What kind of DVC vacationer are you?

[Disney1fan2002]

Are you a "go all day into the night" family, or do you like to get back to the room, tuck the kids into bed, and just relax "at home".

We go off-season, so the park hours make it an easy decision for us to be "home" early. Last year, it was fun for the kids to take a bath and then snuggle into bed and watch the Disney Story-books on TV and fall asleep, they were asleep before they hit the pillow most nights. Dh and I really enjoyed "quiet" time just the two of us. A few nights he would go out and bring back hot fudge sundae's. Now that is MY idea of relaxation! LOL. This trip, having the whirlpool tub will be a bonus!

 

[disneydom]

KIDS WHAT KIDS we have left our ds home the past 3 times he's over 18 and doesn't care to vacation too much with us we love WDW and a great way for us to relax ,in Nov we'll be bringing dad along , got him his own room at BWV can't wait, as for rushing around we take our time

 

[Disney Doll]

We usually eat a leisurely breakfast, go to the parks for awhile, then go back and swi, or just leave the parks an do something different, and then do the nighttime thing(dinner, PI, IllumiNations, Fantasmic, SpectroMagic), sometimes we'll go to Beaches and Cream for a sundae at night or walk the boardwalk. The beauty of the DVC is that you know since you have points that you will be back often, so you don't have to rush to do everything, and you can slow your pace.

 

[DeeP]

We follow the same routine as Disney Doll except for the leisurely breakfast, we eat a light breakfast on the go most days with usually one or two sit down leisurely breakfasts per trip at a sit down restaurant. We always come back mid afternoon to our resort and go to the pool, eat, recharge our energy levels and then head out for our evening meal and entertainment.

 

[gmboy95]

Morning in the parks....midday for pools and naps.....evening back in the parks...just does not get any better then that!!!

 

[Dean]

We usually get to a park when it opens, have lunch at the park then go back and relax. We may or may not treck back about dinner time or so.

 

[iluvdisney]

Used to be GO - GO - GO. Now it's take time to enjoy our DVC. Sometimes go over to the parks and take in some of the sites but always take time to enjoy the atmosphere of our resort.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We do not rush anywhere.... except to Pleasure Island!

We wake up, then putz around while having our morning jo. We usually then head down to Sturdy Branches (except the mornings after PI). We then get ready for the day, poke around a park, then prepare for a nice dinner. After dinner it can vary. Sometime we do PI, and other times the hot tub.

All this talk is making me anxious to get back to VWL!

 

[mitymott]

We go commando. As much as we try, we still get that guilty
feeling if we're not on the go, go, go. As DVC members I hope
we will have lots of chances to slow down.

 

[timC]

We alternate park days with relax'n days. When it's a park day, we enter the park as soon as it opens, have lunch at the park, then keep going until about 3p. Then it's back to the resort, rest, swim and get ready for dinner. After dinner, another late swim, then crash.

On the relax'n days, we'll have our annual put-put tournament, shop, relax by the pool, pool hop... Our relax'n days never seem to be too relax'n, though.

It's usually a non-stop, take no prisoners, WDW extravaganza!!

 

[JVL1018]

We have 2 little ones under 4, so we usually come back relatively early..latest is 9, 9:30. A couple nights we're in by 8 or so. My daughter can go ALL night and not get cranky which is a curse here at home when we try to get her to bed, but at WDW it works out well. My son falls asleep in his stroller if necessary, but is good to go til about 9:30 or so if we are out. I have 2 night owls(but who are up at 7:30, 8:00 in the morning regardless, it's so odd).
We're usually not in the parks that late except for a couple times at Epcot. Usually we're getting a snack or at DD, or walking around the BW.

Prekids you could find us every night of the trip at JellyRolls or Comedy Warehouse.

 

[CK1]

As my family loves to tease me, our trips are brimming with "well-planned spontanaeity!"

