Days off from the parks?

[PoohBears#1fan]

Just interested really?

Do you spend every day at the parks or do you take days off to chill round the pool etc?
If you do take days off - how many out of your vacation, and why? Is this to rest, because you've young children or other reasons?

Also how many days out of your vacation in a DVC resort do you spend at the non-WDW parks & attractions?

Thanks

 

[lsutigger2]

Okay, I guess I'll go first. No DH and I do not do parks everyday. He's a golfer and loves to play at WDW, actually that is where he played is first round of golf ever. Somedays I ride with him in the cart. It is a great way to relax and take in the wild life and other sites. I love taking photos also, and have gotten some good ones on the courses at WDW. This year we'll be there for the Nat'l Car Rental Classic, big golf tournament, and we'll spend parts of a couple of days doing that. We don't spend much time at the pool, don't know why. And the rest of the time we spend in the parks seeing and doing our favorite attractions.

 

[Richyams]

This is one thing that seems incredibely shortsighted by Disney to me.

We had the free passes for all those years, we moved to Florida before the free passes ran out. We now get Florida Resident seasonal passes, $165. We are in the parks every single day. Out of the 100 or so days we have spent at Disney in the past ten years, we spent maybe four days off site. The free passes and the Fl res passes had the effect of being "Golden Handcuffs"( A phrase coined by the late Scott Wattum).

Even days spent at Universal were ended with dinner at Epcot.

Going into the park simply for a meal one day is possible, besides the economic incentive to spend most days at Disney.

DVC members are generally in love with Disney and not paupers. We probably fall into a very attractive economic demographic to have maximum exposure to. We are also spending very little on accomodations so we probably have extra money to spend on top of often being well off.

You know those stupid ceramics or other garbage with $1,000-$2,000 price tags? Ever wonder who buys that junk?

My wife.

If we ever do move back to New York, there is no way I will buy APs. We will buy five day hoppers and spend half the time and less than half the money we used to in the parks.

But to answer the question, we spend almost every day in Disney parks.



Disney not giving a substantial discount on some kind of LOS or something is a stupid thing.

 

[paults]

We just got back dw and I. No children -all grown up.
Because of crowds at Mk and the heat we visited VWL and OKW one day and had lunch, then back to BWV. Went to parks 2 days with hopper passes so if to crowded at one park we could go to another. Last day went to monorail resorts to visit and have lunch then back to BWV and the BW. We always rested sometime in the afternoon for 2-3 hrs from the heat. If you have young children visiting the resorts might not be for you. See ya, Paul

 

[BCVOwner2002]

We are new to DVC but have been going to WDW since 1991. We usually plan one day of our vacation out of the parks. We usually sleep a bit later in the morning, go for breakfast, then head to pool for a few hours. We head to DD for an early dinner and spend the evening walking around, shopping and people watching. This is a relaxing way to spend a day w/o a day at the parks.

 

[mouseclick1]

The more we go, the less time it seems we spend in the parks. OUr most recent trip marks our 5th visit to WDW, and we spent 4 out of 7 days in the parks. We would have probably only gone 3 days, had we not been visiting with my Brother and SIL who had never been. We also went to BB (still Disney), as well as SeaWorld and Discovery Cove. We even ate off-site for the first time! We plan to go again in Dec. 2003. We bought 7 day PH plus tickets for our last trip, and we have 3 park and 3 plus days left. My kids insist on hitting SeaWorld again when we go in 2003; they thought Kraken was the best roller coaster they had ever been on! I agree with Richyams- if we had a great AP discount, we would probably be in the parks more often!

 

[CarolynK]

We went last Thanksgiving with the intention of spending all morning at the pool, then evenings at the parks (mostly Epcot). While we did swim everyday, sometimes we would go to a park in the morning for a couple of hours before swimming.

We haven't ventured to a non-WDW park. Our kids are still too young for big roller coasters, so those parks with the big rides don't interest us just yet.

We do have APs, and we have never gone a day without spending at least the evening at a park (even if it's just to see Illuminations).

 

[Maistre Gracey]

We probably end up in at least one park every day. That being said, sometime all that may entail is a trip to the park for dinner, or something of that nature. Yes, we have had PAP's since 1995.

