how much of your trip is spent at the resort?

[loralie]

We have not been to WDW since 2005 and I hope to plan a trip for next year. On my last trip we were there for 7 nights 8 days and we only spent one morning/afternoon swimming and going to the park at night. All the other days we went to one park in the morning, came back in the afternoon to the resort and went back to the parks at night. We were so exhausted that by the 6th day my son, who was 7 at the time asked if he could just watch TV in the room because he was so tired. My DH stayed with him as he was exhausted too and I took my older son to MGM.

For my next trip I hope to go for 10 days and maybe plan 1 whole day relaxing at the resort, not leaving at all, even for dinner, and maybe a couple of morning/afternoons where we stay at the resort and maybe just go to dinner at night or go to the boardwalk in the evening. I also will not plan to do a park on the day we are leaving, that was a big mistake last time. I plan to maybe just go to Chef Mickeys for a late breakfast before we head home.

What do you think of this plan and how much time do you plan to spend at your resort?

Loralie

 

[bcsmom]

We actually spend a good bit of time at our resorts. If we go to the park in the morning, we usually go back & rest in the afternoon. Sometimes we will stay by the pool during the hottest part of the day. We have even rented the bikes at SSR, that was to much exercise though . I like to sit on the beach at the BC, & the Poly. So we do take advantage of relaxing at the resort.

 

[bab31]

Gosh I think your plan sounds wonderful. It is a vacation, I think we all try to jam too much Disney into our trips- mostly because it so costly to go and maybe a long time before we return. I would love to get my DH on a 10 day vacation- ha! that will be the day!

 

[BamaFan121s]

Depending on the weather, DH and DD may swim for an hour or so a few times during the trip. Other than that, we usually come back to the room mid-day to rest for a couple of hours.

 

[BionicEar]

We also spend a good bit of time at the resorts. We are not park commandos,which is why we're willing to save up & fork out more $$$ for the deluxes. (Of course we do have 3 kids.. )

The kids love being able to take a break in the afternoons to go to the resort pool, swim & relax. DH loves it as well. Spending more time at the resort helps make our vacation truly a vacation away from reality.

Our hope & plan for our next trip is to spend 10 nights at WDW. As for the money spent, we feel that life is just too short to worry about how much is spent towards rest, relaxtion & recreation! Plus, we feel that we truly get our money's worth at Disney.

 

[DisneyBride'03]

Well, it depends what kind of vacation you will be having...In March it was all abt the parks, DD10's b day and the Pirate and Princess Party etc....so we booked POP...it was a great "home base" and she enjoyed the pool a few times....For this trip...its all abt relaxing and enjoyng the end of summer....we will be enjoying our resort....

 

[carmiedog]

I love your plan.

We tried to either have a 3 hour break in the early afternoon, or on a couple days we stayed at the parks until later in the afternoon and just spent the rest of the evening at the resort.

I would LOVE to have a whole day of just relaxing and enjoying the resort, but it's hard when you're limited on time.

 

[yecats]

I find that about every 3rd day of the trip is sort of a half day for me meaning that I will go to one park on days 3, 6 & 9 and then spend the rest of the day at the resort. Either choose to spend the morning/afternoon at your resort (maybe sleeping late and swimming until early afternoon) then heading off to Epcot from say 4 or 5pm until fireworks show. I believe that if you do this you will find that your family is more relaxed and refreshed (also only plan on riding 4 to 5 rides during this time and don't push it). I also find that this plan works well in reverse (ie. waking up 7:30 and heading to Magic Kindgom in a.m. then heading back to resort right around 2 to 3 pm). Then everyone can get a nap and hit the pool/slide/hottub and playgrounds and have plenty of energy to enjoy everything available to you. I find that when I have those somewhat down times every couple of days I really do enjoy the vacation more and my legs and feet certainly are happier.

 

[MomWith2Cinderellas]

We also do not do the parks commando style. We will usually go in the morning and come back in the afternoon to rest. We try to do at least 2 days where we are just by the pool relaxing. That is why we like the deluxe and we ended buying points for DVC.

 

[Suzanne74]

With that many days you have a lot of flexibilty. We tend to go that long too and this is what we do:

We tend to fly in the first day mid afternoon and never do a park. Usually do Chef Mickey's and then doing some touring of whatever hotel we are in. Maybe dip in the pool. Nothing annoys me more then starting a vacation off getting up at 5am to fly early and hit the park. WAY too tiring, especially with kids.

1st and 2nd day we are up early heading to parks, taking afternoon swim/nap breaks and then back to the park again. We usually leave the park between 1-2pm and don't get back until 6pm. It is a long break.

3rd day is ususally our Epcot WS day. We sleep in (ah!), have a good breakfast and then head over to the countries for the afternoon. We usually have an early dinner at LeCellier and then head over to the Boardwalk to watch the performers, play games at ESPN Zone and get ice cream. We are in bed early.

