How do you Disney?

[lolobug]

Hi!
We are staying for 8 nights at WL BRV. DH likes to balance pool time with park time. DD13 and DD16 will be up for anything, DS4 will most likely start off strong, fall asleep around 1:00-3:00 and then rally until about 9:00 or so. We will eat breakfast on the go, not sure what we will do for lunch, dinner will most likely be TS and ideally between 6:00-7:00.
We plan on hitting the parks early and taking a break throughout the day; most likely we will return to the parks later in the evening.
How do you fit in meals? How does your family navigate meals/rest? We are a quality over quantity kind of a family.
Thank you!

 

[auntlynne]

First, wouldn’t do the parks everyday. Dine at the more lengthy TS meals on these days.

When it’s a park day, leave at lunchtime, then nap for 4 yo and pool time for dad and teens. Then back to a park.

 

[lolobug]

First, wouldn’t do the parks everyday. Dine at the more lengthy TS meals on these days.

When it’s a park day, leave at lunchtime, then nap for 4 yo and pool time for dad and teens. Then back to a park.

Thank you! We’re planning on one full pool day, is that enough?

 

[Figment Mom]

My boys and I each do Disney differently.

If I was by myself, I would rope drop every day, take an afternoon nap, and close out the park. I would never swim and on a non-park day I would resort hop. (Actually, I've taken a solo trip and that's exactly what I did.)

DS18 would sleep until mid or late afternoon, go to a park, ride a few rides, eat, and then go back and hang out by the pool long after it is closed, buying expensive frozen drinks from the pool bar.

DS9 would go to the parks in the morning, stay until early afternoon, go back to the resort and swim, then hang out in the room and return to the park some evenings.

So what works for us is some compromise. Early in the trip we all rope drop and enjoy rides together. We spend afternoons at the pool, then return to the parks for an evening show and a few more rides. As our trip progresses, the teenager sleeps in some and meets us at the park for lunch. The pool is part of every day. Sometimes the boys return to the hotel in the afternoon and I hang back at the park for a little while riding rides that they won't get on. (They don't ride coasters or any kind of thrill ride.)

It's hard to please everyone all of the time so, with the age or your kids, you may consider splitting up sometimes.

I do find that I'm more go, go, go at Disney and they would rather have more relaxing time, so I adjust my expectations.

 

[lolobug]

My boys and I each do Disney differently.

If I was by myself, I would rope drop every day, take an afternoon nap, and close out the park. I would never swim and on a non-park day I would resort hop. (Actually, I've taken a solo trip and that's exactly what I did.)

DS18 would sleep until mid or late afternoon, go to a park, ride a few rides, eat, and then go back and hang out by the pool long after it is closed, buying expensive frozen drinks from the pool bar.

DS9 would go to the parks in the morning, stay until early afternoon, go back to the resort and swim, then hang out in the room and return to the park some evenings.

So what works for us is some compromise. Early in the trip we all rope drop and enjoy rides together. We spend afternoons at the pool, then return to the parks for an evening show and a few more rides. As our trip progresses, the teenager sleeps in some and meets us at the park for lunch. The pool is part of every day. Sometimes the boys return to the hotel in the afternoon and I hang back at the park for a little while riding rides that they won't get on. (They don't ride coasters or any kind of thrill ride.)

It's hard to please everyone all of the time so, with the age or your kids, you may consider splitting up sometimes.

I do find that I'm more go, go, go at Disney and they would rather have more relaxing time, so I adjust my expectations.

YES! This sounds very much like our family. I would be just like you- let's go!
I appreciate your advice, I will try and find ways to compromise and meet everyone's needs (at least some of the time).
I imagine that we probably will split from time to time and send our boys back to the resort while us ladies hit the PARKS!

 

[Dulcee]

I would go until my feet dropped off if left to myself. My husband and kids are not nearly as motivated.

We are staying 8 nights on our upcoming trip. We have 6 day park hoppers. We'll do 1 full down day middle of the trip. Sleep in late (for everyone but me, I can't seem to sleep past 7 anymore lol), do a character brunch, play a round of mini golf, some pool time, do a nice dinner, and be in bed that night "early".

Park days we are midday break people. I try to get us to the parks as close as possible to rope drop. By 11:30 or so we head back to the resort. We'll grab lunch at the resort. I swim with my older two who adore the pools just as much as the parks. The littlest will take a couple hour nap with DH so everyone is less cranky. Then we head back into the park early evening.

This trip I cut waaaaaay back on full table service meals. Historically we've had a full sit down dinner every night but that led to a lot of rushing in the evenings and a feeling of lost ride time. This year we only have 1 table service meal on a park day, our last night.

 

[sponica]

Our first post COVID trip (which is one of my favorites) we did 8 nights at the Polynesian with 7 day park hoppers.

