Did you ever take a WDW vacation that was too long?

[goodeats]

I did 9 nights before and it was great. I would think at 14 nights I would want to stay in a villa or condo with a full kitchen so I could make some healthier food. You can only eat out so much.

 

[aprincessatlast]

We did a 14 night/15 day and it was too long for sure! FWIW I like long vacations but wdw has its limit for us. 9 nights are good for us.

 

[mshanson3121]

Not sure if you read my other post, I just talked a bit about this. This summer, we spent 7 days in Disney with 2 rest days (well, 3 if you include the last day we spent packing up the house, cleaning etc.... lol). But, we drove to Florida, took 3 days. So... in the end we were away from home 16 days, with 6 days traveling to and from and 10 days in Florida, 7 in parks. I admit, we were FRIED by the end. We had to cut our last day in parks (AK) short because we were shot, and I had considered leaving for home even before then. Not because we felt we'd had enough time in parks (definitely not), but because we were just tired, and we weren't smart about how we toured: we spent 36 hours travel time getting there - we arrived at 4:00 pm, then had to unload, pack, do groceries etc... were up until 1:00 am waiting for the in-laws to arrive who had flown, then jumped up and were out the door the next morning for 9:00 at Epcot. That was mistake #1. We should have spent all, or at least most of that day resting, and then maybe gone into a park for a few hours late that afternoon or evening. Then, we did four very days in the parks in a row, without a break. One of those days was a very full open to close (we did go back and rest for a couple hours) at HS, which by the time we got out of the park and home was 1:00 am. That was mistake #2. So, by the time we had our first rest day, we'd already been on the go between driving and Disney, for 7 days straight. Big, big mistake.

How long is too long, is a personal decision. Do you get homesick? That's a factor. But as far as worrying about tiring yourself out, I think the big thing is, if you're going to be spending a lot of time at Disney - tour smartly. Plan rest days. They're a necessity. But, the other beauty of being able to take longer, is I think it relieves some of the pressure of feeling like you have to cram your days full, in order to "see and do it all". Our next trip we'll hopefully have 12 days in Florida. We'll be planning smart - and only doing 2 days in a row without a rest day, so 8 park days, 4 rest days. But, the beauty of that is, is towards the end, if we find we're holding up better than expected, we can always use one of those rest days for another park day. Longer trips just give you more flexibility.

 

[anniemae]

Personally, I think 7-8 days is good for us, but some go for 14 days and it still isn't enough.

I prefer to leave feeling like I wish we had a few more days rather than staying too long and feeling like I wish we could go home early.

 

[Sparkly]

We've gone for 7 days (fine but a bit rushed!), 10 days (great amount of time, did 5 days at Disney, 2 at Universal and shopping the rest) and 14 days (the best, but can only do that every few years!!)

 

[Turn the Page]

When I was a kid (middle/high school age) we went for about 2 weeks and I loved it. My dad said at the time that he wasn't sick of Disney World but at the end of the two weeks he was ready to go home. Since then, I have spent a week in WDW and this past trip we were there for 10 days. My mom and I both commented that week left us feeling really rushed. 10 days was great. I'm not saying I would turn down 2 weeks if offered just that 10 days was better for us than just one week. The entire trip for us was just over 2 full weeks ( almost ended up being 2 1/2 weeks due to travel problems on the way home but I digress) and by the end I was ready to go home.

ETA: The key to this though is frequency of trips. If I knew I was going to come back in several months or the next year I wouldn't feel the need to rush so much to fit everything in and a 7 day trip would be ok. Since that isn't the case, I think that is why I feel stressed on shorter trips.

 

[Accident]

I don't think there is such a thing as too long if you can comfortably afford it. It's also going to depend on your touring style because rope to close every day isn't going to be fun the entire trip. We like at least a full week with both weekends at minimum but have had the best times when we slowed down like we're on vacation and stayed much longer (2 weeks being our longest).. We also left that 2 week trip thinking about extending it to a third but a work obligation got in the way and we had to go.

Food choices is the one thing we needed to start getting more creative with. Not creative in what we were having but consciously trying different places for breakfast or when would that expensive table service really hit the spot to change up how we've been eating the previous couple days. There is variety on property but any 1 specific resort is going to get repetitive on what your eating after a few days. Split stays and paying attention to what other resorts are walking distance an really help decide on a perfect spot that meets your family needs during and extended stay.

