Mid day breaks?

[olive]

I am trying to figure out how to budget time for midday breaks and decide if we should get hoppers. How long do you estimate for getting to the hotel and back to a park?? We would be swimming, not napping, so I would assume 2 or 3 hours for changing, swimming, and changing again. The trip is late June and it will be HOT. But the waiting for buses on each end plus travel time- that seems like it has to require at least an additional hour estimate in each direction?? So 4 or 5 hours total? Is that right?

We are staying at CR, but not sure that matters for estimating travel time except that we can walk to MK and there is only 1 hotel bus stop.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

I am trying to figure out how to budget time for midday breaks and decide if we should get hoppers. How long do you estimate for getting to the hotel and back to a park?? We would be swimming, not napping, so I would assume 2 or 3 hours for changing, swimming, and changing again. The trip is late June and it will be HOT. But the waiting for buses on each end plus travel time- that seems like it has to require at least an hour estimate in each direction?? Is that right?

We are staying at CR, but not sure that matters for estimating travel time except that we can walk to MK and there is only 1 hotel bus stop.

I would allow 4 or more hours. first you have to walk to front of park, wait for bus/walk to your resort, walk to your room, change, walk to pool, swim probably a couple of hours and repeat back to park. also seen some reports of having to wait for your time/space to swim because of covid rules

 

[nkereina]

We went in October and with the limited park hours, we found it didn't make logistical sense to take mid-day breaks. We stayed in the parks from rope drop until 3-4pm, and then went back to the resort for the pool. We had to be flexible with dinner plans, and we visited Disney Springs multiple times in the evening. Park hoppers weren't an option for us then, but that certainly would have been a good option so you could go to a park for a dinner, if time permits.

Keep in mind that buses have limited capacity in the current environment. It was not uncommon for us to have to wait for a second bus after the first one filled when leaving a park. It definitely can add additional time to your commute. I would suggest taking Uber when leaving a park if you want to maximize your time.

 

[Marthasor]

nkereina makes a good point about earlier park closings. If you decide not to get the hoppers, perhaps stay in the park a little later and then plan on calling it a day and doing the pool and dinner at the resort or at one of the monorail resorts. Another option, if you get hoppers, would be to plan on spending more evenings in MK (depending on when it closes) so you can just walk back and forth. Taking a mid-day break and then trying to get back to EP/DHS/AK is going to be kind of a pain, IMHO. Either staying in the resort area or hopping to MK would be much more convenient. If the resort boats start up again, you could also boat over to WL or Ft. W for dinner after the pool which can be an adventure unto itself.

 

[loves to dive]

The general rule is to budget a hour for transportation both ways (1 hour each way). It has been our experience that is over inflated but that was pre-Covid. We have found mid-day the buses aren't crowded and while you might have to wait longer for one to show up, there are always CMs walking around and once they notice someone waiting, they call a bus. I don't think we have ever gone longer than a half hour from leaving a park to getting back to a resort mid-day, again that was pre-Covid. We have always had hoppers but I'm not sure that would matter as far a how long it's going to take. The longest time for us is going back to the room, taking a shower and changing then getting a bus back to a park. I can't go to a pool without having a shower. We do it every trip in the summer and I would guess, depending on how long we wanted to spend at the pool, the longest it's ever been park to pool back to park has been 3 hours. Who knows what the hours will be when you go, typically they have parks opened later in the summer but this is not a typical year.

 

[olive]

Yeah, I am thinking we should do the breaks at the pool and then only hop to MK after breaks if we get hoppers at all, since then we are just dealing with walking over rather than buses to a park and back to the hotel. This means less Epcot/Flower & Garden in the evening (assuming the monorail to Epcot isn't running by late June/early July). I will think about it. Otherwise, we will either cut our park time short to avoid sweaty, cranky kids and hit the pools, or deal with long "commutes" back and forth. Ugh.

 

[Spazz2k]

Mid day breaks since covid is an exercise in planning and park hopping due to the hours currently...especially during the summer as afternoon rain showers can effect mid day pool plans and make travel a tad slower. For us we typically will start at a park in the morning and then go back and swim and relax and then goto a park that is open till 10 or 11, but now with covid hours, sometimes that is not always easy to do if the latest a park is open is 8 or 9. Again your milage may vary and depending on how you want to spend your vacation, you can go crazy with running around and stress about it, or just relax and enjoy what time permits. So if your talking about taking 1hour to get into a park, then 1 hour getting back from a park, then another hour going back to park, then a final hour getting home from a park....well you just spent 4 hours in just traveling for the day and that IMHO is hard.

