Taking a break

[disneybliss2]

We have never taken a break--even with very young children, rope drops, and in the June heat. We only go every other year, so we feel like our time in the parks is precious. I don't want to lose time traveling back and forth to my resort, and I knew my kids would never take a nap once in our hotel room. It would have only been a battle. They're creatures of habit and wouldn't have slept well for a nap during the day in the hotel. Instead, they would easily take a nap in their stroller. Far easier to lull them asleep in the stroller! Here's what we've always done: my girls always fall asleep around their daily nap time. When they (we've only had 1 child at a time that naps) fell asleep, I would stroll them around and keep them in a cool, shady spot or in stores that were air conditioned while I shopped. My husband went off on rides. When my youngest came along and my oldest no longer needed a nap, daddy would take oldest dd on rides/shows, while I strolled younger sister around. If I found a cool shady spot to keep my youngest cool and happy to sleep, we'd swap places and I'd go with my oldest while he watched our youngest. We also take little breaks in the park, such as sitting in an air conditioned or shady spot to eat ice cream to cool off, or we'll make a point to watch the air conditioned shows in the afternoon. You really have to know what's best for your family. It's very doable to not take a break. We've done it easily--even with kids. For us, I knew what would happen with my kids. They would have fallen asleep on the bus and woken up just as we reached the resort. It would have been a battle to get them back asleep in the room and then they would only have had a mini-nap. By the time my oldest was 7 and my youngest was 3, the 3 year old would never have taken a nap in the room knowing big sister was at the hotel pool swimming. It truly was better for our family to stay at the park. We also end our day pretty early for a sit down TS dinner to rest/cool off, head to our resort to swim, and go to bed early enough to handle the daily schedule.

At the age of your children, I don't see that you'll need to go back to the resort for a rest. At their ages, I doubt they'll rest but will swim. To me, swimming in the sun is just as tiring as being at the park.
Do what's best for your family. You can always play it by ear and if you find you're desperate for a nap, afternoon swim, or downtime, you can change your plans and head to your resort.

 

[General Panic]

We're not swimers so have never gone back to the resort as such. What we have been doing the last few years is visiting another resort and have a look around at the place and it's facilities.

Last year we went from MK to the Wilderness Resort for a couple of hours on the boat.
Also done at AK lodge , Poly , Contempory and the CBR.

Breaks the day up , new shop to look round etc and easy to do on Disney Transport.

 

[d1gitman]

i'd think more about how many hours do you really want to spend in a park every day. open to close is way too long for us. mid day breaks split that up but we found mid day breaks to be a lot of extra effort and wasted time. instead, we decided to use the mornings to hang at our resort. sleep in, swim, lounge in the room, play in the arcade, hit the gift shop, do laundry, basically whatever we felt like at a liesurely pace in the AM. We then would have an ADR for lunch at a different resort. After that, we were free to choose what park we wanted to do that day. This gave us a chance to see other resorts that we hadn't been to and be i the park by 3pm'ish. 3pm till close was plenty of hours for us to pound the pavement.

we loved this itinerary because we really got to relax on vaca, slow things down and still see and do everything we wanted. Oh, and getting to the parks at 3pm is at the end of the hottest parts of the day. so we got to have both dayand night time in the parks (we love night the best).

Oh, and we would make our dinner a CS meal in the park. Having our TS for lunch before starting our park time and CS for dinner int he park made efficient use of our time in the park.

We just found that for us, mid day breaks was nothing more than twice the hassle of traveling from resort to park and tremendous amount of time spent doing so.

 

[harpinjean]

We never take breaks. Our first trip with our kids was when they were 6 and 8. We have done several trips since then and still didn't take any breaks. We are a commando type of family though and like to be on the go. I would just go with the flow, and be flexible. If you see one day your family is just to tired and cranky, then stop and take a break. We have friends who always schedule a couple of DAYS for breaks. They don't want to be going the whole time and that is what works for them.

 

[housetomouse]

We take a break, but it's because we've gone at busy times of the year and we leave because the parks are really crowded mid-day. But you're right that it causes some transportation churn time.

 

[Sandi12404]

Just realized that on our first day Magic Kingdom is open until 1am. We'll probably go back to the hotel just to break up the day. Other then that, we'll probably just take it day by day, hour by hour. If any of us starts getting cranky it'll be a sign to take it easy.

 

[tina.tina]

Maybe it's because my job this past year has been sedentary & our youngest is 5 & needed more rest, but there was no way we could have gone non-stop in the parks from 8 or 9am until 10pm. If you're staying onsite, it is easier than you can imagine to hop on a bus, monorail, or boat and go somewhere- anywhere else. Going at rope drope, on a day that was listed as a 9 for crowds, we did all of fantasyland, magic carpets, jungle cruise, pirates of the caribbean, btmrr, and swiss family robinson tree house, in 2.5 hours. After that, we were ready for a rest. We could've stayed and done every attraction in MK but we wanted a more relaxing pace for our trip. We stayed at Pop and LOVED our hotel. I know that you don't have to be staying at a Deluxe or Moderate to enjoy your resort.

 

[gerald]

We went for the first time as a family Thanksgiving week 2009. We didn't plan any breaks but did sort of take some.

We only did rope drop one day and that was DHS. The other days we made it to the park mid morning or so.

We stayed off-site so that factored into it.

I guess our breaks were sitting down for a meal in the eveings at MK and Epcot. Also we did the DVC tour at MK and that two hour experince was a nice break from the park.

