How much do we "need" a full rest day on 10 day stay?

[4Rfamily]

Everyone's opinion will be different here and based on different factors. I went last summer with a 4 and 6 year old and we did 11 nights with two rest days (we did disney springs on one rest day). That said we enjoyed the resort and I don't think rest days are "needed".

Personally I would probably add the extra day (going to the park for a few FP+ and dinner is no trouble at all). However, I would try to move the schedule around then to avoid rope dropping a park the morning after a night show. My kids would not do well with that at all. (I'm thinking the day you RD MK, then fireworks at MK, then RD HS....that seems rough..)

I agree that one will be rough! I worked really hard to avoid that night show then RD combo but I couldn't seem to make it work with wanting to see all of the night shows except ROL. I guess I could switch our MK Ohana day with our AK day. In practice, we could also choose that morning not to RD our first HS day since we have 2 others but my kids are most excited about SDD and Rise so I wanted every opportunity to try for a BG.

 

[4Rfamily]

You will be glad for the mid day breaks- I think these are more crucial than a full day break. Plan on leaving after lunch for at least four hours. You may consider more than one early evening back at the resort. Unless your family just loves the shows, three days in HS seems like a lot. There isn't much to do for the four year old unless they are tall enough for ToT or RnRC. If you get your boarding group one of the first two days there, and can decide between the three tier ones ore r ope drop one, 2 days should be enough. Keep watching a lines app, but so far MMRR seems to have reasonable wait times later in the day if you don't get a FP. If you rope drop, I'd rope drop Slinky Dog. I also would take car for after evening show nights if you need to take a bus. Someone else can weigh in on the skyliner after fireworks at HS and Epcot-not sure how quickly they get you out of the parks after those.

HS studios is the hardest to figure out! In theory, I also think we could do HS in 2 days even with breaks but it feels like 3 more relaxed days with longer breaks, more chances for Rise BG and more fastpasses is a better option. Fantasmic is my favorite WDW show and my husband insists on the Star wars night show. My whole family is looking forward to SWGE and doesn't want to rush through it. We are doing Droid depo, Jedi training and Minnie's Seasonal Dine TS. My kids are most looking forward to SDD and their favorite ride from last trip was TSMM. They want to do character meet and greets. My husband and I want to do RnR but we'll have to take turns. We want to check out the new Minnie Mickey ride and some shows. With boarding groups, FP's, ADR's, show times, break times and other meals and snacks thrown in, it just seems like a lot of moving parts to squeeze into 2 days. Our 2nd HS day is 4th of July with a Cape May Res at 7:20 so we wouldn't be there late that day anyways.

 

[4Rfamily]

I don’t ever see the point in taking an entire day off from the parks. As pp said, it’s low cost to add a day at that point.

I am confused about why you want to park at BC. Parking is scarce there and you can just take the Skyliner.

I guess the point of parking at BC was to stay out of the parks on the 4th of July but still be able to enjoy the Fireworks. I thought it would be easier to exit post Fireworks in our own car from BC then battle 4th of July park crowds on WDW transportation. What if the skyliner is down? Do they run busses from International Gateway or would we have to walk through crowds to the front of Epcot to use Disney busses to get back to POP? Will the Skyliner run during the show? We want to get back to our resort as early as possible to rest rest for our AK day.

Any better suggestions for seeing the show but avoiding the crowds? This is what I'm asking these questions, so I can tweak my plans before our FP window opens.

 

[stephk1981]

We do long trips (10-15 days) without a full day off from the park. We normally only stay in the parks for a few hours, then go back to the resort until dinner. If there's a fourth fastpass in the park we eat in we do it, if not we don't do rides after dinner.. I agree with a previous posters, we found that taking a full rest day is a waste of a vacation day for us. Have a great trip!

 

[Mainsail Minnie]

I think it's a matter of what resort you're staying at and what you plan to do with your rest day. If you're at a value resort with no plan but to swim & sleep in, I wouldn't do it, But at a deluxe resort, with their better pool, hot tubs & dining, and mych more comfortable rooms, plus plans to do a non-park activity or two such as miniature golf, boating, bicycle riding, horseback riding, bowling, shopping at Disney Springs, etc., then a non-park day can be awesome.

 

[Bjkandma]

The cost to add another day to your tickets is minimal. We've never taken a whole rest day. If we stayed late at night at a park, next day we would sleep in. Some days we did ea fly morning, and spent some ti me at resort and then back to a park for dinner.

If add the day(s) and spend your days in the parks at a "leisure" pace.

 

[sapphirerose915]

My husband cant handle too many park days, plus we drive.. so on a 6 night trip last time we did 6 park days and he bailed on me and my 2 Yoon our AK day.. this time I cut it down to 3 park days, with 2 "rest" days as character brunches, followed by some swimming, naps, and disney springs evenings and dinner! I am a rope drop to fireworks girl.. so I had to learn his style too and make it co-exist in order to be able to go back as a family!!

 

[MudQueen22]

Our last trip was ten full days, and two of those were down days. We don't own so many clothes that we can make it ten full days (plus the travel days), and I really didn't want stinky, sweaty July clothes marinating that long anyway. We knew we would need to do laundry.
We also needed mental breaks from the parks. The kids played at our campsite, played at a playground, or would swim on down days. It didn't take any more than a few hours to do laundry each time (from washing machine, to dryer, to fold and put away.)
We went to DS for lunch at the T-Rex on one of our down days also. We were rested and felt refreshed to get moving again rather than gradually worn down.

 

[Specter]

DW and I are daily afternoon break people. We hit one park in the morning and then after lunch take a break. In the past, when it was just the two of us, that break came at whatever time, so if we walked past a low wait standby ride and felt like it we'd jump in line and then just head to the resort a bit later/back to our evening park later. We were of the opinion that as long as we got to our dinner reservation on time then everything was fine.

We actually just got back from a trip yesterday and for the first time had a little one, DD 10 months. This time we were a bit "stricter" about our breaks coming between 12-1, though that was also due in part to having some earlier dinner ADRs because it was an extended family trip and we had to take what we could get for a group of 8-9.

Point being, to date we do not like taking a whole day off, but we are firm believers in giving ourselves a few hours to sit/lie down, enjoy being off of our feet and in the AC. One night when DD was just not having it after dinner we did go back to the resort closer to 7:30 or so and that little bit of extra rest was also very welcome.

You know the tolerances/stamina for your family better, but given how relatively infrequently we go (our average is a trip every 3 years but it had been 5 since the last one this time), we want to enjoy the parks as much as possible, not hang out at the hotel. We are not big resort people when at Disney. We enjoy them but we aren't there for the resort, we're there for the characters/rides/dining.