I generally do not leave property, except last February. We were at The Poly for super bowl, and my wife made me take her to the mall to buy a Patriots shirt. YEAH PATS!!! Actually, we have visited other parks, but not very often.

On our days off this trip, I am thinking of either parasailing, or trying The Petty Experience.

At first you will probably do the parks "comando style" running from one attraction to the next, but after a few visits this will end. I am not sure how many times you have been.

Good Luck with your decision...

 

[caskar]

As mouseclick 1 stated, the more we go the less we feel we have to go to the parks. We were there this summer and went only 2 out of 9 days. We went to BB one day, DQuest one day, shopped at DTD one day, explored the monorail resorts one day, a couple days we just stayed at the resort AKL/WL. And one day we should have gone to the parks because it ended up costing us $12,000. We went to Boardwalk and. well, the rest is history. I now read the DVC forum board all the time.

 

[MAC3]

Dh & I decided back about 2 years ago, it just wasn't a vacation doing the commando thing everyday. We have extend our week to 11 or 12 days and take every other off by the pool(or water park).

We have also come to the conclusion that we paid to stay at a nice resort and we want time to enjoy it. Not to mention, if your a parent it's always a thing your child will ask everyday! Can we go back to the hotel and take a swim??

Just my 2 cents,

 

[Rock'n Robin]

On our last trip (9 nights, 10 days) we had one day where we didn't set foot in a park. The kids did a hula lesson at the Poly, then we spent the afternoon in Downtown Disney and ate at Ohana, watching the fireworks from the Poly.
That said, we do feel the freedom to hop into a park, do one or two things, and hop out. We went to MGM on our last day just to do Millionaire two more times because I had been so close (and on our last time I finally got to the hot seat). We walked through Epcot one day after checking BCV, ate some fries, checked the line for Test Track, rode Spaceship Earth, and left on the monorail to head back to VWL. The rest of the family got 9 days on their AP, and will get 4 more next year. I had 3 days on mine in December (they didn't get theirs until July) and 9 this year--12 days, made the $$ out of it.
Even one nice day we went to TL, chilled at BWV, ate at Flying Fish with my parents and then just hopped into Epcot for Illuminations.
Everything is so much more relaxed with DVC. I don't feel obligated to be in parks dusk to dawn. But if we just go an hour or two that is OK as well.
Robin M.
PS--Rich I'm sure your wife doesn't think it's "junk"--but I know DH just stands back at Downtown Disney and lets me look at everything--although I avoid the "art of Disney" places with the expensive pricetags!!

 

[Kick it up a notch!]

We only go to the parks everyday if we have annual passes the year we go. If we do not, we only go for the time we have passes. There is plenty to do around the resort and it actuall costs me less money if I don't go to the parks. If we have the annual passes we don't stay in the parks all day either. We might go to Epcot for the fireworks, or to MK for 1/2 the day and go to the pool in the afternoon. We definately don't go to the parks like we used to, the tickets are getting a little pricey and they really don't offer much of an incentive for me to buy them. They really should consider offering something worth taking advantage of as a DVC owner, the current offerings are pretty much an insult and they really could entice us to go to the parks more often. When I go to the parks I spend more money because I don't carry lots of stuff around anymore, Two kids is enough.

 

[sgtdisney]

Richyams I couldn't agree with you more.. When we had the luxury of the free passes through the DVC we went to the parks every day. We always ate one meal in the parks, at the very least usually going to Epcot for dinner. Now, since the passes are gone, so are we for the most part. Yes, I still love going to the parks, but don't feel the 'need' to go as much. If we had access to the discounted tickets (we don't live in Florida) or some other package we probably would spend more time in the parks. Now we buy a five day pass and stretch it over 2 visits (or more.)

For example we were at WDW earlier this month. We went to MK one day. That was it.. The rest of the days (four) we spent enjoying OKW, other things at WDW, or visiting other things in Orlando. We have done this frequently since the year 2000. Plus, when we don't go to the parks, we tend to eat off property.

I suppose, until DVC mgmt sees that a majority of their members are leaving Disney property while staying at a DVC resort, we won't see any pass benefits as members. Personally, I think the very least that Disney should do is offer ALL DVC members the same benefits and promotions as Florida residents. I can dream can't I?

