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

[Sparkly]

Because some people vacation differently?

We spent quite a bit of time at our resort this trip and it was nice. Far too hot to spend all day everyday in the parks in 90 degree heat!!

 

[gillep]

My WDW vacation has just about as much to do with the things outside of the parks as the things inside of them. Also, if I am paying for Stormalong bay I am certainly going to use it! The parks are great, but they are also hot and crowded and can be overwhelming, it is nice to get away from that for a little bit by cooling down and relaxing by the pool, and my feet and back thank me for it.

 

[FortForever]

Because we only have weekday annual passes.

We spend the weekends doing other things. Even so, we may go to the park only a few hours a day, or maybe just one ride, or maybe all day. We just kind of take it as it comes. I'll admit that when we paid big money, visiting from the north, there were no pool days. We crammed in as much as we could.

 

[notrub98]

Because kids get tired and too many days of standing in lines is tough on kids, (and a lot of adults) which leads to cranky kids (and cranky DH ). For me, I have tried all sorts of touring styles and my kids LOVE the off day(s) at the pools! My husband refused to go back if there wasn't some "down time" because it is supposed to be a vacation. He had a point now that I have done it so many different ways.

 

[melana]

I have always wanted to do just a pool day. But on my past trips my sister and niece want to go, go,go.

We drove down and it takes right at 12 hours. After about the 2nd day going full throttle, I would love to be able to just relax by the pool. I think my niece would too.

This trip in October, I am doing a pool session on one day and hitting MNSSHP that night. I may even do another morning by the pool. I don’t get to go swimming much so I try to get it in when I Vacation when I can.

 

[bushdianee]

The kids usually want pool time too. I have taken my niece several times and she always some pool time. The last time I took her by myself I had to use an ecv. That meant that she had to walk while I got ride and didn't nearly as tired as she did. We were also at WL and she LOVED their pool. So if she started asking to go back to the resort to swim we did as long as we had used our fast passes and didn't have an ADR. We never took a whole day as I didn't want to waste a day's ticket for each of us but one day we went back for a nap and a swim so at least a half day. She was 9 at the time. I figure it is her vacation too and if some pool time avoids a grumpy kid its worth it.

 

[lovethesun12]

I live in Canada and am staying at a deluxe to enjoy the large pool and children's area.

The closest pools here are about 3.5h away. Also by the time we leave its been -10 for months and months and we miss swimming

 

[Ava]

I think I would do more pool time if my kids were older. Right now with a 4-year-old who can’t swim on her own, either me or my wife has to be in the pool with her the whole time. (It’s usually me. DW is not a big swimmer.) If I could sit in a lounge chair & relax while the kids swam I’d be much more inclined to spend several hours at the pool.

 

[Elle23]

We were total park commandos on our last visit in January. I remember days just being utterly exhausted and sore (for a good cause, but still..)

We added 2 more nights to our stay for next January, so we have more time. We also unexpectedly ended up booking a much nicer resort (POR vs ASMu).

One day Epcot will have EMH till 11. I imagine on that day we will rope drop and then take time at the resort mid day to enjoy it, then head back to Epcot in the evening.

Another AK day we will leave early and enjoy the TS restaurant at POR and just chill at the resort.

We are all excited about the new adventures this time around. We stayed at Pop last time and barely saw it except the path to the bus stops and back.

ETA....being our 2nd trip next time, we won’t be in such a rush to take it all in as we were th first time and it will hopefully be a more relaxing time (don’t get me wrong....we had a blast last time or we wouldn’t be going back so soon!)

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

We have a pool in our backyard and still took an “off” day from the parks to enjoy the resort pools, visit Disney springs, and just relax. Theme park touring can be exhausting; especially at Disney where you are most likely doing multiple parks and have a lot of ground to cover. After having two week long Disney trips with nonstop consecutive park days under our belts, we decided to finally try an “off”/no park day on our third trip this past March and we were so happy we did. We had the opportunity to recharge our batteries so to speak and treat the trip like the vacation it’s supposed to be. I think this is definitely something worth doing for a trip that’s a week or longer to avoid getting burned out; but if your trip is shorter I can understand why an “off” day would not be viewed as necessary. Nonetheless, it took us a couple trips to figure out that we’re not going to ride or experience everything on our must do list and that Disney isn’t going anywhere and there’s always the possibility of the next trip; even if the next trip doesn’t happen for a few years .

