Here now, and changing plans...

[jmccoy18]

We do a day off from the parks in the middle of our stay and take a middle of the day break/nap the days we are in the park. We really enjoy our off day exploring resorts, using the pool, and going to DTD.

 

[Oneanne]

I usually travel solo, so the only crankiness I have to watch out for is my own . I haven't ever taken an entire day "off", but I do head back to the resort every day for an afternoon nap. I also try to mix it up each trip, and do things differently to carve out quiet time. In May I did a lot of resort hopping and chilling out in the different lobbies. I had a pre-opening ADR at CRT, which gave me quiet time in MK and also did the Undercover Future World tour, and so was in EPCOT before opening, which was also nice and relaxing. In October I didn't book any ADR's, so my "schedule" was limited to FP+, which I have no qualms about skipping if I don't feel like doing something... it was a relaxing pace, even though I did everything I had thought about doing. In December I'll be part of a group, but I'll still carve out "down time" for myself, even if I'm staying in a park.

 

[bumbershoot]

When my husband was grumbling (not very quietly) about how much he hates people last night during Celebrate the Magic, I knew he needed a break.

I wish DH and DS had figured out how to do that for me in July at DL! Alas I'm the tour guide and don't want to "ruin their fun" by dragging them from the fun, so we never took a break.

Of course NOW in the continuing "why did we buy APs, why do we have Star Wars RunDisney plans in January, I don't wanna go back" (my sentiments not theirs) conversations I find out they would have been happy to go back and swim etc. but at the time while I was the one having the bad time, they didn't mention it.

 

[JimmyV]

Over the course of 8 days, we will take one day off completely (from the parks) and fill that space with recreation. (Swimming, golf, boating, etc.), and will build in a second day where all we do is World Showcase, so we don't have to show up to the park until 11:00 and we know that we will be out of the park by 9:30. Typically, the "off" day and the WS day will follow days where we closed down the MK after midnight. As a standing rule, we do not do RD if we have been in a park until midnight (or later) the night before.

 

[lustergirl]

If I stayed for 10 days I would probably visit only one park a day, alternating between night and day.

 

[eastendlights]

When my kids were young we would have two no park days during a 12 day trip. Back then we only stayed at BC or YC so those off days were spent at SAB and then DTD for dinner or just to The Boardwalk. Then there were a few years we stayed at AKL so our off days were spent hanging there-another great pool and we did the special safari, etc on our off days. For us, it was always nice to spend real downtime at the resorts we were staying at rather than running around. Now that DD 19 and I do our girls only trips (while DH and DS are out in the Mohave riding dirt bikes or hiking around Moab) we go to the parks every day for our 11 days. Some days we won't arrive until our lunch ADR. We don't do rope drop buy we do generally stay until closing. This Feb/Mar, we will be staying at WL for the first time in quite a while so I am sure we will spend some mornings just hanging around the resort.

 

[Ava]

We did a 10-day trip in August, and I planned two non-park days. So we did 2 days of parks, then an off day. Repeat. The first off day we swam at the hotel & went to the early show of HDDR, then we ended up going into MK for a couple hours. The other off day we went to Blizzard Beach for a few hours, then to Disney Springs. We also never did rope drop to close; we always took an afternoon break or left the park in the early evening if we didn't take a break. My kids are young though, 6 and 2. As they get older I'm sure we'll spend longer hours in the parks. They're also not really morning people, so we don't make rope drop every day either.

 

[disneyseniors]

We are going for 10 days (first time for 10 days), next week! Yea! I have only scheduled 4 park days at WDW. We are going to Universal for one day.. The rest are where we want and when we want. We do want to do a resort hopping day to check out some other resorts. We will do Disney springs one night or day. Everything is open on those other 5 days, and I LOVE IT! Our scheduled park days are the first 5, then the last part of the vacation will be at a more relaxed, spontaneous pace. We only have a few adr's scheduled too. good luck!

 

[Ava]

We are going for 10 days (first time for 10 days), next week! Yea! I have only scheduled 4 park days at WDW. We are going to Universal for one day.. The rest are where we want and when we want. We do want to do a resort hopping day to check out some other resorts. We will do Disney springs one night or day. Everything is open on those other 5 days, and I LOVE IT! Our scheduled park days are the first 5, then the last part of the vacation will be at a more relaxed, spontaneous pace. We only have a few adr's scheduled too. good luck!

How many days of park tickets did you get? I am compelled to get enough days up front for each day we could potentially go to a park, so that I can make FP+ in advance. Which then defeats the purpose of being spontaneous, since I choose parks to make those FP+ in.

 

[ErinCat]

We don't have scheduled breaks, but we don't rush around or force anything. If we want to stop, rest and people watch for a bit, we do. We also spend a relatively long time enjoying our ADRs. We like to take our time at meals.

 

[disneyseniors]

How many days of park tickets did you get? I am compelled to get enough days up front for each day we could potentially go to a park, so that I can make FP+ in advance. Which then defeats the purpose of being spontaneous, since I choose parks to make those FP+ in.