4th and 5th day are same as days 1 and 2.

6th day is a complete off day. Resting, relaxing, swimming, etc... We usually get dressed up and go to a nice dinner and then head back to sleep early.

7th is same as 1

8th is usually AK and we only go until 3-4pm. We take the night off and do a night time swim at the resort and in bed early.

9th and 10th are the same as days 1 and 2.

Final day - we sleep in, leave our bags at the front desk, go to DTD for the day and take a dinnertime flight home.

It works very well for us.

 

[newholidayx2]

not very much at all

most of my vacations (especially my solo vacations) are spent in front of Off Kilter!

 

[Quinn222]

We go often so I like to spend some resort time, especially if we're at a deluxe. Next trip is four nights, five days at the Yacht club. We're going to spend the first afternoon walking around the F&W festival, rest of the day at the resort. 2nd day all day at the resort with dinner over at CG evening at resort. 3rd day morning at MK, afternoon at resort, dinner at Jiko, evening at resort. 4th day same as third with dinner at Chefs de France and we may wander is Epcot that evening. 5th day morning at MGM and then home. So lots of resort time!

 

[wishstar]

We don't like commando style vacations, so we only spend a long half day at the park every day. My family is going in October and our schedule will look something like this:

Day 1: Arrive, swim, nap, Dinner at Epcot WS and see fireworks

Day 2-3: Arrive at Theme Park opening and leave around 2:00, swim, nap, dinner in either Downtown Disney, Boardwalk, or hotel

Day 4: Waterpark from opening until around 2:00, nap, then dinner and show at MGM

Day 5: Arrive at Theme Park opening and leave around 2:00, swim, nap, dinner, parade, and fireworks at MK.

Day 6: Parkhop between MK and Epcot, see stuff we missed, back by 2:00 for a nap and then Downtown Disney for dinner

If you notice a trend, we take a break everyday for about 4-5 hours. That allows us to do stuff at night like DisneyQuest and Pleasure Island without being dead on our feet the next day.

Hope this helps,
JC

 

[labattblue]

Out of a 7 night vacation, we will have at least 2 non-park days where a good chuck of the day will be spend at the resort.

I know many people choose the mid-day break(let's go the parks EVERY day) strategy, but to me, you need at least 1 or 2 days away from the park to re-energize.

 

[kribit]

We spend very little time at the resort. Too much to see!!

 

[julm26]

I hate to admit but when it was just DH and I we spent very little time at the resort. We would come back to the resort at night and hit the hot tub. We have a DD2 now so i'm sure we will spend a little more time at the resort because she loves to swim.

 

[N2THRILLRIDES]

We spend very little time at the resort. Too much to see!!

There is so much to see and do that we spend little or no time at the resorts. We do not do the parks commando style but we try to enjoy ourselves. We usually have one off day where we head to DTD for the day to just shop.

 

[fla4fun]

I think a lot of it depends on how long your trip is and how often you visit WDW. I have spent long weekends at WL, and not visited a park at all. My typical vacation lasts 10 to 14 days, and out of my waking hours I will probably spend about 40% of my time in the theme parks, about 20% on things like DTD and visiting other resorts, and the other 40% at my resort, relaxing and enjoying the amenities. My goal when I take any vacation is to come back more rested and relaxed than I was when I left, so it's very important to me that I get plenty of sleep and unwind time.

But if you're an infrequent Disney visitor, and your trips are less than a week long, it's a lot harder to resist spending as much time in the parks as possible. I recommend at least a couple half days as down time so you aren't totally worn out when you get home.

 

[Cool-Beans]

I have never spent an entire day in any resort. I'll take mornings off, or evenings off because I like to spread things out a bit and have lots of relaxing days instead of one long one, kwim?

I have a friend who swears by the WHOLE DAY OFF thing when she goes with her family, though. They spend most days doing mornings and afternoon/evenings in the parks, then take a day to recover.

I guess it is six of one, half a dozen of the other. Whatever works for your family.

 

[GlowingEye]

It all depends on your vacationing style. When I went with my mom and sister in '05, they wanted to be in the parks all day, and just sleep in the hotel. When I went with my aunt, well, we knew we'd be back and weren't trying to cram... We woke up at 8-ish, left by 9-ish, went to a park, came back for a couple hours at about 3-4, and left for dinner or an evening at the parks. This seemed to work very well for us and we had a wonderful time... We actually only waited in lines for ridews about an hour during the whole week (45 minutes for POTC, 15 combined otherwise). We rode/saw many popular rides/shows like Jungle cruise, TIki room, Haunted mansion, and almost never had to wait. (We went in early june when all the high school bands were there).

Wow, that got off topic... BTQ, we spent a good deal of our vacation in the rooms. And we were never "burnt out". We had planned for a "resort day", but ended up not needing it.