How do I take it easy at Disney?

[Schlek]

We have been to Disney now quite a few times and still love going to the parks but we are trying to figure out how to slow down and relax more while we are there. What are some of your best tips or ideas to be better at taking it easy while at Disney World?

 

[Wayland10]

It sounds counterintuitive, but I schedule downtime. 1-5 pm, downtime. Pool and fruity drink. 5 pm, shower and get ready for dinner reservation. It helps me to feel like I’m not missing out- I’m sticking to the plan!

 

[mort1331]

Once you know you will be back again,,then you realize that you don't need to get it all done this time. Stroll a little slower, take note of what is done and why it was done,,,95% have no idea. Each park has additional activities to do that take you off a different path. IE. EPCOT has a map to get a flag from each country. MK has cards you get at the firehall and a map to where those cards can be used.
Explore the different resorts and what they have to offer instead of a park day. Many things at the campground to do.

 

[mom2rtk]

You have to go back more often. If I'm missing things I can't get back to do later, then my FOMO is worse than my fatigue.

 

[fla4fun]

We have been to Disney now quite a few times and still love going to the parks but we are trying to figure out how to slow down and relax more while we are there. What are some of your best tips or ideas to be better at taking it easy while at Disney World?

Buy one less ticket day than your trip length and have a down day in the middle of your trip. Use it to sleep in, hang at the pool, visit resorts, maybe have an early night.

Otherwise, you just have to let go of your expectations and allow the day to unfold. Only make plans for the items that you absolutely must experience. Don’t stare at your phone Forget about FOMO. It isn’t about squeezing in every single activity and restaurant. It’s about picking and choosing only those things which will give you the most joy. Sometimes that’s staying for the parade and fireworks and sometimes it’s an early night at your resort watching a fun movie under the stars. It’s not a competition.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We park hop every day, and use the hopping time to take an offsite lunch each afternoon. Everyone seems to enjoy getting out of the parks for a couple of hours

Our lunch time is usually around the same time that several of the the headliner attractions drop additional lightening lines so we also use that time to get some good ones lined up for the evening park.

 

[zdad59]

We're a little older now so we don't power visit the parks. A few things we do....

• We stroll, not power walk. We'll get there but at our own pace.
• We plan to enjoy the pre-shows and the lines associated with them.
• We will sit on a bench and people watch.
• As other have said we plan 2-3 hours of down time every day. We make a point of staying a WDW property near a park. Next trip is at Beach Club. We go back to the hotel to nap or hot tub, and close our eyes for a bit.

 

[Mommb]

Go to shows, even if they aren’t starting immediately and require waiting.

Look at the exhibits in World Showcase and Animal Kingdom.

Even if you don’t want to wait in line for characters, stop and watch them interact with people, especially kids, who have waited in line.

My husband keeps telling me that once I have seen everything at WDW, he won’t ever go back with me, so I make sure on each trip there is something I don’t get around to doing. (I don’t think he’s serious, but just in case…)

 

[RivGirl]

Schedule at least one rest day.
Don’t rope drop.
Leave the parks at dinner time, enjoy a resort stroll or movie or hot tub, and go to bed “early.”
Schedule a table service meal in the middle of the day.
Enjoy shows, short films, and walk throughs as much as, or more than, rides.
Watch fireworks from somewhere outside the parks.

If you’re on Instagram, I recommend following @dintroverts for “quiet” Disney content.

 

[MartyParty]

Buy one less ticket day than your trip length and have a down day in the middle of your trip. Use it to sleep in, hang at the pool, visit resorts, maybe have an early night.

Otherwise, you just have to let go of your expectations and allow the day to unfold. Only make plans for the items that you absolutely must experience. Don’t stare at your phone Forget about FOMO. It isn’t about squeezing in every single activity and restaurant. It’s about picking and choosing only those things which will give you the most joy. Sometimes that’s staying for the parade and fireworks and sometimes it’s an early night at your resort watching a fun movie under the stars. It’s not a competition.

Yep, this is what we do as well. If it's hitting all four parks for four days each, we'll schedule a down day half way between. Sleep in, go to the pool, Downtown Disney, etc. Sometimes we'll also tack on a down day for the last day making it four days in the parks and two days at the resort or Disney area.

As for park days, we're fortunate enough to stay at Bay Lake Tower. On Magic Kingdom days, we'll go in the morning and come back around lunch time or shortly after. Have lunch and dinner in the room or resort. Maybe even relax at the pool. Head back that evening for some rides but return to Bay Lake to watch the fireworks there. That's gets us away from the crowds and late night rush to exit the parks.

Similar for Hollywood Studios. I prefer the bright lights and such at night. Will skip the morning rush and head to Hollywood Studios later afternoon. First stop will probably be an early dinner in the park while it's still hot outside. Probably around 2pm'ish to 3pm. Then hit the park till closing time watching Fantastic.

Animal Kingdom usually is a half day park for us. We'll go early but usually later afternoon we're ready to head out to our resort home, the pool, or Downtown Disney.

EPCOT is our full day if we can make it. We might give it a late morning start. Just depends on how we're feeling and if it's park day #1 or #4.

Ultimately just comes down to planning breaks. The full tilt one in our family is wifey. She wants to go from open to close no matter what. We have to get her on board with the down time or we rotate through leaving one with her while the rest of us head back to the resort. She's our go go go girl!