We got a package with 10 day park hoppers, so we can go to other parks each day. That works out well for us. I made tentative fp's for our non-scheduled days just in case we wanted to do our favorites again, such as hs with toy story mania, TOT. If we use them, fine, if not it doesn't matter cause we have already done each park day with fp's for all of our favorites. I found that last year, we didn't use most of our fast passes, other than the must do's. We just found other things to do, and if we missed them, we were okay with it. We used them as a helpful tool if we wanted to us them, not as something that we had to do. Maybe that helped. We also were good with standing in line at times, afterall, that's what we all had to do before fast passes. Hope this helps

 

[elaine amj]

My husband always asks for "sleep-in" days. They are all really good about getting up for rope drop, etc - but every few days, my family really likes a day where we have no rush to get anywhere. We typically always still make it in within 15-30 mins of park open - but they LOVE not feeling pressured by time. We wake up when we wake up and mosey around and get there when we get there. I'll plan stuff starting from about 10am/11am.

We like very detailed travel plans. And for me, I have to be very very careful about planning our downtime in. If I don't plan the downtime, we get too excited and just go-go-go until we crash hard. We often skip the downtime, but it makes us feel better knowing it is planned in.

I usually try to make sure a full day/late night is followed by a "sleep in morning". If we must have an early morning, the night before tends to be an early bedtime.

 

[minnie-apple-mouse]

As much as it goes against my little commando heart, I am enjoying my coffee on the balcony as I write this. Out of curiosity, how many 'breaks' do you build in to your vacation?

A lot more now with FP+. (and yes coffee time is soo good on vacay).

Gives us every morning to start each day wide open.

Actually our evenings are affected positively as well. We can decide to turn in early if we want to RD a park, or do something late and not worry about the am.

 

[Ava]

We got a package with 10 day park hoppers, so we can go to other parks each day. That works out well for us. I made tentative fp's for our non-scheduled days just in case we wanted to do our favorites again, such as hs with toy story mania, TOT. If we use them, fine, if not it doesn't matter cause we have already done each park day with fp's for all of our favorites. I found that last year, we didn't use most of our fast passes, other than the must do's. We just found other things to do, and if we missed them, we were okay with it. We used them as a helpful tool if we wanted to us them, not as something that we had to do. Maybe that helped. We also were good with standing in line at times, afterall, that's what we all had to do before fast passes. Hope this helps

That's a good way to look at the FPs. We've also been on the "free" DDP promotion the last two trips, so we had ADRs every day that kind of dictated our schedule. I've had fun doing all the expensive sit-down & character meals that I'd probably never pay for OOP, but I don't plan on doing the DDP next time. That will help with being more spontaneous too, I'm sure.

I usually try to make sure a full day/late night is followed by a "sleep in morning". If we must have an early morning, the night before tends to be an early bedtime.

This is what we did and it worked well. I planned our late nights for the night before each of our "off" days, so we could sleep in after being out late the night before. That's harder to do when you have a shorter trip, but FP+ makes it easier to do a late arrival at a park and still be able to ride the headliners.

 

[disneyseniors]

That's a good way to look at the FPs. We've also been on the "free" DDP promotion the last two trips, so we had ADRs every day that kind of dictated our schedule. I've had fun doing all the expensive sit-down & character meals that I'd probably never pay for OOP, but I don't plan on doing the DDP next time. That will help with being more spontaneous too, I'm sure.


This is what we did and it worked well. I planned our late nights for the night before each of our "off" days, so we could sleep in after being out late the night before. That's harder to do when you have a shorter trip, but FP+ makes it easier to do a late arrival at a park and still be able to ride the headliners.

About the Disney dining plan. We've used it several times in the past too. On the last trip, I said, no more!!! I feel too scheduled. Afterall it is a vacation! We found that towards the end of our trip we did not even use our adr's, cancelling them in advance so we didn't have to pay. We also ended up with 10 QS meals left on our last day. That is just ridiculous, for us, and wasteful. We did use our QS's for our grandkids/kids on the last day so they did not get wasted. We are doing mostly all QS this time and will eat when we want, where we want, what we want, and If we want. I find that to be most freeing. I will report how it worked out for us when we get back the end of Nov.

 

[leebee]

We are here now and this is our "off" day, which means we'll have a late lunch at The Wave and then go to MVMCP tonight. We are here for just 4 days, but it's our 27th trip so I know what to expect. Here's our itinerary: Arrive MCO Sat at 5:30, magical express to hotel, check in, dinner at DisneySprings (and check out Jock Lindsay's Hangar Bar). Sunday, Disney Studios from 9:45 until close. Monday, Animal Kingdom from 10a to 5pm, dinner at Boma, MK until midnight. Tuesday, laze around the hotel, sit-down lunch at The Wave at 1:30pm, off to MK for 4pm entry for MVMCP. Wednesday, Epcot/F&W Festival by 10:30am until park close. Thursday, leave for MCO by 7:30am. Tuesday morning is our "down" time, although we cut Monday short and didn't do late night at MK, despite how much I wanted to see MSEP. I was just too tired!