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

[Lucille]

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?

 

[The Crickets]

Bonnett Creek

I am fortunate that I get to stay for 2 weeks or so. We split time between out condo at Bonnett Creek and Disney resorts (DVC member very soon). We find that there definitely needs to be down time and usually take a couple days off. What we found was on days you are going to AKL or DHS you can relax at a water park or by the pool for the morning then head out. After MK or EPCOT (especially BEERCOT) we usually take the next day off to rest the feet and bones.

Is the condo @ Bonnett Creek a timeshare??? Can you buy them outright or just rent or timeshare them????? What bus from Disney can we get to go look @ Bonnett Creek????........:wave:

 

[JCtheparrothead]

Is the condo @ Bonnett Creek a timeshare??? Can you buy them outright or just rent or timeshare them????? What bus from Disney can we get to go look @ Bonnett Creek????........:wave:

There are buses to and from Bonnett from all the major parks and DTD. I don't think you have to have a pass or anything so jump on and they will take you to the resort. I haven't heard of many people renting there and we own (i think that is one of the only options to get in there). It is a beautiful resort and has some great amenities but is still under a bit of construction. But when done they will have some very cool things...like a 3 story bar with floor to ceiling windows to watch the EPCOT fireworks.

If you do go and decide to take a tour with a sales person understand that their version of 45 minute tour is 2-3 hour high pressure sales presentation. Like i said we own but will not spend another dollar with that company until they overhaul their financial services....they are horrible, really really horrible. We are buying DVC this year to compensate for our second week in the WORLD.:sohappy:

Any questions send me a note. Sorry to digress everyone!

 

[JCtheparrothead]

Non park day :veryconfu what is this concept ? never never gonna happen. too much fun to be had. Besides, I'm not a sleeper and I would be bored to death sitting by a pool.

We spend our off days at the Water Parks or resort hopping too but we usually stay away from the parks. 2 weeks is a great but long time in the world.

 

[The Crickets]

I have never noticed a Bonnett bus stop with the Disney resort bus stops...Where are they???? Also, is it timeshare or outright buying the condos????

 

[me_stitch]

we wen't for 10 days last time and spent 7 of them in the parks. wen't to Tampa one day and the other two we spent at Sea World. so we didn't get much relaxing done. Next trip I plan on just spending a whole day lounging around the pool and stuff. we'll probably go for 10 days again so unless I should be able to accomplish this, although I'm thinking I want to do the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and we'll probably do Sea World again so we'll see what happens.

 

[yankspy]

I would definitely recommend a non park day. Rent boats, resort hop, etc. My wife and I got massages at Saratoga Springs on our last trip. Nothing like a full body massage after a day of walking around MK.

 

[I-4Warrior]

During the holidays, sure. We always set aside one day to spend adequate time taking in the holiday themes at the resorts.

 

[coltow]

We always plan a day off in the middle. It gives us a chance to unwind and revive ourselves for the next few days.

We will not set alarm clock, have breakfast and hit the pool for awhile, usually eating luch poolside too. We will normally have a dinner scheduled at a resort. We will go to DTD either before or after dinner depending on what time dinner is for.

When we went at last December it was too rainy for pool so we went to check out GF, WL and AKL decorations instead

 

[WDW 3]

Not full days. We usually buy the pass for our entire length of stay. We had to this trip because we used the 5 day military appreciation ticket and you can not add days.
It was hard for us to spend an entire day without going to a park.
Previous years when we would spend the day at another Orlando area park we always ended the day at one of the Disney parks.

 

[wvdisneyfamily]

We did not our first visit as a married couple. We stayed at the All-Star Movies with a 7 day hopper and dining plan. Let me tell you, as a newly married couple, it was a scrape to even do that. It took a lot of work to get money for even that long. Thus, we couldn't really afford a day off. After that trip, as wonderful, magical, and romantic as it was, we learned our lesson. Always take a day off. You can sleep in, enjoy a breakfast, resort hop, play mini golf, recover, etc...