We have 3 kids now (ages 8,7,3), so our DVC trips for now are in a state of constant change. Pre-kids (which was also pre-DVC), it was commando-no-holds-barred-and-better-wear-comfy-shoes traveling! Once we had our kids, we saw the merit in taking a slower pace... and paused long enough to join DVC! We typically never (or rarely) do 2 parks days back to back... it's just too hard on everybody! On the "off-park" days, we snooze-in, have leisurely b'fast followed by trips to pool and DTD (my kids LOVE it there -- they think IT'S a park! And there's no entrance fee, unless you count the Ghirardellis ice cream and all the stuff I buy...) We also enjoy pool-hopping and seeing all the different sides of Disney resort life, checking out our "next" vacation spot, etc. The kids enjoy trying out some of the resort-hosted activities, like arts/crafts, duck races, etc. In the evening on off-days we often do a special "fun" dinner out, like CM's or WC. On park days, we make sure that everyone cites one or two things that are a "must" -- we alway covered those, and consider anythin else we do "gravy", and anything we didn't do to be an enticement for the next trip!! We also eat about 1/3 of our dinners in the villa, and since we usually have family visiting at same time as us, it's a family reunion of sorts, which also makes pace more leisurely. I do plan, plan, plan extensively (and yes, I confess -- SFDs, or "Spontaneous Fun Days" are actually listed on my printed EXCEL schedules!) But that is the part I love -- building the fun from of my whole family's input (from smallest to tallest) and making sure everyone has their own little piece of magic!

But NOW my trio has discovered water parks...one more factor in the WDW equation! My video-nut sons once asked "Mom, what is Disney Quest?" Not sure how long we can keep that a secret, lol! And we haven't even touched the other stuff around, like US, Sea WOrld, etc. There's just always so much to do, right in WDWorld! So next trip will be a mix of park days, water days, and pool days... like one of the other posters noted, the "relaxing days" somehow become fast-paced and action-packed without you even realizing it!

Cindy

 

[JohnathanS]

I'm an early riser, so I usually always take advantage of Extra Magic Hour. The parks, especially Magic Kingdom, are always so pretty in the early morning with not many people around. We do a few attractions, browse some shops, and find quiet places to sit and enjoy the surroundings.

We usually head back to the room about 11 or 12 for lunch, spend a few hours there, and then head back out for afternoon or evening activities (Illuminations, Comedy Warehouse, etc.)

If we do afternoon things, then we are often back at the room by 8:00 or so, and just relax and enjoy the resort the rest of the night. We often plan days where really do just enjoy the resort along with some other leisure activities: bike rental, browsing at the Marketplace, or miniature golf.

 

[WolfpackFan]

I'm an early riser so usually get up first, shower and then go and get a cup of coffee and sit in lobby for a little while DW and DD23 (if she is along for trip) get ready. Then we usually hit the parks fairly early, but we don't usually make the rope drop, and then stay to mid-afternoon (possibly jumping to a different park late-morning, if it is the second day for the park). We only do a full breakfast once or twice during a trip - rest of time it's things like breakfast bars, or biscuits from food court. After park back to resort and lay around pool and relax or take a nap in room. This is usually the time for the mid-afternoon rain storm, so sometimes I'll go to the lobby and explore or just sit and read while DW naps (or watches soap operas). Then in evening go to dinner wherever we have PS's. Then perhaps Illuminations, fireworks, Cirque, etc. We used to be all day, all night commandos, but not anymore. We've basically done and seen everything many times - so now we just enjoy it more. Also, we usually do at least one non-park day every trip where we explore other resorts, DTD, etc. At some point I could see us splitting more 50-50 with park days vs. non-park days. In fact, I could see us doing an entire park-free trip at some point. I know this is blasphemy, but I'd also like to explore some of the non-Disney attractions - Universal, Seaworld, even drive to Tampa for Busch Gardens.

