Non-Park Days-How many do you usually include?

[chelseabun76]

We have 7 park days, and no days off. LOL! We have 2 sleep in days, and 2 early to the resort nights, but no days off. Once in a lifetime trip for my dd so we'll do what we can and if a day isn't going well we will cut it early.

 

[minnie mum]

Most of our trips have been 7-8 nights, and we have a non park day in the 5th day. But we take a midday break on our MK and EP days (adding DHS this year). If we stay 10-12 days, we usually add at least one or 1 1/2 more non park days. We've found that the longer the stay is, the more relaxed they are. We don't feel the need to cram so much activity into each day.

 

[MsMagical]

We don't take any days off but we also don't go full out the whole trip. We have a 6 and a 3 year old now and they have both been on several Disney World trips at this point. There is no down time with kids those ages anyway. So, I prefer to be out and about with them as much as possible. I don't expect to be able to rest and relax on vacation for at least 5 years so I might as well go big or go home.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Our trips have been 7-8 nights. We did some midday breaks for pool time (no naps). ADR everyday. Some were breakfasts. We did one complete "rest day." No parks but we had a pirate cruise and ADR. I was completely exhausted. Like beat down tired. We rushed around a lot for those ADR's, especially breakfast.

We did a 6 day/5 night trip once and did no rest day. Had 6 park days but did midday breaks by the pool every single day. I did not feel so exhausted after that trip. We did lunch ADR's mostly.

Next trip is 11 days/10 nights. Two complete rest days with no parks. One day I'm doing Cali Grill and other day is no ADR. I've minimized the ADR's. We have two other days to sleep in and only do MK PM EMH and the other day is a late start at BB and evening in Epcot.

We will continue midday breaks by the pool. My kids LOVE pool time as much as the parks. They don't bother me during pool time. They make friends and I just have to make sure they don't drown. lol We will also continue to slow down on the ADR's. That seems to leave me not feeling so tired at the end of the trip.

 

[bond24seven]

We have been taking Disney Vacations for 17 years now staying in the parks from rope drop till the last firework. Only at our hotel to sleep.. The last 2 years we have also been taking Disney Cruises. Last year we stayed 4 nights at Disney World then took a 4 night cruise to unwind and it was really awesome. This year we are going again in October for 9 days and are planning a lot more down time enjoying the restaurants and resort. We are early risers and will get to the parks when they open, stay till around lunch, then bug out. The kids are older now (13 & 20) so if they want to run around together without us, great!

 

[7KLucky]

We usually take no "days-off."
This time we have 3 at Disney, 2 at Universal, 3 at Disney and I'm booked for 9 nights so we will have a day to relax. Not quite sure how I feel about that but we are staying at FW so I am hearing it will be wonderful.

 

[DisneyFive]

Your kids might revolt (and make it even worse!) if you put that many non park days in there. Plus, it would be just as stressful for us to keep the little ones occupied that many full days without being at a park. Kids LOVE pools, but there is only so much you can do.

Personally, half day's sound like a good idea for you. FP+ is great for that if you want to sleep in. Schedule FP+'s from 11am till about 5pm then leave and chill back at the resort.

Maybe one non park day to completely veg. Since you've been there enough times, you know all the rides and attractions, so there shouldn't be anything that will make you feel like you need to stay in the park.

To answer the question in the title of this thread. None. We can't imagine not being in a park any of the days. If we want relaxing, we'll do a non Disney cruise. (which we did last month with the kids, and they LOVED it)

Dan

 

[elgerber]

In all our family vacations in the last 14 years, we have never had a non park day. We may have half a park day here and there, but never is there a day where we don't go into a park. We may have thought about it once or twice, but they always call to us and away we go

 

[YouGotaFriendInMe]

We've been to disney a few times and always tried to jam pack our week to see stuff... here's our upcoming trip next week plans... it's just me and my husband so we dont have kids to see their favorite things so its easy to make a trip for "us" but this time we wanted a more leisurely trip... however we are buying passes when we are there so if we wanted we will go during freetimes to the most empty park (we would know by checking the wait times before)

- day 1 We land 10am, checkin, buy passes, grab lunch, see our resort a bit, then go to wilderness lodge to explore and have dinner, we will probably watch wishes.

-day 2 early morning at epcot, character lunch, after we are done for a bit we would go to boardwalk then back to epcot for illuminations.

-day 3 animal kingdom (always seems we are done at 2), head to art of animation just because we want to see it, head back to our resort to possibly swim or such, then head to grand floridian to explore and have dinner and watch the parade and wishes from the beach.

-day 4 going boating at the contemporary (we get a discount why not) have lunch there or MK, head to magic kingdom to waste some time then over to animal kingdom lodge for dinner. hopefully we will be back to our resort to see yehawbob perform that night

-day 5 a late morning at HS spend the day there til fantasmic (its at 7 so its not a late night) head in to our resort early.

-day 6 a full day at magic kingdom. from open to extra magic that is open til 2am... if it is not crowded we will go home to ourresort for a bit then come back. we have to meal reservations to also take up our time... also weve NEVER been in any shop (minus ride exits) and plan to hop a bit.

-day 7 HOPEFULLY go to typhoon Lagoon... go back to resort to chill out a bit then to the Poly for dinner and watching the movie on the back and the parade and wishes.

-day 8 spend the morning at disney springs (downtown) head back to resort to check out and hop on magical express probably about 3pm?

hopefully this help. with construction and things closing at HS its really turning into a half day park and AK has always been sort of that way we always try to do other things those nights or mornings that are non park related..

 

[Bullseye]

We do 11 day trips and only the last day when we go to airport is a non-park day. We usually kill time at DTD that day.

 

[scoobygrl79]

Thanks everyone for your input, i can't tell you enough how valuable it is to me because just going by what has been posted alone, I can see many errors of my ways right off the bat..

#1 I've never considered halfsies....once we arrive to a park, we stay until we decide to go. Halfsies seemed like more hassle than anything, esp if one planned to return or still needed something to entertain the kids the remainder of the day. I'm thinking I need to look more into this half-day concept, though. Just like many said, more half days rather than less FULL days might be the trick

#2 I'm an ADR junkie. The kids are at prime character ages, so my schedule is kinda full with ADRs, definitely isn't unusual to have more than one per day. Maybe I need to scale back on this to not feel like its all a lot of work

#3 We never have sleep in days. I saw quite a few mentioned they sleep in, we never do. This doesnt mean we do rope drop, it just means that we woke up early enough to but everyone dragged around too long and we were quite the under-achievers.

#4 Looks like I'm already on the right track with this longer length of trip business I decided to try. Hopefully it will allow a more laid back feel as opposed to feeling crunched to fit in everything.

My kids are pretty young, at the time of travel, they will only be 8, 6, and 4...so you can imagine how young they were when we started Disney trips if this is our 5th..I'm sure that's part of it too.

I'm glad I asked you guys and thanks for the tips. Thanks YOUGOTAFRIENDINME for that model schedule, I might copy a few points...

 

[North of Mouse]

We only do park days. I don't want to waste any of my vacation.

This is us!! We've gone all that distance, expense, etc. and we aren't about to do much 'lolly gagging' around, LOL. We usually go about 10 days, but this year may try 14. We are finally starting to slow down a little since we are empty nesters, but we still will not take whole days off. We can always rest up when we get back home.

Never thought about slowing down with out children - we all loved the parks too much, but one thing, we didn't plan every minute of every day - loved to just wing it - that makes a big difference and you don't wear yourselves out.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I think the ages of your kids is what may have you exhausted. Add into that and you probably carry bags and a stroller into the park.

When I went with two kids and DD was 2 and 3....I was exhausted. Last trip was our first strollerless and bagless trip. I wasn't so tired. It's amazing how much energy pushing a stroller with a 30ish pound kid, plus a 10-20 pound bag can do to you.

 

[GWhitten98]

I think the "having a down day" is kind of misleading for some, b/c you hear about all the "other" activities that people are doing on down days so to me they are not any less busy then a park day.

For us our last trip was great schedule wise, some due to planning some due to situation.

Here was our schedule
Arrival day -- Epcot from 4 till 9
day 2 -- HS (RD to close with sit down lunch)
day 3 -- Epcot (pre-RD breakfast/future world with kids/resort by 2)
Day 4 -- MK (10am breakfast/Stayed till 10ish with Dinner ADR around 530)
Day 5 -- Morning off/Afternoon @ Epcot 12-7pm(no kids, just me and DH)
Day 6 -- MK (EMH rope drop/long lunch at WL/park closed at 7)
Day 7 -- Animal Kingdom 1045 ADR till close @ 5
Day 8 -- MK (Mid morning till ADR at 645)
Departure Day -- HS for a couple hours before flight

I felt like 10 park days was perfect and no need to take an entire day off since we were back in our resort before 8pm 5 out of 9 nights. Also for me having a nice leisurely sit down lunch is as good if not better the hassle of making it back and forth to our resort for a "break".... All that being said our trips have all been during non-peak times and winter months so heat and crowds are pretty low.

