Mid-day break

[Shinrai]

With the shorter park hours, is it realistic to leave a park mid-day for a break and come back again? Either to the hotel to rest or to any of the other resorts for lunch. Particularly, I'm thinking we might want a break on our HS days if the mid-day crowd is just too much. But, I don't want to lose too much time going back and forth. What do you think?

 

[Robo]

Depends on:
A. Your stamina.
B. Weather extremes
C. Distance to/from resort.
D. Crowd size.
E. Length of park day.
F. Attractions that you "must do."

 

[LeslieLou]

Where are you breaking to?
if you’re breaking on a HS day and are staying in the boardwalk area,I’d think almost any amount of time would allow for a break. You could expect 40 min round trip.
If you’re breaking somewhere else you may need to plan up to 90 mins or more round trip. Then it’s a personal decision if you feel like that’s worth it and you can afford to lose that much time.

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

For me it wouldn’t be worth a break to leave and come back because the parks close early. I travel with all adults so a break in a comfortable place to eat would be all we need. We love grabbing a table and food at BaseLine Tap House. Great place to unwind and people watch.

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

I have always done mid-day breaks on most days of our trips. When we were there in July, we did not do any mid-day breaks. Instead, we generally went into the parks late. Epcot was open 11-9, we usually didn't go in until 1, so we'd get up in the morning, go to the pool, relax a little, then walk into Epcot (staying at BCV). Conversely, AK closed at 6, so we'd get there around 10 (2 hours after park opening), and we would schedule a 7:00 dinner at our resort (Beaches & Cream the night we were at BCV, The Wave when we were at BLT). When (if) park hours return to normal at some point, we will likely go back to the mid-day break system. However, I will say it was kind of nice just staying in the park for the day.

 

[Bete]

I would either go at park opening and leave early for good or go later and stay until the park closes. You can always find a place to rest at the parks.

I would even consider a scooter to stay there all day if needed.

 

[kdonnel]

My family and I were at HS on Labor Day weekend. We took about an hour break to ride the Skyliner and explore Riviera. We were still able to ride all rides, many multiple times.

 

[kwdw]

First - let me start with I rarely believe in returning to my resort mid-day in the first place. I do occasionally, but not frequently.

But depending on the park and the actual hours - I probably would NOT right now at all. All that transportation time and entering/exiting/walking for a break - that's a LOT of time wasted.

 

[TTA Rider Matt]

I would either go at park opening and leave early for good or go later and stay until the park closes. You can always find a place to rest at the parks.

I would even consider a scooter to stay there all day if needed.

We were there a week after reopening, and we avoided rope drop except for one day when we wanted to make sure we got a RotR BG. Crowds were light, even at RD, but we figured we'd go in a little later and avoid some of those crowds. At no point did we feel we couldn't get everything done that we wanted to, which again, was nice. I wish there was a way to eliminate the RD rush forever, but I know that is unrealistic.

 

[Melodious]

Not if you are using the buses for transportation. We tried leaving AK midday and waited a good while for a bus to pick us up. Then we wanted to go to DS and waited for that bus too. Midday wasn't good for bus times

 

[loves to dive]

I would play it by ear, I know not a popular opinion on the boards, but there you go. If you are tired or bored, take one. If you feel like you want to hang around the park, don't. We are seat of the pants type people and just sort of go with the flow. Sometimes, I just want a break from the crowds or weather and go back to the resort and either go to the pool or the room or whatever. We tend to stay at the Epcot resorts so walking back and forth isn't an issue. Even if we are staying at a resort with buses we still take a break if we want one. It all depends on your touring plan and goals. We are not ride centric so we don't care how many rides or what rides we ride. We haven't been with the new reservation system but I'm guessing we would especially take a break since we couldn't park hop and we have never stayed all day in one park.

 

[ArielSRL]

We are a midday break family but no, we haven't done it on our two trips since reopening thus far and I don't think we will do it in October either. We have been starting later in the day except HS because of RotR. This next trip we will try to start earlier (rope drop or close to it) so we can get back to the resort (YC) and take advantage of Stormalong Bay.

In November (Thanksgiving week) we may go back to starting later except HS (may take a break there) because I prefer to be in the parks later due to seeing the lights and it has seemed like the crowds tend to die down a little, the closer to closing you get.

 

[mindeola]

With shorter hours, I am not planning on any leaving the parks breaks. We will take a long lunch in the park or sit down snacks as needed.

 

[Shellyred8]

I would agree with others that have said if you are staying in the Boardwalk area or on a skyliner resort, you could make a mid-day break work for HS. If you have to take a bus somewhere, I probably wouldn't recommend it.

 

[JETSDAD]

We're normally a mid-day break family but if the hours are like this next time we can go I think we'll likely just go all day and then relax in the evening.

 

[DisLiss]

I think it depends on how you do in regards to the weather and the mask-wearing. I know some folks say they need more breaks because of them, but that's a very person to person thing.

 

[asumom]

My family and I were at HS on Labor Day weekend. We took about an hour break to ride the Skyliner and explore Riviera. We were still able to ride all rides, many multiple times.

That sounds perfect! And, Riviera's quick serve has much better food than HS.

 

[_19disnA]

We always do a mid-day break since it is just too much walking to spend all day at any park, regardless of where we are staying. Part of the year, it is simply too hot to do a park for the entire day. Your mileage may vary!!! It depends on the ages of those in your group as well as how much walking you typically do in a day at home. I think some people forget how much walking is involved and suddenly think they will be able to go-go-go non-stop when at Disney. If you have young children, you also don't know how things might go with them and a nap back at your hotel for younger ones is probably a good idea. Don't assume everyone in your party has the same stamina as you, since your grandparents (if traveling with you, for example) likely won't be able to walk as much as those much younger who are perhaps very fit.

 

[subtchr]

For most people, I'd say a mid-day break is inadvisable right now, with the short hours.

But we were there last week, and took a break of some sort most days. We are frequent visitors, and will be back again, so it wasn't vital that we hit every open attraction. And we were able to do so even with our breaks, to be honest.

A big part of the reason we took breaks was because we were staying at Yacht Club thanks to a great discount. We wanted to take full advantage of the wonderful Stormalong Bay. And it's such easy access to Epcot and DHS from there.

On our MK day, our break was a lovely boat ride to Wilderness Lodge, and a drink and snack at Geyser Point, our favorite hidden gem. It was relaxing and energizing at the same time.

For AK, we didn't break, but we left early in the afternoon after doing everything we wanted, to take a Lyft to Disney Springs for some shopping, then a bus to the Poly for a drink and snack before getting the bus back to YC from MK.

We had a fantastic time, and found the entire trip such a great escape from reality.

 

[twinmom13]

For our HS day, we used a 3:00 Sci-Fi reservation as our break. It is cool, dark, and comfy and there is entertainment. You can just sit there, drink a milkshake, and relax. Also, they are only using every other car, so the closest people were probably 15 feet away.