 

[HeidiGW]

What everybody else said....plus my FEET need the rest.
Seriously, after a couple days my feet feel just like they do after Thanksgiving dinner, where I have been running around shopping, cooking and cleaning for at least 15 hours a day for four or five days straight. My spirit may be willing, but my dogs are not.
When the kids were younger (heck, I was younger too!), we were total commandos. We had a blast! After two days of driving each way and a week at the world, what did our kids talk about non-stop?
SWIMMING!!!!!
Then it was the plain, old pools at the All Stars!
In 2015, full-day itineraries went out the window. We went for 10 days at CBR...we slept in most days. came back for a midday/late afternoon nap. hung out at the pool. ate long sitdown meals. We did "less" on our whole vacation than we did in a couple of days on past trips.
We had a blast, and still haven't stop talking about everything on that trip...

 

[bumbershoot]

Are there not pools where you come from?

I know of two people in my town and the surrounding little town and city who have pools. They are only open late June to August-ish. And they are basic rectangles and not heated to anywhere near high enough.

So no, not really.

It seems like such a huge $$$ expense to go on a vacation like this to spend a day swimming in a pool.

But you're not just in the pool, you're at your resort. Where you spent big bucks to stay.

Maybe they are staying at a nice resort or dvc and want to actually enjoy it (thats me).

Yep.

I could make the argument that it would be a waste of money not to spend a day at the resort. If at a moderate or deluxe, you may very well spend way more money on your stay rather than your park tickets.

Yep.

If I could sit in a lounge chair & relax while the kids swam I’d be much more inclined to spend several hours at the pool.

Gotta tell ya...it gets HARDER once they aren't right with you all the time. The risk of drowning is still there, but you're reading or drinking a margarita and the kids are hard to tell apart once they are wet, and kids yell and get rowdy, and...yeah, get on in there with your 4 year old and enjoy THIS TIME with her, because it doesn't get easier. Use one of the good swim vests they have at the resorts, too.

 

[Oswin]

I pay lots of money to stay at Poly and I genuinely like the pool area there. So I relax there every afternoon from about noon until three when I'm on my trips. Then I take a nap in the room and get ready to hit the parks at night. When I stay at a value I don't really take the time to use the pools so I guess the more money I spend on my resort, the more time I like to spend there in the afternoon.

 

[Balthuszar]

not to mention, depending on your resort if you're staying on property, you're spending so much on the resort room, why not enjoy it for a day or two?

 

[sherlockmiles]

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?

I'm on the same boat with you. I'm not spending airfare and hotel and park ticket money to sit around a pool. I wish more people would - however, LOL - so there would be less people int he parks

 

[Marthasor]

No matter where we go - WDW, Europe, Costa Rica, a cruise, etc. - we always balance touring with relaxing. It's what we like in our vacations and we choose our hotels accordingly. My family can't handle full days in the theme parks so we usually plan 1/2 days or afternoons where we simply relax at our resort. We will stay at WL on our upcoming trip and have at least a half day planned for the pool, some basketball, eating at Geyser Point and checking out the new salon. Our resort is just as much a part of our trip as the parks and we will still do everything we want in the parks. We live in an area in the Northeast where people either build their own pools in their backyards or join very expensive country clubs, neither of which we want to do. For the price of either, I could do about 20 or so WDW vacations. So we get our pool time in there!

 

[amylevan]

Because it's a vacation? And spending all day, every day in the parks is MORE tiring (and actually kind of stressful) than a day at work. So, we take a day to relax and enjoy that we're on vacation. And to be honest, the kids would probably be happy spending all week at the resort pool and never setting foot in a park.

And as to the original (I assume snarky) question, yes, we have pools here. But no, we can't go in them in February.

 

[wdw4rfam]

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?

We go every 6 months now and have been going since 1995, so we don't feel the need to go to parks every minute of every day there. We love the deluxes because they have nice pools and restaurants so we can just relax. After all isn't relaxing the reason for vacation Plus how is skipping a day at the parks that costs over $100 per day wasting money?

 

[hsmamato2]

Because I prefer the resorts to the parks...... I mean the parks are nice and all,but the resorts are themed,beautiful and relaxing. I like to relax at least 75% of each trip now. So I can go for 8 nights with a 4-5 day pass and be perfectly happy.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

We usually do an off day on trips of a week or more. On those days everybody is free to do whatever they want, whether sleep in, swim, walk over to Disney Springs (we often stay at Saratoga). If we have annual passes that year, sometime the kids will head out to a park anyway. In general, we find ourselves burned out after 3-4 days of hard charging in the parks and just need to relax. Also, the resorts are lovely places, put together with a lot of thought, so I really do enjoy having some unstructured time to enjoy all they have to offer.