We are going back this TG week and we may try to leave and come back and see how it works for us. The kids this time around will be 9,7 and 2.

One thing we found that worked well was sticking the older boys in a double stroller. No way they would have made it without one. We are going to do the same thing for them this trip as well. It lets us move through the parks at a faster pace and saves them from getting to tired from all the walking.

 

[mastermind307]

I think a lot of it depends on what time of year you visit. I think in the summer it is a good idea to take a break. The weather very hot and it's nice to go back and relax for a couple hours and get refreshed. When it's not so hot, maybe a break everyday isn't needed. Park hours are also longer during the summer months so you can take an afternoon break and still have time in the evening to visit the parks.

We took a break every day on our trip last Sept. We did rope drop at the parks and then left around 1:00 each day and went back to our resort. Then we would go for dinner around 5:30.
This year we're going in Nov. and planning on taking breaks on some days, but not all. The parks close early (there's MVMPC 3X the week we're going) and so we'll just tour the parks and have dinner around 5 and then head back to our resort.

 

[SplashMo]

We never take a break...

Even with young kids. We did rent a stroller when they were younger

 

[katla33]

I like taking a break in the afternoon and I'm 35!! LOL... I guess a lot of it depends on the weather. It was pretty hot on our last trip so we were glad to get out of the heat for a while, cool off in the pool and then go back refreshed and recharged in the evenings.
When we have visited during cooler months, I have not felt a need for a break as badly.
I guess just play it by ear and see what your family feels like doing.
Have a wonderful vacation!!

 

[crazycatlady]

At home, DH works at 4:00 a.m. and commutes 40 minutes, so he gets up around 2:30 a.m. and then naps when he gets home at 1:00 p.m. We are both "early birds" and love how empty the parks are the first couple hours that it's open, so we always do am EMHs, take an afternoon break after lunch for napping/swimming and then head back to the parks around 3:30 or 4:00. It gives us a chance to cool off in air conditioning for a couple of hours while the kids swim and then we can wash up/shower and change clothes before heading out again. Even though we go during less crowded times, I like being able to get away from the heat and people for a few hours.

We always have a car, though, so I don't know what we would do if we had to wait for buses to take our breaks.

 

[klacey1]

It's just the two of us (no kids), and we always take a break. We always hit rope drop and go back to our resort (around 3ish) to change for dinner (always TS)/relax for a few minutes. We never go to the pool, but sometimes we use the time to shower so we're super fresh for our dinner.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Someone staying at a monorail resort can do it quickly.

IF they are going to MK that day. The monorail resorts are not all that close to the other three parks.

Otherwise I think your advice is good. (the same advice would hold true is you were in Epcot/HS and staying in that area.)

I don't usually PLAN breaks. We take them if we start getting tired, too hot, too cold, too wet, injured, sick, sick of crowds, we've hit everything in the park we want to see that day (mostly AK and HS), it's our last day and we haven't been to the pool yet - or - any combo of the above.

Weather is likely one of our top reasons for taking breaks, too. Typically we'll endure rain in exchange for low crowds, but we may avoid a heavy burst of rain/thunderstorm. Other times we get too hot or too cold. In winter, you may only get one day warm enough to swim. In summer you may get thunderstorms every afternoon. In many months, you'll want to change clothes part way through the day.

Park hours are another BIG factor, as are crowd levels.

Afternoons can be busy in the parks. High crowds +high temps = less fun. If MK is open until 3am, and the park is packed at 1pm - we may well leave and come back later. If we're in MK, and know it closes at 7pm - them likely we'll slug it out.

It also depends how much time you have and how often you go to WDW. If you've only got 2 days, and it's your only visit - then slug it out. If you have 9 days, then you might as well take a break.

Another consideration is special events. Sometimes we dodge them, other times we seek them.

One more consideration is our dining. I typically make one ADR per day. You must allow time to get to your ADR. Sometimes it's nice to change for dinner, esp if we are wet, sweaty, or cold.

When we stay at higher end resorts, we tend to take more breaks. If we stay at at a value, we tend to spend more time on the go. Simply put, there are no TS places to dine at the values. You MUST leave the resort to use your TS credit each day if you have DDP. That makes it harder to go back to your room.

Last, a 'break' does not have to mean going back to YOUR resort. LOTS of times if we have dinner at a resort planned, we'll arrive early and spend a little time enjoying the lobby and gardens at that resort. If it's really hot outside, it can be nice to take a short afternoon break in an air conditioned quiet spot. Many reosrt lobbies are pretty empty in the afternoon. Once upon a time, the resorts (and parks) also had unique gift shops. Nowadays, most gift shop offerings are homogenous. Still, a few are fun. All of the resort grounds have fun little things to discover: animals, live musicians, horses, hidden Mickeys, to name a few of the many surprises. Each of the parks has relaxing shows, quiet spots, hidden gardens, and MICKEY Premium Ice Cream Bars. Sometimes a little sugar is the perfect pick-me-up!

 

[kohlby]

We never take breaks. We tried on one trip and all it did was waste time - and the 3 year old still wouldn't nap. So we go at rope drop and go-go-go until someone is acting like we need to leave. That gets us to 6pm most days, but we lasted until 9pm one day. Our crew was an 11 month old, nearly 4 year old, and 6.5 year old on our last trip. So, we're not talking about older kids!

We do sometime do downtime - which means taking in more shows around 2pm to recharge.

If we went during the summer, then I would understand taking a break better.

Plus, since we go in the off season, the parks are closed by 9pm anyway.