My kids were 5 and 20 months.

My mom and step dad came down but stayed offsite (I had capacity in the room, so I added them to our reservation when we checked in).

My husband and step dad played golf at all 3 courses (Palm, Magnolia, Lake Buena Vista) so those mornings, I would hit the pool with my mom and the kids and then we would go to a park. Getting kids out of the pool to go to a park was quite the feat. I do not recommend this course of action

On the non golf days, we would hit the parks at or shortly after rope drop and usually get a TS lunch. Hang around the park some more, then park hop at 2 for our evening park. My kids are up with the birds and pretty much are done with parks by 7. We had a cancelled trip in 2020, so I rolled over that refund and upgraded the trip to a theme park view, so we got to watch the fireworks from our patio every night.

For meals, my kids and I are breakfast people...my husband can go either way. My kids are younger so we have typically done character meal breakfasts so I don't have to wait in line later. My husband refuses to do counter service lunch, he finds them way tooo overstimulating, so we end up doing TS for both lunch and dinner.

We don't rest...my husband doesn't like to sit still, even at home he's on the move all day. So the TS are our rest breaks. If we return to the resort, it doesn't go well to try and leave again because my kids just want to go to the pool (we don't have one at home and while my in-laws do, it's only open about 4 months of the year).

 

[Ratpack]

Our family has always rope dropped the park of choice in the mornings. Usually stay in that park until 1-2pm. Then we would go back to the resort and swim / nap for a couple hours just to cool off a little (we almost always go in July). Then we would head to the evening park of choice for the rest of the evening until it closes. For food, we just grab quick service. We have had some TS meals in the past but feel it is a waste of time for us, we would rather enjoy the parks than sit and eat. Our non park days are the day we arrive and the day we leave. Been doing it this way since the kids were 6 months old, about 22 years, they would have it no other way.

 

[robinb]

When my DD was young we would rope drop, go back to the resort for a rest/swim and then go back to a park in the evening or to a nice dinner. My DD would invariably fall asleep along the way which is one of the reasons why we still had a stroller for her at 4. I can't tell you how many meals I had with her head in my lap.

Now, we take turns doing rope drop and sleeping in and going into the parks in the afternoon will LL's stacked up. My DH refuses to get up early every day.

 

[lolobug]

I would go until my feet dropped off if left to myself. My husband and kids are not nearly as motivated.

We are staying 8 nights on our upcoming trip. We have 6 day park hoppers. We'll do 1 full down day middle of the trip. Sleep in late (for everyone but me, I can't seem to sleep past 7 anymore lol), do a character brunch, play a round of mini golf, some pool time, do a nice dinner, and be in bed that night "early".

Park days we are midday break people. I try to get us to the parks as close as possible to rope drop. By 11:30 or so we head back to the resort. We'll grab lunch at the resort. I swim with my older two who adore the pools just as much as the parks. The littlest will take a couple hour nap with DH so everyone is less cranky. Then we head back into the park early evening.

This trip I cut waaaaaay back on full table service meals. Historically we've had a full sit down dinner every night but that led to a lot of rushing in the evenings and a feeling of lost ride time. This year we only have 1 table service meal on a park day, our last night.

Our last trip was in 2016, looking at past notes, it seems as though we did not do as many TS either (I just cant seem to remember how this worked out for us). I also don't know what dining would look like if I did not make reservations and we just winged it. Thoughts?

 

[lolobug]

Our family has always rope dropped the park of choice in the mornings. Usually stay in that park until 1-2pm. Then we would go back to the resort and swim / nap for a couple hours just to cool off a little (we almost always go in July). Then we would head to the evening park of choice for the rest of the evening until it closes. For food, we just grab quick service. We have had some TS meals in the past but feel it is a waste of time for us, we would rather enjoy the parks than sit and eat. Our non park days are the day we arrive and the day we leave. Been doing it this way since the kids were 6 months old, about 22 years, they would have it no other way.

I heard once that park hopping with little ones is not a good idea. Would you suggest otherwise? Should I consider hopping?

 

[lolobug]

When my DD was young we would rope drop, go back to the resort for a rest/swim and then go back to a park in the evening or to a nice dinner. My DD would invariably fall asleep along the way which is one of the reasons why we still had a stroller for her at 4. I can't tell you how many meals I had with her head in my lap.

Now, we take turns doing rope drop and sleeping in and going into the parks in the afternoon will LL's stacked up. My DH refuses to get up early every day.

I need to learn how LL works, as well as genie and whether or not park hopping might be a good idea for our family.

