How do you schedule Resort days??

[NightAngelX]

Hello,
Our last trip was our first trip with a child (1yo) and while she did okay she was really worn out after 5 park days and got sick on the way home. For our next trip we want to maybe stay more days but same number of park days. At first I was thinking 2 park days, 1 day off, 2 park days, 1 day off, park day or 2 then home. However that would mean going to a park on a weekend. So then I thought maybe park wed-th-fri, no park on the weekend then park mon-tues. What do you do??

Thoughts on the best schedule?? I wish everything didnt have to be planned so far out with reservations and fastpass sp we could just take a day off if we felt like it.

Thanks!

 

[unrequited23]

We did the 2 park days, 1 rest day pattern last year with 5.5 and 2.75 yr olds. We did both a Sunday and a Saturday at MK and it wasn't that bad. The Saturday was our last park day of the trip and we were much more familiar with the park and using MDE. During our off time we had a character meal at another resort, checked out DS, did laundry, went fishing and went swimming twice a day.

 

[Klayfish]

Don't take this the wrong way at all, I just don't know that I'd agree with a lot of what you posted. Sorry to hear that your child got sick after the last trip, but in all likelihood it had nothing to do with going to the parks for 5 days and getting tired. Much more likely just catching something in the air or something she touched and then put her fingers in her mouth. So I really wouldn't consider that as a factor. It's more about just getting tired and cranky. I also don't really see a reason to avoid the parks on a weekend? Unless you're going on a major holiday like Xmas, it truly doesn't matter.

If you want to take a "rest day", there's nothing at all wrong with it. WDW is huge and if you push too hard, you can get tired. Been there, done that. But even when our kids were little...our first trip with them was when they were 4, 1, 1...we never did rest days. We were there for the parks, not the hotel. One suggestion would be to cut back your days a bit. If you're doing 8 hours a day in the parks, maybe scale it back and on your third day instead of 8 hours, just do 4. So maybe go from 9am to 1pm, then call it a day. Or plan a day where you're walking in the park at a very slow pace and doing lots of indoor a/c rides. I hear people say they took a "rest day", but were at the pool swimming all day, and doing all kinds of other activities. Well, is that really resting? It's just doing different things. Nothing wrong with that at all, just not sure how restful it is.

Our summer trip is 17 days, and we normally are in the parks every single day. But we do it as I mentioned above. We don't plan it specifically, but we'll just go until we feel we're getting a little tired. We may do 6 hours one day, then 4, then 8, then 5, then 7. But we never go 5 or more days in a row of 6+ hours, we'll have a day where we're back to our condo by 2pm and we're done for the day. We'll go back home and take a nap, just sit by the poolside, go out for dessert, watch TV, go to bed by 9pm.

 

[loves to dive]

We don't schedule anything, that includes FPs and ADRs other than maybe the day before and if we do FPs it's only for the morning. Then in the afternoon we can grab more FP if we want or we do whatever else we want. When my son was little, we went by his schedule. We went at his pace and since he hated strollers that meant lots of stops for him to just rest or jump off benches or watch something going on that fascinated him, which could well have been a bird. When he would get cranky, we would just leave and go back to the resort to rest. Sometimes that meant taking a nap in the room, that was usually me while he watched cartoons. It might mean a hour or so at the pool. It just depended on his mood and how tired either he or I was. After the rest we might go back to a park and we might not, again it just depended on how either of us were feeling. I have never had a problem getting day of ADRs but we don't have to do the "must do" places and even as a toddler he didn't want to eat at character meals and I hate buffets.

 

[NYCgrrl]

@NightAngelX

"Hello,
Our last trip was our first trip with a child (1yo) and while she did okay she was really worn out after 5 park days and got sick on the way home. For our next trip we want to maybe stay more days but same number of park days. At first I was thinking 2 park days, 1 day off, 2 park days, 1 day off, park day or 2 then home. However that would mean going to a park on a weekend. So then I thought maybe park wed-th-fri, no park on the weekend then park mon-tues. What do you do??