 

[olive]

Mid day breaks since covid is an exercise in planning and park hopping due to the hours currently...especially during the summer as afternoon rain showers can effect mid day pool plans and make travel a tad slower. For us we typically will start at a park in the morning and then go back and swim and relax and then goto a park that is open till 10 or 11, but now with covid hours, sometimes that is not always easy to do if the latest a park is open is 8 or 9. Again your milage may vary and depending on how you want to spend your vacation, you can go crazy with running around and stress about it, or just relax and enjoy what time permits. So if your talking about taking 1hour to get into a park, then 1 hour getting back from a park, then another hour going back to park, then a final hour getting home from a park....well you just spent 4 hours in just traveling for the day and that IMHO is hard.

Definitely. That is why I am thinking it may only make sense to have the second park be MK, since we only need to walk over there from the Contemporary. If our morning is at someplace like Animal Kingdom which doesn't stay open that late, we would probably want to stick it out a bit later to take advantage of as much as we can, since we likely wouldn't return, but we may reserve a second day there instead and do two mornings/early afternoons, and then plan on splitting our AK days with evenings at MK. Same with maybe DHS. But I wouldn't plan to hop to DHS or AK later in the day, if we got hoppers. I would want to avoid taking the bus in two directions.

 

[Shellyred8]

You can also wait to get hoppers until you are at the park. If you get there and decide you want to use them, you can just have it added to your tickets there.

 

[olive]

You can also wait to get hoppers until you are at the park. If you get there and decide you want to use them, you can just have it added to your tickets there.

My only concern is that our park choices would probably change if we go with hoppers, and I am guessing reservations will get locked in sometime before our trip. We'll just have to make a decision!

 

[lanejudy]

We haven't been since COVID, but pre-covid our family didn't hop and rarely took mid-day breaks outside of the park. We usually would make it rope-drop to mid/late afternoon. Or we'd do a late start around noon with plans to stay in the park until fireworks/closing. We'd swim before or after the parks. We found that trying for a mid-day break at the resort just sort of killed our momentum instead of providing a refreshing break. We use lunch or a snack as a break, either at a TS or just sit and people watch if not in a restaurant.

 

[_19disnA]

We also haven't been to Disney since covid started. During our pre-covid trip, we always took a mid-day break from the parks. Disney involves a LOT of walking and if you go during summer, the heat will also make you tire more quickly. Depends partly on what time of year you go and what sort of physical shape your family is in. I doubt that most families walk for miles every day when at home. We went in the spring when it wasn't hot, but there were still a few days when the parks were very crowded and combined with the heat, meant we would not be staying all day. If you choose to go in June/July/August, need to realize how hot it will be and that could have an impact on how you divide up the day.

Whether the bus takes 15 minutes or an hour wasn't a factor for us in deciding when it was time to take a break.

 

[olive]

We will be there in late June/early July. We will definitely need a break and pool time. I have heat tolerance issues and the kids will need breaks. I know those afternoon thunderstorms often set in, too. During prior summer trips, we have tended to go early, do an afternoon break, and then go back to parks, but I know the limited capacity has made getting back and forth take quite a bit longer.

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

Oh how I miss the mid day break at Disney, Universal, Busch Gardens. But truth be told, considering everything we have endured as a global community, I will enjoy a mid day break at any destination that will get me off this huge sand bar I live on and enjoy some time with the family.

 

[WEDWDW]

Also the indoor Relaxation Stations can be a "Mid-day Break" in a tight.

Akershus is our favorite-awesome atmosphere,great AC and "private" Restrooms!

 

[TinkFan12]

We have a trip planned in June as well and I went with hoppers so that we can keep things flexible. We have not been in 6 years and my kids are all teens so we likely will have a much different plan than those with little humans. We used to be a go all day family park hopping mid-afternoon and often with a long afternoon lunch somewhere, and because we usually travelled in cooler months we didn't allocate much pool time at all. And we don't tend to enjoy wasting time travelling to and from the resort to the parks several times a day.

This time, I did our park reservations based on where I think we would spend the bulk of each day and we will go with the flow on if we need to take a break and where to take said break. I wanted the hoppers this time because we're staying at BC and I wanted the option to go to Epcot any evening that we might find ourselves with some free time.

 

[olive]

TinkFan, last trip (5 years ago - I can't believe it) we stayed at YC and hopped to Epcot most nights. It was great to have that flexibility! Plus ice cream at Beaches and Cream...

 

[TinkFan12]

TinkFan, last trip (5 years ago - I can't believe it) we stayed at YC and hopped to Epcot most nights. It was great to have that flexibility! Plus ice cream at Beaches and Cream...

We haven't told our kids yet. They'll find out this weekend. I have always wanted to stay at BC so this is the year! I feel now that my girls are older, being close to MK isn't as important for us anymore. I'm also finding it really weird to plan such a flexible, go-with-the-flow, trip. Our last trip was at Christmastime and I had spreadsheets and a notebook with all our detailed plans.

 

[olive]

I love the Epcot resort area. We wanted to be able to walk to MK this time, but it is hard to choose! Walking to Epcot and DHS is so convenient, and with older kids it is definitely better to be where you chose. We tell our kids in a little over a week! SO fun. Have a wonderful trip!