Mid-day breaks?

Hi, we’re wondering your thoughts on mid-day breaks…
If you take an afternoon break and return to the resort (by resort bus), how long would you allocate in your Touring Plan for this? The TP sample allocated 210 minutes, but we’re questioning if this is enough time? Is it worth it?
We’re guessing it realistically takes 45 minutes or so to get from the park to the resort (PO-R for us), including time to walk from the park to the bus and then from the bus to your resort. And then another 45 minutes to return to the park. This leaves 2 hours at the resort. Is this enough time for a swim, considering you need to shower, dry off and get all dressed again?
With kids, we’re not planning to stay late in the evening, just return to the parks for a couple of rides & dinner, and then do most early mornings.
Now, we’re questioning our TP. Is it better to stay all day at the parks, have dinner & go back to the resort? Or is that too long with kids and Spring Break crowds? Should we take a mid-day break? And, if we do take a mid-day break, is 210 minutes enough?
Thanks!

I think the idea is to leave the park during peak crowds and return refreshed for night time touring. If I make rope drop, I return to the resort around 1:00 and then returm around 5:00. That allows me to rest, swim, and recharge.

Our breaks are usually right after lunch. Epcot, for example: We hit Future World, have lunch, ride Spaceship Earth on the way out. Leave by 12:30 or 1 and plan to be back in the parks by 4:30 or 5.

That gets us back to the room in hot weather or when the crowds get heavy. Back to the parks when it’s cooler and/or less crowded.

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So maybe we’re planning our return time too early?
We’re thinking of being at the park for rope drop (8:00, if it’s an Early Magic Morning or 9:00 for regular days), then having a quick lunch in the park at 11:30 or 12:00 and then heading back to the resort for a break. But, we were planning to return to the park between 3:30-4:00. Our TPs have us at an attraction by 3:45 for one day and 4:00 or 4:15 for other days. We won’t be having a mid-day break at the resort all days.
Will we have enough time?
How long does it realistically take to get back to the resort from the park & back to the park from the resort (factoring in walking to & from the bus, security and ticket checkpoints when entering the parks…)?
Also, I’m wondering if we’ll have a hard time getting through the parade crowds at MK on our return? Kinda like a salmon swimming upstream - trying to get to our attraction through Main Street when everyone is clearing out after the parade - or maybe even while the parade is still going on???

We left the parks after a sit down lunch - which was around 2:00 most days and then still had some daylight left for swimming. We had a mid morning snack so we could have a later lunch (more uncrowded ride time in the AM). You may benefit from having the kids go a little longer in the morning since they will be alert and excited. But we wouldn’t go back to the parks until closer to 5 - or after that if we ate quickly at the hotel to save park time and not mess with QS there right away.

I’d focus on when you want daylight for swimming to be warmer but don’t rush back to the park. Some days the kids didn’t have them in it to go back for the evening, so if you think that might happen to you too then might be another reason to stay a little longer in the morning and then not feel like you have to go back. In our experience the kids wanted to swim up until the sun was DOWN and it got cold. I wouldn’t have been able to happily wrestle them out of the pool mid-afternoon. :slight_smile:

It could be upstream if you don’t wait until a little after the parade. Definitely see if the back walk way on Main street is open (behind the shops) and shoot for that if you can during parade time - it’s a huge benefit.

Good thoughts on the breaks. I’ve probably overdone it by trying to cram too much into a day and only allocating 150 minutes for breaks (we’re staying at the Hilton near DD). I imagine most of our break will be riding buses, particularly from the MK.

Looks like I better lengthen them or scrap them altogether.

Downside is that I’ve put a lot of time into making custom TPs and we leave for WDW in under 40 hours.