HS advice - to take a break or not

Right now my HS TP has a three hour break at approx 2:15 where we will bus back to POP for the afternoon. We will then come back for a 6:10 dinner at 50’s then watch fantasmic. Do you think that break is worth it or would you stay in the park and catch a couple extra shows (Indiana Jones and possibly lightning McQueen)? Travelling party is DH, DD5 and myself. And we are starting the day right at park opening at 9am. Thanks!!!

3 hours isn’t really long enough imo. If you’re going to break, I’d leave earlier.

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Ya that’s what I was kinda thinking too! I don’t want to cut anything else out so I was thinking we should just stay and do some extra things.

Weird. Forum funkiness again. Despite the fact @missoverexcited has posted, the main page looks like this:

Notice the lack of @missoverexcited in the people who have posted.

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We never do breaks, we feel they are a waste of valuable park time. Really depends on your daughter IMO. My son (even when he was only 4) was always OK with all day until end of evening show/fireworks but we never make him wake-up too early and most of the time we get to the parks around 10 am.

And now that two more have posted her image now shows up on the main page.

Weird.

For us, our breaks are when we do a sit down meal, such as at 50’s or even HBD at HS. Doing this, allows us to relax and to eat. Another way we have taken breaks is shows, such as Beauty & the Beast or Indian Jones. Have done this in every park. It does help. We really don’t like leaving the park mid day.

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Thanks everyone for your replies. You confirmed what I was thinking. I love hearing everyone’s opinions. I think we will try and stay the full day. It’ll be our first park day so I think we can do it!!

I’ve noticed that happening too.

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The bus might take much longer than you think - not the ride, but the waiting. You could also leave the park and walk right on a bus. From POP, same thing on the return.

It’s a very real possibility that you’ll only be able to be at POP for two hours. Is that enough time to accomplish what you’d like to accomplish for a break? You might be better off just staying at Hollyweird and having a relaxed time with some extra photopass spots, or shows, or scoring extra fastpasses, shopping, fam pics that you take. Watch a Jedi Training and giggle when the announcers do the color commentary.

(maybe hop on the boat and take a ride to Boardwalk for some Ample Hills ice cream - that’s my vote if you need to fill an hour for relaxing if you wanna leave)

I’m one of the people that really likes DHS though. I can always find stuff I like there.

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Usually people say to allow an hour to travel anywhere, so that would only leave them an hour at Pop. I think 2 hours would be best case scenario personally.

This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. That makes sense to me. And those sounds like great suggestions to fill the day!

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Do you have hoppers? Hop over to EP for a little snack or something. Or to boardwalk area for same

Unless you desperately want to RP something, you could sleep in that morning and then do a late start full day?

Well, if you’re starting at 9, you’re really starting at 7, maybe even 6. You’ll be on the go for 7-8 hours even before your break. That’s a pretty long time, I think. I personally would do the break but consider Uber in at least one direction to save time, or perhaps leave a bit earlier.

Especially if this is in the middle of the trip. But, if it’s at the beginning, then no break might be just fine.

Well we definitely aren’t the sleep in kind of family. No matter how hard I want us to be haha. This will be our first day at the parks. So I am hopeful we could do it without the break. I just can’t get us out of the park any earlier than 2 for a break. I guess the worst case would be we bail and leave at dinner and end up missing fantasmic…would that be a terrible mistake? We’ve never seen the show before.

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That’s a tough question. I don’t think I’d want to miss it- it’s pretty awesome. It’s more likely that you’ll bail on the entire afternoon- we’ve done that, but that was when we could cancel dinners without penalty. (Which you still can, if the bump-and-run trick still works). Can your five-year old nap in a stroller? You could take a break for lunch at one of the monorail hotels- we did High Tea at the GF one time when my daughter was 5 and it was a blast, and very rejuvenating. Maybe there’s something similar at YC or BWI

We think Fantasmic is great. But If you bail and miss F! after an otherwise great day, it will be fine. One experience will not make or break your trip. Last family trip, we planned a mid-day break and to return to HS to watch F! with our dining package vouchers (from lunch) but after returning to the resort, only 2 of the 6 of us had the energy to return. The 4 that didn’t are excited to see it on our upcoming trip. We have scheduled 2 of our spring break park day RD to close with sleep in days the next morning. You can do it, just be willing to give in and leave if moods or stamina just aren’t there.

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Yes, returning to the resort can be deadly for evening plans! :rofl:
That’s why we stop earlier.
When the kids were little, we never went back to our ski condo, for lunch, either. The thought of gearing up and going back out was just too much! So we would always do lunch at the resort. But then you’re done at 4 pm.

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I agree. We typically do RD to dinner or late start to close with the exception of 2 RD->close days during our 10 day trip. Cannot even imagine gearing back up for a second round of skiing in a day—way more clothing and gear than finding your Magic Band and heading for the bus/boat/car!!

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