WWYD: Disney Springs or a park??

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I'm trying to finalize our park plans before I do our FP+ selections tomorrow and can't decide if we should do an "off day" (no parks and spend time at Disney Springs and our resort) in the middle of our 7 night trip or save Disney Springs for our checkout day (we have a 7:20pm flight home, Magical Express pick up around 4:15pm). My only concern is not getting a full day out of the park ticket if we do a park on our checkout day; but having an "off day" sounds appealing,especially with a toddler in tow. Thanks for the feedback .

 

[Madonna3]

I highly recommend an off day

 

[Rebecca Pocahontas]

We always plan an off day, no matter the length of our stay. It is always nice to sit by the pool or take some time off at the hotel.

 

[littlbugmom]

We always do an off day but skipped it during our last trip. We regretted it. All agreed that an off day is a must for our family.

We didn't regret doing Disney Springs our departure day, though. We had a later flight and always enjoy browsing the shops and lunch at TRex.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I have to remind myself each trip that this is supposed to be a vacation , but we most likely won't be back for a few years.

 

[littlbugmom]

I have to remind myself each trip that this is supposed to be a vacation

I'm going to repeat this sentence to myself 5 times a day during our next trip!!

We forgot it during our recent spring trip and really pushed ourselves. Why did we do that? We know how we like to vacation and running non-stop every day ain't it!

I think we got cocky.

 

[Amelia :)]

We did 13 park days (Disney, SeaWorld, Universal, water parks, Busch Gardens) with no off day... you can have off days when you get home!

 

[gap2368]

and remember the longer you play ( so days in the park) the cheeper the park tickets are. so maybe add the day at the park but plane on sleeping in and only being in the park form 10 -3 then go back to your hotel to swim and nap then maybe DS for a lat dinner and shopping and then back to your hotel

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

Down time doesn't have to be a whole day. You can always block out half a day in the morning or afternoon mid trip (or a couple of half days) for rest time. The danger with not planning rest time in and overscheduling your whole trip is that if you hit an unexpected wall (golfer's rash, your kid's coming down with a cold, simply psychologically need a park break, etc), you have no wiggle room to deal with it. And then you end up blowing your scheduled FPs, or an ADR, or even an entire half day or full day that you intended to be at a park. I've been there on both coasts and it's never fun. And I've definitely kicked myself in those situations for not planning in advance for downtime.

 

[crazylady]

Normally we are a day off kind of family but we usually only do 2-3 park days and the cost per day is expensive so we pack our days full. Our next trip will be longer. We are planning 6 park days, but our intention is to do shorter days with swimming and DS intermixed. Our thought process is that the more days you buy the cheaper the per day cost is. We've calculated spending about the same amount of hours in the park at not much more cost, and we hope to be more relaxed at the end of the trip. That is the strategy I would recommend for you with a toddler.

 

[loves to dive]

We don't plan off days or down time but then again we don't plan anything, but we do take a couple of hours just about every day and lay by the pool or resort hop or enjoy a refreshing adult beverage. When my son was small I just sort of went with the flow with him, if he was getting too tired and cranky back to the room we'd go and either nap or swim or just watch cartoons for a few hours. Actually, we do the same now that he is an adult but plug in sports for cartoons. We may or may not go back to a park in the evening. We don't do DS ever, we did it a couple of times when it was downtown Disney but between the pain in the rear getting there and back is and the crowds, we decided it wasn't worth the time, we could find just about everything that was there in the parks. We actually spend down time in the parks too, we just take our time and walk around and pay attention to the details, sit and people watch and don't worry about rides.

 

[d-train]

I don't plan an off day in the middle either. If we get beat and too hot, we head back to the pool for a few and relax, then back to the parks. If we get in mid afternoon on day 1, we will head to DS for he evening. Or if we leave mid afternoon, DS for the morning and lunch. If we land on day 1 early, it is always a park day. And leave late enoug on the last day, a park day. For example, in April, we land 7:30am, check in, head to MK until close. And our last day, we get ME at 7:30pm, it is a day a AK. Every time we plan time at DS, we regret not being in a park. Plenty of shopping opportunities in the park or online...

 

[SweetMissy]

I kind of despise DS . More so now that it has expanded. I'm just not a big shopper, so I don't care for it. So my vote would be park day. If I needed an off day than I would rather spend it hanging out at a resort.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

I kind of despise DS . More so now that it has expanded. I'm just not a big shopper, so I don't care for it. So my vote would be park day. If I needed an off day than I would rather spend it hanging out at a resort.

I can relate. We first visited it when it was Downtown Disney and skipped it all together on our last trip. Compromising this trip (per my youngest three kiddos) to go to the Lego Store and TRex cause we won't be able to go to Legoland this time (my kids are Lego obsessed ).

 

[SweetMissy]

I can relate. We first visited it when it was Downtown Disney and skipped it all together on our last trip. Compromising this trip (per my youngest three kiddos) to go to the Lego Store and TRex cause we won't be able to go to Legoland this time (my kids are Lego obsessed ).

Oh yes, I forgot about the restaurants. That's about the only good part...IMO. We like Rainforest....which there's also one at AK and we did try T-rex which was awesome. My kids also love legos and there is so much to choose from there but TRU selection is good enough, lol.

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Catch La Nuba...do characters in flight, and eat at a nice restaurant all while enjoying the atmosphere, and ambiance of Disney Springs.

A slow day is perfect!

 

[Nancyg56]

I kind of despise DS . More so now that it has expanded. I'm just not a big shopper, so I don't care for it. So my vote would be park day. If I needed an off day than I would rather spend it hanging out at a resort.

I was not fond of it but I will say that I woudl go back for dinner. The restaurants are pretty darn nice.

I always plan an off day for a week long trip. We have a late breakfast, hang by the pool, have a rest, hit the resorts, adn then dinner. WE may dine in a park and see the evening entertainment, but we do nto count that as a park day. Thats dinner!

 

[Accident]

Yea, at least 1 rest day.

 

[Allie B]

Down time doesn't have to be a whole day. You can always block out half a day in the morning or afternoon mid trip (or a couple of half days) for rest time. The danger with not planning rest time in and overscheduling your whole trip is that if you hit an unexpected wall (golfer's rash, your kid's coming down with a cold, simply psychologically need a park break, etc), you have no wiggle room to deal with it. And then you end up blowing your scheduled FPs, or an ADR, or even an entire half day or full day that you intended to be at a park. I've been there on both coasts and it's never fun. And I've definitely kicked myself in those situations for not planning in advance for downtime.

I agree. One of our favorite things to do is spend at least one day at our resort pool or hanging out at Disney springs.

 

[Harambe]

We plan the non-park day after a few days of EMHs in a row. But because there is such a small difference pricewise between a 9 day ticket and a 10 day ticket, we still purchase the 10 day. So we can decide last minute to hit a park if we feel like it, but that hang-around day is such a nice break. We plan on sleeping in, then going to Disney Springs for QS lunch and shopping, then a nice leisurely dinner back at the TS at our resort. Then early to bed to rev up for the rest of the trip!!!