Take a Break!

One of the recommendations I make most often is TAKE A BREAK!  I know you want to do as much as you can for as long as you can, but let me tell you from experience...if you've been in the park all day with that hot sun shining down on your pretty little face, by about 3:00 in the afternoon you are going to start fading.  We tried staying for a full day on our first Magic Kingdom trip without park hopper.  We haven't made that mistake again. 

Our experience:  We had been in the park all day and our daughter wanted to ride Goofy's Barnstormer.  Most of the line is outside.  There were fans, but it was a long line, and it was very hot (about 2ish in the afternoon in late May).  My thought was...we ride this, then we go back up and watch the parade at 3.  WRONG!  By the time we made it through that line in that heat, we were done.  All the girls wanted to do was go back to the hotel.  We were supposed to come back to the park for fireworks that night, and they didn't even want to do that.  They were wiped out!

So now we almost always schedule a break in the afternoons.  Every once in a while, we may stay at a park all day, but in the afternoon we do something cool and quiet like Hall of Presidents (Magic Kingdom) or American Adventure at Epcot.  Doing something like that allows us to take a little break and cool down.  BUT, most of the time, we get to the parks early, do as much as we can, eat lunch, then maybe take in another attraction or two, and head back to the resort to rest.  This way, we completely avoid the hottest, most crowded time of day at the parks.  Then, we come back out again around dinnertime cool and rested, and we are able to enjoy our evening. 

If you have park hopper, this is easy to do.  Tackle one park in the morning, rest, then attack another in the evening.  But many people do not realize you can do the same thing without park hopper!  You just have to leave and return to the same park in the same day!

I highly recommend scheduling a break in your Disney World itinerary.  It is so worth it.  While you feel like you might miss out on something by leaving the park, I guarantee you will not regret it.  You will be so happy and rested, you will be ready to come back in the evening and attack the rest of your itinerary and best of all, HAVE FUN! 

Until next time...
Disney Diva