Question about the "break" day

[slbgnb]

I've never done a break day. Mainly, because when we are there, we want to be at the parks all the time. Having said that, I was thinking this trip, we might try it out. I think we will have 4 or 5 day park hoppers and then also do 2 days at Universal. We arrive on a Sat, leave on a Sun. Here's my dilemma. It would make sense to put the break day in the middle (like Wed or Thur), but those are always better days for parks in terms of crowds. When do people usually take their break day? Is it silly to take it on Fri or Sat? The parks are more crowded on those days...but, if we are leaving on Sunday anyway, do we really even need a break at that point? Thanks!

 

[mimi0884]

Good question! I was wondering the same thing. We've always taken a break day mid trip but have always traveled Tues-Wed so always take that Saturday off. This time we are going F-following Sun. Not sure what to do!

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

We're big believers in the break days - even multiple break days.

We're fortunate enough to say that we've been to Disney over a dozen times. We've seen and done everything. If we miss a ride or two during a trip, it doesn't bother us that much. Sure, we have rides we HAVE to do every trip (sometimes multiple times) but taking a break sometimes means not seeing and doing everything.

For us, Disney isn't so much a vacation destination as it is a state of mind. Sure, our first few trips and when my sister and i were younger, we'd run ride to ride, trying to fit everything in. Maybe it's because we go for Christmas, but it's become more of a "hey, let's go to our happy place, eat a TON of good food, go on some rides and throw our worries to the side for 10 days." And we do.

Sorry for the long into. Long story short, if you're Disney vets, it's a lot easier to take a break than if you're going for your first, second or third trip.

So here's how we do it...

Our trip starts on 12/24. We wake up at 4:30am, fly to Orlando. After checking in we take it easy and head to our dinner ADR.

It all starts with the FP+ and dining planning. We know that we always go to Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day. We wake up very early to head there. We make our FP+ from 10am to ~2pm. We get there for the morning EMH and ride everything we can until 10am, when our FP+ starts. We enjoy our FP+'s and leave the park around 2pm. From 2-4pm, we relax. If it's nice we'll walk around the resort or take a nap... whatever. At 4pm, we start getting ready for dinner. After dinner, we'll hang out at whatever resort we're at before heading back.

By now, we've had about 12-14 hours of sleep in a 48-hour period. I can function on 6 hours of sleep at home, but at Disney you're walking around 8 miles a day. You don't realize the toll it takes on your body. SO - on 12/26 we sleep in. Sleeping in at Disney is different than sleeping in at home. We sleep till 9am at the latest. We kind of take our time getting ready and head to EPCOT by 11 or 12. We keep to the World Showcase and plan our FP+ for later in the day. We explore the pavilions, move slow, sip some drinks and eat some food. It's relaxing, but we're still accomplishing part of the park. Then we park hop to DHS for the night and redeem our FP+ there.

I won't make this TOO LONG of a post. I'll say this... We go hard for a few days, then take a day off... Then go hard for a few days. Try and pack in your must-dos during the beginning of your trip. Then, just move at a slower pace. Yes, we take at least one day off from the park - 12/31. More out of necessity than anything else (the parks are CRAZY on 12/31.) Accomplishing all your must-dos allows you to wake up later and move at a much slower pace the rest of your trip. It allows you to.... stop and smell the flowers a bit.

 

[beesly]

We've been talking about this in my family, too. Last year was our first trip to WDW and we were park commandos for five straight days (no PH, just one park per day). We were SO exhausted when we got back. Our upcoming trip will be 9 nights beginning on a Saturday, and DH requested that we please take a break on at least one day. We were planning on having a couple of park days, taking a break on Wednesday, and then spending a few more days at the parks before heading home. We plan to spend one day at Legoland and were going to by 6-day PHs for WDW, but got 7-day PHs from Parksavers for a better price than we were going to pay for 6 directly through Disney - so now we can visit a park each day except for our arrival, Legoland, and departure days. For our trip, Wednesday is also projected to have lower crowds than the weekend days that follow it. So instead of our original plan to take an entire day off on Wednesday, and instead of taking a full weekend day off so close to the end of our trip, we will take a half-day break on two days, either Wed & Friday or Wed & Saturday.

 

[tlmadden73]

Oddly my last two break days were on the last day of my trip. Mainly because of my young son .. I just thought he would want a break before getting in a car for 9 hours the next day for the drive home.