I've never done a longer stay where it was all about disney property. There's days we're elsewhere in the area enjoying local things we can't get at home. Maybe it's other theme parks, aquarium, local restaurants, little hidden gems a local on a staycation recommended (some of which we've found on disunplugged "the trip" show). Tons of food choices just outside of disney property also and some really great shopping if your family or part of them are into that. We'll also do some not usual for a vacation things on property like taking in disney springs with family movie night or some of the entertainment there. My best recommendation is planning some non-disney days even if you don't have a destination. When you suddenly start to go them, they feel like your trying to find things to do, when they are on the initial plan, your looking forward to them, your asking locals what they recommend, etc etc. It's a different part of your vacation feeling and not a chore to fill up the days your there.

Just a note, you may not need a car to get to these places, there is bus options and of course uber/taxi if that fits your style better. Disney doesn't advertise these thigns, but local area things do tell you exactly how to get to them from disney

 

[loves to dive]

When we started going we would go every other year, 6 nights/7 days because I couldn't get more than 1 week off work and couldn't afford to stay any longer. We stayed in deluxe simply because at the time that was all that was available on site. Now we stay deluxe or if I'm going solo I'll do a split either one night value and the rest deluxe or 2 nights mod and the rest deluxe. We tend to go 5 nights/6 days now, again work schedule. DH and I did a dive trip to Palau one year that ended up lasting 14 days. There was one travel day, 7 nights on a live aboard dive boat, 4 nights on land after and it was supposed to be 1 day travel back but we got stuck having to do a lay over one night in Hawaii (tough I know). I didn't mind being away from home so long, I would have stayed longer had DH been able to stay away from work for so long. As it turned out, I have pictures of him doing support on the beach in Hawaii. I would stay longer at DW if I could a: get off work for longer b: afford it and c: DH wouldn't kill me for being away from home for so long. He doesn't do WDW so it's either me go solo or when my son can get off work he goes with me.

 

[minnie mum]

We frequently do 2-3 week vacations, mostly when we are travelling internationally. But not at WDW. We've stayed anywhere from 6-12 nights there, but 10 seems to be our sweet spot. Less than that and we're exhausted from all the running around. More than that and we're sick of the crowds and the noise, and SOOO tired of the food. If we want more time in Florida, we move off site.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

What a great post! It's interesting to read about others and their preferred amount of days. Every family is different and all have their variables....expenses, available funds, amount of vacation time, and other factors that need tended to back home.

We farm and also homeschool. Hubby being his own boss allows him to set his own hours. Which means work like crazy all Spring, Summer, and Fall. Rest for the winter with small projects around the farm. I really should say Mother Nature is his boss! We take a week trip right before harvest to the Great Smokey Mountains and one big Disney trip in January.

Our first trip to the world as a family was in 2013 and we stayed 7 nights in a cabin at Fort Wilderness. It was a great trip but I tried to pack too much in and for little ones that needed their mid day naps and extra sleep in the morning, well things just had to slow down to accommodate. I felt like we missed out on a lot and was not ready to go back home. But the cost of the cabins at $330 a night kind of forced us back home. If this had not been our first trip as a family and my first time back since a kid, I wouldn't have felt like I missed out on so much. I also didn't plan a down day and we needed one.

We fell in love with Fort Wilderness more than anything and so wanted to go back the next year for a longer period but less expense....So hello January 2014 and hello RV. We purchased an RV and had a great time for 12 days and it too was perfect! A nice longer vacation with a home away from home with a much more affordable nightly cost.

This year, January 2015 we stayed 21 nights at Disney for a total of 23 nights away from home. We drive and a good 16 hour drive, so an overnight stay to and from is needed. We brought tents this time and as crazy as that sounds to most, it was the best trip we had yet! Plus we saved like $2000 in fuel along from not driving down the RV. We lived in tents for three weeks and it was awesome! Lots of time spend in the parks and we left early afternoon almost every day to relax pool side and mess around the fort or somewhere in Disney. It was perfect! It truly allowed us to unwind to the max and lose touch with reality! It was great!

