"Laid back" WDW?

[Tebrown96]

We are (very very) tentatively starting to think about a trip for April 2016. We've been to WDW twice as a family (2012 and 2014). Both trips we did A LOT, almost too much. I felt go-go-go and wanted to see and do everything. If we take this trip next year, I'd really like to try to do it differently. More relaxed, spend more time at the resort (afternoons poolside, perhaps). What are your best tips/tricks to get over that FOMO (fear of missing out) and quenching that little thing inside you that says 'we should see/do as much as we can?'

 

[TT77]

We've been staying 7-8 days and only getting a 5-day park pass, but we have a big group with little kids and need a day off for every 2 park days

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

Stay deluxe. More to do at the resort, and the resort is so nice you will want to stay longer.

 

[nilla]

A long trip helps. We generally have 10 park days. On our third Epcot day, it's no big deal if we miss Soarin' or Test Track.

 

[ZoZo]

FP+ can work to your advantage if you want a more leisurely park experience. You know you can schedule at least three attractions in advance for any given park. That take the pressure off the idea to get up super early every day for rope drop.

You don't say what time in April you'll be going. Early or late in the month? The later in the month, the less crowded the park will be. If you have any flexibility in your dates, I'd recommend late April. Your park experience will be less crowded, less frantic, and the lines will be much shorter than if you tour the first couple of weeks of the month (close to Easter).

And your strategy to spend the afternoons at the pool is a great idea!

 

[kgoodb00]

We are attempting to do a more laid back trip this time. Our first time was go go go, so it will be nice to enjoy the resort a little more. We plan on going to the park for one rope drop, but sleeping in and hanging out until late afternoon/early evening. We also did not get park hoppers this trip. We will see how it goes. I am not sure if I can handle sitting at a resort knowing that I could go to a park, but we shall see!

 

[GatorMama]

We will be in the world for eight nights but only getting 4 day hoppers. And not going to other non disney parks. We will do the halloween party for a bonus half day at MK. And the rest of our days will just be relaxing days at DTD or the pool

 

[Rosebud123]

We always do "laid back" trips! Never go to a park on arrival day, always do either 3/4 days or afternoon breaks, and always spend at least 2 days in a WP. The # of attractions that you experience doesn't increase your enjoyment level! And I agree that longer trips make it easier to relax more.
Good luck!

 

[lustergirl]

I would need about 2 weeks to feel "laid back"

 

[aleksandr]

Laid back is the only way to go. The key is to make sure you go every year Seriously though, when you know you will be back next year, you lose some of that "ohmigosh, it will be years before we get to do X, so we absolutely better do X" kind of feeling. We go, we wander, we people watch, we do what we want, when we want. If we don't get to ride a ride, or see an attraction, oh well, its not the end of the world.

 

[Tebrown96]

Thanks, all! We're looking at mid/late April (16th-23rd) and luckily Easter is early next year (March 27th), so hopefully crowd levels wouldn't be too bad. Staying at a deluxe would be ideal, so would really be hoping for a decent room discount. Would likely be AKL or WL, as they're the lesser-expensive deluxes. I do think staying at one of those resorts would entice us to spend more time there. I think it would be really hard to not have park tix for every day we're there, but it would 'force' us to have more down time. So much to think about!

 

[AllieBoo]

We go every other year and always stay at least 7-8 days. We will go to a park until about lunchtime and then relax at the resort pool in the afternoon, before we head back to a park for the evening. We also try to take a day just to do a water park.

 

[disnut8]

Our laid back trips are easy because (1) it's just two adults and (2) we know we will be back.

