Colleen27
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2007
- Messages
- 24,187
We tried breaks on our first trip and it just didn't work for us. The kids were 7 & just-turned-4 at the time, and what happened was they didn't want to leave the park, fell asleep on the bus back to POR, woke up when we got there and wanted to swim, then didn't want to leave the pool to go back to the parks for the evening. It took two days for us to realize we were better off just staying in the parks!
We're going to try breaks a couple of days on our upcoming trip, because I'm not sure how well our 1yo will sleep in the stroller with all the excitement of Disney around her, but this time we're at the Poly so transportation will be a little easier and she's a lot younger than the big kids were on their first trip.
In January, I wouldn't plan on breaks. You're going at probably the slowest time of year (assuming you aren't going for the first 5 days of the month, when the crowds will still be holiday-high). Yes, the parks are less crowded at rope drop, but less crowded is relative - 2pm in mid January isn't as crowded as 10am in mid August (I know from experience!). I wouldn't push your family to do rope drop if they are still on west coast time - tired, crabby kids aren't worth it, even for lower crowds, especially at such a slow time of year.
ETA: Something else to think about in January is the weather. Mornings and evenings can be cool to downright cold, even on days that are beautiful and warm while the sun is up. Now how this relates to breaks is up to you - it could go in favor of taking breaks because enjoying the resort pool might not be possible in the evenings after the parks close, or it could go against taking breaks if you'd rather spend the warm part of the day touring the parks.
We're going to try breaks a couple of days on our upcoming trip, because I'm not sure how well our 1yo will sleep in the stroller with all the excitement of Disney around her, but this time we're at the Poly so transportation will be a little easier and she's a lot younger than the big kids were on their first trip.
In January, I wouldn't plan on breaks. You're going at probably the slowest time of year (assuming you aren't going for the first 5 days of the month, when the crowds will still be holiday-high). Yes, the parks are less crowded at rope drop, but less crowded is relative - 2pm in mid January isn't as crowded as 10am in mid August (I know from experience!). I wouldn't push your family to do rope drop if they are still on west coast time - tired, crabby kids aren't worth it, even for lower crowds, especially at such a slow time of year.
ETA: Something else to think about in January is the weather. Mornings and evenings can be cool to downright cold, even on days that are beautiful and warm while the sun is up. Now how this relates to breaks is up to you - it could go in favor of taking breaks because enjoying the resort pool might not be possible in the evenings after the parks close, or it could go against taking breaks if you'd rather spend the warm part of the day touring the parks.
rolleyes
. Then we head back to the room mid-day and switch to another park in the afternoon/evening. When he was smaller, he always napped. The last trip, we at least returned for a quick swim and clean-up and then laid around in the bed with the lights off, watching TV, and having something to drink. If we fell asleep, great. If not, we were at least relaxed and cooled off. There have also been days where we return to the resort and swim and sleep late enough and then just feel like sticking around the resort some more and don't bother with heading back out to a park. It's never seemed like that big of a deal to me to hop on a bus/monorail/boat whatever and head back to the resort for a bit.
