasting money.
 
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As others have said, people use it to regroup, rest or to simply have a chance to do something that they can't normally do.

For us, we either have resort days, or we have a few hours at the resort in the middle of the day. Either way, I need the time to rest.
 
When I was a CM, I saw many parents dragging their whiny kids through the parks because "we paid a lot of money for this trip and we're not going to stop for [food, swimming, bathroom breaks, whatever]." Of course, no one was having any fun in that situation -- but the parents were getting their money's worth if value is measured in terms of being physically in the parks.

Based upon that experience and knowing my child, I accept the fact that having a small child means that we can't do a full week of park touring. There's no way my son can handle it without a day to rest and relax (and his favorite thing on any vacation is swimming). A pool day mid-week means we actually enjoy the second half of the trip. Definitely worth it for us.
 
i see a lot of people who say they do an "off" day or a pool day as a day off from the parks. Why? Are there not pools where you come from? It seems like such a huge $$$ expense to go on a vacation like this to spend a day swimming in a pool. Am I the only one who doesn't get this? I must be one of only a few because I see so many people talking about this. What do you all say? Is it worth it to spend a day relaxing at the pool or a waste of time/money?

When you can only go in August and the heat index makes it 106, you'd probably collapse if you spent from rope drop to close in the parks. A mid day break is key for being able to go to the parks a lot and enjoy yourself. And what a judgemental question... Why do you care how people spend their time on vacation?
 
I think this question mainly depends on the context of where you are in life. If you are a family who has worked at saving for a Disney vacation, and it is a long time between WDW visits, then I can see the desire for milking every last magical moment from the parks. That is how I felt on my first few visits to WDW. Not that familiarity will always breed contempt (especially with the remagicing work done in the parks each year), but once you have experienced the parks a few times, you can afford to shift your focus to other aspects of the Disney World experience. It was not until my third visit to WDW that I found the Hoop De Doo Revue. Now I would not think of missing it. There are so many different fun experiences at WDW that are not in the parks, it is part of what makes WDW a very special place.
Some of the non-park magical experiences for our family:
* Relaxing while kids make smores and listen to story teller at resort camp fire event.
* Riding a surrey around the boardwalk - LOL (it gets harder and harder every year, but I would not miss it )
* Spirit of Aloha dinner show
* Trader Sam's Grog Grotto and Tiki Bar
* Night Vision Goggles at Kidani Village Resort
* Free Board walk tour
* Listening to Yehaa Bob Jackson at the Riverroost Bar (Port Orleans Riverside)
* Doing the monorail resort circuit (especially at Christmas!)
* Pin trading with cast members through out Disney World. You don't have to be a pin trader -- these make great souvenirs. Don't forget to bring old pins.
* Shopping at Disney Springs (okay okay my DW made me put that one in!) Psst -- don't tell my wife, but Disney Springs has some really cool stores now. I actually look forward to going to DS. You don't have to spend a lot of money or any for that matter. And I and my daughter are itching to try out the Secrets of the Empire Experience!
* If the kids are young enough -- do one of the pirate cruises.
* If you have little ones -- ride the train at the Disney Springs (adults ride for free if accompanied by a paying child). It is $3 per child or 2 for $5.
 
I don't see spending a day at the resort to be a waste of time or money, I sort of see it as the opposite. When I was a teen, my family went to WDW and stayed at the Grand Floridian. We spent all day at each park and then went home. On the last day, as we all longingly walked past their gorgeous pool, my dad remarked, "next time, if we are going to stay in such a nice resort, we should save some time to enjoy that too!" That sentiment stuck with me to this day.

My husband and I agreed that ours trips always need a) some downtime and b) a chance to relax in the beautiful resort we chose. We have 4 park days planned, 1 water park, and 1 resort day. Now if we were just going for 2-4 days to begin with, then no I wouldn't bother with a resort day. But for 5+ days? I think the rest and recharge time will be worth it. (And if we get bored swimming in the pool and doing the other activities, there's always Disney Springs, or mini golf, or whatever!)
 
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I'm with you on this 100%! My parents have a pool with a slide and diving board that we swim at all summer long. I'd rather pay the small $40 or $50 total to add another park day for us. On our last trip, my mom said we about killed her and my dad with all the park days, but DH, the kids, and I were going strong. I know it varies greatly by families and where you're from, but for us, a pool is a pool is a pool.
 
We're taking a nice long trip next month with our four-year-old and four-month-old, so non-park days are a must. We're not going into the parks on arrival day because we are driving and we're not exactly sure when we'll be getting into town, so to me it felt like a waste of money to pay for park tickets for a day where we'd potentially only have a few hours to spend in a park. There's one Sunday during our stay and we'll be heading off-property to go to church, so, again, a shortened day with limited amount of time to spend in a park anyway, so we decided to make that day a non-park day. It's not quite the halfway point of our stay, but almost, and we're not quite sure what we're going to do that day- either hang out at our resort or at Disney Springs- but we figure the recharging time will be nice so we can dive back in to a full week of park days. And yeah, as others have said, it seems like a waste of money to spend so much on a resort and then not actually spend any time there. If we were staying off-site we probably wouldn't schedule any non-park days, but we're staying at a moderate, which nowadays is not all that "moderate", budget-wise, so we want to get our money's worth.
 
We always do a pool day and we have a pool in our yard. We have gone in August, September and October and always like the break from the heat. We schedule it mid week and it really helps all of us recharge. It's great to rest the feet and bodies. At night we either go to Disney Springs or a park so it's not always a total break but it really works well for us.
 
We are doing MVMCP and that day is a resort day with only those tickets. Its at the later part of our trip and will allow us to rest up a bit before a late night.
 
We actually go to Disney for the resorts and the parks are a "we're here so we might as well go" activity. We go for 2 weeks and only spend 4 days at the parks. We enjoy them but I wouldn't want to go every single day. When we go to Disney we go to relax and have fun with the kids. Not to go, go, go without stopping. And we're from the north, so after the end of August we have no pool to swim in. We love Disney the way we do it and have never felt the urge to go to the parks more. In fact, we've done 5 days before and always swear that it's just too much for us. We've never felt like we haven't gotten our money's worth.
 

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