Do you ever plan a non-park day on your trips?

Lucille

Lucille

Member
We went to WDW in January 2008. We arrived on a Thursday, late afternoon and after we checked into the hotel...we went to Epcot for the evening. Then we had five full days (Friday-Tuesday) in the parks. Then we went home on Wednesday. We were so tired by the end of the trip. Our muscles and joints ached from all of the walking.

So for our upcoming January trip we added an extra day to use as a possible "rest" day.

Have you ever added a non-park day or a rest day to your trip? What did you do on that day? Did you just sleep and relax? Swim? Go to DTD? Etc?
 
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maggiegrace1

maggiegrace1

Well-Known Member
We always have a day or two even to just do whatever..

If we do not have annual passes we always get a pass for all the days we are there..as it is only a few dollars a day.

We sleep in, swim, resort hop, go to DTD and then if we want we pop in at a park to people watch or shop or catch a parade maybe a ride or two but we take our time and just enjoy the secenery and the atmosphere.

We love going to FW campgrounds and hanging out there..so peaceful, there is a playground and pony rides for Maggie and we sit by the water and watch the boats...same thing at the resorts..:)

We are never in a rush to do anything when we go..it makes for a nice vacation!
 
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smk

smk

Well-Known Member
We always have non park days on our trips, some trips even two days. We sleep in, resort hop, shop. My favorite thing is to go to DTD and hang out. I am never panicked about missing anything cause I feel good whenever I am near Disney stuff :D.

Sometimes, vacations just are so rushed that when you come home from one you need another. Our first trip there my DH commented he didn't have fun because we set the alarm each day anyway and he felt like he was working....well I took that as a challenge and promised him that I would not set the alarm IF we could just go back again and again. Hooked him. :ROFLOL:

We try to make time for everybody's everything. You know, the one who has to go to Epcot first thing one day to ride MS. Or me...who has to end my vacation at MK and eat lunch at Casey's, or DD who loves HS and all things drama related. If we are all together then we make time for everyone to get their "musts" in. The rest of the time we just listen to ourselves, rest when we get tired and eat when we are hungry. I have found the less I plan the more fun my family has. That is one reason we have never had the DP, too much planning for us to comprehend. The CS plan fits us better, or at least I think it would fit us better, but once agian we have never tried it. Maybe, hopefully soon I will get a chance to see.
 
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Lucille

Lucille

Member
Original Poster
When you guys say you resort hop...what do you mean by that exactly?

On our last trip (my husbands first trip ever and my first trip as an adult) we didn't get up super early on any day. We did like staying until the parks closed though. We're much more night time people than morning people...that's for sure. Since the parks did close fairly early since it was January, we did feel a little more rushed than we would have liked.

I'm hoping we can force ourselves to get a moving a little earlier this time so we won't feel so rushed on this trip. I also hope adding an extra day will help.

Right now, we've kind of picked which parks we'll do on each day (based on EMH's and stuff like that.) We're thinking the Saturday of our trip will be our "rest" day. I did make a dinner ADR at Restaurant Marrakesh for that night. But other than that, we have no real plans.
 
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maggiegrace1

maggiegrace1

Well-Known Member
Resort hop...go to all the different resorts..we do all the monorail ones and the EPCOT resorts one usually along with the Campgrounds and Wilderness Lodge.

Just go visit them...walk around, visit the shops..sit and people watch..EPCOT resorts are nice with The Boardwalk and Y&B club plus we always visit the Dolphin as Drew used to work there.

We visit the monorail ones and take the boat to The Campgrounds and usually walk the trail to Wilderness Lodge.

You can eat lunch there, grab a drink..whatever..:D
 
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accord99cutie

accord99cutie

Premium Member
We always plan one, but usually end up going to one of the parks in the evening. We will sleep in, lounge around the resort, and/or hit DTD then usually by 5 I am itching to be in a park... any park, lol. we like to go out and enjoy either MK's parade and fireworks, or Illuminations at Epcot. A relaxing morning topped off with gorgeous fireworks is plenty relaxing for us!
 
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Lucille

Lucille

Member
Original Poster
maggiegrace1 said:
Resort hop...go to all the different resorts..we do all the monorail ones and the EPCOT resorts one usually along with the Campgrounds and Wilderness Lodge.

Just go visit them...walk around, visit the shops..sit and people watch..EPCOT resorts are nice with The Boardwalk and Y&B club plus we always visit the Dolphin as Drew used to work there.

We visit the monorail ones and take the boat to The Campgrounds and usually walk the trail to Wilderness Lodge.

You can eat lunch there, grab a drink..whatever..:D
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You can walk to the Wilderness Lodge? From where? I've only stayed at two onsite places before. But WL looks awesome!

We're thinking about going to the Boardwalk perhaps. It looks cute over there. And then we could walk back to Epcot for our ADR that night. Then maybe watch Illuminations.

From Pop Century..what's the best way to get over to the boardwalk??
 
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maggiegrace1

maggiegrace1

Well-Known Member
Lucille said:
You can walk to the Wilderness Lodge? From where? I've only stayed at two onsite places before. But WL looks awesome!

We're thinking about going to the Boardwalk perhaps. It looks cute over there. And then we could walk back to Epcot for our ADR that night. Then maybe watch Illuminations.

