Staying off sight - Taking a break in WDW

[Soprano]

A big advantage staying on-sight is you could go back to the room for a rest. (Not sure how I could convince my kids to do that!) What off-sighters do you do to relax for while in the parks?

Previously we have a large Ponderosa breakfast, then stroll off to a park around 10 or 11. A snack around lunch, then off around 6/7 for dinner on I-Drive.

This year I plan for us to eat that bit better, get to the parks when they open and stay later. Taking a break during the day too, sitting somewhere, perhaps. First time with car, so a bit more freedom.

Your thoughts, please...

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Hi,
Not necessarily a good answer to your question but we always rent a private villa and find we get the chance to relax more than we would at a hotel or apartment.

Our theme park days tend to be a breakfast in the villa, get to the park early and leave at lunchtime.
The afternoon and evening we rarely plan in advance and basically just see how we feel, maybe do some shopping for example.
Guess we are governed to a degree by our theme park passes where we have a MYW 10 day pass with hopper/no expiry and APs for Universal.
So if we go to WDW park we would always ensure we went back in the evening also.

Having a villa gives us the chance to spend some time relaxing by the pool, Joshua loves water so we love to see him play.

We have never stayed at any park all day, especially as we have to go in August when the weather is hot, in addition we are regular visitors so do not necessarily overload ourselves at the parks.

 

[Jennie4647]

This year will be our 3rd visit. We are going for 3 weeks so we should be able to cover everything on the 'wish list' in a easy relaxed manner. The kids are also more clued up as to what they want to do.

We tend to get up and laze around in the villa, cook breakfast while the kids usually mess around in the pool, funny that in Florida I love to cook a nice breakfast. Off to the parks about 11ish, have lunch around 2ish, head home around 6ish, again we like to cook in the villa, have a swim, watch TV, play pool/snooker/darts etc., We have been lucky in the past as the villa's have had a good selection of games (PS2 type games & family board games). TV is quite a nice way to relax after a day at the parks. Its nice to have the space to spread out.

There are always exceptions of course, above is just a general theme, we love Chef Mickeys for breakfast, the parades are great fun and we found some lovely places to eat at night, some days I will take a picnic lunch other days we eat at the parks.

Having a car is great for us, we like the freedom to mouch around the area, visit the malls, food shopping is also quite good fun (prehaps its the relaxed pace of life?). The trick IMO is not to go mad, trying to cram everything in, the 1st time we went I had a schedule, it went out the window after a few days!!! We stuck to the reservations that I made (MNSSHP, Illuminations cruise, character meals etc.,) but that was it, everything else was as we went along.

Jennie

 

[Ali and boyz]

we are doing the opposite this year have always stayed in a villa or townhouse and never on-site. So this year after 12 years of going to Florida we are staying on-site at SSR for the first time

 

[Miffy2003]

What off-sighters do you do to relax for while in the parks?

We like to get to the parks early (like you are planning to do) and try and get as much done as possible for the first two hours. This then means we feel we can "relax" a bit more, stop for drinks, just sit down and enjoy the atmosphere of the park.

I do like to have a "proper" lunch (when I say proper this is usually just counter service), but I would go into an air conditioned place and take my time with it, drink plenty and not be "rushing" onto the next thing.

 

[gilld]

We don't stay for longer than 2-3 hours at a time anymore. We enjoy it all so much more and don't get that dreadful glazed look so see so often, especially with first time Brits who feel they have to stay from opening until close.

We'll often go to a park at opening, leave mid - late morning and go to another park, often Epcot, for dinner and a walk around. Many days, we don't go to the parks at all and relax beside the pool or play golf etc.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We don't stay for longer than 2-3 hours at a time anymore. We enjoy it all so much more and don't get that dreadful glazed look so see so often, especially with first time Brits who feel they have to stay from opening until close.

We'll often go to a park at opening, leave mid - late morning and go to another park, often Epcot, for dinner and a walk around. Many days, we don't go to the parks at all and relax beside the pool or play golf etc.

This is similar to what we do Gill, to be honest our priority in getting to the parks early is to get Joshua on his rides first thing, then we can relax a bit and anything we get on is a bonus...although it's quite usual for him to go on his rides several times, especially Woody Woodpecker/ET at US and Peter Pan/Winnie The Pooh/Goofy's Barnstormer at MK.

It's very rare we stay more than 3 hours at any park, especially given the August heat.

 

[Splash Mountain]

We love going to a mall after the parks and then go back to the pool for a rest! we stay at the Vistana Resort in LBV

 

[Queenie]

We nearly always do full days (although we're rarely at a park before 10/10.30) and we feel absolutely fine by closing (obviously tired though), of course we don't have any young 'uns in tow which is a major benefit to full days!! We generally have a break at lunchtime and sit down in one of the counter services for lunch, take our time eating and having a chat about the day/trip so far. After lunch we'll head to a more sedate attraction to get us back in the swing while still letting us relax (read Spaceship Earth/Tiki Room/Muppets/Tough to be a Bug for a sedate attraction.) By then we're normally back up to full pace and ready to carry on. We tend to do the same thing at tea time, drink plenty of water through the day and we're fine.

The apartment lets us chill in the evenings and non-park days (of which we have several) so when we do hit the parks we've got energy to burn. I dread the day I have to stay in a hotel - timeshare apartments really spoil you!!

 

[JohnnySharp2]

The apartment lets us chill in the evenings and non-park days (of which we have several) so when we do hit the parks we've got energy to burn. I dread the day I have to stay in a hotel - timeshare apartments really spoil you!!

We stay in villas and could never go back to hotels either.

Going in August and with a young boy in tow there is no way we could last all day at any of the parks though, even without children it requires a lot of stamina so good for you.

We love to have plenty of rest days also, and find a villa gives us the opportunity to relax , being lucky to be frequent visitors also means we do not need to rush around the parks.

 

[wilma-bride]

We tend to do full days too, although rarely stay till park closing. We arrive for opening, spend the first couple of hours doing the rides we want and then spend the rest of the day at a fairly leisurely pace, stopping for a long lunch late morning. Last year, we stayed on-site for 1 night and went back to the room for a break in the afternoon, which was great - that night we managed to see Wishes (which we'd always been too tired to stay for in the past) and 'hop' over to Epcot for EMH and ride Soarin' twice

When off-site, we tend to get back to the hotel about 4 o'clock and chill out for a couple of hours, before going for dinner and then a walk afterwards to wind down. Most nights, we're in bed by 10.