How many hours do you actually spend in the parks?

[Butterfly123]

We are open to near close people, and I know those mid-day breaks get longer as the days go by! They usually start at 2 1/2 hours, and go to at least 3 1/2 by the last day. When my kids were younger we took it much slower, and ended the day earlier. Of course when my kids were younger the parks were much less crowded, and there were fewer rides as well. No matter what we always go home happy but exhausted!

 

[LizzyS]

Our limit really seems to be 12 hours, lol. By then, exhaustion starts to set in, because we always start early and do EMH/MM or rope drop.

 

[Rabb it]

I used to live in Northern California and only got to go to Disneyland twice a year for a weekend or so. Only have 3 days in the parks we would go from rope drop in the morning until gate close at night. We hardly got to go so we spent as much time as possible in the parks.

Now that I live in Southern California and 20 minutes from the parks my girlfriend and I will spent around half the day in the park. Maybe opening until 2 pm, or from 7pm until closing time, depends on the day. But we go to the parks once every two weeks or so now so hence the less time spent in the parks.

 

[Angel Ariel]

The "how many days" post got me thinking about this. We're heading out on Tuesday and will have 5 day park hoppers. I'm feeling sort of guilty because it seems like I read about all these people who are in the parks from open to close, really taking advantage of all DL has to offer. But we don't. We'll be there for EMH every day, and probably the kids will last until around 1:00 or 2:00 and then we'll be done. We'll head back to the hotel, probably swim for a couple of hours, shower, check out some stores in DTD, head to dinner, and then turn in early. We won't do fireworks or WOC or PTN because there is just no way my kids would be able to stay up that late and still be ready to go for EMH, and I feel like we accomplish SO MUCH in that hour. Plus it keeps them on schedule and they don't get grumpy.

So when you go, how many hours is a "day" for you? What time do you get there? What time do you leave? Do you take an extended break in the afternoon? I'm feeling guilty because we're spending all this money on park tickets and only using them for six or seven hours a day. But then again, we're spending all this money to stay at the DLH and not taking advantage of that great pool seems criminal, too. Same with not stopping for a drink and nibbles at Trader Sam's, and any number of other things.

Someone remind me that this is a VACATION, not a marathon, and it's OK for us to do what's fun and what works for us!

We are generally there from open until close (or close to it). We will make 1 early magic hour and maybe one pre-park opening breakfast per trip, but the rest of the trip we arrive near RD. DD is more of a night owl than an early riser, so a 9am opening is pretty much perfect for her. We don't take an extended break at the hotel. DD won't nap at the hotel anyway, and none of us are huge on swimming..so if we need to "take a break" we will do something like find a show (in the past something like Aladdin) or a longer ride..or just find somewhere to sit and people watch for a little bit. We also make sure to take time with our meals and use those as recharge moments too.

DD won't nap in the hotel, but she'll nap in a stroller if she needs to. if she naps in the stroller, we stay til close...if she doesn't, we usually head out a little earlier so she doesn't fall asleep in the park for bed(now, to be fair, close in November was earlier than it tends to be in midsummer). Last year she surprised us the first time she fell asleep in her stroller (we really didn't think she would, but all of a sudden we looked down and she was asleep), and we took that time to roll her onto the Mark Twain and enjoy the trip around the ROA. Then the adults took a ride on BTMRR while we waited for her to wake up.

if she would nap or rest in the hotel at all, we'd consider a break...but she doesn't, and trying to make it happen would just annoy everyone, so we do what we can to get those break moments while we're still in the parks.

ETA: Oh, and FTR, she's a very happy kid...we wouldn't keep her in the park if she was tired and cranky. The ROA story? She went from happy and smiling to asleep in like 5 mins, with no transition to cranky in between. It works for our family because of how DD is. If she didn't have the temperament she does, we'd do something else. But this works for us

 

[hlbtimes2]

How many hours? ALL OF THEM! LOL
We usually get there at opening. We go hot and heavy riding what we can, and pulling fast passes. Late afternoon we head back to the hotel for about 2 hours. Then, we go back and have dinner and catch evening entertainment. Seems like we don't typically ride a lot in the evening. By time we watch fireworks, world of color or F!, and the time spent waiting for those to start, we just don't get a lot of rides in. Most nights we stay until closing.