We spent the last day (Saturday) chilling at the pool and then doing some resort hopping so we still had that Disney experience. We took the boat over to Fort Wilderness and at at Trail's End Restaurant. My son loved playing on the playground there before dinner. It was a great relaxing way to end the vacation rather than getting up early and exhausting ourselves in a theme park all day (and then staying up late in the parks too).

 

[jknewberry]

We took two family trips with 4 and 5 days at the parks, both of those trips we had 2 "break" days- we drove out to the Kennedy Space Center and also went to see a baseball game in Lakeland (Tiger spring training!). With the kids being so little (1.5 and 3.5, then 2.5 and 4.5) those days were really needed, and it gave the adults a break too.

The next trip we take, the kids will be almost 3, 7, and 9 and we will have 5 days at the parks with a break after 2-3 days (depending on the Tigers schedule). I am planning on MK being our first and last full days there, and Epcot as the park after our break day, since it seems to me like Animal Kingdom and DHS could potentially be shorter days for us. I do take the crowds into consideration when planning which days we are in which parks, but wouldn't let that keep me from the mid week break.

Hope that helps,
Kelly

 

[minnie mum]

No matter what day we arrive, day 5 is always a rest day. Otherwise we are just too tired, and don't enjoy the parks as much. If I've had a full day off, I can handle crowds the next few days. If we stay 10 days or longer, we'll throw in one more non park day.

 

[Atchley]

We've learned through our many trips that we need at least a couple of days for a break. We usually go nine days and after every two or three days, we'll take a day off. This year, we have three days off, two in a row. Now we have tickets for each day we are there, so if we happen to decide to go to a park, we will go, but kids love just a day or two to swim in the pools or hang out in the community center (DVC) and DTD or Disney Springs. It helps not to run 24/7 for a week. Just our style...it may not work for everyone.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

We usually take a break on Day 4 of a 7 day trip. And usually that means sleeping in, hanging around the resort for most of the day but we (or some of us at least) still usually pop into the park we are near depending on where we are staying (MK if Poly/WL or Epcot if BC)

that's a benefit of FP+ for us, make the ressies for the afternoon or evening of a break day for say SM, 7DMT or Soarin, pop into the park, do those rides and leave. If some us don't want to go the others take those MBs and can do the ride twice.

 

[Wes1stTrip2016]

We are first timers (as a family) and I've planned 2 non park days out of our week, just because I don't want to wear my DS down to the point where he is exhausted and just not enjoying himself. We are going to start with an 8:05 Crystal Palace breakfast and go til he tires, go back for a break then return for the electrical lights parade & fireworks.....REST the next day after a long day. Tuesday we will go all day at AK, then rest Weds and await a surprise visit from the grandparents and hit HDDR that night. I'm planning a lighter day on Thurs at MK because of the grandparents then a full day at HS finishing out the week with F! and the star wars fireworks. =)

Sun: MK Mon: no park Tues: AK Weds: no park Thurs: MK Fri: HS

 

[Figmentmommy]

Our rest day usually involves a slower paced morning at our resort and some pool time - heading to the parks or dinner show later on. We tend not to be rope drop people anymore and stay out very late instead, so we often start our park days in the 10am - 11am hour. Our break time is usually somewhere mid trip but one year we had a longer trip and gave ourselves an extra day at the very end to swim, resort tour, & dine before starting our long drive home the next day.
There really isn't a right or wrong way to do break days. It is whatever works best for your family - Even if that means extra break time added in while you're there or before you head home.

 

[loves to dive]

We are go with the flow kind of people so rarely "schedule" a break day or even do an entire day of not going to the parks since we always have hoppers for length of stay. We will just decide on the fly we need a break and either go back to the resort and rest in the room or swim or we resort hop for a few hours then maybe go back to a park for supper then back to the resort early. We never do park open to park close, there is always a break just about every day.

 

[slbgnb]

Thanks for the thoughts. There are some different options to consider! I think I will get the 5 day hopper (it's so cheap to add that 5th day!) and we can maybe do a 1/2 day at a park or even just dinner at a park if we want. But, make it a relaxing day and not do a RD that day....Thanks so much!

 

[pigletgirl]

We're big break people.