Thoughts on the best schedule?? I wish everything didnt have to be planned so far out with reservations and fastpass sp we could just take a day off if we felt like it."

5 park days with a now 2 y/older(?). No idea what time of the year you are going for but I think the one day at park, one day off is a good rule of thumb. This would require at least a 10 day trip which is pretty relaxing in and of itself .

Want a frisson of the total freedom you used to have before parenthood?
Observe your child's reactions to the day's going-ons and modify your weekend plans accordingly. Maybe baby will feel like a modified weekend park visit..maybe not. The weekend could be a nice time to visit a park like AK. Animal exhibits and shows, Dinoland and face painting are all there for the family's entertainment.
Try to keep the sleeping and eating schedule as close to home's as possible. Give yourselves time to get off your feet during meals and interact as a family. Eating doesn't have to be a race to the next attraction on a longer trip (or even a shorter one but I digress).
One "fast" (for kiddos) ride followed by one or two slow ones might be a good plan. Introduce your child to the idea of characters with no overload of character meals; s/he will have enough stimulation with the new surroundings.
Just my thoughts and hope it helps.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

I agree I wish there didn't have to be so much planning so far in advance. I would definitely plan a day or 2 off. We have APs so for us we can do 2 hours or so in a park and it not cost a park day. We do the parks most everyday but some days are just for a few hours. It does depend when you are going but I don't really think the weekend will be that much worse - especially if you have FPs set up. Enjoy!

 

[Kae]

We did the 2 days on 1 day off when the kids were little, worked great for us. We also planned Character Meals outside the park on our off days and pool time. Sleeping in time....

 

[pghmom]

We don't necessarily plan for no-park days, but my kids are early risers so we do RD -> lunch and then back to the hotel for an extended break. Once everyone is changed (if it's hot/humid outside), relaxed and refreshed we go back to the parks. This tends to be around dinner time. We also miss the hottest/rainiest parts of the day this way.

I also strategically stopped at the baby stations at the different parks when I could tell we needed some downtime. They have tvs, rocking chairs, and air conditioning which is what we needed depending on the day.

YMMV.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

We usually do the 2 park days, 1 day off pattern. On our park days we are typically there RD to close, with no afternoon break. So the off days are a welcome break to sleep in, explore the resort, swim, etc. We've tried it other ways but that's what works best for our family.

 

[MrInfinity]

The 1-yr-old was the only child? Ok so that's a trip more for you than for the baby. How much time off do YOU want? Next fall, baby will only be 2 so this is still a trip for you two. I personally wouldn't plan on several days of just hanging out around the hotel... I'd do more short days. Have a morning in the park, use Fast Passes, have lunch and leave. Then you have enough time to go back to the hotel, swim a few hours and have dinner. Maybe have 1 day out of the 7 down? I'd put it around day 5. That day I'd book dinner at a cool place in your hotel.

You'll can still book Fast Passes for some park in case you change your mind. There's no reason not to. So if you think about it, a down day is just a day you choose not to go. You can take a day off any time you feel like it. We've skipped entire Fast Passes just because.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Last trip we did 2 resort days for 11 day trip. Mostly because the agent I went with had an awesome deal for 8 day hoppers but that was the limit. During our Poly stay the kids were bored by 4-5 pm. During our stay at BC the kids were content staying in the pool all day but I hit up Epcot and left them behind. Now I get tickets for everyday of the trip. We at least hit a park for a few hours and do our FP+. With FP+ it makes it so much more worth it to get an additional day on your tickets and hit the park only for the FP+. Maybe sleep in, do some pool time, go to a park for your 3 FP+ and have dinner. Or get up early, hit a park, do your FP+ and then back to the resort to relax.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I prefer the go to the park for just a half day rather than the full day of rest model. Of course though once I'm in the park I feel like I'm not getting my money worth if I just stay 3-4 hours.

