Park time vs. resort time

[x98bjv]

Hey everyone - wondering if experienced travellers with small kids can give me some advice. We're taking our 4 year old to Disney in November and staying at the Polynesian Resort. In your experience, how much time should we spend at the park vs the resort/pool? As adults, we would spend the majority of the day at the park but I don't think our little guy will have the stamina for that, even though we plan on bringing a stroller. Would you do half a day at the resort and half at the park?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Shellyb84]

We took DD for the first time last summer at 5 years old. We would arrive at RD, stay until around 2 or 3 and head back to the resort for a swim and then get cleaned up for dinner. A couple of nights we went back to the parks after dinner. She would fall asleep in the stroller.

This trip, we are going to leave the parks around 1pm. She loves the pool and wanted more time there last year, so we're making sure to spend the afternoon there everyday (weather permitting). The breaks keep everyone happy!

 

[TristiK]

On our trip this month we rope dropped every day and stayed in the parks until about 9 (did Wishes one night, so that was later). We found we really should have taken an afternoon break. DD4 did pretty good napping in the stroller but DD7 had a meltdown every afternoon due to being overtired/hot. We decided on our next trip we are going to add on at least 2 more days so we don't feel like we'll miss out by taking a break. We stayed at the YC (and will again next time) and loved SAB, so we want to take more time to enjoy it next time.

 

[tami82]

Your best bet is going to the park early, eat lunch and stay a bit more until 1:00 or a bit after. You can go back to the resort for pool time and go back to park after dinner. I find after taking a break with an early lunch around 11:00 gave us some more energy to walk around and do a few more rides. I would start with that and then play it by ear and see how it goes. We did this for the whole week and worked out well. Since you are staying at Poly makes it very easy to come and go as you please.

 

[Sue M]

I think mid day breaks benefit everyone. I've seen too many tired cranky kids and parents at parks. Even when my kids were teens we took mid day breaks. We did the park commando trip our first time, and said never again!
Take a break mid day with nap time too. It will make for a nicer vacation for everyone.

 

[Regan117]

Our kids aren't early risers (they're 3, 3 and 4). So we do a character breakfasts at one of the resorts, go back to our resort and spend the day at the pool. They nap from 2-4pm usually and then we get dressed and go into the parks in the evening. It's cooler and they don't need sunscreen so it works for us lol.

 

[mickeynut1]

Hey everyone - wondering if experienced travellers with small kids can give me some advice. We're taking our 4 year old to Disney in November and staying at the Polynesian Resort. In your experience, how much time should we spend at the park vs the resort/pool? As adults, we would spend the majority of the day at the park but I don't think our little guy will have the stamina for that, even though we plan on bringing a stroller. Would you do half a day at the resort and half at the park?

Thanks in advance!

I'd play it by ear and take it a day at a time as each day will be a different tolerance depending on your DS's mood. If it looks like your DS is getting irritable after just a few hours in the park, head back to the resort for a nap, pool time, etc. If he's enjoying the parks and not getting tired/cranky, stay. This, of course, is just my opinion as everyone parents differently, but your DS might surprise you with how long he can/wants to stay at a park. I will say that in all of our years going to Disney, we've never planned out each day ahead of time as we just took each day as it came, even when our boys were little (but that's just how we prefer to do it). With all of that said, you know your DS best as far as naps, downtime, etc., so I'd go with what works best for you and him. Have a great trip!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Mid Day breaks are good for the kids AND good for the parents, IMHO.

We will normally arrive at the park around 9 and stay until about 1. Then, we head back to our resort for nap/pool time until about 5. At that point, we will head back out to whatever park is open late that night.

 

[Masonmj84]

I totally agree with the previous posters who suggest taking long afternoon breaks. We typically go to the parks from RD to about 1 pm, then back to the resort for the remainder of the afternoon.

I personally do not enjoy the parks once they reach a certain level of crowdedness (especially if that crowdedness is combined with heat and humidity).

Along those lines, we find that if we RD with a good touring plan and strategic use of FP+, we can pretty much do everything we want in a park by noon to 1 pm ish.

 

[fairy oma]

We took grandkids ages 7, 5 & 3 in December 2015 and stayed at the Poly. We were in the parks at opening and we would be back at the resort by 1:30-2pm for naps and/or pool time afterwards. Sometimes the kids remember their time at the WDW resort pools as much as the parks. It was really nice for all of the adult kids to have a nice refreshment on the balcony while the kids slept. The Poly is perfect for families with young kids.

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

When we had one that age, we did half days at park and rest of the day at the resort. The first couple of days we would do mornings at the parks, but then we'd switch it up and spend the morning at the resort, take a long nap, and then go to the park in the evening. On most days it was better not to try to back to the park a second time.

But play it by ear--if kid falls asleep in the stroller, you might want to take the time to stroll around the park as adults for a bit and then have a snack and pick the pace back up once kid wakes up.

 

[henry72]

We always take a break in the afternoon. In the beginning it was for naps but later it was just to avoid the crowds and escape the heat. I think everyone is better after a break.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

This is our kids' first trip (8,5) so I can't tell you what the best plan is, but I can share our plan...

