What is the perfect trip length with 6 year olds?

[Happyjen27]

We completely enjoyed our very first DisneyWorld vacation last month. I travelled with my 5 year old twins and my husband.

Our total trip length included 2 nights at the In-Laws and 8 nights at the Poly. By the end of the trip, we were pretty much beat up. Just tired, on a short fuse, the works.

We toured SLOW. 4 hours in any park was our goal. Once we tried 5 hours in AK, and it was miserable. We hit the parks early, did what we needed and were out 4 hours later. The rest of the day we relaxed in the room or swam.

Some days we napped, then stayed up a bit later (~8?) and on those days, we would return to a park for fireworks or have dinner somewhere nice (Ohana or Chefs de France).

We never did a late night before an early morning, on those late nights we just woke up when we woke up, but with 5 year olds that was still pretty early, but no alarm clock.

So, given that we were relaxed tour people who loved breaks and downtime, what is the perfect trip length?

This December, we are planning to return. We are not staying at ILs again, as they won't be in town. So, it's just a stay at Disney.

My initial thoughts are either stay 7 nights and take a complete day off in the middle or stay 5 nights and just keep the touring relaxed.

I don't mind staying a while, we pay about 1200.00 for plane tickets, so I don't mind to add an extra day here or there, but I don't want to feel beat up at the end of it either. I seem to have the "what's another day" mentality, but maybe I'm making the trips too long?

So, what is the perfect trip length?

[DisNikki]

That's such a personal decision, I'm not sure we'll be able to help! I would just say that as the kids get older they will have more stamina. Did you use a stroller in the parks? That might have helped too. It probably seems odd to use a stroller there when you don't use one at home but it really helped when our youngest was 4. He hadn't been in a stroller for a long time but there's just so much walking that little legs can handle!

Personally I like trips on the longer side because of the airfare cost, but we also take breaks and do water parks days and such. It's just so hard to say what will work for others though

[Happyjen27]

Oh yes, we used strollers, and we're probably going to use them again in December when they are 6. (No flames please, as we all know on the Disney for Families board, it's a personal choice).

Thank you for the input so far, I look forward to everyone's insight.

[RMulieri]

We found that 6 nights was the sweetspot for our family..Any less and we were ragged, any more and we were at each others throats..it took several trips of varying lengths to figure this out for our family

[nchulka]

Can't really tell you anything for your family because we're all different. We are go go go people. I really can't even imagine only spending 4 hours at a park We did our first WDW trip when DD was 8 and DS turned 7 on the trip. We did 2 1/2 weeks of early mornings, late nights, and full days of 10-11 hours in the parks. We had 1 rest day in the middle where we swam all day and went to Fantasmic at night. We also did SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, and a day at the beach in the Tampa area, and both the waterparks. When the kids were 1 1/2 and 3 we went to LA and did DL and Universal. We did the same there except that the parks had much longer hours. At DL we arrived at 8 AM and left at 2 AM!! It was awesome. The kids are used to it because that is the pace we keep all the time in our everyday life. Life is short and we try to get as much fun in as we can. Everyone is always so hyped up with excitement no one has time to be cranky or tired

[Minnesota!]

For my family 10 - 12 days is perfect. Any shorter and we feel rushed and that it wasn't really a vacation. Any longer and I am looking forward to my own bed.

[MSSANDRA]

We mostly do a week just because that is the longest time period we can all get away. Eight days is the longest we have stayed and we have never left without someone crying over having to go home. Ok, so most of the time it is me but....... Next trip we are planning to do 10 days! We might consider DVC rental to give us a little more room for a longer trip. We have a 6 year old as well. We tour at a moderate pace. We spent a lot of time in the parks, always do rope drops, but are very willing to take a break if we want or need one and I think on our last trip, our latest night was 10:00 and most nights it was much earlier.

[SweetMissy]

Every family is different. For us, 5 days is enough, that leaves 2 days for MK. We don't NEED anymore then that. Well, I'd love to stay for a month, lol....but ya know what I mean.

[Kristian]

Each family is different, so you are going to get a wide array of answers.

Personally, we like doing 7 nights. We usually do 2-3 days of parks, then take a full day as our "rest day" and then we finish up the week doing 2 more park days. It works out well for us.

