Those who go in the summer - Strategy

[SabresFan]

We did a week last July, and our approach was slightly different. We never went back out of the parks during the day. We would always have a leisurely lunch some place, which occupies at least an hour in A/C.

Also, any time you make a traverse through the sun, get yourself into some A/C for a few minutes to cool down. Gift shops are wonderful for this. And if you're into pin trading then there is always somebody there with a lanyard you can examine.

And of course, drink plenty of water. Electrolytes and Sugar can be important too, but dehydration is the biggest worry of all.

 

[wdwlver]

We are summer veterans.....go every year at the end of July/beginning of August.....normal plan is RD, then back to hotel by around 12:30. Pool, relax at hotel till around 5 then back to parks for evening......we will be at BCV, our home resort, and walking into Epcot at night is great......

also, drink a lot of water and use a lot of sunscreen!!

24 days to go.......

 

[buzz5985]

We travel frequently in the summer months. We will be there this coming August 13 - 20. We rely on our Camelback. It holds 2L of water, we half fill the bladder and put it in the freezer overnight- be careful of the straw, keep it out of the water. In the morning will fill the bladder up with water and DH says carrying the backpack keeps his back cool. The water stays frozen a good portion of the day. When it gets warm we just go to any CS and ask for cups of ice. Plenty of room in the backpack for ponchos, cameras, etc.

I will also carry a facecloth, in a sandwich bag, for each person. So when you go into the bathroom, you can wipe your face, neck, arms etc. Very refreshing. We also have the Mister Fan (bought at WDW about 10 years ago, and still going strong - different batteries of course LOL).

If it's too much for you, take a break. There are plenty of places in each park where you can get "away" and cool down.

Janis

 

[Deb & Bill]

Thanks Jim but having to worry about me getting enough sugar will never be a problem.

I just do not care for the taste of Gatorade too much like Koolaid.

And we smart people stopped drinking the Kool-Aid a long time ago.

(Except I really, really do like Tropical Punch and Orange Kool-Aid)

 

[yopaulie5]

Stormalong Bay is an awesome pool!

Can't wait to lounge there shortly!

We like to hit a park in the am, come back to swim and go back at dinner time.

 

[JimMIA]

I can go from feeling normal, to "off" to out in less than a minute.

Yep, that's what makes hyPOglycemia much more of a problem in the EMS setting than hyPERglycemia like diabetics commonly present.

One really bad thing with hypoglycemia is that the responses to low blood sugar are so variable. A Rescue buddy of mine has a good friend who is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with a blood glucose reading in the mid-20's (normal is 80-120), but I've seen patients extremely disoriented and starting to decompensate at 62-63.

Fortunately, both diabetics and people with hypoglycemia usually have a very good "feel" for what is okay for them. They usually get that "off" feeling and a lot of them can tell you within a couple of points what their number is just by the way they feel.

 

[JimMIA]

That evening he became deathly ill and had to be hospitalized and it turned out that all that water + sweat had depleted his body of sodium. He was told DRINK ELECTROLYTES if you are SWEATING. I had never heard of such a thing and thought we were being so good to keep well hydrated and drink plenty of water.

That's less common, but happens occasionally.

The key thing to remember with dehydration is that it's not about the "water in the radiator cooling my body" like we normally view it. Yes, that's important, but it's really about blood chemistry. If the blood chemistry gets messed up, it can be a life-threatening situation and you might not even realize it.

I haven't seen any research on this, but Gatorade has a newish product called G2...which is for hydration during normal activity, not during exercise. It has much less sugar (only about 45 claories in 20 oz, I believe), but some, and the electrolites you need. It also has a much lighter taste which I prefer to regular Gatorade.

Unfortunately, they're also now marketing their regular Gatorade as "Series 2," which can be confusing. But you can tell G2 from the regular stuff because it is lighter in color and much clearer (not translucent) than regular Gatorade.

 

[ToddyLu]

DH And I went the first week of May. I knew I was hot, I mean who wouldn't be...so we drank water throughout the day but when DH would turn to me and see red cheeks...he would usher me into a/c right away. I didn't feel bad at all. I am a nurse and he is an EMT/firefighter and evidently he was watching me pretty close. So when he mentioned going into a store I would ask, "are my cheeks red?" He is used to the heat but I am not so we took it very, very easy. I could not imagine going in August.

 

[supersuperwendy]

We've done summer since my now-teens were toddlers! We used to do rope drop every day and then the afternoon break. We'd typically do a nice dinner in the evening and rarely did the parks full-force afterwards (we were TIRED from rope-dropping!!)

Now that the kids are older, we switched it up. We actually sleep in the morning, hit the park 10:30-11ish, get a fast pass to hold. Ride a few things or see a show, eat lunch around 1:00 and maybe use the fastpass and grab one for later then we are OUT. We swim all afternoon, eat dinner.

