How do you spend each day? Do more vs Do less.

[Erik the Red]

Just curious how you guys break up a day at a park. Assuming you'd only get one day per park.

Seems like the best times to be at a park are at rope drop to maximize rides and near the end of the night for fireworks/shows/festivals. Makes for a LONG day.

How do you guys attack each day?

 

[DarthVader]

For my family and I, it really depends on when we're going and how long our vacation is.

For instance, a long weekend (or short week), will mean that will spend extra time at the parks, where as this latest vacation in April will be more laid back and slower. Partly because we'll be dealing with more crowds, so instead of getting frustrated and tying to jam everything in, we'll just take it easy.

Weather is also a factor to consider, if you're going in August, then its inadvisable to stay all day trying to do everything in a given park, its just too hot. Sure people do that, but why not head back to the resort in the middle of the day, enjoy the pool and then head back in the late afternoon when the temps are not as crushing.

In short, everyone is different, and when you go and how long you go for, impacts how you hit the parks - at least it does for me.

 

[Mainahman]

For us a breakdown of each park. If its cooler, were mostly Nomads, if its hot like that time we went in august, we do rope drop, pool break, close the place down.,

Magic Kingdom, Rope Drop or close to it, depending on time of year, use the fireworks ( unless its our only day there) to ride some rides while no one is in line.

EPCOT Rope Drop till I'm crying to not leave ( favorite place in the world for me)

AK, Rope drop to get in Pandora items we want and a Safari, leisurely the rest of the day catching what we want to, good meals and enjoying the Scenery.

DHS. Rope drop to get on TSMM, and then whatever else.

We always have park hoppers so we often will jump to EPCOT from DHS since there isnt alot at DHS right now.

 

[JD80]

I have young kids, we plan a character meal for lunch. We get to sit down for an hour or two, relax, eat and have fun. Then head back to the parks.

For example, last year we were doing MK and walked to Chef Mickeys for lunch and walked back. It was pretty great.

 

[Minnie Mum]

We never stay for less than a week, and we never go in the hottest months. Soooo... We RD every park day, head back to the resort after lunch for a few hours, then stay in the park til closing, or at least later in the evening. We do a non park day every 3-4 days.

 

[eliza61nyc]

My family is made up of all adults and we've been to the world many times so ymmv. The great thing about that is we no longer do rope drop, we are definitely more on the "do less" but enjoy more side of life. now with the fp system we pretty much get our favorites done and consider every thing else as gravy.

We always go back to the resort, we love pool time and we generally go when the weather is hot. We also park hop because of night time shows and favorite restaurants.

So as a general rule we'll get to the parks aroun 9 am and stay until noon or l. grab an easy lunch and head back to the resort. after chilling for a few hours, shower and change it's off to our second park

 

[JIMINYCR]

We dont have young children anymore so it makes it much easier. We go early and stay late. I plan to get as much fun time in as I can for my days ticket. I'll do repeat rides, do a lot of wandering around to scope out the details others pass by, pin trade, engage CM's in conversation and shopping. I have a list of things to accomplish at each park so I can be sure to not miss anything. Its a full day and when we get back to the resort I'm still going until I am fatigued. But I'm always rearing to go the next morning, bright and early. Theres no stopping me when I'm on a Disney trip.

 

[Weather_Lady]

We don't do the same thing each day, but our typical, most-often-used plan is:

Morning: Visit a non-EMH-morning park, arriving no later than 30 minutes before rope drop. Hit all headliners first (or in the MK, half of them, as we divide MK up into two full days), 3 with FP+ and the rest in standby. Then, start on "anytime" attractions and/or shows, making additional FP+ as desired, as we go.
Lunch: Enjoy a CS lunch in the park around noon, and then hop on the bus/boat/monorail back to our resort.
Afternoon break (3-4 hours): Take a nap (everybody). Swim if desired. Relax and freshen up for the evening.
Between 4-5pm: Head back to the park for a relaxing evening finishing the "anytime" attractions and shows, with a TS dinner. Most nights we don't stay until park closing, because we have another early morning the next day, so we leave between 9 and 10pm. On the last night, we stay up late for the MK fireworks.

We do like to build a relaxing, lazy pool morning into the middle of the vacation (so I can do laundry, and so there's some flexibility to stay up late the night before). We find that HS and AK are particularly good choices for those days, as the highlights of either can be covered in a 6-7 hour visit after lunch (with FP+).

 

[ItsJustMeAgain]

We usually go as a family of either 5 or 7 adults (19+) so we like a long morning in the pool and tend to hit the parks around 12-1 after having lunch. Depending on how long the queues are we either roam around (because Disney is so pretty that it's an attraction in itself), hit smaller attractions or get on our fastpasses which we try to schedule for mid-late afternoon. As a general rule we won't join any queue longer than 30-35ish minutes (depending on the ride) and get everything we want to do done in a day. Going with the flow has always worked for us, so far we have only waited in queues longer than 30 mins twice and that was where the wait time advertised didn't meet reality. Hit a nice restaurant or quick service for dinner and always stay for the finale shows (star wars in hollywood studios was a favourite last time) as it really does just top the night off nicely and every one of the parks takes on a completely different atmosphere are night (AK at night watching the live music with a beer is perfection). We also make the most of park exit, while everyone is scrambling to get to their cars we take the long routes out and explore the shops, or if the park is still officially open jump in a queue for one last ride. Everything's pretty empty by then and you can enjoy your surroundings and a hassle/wait free trip back.

 

[Tinkerbella16]

Now that we have gone so much, we do things differently than we used to years ago. The resort has become more than just a place to sleep for us and we want to relax more instead always going from morning till night.

Each day we always do rope drop at a park and stay until 12-1pm, head back to the resort to rest, swim, nap and recharge for the evenings and spend the rest of the night at the parks. We love having the afternoon to relax since it is the point in the day when the park is most crowded and the temps are at their hottest.

 

[DarthVader]

Now that we have gone so much, we do things differently than we used to years ago. The resort has become more than just a place to sleep for us and we want to relax more instead always going from morning till night.

My kids definitely want more resort time and enjoy the time at the resort.