How do you tour the parks?

[doodlebug]

Okay we are Disneyland veterans and love how you can walk from DLH thru Downtown Disney to either Disneyland or DCA in a matter of minutes. You can come and go as you want without any trouble.. But WDW seems like a whole different ballgame..

Do you go to one park in the morning, come back for a rest and then go to another park in the evening?

Do you never leave a park once you get there and stay until closing?

We have a 4 yr and 7 yr and they are use to doing long days in the parks.. Thanks for any input you have on how to best tackle all the parks in 7 days.. And we will be staying on site if we go.

 

[caelwind]

Do you go to one park in the morning, come back for a rest and then go to another park in the evening?

We do that most of the time... We look at the show/parade schedule before we decide. We make sure that we see each park during the day as well as at night. It definatly breaks things up for the kids. We have stayed all day at MGM, but man were we tired !! The last time we went in 2002, ds was 6 and dd was 4. We leave in 2 days and now there is a 3rd... now 8, 6, and almost 2 and we plan of doing that as well. Nothing refreshes you more than a snack and a quick swim at the resort and a little relaxing TV to get you ready for the evening !

 

[missminniemouse]

We will try to take advantage of the park that opens early in the morning, but only stay there until about noon as that park tends to get really busy. This seems to be true even during the least busy times of the year. We'll then head to one of the other parks for the remainder of the day. Very rarely do we take a pool break during the day...we pretty much stay in the parks. For us, the change of scenery plus a break for lunch is enough to energize us for the remainder of the day. We have a dd9 and a ds5 and they do pretty well with long days in the parks.

 

[mickyzzzzz05]

It is just my husband and myself since our children are all in their 20's but we still follow basically the same touring plan we used with them. We get up early and head into the parks - we eat an early lunch and head back to the room and put our feet up for a couple of hours. Then we head back to the parks after our rest and stay till closing. Sometimes if the parks are really busy at mid morning we will tour the hotels and pick a nice quiet spot for lunch but we usually have a couple hours of rest in the afternoon. We still need our naps!

 

[ncbyrne]

How we tour depends on the length of our vacation and who's traveling with us. If we go for 6 days or less with the DGDs, we do one park a day and do not hop. If it's just DH and I for 10 days or more, we go to the parks about every other day. MGM and AK are one day parks for us. MK a couple days, but usually hop at least once to Epcot at night. Epcot is our favorite park, so we tend to spend the most time there.

 

[dizprincess717]

This past summer my sister and I would be at the parks about twenty minutes before they opened and would eat a muffin or something that we brought along with us from our motorhome, and drink water of course because it felt like the surface of the sun at that time. One day we got really hot and really tired and we actually went back to the motorhome to take a nap. Usually during the peak afternoon hours we'll try to go as slow as possible and catch some sit-down shows, or get something to eat. Like I said before, we hardly ever go back to the hotel/motorhome for a nap. Also, because it was summer and the parks were open later, the lines were long but we'd be in the parks from open to close so we got to see everything we wanted to see.

Basically, my advice for anyone is go at your own pace, plan what you want to see, and have fun! My sister and I are young (19 and 13) so we don't need breaks, but for those with kids I can definately see where taking a break is necessary. The parks aren't going anywhere, like I told my sister, walk slowly!

 

[scoutsmom99]

For me it really depends the time of the year.

If I'm going at a less busy time of year then it is usually one park am different park pm...although I should point out that in a less busy time of year I will sleep in and get to the parks around 11:00am-12:00pm and not take a break inbetween becuase they are not open as late.

If its a busier time of year and the parks are open later I try and do just one park with a rest period in the afternoon and after a couple days then take a lighter day and do a water park.

 

[Nanabug02]

My husband and I don't have any kids, but we usually take some sort of break in the middle of the day. Sometimes, that means back to the resort, and sometimes we just stay at the park and find somewhere shady to sit and people watch for an hour or two while we snack.

Another thing we sometimes do is go "visit" other resorts in the middle of the day....just hop the monorail over the Polynesian and have lunch there, or take a boat to the Wilderness Lodge to check out the resort and have a snack. Puts a little rest break in the middle of the day.

 

[Mymatisse]

I would definitely get a few books and read up on the parks. If you haven't been to WDW it is very hard to really get a good idea how things are set up and how much time it will take you to go from one location to another. I really like the Unofficial Guide because it really gets into those specifics that are great to know ahead of time when planning a trip like this.

 

[keagansmom]

When our DS was really little, we stayed at hotels that had monorail service. Made it awful easy and nice to take aquick break and head back later. Now we just make sure that we plan to visit longer sit down attractions where we sit a little, get cooled off, in the middle of all the other stuff. Our DS is pretty active so I also try to plan some time for him to "free play" and blow off steam-- like a MK we do that at Tom Sawyer's Island, The Boneyard at AK, the fountains at Epcot, and the Shrunk the Kids playground at MGM. I try not to park hop too much because it sometimes takes some extra time to do this. Lunches and dinners are also good resting times. But, if it looks like anyone in our party has just had it, we leave and go back to the hotel. This is a vacation after all and no one says we HAVE to see it all and do it all. By the way, was just at Disneyland in September and you will notice a difference in miles walked-- there are a lot more of them at WDW.

 

[doodlebug]

Thanks for all your responses so far... I know I will have to control myself because I'm such a Disney freak that I would never leave if it was up to me but I have learned to look for the tired signs and know when to rest and have a snack or leave and go back to our room..

Does it take more than 30 minutes to get a bus and get back to your hotel usually??

And I just bought the Unofficial Guide today!!