 

[Uncle Lupe]

Only non park days I am planning are the travel days.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Usually a day off for my family is not even an option at WDW. My Dad in fact has our entire trip mapped out like a drill seargant and because we only get to go once every 3-4 years we have to make every second count. Needless to say though on our last trip we definitely took things easier. Maybe it's just because we're all older now, but there were a few nights that we wound back at the rooms by 9:30 or 10 to swim or just relax in our room. We were there 10 days and spent two days at Universal, one at Sea World, and one at Busch Gardens in Tampa. We found though that when we were off Disney property, we missed the WDW magic and did what we had to do at the other parks and left right away. Because of this we got to do a lot of things that we never stopped to do before. Like one night we played mini golf. Another day we went to the Typhoon Lagoon for half a day, went back to the room, showered, changed, and headed to DTD for dinner at Fulton's Crabhouse to celebrate my parent's anniversary. Afterwards we took a bus to I think the Swan and took a boat over to Epcot to catch Illuminations and just stroll around the WS (something we rarely get to do). So basically my advice would be to not exactly have one park free day, but a day where you maybe move at a slower pace.

 

[DisneyRunner]

In August we did two parks and one water park, so we had a bunch of days off. These off days still got busy with shopping and resort hopping. Next time we are planning on spending more time at the resort and pool, less resort hopping. The thing is we say this every year and it never happens.

 

[Lucille]

In August we did two parks and one water park, so we had a bunch of days off. These off days still got busy with shopping and resort hopping. Next time we are planning on spending more time at the resort and pool, less resort hopping. The thing is we say this every year and it never happens.

You only did two parks? Which two?

 

[The Crickets]

???

There are buses to and from Bonnett from all the major parks and DTD. I don't think you have to have a pass or anything so jump on and they will take you to the resort. I haven't heard of many people renting there and we own (i think that is one of the only options to get in there). It is a beautiful resort and has some great amenities but is still under a bit of construction. But when done they will have some very cool things...like a 3 story bar with floor to ceiling windows to watch the EPCOT fireworks.

If you do go and decide to take a tour with a sales person understand that their version of 45 minute tour is 2-3 hour high pressure sales presentation. Like i said we own but will not spend another dollar with that company until they overhaul their financial services....they are horrible, really really horrible. We are buying DVC this year to compensate for our second week in the WORLD.:sohappy:

Any questions send me a note. Sorry to digress everyone!

I guess my question is.....Bonnett Creek has condos....are they all timeshares ..or...can you purchase them outright?????....Also...where are the Bonnett bus stops ??? We have never seen one @ Disney....:dazzle:

 

[ShookieJones]

Uhmm....

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

....I don't even know what those words mean when strung together....

This is our 5th year in a row going down as a family...Hmm Maybe
we'll do Universal for our "non-park" day.......:lookaroun

 

[Lil.Sweet.Heart]

I always take a day or so off just to relax because Disney has so much other stuff to check out. Like, going resort hoping (which makes for alot of great pictures), shopping at either DTD or the Boardwalk, Riding the monorail around, spending the day by the pool and even making dinner reservations for one of the nicer resturants at a resort and going over to the resort to walk around before eating.

 

[Tinkwings]

Goodness...we used to years ago and things just went wrong...reality of construction messes and children getting car sick top the list....restaurants that DH picked out to "save" money were horrible....much rather stay in the magic as long as possible....perhaps if I went multiple times per year I would reconsider....but I really do love not having a car and just being onsite....:king: On a long trip I always think I will miss the parks themselves and hotel hang for a day but always seems to end up going part of day....

 

[Philo]

I plan non-Disney park days.... does that count?

I'm not sure I could keep myself away from the parks if I was that close. If I need to rest I'll do it on the 9 hour flight home!

 

[valleyfan]

We always have non park days, this trip next month we have 5 days of Disney parks and one day for both Universal parks, that leaves 6 no park days that we will use to go to Daytona and possibly a day in Miami then the rest at the resort and some International Drive stuff.:xmas::sohappy: