How do you have a relaxing Disney vacation?

We don't rush anymore. If we see it we see it, if we don't we don't. We spend a lot more time at the Resort by the pool and dining in the restaurants. We do normally vacation for 2.5 weeks so it helps with the slowing down. We will actually be there while you are Aug 3 - 18 at the Yacht Club. What we do like to do is be in the parks at opening ride everything and be out by Noon. Then we go back after dinner for fireworks.
 
The premise of this is super weird to me because the times I have been most stressed out at WDW were when I did not have my day fully planned out with ADRs and FPs and was trying to do stuff on the fly. It just made me so worried: where will we eat? would my kids get to ride that ride they wanted? Planning for me is the key to a relaxing vacation. We do plan out breaks at the pool and down time; we are not park commandos; but if I don't have it planned I don't have peace of mind.

I also find that a long sit-down lunch ADR in the A/C makes the day so much more pleasant than dealing with overcrowded quick service with limited indoor seating; I am always in a better mood and feelin refreshed after a chill lunch with a glass of cold white wine.

The "Why is AK so hot" post cracked me up. That is my reaction EVERY time. I love getting there first thing in the morning and getting out of there promptly after lunch; the last trip we stuck around in the afternoon because my kids really wanted to stay and it was torrrrrtuuuuure.
 
On my solo trips, I have several days where I just sleep in, spend the afternoon at the pool and then go to the parks for a nice dinner and a few attractions. I have been going for over 2 decades so I don't feel like I have to go on many rides. I have been known to go to MK, go on the people mover, get a dole whip and then leave. Do what is relaxing for you.
 
We relax by chilling out about the vast majority of things other people are being frantic about. ;) We opt not to stress about line length, FP availability, what rides/attractions we are able to experience and how many times we experience them, parade or show or firework viewing spot, etc.

We go in saying that even if all we do is walk around the parks, it's still a really fun, happy place to walk all day. :)

We also try our best to stay a step off of the schedule of the majority of folks. Eat a bit earlier or a bit later than everyone else. Arrive or leave a bit earlier or later. Go to the pool a bit earlier or later. And so on.

Spend some daytime hours at a resort, which are usually fairly quiet during the day. Find a bench and plop ourselves on it for a bit and just sit there and do nothing for a few minutes.

Basically we try to relax, both in mind & body. :)
 


We relax at Disney more and more. Each trip seems longer and we are getting older.

We are less rope drop people and more relax at the pool in the AM people.

We also try to some thing new each trip. Whether it's a new dessert party, tour or our own Highway in the Sky.

We love the BWV, and the whole EPCOT area. BC is such a great resort. I would take advantage of that pool and get a seat early and enjoy.
 
In the past, I felt like I had to check off every ride and cram in every hour with activities until I was beyond exhausted. It was almost as if I knew that theme park tickets cost $X/hour, and each day was measured in productivity. I think at one point, I'd even joked that each ride cost us $7 on a given day, and that was considered defeat. I think an AP helped me realize that this wasn't the right approach for me, even though I'm probably paying about the same after adding it all up.

Now, I find relaxation to be an important part of a WDW vacation value. Instead of rushing around from ride-to-ride, I've come to appreciate just being present (whether with friends, family, or solo). I don't mind strolling around to enjoy the scenery and noticing the impressive details. I don't even consider in-park time to be the gold standard of WDW time.

In the past, I wouldn't think of "wasting" valuable park tickets by spending time at a resort, or Disney Springs/Downtown Disney, or lingering over a table meal. Now, I want to sit on the Boardwalk with an ice cream cone, or stop at a good restaurant in Disney Springs, or ride the boats from Port Orleans to appreciate the peaceful waters. Even sipping a beer at Epcot, while browsing the pavilions on a warm evening makes me happy. Of course, rides are always an important part of WDW, but I no longer measure success by how many I did. I could be in the Magic Kingdom all day, and not go on a single ride, and still be in the place that allows me to let go of everyday life for a precious day.
 
If I were to plan a trip during the summer months, I would plan to sleep in, relax in the pool or water park during the day, then head to the theme parks in the evening. The plan would be to go there when the temperature is dropping, book FPs for your first hours in the park, and plan to stay until closing time. Near closing, get in line for headliners, as the wait time will have dropped a great deal.
 


While in the parks, my focus was always on the rides. Going from ride to ride to ride with no break can be exhausting. I might catch a performance or show in passing as I went from ride to ride, but I never made a point of seeing the entire performance. A couple of trips ago I started to make a point of stopping to watch some of the entertainment in the parks. In my opinion, there are some great street shows at AK and Epcot especially. Also, I try to find a table or bench when I get a snack, instead of eating while walking to my next stop. Coupled with my midday resort breaks, I have found that these little entertainment and snack breaks make for a more relaxing experience.
 
I love to go out for strolls in the evening, around Epcot is a lovely one, as is the walk between Epcot and DHS. I also love to stroll around the resorts. AoA and Pop has so much to see. As I love walking for pleasure to be able to do regular evening strolls is as much fun as racing around the park. Being there for two weeks allows me to take these things at my own pace. I'm not a planner, I do get FP+, but, they are never set in stone. I couldn't imagine doing a trip of 5 days or under, trying to cram everything in is not a vacation, but, a mission impossible. Hardly relaxing.
 
My wife and I, both 65 years young, travel down to WDW every year in February. It is the most relaxing vacations we have ever taken. As you said, we get out of bed when we wake up. That could be 7 or 10. We never know what park we are going to in the morning. We let fate decide that. If, when we walk out to the bus stop there is a bus for a certain park waiting, we get on it. We never do fast passes. That is a restriction on our free time. No one is going to tell me I have to be somewhere at a given time to go on a ride. After several hours in a park in the morning we head back to the hotel to lounge around the pool. Around 5 we get dressed and head to the park we have dining reservations at. We stay as long as we want and head back home to get a good nights sleep. Easy schedule, no stress, plenty of relaxation time.
 
I've only ever done ONE relaxing trip....ONE I TELL YA! :rotfl2: My best friend and I went with my Dad and we rented a condo so every day we would go back to our place around 2pm and hang out until about 4 or 5 and then head back out refreshed. Now we go in the Winter so no need for pool breaks and such, but we typically napped a little and it was just enough of a break to make the rest of the night enjoyable. It's always been harder for me to relax because we, more times than not, stay off property so the idea of driving back to our hotel doesn't sound ideal considering the amount of money we've spent on those tickets! I've always gone commando like I'm never coming back lol. I'm learning to stop and smell the roses much more as I slide into my 50's. My body can't take the pain these days. My first change was not getting park hoppers. I found with the hoppers I was much more focused on doing a bunch of stuff really fast at whatever park I was in and then hopping to Epcot for the evening. I never ever spent more than a half day at AK and then I realized just how great that park is at night! I was missing so much by trying to cram too much in. I still have that mentality and it's hard to let it go. I'll have to say that the trip where we took time out in the middle of the day was one of the best I've ever had.
 
My now adult son and I have been going to WDW for around 35 years now so we go a lot. We have always had at least park hoppers, some years both of us have APs, some years just I have an AP. We tend to just go with the flow. I rarely, if ever, make FPs in advance and we rarely, if ever, make ADRs before the trip. We get up in the mornings, and get going whenever we want to and then decide which park we want to go to. After we decide on the park, I'll get on MDE and look for FPs if I find any within a hour that we want I'll book them, otherwise we just head to the park. We don't mind waiting in line since we have been going for so long when we started that was just what you did. We are never in a hurry and don't really care how many rides we ride, it's not really about the rides as much as being there for us. We will make ADRs for the night while walking around during the afternoon, since we always have PHs the park or resort really doesn't matter and we aren't picky about the times or the places. We try to eat at different places every trip. I think the only ADRs I've booked in advance of getting there are V&As which I booked about a week out, tea at the GF because that always books up and special events at F&W. Otherwise we have been able to get just about everywhere the day of except for character meals, which we aren't interested in. Most days we will leave the parks around 1 or so and go back to the resort and go to the pool, usually sitting in the hot tub and having a relaxing adult beverage. Sometimes we will even decide after that we don't really want to go back to a park for anything other than dinner and to walk around. We take the time while in the parks to actually look around and take in the details. We once sat on a bench outside of the Italy pavillion for about a hour with a glass of wine just looking at the details. We looked up at the statues on top of the building, wondered what they were which prompted a google search which then prompted much discussion and then looking at other details and more searching.
 
Hey everyone!

My s/o and I are going on a relatively short Disney holiday from 8/9-8/12. We bought APs last year for his birthday, which expire the last day of our trip, so needless to say we have been to Disney several times this year. I have the tendency to over-do it and end up hot and exhausted, and we really want to take this time to relax. We are staying at the Beach Club and plan on really taking advantage of the pool, especially as it is our dream resort and we have never stayed there. We have a few dining reservations; we have FP+s, but we can take or leave them. We have plans of sleeping in and basically doing whatever we want.

So my question is... What do you do to relax on a Disney vacation? I'm interested to hear it!
The great secret to a relaxed time at Disney is: Mostly stay out of the parks and hang out by the pool and read. If you have to go to a park go as early in the day as possible, before the crowds and heat sets in. Also, it is a lot of fun to explore the other resorts. Walk around their grounds, go to the gift shops and have breakfast, lunch or dinner at the various restaurants, or just go over and have a drink or coffee or tea at the bars and lounge areas. I discovered this years ago when our daughter was young and she loved doing this too.
 
The premise of this is super weird to me because the times I have been most stressed out at WDW were when I did not have my day fully planned out with ADRs and FPs and was trying to do stuff on the fly. It just made me so worried: where will we eat? would my kids get to ride that ride they wanted? Planning for me is the key to a relaxing vacation. We do plan out breaks at the pool and down time; we are not park commandos; but if I don't have it planned I don't have peace of mind.

I also find that a long sit-down lunch ADR in the A/C makes the day so much more pleasant than dealing with overcrowded quick service with limited indoor seating; I am always in a better mood and feelin refreshed after a chill lunch with a glass of cold white wine.