However, what I would advise for planning this far out is to look at everything with your family. Get their reactions. For example, where would they like to stay? How much time would they like to be there? Once you get that sorted out, it becomes a bit easier. from there, you can determine what they would like to see. One thing I did years ago was to list every single Disney attraction, show and alternatives. Yes, it was a long list. Then I gave a list to myself, my husband and my son and we had a ranking system of basically 1 to 10 but not with numbers. Something no one wanted to do was "absolutely not!" (we had a different term) and the 10 was "yes, yes, yes!" Other terms was "with a ten minute wait" (this was before FastPasses) and "if we haven't done it yet". You can come up with your own. The lists were handed out to the three of us one afternoon and we couldn't talk to each other and then all were handed into me and I did a chart. The agreement was if two of us said "No way!", we didn't do it. If any one of us said "yes, yes, yes!", we all did it. Then we just filled in the rest as needed/wanted. This way, you can dump things your family doesn't want to do and look at what they want to do. It was eye opening for me as it made my husband and I realize my son was that into movies so The Great Movie Ride was a "yes, yes, yes!" on his list and we enjoyed watching him watching things in the attraction.

 

[ah1126]

Our laid back trips are easy because (1) it's just two adults and (2) we know we will be back.

However, what I would advise for planning this far out is to look at everything with your family. Get their reactions. For example, where would they like to stay? How much time would they like to be there? Once you get that sorted out, it becomes a bit easier. from there, you can determine what they would like to see. One thing I did years ago was to list every single Disney attraction, show and alternatives. Yes, it was a long list. Then I gave a list to myself, my husband and my son and we had a ranking system of basically 1 to 10 but not with numbers. Something no one wanted to do was "absolutely not!" (we had a different term) and the 10 was "yes, yes, yes!" Other terms was "with a ten minute wait" (this was before FastPasses) and "if we haven't done it yet". You can come up with your own. The lists were handed out to the three of us one afternoon and we couldn't talk to each other and then all were handed into me and I did a chart. The agreement was if two of us said "No way!", we didn't do it. If any one of us said "yes, yes, yes!", we all did it. Then we just filled in the rest as needed/wanted. This way, you can dump things your family doesn't want to do and look at what they want to do. It was eye opening for me as it made my husband and I realize my son was that into movies so The Great Movie Ride was a "yes, yes, yes!" on his list and we enjoyed watching him watching things in the attraction.

I really like this idea! Our first trip as a family, we made a top 3 list for each park.

 

[kmoore7]

Longer stays are a huge must for us. Always been 8-10 nights. Consider renting points from a DVC member to make a deluxe resort more affordable. We did that for our stay at OKW. Even though our kids are a little older, laid back still doesn't happen

 

[mrzrich]

One of my "laid back" tips is late day (after 2 or 3 pm) AK Day. We spend the morning by the pool, have a nice resort lunch and head to AK Late in the day. The park truly does empty after 3. FP+ makes this approach even easier

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I don't know, we just don't feel that push to do it all. We have our favorite, must-do things. We have our it would be nice to do things, and we have our indoors, if it rains things.

I know we will be back again within the next 12 months, so that helps.

Vacation, for us, is about taking it easy and having fun as well. I will not stress about missing a fast pass, or 7dwarfs mine train, or anything other attraction. I will take my time, ride the carousel with DD (2) 6 time in a row, even though we have carousels much closer to home. I will take 20 minutes to look at every mosaic in Cinderella's castle. I will stop and let DD admire a duck near the moat, watch the barber shops quartet, play in the dumbo que. Because for us, any vacation, including our Disney vacations, is for slowing down, pausing to really enjoy each other's company, and making memories of the small stuff.

 

[DisneyFive]

Honestly? Good luck. I think it's more of a personality trait than anything. We also want to relax more this year after 4 commando trips (which have been fantastic overall).

No matter how much I try, I still end up planning things out, big time.

What keeps our WDW trips fresh each year is making sure we try new things. For us, this year it's the water parks and park hoppers. Haven't done either option. Didn't need to, but this is the year to try them both out to keep this vacation from feeling routine.

I do think, now that we've seen SO much of WDW, we won't spend as much time in the parks, and just naturally head back to the resort earlier since we don't have as much desire to do the same rides over and over. Maybe it will be the same for you.

Dan

 

[kaetra]

I promised myself a laid back trip this time, but the closer we get to departure the more I want to see and do it all!

I'll rest when we get home. Commandos4Lyfe!

 

[rainboots]

I think it's a matter of perception, too. I felt like our trip was pretty laid back compared to the plans I had so tediously made. The other 8 members of our group have asked for some actual relaxation this time! Haha! I let us swim a few times, wasn't that enough?