 

[Groomer Gal]

We used to go 7 nights/8 days...going almost full park days every day other than arrival day and departure day.
Now we generally go 9-10 nights and try and take two full days off and a couple half days.
We used to come home just exhausted !

I think (for some people) you change your park touring ways after the first couple trips. In the begining we were so afraid we would miss something....now we really just enjoy being there...not so rushed.

But I do know some people that after many trips still go all out every single day and love it.
Just depends what works for your family.

 

[JimmyV]

Your instincts are fine, and don't let the commandos sway you. Two days on, one day off is a perfectly fine schedule. We have a standing rule that we NEVER do 4 parks in four days. At most, we do: full day-full day-half day* (such as going to World Showcase, sauntering in around 11:15-11:30). Rinse. Repeat. Sometimes it is full day-full day-off day-full day-half day*. And we NEVER do EMH or RD if we closed that park at midnight (or later) the night before. Sure, it is possible to go from 7:00 a.m. until midnight every single day. But those people rarely do any of the other things that make WDW the "Vacation Kingdom of the World". I don't get the responses that say "why go to WDW if you aren't going to go to the parks?" WDW was built to be so much more than the parks, and we treat it as such.

*Note that by our definition, Animal Kingdom counts as a "half day". We are usually there from RD until around 4:00. We count that as a half day and do not hop to a different park after that. And with all the closures at DHS, the same rules would apply there. On days when we go to those parks, we usually plan a nice Signature dinner at a resort and make that our evening entertainment instead of going to a second park for the day.

 

[Bete]

Disney is really an expensive vacation and I can't see not going to the parks each day while there.

I will say arrival and departure days are perfect for shorter times at the park. You can have later times for flights. You don't have to leave early for flights.

We pack way ahead of the trip; so, we are ready to go way beforehand. There's no last minute hustle. This makes it easy and you are more rested not pushing the envelope every minute before the trip.

One key to be rested yourself would be to have time off before and after the vacation. If you work take an extra day off before you go and just rest. Ease up on chores the day before. Order out for meals the day before you travel; so, you don't have to cook.

Alternate doing rides, shows, parades and eating at the parks. The shows and eating will provide a rest. Doing ride after ride can get anyone more tired. Give yourself a chance to rest at the park. At times we will go for early entry at a park and cut out by noon and take a nap and then go back. Yes, you make two trips back and forth, but for us it's worth it. You get to experience the park in the daytime and nighttime that way. You will need to set up some ground rules for this to work with the kiddos.

If you have only one bathroom to share consider having some washing up good before bedtime while others wash up good when they get up the next day. Then, you are not having to do all at once which can be a little easier.

If there are two parents on the trip you can think about letting one parent go to the park while the other rests at the resort. You can take turns for this part.

Finally, consider babysitting services and get a chance to enjoy the park or a restaurant without the kiddos.

 

[RustManFan]

we do not do a park on the day of arrival or day of departure. Depending on how many days we are spending altogether, we take a day off from the parks in the middle of the trip.

 

[Kristina4109]

Back in "the day" (read 1970's - 1990's) my family always had a day off from the parks in the middle of the trip. Mostly we'd just hang out at our resort, because there is so much to do at any Disney resort!

But our last two trips we've spent every day except departure day in the parks. The property has gotten so huge, and our vacations are fewer and further between. We feel like we want to get as much time in those parks as we can.

What we'll do is plan a couple of days when we'll either take an afternoon break back at the resort, plan a dinner at our resort or another one (and then not go back to a park) or go to a park late and enjoy our resort in the morning. This works for us.

 

[JimmyV]

Disney is really an expensive vacation and I can't see not going to the parks each day while there.

I could not disagree more. If you spend $175 for your hotel room, and use a day to do one or more of the following: play a round of golf, go to a Water Park, go to Downtown Disney, swim in the resort pool, rent a Water Mouse or pontoon boat...how is that more expensive than any other vacation day at any other resort? Sure, when you start to get into Grand Floridian pricing, it starts to be an expensive vacation. But anywhere from Value, through Moderate up to Swan/Dolphin or Bonnet Creek/Waldorf, you are pretty much paying less than or equal to whatever you would pay at any other resort. Compare the cost of a "beach day" at Hilton Head or Amelia Island or a "golf day" at Pinehurst or Doral with an "off day" at WDW and tell me that WDW is more expensive.