Rest day?

[minerva78]

I was curious to find out if any of you typically have a rest day during your trip where you have no parks planned to go to, and if you think that's important for a trip. I'm trying to decide between a cheaper 5 night stay and doing 4 parks days, one park a day for each day we are there except arrival and departure days or staying 6 nights and doing 4 full park days with one day in the middle of the week where we won't plan on going to any parks. I thought I wanted to do the 6 nights with one rest day, and then I keep thinking maybe I should get 5 day tickets in case we want to go to a park just for half the day. So that made me think maybe I should just build in some time each day for down time, maybe I don't need a full day off?

My girls will be 6 and 7 when we go. Not sure of where we're staying onsite because I can't make up my mind, lol. But the choices would be either Pop, AoA in a LM room, POR, POFQ, or possibly renting DVC points for AKV. I need a back up plan though if my week isn't available for DVC. Just curious to know what other people tend to do.

 

[MandiC]

If we ever stayed longer than a week I am sure we would do a rest day. I didn't feel it was necessary for our trip. We flew in Friday afternoon, did 6 days in the parks (2 MK, 2 Epcot, 1 AK and 1 HS) and flew out the following Friday afternoon. I did AK in the middle because I had heard it was more of a half day park and it closes early so we had that to break up the late nights/early mornings.

 

[marauder]

It all depends on you and your finances whether you can afford an off day. We always plan one in. It gives you some wiggle room if you happen to go during a time with bad weather or something like that. If also gives you a day to see the other things that Disney has to offer that aren't the theme parks, the pools, the other hotels, golf, etc.

 

[worm761]

No. We usually go from Saturday to Saturday. We check in very early on Saturday and hit a park. Usually MK because I am that excited about MK.

I need to start planning a non park day because there are things I want to do that aren't in the parks and it would be nice to finally do them.

Obviously, I do not think that a rest day is needed but it really depends on your group and how you tour. We take our time. We don't do park commando. It is vacation and I don't want to come home exhausted from it.

 

[wdwjeffc37]

We usually go for 6-7 nights. We don't plan any specific rest day but once our twice we might sleep in or go back to the resort earlier than usual and just hang out. We always get park hoppers so we often head back to the MK or EPCOT in the evening for dinner or Wishes even if we spent a few hours at the resort or at the pool in the afternoon. We play it by ear.

 

[mommy2jack]

We always plan one "rest" day. Even on our shorter trips. We don't take mid-day breaks and generally open and close the parks on the days we are there. That is just too much to do for my family and I do not want my children completely burned out after only 2 days. So we usually plan for at least one rest day where we'll sleep in, play in the pool and then sometimes we'll hit up DTD for dinner and a little shopping to end the day.

 

[poohfriend77]

We just can't do it. There's no way we could relax for a WHOLE DAY, knowing we could be at the parks. It just feels like a waste to us. However, I should add that we do mix in some early evenings and the occasional afternoon break, so it's not like we're doing rope drop to close 8 days in a row!

It's also worth mentioning that we stay at a value resort, and usually go in cooler months, so the resort/pools themselves are not really a draw for us. Maybe I would feel differently if we typically went in July and stayed deluxe. But going to DTD or touring other resorts doesn't feel like "rest" to us anyway (hassle to get there and it's still a lot of walking), and there's no way we want to sit in our value room when we could add another park day for a few bucks. I can't imagine not spending at least half of each day in a park.

 

[puffkin]

Not usually. We have been getting DVC PAP's the last few years so sometimes we might do a waterpark and the downtown disney one day. Sometimes we go offsite and do stuff but we usually end up in a park for fireworks or to eat every day. We have done non-Disney stuff for full days as well, but again, not rest days becuase we are still out and about doing stuff. We are not the type of people to sit around a resort all day. Just not our cup of tea.

 

[msmama]

I don't usually do rest days but we don't do a full day every day either.

Once you get up to 5 days the price of additional days is negligible (considering the overall price of the vacation). So for longer trips especially we do partial days. Although next trip I am considering doing more out of the parks than we've ever done before!

 

[Lupeix]

We usually do rest days, but that is just our style, and we stay 7-10 nights. If I were you I will plan an "unplanned day" and get a 5 day ticket. 5 day tickets cost the same as 4 day tickets if you buy through undercover tourist I believe.