Our Janury 2016 trip is approaching and we once again will be staying at FW in our tents and this time for 4 solid weeks. By the second week, I feel like we live there! Now we cook a lot while there and that also saves a ton of money but more importantly our health. You can only handle so much Disney food and if we couldn't cook then I couldn't handle the long trip. We will spend a week at FW and then two weeks in the park and then the final week just messing around and maybe see the ocean, who knows. Just relaxing, not rushing, not planning every single detail, just being happy at Disney and doing whatever we feel like doing.

 

[Skywise]

Never.

Now Vegas on the other hand... You never realize that partying is ultimately... work...

 

[soniam]

I know that 3 weeks is the max I can handle in a foreign country, especially if they don't speak English. My brain gets tired constantly translating, especially menus. I am not sure how long it would take to get sick of Disney. The longest we have done just Disney was our first "once in a lifetime trip" for I think 9 days, which included arrival and departure days. Two of those days we didn't go to the parks at all, and the last day we only went for a very short time. I am hoping to do a trip in early June, where we spend 10 days at WDW and 3 days at Universal. I think I could spend much longer though.

 

[LoverDisney]

We did 10 days last summer and for what we planned it was enough. I guess it would depend on what you have planned. I would love to go for 14 days and squeeze in a trip to Universal and the Waterparks.

 

[Bullseye]

We usually do 10 nights and we still want more when it's time to leave. We bumped it to 11 nights next year and were cutting out a couple of park days to take advantage of resort and water parks more.

 

[mummabear]

We have just come back from 3 weeks and have done 28 nights on a previous trip.
There is so much to do and it is really relaxing, my only complaint it that Disney only gives you 14 days to use your tickets whether you buy 5 or 10, it would work a lot better if you could put more rest days in between.

 

[Planogirl]

If I was a new visitor or hadn't been often, I would say about a week is plenty. I could stay in the central Florida area longer though because there is so much to do outside of WDW too. We once spent a nice long vacation visiting St Augustine and (separately) Universal and WDW. I do get a bit tired of crowds and restaurant food and handing everyone money after a while though.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Our upcoming trip is 6 nights/7 days with 5 Park days and I'm worried it will be too much, even with naps/resort breaks. DS4 was pretty fried by day 3 last trip, but he was a year younger. Hope bringing the stroller helps too.

 

[dkrauss]

My wife and I have maxed out at 5 days......more driven by financial considerations and the fact that my wife is self-employed. We're now planning a 7 day/6 night trip for Nov 2016 (with family)..........that just feels so long......for us. I'd love to have more down time at the resort........which we may get on the November trip. I'd love try a 10 day trip..........but just can't make it work right now.

Doug

 

[kathy884]

Maybe it's because I ditch DH who doesn't like theme parks or Florida when I come down to Orlando. I go down with DS (now 20) and often meet up with extended family. For me, though, I like the mini trip (three, four, or five nights). A week for me is too long, and I'm anxious to get home. It happens to me on the 5th day. Three days is perfect. Two or four days is fine too. I'm just a mini trip Orlando person lol. // I know people who love going down for two weeks (that includes my extended family), and I think I'm unusual in my preference for a fun filled, but short trip. When I was a kid too, we'd often come down for two weeks. // I get theme parked out pretty fast and I really don't need or want more than one resort day in the area also. // I love the mini trip, though, and go almost every year and really look forward to it. // For my next trip by choice I'm doing four nights/three days. It's not vacation time restraints (I have 28 vacation days a year), it's not budget restraints that are keeping me from going down for less than a week (It's not like I have that huge a vacation budget, but I could double my Orlando spending if I wanted to do that). It's personal preference (how long I like to be down there).

Our main vacation every year is somewhere other than Orlando that everyone in the family enjoys. We mix that up quite a bit, but getting up to the mountains in the summer is one of our favorite get-a-ways. For that we usually go for a week. It's tough with our jobs to be gone longer than that.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

My husband and teens say 7 days are too long and always have. I've managed to get them to go twice for 7 days and that's been it - they much prefer 4 days in the parks and maybe on our arrival day - an extra evening in MK for the fireworks so that is what we usually do.