Too many non-park days?

[bumbershoot]

We are staying at the off-site resorts as we are utilizing hotel reward points to stay for free.

So you’ll be driving in to go to the mall (Disney springs) and to the chip and dale thing, passing by the signs for parks...will your 8 year old be able to handle that?

When you’re at your resort it’ll be easier to ignore the fact of Disney, but when you’re actually there...

I find your in-park days tend to be more hectic if you try to limit them.

Yep.

I'm going to "double down" and say just these 3 things are maybe 3/4's of one day. I would swim in the morning, if its warm enough, drive to DS and either drive to the campfire or kill some time and take the bus to FW for the campfire. If you really need to kill time from DS to FW, take teh bus to the Contemporary and then the boa t from there to FW. Either way you need to take an internal bus to the campfire from either end of FW

Yep.

 

[chartle]

One more silly question, please. The weather forecast for the days that we planned to spend at the MK is predicted to rain a lot (5 hours..?). Would it be hard for our DD to wear the princess costume and walk around the park after BBB?

How far out is the forecast? Rain at WDW is a very tricky thing to figure out.

 

[yena48]

How far out is the forecast? Rain at WDW is a very tricky thing to figure out.

20 days out. We are visiting MK on April 1st and 2nd - the crowd level seems to be best during these dates and we have reservations at Be Our Guest and Cinderella, one each day.
For 4/1 we plan to be in the park 8 AM to 5 PM. And for 4/2, 2 PM to midnight/fireworks. According to the Accu Weather website (https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/orlando-fl/32830/daily-weather-forecast/14187_pc?day=23) there will be about 5 hours of rain on both days…
We have BBB reservation on another day at Disney Springs (+ princess character meal at Akershus) and that day is supposed to be sunny.
I am just wondering if I should just settle for DS or still pursue to get a reservation at MK despite the weather.
Thanks for the help!!!

 

[BostonEd]

1. You have 14 or so usable hours in a day for those three things what are you going to do the other 10 hours left per day.

RELAX! This is the kind of thing I think many people here don't understand. There's a lot of people out there who would say, "OK, I've been active four hours. Done." AND THEY LOVE IT! Not everyone wants to go commando all the time.

I'd add more because I find your in-park days tend to be more hectic if you try to limit them. It's a lot less crazy when you spread out the days - go later when you want to do the fireworks or night shows, go earlier some days and then go to the pool/Disney springs in the afternoon or evening. That way you aren't trying to cram in everything you want to do in a specific park in 1 long day.

This is a good point, though.

[How far out is the forecast?]

20 days out.

LOL

 

[PollyannaMom]

20 days out. We are visiting MK on April 1st and 2nd - the crowd level seems to be best during these dates and we have reservations at Be Our Guest and Cinderella, one each day.
For 4/1 we plan to be in the park 8 AM to 5 PM. And for 4/2, 2 PM to midnight/fireworks. According to the Accu Weather website (https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/orlando-fl/32830/daily-weather-forecast/14187_pc?day=23) there will be about 5 hours of rain on both days…
We have BBB reservation on another day at Disney Springs (+ princess character meal at Akershus) and that day is supposed to be sunny.
I am just wondering if I should just settle for DS or still pursue to get a reservation at MK despite the weather.
Thanks for the help!!!

I never took a little girl, so I don't know much about BBB, but I think it would depend on the expense and whether there was a cancellation penalty for me. If it was super-expensive, and I couldn't cancel, say, the day before, I'd stick with just the DS one. But otherwise, I'd book both, wait until a much closer weather forecast, and then cancel one if it was going to be a waste.

I do think you did the right thing by tacking on two more days (as the more you add, the less expensive each new one gets) but I also think you are being really smart not to over-schedule and plan on being super busy every second. It is your vacation, and you don't want to come exhausted!

Personally, we try not to schedule three full days in a row (meaning early morning to late night) or we run into what we call the "Day 3 Curse" - a severe case of the crankies! I think you'll be fine with the 8-5, 2-fireworks type plan you've described, and just the one full rest day, though.

