Spending time at the Resort questions

[BriarRose924]

Hi all. Hopefully the pros here can help me out. We are staying Deluxe for the first time on our next trip. It will be during the summer heat so we are thinking of spending a lot of time at our resort for pool time and to really get the full deluxe resort experience. How do you all balance taking advantage of the resort activities and also doing the parks? I guess I'm just not sure the best way to go about it. Breaks in the middle of the day (what times?), resort all morning/afternoon then parks in the evening or vise versa. My father and sister are coming with us as well and they aren't convinced that Disney can be a great vacation. So They will definitely want to have that relaxing vacation feel mixed in. Any advice for getting a balance of Disney parks and also a relaxing resort vaca would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

 

[chs27]

Example: We'll check into BWV at 1:00, swim and eat light lunch. Then we'll get dressed for dinner adr at 5, also at resort. Epcot is open late this night, so our evening at the park will start after dinner.

 

[Karl66]

We start early, usually at the parks at or near rope drop. We take advantage of the smaller crowds in the mornings then head back to the resort around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. We head to the pool for swimming and the kids pool party hosted by the pool staff. (Lots of fun btw for kids and adults) Then after relaxing and maybe a quick snooze, we head back out to a park for the evening around 5 or so. We like doing it this way as frankly I cannot handle doing 15 hours straight in the parks especially in the summer heat. Additionally, this is a vacation for us and we feel we should, at some point, relax for a moment. We are also AP and DVC, we know we will be back soon so going commando all day every day to get it all in is not necessary.

 

[BriarRose924]

Example: We'll check into BWV at 1:00, swim and eat light lunch. Then we'll get dressed for dinner adr at 5, also at resort. Epcot is open late this night, so our evening at the park will start after dinner.

Thank you! Do you normally try to only do this when there are PM magic hours? I assume 3 hours wouldn't be enough time to be at the park? Or would it?

 

[Shanti]

Hi all. Hopefully the pros here can help me out. We are staying Deluxe for the first time on our next trip. It will be during the summer heat so we are thinking of spending a lot of time at our resort for pool time and to really get the full deluxe resort experience. How do you all balance taking advantage of the resort activities and also doing the parks? I guess I'm just not sure the best way to go about it. Breaks in the middle of the day (what times?), resort all morning/afternoon then parks in the evening or vise versa. My father and sister are coming with us as well and they aren't convinced that Disney can be a great vacation. So They will definitely want to have that relaxing vacation feel mixed in. Any advice for getting a balance of Disney parks and also a relaxing resort vaca would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

In the summer, I strongly recommend touring the parks beginning first thing in morning, at rope drop. You'll get the most rides completed in the shortest time possible this way, because the first hour a park is open is its least crowded time. Also, expect daily afternoon or evening rains in the summer. Morning is the one time of day in summer that you can typically count on it to stay dry. Try to get your outdoor rides completed in the morning, and schedule your outdoor FP+ rides for the morning, as well.

Mid-day, when it's really hot and/or rainy, is a great time to return to your resort. You can use the time to nap or swim, depending on the weather. One annoying thing about Disney resorts is that they have minimal entertaining programming on the resort room tvs, and only club level rooms have dvd players, so if you want to spend some of your down time being entertained in the resort room, you might want to bring a portable dvd player with you.

Evening, on days when evening is dry, is a good time to go to the parks to watch the evening fireworks shows or do more attractions. Evening Extra Magic Hours are great, too. In fact, summer is a particularly good time of year to make use of both morning and evening EMH, because the weather is better in early morning and late evening than it is mid-day.

But do what appeals to you. We've done summer in a variety of ways. This August, we're taking a 4-night getaway before school begins, and got 1-day park hopper plus tickets so that we can spend one long day hopping from park to park (we'll have ponchos & waterproof shoes to help us power through the rain, and I carry a small UV umbrella as a parasol to provide shade as we tour), two days for Disney's great water parks, and one full day to just lounge around the resort and swim. But even on more active days, we almost always swim. The Disney deluxe feature pools are very nice.

Hope this helped a bit. Have fun!