 

[ceyj1100]

We're staying a week and we're doing a rest day. Our children are 4 and 7. They just get overwhelmed and need a day just to enjoy the resort and quiet time. But we're still hitting DTD and visiting Wilderness Lodge that day. So not completely "restful"

 

[bluetree]

I was curious to find out if any of you typically have a rest day during your trip where you have no parks planned to go to, and if you think that's important for a trip. I'm trying to decide between a cheaper 5 night stay and doing 4 parks days, one park a day for each day we are there except arrival and departure days or staying 6 nights and doing 4 full park days with one day in the middle of the week where we won't plan on going to any parks. I thought I wanted to do the 6 nights with one rest day, and then I keep thinking maybe I should get 5 day tickets in case we want to go to a park just for half the day. So that made me think maybe I should just build in some time each day for down time, maybe I don't need a full day off? My girls will be 6 and 7 when we go. Not sure of where we're staying onsite because I can't make up my mind, lol. But the choices would be either Pop, AoA in a LM room, POR, POFQ, or possibly renting DVC points for AKV. I need a back up plan though if my week isn't available for DVC. Just curious to know what other people tend to do.

My family is going next fall and My kids will be 6 & 7. It will be our first trip. I am planning on taking them to the beach one day in the middle of the week. That will be our down day.
I have the same ?s as you so I am going to follow your post

 

[luvmy2babies]

In reality I only planned a full rest day when we had a 10 day trip. On our rest day we had a dinner reservation at Ohana and nothing else planned. My children were 9 and 2.

Generally we don’t need a full rest day because we pace ourselves and spread our touring out with several short days in the parks. We may go from rope drop to 1 and take a break and return, but that’s rare for us. Mostly we are rope drop to about 2 or 3pm for AK, MK and DHS. We do Epcot from about 10 to 5. When we want to see night time stuff at MK we go in around 11 or later.

But that is for a summer trip which is what our last 3 have been and I spread it out like that due to the heat. You don’t mention when you are going. If it’s November, December or one of the other cooler months, you may not need a full day off. But if it's November or December you'll want to be sure your children aren't too tired to be in the parks after dark so they can see the Christmas lights if that is of interest to you.

 

[GWhitten98]

If budget allows, I would most definitely plan on staying 6 nights with 5 day tickets. MK really is at least a 2 day park IMO. Plus as the number of ticket days goes up the price difference is so small,that doing and extra ticket day or two is not as big of a deal. We did 6 nights last trip. We did 3 days at MK(arrival evening/1 full day and one 1/2 day(resort afternoon) and then spent the other days one at each of the other 3 parks. We were exhausted in a good way by the time we were done!

 

[Kae]

We like to do a late Breakfast at Cape May at the Beach Club, then swim(if you do AKL there is ton's to do) Then might do DTD, Dinner would be at resort with your girls maybe Park Faire at GF.

kae

 

[smscrapbooks]

We had a rest day on day 4 of our 7 day trip. We used that day to switch hotels (we upgraded from All Stars to the Polynesian) and then we spent time at the pool and enjoyed our new resort. We also ate dinner that night at Ohana and then watched MK fireworks from the beach. Our kids are young at ages, 1, 5, and 7 and they needed the down time to sleep in.

 

[squirrel]

I go for 14 nights and max. out the free dining. We get a 10 day park pass and never waste them on arrival or departure days. We go for 3 days and then have a rest day and then I add in the other rest days so that if we are at the parks for a late night close (1 or 2 am) then we have a rest day the next day. I like to stay the full day in the parks. I usually add in a MNSSHP ticket and do that on one of our rest days.

Rest days are spent sleeping in, swimming at the resort, DTD, and going to a special meal at a deluxe resort (breakfast or dinner, since we are on the dining plan).

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

We rest more than anyone here.

Our past trips have included 2 rest days, to 3 park days. We also tend to go from rope drop to close.

But I have Lupus. And I need rest days.

Rest days are days at the resort, with one other activity planned. It might be dinner out, DTD or something else like that. Rest days include sleeping in, in the morning and getting to bed early that night. I will also take a nap.

This December will be our first trip without rest days. I am renting a scooter and we are only there for 4 park days.

 

[ssmurphy28]

We are going for 9 days in January with two boys (10 months and 2 years). When we took the oldest at a year, we realized a rest day was very important around day 4. So this time around we are planning rest days on day 4 and 8.

We are staying at AKL so will use the time to explore the hotel and hit up DTD. And if we get to day 8 and think we can still go for it, maybe we will do an afternoon at Animal Kingdom, which closes at 5 anyways. I'd rather my kids be well rested so we can enjoy our time in the parks, rather than having then miserable and dragging them to attractions kicking and screaming.

 

[pixie08]

If we are staying more then 6 nights we always do a rest day. This could mean pool, resort hopping, dtd, mini golf or a combo but we like to relax a little on our vacations too. Going more then once a year helps too as we know we will be back.