 

[chartle]

1. RELAX! This is the kind of thing I think many people here don't understand. There's a lot of people out there who would say, "OK, I've been active four hours. Done." AND THEY LOVE IT! Not everyone wants to go commando all the time.

[How far out is the forecast?]
2. LOL

1. There is no time to relax on a WDW vacation.

2. Agreed, 20 days out for FL is like predicting how many Hurricanes will hit in 2020.

 

[monorailsilver]

Last trip we did 10 days with 5 non park days-2 travel days, 2 pool days and a water park day. This August we are going for 11 days and have 5 park days, 1 water park day and 5 non park days which include 2 travel days.

The last trip we took we had the most down time and guess what, we relaxed, we got to sleep, well everyone else did, my internal clock was up. I did not come home tired, I had no sleep deprived headaches, it was fabulous!

 

[chartle]

Oh and for our family we find a Water Park day no where near an off day, in fact its our most non relaxing day. Lots of stairs while wrangling tubes.

Oh and trying not to drown in the wave pool at TL.

 

[Surgie2]

According to the Accu Weather website (https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/orlando-fl/32830/daily-weather-forecast/14187_pc?day=23) there will be about 5 hours of rain on both days…

The day before our AK day in January of this year the forecast was for 100% chance of rain starting at 10:00 am. We packed ponchos and forged ahead with our plans. What actually happened was a partly cloudy pleasant day until a light steady rain began at 4:00 pm. Had we listened to the forecast and changed our plans, we would have missed out on 7 hours of rain-fee park time.

 

[yena48]

2. Agreed, 20 days out for FL is like predicting how many Hurricanes will hit in 2020.

Oh, I see, then how many days out can I expect it to be a little more accurate? I get it that it can change even the night before or during that day even, but just want to have a better sense of when is the good time to settle with my overall plan -- especially deciding whether to move BBB appointment to other date/location or not.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Thats a lot of rest days. Way too many for me. I personally couldn't do it. I'd add at least one or two more days of parks. There's so much to see. Cost wont be that much.

 

[Nancyg56]

I'd bump that up to 7 day hoppers, but I would never spend the money a Disney resort costs without going to the parks as much as possible.

WE do this too, however we do not feel the need to spend all day in any park. We bounce in and out, but we never go home needing a vacation. WE seem to do a lot and relax as well. If we had to fit everyone into 4 days I would be exhausted.

 

[SaintsManiac]

WE do this too, however we do not feel the need to spend all day in any park. We bounce in and out, but we never go home needing a vacation. WE seem to do a lot and relax as well. If we had to fit everyone into 4 days I would be exhausted.

We never do open to close at any park. We like to hit them hard at RD the first few days and then sleep in and go late the 2nd half of the trip. If we go to the hotel and rest and get bored, then we go out again. I refuse to wear us out.

 

[terri33inne]

I've been taking my daughter since she was 5 (now 10), and every age (even 8) after a few hours in the parks she's asking to go back tot he hotel & swim. It all depends on you & your child(ren). Best advice I got before our first trip was to let go the mentality "We're spending $XXXX thousands of dollars on this vacation we need to cram as much in as possible. You will never get to do it all. I make our focus about memories, and vacation. We've had some more commando style trips, and some more relaxed trips.

With that said I always make sure our ticket covers all our days of our vacation. As others have said the more days you add the cheaper it gets per day. That way if we want to spend the day at the hotel/pool, and then go to a park late afternoon/evening for dinner/rides/shows/fireworks, etc we do.

It's different for everyone, and neither way is right or wrong... just a matter of what do you want out of your vacation? For us spending that much money I want to include down time & relaxing.

(Side note; If you go to Disney Springs go to the Coca Cola store & their rooftop bar and get the float tray... we did that last month & my daughter loved it).

 

[Nancyg56]

We never do open to close at any park. We like to hit them hard at RD the first few days and then sleep in and go late the 2nd half of the trip. If we go to the hotel and rest and get bored, then we go out again. I refuse to wear us out.