 

[BriarRose924]

We start early, usually at the parks at or near rope drop. We take advantage of the smaller crowds in the mornings then head back to the resort around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. We head to the pool for swimming and the kids pool party hosted by the pool staff. (Lots of fun btw for kids and adults) Then after relaxing and maybe a quick snooze, we head back out to a park for the evening around 5 or so. We like doing it this way as frankly I cannot handle doing 15 hours straight in the parks especially in the summer heat.

thats great advice. thank you! I read to plan on 4 hours in travel to take breaks. Is that true? That seems like it would only leave about 30 minutes of pool time to get it all in.

 

[BriarRose924]

In the summer, I strongly recommend touring the parks beginning first thing in morning, at rope drop. You'll get the most rides completed in the shortest time possible this way, because the first hour a park is open is its least crowded time. Also, expect daily afternoon or evening rains in the summer. Morning is the one time of day in summer that you can typically count on it to stay dry. Try to get your outdoor rides completed in the morning, and schedule your outdoor FP+ rides for the morning, as well.

Mid-day, when it's really hot and/or rainy, is a great time to return to your resort. You can use the time to nap or swim, depending on the weather. One annoying thing about Disney resorts is that they have minimal entertaining programming on the resort room tvs, and only club level rooms have dvd players, so if you want to spend some of your down time being entertained in the resort room, you might want to bring a portable dvd player with you.

Evening, when it's dry, is a good time to go to the parks to watch the evening fireworks shows or do more attractions. Evening Extra Magic Hours are great, too. In fact, summer is a particularly good time to make use of both morning and evening EMH, because the weather is better in early morning and late evening than it is mid-day.

But do what appeals to you. We're taking a 4-night getaway this August before school begins, and got 1-day park hopper plus tickets so that we can have one long day hopping from park to park (we'll have ponchos & waterproof shoes to help us power through the rain, and I carry a small UV umbrella as a parasol to provide shade as we tour), two days for Disney's great water parks, and one full day to just lounge around the resort and swim. But even on more active days, we almost always swim. The Disney deluxe feature pools are great.

Hope this helped a bit. Have fun!

Thank you so much! This is wonderful advice! What time do you suggest heading back to the room, then back to the park. I think im afraid of feeling rushed the whole day trying to go back and forth. Do you use all 3 FP in the morning then try to get the 4th one for after your break?

 

[Karl66]

Four hours sounds a bit excessive. I'd figure an hour max to get to your resort depending on where it is.

 

[Disney_and_Wine]

When I was young, (and there were only 2 hotels and 1 park), we were a "Contemporary Family". We would hop on the monorail after lunch at the Crystal Palace and spend the afternoon at the resort. After an early dinner we would head back to the park. But there was less to do then and you were limited in the number of attractions you could enjoy. (11 ticket book; 8 ticket book). So long breaks made sense.

But now, with so many things to do and unlimited attractions to enjoy, we don't find that breaking up the day makes sense. Instead, when we want/need a break, we either take the entire day off, or commit to either a morning in a park followed by the afternoon and evening enjoying the resort, or enjoying the resort during the day and heading to a park at night. (This was especially great when they had E-Ticket nights).

 

[goofyintoronto]

Hi all. Hopefully the pros here can help me out. We are staying Deluxe for the first time on our next trip. It will be during the summer heat so we are thinking of spending a lot of time at our resort for pool time and to really get the full deluxe resort experience. How do you all balance taking advantage of the resort activities and also doing the parks? I guess I'm just not sure the best way to go about it. Breaks in the middle of the day (what times?), resort all morning/afternoon then parks in the evening or vise versa. My father and sister are coming with us as well and they aren't convinced that Disney can be a great vacation. So They will definitely want to have that relaxing vacation feel mixed in. Any advice for getting a balance of Disney parks and also a relaxing resort vaca would be very much appreciated! Thank you!

I agree with the previous poster about taking midday breaks to swim and nap. My DS and I use to travel in August due to school...because of this, we'd seriously need a midday break. In that heat we just couldnt do the parks all day long. So we'd do rope drop, leave by 1pm, swim/nap at the resort, then head back out around 6pm. My ADRs are mixed and pretty much all over the place. For example for a lunch ADR we'd go the resort after we're done with lunch. We always take advantage of night EMH. Mornings are much harder.

 

[Shanti]

Thank you so much! This is wonderful advice! What time do you suggest heading back to the room, then back to the park. I think im afraid of feeling rushed the whole day trying to go back and forth. Do you use all 3 FP in the morning then try to get the 4th one for after your break?