 

[mommyk8]

In 2016 we did 7 nights and went commando, table service/ character meal every day and v only hit the pool twice.
Last year we went for 5 nights, did early morning then back to the resort for the afternoon and then back to a park in the evening. We had a day that we did Disney spring early went back to rest and then pool in the evening. It was so much nicer then the first trip.
My plan for next year is to do 7 nights and do 2 full rest days while doing morning break evening on park days

 

[lolobug]

In 2016 we did 7 nights and went commando, table service/ character meal every day and v only hit the pool twice.
Last year we went for 5 nights, did early morning then back to the resort for the afternoon and then back to a park in the evening. We had a day that we did Disney spring early went back to rest and then pool in the evening. It was so much nicer then the first trip.
My plan for next year is to do 7 nights and do 2 full rest days while doing morning break evening on park days

Thank you for the great advice! Will you park hop or just do one park a day? I could spend my whole week at MK!

 

[mommyk8]

Thank you for the great advice! Will you park hop or just do one park a day? I could spend my whole week at MK!

We had park hoppers and did different parks morning and evening. We did AK as a rope drop with a $LL for Avatar and got most everything done. I had a genie + for the day multiple parks and had Safari as our first LL. so once we checked in I started stacking at MK for the evening in. We had Peter Pan, BTMRR, haunted mansion, pirates and $LL for 7DMT. That scheduled starting at 5 pm. That worked really well because we got in ride everything my kids wanted to, grabbed food and went back to the resort for evening swim.

 

[lolobug]

We had park hoppers and did different parks morning and evening. We did AK as a rope drop with a $LL for Avatar and got most everything done. I had a genie + for the day multiple parks and had Safari as our first LL. so once we checked in I started stacking at MK for the evening in. We had Peter Pan, BTMRR, haunted mansion, pirates and $LL for 7DMT. That scheduled starting at 5 pm. That worked really well because we got in ride everything my kids wanted to, grabbed food and went back to the resort for evening swim.

Wow! You are so efficient! How do I learn more about all of this? The last time we went we used FastPass/ Magic Bands and they were free. I'm not sure what to spend money on and how to organize our day. Thank you!

 

[mommyk8]

Wow! You are so efficient! How do I learn more about all of this? The last time we went we used FastPass/ Magic Bands and they were free. I'm not sure what to spend money on and how to organize our day. Thank you!

In Theme parks there is a thread about how to best use Genie+.

 

[lolobug]

In Theme parks there is a thread about how to best use Genie+.

Thank you!

 

[Figment Mom]

Our last trip was in 2016, looking at past notes, it seems as though we did not do as many TS either (I just cant seem to remember how this worked out for us). I also don't know what dining would look like if I did not make reservations and we just winged it. Thoughts?

Unless there's a must-do dining reservation for you, you could just check the app to see what's available once you're there. There are lots of dining options available each day since people cancel all the time. Now that the cancelation period without penalty is 2 hours instead of 24, I imagine there are many things that pop up last-minute.

I often misjudge when we're going to be hungry. On our first trip, I booked lots of mid-afternoon lunches. We were starving by noon and I ended up moving most of them up.

We don't park hop. We go for 9 or 10 park days, visit every park twice, then decide which ones to visit a 3rd or 4th time. Every park is a multi-day park for me. I always start and end with MK.

G+ is easy once you use it.

For the ILL rides, I'd spend the money unless you're planning to rope drop it or get in line at the end of the night. The longest we ever wait in a line is about 20 minutes.

My boys don't do thrill rides, so the only ILL we need to buy are Rise and FOP. We will do G+ for every park except perhaps not AK (although I probably will anyway because when I'm at Disney money suddenly loses all meaning).

 

[brettcw23]

Hi!
We are staying for 8 nights at WL BRV. DH likes to balance pool time with park time. DD13 and DD16 will be up for anything, DS4 will most likely start off strong, fall asleep around 1:00-3:00 and then rally until about 9:00 or so. We will eat breakfast on the go, not sure what we will do for lunch, dinner will most likely be TS and ideally between 6:00-7:00.
We plan on hitting the parks early and taking a break throughout the day; most likely we will return to the parks later in the evening.
How do you fit in meals? How does your family navigate meals/rest? We are a quality over quantity kind of a family.
Thank you!

You're off to a great start with a plan! I always say, "Have a plan, but be flexible."
We are a DVC family go to WDW annually. So having done a dozen+ trips, we're pretty relaxed. We book whatever meals that we really want and end up changing a lot of the lunch ones. We usually do a TS breakfast at least once but normally it's eat on the way to the Park. When doing our summer trips, we always take a break and head back tot he resort. Sometimes we hit the pool, other times the gym, and even some times just to nap for 45 minutes! We tend to start at rope drop, hit what we want, break and then get back after it in late afternoon/early evening. And we don't wait in long lines. If it's too long, we'll wait until we find a shorter wait.