 

[Blake]

We spend about half the time in Disney Parks. We usually go for about a week at a time. Every other visit we buy a 7 day PH+ and a Universal 3 day pass. This lasts us for 2 trips.
Rich is absolutely correct in what he writes. Disney is too busy counting the pennies to see the dollars slipping away. I would like to have dinner in the parks, especially Epcot, but I'm not going to blow a day off our hoppers just for dinner. So Pizzeria Uno, Longhorn Steakhouse, etc. end up with our business several days each trip.

 

[donmil723]

Because we have been to WDW many times, we no longer feel that we have to see and do everything each trip. We stayed 6 nights in May and only spent 2 days in the parks, plus one day at BB. My DH and I are going by ourselves in November for 4 nights and if the weather is nice enough to be at the pool we'll probably just go into the parks one day. We like to relax and enjoy the fabulous Disney resorts.

Donna

 

[DisnutDave]

Being new DVC members (our first trip "home" is in October), this is an issue that DW and I are currently grappling with. All of our trips to the World have most definitely been "commando" style, squeezing in every minute we could at the parks. I remember watching people relaxing by the resort pools, or enjoying the miniature golf courses, wondering how they could do it!

When we joined, we decided the days of sore feet and dawn-to-midnight rushing were over. We want to savor more of the simple pleasures to be found at the World, while still getting enough of our fix of the parks. Reading some of the previous posts, I can see us over the next few years spending less and less time there. For our upcoming trip, we are planning to buy an AP, so that we can come and (gulp) go as we please.

One other thing- Rich is absolutely right. There needs to be more done by DVC to make passes more affordable. And sgtdisney hit it right on the mark- technically, all DVC member are at least part-time Florida residents. So we should be privvy to the same or similar discounts.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

We had 6 nights reserved at the WL this past Oct and we went commando style. On the 6th day we decided to stay another 3 nights. However, we were not going to go back to the parks. Instead we spent the time relaxing at the WL pool and taking the DVC tour. We bought into DVC in Nov. I cannot see my DH or DS ever doing Disney commando again.

 

[DeDixie]

We usually enter a park every day. But we NEVER go commando. Some days we sleep in, some days we play minature golf, DTD, Visit resorts, my girls enjoy the GF classes, mouseboating at different resorts, parasailing, pool hopping, going to dvc meeting, relaxing, reading, etc. We might get up early and go to Animal Kingdom, hit some of our favorites then leave 2 hours later. We are now the family that stops to play in the sprinklers.

We have enjoyed our DVC vacations so much more than the previous trips that were so great that made us want to buy DVC! We feel we have a nice balance now. I tell people (who don't undersand our Disney obsession) that we now VACATION at Disney World, we don't DO Disney World.

We buy AP and we plan our trips so we can get 2 trips (or more) from these passes. We went Jan 01, Aug 01, Dec 01 - Now we bought a new set and we will go Nov 02, Aug 02, and my oldest daughter and I are going on a surprize trip, right before her 13th birthday in Oct 02. We get our monies worth this way, and have the freedom to use a "day" just going to dinner at Epcot and see illuminations.

I also agree that we need a discount on the annual pass.

 

[sumessefui]

Since becoming DVC members in 1997 we don't do comando style anymore. But there are many days that I would just like to go into a park to just look around, have a meal, or buy some things without doing the rides or attractions. Without an AP I don't do it and they lose my money. It would be great if WDW could figure some way of letting you do that without having to pay to get in.

 

[Peter Johnson]

We do a variety of different things on vacation. Generally we end up at a park nearly every day, but rarely for more than half a day at a time. We enjoy Sea World, and I always spend one day at Kennedy Space Center. When we're not in the parks, we "resort hop", play miniature golf, sit on the patio and read, and shop and eat our way around WDW. Since we have friends in Kissimmee, we spend time with them both at and outside WDW.

We too agree with Rich about AP rates. We actually do always have APs, since we spend 24 days a year at WDW. But it sure would be nice for Disney to recognize DVCers as "frequent spenders" and give us a break. After all, an AP for Sea World only cost 2.5 days admission last time we got them!