Which resort will you be staying at?

 

[hakepb]

With FP+ you are not massively penalized for arriving at parks later.

So morning at the resort can work OK. We generally sleep in, late lunch, park from 11-2, then back to the resort for a swim/rest break then back to the parks for or after dinner.

The biggest advantages are taking advantage of ADR's and parks within a walk / or boat/monorail away.

The biggest disadvantage of Deluxe is the general lack of QS selection,(vs moderate or value food courts) so we find it important to use parks for QS as much as possible.

 

[BriarRose924]

When I was young, (and there were only 2 hotels and 1 park), we were a "Contemporary Family". We would hop on the monorail after lunch at the Crystal Palace and spend the afternoon at the resort. After an early dinner we would head back to the park. But there was less to do then and you were limited in the number of attractions you could enjoy. (11 ticket book; 8 ticket book). So long breaks made sense.

But now, with so many things to do and unlimited attractions to enjoy, we don't find that breaking up the day makes sense. Instead, when we want/need a break, we either take the entire day off, or commit to either a morning in a park followed by the afternoon and evening enjoying the resort, or enjoying the resort during the day and heading to a park at night. (This was especially great when they had E-Ticket nights).

This makes a lot of sense. thank you

 

[BriarRose924]

I agree with the previous poster about taking midday breaks to swim and nap. My DS and I use to travel in August due to school...because of this, we'd seriously need a midday break. In that heat we just couldnt do the parks all day long. So we'd do rope drop, leave by 1pm, swim/nap at the resort, then head back out around 6pm. My ADRs are mixed and pretty much all over the place. For example for a lunch ADR we'd go the resort after we're done with lunch. We always take advantage of night EMH. Mornings are much harder.

Do you find making a lunch reservation is best? so you dont waste your morning and night park time dining?

 

[BriarRose924]

Which resort will you be staying at?

Animal Kingdom Lodge

 

[BriarRose924]

With FP+ you are not massively penalized for arriving at parks later.

So morning at the resort can work OK. We generally sleep in, late lunch, park from 11-2, then back to the resort for a swim/rest break then back to the parks for or after dinner.

The biggest advantages are taking advantage of ADR's and parks within a walk / or boat/monorail away.

The biggest disadvantage of Deluxe is the general lack of QS selection,(vs moderate or value food courts) so we find it important to use parks for QS as much as possible.

Oh good point! Thank you. I didnt think of the quick service limitations.

 

[Disney_and_Wine]

This makes a lot of sense. thank you

And when people wonder: "How do you deal with the afternoon heat and fatigue?, the answer is to plot out a touring strategy that has you relaxing indoors more. For example, Carousel of Progress and People Mover are always afternoon choices for us. At Epcot, it is easy to beat the heat. France and America are tailor made for recharging the batteries. This is why we prefer to stay in the parks instead of chopping up the day. Once I get back to the resort, I lose my motivation to leave.

 

[hakepb]

Oh good point! Thank you. I didnt think of the quick service limitations.

If you are staying in Jambo, I think Mara has a better than average QS selection for a Deluxe.. but the dining area has a bit of that basement feel.

 

[loves to dive]

We always spend some time at the resort and always have but we don't plan it. When my son was a toddler I would just play it by ear, if he was getting cranky or showing signs of being too hot, we would just leave and go back to the resort. We would either swim, or nap, or I would nap and he would watch cartoons for just however long it happened. Then we would head back to the park. We pretty much do the same thing now, either he or I will be cranky or tired (he's 36 now but has permanent nerve damage in his spine but won't complain so I have to whine). We normally go back and go to the pool for some hot tub/bar time, we don't really do any certain times or amount of time, just play it by ear then decide what park to head back to.

 

[goofyintoronto]

Do you find making a lunch reservation is best? so you dont waste your morning and night park time dining?

Yes we tend to have more lunch (and breakfast) ADRs....because we like to keep nighttime adrs open for parks (its cooler!). I dont want to waste my time dining at night. It only works well when the EMH's are at night and quite late, then I dont mind scheduling a 6pm dinner for example if MK is open til midnight or 1am. But if they close at 9pm, most likely i wont have a dinner ADR.