 

[kanerf]

Purchasing Lightning Lane Multi-Pass can help. That way you know what rides you will do and when and don't have to rush to get in a line.

 

[Vorlon36]

We create a go at your own pace night using a single die. We call it Dining with the Fates!

For example:
We start at our home resort and have a before dinner drink. We then roll the die to decide how we get to our next location for an appetizer. This depends on resort transportation. If we roll a 1 or 2 take the first bus wherever it is going. A 3 or 4 take the first boat. A 5 or 6 take the monorail or skyliner. We change the numbers based on what transport is available from our location.

We do the same after the appetizer to travel to our dinner location and again for our dessert location.

This slows us down and gives plenty of time between courses. The walking and travelling is a no rush activity that works off some of the previous course. It's a fun way to make your meal a bit of an adventure and to not be rushing around to a pre planned reservation. You also get to see resorts you might not visit.

One caveat - This should only be done if you are ok with the unexpected and it is best to do during a slow time.

Once, we had no easy way back to our home resort, so we grabbed an Uber at the end of the night. We do it 1-2 times per vacation.

Non Annual Passholder Version - If you wind up at a park without a ticket, we hop the first resort bus there and eat only at the resorts or downtown Disney.

 

[kes601]

Don’t rope drop.

That depends on what type of person you are -- as in, if you are a morning person.

My wife and I are both up by 5:00a most days. We have gotten pretty good at having downtime at Disney, but we always rope drop. We hit the parks from rope drop until lunch and then are perfectly content being done for the day and spending time at the resort. If we have bought multipass we will book 3 passes for the evening as we use the ones in the morning. If we feel like going back out we use them. If it not we end up dropping them and let somebody else enjoy them.

 

[_19disnA]

If you have been to Disney before, you already the park(s) you like best and which rides/shows you want to do again. We have NEVER gotten up at the crack of dawn to race off to any Disney park to join the masses who rush to their favorite ride once the park opens. We are on vacation and not in a hurry to get anywhere. Part of why we go on any vacation is to be able to relax/sleep in and not tied to any fixed schedule. We get up early enough when at home during the week to go to work. Vacation is a chance to get away from that. Disney parks can involve MILES of walking, hot weather much of the year and large crowds with long ride line. Be realistic about your physical abilities. No one suddenly becomes a marathon runner just because they are at Disney.

Take a mid-day break and go back to your hotel. Relax in your room or sit by the pool. If you buy those park hopper passes, you can go back to a park after dinner and not feel like you have to be in any sort of race to do lots of things. Depending upon your budget, choose a Disney hotel that is nearest to the park(s) you visit most often. Staying at a monorail resort wouldn't be my first choice if mostly planning to visit Epcot/HS. Similarly, you add a lot of travel time if you mostly do MK and are staying near Epcot.

We always do the things in one area of a given park before going elsewhere. We have never found that zig/zagging all over the park to supposedly save a few minutes in some ride line to be worth it. We also do not plan ever minute of the day. If some ride/show looks appealing, we will choose to go there. Some ride line looks too long, we look for some other ride.

If planning to be at Disney for multiple days, I would not plan to do a park every day. Most will find that exhausting and find the whole experience less enjoyable. Plan a day off when you don't do any park.

 

[hardcorestitch]

We have been to Disney now quite a few times and still love going to the parks but we are trying to figure out how to slow down and relax more while we are there. What are some of your best tips or ideas to be better at taking it easy while at Disney World?

The key to not be so immensely rushed while at Disney is to script the attractions you want ahead of time, so that when you’re in a theme park you don’t feel too rushed getting on your attractions.

 

[LoveDaisy]

There is some really good advice here.

We also are morning people so we rope drop but leave the park around lunchtime. We then have a leisurely afternoon, lunch, swimming, nap, or visiting other hotels. We then shower and go out for dinner.

We also do 2 park days, one rest day and that is our usual rotation.

We move at our own pace, sit and people watch, enjoy the details. If we don’t get to it this trip, there is always next time.

 

[DisneyFive]

Afternoon breaks as others have mentioned.

Another big one for us is that we do not rope drop parks anymore. Haven’t for years. However, we do purchase LLMP. Couldn’t do it without it. We typically get to the parks around 10 AM right as our first LLMP is expiring. This helps us enjoy the pools at night and get a good night sleep

We still are able to do everything. The LLSP rides we just do standby later in the evening or close to park close.

 

[pooch]

In all my years of going to Disney, I have never seen a rope drop. I don’t care how much more I could get done, I am not showing up that early. We arrive around 10am after a decent breakfast & do what we can. Around 4pm we stop for a TS meal either before or after hopping to a different park. We use the trip between parks & the dinner for a 90ish minute break.
Edited to add we tried the afternoon break and were just bored. I can sit around and do nothing at home and I don’t nap so why are we going back to the resort? I’m sure it works for others but not us.

 

[kes601]

In all my years of going to Disney, I have never seen a rope drop. I don’t care how much more I could get done, I am not showing up that early. We arrive around 10am after a decent breakfast & do what we can. Around 4pm we stop for a TS meal either before or after hopping to a different park. We use the trip between parks & the dinner for a 90ish minute break.

It's funny how different ways of doing it work for different folks. That sounds miserable to me .

I miss pre-covid when Hollywood Studios would open at 6:00 a.m.

 

[pooch]

It's funny how different ways of doing it work for different folks. That sounds miserable to me .

I miss pre-covid when Hollywood Studios would open at 6:00 a.m.