How restful should rest days be? (kids ages 6 & 7)

[millarmagic]

Advice please dibbers. I'm going round in circles with my plan... Next August will be our first family trip to WDW with 2 kids aged 6 & 7. At the start l planned a couple of days by the pool with maybe a crazy golf game later in the day, but l can't help feeling lm wasting time. As well as WDW we have both universal parks & seaworld to fit in as we aren't likely to visit again for a long while. I can only find 1 day for Epcot at the mo which l fear won't be enough & I'm starting to think AK might need a return visit as l don't see the kids lasting from rope drop to fireworks each day. I don't want to frogmarch the kids round the parks so ideally ld go early over a few days, take our time, and be back at the resort for tea (guessing kids would be flagging then), but that means more days needed at each park to see everything. Once we are back home we only have 2 days before the kids are back at school so not much chance to recouperate. Can any of you who have been with similar age children tell me how your rest days go...do you include them & are they true pool rest days or do the include a bit of adventuring... And do you tend to do shorter more frequent days in the parks or just go hell for leather and how did your kids fare either way? Much appreciated!

[Leggibone]

My friend and I went in 2012 and we were 19 and 22, we were knocked after two weeks, certain days were defiantly less strenuous, seaworld is quite a good (but long) day if you get in for park opening and plan the shows well you can do it all and still have wandering time to look at the animals and such, our 'rest' days are currently a trip to wet'n'wild, discovery cove and our shopping day, otherwise we are mostly go, go, go.
I can't comment on the ages of your children mind.

[Pebblesuk]

we used to go to the parks for 3/4 hours in the morning when the children were little, then come out and go to the pool in the afternoon. Sometimes we'd have the mornings around the pool, do a bit of a shopping then go into parks for the evening to see the parades and fireworks. We never did full consecutive days in a park.

[BevS97]

We don't do any 'rest days' where we don't do anything. We would rather do a 1/2 day at the park everyday, than a full day followed by no park.
This year we will be having 3 non park days, due to the limitations of our ticket,s but we will still be out all day doing something.

[Issytot]

We found we didn't need a rest day when our son was 6. We'd do the parks early, have a play in the pool after lunch then head back to the parks or other resorts for dinner or go shopping in DTD.
Occasionally we'd hit a wall while in a park for a bit longer, particularly when there wasn't much shade, so we would just head back to the hotel and pool for a couple of hours to recharge.
We thought we'd need rest days but we were so happy looking at fun stuff and enjoying ourselves that we didn't need it.

[marco_79]

We are here just now, been here for nearly two weeks, home on Thursday . We have done all the disney parks, both universal parks and Seaworld. We are doing Legoland tomorrow and back to MK on our last day. We have only had one rest day and even that was spent shopping.

I would say we have either done the parks early and came back about 2pm for a dip in the pool then out for dinner or the opposite go out about 3pm and stay for fire works.

Our kids are 5 and 8 and would never have lasted full days with the heat and crowds. Half days have been great, we have done almost everything we wanted to do. You will need express passes for universal and seaworld to get everything done in the shorter days. We had nights at the hard rock and Hilton for them. You also need to be spot on with fast passes. Only use them for the rides with the longest lines. We also had a buggy for the 5yr old and she never uses one at home.

[JoJo88]

During our 2011 trip my boys were 8&6 and we tended to go out early, back to the villa for a swim etc, out for an early tea then perhaps visit a park in the evening for fireworks or whatever. It worked for us . In fact we've done it that way during all three of our hols but I mentioned 2011 as your children will be similar ages to ours back then.

If you look at the links below, I wrote a trippy so you can see exactly how it worked out for us if you like . As I said, the 2012 one is probably most relevant age wise.

Hope this helps

[ely3857]

We didn't have any rest days (kids 3.0 & 4.5). We just switched plans around towards the end of the holiday to fit what we needed. Swapped an early EMH park plan for a water park that didn't open until 10:00 for example.

[Reereef]

Our rest days start with good intentions…me lounging by the pool reading a book, DH slow roasting himself next to me and DS having a swim and making a few friends.

By about midday though, we are all looking at one another thinking 'are they as bored as I am?' The call of the parks gets too much and before we know it we are all dressed and on our way to a theme park!

A mornings rest is not bad though, is it.

[Disney Den]

When we went last August my children were 8 and 6 and I'm afraid to say we don't have rest days or even go back to the pool for a break. My children don't understand the word rest and are on the go all day. We visit the parks every day of our trip and often get there before rope drop and stay until fireworks. We do make sure that we stop for plenty of refreshment breaks during the day and choose our rides depending on how we feel. For example, if the legs are feeling tired we do Philharmagic or Carousel of Progress, if we need a nap we do the Hall of Presidents and this way we are able to last the day.

Before we go we get the children into training by having day trips where they are on their feet all day (we are lucky as Legoland, Thorpe Park and Chessington are close to us).

Now I understand that not every child is like my two but only you know your own children's limits.

I hope you find a plan that suits all your family's needs and that most of all you have a great time planning and being there.