A Walt Disney World vacation is the most expensive half marathon that you will ever do.

Now, before you at me in the comments, you gotta hear me out.

A day at Magic Kingdom going from rope drop all the way past park close could mean that you will be walking 20, 25,000, maybe even 30,000 steps in one day. Now, that 30,000 steps is the equivalent roughly to about 13.1 miles or a half marathon. Let’s compound that over the course of a week where you’re not just going to Magic Kingdom, but you’re going to Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, maybe doing multiple days in one park. That could mean multiple half marathons throughout the week.

Now, do you understand what I’m saying about being the most expensive half marathon?

Now, your body is going to want to find a way to be able to save energy throughout the day and prevent the midday slump from happening. That’s why on this episode, we’re going to be covering 10 tips to help you prevent the midday slump on your Disney World trip.

Okay, here. We. Go.

A Typical Day at Disney

So, a typical Disney World vacation could start out something along the lines of this.

You wake up at 6 a.m., you get ready, you board the Disney bus at around 7 a.m., you wait until rope drop, of course you went through security, now you’re waiting in line, standing for the tap points to open. You get in the park, you ride five attractions before lunchtime, you watch the afternoon parade, and now you’re starting to feel your energy levels top off and start to tip downward.

How do you prevent this midday slump from happening?

Let’s go over these 10 tips to prevent that midday slump.

Schedule Rest Breaks and Rest Days

Starting with number one, schedule multiple rest breaks throughout the day at a theme park, and schedule at least one rest day if you’re planning to do a week-long vacation at Disney World.

In terms of rest breaks, you want to take your rest breaks before you start to feel tired. Now, doing that requires you to know how to listen to your body.

That’s something I go in-depth in in my pocketbook guide, Disney Ready Your Pain Free Parks Survival Guide, but it’s also something I go in-depth in on episode two of the Happily Ever Active Podcast. I highly encourage you to check that out.

But a good rule of thumb is to take a rest break every 60 to 90 minutes when you’re at the theme park.

And a rest break could be anything from, you know, a three to five minute breather where you’re sitting down and chilling, or a five minute stretch break, or a break where you’re sitting down and just taking a snack. Anything to break up the monotony of all the walking and all the standing that you’re doing over and over again.

Now, the number of rest breaks will depend on the park you visit and how long you’re in that park.

In general, the bigger the park or the more attractions there are in the park, the more likely you’ll need to take more rest breaks throughout the day. Now, the list of the four Disney World parks from least to most walking are as follows.

Hollywood Studios with the least expected amount of walking you’ll do. Then comes Animal Kingdom with a little bit more. Then comes Epcot with the second most amount of walking you can expect to do. And then followed by Magic Kingdom with the most amount of walking you can expect to do at any of the Disney World theme parks.

Now, of course, don’t forget Disney Springs, which is a whole beast in itself.

You will definitely be getting a lot of walking there if you plan to do a longer stay at Disney Springs for the day.

But what does that mean in terms of rest breaks?

You do want to put more frequent and smaller rest breaks throughout the day at Epcot and Magic Kingdom.

In terms of rest days, you do want to put rest days specifically after Magic Kingdom and Epcot because those are the parks where you’re planning to get a lot more walking than the other two parks.

And then finally, in general, in terms of scheduling rest days, you want to plan at least one rest day for every two back to back park days. That ensures that your body is able to recover from all that walking that you’re doing, all that time you’re standing in the hot, humid weather of Florida, and then make sure that you can hit the park the next day with more energy and with less pain.

Plan Your Park Days Carefully

Now, there’s a lot of advice out there that talks about what days you should ideally visit each theme park depending on the crowd calendar and how busy the lines are.

But in general, when we’re talking about how much walking you’ll be doing, there are some tips that I like to follow.

So, the first one, do not stack Magic Kingdom and Epcot on back-to-back days.

Those are the two parks that you’re gonna be walking the most in. You don’t wanna do half marathons back-to-back like that.

Do instead stack Magic Kingdom or Epcot with Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.

In other words, stack the parks where you’re doing more walking with the parks you’re gonna do less walking the day after. That way, you have some time to recover and you’re not doing those back-to-back really long park days.

Next, do plan Magic Kingdom or Epcot earlier in your trip.