 

[dianeschlicht]

It depends on who is with us. If we have first timers with us, we like to get them going early enough to the parks so we can avoid crowds. We usually go off peak, so parks are not open late. Usually we have an early afternoon PS at a WDW restaurant of choice and then head back for some relaxation before hitting Epcot in the evening. We like to do the evening fireworks at all the parks, so that is usually our goal. Because parks usually close early, we have a nice relaxing evening and take a trip down to the hot tub before retiring. If the "kids" (now grown) are along, we often play a game or do mini golf.

We always have breakfast at the villa and sometimes a main meal in the evening. We almost always eat our main meal at the midday, since they are less expensive, and you get the same food. I also don't care to eat big late in the day. This trip we will be having one evening meal....at Artist Point for our 35th wedding anniversary.

 

[DSNY FN]

We have had a great time every time we go and it is always an on the go all the time type of thing but that is how we like it no time to relax way to much stuff to do and see. Our last trip there was myself my wife and our 2 daughters and a bunch of other family members. My mom and my wifes parents and her sister and husband and their kids we love the big trips like that and it is always go go go we wouldn't have it any other way. Our kids are young to our oldest is almost 7 and the second girl was only 8 months old on our last trip and never once did we go back to the room for a break. Our son is going to be 1 when we go down this year and we will still not go to the room for a break if he wants to sleep he can do it in the stroller. We rarely stop to eat we do it on the go atleast lunch anyhow we usually grab a quick bowl of cereal in the AM on our way to the parks or water park then a quick sandwich and drink for lunch we usually do a sit down dinner and then it is back out to the pool or what have you for more Disney fun. This year we are going to Merritt Island to walk the nature trails and do a boat tour etc on our 2 non Disney days the rest of the time is shopping or Disney or water parks can't wait and wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[MAC3]

Great Thread!

We usually share our villa with another family who wouldn't usually enjoy that side of Disney. We usually go peak season.
So we usually try to show them everything. But we stay for 2 weeks and take every other day by the pool.

Next time I want to take it more leisurely. Go in a park hit the rides DD really wants to do then go see a new resort that we haven't stayed at yet or restaurant we haven't tried.

Lisa

 

[KNWVIKING]

We go in May,Oct,Nov & Dec, so the parks aren't open till 11 pm or midnite. We usually enjoy a dinner in Epcot and hang around for Illum, then head back home to a hot tub or just call it an evening. We really don't "hang out" in our room, I can do that at my real home. Some evenings we like to hit the mini golf courses because AP pass holders get 50% off discount. Or we just go for a drive somewhere.

 

[DSNY FN]

We also go the first couple weeks of Dec and have never had much FREE time which is fine as we love the time with our families and going crazy at WDW is what the trips are all about. We usually stay anywhere from 12 to 14 days usually on our honeymoon we stayed for almost 3 weeks. It is funny about this thread cuz we are alwqays on the go at home to like today we went to the mall shopping then to the park to feed the ducks and chip munks then for a bike ride now home for lunch before I have to go to work. You should see Christmas around here it is a blast up in the AM open gifts here then to my moms place then from there to my dads place usually then off to see the great grandma and grandpas then on boxing day it is to my wifes parents place just how we like it very busy hehehe. We practice for X Mas by going to Disney the first couple weeks of Dec what better place to get yourself back to running around shape that Disney I say

 

[hpygrll]

This is a fun thread!! We do the way leisurely Disney trips. We sleep in, have breakfast in the room and if we decide to go to the parks sometimes we just take the first bus that comes!! We almost always end up at EPCOT at somepoint during the day ( I need my beavertail from Canada). We love to relax around the resort, swim and just read a book. I never had time to read unless on vacation and it's a huge perk.

The next time we go we're bringing the kids which we've never done before (no, we're not that mean, they're only 18 months and not even born yet!) so I'm sure it will be a new experience then.

Jenny
1977 - offsite
1995 - CBR
1997 - Boardwalk
1998 - Contemporary
1999 - Port Orleans
2000 - Dixie Landings
2001 - OKW
2002 - VWL and BCV
2002 - VWL cancelled