For our holiday trip, this is a very loose itinerary for that trip

Nov 29th - arrive in evening, take ME to resort and relax. DH will go and get Earl of Sandwich for dinner.
Nov 30th - Seaworld day - arrive for park opening, leave around 3pm/Dinner ADR in Disney Springs. Bedtime.
December 1st - Sleep in, take luggage to new resort and leave with bell services. MK PM/fireworks, etc
December 2nd - HS/Epcot, long afternoon break (1-5ish)... ADR in Epcot
December 3rd - AK AM/lunch/Rivers of light?
December 4th - Sleep in, late breakfast, naps/pool/ mvmcp
December 5th - Sleep in, tour resorts/men play golf/dinner
December 6th - HS/pool/naps/dinner
December 7th - Epcot all day
December 8th - MK all day
December 9th - breakfast ADR/flight home

We love the midday breaks. Keeps everyone's sanity in check!

 

[bluezy]

We don't specifically take a break day, but I try not to schedule 2 long days in a row. Our typical schedule goes something like this:

Arrive Sunday around noon. Check-in, quick lunch at resort, unpack. Head to Epcot (around 4:00) for a few hours. Back at resort by 8-9:00.
Monday - full day at Epcot (rope drop, afternoon break at hotel for rest and/or swimming, back to Epcot until closing)
Tuesday - full day at AK (rope drop -- though with FP+ we didn't do rope drop last time, stay until 5:00ish, back to resort for relaxing evening)
Wednesday - full day at MK (rope drop, afternoon break, return around dinner and stay until midnight)
Thursday - sleep in. Lunch reservation somewhere. Spend a few hours in a park in the afternoon. Back to resort for swimming and maybe dinner. Evening is either spent at the resort, walk around the Boardwalk, or we go to a park for fireworks.
Friday - full day at DHS (sometimes we take an afternoon break and return in the evening; other times we just stay from rope drop until dinner time)
Saturday - sleep in. Head to DTD/DS for late breakfast or early lunch and shopping. Back to resort to pack. Head to a park for a few hours. Back to the resort for dinner and one last swim. Sometimes we just stay at the resort the rest of the evening and sometimes we'll head to a park again for a few hours -- it just depends on what we did or didn't do earlier in the week.

This type of schedule helps to keep us from getting exhausted. It's a good blend (for us) of late nights/long park days followed by sleeping in and/or short days in the parks. I don't think our family could stay away from the parks completely on any day during our visits, but we're fine with just spending a few hours in the parks on a few days during the week.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We are doing the break day Tues (arriving Sat). We have 3 kids (3, 6, 7) so we are doing fireworks Sun and Mon nights and then letting them recover with a sleep in and nap day. Since we got in on the current promotion of getting one park day free, we are actually going to go to MK for a couple hrs that day and just do FP rides and dinner. Last year we did it Wed and yes it hurt to give up a slower park day but with the kids we really needed it. Last year we did DTD but discovered we're not really DTD (Disney Springs) people so the free extra park tickets worked well.

Tues was the least slow looking of Tues, Wed, Thurs so we figured we'd max out on night time entertainment the first two days.

 

[aretha30]

We usually build in at least one break day a trip. This year we are building in two and multiple water park days. The water park days will be just a few hours at a time so for us they will be semi break days. For us they are about recovering and trying to keep our energy up for the long days. We like to take in DS and pool time, sleep in and just relax. They help us rejuvenate and really enjoy our park time. If we only take one day we do take it in the middle of our days; 3 days at the parks one day off and then 3 days at the parks.

 

[sdomino11]

Why not take two short days instead of one break day? Maybe Tuesday and Friday spend just 4-5 hours in a park? We've got a bit of an odd schedule on our next trip. Because of crowd calendars and the days our trip fall on, we're actually taking day 2 as a break day!

 

[GillianP1301]

I'm not a break day kind of person, I prefer to have a couple of half days in the parks w/afternoons in the pool over our 9 - 10 days then to take a full day off from the parks and even then, we find we want to head back into a park for a few hours in the evening.

To answer your question though, if I were to take a break day, then midway does seem the most logical, but I see your point about missing out a lower crowd level day in the parks. Maybe the 2nd last day? Have a rest and then go hard on the last day.

 

[icesk8abc]

We don't take a break day, but we usually take 1 break morning and one break evening. We usually travel Wed-Wed or Tues-Tues. We will usually leave the parks early on Friday or Saturday and sleep in on Sunday or Monday. My husband is not a pool person, nor is he one to want to sit and relax. A whole break day sounds terrible to him, but these 2 smaller breaks save our week.