What do you do differently?

Yep! We finally went and saw a movie one afternoon last August. It was cool, relaxing and awesome ... no need to be in the parks in the middle of the afternoon heat.

What we do differently is to be more casual in approach and pace. We plan, yes, but we feel no pressure to stay in the parks all the time. We've always loved taking afternoon breaks at the resort, but now we're even more willing to just do a few things in a park and not rush from one place to the next.

With the exception of the newest attractions or changes, we've seen and done most of what we want, so if we don't get to a particular ride or experience, no big deal for us now. No more having to get up early to make it for opening (unless we really want to, and some days we do), no more having to catch every parade or fireworks show. No sticking around a park if we're tired and would really rather go sit by the pool. And I really love it that way.

We don't make every single day a park day. We usually get a 3 day hopper, then since we usually go when MNSSHP or MVMCP are happening, we buy a party ticket, don't use a park ticket that day, instead relax at the pool/check out the resorts that day and head over to MK around 4. Arrival day and departure day are DTD days, that leaves us one whole day to do as we wish, either relax at the pool, go off property for whatever, etc. We don't feel so frazzled, and tired when we get home. I think next time we go, we'll do Sat-Sun instead of Sat-Sat, and do a 2nd "free day"

I went in July and had two free days planned because Destination D was to be held over the July weekend. Destination D was moved to November. I still kept my original plans intact. Thursday, Friday park days, weekend was spent resort hopping and then Monday,Tuesday park days. From now on, I will always have one free day in the middle of my schedule.

Only do late evenings once in a blue moon. I love getting to the parks early and going all day, but would rather relax back at the resort in the evenings.

No that we live here I hardly go on the attractions. If there is something we really want to do, I will get a FP.

I find there is more to see when slowing down. I see more details than I would running from ride to ride. I also love spending time at the resort, when we stay on property. The resorts offer so many activities.

This also goes for dining, now there is no must do when we stay. For special occasions I will book at 180 days for the restaurant of our choice. In April I had BOG lunch and dinner ADR. Just want to compare the different menus:cool:.

What do we do differently?

Like most, we take it much slower. We've done most all of the attractions many, many times, so we don't mind if we miss a few...except for Soarin' and RnRC.

But things that we do differently now vs. when we first started coming to WDW?

We no longer get the dining plan, unless it's free.

We no longer *have* to stay on property. We're going down for three days in early May, and got a room at the DTD Holiday Inn for $110/night. King sized bed, walking distance from DTD. Can't beat that *anywhere* on property.

We no longer take Disney transportation. It can be fun, yeah, but it takes so long...waiting for a bus at either end of the ride. Plus it's just faster to drive.

I no longer take a bag into the parks. We would rather buy the water and use the cell phone camera (which has vastly improved) than carry the weight of all of that everywhere we go.

That's about it, I think.

We were just talking about this, this past weekend when we went for baseball. We have also been nonstop Disney guest for over 23 years. I can tell you it has changed so much how we prepare for our trips.

First making sure everyone had brand new shorts, tops and sneakers & PJ’s all Disney of course..lol I packed like we were never coming back home. We would get the kids up at 5:00 am and hit the road. Stopping at least once or twice for bathroom breaks. We would buy day passes usually one day at a time. Depended on how long we were staying. Usually 4 days 3 nights (I would always push for more days). Never made it to the parks for the rope drop, but we would stay all day in one park and never park hop just do a different park each day of our stay. We never did restaurant reservations. We would always do counter service (in park or hotel) or leave property. HARDLY ever hung out at the pools for more than an hour or two at night. Always did the game room at the end of the night. Oh and PICTURES/AUTOGRAPHS with characters were a MUST! Waiting in long hot lines. This was before they moved them inside. Sit for 1 hour or more waiting on the parades must do as well.

NOW, we still leave early, but no way am I getting up at 5:00am. Kids pack their own clothes and whatever shoes they want. NO stopping needed. Once there we wake up when ever and hit the parks whenever we feel like it. no rushing. Now we are all AP holders so we can park hop and get so much more done in a day. We stay maybe 3 days tops if not less. I still don’t do reservations for meals, but we do go to different resorts to see what they have at their food courts. We still don’t hang at the pool for long, but sometimes we will relax and sit there, summer we might get in the water. WE has become ME and my DS11. DH, DD23 & DS18 are all busy with work and college. So we go for a day or two now. Characters are now just fun when we see them. We don’t make too many lines or get autographs anymore.:mickey:

That's how we do it now. Our arrival day is typically check in and relax. We do try to hit DtD later in the evening, then the following day we begin park hopping. Even at that we attack the park at rope drop, leave around noon, relax at the resort, then head to another one later that evening. I don't miss the days of running around to end up exhausted and ready to come back to work.....:thumbsup:

We found a closer, smaller airport last time. They no longer fly to Orlando. :( So for the lowest price it's probably back to driving 3 hrs north and by the time it gets to DW, it's bed time. And the return flights leave at 5am or so.

Our first few trips were all about the parks. We were there from rope drop to closing. I wore my poor family out again and again. Finally, after about 4 trips I decided to give them a break and we took a few days off from the parks and we never looked back.

As fun as the parks are, a vacation should be just that....a vacation! We found we enjoyed Disney a whole lot more when we slowed down and enjoyed everything it has to offer. We love trying different resorts and have come to love our resort days as much as park days. DH loves to have a free morning to golf. We've enjoyed an early evening movie at the dine in theater at DTD. DH and oldest DS have loved playing a game of checkers in the lobby at the Villas at WL, while younger DS and I enjoy rocking by the fireplace. We've spent several nights roasting marshmallows at our resort campfire, followed by a movie on the beach. Hours of afternoon fun at the resort pool, waterparks, carriage rides, the piano man at Riverside, DTD, massages, the list can go on and on of great memories we have made outside of the parks.