 

[rentayenta]

It depends on where we are staying primarily. If we are staying at one of the 3 Disney resorts, we spend less time at the parks. We'll rope drop, take a long pool break, and go back around dinner. If we are off property but close by, we will still rope drop will take a shorter midday break. If we are not nearby, staying near by daughter by the beach, we will spend all day. I enjoy all 3 it just depends on where we are staying.

 

[bcwife76]

For us it depends on open/closing hours, do we have a MM in our ticket, etc. We have never been to the parks for more than 3 days (so if i were a 5 day trip we'd probably take more breaks during the day). We are going at the end of August and since DL does not provide hours until 6 weeks before we can only go by historical hours; thus we are predicting the hours to be 10-9 for DL and 10-8 for DCA while we are there. This means we will be there for rope drop and won't leave the park until it closes. We've been there when the hours are 8am-midnight as well; in that case we always took a break around 2/3pm for a swim, etc and then returned to the parks around 6pm til close (or close to it,probably til 10:30 or 11).

 

[PixieT78]

We haven't actually been to DL yet but our plan is similar to WDW. We have 2 full days and 2 partial days and we tend to max out around 8 hours of park time. We are big fans of RD/EMH - power through for 4ish hours in the morning, getting a ton done, then midday break for a nap and a swim then head back for another 4ish hours.

My feet tend to get pretty sore so this is the best way to enjoy as much as I can.

 

[SplashMo]

We do park open to park close with no breaks. We do sit down to eat lunch and dinner.

 

[realrellim]

We're there pretty much the entire time the parks are open, but we've gone only twice in the last three years: in 2013 on a two-day park hopper and this April on a three-day park hopper. If we had five days or went frequently, we wouldn't try to pack as much in.

Also, my children don't sleep much and gave up naps when they were 2, so "going back to the hotel to rest" would turn into the girls climbing all over us and fidgeting and not at all letting us rest. We might as well just be happy in the park (and exhausted when we get home).

In 2013 we were there from park open to close both days, though the first day we went back to DLH because the girls wanted to swim.

This trip, we were at the park for EMH all three days. We had 30 minutes of downtime at the hotel on the first day before going to dinner, and were back in the park through fireworks. DH took the kids back to DLH after fireworks; I stayed to fix some issues with our Jedi Training photos. By the time that was done, the next PTN had started and I stayed until that was done. On day two, we were out of the parks for brunch at Goofy's Kitchen and later again for swimming, but that's it. We left at the end of the parade and were back before fireworks so around 9:30. On day three we were at DCA at 8 and spent the entire day in one of the parks without ever going back to DLH for anything until after WOC was finished around 9:30 pm. I would have stayed longer if the parks hadn't closed at 9 that day, but they did. (Sniff.)

We also had a stroller both times. In 2013, my little one was 3-years-old, and she slept in that through fireworks (how, I don't know because they're so loud) and Fantasmic the first night. On our second day she napped for about 45 minutes in the middle of the afternoon in the stroller. This time we got one again and she fell asleep in it immediately after fireworks the first night, after the parade the second night, and before WOC started the third night (she's still bitter about that, though there are nice YouTube videos to help her feel better).

 

[tdhickey]

We are generally there from open until close (or close to it). We will make 1 early magic hour and maybe one pre-park opening breakfast per trip, but the rest of the trip we arrive near RD. DD is more of a night owl than an early riser, so a 9am opening is pretty much perfect for her. We don't take an extended break at the hotel. DD won't nap at the hotel anyway, and none of us are huge on swimming..so if we need to "take a break" we will do something like find a show (in the past something like Aladdin) or a longer ride..or just find somewhere to sit and people watch for a little bit. We also make sure to take time with our meals and use those as recharge moments too.

DD won't nap in the hotel, but she'll nap in a stroller if she needs to. if she naps in the stroller, we stay til close...if she doesn't, we usually head out a little earlier so she doesn't fall asleep in the park for bed(now, to be fair, close in November was earlier than it tends to be in midsummer). Last year she surprised us the first time she fell asleep in her stroller (we really didn't think she would, but all of a sudden we looked down and she was asleep), and we took that time to roll her onto the Mark Twain and enjoy the trip around the ROA. Then the adults took a ride on BTMRR while we waited for her to wake up.

if she would nap or rest in the hotel at all, we'd consider a break...but she doesn't, and trying to make it happen would just annoy everyone, so we do what we can to get those break moments while we're still in the parks.