That way, when you do visit one of those two parks, you’re gonna have fresher legs, you won’t feel as tired if you put them towards the end of the week, and you’ll have a more enjoyable time at those parks.

Next, avoid back-to-back rope drop and late nights because that means if you’re going to Magic Kingdom at eight or nine in the morning, going till midnight, and then hitting Epcot at nine in the morning, that almost automatically means that you’re getting a lot less sleep that night, and you’re giving your body a lot less time and opportunity for it to recover so that you can hit the park again.

You’re basically starting your next day on very tired legs, which could spell pain, soreness, exhaustion at the end of the trip.

Finally, avoid back-to-back long park days.

I mentioned this a little earlier, especially when talking about avoiding Magic Kingdom and Epcot back-to-back. But in general, avoid back-to-back long park days because that means you’re putting a lot more demand on your body.

Limit Screen Time Throughout the Day

This is especially important at night right before going to bed.

Now, I fall victim to this more often than I like to admit, where, for example, I walk into the line for a ride with my group, let’s say, Guardians, and the posted wait time is about an hour. And I just casually take out my phone, check the social media, see a couple of things here and there, and before I know it, we’re at the front of the line, an hour has passed and I hadn’t said a single word to my group.

I know that I’m not the only one that’s fallen victim to this.

Now, not only does it cause eye strain, which can lead to headaches, but if you’re spending too much time on your phone, especially in the evening before going to bed, that can delay melatonin release, which impacts your circadian rhythm and otherwise impacts the way you sleep. It also can increase cortisol levels, which if it’s high enough, high cortisol levels can link to decreased energy and impacted sleep.

And if your sleep is impacted, then your body’s ability to recover is worsened and your ability to be able to hit the parks the next day with all that energy, not as great.

So instead, you want to reserve your phone time only for mobile ordering or quickly checking how long the wait times are for rides. Focus more on spending quality time with your group so you can make those lasting magical memories.

Stay Cool

Now, while there are a few days at Disney World where temperatures dip into what feels like freezing, the majority of the days during the year at Disney World tend to be hot and humid.

Now, what happens when your body temperature increases is your body has to work harder to be able to cool itself down to maintain its own equilibrium. To work harder means it expends more energy, that energy that could have been used for walking, for standing, for having a magical time.

Now, how can you stay cool?

Of course, cooling towels, neck fans, misting bottles are all great ways. Don’t forget about a hat. I prefer bucket hats because it covers your neck as well. Sunglasses are crucial for your eyes.

You’re going to want to take advantage of those indoor attractions when you’re taking a break. Those indoor attractions are great because they’re air conditioned, they’re in the shade, so you get that win-win for staying cool and away from the sun.

Reapply sunblock every 80 minutes. Now, this is something that I see guests get wrong so often, and you really do want to make sure that you’re applying and reapplying that sunblock, especially in the middle of the day when the UVA and UVB rays are most prevalent.

And then finally, stay hydrated. You’re gonna wanna start your Disney trip in a hydrated state, and then you’re gonna wanna stay in that hydrated state throughout your Disney trip.

That means taking in at least 150 ounces of water for men, 100 ounces for women every day, to make sure that you’re staying hydrated.

You want to hydrate before you feel thirsty.

Choose Your Energizing Food Wisely

I cannot stress how important it is to have adequate protein in your diet when you’re at Disney, because protein helps regulate your blood sugar.

So at breakfast, you’re gonna wanna include protein, because that protein stabilizes your blood sugar levels, which leads to that sustained energy release throughout the morning. In other words, prevents that mid-morning slump and possibly that mid-day slump. So in general, avoid those sugary pastries, because you’ll end up running into that sugar crash.

Aim for as balanced of a breakfast as possible with protein, fiber, and healthy fats. Things with eggs, Greek yogurt, oats, nuts, seeds, and of course, lean meats.

When we’re thinking about snack foods, you’re gonna want foods that replenish your glycogen stores. So things like fruits, which are very much plentiful around Disney World. Apples, bananas, oranges, grapes, pineapples, strawberries, watermelon, whole grains are gonna be good.

So even popcorn, just make sure that it’s not super buttered.

And then other snacks that you can consider to help with energy levels can include pickles, veggies and dip, hummus and crackers. All great healthy options for snacks that make sure that you don’t get that blood sugar crash, which leads to that midday slump.