On our upcoming trip we are planning on skipping AK in order to give us more time at Epcot. AK is our least favorite park, so were just going to use what would be our AK day and do another 1/2 to full day at Epcot.

We like doing 2 days at the MK, 1-2 days at Epcot, and a full day at HS (our second favorite park). Honestly, we could use an extra "rest" day on trips because my dd likes having down time at the resort, but she also loves the parks, so I would say that 7-8 nights is ideal for us too.

If you can afford to add another night, you could always go for 8 nights and then you could have 2 days where you aren't in the parks.

[mm1971]

Originally Posted by Happyjen27

We completely enjoyed our very first DisneyWorld vacation last month. I travelled with my 5 year old twins and my husband.

Our total trip length included 2 nights at the In-Laws and 8 nights at the Poly. By the end of the trip, we were pretty much beat up. Just tired, on a short fuse, the works.

We toured SLOW. 4 hours in any park was our goal. Once we tried 5 hours in AK, and it was miserable. We hit the parks early, did what we needed and were out 4 hours later. The rest of the day we relaxed in the room or swam.

Some days we napped, then stayed up a bit later (~8?) and on those days, we would return to a park for fireworks or have dinner somewhere nice (Ohana or Chefs de France).

We never did a late night before an early morning, on those late nights we just woke up when we woke up, but with 5 year olds that was still pretty early, but no alarm clock.

So, given that we were relaxed tour people who loved breaks and downtime, what is the perfect trip length?

This December, we are planning to return. We are not staying at ILs again, as they won't be in town. So, it's just a stay at Disney.

My initial thoughts are either stay 7 nights and take a complete day off in the middle or stay 5 nights and just keep the touring relaxed.

I don't mind staying a while, we pay about 1200.00 for plane tickets, so I don't mind to add an extra day here or there, but I don't want to feel beat up at the end of it either. I seem to have the "what's another day" mentality, but maybe I'm making the trips too long?

So, what is the perfect trip length?

It's really a personal decision. We found that 7 nights was our max on any one trip. By then we are starting to feel like heading home and back to our normal routine. Now, don't get me wrong. After a few weeks we are talking about needing a vacation and heading back. We did 10 days once and it was too long, but we have friends that go for 2 or 3 weeks at a time.

[shademan]

We've been for ten days and my daughter (about 7 at the time) was crying cuz she wanted to stay! But I think it really depends on the person. If you want to stay longer and your family is getting tired, I think scheduling an "off" day or two might be a good thing to try.

[msmama]

I've been for weekends, I've been for a week. I've been as a teen, young adult, married couple and now with a kid. I've toured commando from open to close, I've toured super slow. I've NEVER EVER come home from Disney NOT feeling beat up.

I just know that by the end of a Disney vacation, I will need another vacation.

[4HppyCamprs]

6-7 night max for our family.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

[danceintherain]

I LOVED my 9 night Disneymoond
I'm trying to do an 11 night (or longer) trip at some point.
It takes me around 3 days at Disney to calm down enough to actually enjoy myself, so shorter trips don't work for me. We tend to go when the hours are shorter and take breaks, so we often only go to the parks in the mornings.

For our next trip, we're doing 7 nights, and I think we'll manage, since our tickets will only be for 4 days. We're also planning a day at Universal and a rest day. I'm almost positive that when we get back I will wish we had more time at Disney, but since we're doing the Armed Forces Salute tickets, we'd have to practically double our ticket costs to add more days.

Honestly, I think just taking out the in-laws will improve the vacation.
Just kidding...mostly...

I think the entire break day in the middle would probably help. Taking breaks during the day help, but there's still the stress of getting everyone up and ready to go first thing in the morning, and then you're tired.
It may also help to skip the parks on your arrival and departure days.

Maybe 8 nights would be the sweet spot for you?
You would have 7 full days, so with a "rest day" you could have 6 full days in the parks, which would let you do each park once, and 2 parks twice.

Did you hop at all?
What was your dining like?

[squirrel]

Well, I go for 14 nights and get a 10 day park pass.

You wouldn't like my touring! My niece and I would go from morning til night and she would nap in the stroller. We never did an early open and a late night in one day. However we did do many late night EMH. We would take a day off every 3rd or 4th day.