For offsite visitors is an afternoon break at the waterparks feasible?

[wycombedad]

I've read what's surely good advice for those staying in the bubble to make the most of mornings in the park, retire to hotel rooms and pools in the busiest and hottest part of the afternoon, and then perhaps come back to the parks for the evening.
I wondered if anyone who's staying offsite might follow a similar strategy, but use the waterparks?
While we've got waterpark days scheduled to experience all the rides etc, I like the idea of getting back to the car, heading over and spending a couple of hours by the pools and in the lazy rivers. Perhaps making the most of the cheaper offsite restaurants too, and then heading back into the parks for the evenings. Either the same or park hopping.
Would this work? Anyone tried it?

[filharmonic]

We do that all the time and some days also we’ll go to a water park after breakfast then have a late lunch offsite and go to a park 4/5 o’clock we find it great for days when we want to stay late and see the fireworks. We’ve never planned a whole day at a water park we find 3/4 hours at one more than enough.

[Mexy02]

I’ve taken you a photo of my mapman map l basically it just covers the I4 universal and Disney . It doesn’t show anything really on the 192. It will give you some idea how big the area is ( greater Manchester is a good indication of the size of this area) .

I recommend getting one so you can plan your journey times . It show where the restaurants are all located as well. Worth every penny .

[wycombedad]

Fabulous, thanks for the replies, really helpful! Great to know others are doing this too. I figured this would be a better place to ask as more here seem to value the offsite experience.

[mattyped]

Op. This is the exact scenario we do every year. Plenty of time and getting back into parks etc outside busy periods ie rope drop etc is a breeze and even been on occasions when we've had the ferry to ourselves.

[bex85chelt]

Its doable, but isnt as much of a rest as going home is (depending on how far out you are and the weather - you may want to get out of the heat or you may find an afternoon shower ruins your plans). We also some times hit waterparks for a few hours on 'rest days' as they are nowhere near as full on as the main parks. The good things with waterparks is it is easier to play it by ear and see how you are all feeling on the day and what works for you!

[Burgmeister]

We are staying at CSR and I was thinking about going to Blizzard Beach instead of using the CSR pools some afternoons as its just across the road. I'm going to play it by ear to see how we are feeling on any particular day.

[Hermione]

we do it. we stay on international drive - stick the swim bag in the boot so we can pop off when it gets hot and pootle around the lazy river nap on a sunbed. then its have a shower get dressed and BOOM we are park ready again!

[BucksBugsy]

We did this on our last day in July 2018. Check out of the villa and spent a few hours in TL which my DS13 loved. But then he probably would have spent the whole holiday in the villa pool or in the water park !

[Bridget]

Well we do this pretty much every day of our holiday. Get to main theme park for opening, do what we want to do and then head to water park, spend two or three hours there and then go back to villa, freshen up and go to another main park for late afternoon/evening. Works for us and feel like we're getting better value this way and we get stacks done.