For lunch and dinner, the big thing here is really be careful how much you eat.

It’s really easy to overeat when you’re at Disney, and a lot of that overeating can tend to make you feel sluggish and then make you feel like you’re losing all your energy.

Pro tip, and this is something that my wife and I do a lot when we go to the Disney parks, is we share our food. That way, we don’t overeat and feel sluggish after eating, but also if we share our food and we feel like we can handle a little bit more to eat, we’ll get a little bit more or we’ll get one meal per person when we’re at a restaurant and we’ll share, and that way we can try different stuff, get more different flavors, just get a better overall experience.

Next tip about energizing foods, you’re gonna wanna avoid caffeine after 3 p.m.

Caffeine tends to keep you up, even though it feels like it doesn’t for some people, but it prevents you from getting that quality sleep if you’re taking in that caffeine after around 3 o’clock.

Now the thing about caffeine is it takes about six hours for caffeine to fully get out of your system, which means if you take it after 3 o’clock or after 4 o’clock, that caffeine’s still gonna be in your system, even if it’s a little amount, and that can affect the quality of your sleep at the end of the day.

And then finally, make sure you’re minimizing the saturated fats in your foods.

So unfortunately, that means fried foods, like fish and chips, corn dogs, funnel cake, chicken strips, turkey legs, those tend to make you feel a little bit more sluggish at the end of the day.

Pack Your Parks Bag Wisely

Researchers have found that carrying more than 10% of your body weight is related to spinal pain.

So in general, the heavier your bag, the more cumulative load you’re going to be carrying throughout the day. And that means that your back and shoulders might fatigue quicker, leading to that perceived pain at the end of the day.

On top of that, if you’ve got a lot packed into your parks bag, in general, it’s just cumbersome and overwhelming. It’s too time consuming to dig through that bag every time you need to grab something, especially if your bag is big and you’ve got a ton of stuff to dig through.

It’s personally, it’s a nightmare to go through security and get stopped by security only to have them take everything out of your park bag, see that everything’s okay, and then put everything back into your park bag and have you go.

In general, the more there’s in your bag, the more that you have to think about it. The less time or the less mental effort that you can put into thinking about how you can have a magical vacation.

So what is in my Disney Parks bag?

I usually keep a three ounce bottle of sunscreen, lip balm with SPF, cooling towel, sunglasses, a 12 ounce water bottle, a packable poncho that doesn’t take that much space, extra socks, a battery pack and hand sanitizer.

Usually that 12 ounce water bottle is on some sort of carabiner on my bag. That hand sanitizer is also on that carabiner.

So in the end, really my parks bag is a small cross body.

It has everything I need and it only has everything I need. That way I’m not carrying that much. It ends up being a couple pounds probably.

At the end of the day, those extra pounds make a huge difference.

Get Quality Sleep

Quality sleep is one of the most important things you can do to prevent that midday slump at Disney World.

Now, the vast majority of humans require between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, but the quality of your sleep is more important than the quantity of your sleep. So, if you’re worried about getting five or six hours of sleep when you’re at Disney World, you don’t have to worry as much.

As much as, you know, I would highly recommend getting more, the quality of your sleep is more important.

Here are some actionable tips that you can use to get quality sleep at night.

Okay, first, have a relaxing nightly routine. For me, my personal relaxing nightly routine includes reading a book for just five, maybe 10 minutes. That makes sure that I’m telling my body that it’s time to wind down.

Make sure that your bedroom is at a cool temperature. Now, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that your room be between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit. It could be around there. It could be, you know, a little bit higher. It could be a little bit lower. It really depends on what your body feels comfortable to fall asleep.

But in general, those cool temperatures signal that it’s time for your body to sleep.

Make sure that your bedroom is quiet, and it’s free from noises like TV’s.

If someone in your group is a snorer, make sure that you’re bringing earplugs, or you can take advantage of a mobile app like the Calm app to help with guided meditation or for white noise.

You also want to make sure that your bedroom is dark.

So make sure that the curtains are fully closed. It’s as dark as possible. Maybe you want to turn around or cover your alarm clock.