We plan some early days, some park close, lots of good meals, and keep time to swim, stroll, resort hop and relax. It is easy to get caught up in the rush rush rush mindset, so we make sure we avoid that.

One trip we tried to stay out of the parks for the first several days. Never again. Even a few hours is fun.

 

[isabellea]

We are big fans of resort days. For a 7 nights stay we usually do 5 days at the parks. For a 9 nights stay I would probably do 6 days in the parks (max 7 days but some days would be half days). MK definitely needs 2 days and EPCOT might also. Depending on where you are staying, the resorts have lots amenities that we are paying anyway so why not enjoying them? We also like to do activities like the mini-golf or horse-riding at FW. My 8 yo is a HUGE thrill seeker but even her asks for some downtime at WDW. We are also regular visitors (at least 1 visit/year) so if we don't do everything one year we know we can do it the next time.

 

[chartle]

Oh, I see, then how many days out can I expect it to be a little more accurate? I get it that it can change even the night before or during that day even, but just want to have a better sense of when is the good time to settle with my overall plan -- especially deciding whether to move BBB appointment to other date/location or not.

Its sort of stick out hand and see if its raining kind of thing.

I don't think anything can predict well enough to change your plans. You just have to prepare and roll with it.

 

[Dsny4fun]

Yes you definitely need less “ rest” days.
I recommend:
Travel day - arrive at resort, unpack and settle in, explore resort, pool, early dinner bed early.
3 Park days
1 rest day. Pool Disney Springs in afternoon/ evening
3 Park days
Travel day home no parks.
Anything less is a waste of travel costs, in my opinion

This is what I would recommend...

 

[soccermom54]

When our children were young, a long time ago now, we would take them to WDW each summer for a week. We always purchased 7 day park hoppers and stayed at a monorail resort. I am a retired teacher so going in summer was our best option at the time. We would take a nap break everyday around 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., in the heat of the day, to rest from our morning park. We usually went to a different park in the evening just to keep the day interesting. This worked well for us but you know what is best for your family. I feel it is worth going back to a park in the evening to experience the fireworks and night time shows. This is all part of the amazing Disney World experience. There are several attractions at each park that you can visit in the evenings without a fast pass or long wait. We would always go to character dinner at a resort on our arrival evening. This got everyone ready for Disney without going to the parks after a long day and plane ride. If you find you are too tired to go back to a park some evenings, no biggie. Enjoy the resort pool, go to Disney Springs, play mini-golf, visit the Chip & Dale sing-along. I believe some of the resorts now offer an outside Disney movie on a large screen on select evenings. We would always carry ponchos in a backpack to the parks along with snacks and water. The Florida weather can be unpredictable so having a poncho handy is a good idea. Pick up what you need at Target or Walmart and bring them along. Even now, my husband and I live close enough to WDW to make day trips and we always stick in a couple of cheap throw-away ponchos just in case. They did not have BBB when our daughter was young or I am sure we would have been there. Just make sure you have a poncho to slip over her in case of rain and keep on enjoying your magical vacation. I will really date myself now, but before our 1st trip to WDW, I purchased a guide book for Disney World which really helped me with planning and just to become familiar with everything Disney had to offer. I am sure all this is readily available on-line now but back then the guide book was priceless. I was planned and prepared when we entered each park, knew the lay of the land, and which direction to head first. I love the post about the "Day 3 Curse" and getting a case of "the crankies". It can happen before you know it for both children and parents. Just plan some rest time and enjoy your 1st magical Disney vacation.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

With FP+ it makes adding a day for $10-15 a day even more worth it. You can sleep in, do a resort day and still have 3 rides in the evening.

We stopped doing resort days on the trip the kids were 5 and 11. It was awesome. We did do midday breaks everyday.

Last trip the kids were 15 and 9. Ten days with 8 day tickets. I thought ten days was too much. I was wrong. The kids were a bit bored.

Next trip we’re doing a park everyday even if it’s just to stop into a park for 3 hours with our FP+.