One of the biggest mistakes I see when guests plan their Walt Disney World vacation is planning back-to-back-to-back-to-back park days and going open-to-close each day. Okay, I might be exaggerating just a bit, but you get the idea. Planning out proper rest days during your Disney vacation shouldn’t just be an afterthought. It’s essential if you want to have a magical time with your friends and family.

But if you’ve been following my previous posts on the human body’s resiliency and knowing when it’s time to take a rest day, you’ve figured out how to plan your rest days during your Walt Disney World trip.

Got the planning down? Good! There are a few more things you need to include to ensure that your body can properly recover for your next park day. Here are my top 4 tips for making the most of your rest day.

If you like what you read, go ahead and like my post and share it with your friends. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas you would like me to blog about in the future, feel free to leave a comment down below!

Catch up on Those Z’s!

Hitting the parks from open-to-close back-to-back takes a toll on the body, so you want to make sure to catch up on sleep. Not only will you be lacking sleep from waking up early to get to the park before opening, you’ll also be lacking sleep from the travel to get to Orlando. The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours of sleep per night, but you might need more if you have any symptoms of overdoing it (which we discuss here!). For those of you coming from different time zones, there are some strategies to improve your sleep.

Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate

It’s also easy to fall short on water intake while at the parks (and let’s face it, the Florida heat makes it an uphill climb to stay hydrated). Use your rest day to top up on fluids! There’s a lot of different advice on how much water is enough. The National Academy of Medicine recommends drinking about 12 cups (104 oz) for men and 9 cups (72 oz) for women. Some even advise calculating how much water to drink according to your body weight. A much easier to keep track of hydration levels is to monitor your urine color and odor: if it’s a pale straw yellow color and odorless, you’re pretty well hydrated.

My take on this? Before your vacation, keep track of how much water you’ll need to stay hydrated. I personally need to go through my 16 oz hydroflask 3-4 times throughout my workday to stay hydrated. During your vacation, you’ll likely need more since you’ve been more active and in the heat.

Remember: not all of your fluids need to come from water! Healthy fruits and vegetables and sports drinks are other resources for fluids – watch your sugar intake in those sports drinks though! And to dispell the myth: alcohol is not an ideal way to stay hydrated; it’s a diuretic and dehydrates you quicker!

Recovery Food

To aid in proper recovery, aim for a well-balanced diet of carbs, protein, healthy fats, and fresh veggie veggie fruit fruit. These foods help replenish glycogen stores and repair muscle. At Walt Disney World, it might feel impossible to do (and quite honestly, it doesn’t have to be perfect), but you’d be surprised at what food options you’d find if you looked a little closely! Besides, if Disney is so good at catering to special dietary requests, you should be able to find the right meal that will cater to your needs. 

Active Rest

While this is technically called a rest day, laying in bed all day will likely do you more harm than good. Passive rest, where your body is moving as little as possible, can be helpful in specific situations (like after a major injury or surgery), but passive rest after a park day will likely lead to tighter muscles, stiffer joints, and feeling more groggy than if you were to actively rest.

Taking an active rest day gives your body a better environment to promote recovery. Besides, there’s so many things to do outside of the Disney parks that you don’t want to lay in bed all day anyways (more to come in a future blog post!). One great way to ensure that you’re still active without doing too much is to aim for less than 50% of your step count on a park day. 

So there you have it – my top 4 tips for making the most of your rest days. Remember, if you like what you read, go ahead and like my post and share it with your friends. If you have any suggestions, comments, or ideas you would like me to blog about in the future, feel free to leave a comment down below!

Remember, these are only suggestions. It’s always recommended that you speak to a medical professional about your particular situation before you travel.