From Pop Century..what's the best way to get over to the boardwalk??
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From the Campgrounds..there is a trail..we love walking it..:)

You should really visit the Boardwalk and walk back to EPCOT..it is gorgeous at night at The EPCOT resort area..:)

Probably take a bus to EPCOT and then walk or boat to The Boardwalk or bus to the Studios and walk or boat to Boardwalk also..
 
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NiarrNDisney

NiarrNDisney

Well-Known Member
Always! There are so many activities outside of the parks, some of my favorites being: Resort hopping, shopping in DTD, mini golfing, renting a boat, and sitting by the pool with a adult beverage in hand.
 
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Lucille

Lucille

Member
Original Poster
What do you think the best way to get to WL is from Pop Century?

My husband is going to kill me. I'll probably end up turning our "rest" day into a busy day..haha!
 
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erstwo

erstwo

Well-Known Member
Wow! We just got back from a three day trip and we had our first "rest day" during this trip.

If you decide to visit the Wilderness Lodge, I'd try to time it in the evening so you can hop the boat over to Fort Wilderness too and go to Chip and Dale's Campfire Sing A Long. (Fire lighting at 6:30, Chip and Dale character greeting at 7, movie starts at 7:45ish) It is totally free and SO much fun! My kids love it.

We stayed at POP, but had a rental car and drove over. If you decide to use Disney transportation, I would take the bus to the MK and boat to WL as was suggested! Have fun!!!!
 
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wdwwdeagle

wdwwdeagle

Member
I highly recommend a non park day in the middle of your trip. Before we got our APs we did that on two trips and it really helped us feel like we had vacationed.
One time we toured the monorail resorts, just walked around each one, to the shops, took our hidden mickey book and looked for those, and then out to see the pool and beach/marina areas. The second time, we were at the Poly so we just hung out at the pool for most of the day and then saw La Nouba that evening.
Ironically, our upcoming trips don't have the rest day built in, but now we plan to just do a half-day at a park and then hit the pool, or sleep in and go to a park for dinner or a parade and then leave the park. The AP gives us more flexibility, so we don't feel it's an either/or situation with the park or no park question.
 
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Lucille

Lucille

Member
Original Poster
maggiegrace1 said:
Bus to Magic Kingdom and then boat to Wilderness Lodge
Click to expand...

Thanks!

erstwo said:
Wow! We just got back from a three day trip and we had our first "rest day" during this trip.

If you decide to visit the Wilderness Lodge, I'd try to time it in the evening so you can hop the boat over to Fort Wilderness too and go to Chip and Dale's Campfire Sing A Long. (Fire lighting at 6:30, Chip and Dale character greeting at 7, movie starts at 7:45ish) It is totally free and SO much fun! My kids love it.

We stayed at POP, but had a rental car and drove over. If you decide to use Disney transportation, I would take the bus to the MK and boat to WL as was suggested! Have fun!!!!
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Thanks for the info. I'd heard about the camp fire thing. But it sounds more like it's geared towards kids and we don't have any.

wdwwdeagle said:
I highly recommend a non park day in the middle of your trip. Before we got our APs we did that on two trips and it really helped us feel like we had vacationed.
One time we toured the monorail resorts, just walked around each one, to the shops, took our hidden mickey book and looked for those, and then out to see the pool and beach/marina areas. The second time, we were at the Poly so we just hung out at the pool for most of the day and then saw La Nouba that evening.
Ironically, our upcoming trips don't have the rest day built in, but now we plan to just do a half-day at a park and then hit the pool, or sleep in and go to a park for dinner or a parade and then leave the park. The AP gives us more flexibility, so we don't feel it's an either/or situation with the park or no park question.
Click to expand...

Things are much more laid back for us when we go to Disneyland because we used to be AP holders. So I know what you mean. With WDW, our trips are fairly rare. This will be our second one together and probably our last for a long, long time.
 
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countrygrl4

countrygrl4

Member
On my very first trip which was in August. We didnt do the park on the last day because we had an early flight. The day we got there we went straight to the MK after going to our room to drop some things off and also one of those days we actually spent it at SeaWorld and Discovery Cove which was soooo worth it! I loved Discovery cove and the sand and the beauty of it all!
 
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GenerationX

GenerationX

Well-Known Member
We typically plan one day in the middle of a six or seven day vacation as a non-theme park day. We may hit one of the waterparks or DQ on that day, but it is definitely a lower-key, slower day. It's also usually the day where we'll have ADRs for dinner at another resort's main restaurant. All of Disney's resorts have such incredible landscaping and attention to theming detail that it's fun to just visit for a meal.
 
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Mikester71

Mikester71

Well-Known Member
Since we drive down and have the luxury of having our vehicle with us for the whole trip, we usually go off property at least once every trip just to explore and do a little bit of shopping. We usually end up hitting up a park or DTD later that night though.

This past trip (March 2009), we drove over to Siesta Keys (between an hour to two hours west of WDW) and explored the nice white sand beaches they have to offer. We had never set foot in the ocean (Gulf in this case) before and heard Siesta Keys was one of the best beaches Florida has to offer. We spent a good part of the day exploring 2 of the beaches and had a blast! :sohappy:
 
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