How long are your afternoon resort breaks?

[blue oranda]

First time in a while that I got park hoppers and I'm planning out our days and it seems we will only have about a 2 hour break at the resort between am/pm parks most days, not counting the transit time. Wondering how long others stay back at the resort midday. Traveling with a 2 and 4 year old so I figured to post this in the Families thread.

 

[sponica]

First time in a while that I got park hoppers and I'm planning out our days and it seems we will only have about a 2 hour break at the resort between am/pm parks most days, not counting the transit time. Wondering how long others stay back at the resort midday. Traveling with a 2 and 4 year old so I figured to post this in the Families thread.

Honestly we never really did intentional breaks. Once my kids got back to the resort, they were pretty much done for the day. We wouldn't be able to get them back out to the parks, not with the pools right there.

 

[Specter]

DW and I started taking midday breaks even before DD was born because when we go to Disney we do not do a resort day and we always have at least 7 park days. Even though we are (were) young and in decent shape, that just started taking a toll on our feet more than anything and we discovered that if we took a midday break we got home feeling far less tired than when we didn't. I know some people prefer a resort day instead and I get it but we live in a hot state and both her parents and mine have pools, as well as a neighborhood pool, so we can generally swim pretty easily 8, maybe 9 months out of the year so the pool doesn't hold much of a draw for us. They're nice but not what we are spending a lot of money to travel out of state for.

Since DD was born we discovered that even though she would snooze lightly in her stroller she just did much better getting into our quiet room with AC, cooling off and not having the background noise. The one day that we tried to power through when she was 10 months old and not do a midday break she was an absolute disaster and we had to abandon our Fantasmic seats despite having done the dinner package.

In our experience about an hour and a half to two hours, not counting transit time, is the sweet spot. Everyone cools off, sometimes DW and I nap as well, other times we just quietly talk or read or have a drink on the balcony if the weather is to our liking. DD was age 10 months, 34 months, and 40 months on these trips, so close to your little ones ages. I feel like much longer than that and we actually get more lethargic and are tempted to stay in. While that isn't a bad thing, it's vacation and you should do what you want, we hate the idea of missing too much park time when that's what we came for. Any less and we feel like we are more tired when we get in for the night and almost asking what was the point, other than avoiding the complete meltdown.

Hope that helps, we are in the early planning stages of our next trip ourselves and starting to think about these things again. Whatever you do, enjoy!

 

[Betty Rohrer]

DW and I started taking midday breaks even before DD was born because when we go to Disney we do not do a resort day and we always have at least 7 park days. Even though we are (were) young and in decent shape, that just started taking a toll on our feet more than anything and we discovered that if we took a midday break we got home feeling far less tired than when we didn't. I know some people prefer a resort day instead and I get it but we live in a hot state and both her parents and mine have pools, as well as a neighborhood pool, so we can generally swim pretty easily 8, maybe 9 months out of the year so the pool doesn't hold much of a draw for us. They're nice but not what we are spending a lot of money to travel out of state for.

Since DD was born we discovered that even though she would snooze lightly in her stroller she just did much better getting into our quiet room with AC, cooling off and not having the background noise. The one day that we tried to power through when she was 10 months old and not do a midday break she was an absolute disaster and we had to abandon our Fantasmic seats despite having done the dinner package.

In our experience about an hour and a half to two hours, not counting transit time, is the sweet spot. Everyone cools off, sometimes DW and I nap as well, other times we just quietly talk or read or have a drink on the balcony if the weather is to our liking. DD was age 10 months, 34 months, and 40 months on these trips, so close to your little ones ages. I feel like much longer than that and we actually get more lethargic and are tempted to stay in. While that isn't a bad thing, it's vacation and you should do what you want, we hate the idea of missing too much park time when that's what we came for. Any less and we feel like we are more tired when we get in for the night and almost asking what was the point, other than avoiding the complete meltdown.

Hope that helps, we are in the early planning stages of our next trip ourselves and starting to think about these things again. Whatever you do, enjoy!

And we had a grandson who did what your daughter did with our resort break. He snoozed on way back to resort and screamed and I mean screamed for 2 hours. Could hear him down the hall. Gave up and headed back to dinner reservation he falls asleep before we got there and slept thru. He did much better with stroller naps the rest of week

 

[sponica]

I will say instead of a resort break, we schedule a midday table service meal. Gets us in AC for a solid hour or so, and we can take it easy.

 

[Jsharp13]

I didn't answer the poll, because I just wanted to read others opinions. This trip next week we will have mid day breaks, primarily so we do not perish and melt into the pavement.
We will have one or two adults, and a 14 year old. I'm thinking 2 hours will work for us - time to take a dip in the pool, a quick snooze, and refresh and get back there.
That doesn't include transit time. At CBR, the Epcot and HS transit time should be pretty brief middle of the day I think. It's MK that I'm more worried about. It is our only MK day this trip and I hate to spend 90 minutes just "commuting" including waiting for a bus and all that. On that day, I will consider time (and convenience) is money! We'll monorail to Poly for lunch (since I love Poly!) and then Lyft back to CBR. When we are ready to go back to MK, hopefully the app will give me a good idea of the bus situation. If we're close to a pick up time, bus it is. If not, forget it, and we'll Minnie Van it.

 

[FallsChurchDad]

Wide range for us, anywhere from 1 to 6.5 hours!