THEN - we go back to the park when the sun is setting and stay LATE - like till 12 or 3am. This is or serious riding time. Take advantage of EMH at night. Nothing quite like approaching the gates as people are swarming AWAY instead of coming in!! With older kids this works great. I actually think it's cooler at night than in the morning. The sun heats up FAST once it's out in Florida.

This is a great idea!! I might try your routine and let the kids sleep in. I think it may work out better then our usual rope drop routine for June next year.

How late are the water parks open in the summer? Are the early hours or later afternoon hours busier at the water parks?

 

[rocketriter]

Be very careful with the heat. I'm not talking about obvious hazards like heatstroke. I mean the way discomfort creeps up on your group, making people crabby and robbing your vacation pleasure. Let people who are tired or burned out go back to the room (or pool). Don't insist on "one more ride." Remember that you're there to have fun and slogging through the heat isn't fun after a while. As long as you pull back and don't let one commando start pushing your group around (I'm speaking from experience) you'll do fine.

 

[Brian Noble]

My thought would be if you are going to the parks, hit them early and late, and hang at the hotel during those hot afternoons.

That's what we did. Worked well.

You will be amazed at how much water you end up drinking. We use carabiner clips to carry bottles all day, and refill them often. Don't be shy about water. If you are not hitting the restroom several times each day, you are not drinking enough water.

Jim's also right about the blood sugar thing; when my kids start to fade earlier than expected, we check to make sure they've been drinking enough water. If so, we get them a cold snack (fruit bar or sometimes ice cream) and that often makes a difference.

all that water + sweat had depleted his body of sodium.

The salt load of a typical WDW meal ought to cover this for most people, unless you are *really* sweating. I'd expect this to be the exception rather than the rule. Again like Jim, I'm a fan of G2---that's what we have our kids drink at sporting events; just too much sugar in the regular stuff for school-aged levels of exertion. I run about 20 miles in a typical week, usually sweating up a storm, and I don't drink anything but water for hydration.

 

[crisi]

We found our park schedules didn't change that much. I'm not a late night person and switching my clock for vacation just doesn't work unless it goes with a significant time zone change as well. (We freeze water bottles, wrap them in a hand towel from the hotel, and then have a cool damp towel handy as the ice melts). There was only one really HOT day late last August - that was handled with ice packs - and lots of water. When our kids got past "pull from school" age, they also got to be waterpark age - so there was extra waterparking. And Disney Quest age, so we spend an afternoon there in air conditioned comfort.

If you stay in the parks mid day, plan your mid-day to run around air conditioned activities. Epcot Future World is good....most of DHS isn't. If you want to spend a lot of time in parks, it might be good to have Hoppers to move from a "hot park" to one with ample activities inside. Its a good time to do Hall of Presidents or Mickey's Philharmagic or something else that puts you in a fairly cool queue, followed by a air conditioned show - and a bad time to be sitting watching stunt cars. A long lunch will put you in air conditioning (or an early dinner). Let yourself get wet in the misters that are around most of the parks. Shops are cool as well.

The other thing that happened was that as our kids became middle schoolers, there was a lot less need for them to see EVERYTHING for the 96th time. So we were able to spend four hours in MK and feel like we'd seen pretty much everything we wanted to by arriving at opening.

 

[iamadisneynut]

We're going in August and this information is so great!! Thanks everyone. I'm so glad I found this board!!

 

[evaready51]

OK - for the duration of our DVC membership (since 2003), we have gone almost every October. We did one February trip (not presidents week), and we did go once in May (2004) when the first part of SSR opened.

So for those who travel in the summer - what is your strategy? Are the parks at peak during summer? My thought would be if you are going to the parks, hit them early and late, and hang at the hotel during those hot afternoons.

What are the patterns you see, are the parks actually less crowded in the afternoons because of the heat? How are the hotel pools?

Hope everyone has a great summer!! We are looking at another October vacation, but I am sure we are on borrowed time as DD7 will be getting too old to continue to take out of school (sigh...).

We just returned on 7/3/2011 and we were there for a week. The weather wasn't as bad (we always go around July 4th) because it was overcast. Basically, we do Extra Morning Hour and are back at SSR by the afternoon, to swim, read or nap. We have dinner and sometimes return back to the park and sometimes not. This does work for us

 

[wdwlver]

We also make sure we walk through air conditioning as we make our way through the parks. Mousegear and Innoventions in Epcot are particularly good for this.

Every little bit of cooling helps.....even with the accommodations we need to make for the heat, we still love going in summer as the parks are open late and we can head back at night.......

 

[crisi]

We also make sure we walk through air conditioning as we make our way through the parks. Mousegear and Innoventions in Epcot are particularly good for this.

Every little bit of cooling helps.....even with the accommodations we need to make for the heat, we still love going in summer as the parks are open late and we can head back at night.......

Oh yeah. You can make it all the way down Mainstreet through the stores as well. And much of DHS can be wandered through in shops in the heat.