ETA: Oh, and FTR, she's a very happy kid...we wouldn't keep her in the park if she was tired and cranky. The ROA story? She went from happy and smiling to asleep in like 5 mins, with no transition to cranky in between. It works for our family because of how DD is. If she didn't have the temperament she does, we'd do something else. But this works for us

sounds like us, our daughter and son used to be go-go-go-nap in stroller-go-go-go. Now it's the same, with no nap as they get older. Mind you my son fell asleep at the Blue Bayou, head down on the table for a 15 min power nap once on our last trip!

 

[tdhickey]

We do park open to park close with no breaks. We do sit down to eat lunch and dinner.

I really want to make a "I hotel break for no one" bumper sticker for my next trip.

 

[jammyjam25]

We are open to close people w/ no hotel break. But we also don't have children in our party so it's a lot easier to do. If we are feeling tired and need a break we'll usually go sit in the Animation Academy building or catch a show (Mickey and the Magical Map, Alladin, etc.) so we can rest our feet.

Our October 2015 trip we did 3 full days (EMH to close) and then 1 Halloween party day where we relaxed at the DLH pool all morning and entered the park at 4pm with our party ticket. That was a great way to break up our trip and relax a little!

 

[wilkeliza]

For us it really depends. I have been to DL twice now and both times we stayed at Grand Californian. With that ease of access to parks and hotel we found ourselves in the parks less hours. So at WDW where it is harder (well longer) to come back and forth we might sit on a bench and enjoy some Starbucks and ice cream for a couple of hours to rest mid day but at DL we would just go back to the hotel and swim or take a quick nap mid day and only lose an hour and a half to the whole process where at WDW a room nap or swim would lose us easily 3 hours. During the crazy hot summer trip we only spent a couple hours in the morning at the park and then as soon as the heat got unbearable it was to the pool we went.

 

[StormyCA]

Depends on circumstances. If we're staying onsite we usually do EMH every morning, take a 2-3 hour pool break, then back to close the parks down.

Twice we've been 'offsite', once at an RV park and this last time I was at my cousin's and BFF was at a hotel as a chaperone. The RV trip was the 24 hr kickoff so we were there, well, 24 hours plus another full day after a one day break . The last trip we met up at the parks (I was there at opening, BFF came a bit later) and closed them down, but took an 'onsite' break and people-watched for an hour or so.

 

[crystal1313]

When our kids were younger, we would take breaks back at the hotel. Now that they are 8 and 6, we go from rope drop, until as late as we can and still have them walk back to our hotel, typically 10-11. We spend all day in the parks, but lately have been taking much shorter trips than when they were little . 1 to 2 days. Even when they are tired, my kids don't want to leave.....so we always promise to take a slow walk down main street and say goodbye to their favorite place.

 

[Disney127]

DD and I are usually at rope drop till 1pm. We do the rides before it gets too crowded and then head back to hotel after lunch for nap/pool time. We go back to the parks at around 5-6 pm. In the summer, we try to stay till midnight but usually head out of the parks after fireworks. Since our trips are 8-10 days in length and we have APs, we take it slow. We used to do open to close but nowadays, our touring style is much more relaxed.

 

[Tigerlily75]

Open to close here.

But I agree you should do what works for your family. No point being there all miserable and tired just because you think you "should"

That said though... I think PTN and fireworks should be done at least one night (maybe after an afternoon nap), giving up just one EMH the next day.. it's so worth it!

 

[roxysoxy]

We usually go for about 5-8 hours a day total for 5 days. We always take an afternoon break because the kids start to get cranky after about 5 hours and it stops being fun. After a pool break, they're refreshed and we go back in the evening.

 

[Hazelon]

Personally I go for a few hours after I wake up kinda lateish (my first rope drop was actually in DL last week). I'll break up the day with some kind of ADR (lunch or dinner) and take a hotel break before or after that WDW or DL.

I found myself park hopping in the morning at DL (it's just so easy to bounce between), eating, and then taking a break before the night time shows.