Living Disney to the Full?

[brer rabbit 28]

Mum and I used to have an itinary!! We were up and out by 8 most mornings and back to the hotel around midnight. We did go shopping and to the other parks but we managed to get into Disney everyday if only for a few hours.

This time will be so different, taking boyfriend who has only been to DLRP as a taster. He wants to go to Clearwater and Daytona so I will oblige....will miss the itinary though!

 

[higgy66]

When I went with just DH we were the same as OP but this year is our first trip to Florida with the kids and as we did in DLRP we will just take it at their pace.

At DLRP we strolled around the parks and if they wanted to go straight back on a ride that's exactly what we did. How many times can you ride It's a small world in a row before going insane - we'll 8's our record and we somehow avoided medication.

We're going for 2 weeks but we're only planning on doing the Disney parks this time and maybe Seaworld as for our girls time spent in the hotel pool will be just as much fun.

We also won't do too many late nights so will have shorter days than many of the other visitors but we're hoping this is the first of many so we'll have future trips to catch anything we miss this time.

 

[torsie24]

I havent been to WDW for a long time, but on our upcoming trip we are going to only be in Disney for a week, and so will be in parks every day.

But, as it is also our main holiday of the year, we wont be rushing to see everything, and will most probably have breaks in the middle of the day, as this is what we find works best on trips to Disneyland Paris and city breaks.

On other trips we've absolutely pushed ourselves (summer in DLP was 6.30am start and out until 1am) and by the 3rd day we both felt awful! So we wont want to do it this way in the Florida heat!

 

[daveyc150]

We love going to Disney and any day not in the parks would be a waste! I paid good money to be there and I want to get as much out of it s possible, we get up ealier than we do at home for going to work most days and then stay up as late as the parks are open. I don't ever feel burnt out but I sleep really well on a night. And after two weeks I still hate to come home

 

[darthtatty]

we only plan on going once every 5 years (would love to go more)
we get up early and totally fill our day, dont get back to the hotel till late at night. its tiring but we love it, just a shame we cant get a week off work when we go home to relax.

 

[madmumof2]

I'm in the middle. I do have an itinerary (pretty packed, you can see it on my blog) and I want to stick to it as much as possible, but we will also go at a pretty slow pace because the children are so young.

I haven't been since 2000, and I don't know when we'll get to go again so we're doing all the parks and lots of planned meals. They probably will be shattered, but they have almost 2 weeks half term to rest and sleep when we get back.

We're onsite so can always pop back to the resort if they get so tired they're miserable to get a rest, but I don't think they will. They'll get tired sure, but the sort of tired where, at home, they are clearly falling asleep but say they don't want to go to bed lol

So I'm flexible, as in we'll go back to POP for rests if needed, but also I want to stick to the plan as much as possible so we can get the most out of the time we're there. I don't know when or if we'll be able to return.

 

[wicket2005]

Initially we were the same but after going several times and discovering the attraction of an hour or so relax back at the pool that is what we do. We are at parks every day but now incorporate a rest period whether that is at a waterpark or back at the hotel. Shopping is done when it rains which in the summer can be frequent. We do everything we want at the parks and usually visit 2 each day with the relax break in between.

I usually do an itinerary for each day but in December I didn't and I enjoyed it so much more. We still knew which were busy days or EMH days but just choose a park everyone fancied. I found this so relaxing.

 

[wils]

We noticed that we spent less time in the parks last trip (2weeks) than we had the one before (8 days) This was because the children wanted to do other things too like play in the pool or play in the villa or spend their birthday money (!) (the 8 night trip was based at ASMu so as little time was spent in the room as possible!).

I do have a daily plan for which park/activity we'll do and we then prioritise what we want to see in each place. I should imagine that this will change as the kids get older but at the moment its best not to exhaust them as they only get grumpy when overtired! I've discovered that we need rest periods as I burnt DD out midway through her first trip and we had a day when we could do absolutely nothing!

You can really tackle Disney a million ways can't you! I still feel in need of a holiday when we get home

 

[Dizneemad]

My type of a holiday, we have every day packed well in advance and spend every minute we can at the parks, early morning and late nights. We do plan for every 3rd day doing something a little less hectic for the morning be it a water park, shopping trip etc but are back in the parks for the rest of the day. Do tend to walk on by now a days if the queue for something is a little longer than I want to stand in.

 

[The Eighth Dwarf]

Last year was our first year and we did exactly the same as the OP.
Parks everyday didn`t even do Universal cause that would have been time away from disney.
We are not the most organised family in the world and it took us a week to find our feet.
We go back this September and we will definately be taking things a bit easier and visiting Universal and the Florida mall, only cause all that running round last year near killed me.