The "Why is AK so hot" post cracked me up. That is my reaction EVERY time. I love getting there first thing in the morning and getting out of there promptly after lunch; the last trip we stuck around in the afternoon because my kids really wanted to stay and it was torrrrrtuuuuure.
I could be wrong since I'm not a parent, but one of the differences might be that, well...you were touring with children. As an adult (or a party of two adults) it's really very easy to change plans on the fly. I've been in larger touring groups that turned into committee meetings whenever we needed to decide what to do next and that was no fun, but a small party of adults (at least, adults who communicate well with each other!) can be very agile in the parks with little to no planning.

The closest experience I have to yours is probably when I worked for a summer daycare at a local school and had to shepherd nine children around the local Six Flags for a day (yeah, so tons of parents who didn't normally enroll their kids would drop them off with us for that specific field trip, resulting in massively overcrowded groups and a bad children-to-chaperone ratio--I hated that the daycare allowed that since it made it a much worse experience for everyone). It was a nightmare; I think over the course of four hours I managed to get them on something like three rides. Absolutely ridiculous, but with so many kids wanting to do so many different things and the inherent logistics of keeping track of them, keeping them hydrated and fed, heading off arguments...yeah, it wasn't a fun day for me and frankly I don't think it was much fun for them, either.

I can see that we might have done better if I'd been able to make a blow-by-blow plan ahead of time, so I get it. I do. But when I go to WDW I'm not managing any children; I'm only managing myself, and that's where most people on the Adult & Solo Travelers board are coming from.
 
For starters, we sleep in and often have a leisurely TS breakfast. Or just get some yoghurt and fruit from the resort store to nibble on before heading to the parks.

We usually stop for a drink in the mid afternoon at some lounge - some of our favourites: Victoria Falls (AKL), Nomad Lounge (AK), Geyser Point (WL), Tambu Lounge (Poly), Baseline (HS), Dole Whip with Rum (AK - Tamu Tamu?).

We'll usually try to spend time in the pool during the hotest part of the day. We're staying at YC in September so I'm looking forward to SAB time.

We take our time touring the parks and don't worry so much about going on the attractions if the lines are long or we just don't feel like it. We'll watch parades, CM interactions (Citizens of Hollywood, March of the Imperial Order, the toy soldiers in TSL), browse through the shops and make sure to look at all of the little details and low-key items (like some of the signage in the windows and doors at HS).

Usually spend some time at DS, shopping, browsing, eating, people watching. We try to make sure to keep the daytime relaxed so that we can go back out for fireworks/night shows.
 
When DW and I were making our yearly onsite vacations to WDW we would get up early, enjoy a few hours at a park, usually taking advantage of morning EMH, and then head back to the resort, the Boardwalk Inn, late morning or early afternoon for a rest. We always got a lot done in those first few hours before the crowds rolled in. After a quiet afternoon we would decide what we wanted to to do in the evening. Which usually meant wandering over to Epcot and strolling around the World Showcase.

We would also plan for one or two sleep-in mornings depending on our length of stay.

I think what made the trips relaxing was the knowledge that we were blessed with the wherewithal to return the next year.

Oh yes, one extra trick. I would plan one extra day of vacation at home before heading back to work.
 
Oh yes, one extra trick. I would plan one extra day of vacation at home before heading back to work.
YES, THIS!

I always used to squeeze every moment out of my trips, departing as early as I could and coming back as late as I could. When you have limited vacation, it feels like you kind of have to. More recently, though, I've made a point of giving myself a minimum of a day's buffer after my return, and ideally I'll have a free day before I leave as well so the packing process can be less frantic. I compromised on my upcoming trip; I don't have any days off before the day I leave (so I'll have to do my packing on weeknights--not ideal), but I'll have an entire weekend for recovery afterward before I have to go back to work. That approach has been really, really nice--even if it initially feels like a waste when I book it that way, when I come home from the trip I always find myself commenting to friends that I'm so glad I don't have to go to work the day after getting back. One needs time to readjust, do laundry, and get ready to face the real world again.
 
We travel with all adults. We do make some FP and one DD likes to plan one park a day. So we'll get up, go to park, use FP, go back to resort, relax then dinner. We like to have a couple of pool mornings (we find if you get to the pool nice and early you'll be at peace until the kiddies wake!) We did a "drink around the world" on our last trip. We all tried a drink at each country (we shared didn't want to get drunk) but that day we enjoyed a lot of the scenery and took in EPCOT at a nice, slow pace.
 
It's REALLY hard for me to slow down in my normal life. Luckily, I have a partner who reminds me to take it easy. He loves to take a nap midday, so we always plan to do that. We did a massage at Senses in GF on our last trip and that was an awesome way to disconnect from the crazy atmosphere of the parks. My favorite thing we did was order room service one evening. We stayed at CR on our last trip - got upgraded to a Theme Park View. Decided to turn in early one day, order room service, and watch the fireworks from our bed. It was the best evening of the entire trip.
 
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