Your thoughts on mid-day breaks

[ms*mountaineer]

When I've been to WDW before kids - it was only for 1 day at a time, and we crammed as much as we could into that one day. On our recent trip with little kids (6 and 4), it was just 2 days in the parks - and though we didn't "cram as much as we could", we spent the entire day in the park (leaving a little early on the 2nd day). We did not push to see everything and we enjoyed our time. The 4 yr old fell asleep in the stroller one afternoon - and had a cranky spell the other afternoon. Other than that, we did OK and everyone had a good time.

Our NEXT trip will be 5 1/2 days in the parks - and the girls will be 7 and 5.5 by then. I've never been for such an extended time - I'm really looking forward to this. AND, I almost don't know how to act! I'm used to "cramming" - my natural instinct is to say "every minute is spent enjoying the magic!"

For those of you with little ones that take midday breaks - do any of you have non-nappers? Mine don't usually nap - and I forsee getting back to the hotel for a much-needed nap, but they don't nap. Is just getting a break from the parks helpful? Do any of you find the break was a waste of time?

What time do you normally leave a park? And what time do you normally head back to a park for the evening?

 

[SmallWorld71]

You don't say when you are going, but I find the breaks much more necessary in the summer than I do in say, February. Also, if you go when the parks close really early, a break may be less necessary. Anyway, 5 1/2 days with no break and you will need a vacation when you come home.
A typical day for us would be: parks at opening, return to hotel around 1 or 2. Leave at 5 to go enjoy dinner and then often some night time entertainment. A break doesn't have to mean a nap. None of us actually nap, we swim in the pool, watch T.V., enjoy the peace of the resort while the mobs aren't there. I think that this is all part of the magic. Some of our favorite memories are from our down time. Other ways to "take a break" are to sleep late one day and have a leisurely breakfast, take an afternoon/ evening to hang out at Downtown Disney, visit some of the other resorts, etc.. Unless you want your vacation to crash and burn along with your family, schedule in some break time!

 

[mouseman41]

We always talk about taking mid-day breaks, however we never have. We spent 10 days there last March and we just went from dawn til dark every day. My DD is 11 now and my other kids are adults now, but when they were younger we did the same thing. They would sleep in their stroller when they were younger and we all sleep on the bus on the trip home. We just enjoy being there so much we don't want to miss a thing. We leave next week for another 10 day trip and we are already talking about taking a mid-day break at least a couple of days. We will see if that happens or not. We never get to do everything either!!!

 

[ms*mountaineer]

You're right - I DID leave out when we are going! We are going the first week of December. So we're looking at several evenings when MK closes at 7pm - so I was thinking of spending the evenings at Epcot in those cases. We haven't decided if we are doing MVMCP or not.

 

[Brian Noble]

My experience is: the more consecutive days I visit a park, the more important it is to take each day in smaller doses.

I can power through one open-close day, but then I'm completely shot the next day. I either like to go morning/break/evening, or morning through mid-afternoon and then done for the day. Mid-week, I like to sleep in, have a late brunch, and an afternoon to evening in the parks.

I figure I could be there for 2-3 weeks and still not do everything, and I figure the parks will be there for a while, so I'm not too worried about doing it all now.

 

[luvgoing2disney]

We go pretty much commando style every day. Usually we go to the park that opens early and do not leave until it closes. The only time we go back to the hotel would be on a day we were attending an evening party, like the PPP we will be at in June. We will go to BB or TL that morning, go back to the hotel to shower and change, then head over to the MK for the party.

 

[Sysyphus]

We had some good intentions of hotel naps and swims early afternoon this time, but somehow it never quite panned out that way... we did usually manage a little downtime of some sort though, a monorail/boat ride, change of park, lunch at a resort, something of that ilk... we didn't power through from rope drop to fireworks on any one day, although Daddy did manage to close MK, DHA & Epcot evening EMH's (purely researching rides that might be too scary for DD5, you understand )

 

[keylimepie]

I am wondering about this, too. We are prob only going to have 2 days where we are at Disney late...the day we go to DHS and one MK day. The epcot day we have to leave by 4-5 to get to our Boma ressie so we will prob just go to our room and the pool after that. The AK day we are going to Arabian Nights that night, so will be leaving early then, too. And I cant imagine we will stay past dinner at MK both days.

 

[MagicalEars]

Our kids don't nap......ever. Even our 9 month old is taking less naps and her older sister completely stopped taking naps at 1yr old. Now with that said, yes it is a very good idea to take a break during the day for some downtime. Just relaxing by the pool or enjoying the resort activities can be a godsend and really help you enjoy your entire stay even more.

In '06 we went with our DD that was then 6 and even though she never got cranky or fell asleep, she was exhausted by her daddy dragging everyone to see everything. I wore the poor little thing out and my DW too.

 

[BabyPiglet]

We like mid-day naps or to wake up later.

 

[XxDisneyFan00xX]

Hi there!
We like to take a 'mid-day break' from the parks because we feel that it allows us to cool of and relax for a little bit. However, we did find that after our 'mid-day break' we didn't want to go back to the parks. The reason for this is because we were getting too relaxed.

