There were a few years that I didn't play any CV games, but I'm not sure if you could call it a hiatus since my reason was that I was a kid who was lousy at video games. I could play through levels of different games, but the only way I got through bosses was to call dad in to do it. As I got older and better at games, CV was stuck in my head as "too hard" so I didn't come back for awhile.
At some point later I made a friend who owned most of the game systems that ever came out. When I stayed at his place we basically played video games the whole time and out of all the games I'm sure we played I mostly remember watching/playing SotN, and CV64 (the two of us trying to get through the area where you are carrying the Nitro was so hilarious!). Once, after my family had moved, he let me borrow his SNES to play CV4. Watching and playing those CV titles renewed my interest in the series, and not long after that I started earning money for myself and bought a N64 and CV LoD. By that point I had become a huge fan of Castlevania.
On a side note, it was watching/playing Chrono Cross with that same friend and borrowing his copy of Earthbound from him that got me into RPGs. I'm not sure what made me become such a fan of the "retro" theme though...I guess because it's mostly what I grew up playing?