In terms of meals, you want to make sure that you’re finishing any of your meals at least two to three hours before bedtime. And like we talked about earlier, avoid caffeine after three o’clock, or in general, avoid caffeine at least six hours before you plan to go to bed.

And then on top of that, you do also want to limit alcohol intake between two to three hours before bedtime.

Now, remember that these tips are recommendations. They all tend to help with quality sleep. If you can do at least one, two, or three of them, that helps you tremendously.

Add Stretching to Your Daily Routine

Now, to make your body happy at Disney and to avoid that midday slump, your body needs three things.

A proper warm up before those 20,000 steps that you’re gonna be taking, because a proper warm up increases blood flow and reduces stiffness. It increases respiration and body temperature, which means you have more energy throughout the day. And then, finally, it improves neurological activation of the major muscle groups, which mean for you, less fatigue at the end of the day.

Your body also needs a routine to prevent that body from getting stiff in the middle of the day. That way, you’re breaking up the monotony of the walking and the standing you do.

And then, finally, it needs a proper cool down to make sure that you’re recovering for your next park day. That keeps you more flexible and less sore for the next day ahead.

So remember, you don’t feel like you have to stretch and do like a 20-minute routine, you know, three times a day.

It’s okay to do maybe one or two stretches, as long as you are intentional with the stretches that you are doing. Quality over quantity.

I do include a full stretch routine that I recommend in my pocketbook guide, Disney Ready Your Pain Free Parks Survival Guide. It’s there for your reference. It really helps you out during your Disney World vacation.

Another thing you can do if stretching is too much of a stretch for your time is self-massage.

It’s a great way to help relieve tension around muscles that tend to feel tight. You can use your hands for massage. You can use different muscle tools like a massage gun, a theracane, a muscle roller. All those will help to relieve some of that muscle tension at the end of the day.

Start a Progressive Walking Program

It should be no surprise that I’m bringing this up.

A typical park guests, like we’ve said before, get around 15,000 steps a day at Disney World. A lot of them tend to get more than that. Now, tack on the way to your backpack, the standing in long ride queues, the walking up and down the stairs.

Your body goes through a lot of stress on a Disney vacation.

Now, I do go over a customizable walking program in my book, Disney Ready, Your Pain Free Parks Survival Guide.

But in general, when you’re starting your own progressive walking program, you want to have it go along the lines of this.

First, you want to start determining your walking goal.

Whatever it is, if you want to hit 10,000 steps in a day, 8,000 steps in a day, somewhere there or thereabouts is a pretty good goal for going to Disney World.

Next, you want to make it a point to put walking into your schedule. Make it so that you don’t feel like it’s a chore to go out for a walk. Make it easier for yourself.

Next, you want to find your average current daily step count. That way, you have a baseline of where you’re starting. And then you want to increase that daily step count between 10 and 20 percent, depending on your fitness level and your activity level.

And then finally, you want to monitor your body’s reactions and adjust those changes in step counts accordingly.

Wear Comfortable Shoes That are Broken in

A comfortable pair of shoes can help save crucial energy that you’ll need to walk all day at Disney.

Poorly fitting or overly cushioned shoes tend to affect shock absorption at your foot. It affects the natural movement of your foot and leads to inefficient gait mechanics, meaning more energy wasted and more risk of that midday slump.

Now, on the other hand, properly fitting shoes will help improve shock absorption, promote natural movement of your foot, which leads to more efficient gait mechanics, and that means less energy wasted at the end of the day. So, in general, you want to look for a shoe that has a good amount of flexibility that lets your foot move as naturally as possible.

You want a lower weight for the shoe. That way, there’s less weight that your body has to lift and move while walking repetitively throughout the day.

And then you want to make sure that your shoe has some moderate amount of cushioning. Not too much, because excessive cushioning leads to that wasted energy.

Now, what does it take to break in a pair of shoes?

In general, it should take around three walks to feel like you’ve really broken in those pairs of shoes. That first walk is going to want to be something short. So walking around your house for a little bit, or walking down the block and back tends to work just fine. Something short.

That second walk needs to be a little bit longer, maybe between one and three miles. And then that last walk needs to be even longer than that. So maybe up to five miles.

Basically, you’re progressing your walking over the course of three walks.

That way you’re building on it, you’re building on it, making sure that your feet get used to those shoes as they’re broken in.