Yours Truly,
XxDisneyFan00xX

 

[iheartdisney]

Okay, if you are there by rope drop or morning EMH, a break wouldn't hurt.
If you arrive later in the morning, I don't think you'll really need a break.
And especially if the parks are closing so early in the day.
This is one of those things you really just play by ear. If you want a rest bt don't want to go all the way back to your room, you can take in one of the more relaxing attractions like the Hall of Presidents or Country Bears, or hop on the Mark Twain for a cruise around the Rivers of America.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

In the summer, we took mid day breaks starting at about day 3. It took that long for ours to wear out to the point where they would nap. At the other times of the year, it wasn't necessary to go back and take a break. Hours were shorter anyway and the kids just wouldn't do it. But we do take our time eating meals and the like and that provides a nice break.

 

[attackwithnorth]

"Breaks" can be part of the fun... A chance to explore your resort, or the Boardwalk, or Downtown Disney or the Marketplace. Even a nap (heaven forbid!!!) is enjoyable. It's best to enjoy the magic of WDW at a comfortable pace rather than a breakneck one. Just my humble opinion.

 

[WantToGoNow]

We usually go in the off season when the parks close early. I always feel like the afternoon breaks take a lot of our touring time. What we do, is do 1-2 early mornings and the others day start out a little later. We still get up fairly early, but spend time relaxing in the pool, the resort playground, game room, doing laundry, etc. and then hit the parks around 10:30-11. It works for us - the kids get pool time, I get my laundry done (dh does it since he's not a pool man), and we aren't all exhausted at the end of the day. We usually plan fairly early dinners and then as soon as the parks close we head back for another short swim and then off to bed.

 

[Brer Shay]

When we took our kids, who weren't nappers at 5.5 and 7, we did take a break every other day around 3 or 4 pm. I'm somewhat of a commando park goer so we hit it pretty hard. On those days we took a break, we would go back to the resort and sleep for an hour or so. I wasn't sure how it would go, but they both fell asleep easily and then were able to get up and go for the night. We did MGM/HS on one of our non-break days because with all the shows it doesn't require as much physical activities as the other parks.

My DS7 objected to the nap concept at first, but I made a deal with him that if he would lay still in the bed in the dark room with the rest of us for 15 minutes, that he could go swimming in the morning (a favorite activity). I think it only took five minutes before he was asleep.

 

[jadedbeauty14304]

We did not take breaks when we would go for 3 days, it was open to close commando style for us. And at the end of those 3 days I needed a vacation to recover from my vacation!
So, now we take breaks. I was at the World the first week of Decemeber 2007, and this is what we did. Our AK day, we didn't break, we just went early and did what we wanted, and spent the evening at the hotel relaxing. The DHS day we toured until lunch, grabbed a couple of turkey legs, and then went to the resort for a couple of hours where I napped while Dd and Dniece went swimming. (they are old enough to do it alone). We went back for dinner and Fantasmic (it was really early that night, like 6 or 7 pm.) and then the Osbourne Family Lights display. DO NOT MISS the Osbourne Family Lights. It is breathtaking and they even had the snow falling that night. It was a late night for us so we slept in the next day and went to Epcot. We did future world before lunch, took a break again where I napped again, and the kids swam and went back for dinner in World Showcase. Toured until illuminations. Then the next day was our relaxed day. Slept in, went to DTD, and went back to Epcot in the evening because the kids loved it there. We always save Magic Kingdom for last. Rope Drop at MK, tour until lunch, head back to hotel for nap/swim. Back to the park at about 4ish for dinner, more touring, and spectro and wishes that night. It was amazing. Last day was spent at Epcot (crazy tween/teenager) before our flight out.

Every one was rested, I got my naps, the kids got their swimming. Did it all without Park Hoppers, and we got to experience everything in a relaxed way.

I can only hope my next trip works out this well!

 

[Aliceacc]

I would imagine that part of it depends on which park you're in, how close it is to your resort, and the ages of your kids.

I'm planning a break every day during our trip next August. That said, we'll be at the Poly and only a monorail away from MK or Epcot.

My kids are big swimmers. Whether anyone naps or not, the pool will refresh us all.

We have park hopper tickets, so our evening plans don't have to match our morning plans.

 

[cabanafrau]

We never believed in breaks & couldn't understand how people took them when all that fun was waiting to be had. When we started to plan trip w/ first DD when she was 2-1/2, we realized we were going to need to make a change. Of course, why on earth would we imagine she'd nap there when she never would at home? We gave up on the breaks quickly, who needs 'em?

Started planning last trip, saw the light (found the DIS), read numerous posts about the necessity of breaks in the summer. Well, we'd never been in the heat or the crowds before, sounds like these people know their stuff, better plan them in. Good gravy! If we tried to do it w/o breaks on that trip, I would have thrown myself down in the middle of Main Street & had a full-on tantrum myself! In the heat, take the break. Swim, nap, read, watch TV, whatever. Then grab a shower & change of clothes & you're ready to feel the magic again!

 

[gobnu1]

Wouldn't dream of not taking a pool/beverage break . Commando is not my style, of course I've been there many times. If it was my first time I might skip them.