My kids are early risers, so I made a detailed plan of what we'd like to accomplish by 1pm. After that, we'll evaluate how the kids are feeling and whether they'd prefer to rest, swim, or continue in the park. I'm hoping this will ward off any crankiness and allow everyone to enjoy the time.

 

[MinnesotaMouseketeers]

We have taken our DS to WDW many times since he was seven, he is 23 now so he doesn't go along any more (he hates that). But when he did we would normally get to the park at rope drop or close to it. We would stay long enough to eat lunch hit a few more attractions and head back to our resort around two/three in the afternoon. Back at the resort we would typically put on our swimsuits and hit the pool for a while. After some time in the pool we would go back to our room to change back into clothes and go back to the park again (not always the same one we left for the day) and stay for the fireworks/close. And just to let you know we always stay at a WDW resort.

 

[Mshap001]

I suppose it depends on how many days you are going too. When I took my oldest at 4 we did long park days cause we were only there for 4 days and wanted to see as much as possible. It was also October so weather was great and crowds not bad. We did go back one day for a nap and then headed back out to a park.

This summer, we are going with 7,4,4 year olds and in August when it will be hot. Doing a full week and planning for rope drop and mid-day breaks. Also a late morning planned.

 

[pixarmom]

We have been all over the map on this, and I entirely agree with Mickeynut's advice to play it by ear. We have three kids (our oldest is almost 17 now) and we've been taking them to Disney since they were tiny.

Our older two always functioned best if they would go all day, have an early dinner and then call it a night around 8pm. I honestly can't recall a time when either was crabby or overtired - except when I tried to take an afternoon break with our oldest! I read so much advice about the afternoon break, so I tried that with him when he was two years old. It was a disaster. He was a stroller napper, but could not fall asleep in a hotel room. The whole bus back to the resort, try to sleep in the room / rest routine didn't work for him. The forced break was stressful for all of us. He needed that stroller nap, and I enjoyed quiet time in the parks strolling with him. So the day we missed out on that, we were both kind of crabby.

Our youngest is completely different. He absolutely needs the afternoon break, so we go with that. As a result, we're usually in the parks in the morning, resort break after lunch, then back to a park (usually Epcot) for dinner.

So I can't say there is a right or wrong answer to the afternoon break question, and there is a good bit of trial and error. It continues to evolve for us!

 

[buzznina]

Each family is different and needs to find what works best for them. For our DDs(and us) the afternoon breaks did not work and actually made all of us miserable We rarely do RD and would rather stay at the parks later and sleep in a bit then go 1st thing in the morning. We also like to take the 3rd or 4th day off for a relaxing resort day. We also make sure we do not have an early morning after a late night and make sure our DDs get enough sleep, that with using a stroller has worked great for us. Cannot even remember a melt down from DDs or parents

 

[Accident]

When your staying long enough that you could do each part 2 days each it's a lot easier to spot when you need a break. I find short trips you get so caught up in you HAVE to see more that you miss that nobody is having fun.. For me, there comes a time where your just kind of passing the time going ride to ride because your at disney. maybe your a little cranky, maybe your daydreaming while on a ride.. maybe the a/c is more exciting than the ride.. any of those things and I like to just say it's break time. That may not mean go back to the resort but by the time we wander to the front of the park, we know exactly what break means. sometimes you pep back up on the way, spot something interesting and your right back in the action and don't need the break anymore. sometimes you need more than a 20-30 minutes ride in a/c...

Sometimes we also just need somethign different, might be a good time to check out a resort near the park your in. cool off there, try their food options, check out their gift shop.. many people will pay extra to have their resort next to the park they will be at the most.. they can take a couple breaks from the park and not spend a lot of time traveling back to the resort to rest. that does factor into it also, can you get back for your ADR? did you wait too long to take a break?

If it's hot and humid time of year, maybe 4-5 hours before we just want to rest a few hours.. We also tour the parks different and look for things like table service lunch instead of dinner because we get more time in a/c to rest and cool off before we call it break time. lunch to dinner the heat is just brutal and the crowds are the largest.. We like to avoid that time in the park unless it's the day we're trying to catch some afternoon parade or show.. then we have a lazy morning and don't even head to a park until lunch or even after lunch time...

 

[outnumbered#2]

I have a 7 & 4 year old and we just got back from our Disney vacation 2 weeks ago. We would hit the parks early and come back to the our hotel around lunch. We'd spend an hour or 2 at the pool and then my 4 year old would take a nap. We'd go back to the parks in the evening. This worked out well for us and the kids didn't get too worn down. We stayed at the Poly as well and it was very easy to hop the monorail from MK or Epcot and come back to the room for a little down time.

 

[allaboard]

You don't need any more advice, but when our youngest was 4 and the other two were 6 and 8, we took them all to Disney, and then for several years straight afterwards ... and for the first few years we made sure to schedule each day differently with either late afternoon pool time, going to the parks later and sleeping in some, and having sit down dinners each night so everyone got a rest. We were able to visit several different restaurants that we wouldn't have otherwise, and everyone was happier. I also made sure my kids had fanny packs with trail mix/little water bottles, and that saved us many many many hours of what would have been crankiness/tears. If only mine were that young again ! Have a great time !