 

[4Hawks]

We did the 2 days at the park and 1 day off. It worked out great for us. We had a chance to rest and enjoy things outside of the parks. We spent plenty of time at the pool, visited other resorts, and ate at Disney Springs. We returned home happy and refreshed.

We have also done a "no-park" trip that we enjoyed very much...but we live within reasonable distance (7 hours).

 

[sponica]

I prefer the go to the park for just a half day rather than the full day of rest model. Of course though once I'm in the park I feel like I'm not getting my money worth if I just stay 3-4 hours.

I can only justify that at the end of a multi day ticket where the day is like 25 dollars. Those first couple park days we get there as early as we can and stay as late as we can.

I think next time around we'll schedule in a break day but if we decide to go to a park we'll just add the extra day(s) in down there.

 

[Klayfish]

We did the 2 days at the park and 1 day off. It worked out great for us. We had a chance to rest and enjoy things outside of the parks. We spent plenty of time at the pool, visited other resorts, and ate at Disney Springs. We returned home happy and refreshed.

We have also done a "no-park" trip that we enjoyed very much...but we live within reasonable distance (7 hours).

Not at all saying that's wrong, because everyone should do what works for them, but I just could never do that. We also live 7 hours from WDW and there's no way I could go to Kissimmee and not do Disney. It would drive me nuts, I'm too WDW obsessed.

 

[ShanaMouse]

We're going for 10 days with my now 18 month old and we are doing half days at the park but visiting one park each day. We are switching it up, however, in that we have some days where we're at the park during the first part of the day (pre-nap) and some days we'll be at the park later (post-nap), which was mainly due to FP+ availability. I figured this way it's much more enjoyable for all of us because he won't be completely exhausted day after day resulting in much understood crankiness. If you want to add a full rest day, I don't see a problem - there's so much to do outside of the parks. I would, however, not necessary stay at the parks from open to close even if you have a rest day with a 1 year old because you may still run into the little one being utterly exhausted.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We don't really schedule a full resort day. We don't do open to close at any park, though. We do a mixture of late starts and rope drops and plenty of rest for everyone at the resort.

 

[4Hawks]

Not at all saying that's wrong, because everyone should do what works for them, but I just could never do that. We also live 7 hours from WDW and there's no way I could go to Kissimmee and not do Disney. It would drive me nuts, I'm too WDW obsessed.

We did do Disney, in a way. We stayed at a Disney resort, did a couple of character meals, resort-hopped, rode the monorail, and watched the MK fireworks. However, we stopped in Orlando on our way back from Miami, so we didn't drive to Orlando specifically for this.

 

[hpsalb]

My family does best - adults included - with some down time. We alternate a break day with a full day, but head back to the hotel late afternoon/early evening on the full days. That way we are not doing back-to-back late nights. We typically like to do 2-3 park days using that pattern and then a rest day. For the rest day we swim or do something around the resort earlier in the day and either go to DS in the later afternoon or do an ADR at a resort. We've also taken a day off from the parks to do other things in the area...not so much a full break day, but much lower key. Something like the Crayola Experience.

FWIW, we have really enjoyed "break" days. So much that we have been doing non-park things in the area following our last two DCL trips. It's a good balance with little kids. They have really loved visiting some of the resorts for meals, which is not something we spent much time doing before because we wanted to maximize our park time.

 

[bigbabyblues]

My husband asked for a full day out of the parks on our upcoming trip. We are there 9 nights/10 days. I picked the fourth day of the trip, mostly because it works out with the rest of our plans. It is the day after we are doing all 4 parks in one day (DS' birthday request), which I know will be a very long day.

This is our 11th trip and the first time we have done a full day out of the parks. We don't usually stay in the parks from open to close, we take a break in the afternoon for a few hours. Sometimes some of us nap, some days we swim, some days we just hang out in the room, take showers and change clothes before going back out.