The 6.5 was a Hollywood Studios 8:30 am - 9 pm day, where we were at the front of rope drop and did Slinky Dog x 2, RNRC and Tower of Terror. Every single ride had a ridiculous wait time, so we headed straight out at 10 am and back to the hotel for rest + lunch + pool + rest + early dinner. Around 5:30 pm, we went back to HS and did everything else. We had a very late VQ for Rise and still had time for dinner at Docking Bay 7, and we closed out the night by getting back in line for Slinky Dog. It was a great day.

The 1-hour break was a 2022 trip where we stayed at CBR and did the morning at Epcot. We couldn't decide what to do after lunch at festival booths in France -- lines were long and we didn't have Genie+ (nor did we need it after starting the day with Remy-Frozen-Test Track-Soarin'). So we just took the Skyliner back to CBR, the kids took a deep breath in the darkness of the hotel room, and then we took the Skyliner back over. I remember that night ended with very sore feet.

 

[gmi3804]

I will say instead of a resort break, we schedule a midday table service meal. Gets us in AC for a solid hour or so, and we can take it easy.

We take our break after our midday TS meal.

 

[BaymaxForever]

In the past, and even as the kids are in their teens, we do a break. We will on our trip next week as well! Partly bc we often go in September and need a break from the blazing heat. We typically rope drop (EMH in the past) and park hop to another park with later closing to maximize our time in cooler hours. With transportation time included, we aim for around a 3 to 3 and a half hour break. Most of us nap for about an hour. I think it helps every from becoming ‘over it’ and becoming agitated with each other!

 

[Jsharp13]

In the past, and even as the kids are in their teens, we do a break. We will on our trip next week as well! Partly bc we often go in September and need a break from the blazing heat. We typically rope drop (EMH in the past) and park hop to another park with later closing to maximize our time in cooler hours. With transportation time included, we aim for around a 3 to 3 and a half hour break. Most of us nap for about an hour. I think it helps every from becoming ‘over it’ and becoming agitated with each other!

Thanks for this summary. This may be a good plan with my teen - planning for a 3, 3.5 hr break. This helps me a lot with my planning and timing!

 

[sponica]

Thanks for this summary. This may be a good plan with my teen - planning for a 3, 3.5 hr break. This helps me a lot with my planning and timing!

My sister went last July and she did midday breaks with her kids (10 and 8), but they would be there EARLY for the bus to be at the front of the line for early entry. They would do what they could by 11-12ish and then go back to their camper and then head back to the park somewhere between 3 and 5 and stay until park close.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Some days our break lasts all day after sleeping in, and we never make it to the park that day!! Not often, but I do enjoy that now and then!

 

[ShannyMcB]

Both trips we hit the ground running early, sometimes rope drop sometimes just after. Back to the hotel (cbr or cr) for quick service lunch then naps or showers. Weather check if rain is coming stay put and leave as soon as it stopped. If no rain back as soon as everyone woke up or was clean between an hour and a half or two and a half hours then back to the parks. If we had a dinner adr the break would happen later and we would take an hour or so break, have everyone take a fast shower, eat then back to the parks. We generally don’t do pool time during the day that ends up being an evening activity on a night we don’t have adrs or wanting to stay for fireworks.

 

[DizneyFamof4]

We've been going since our 1st DD was 6 month old and we tried doing a midday break for the first few days and, for us, it was miserable. Our DD would either fall asleep on the way and then wake up when we got to our resort or would not fall asleep at all. DW and I do not do naps so we felt like it was a BIG waste of time. The 4th day, our DD fell asleep in the stroller and we have never looked back We would either take that time to browse and take in the park sights or find a nice cool place to sit and have a snack and people watch, or one of us (DW) would go shopping while I had a snack. This worked out 100 times better for us. We also use to live in Orlando and the worse time to be in a pool was between 10 and 2 when the sun is at its hottest and the water just enhances the sun rays against your body. Plus then you add in the showers and by that time so much time has passed. Our DDs had no issues just zonking out in their stroller, so they never missed any sleep. Now, we much rather sleep in a bit and arrive at the parks around 10 and stay until after closing. This way we still get our sleep and we get everything done at the park that we wanted too.

 

[DeeBee3]

I've been with my kids since toddler time. No one would take a formal nap in the room (also were very early to stop napping). We did go back to the room most times. We are all tired anyway, but my kids like the pool. It's a novelty for them. I usually stay in the room and rest unless it's a day where we don't do a lot of park walking.

My feet can't handle standing or walking for entire day. Everyone has a different body though!

I do think resting or cooling off during the day is a nice way to get ready to enjoy the evenings. Now my kids can stay awake a bit longer, we take advantage of the nights more often.

 

[Dulcee]

First time in a while that I got park hoppers and I'm planning out our days and it seems we will only have about a 2 hour break at the resort between am/pm parks most days, not counting the transit time. Wondering how long others stay back at the resort midday. Traveling with a 2 and 4 year old so I figured to post this in the Families thread.

Once upon a time I would plan 2 hour breaks but I’ve been humbled by my kids and learned the hard way it is not sufficient my husband agreed with them.

We now try for 3.5-4.5 hours for a break. For my family they like time to nap, shower, maybe jump in the pool. My oldest likes to unwind playing his switch. And we all go back to the parks refreshed and able to make it to the evening shows.