10 days - too long?

[kbpelton]

I'm planning a trip for Jan. 2007. We have the time to stay for 10 days at WDW. At first glance, it seems relatively reasonable to add on more days once you pass the 4-day mark (tickets don't cost alot more, so it's mainly hotel and food). We are a family of 5, and so I think we will stay at POR. I'm leaning toward NOT getting the dining plan.

I'm just wondering if 10 days is too long to spend at WDW. Will we get theme-parked out? If not, does anyone have suggestions on an itinerary for those 10 days (our 3 kids, all girls, will be 11, 11, and 8). We'd like to do a couple of extra cost things (water skiing, a character meal, Hoop De Doo), but beyond that we don't want to spend more $ than we have to.

(Or is it better to go for a shorter time and do more things like character dining, Cirque du Soleil, etc.?)

Also, for a 10-day stay, assuming we'll do some time at a water park and Disney Quest, do we need the 10-day tickets? Or would, say an 8-day ticket with the water park/Disney Quest privileges be better?

Thanks!
Karen in Canada

 

[Disney Planner Mama]

The longest vacation we've done at WDW is 10 days, and I am forced to admit that at that point my husband and I were looking at each other and saying "too much magic", but we did do the parks every day. On the other hand there is no rule saying that you have to do WDW every day. If you leave the parks, do SeaWorld, go to a mall, or just hang out by the pool it gives you a nice break from theme park overload.

 

[NC State]

10 days are you kidding? I would love to go for 10 days, I'm always sad to see my vacation end because I feel that I could have done so much more. You will find plenty of things to do or just relax!

 

[allisonswonderland]

I would love that! BUT I woud take some days and spend at the pool and the water parks, maybe not be hard core about the parks each and every day. I have spent many nights at Disney but never 10 in a row. However I am getting married there in Nov and we will be there for 11 but of course we will not be at the parks each day. But there are the little boats you can rent...there is always so much stuff I would love to do and feel like I never have the time....I would go for 10 days and be leisurely.

 

[Minniedap]

1O days is ideal for our family. We do not enjoy going for less than that! There is nothing that says you have to open and close the parks each and every day. 10 days gives us enough time to repeat the things we really enjoy and also do some non-themepark activities. For example, check out other resorts, swim, shop DTD, etc. Relax, enjoy the fact that you get more than a week, which can feel too rushed!

 

[BTown]

My girlfriend and I just got back from Disney, having spent seven nights at the resort. Honestly, for us, seven days was perfect, cause at that seventh day, we really started to feel worn out and tired and a little bit ready to go home so we could relax a bit! But, at the same time, for those seven days, we were in the parks from open, till close (and with extera magic hours, sometimes 3 hours beyond close).

Having said that, in hindsight, I think a ten day disney vacation could be perfect, that is, if you dont kill yourself. Go ahead and get the 10 day passes, since they are only a few bucks more, that way you can spend half days at the park, or some days not going to the park at all and not worry about it.

We're looking to go back in Jan 2007 as well, and this time we are planning to go for at least 8 nights, with at least two full days devoted to thinks OTHER than the parks, like DTD or just a day relaxing by the pool with a book.

So, yeah, in answer to your question, if you dont push yourselves, relax and take your time, 10 days can be perfect.

Good luck, hope this helps.

BT

 

[Perdie]

My husband and I are going for 11 days on Feb 9th and we can't wait!! We have a general plan to go to the parks everyday-but it's just the 2 of us and if we feel like laying around the pool and taking it easy, we will! There is no such thing as "too long at Disney" or any vacation for that matter! If you can afford it, get the time off I would say go for it! I am sure the kids will love it no matter how long you stay!!

 

[DizneyKrazed]

Each of our trips averages 10 days...for our family it's just right. For those of us who want to do the parks everyday, they can. But for those of us who don't, we just take a couple non-park days and spend time outside the parks, visiting the resorts, pool, etc.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Our trips average between 8-10 nights. This length, we see it all and just about do it all, all at a leisurely pace. We have AP's, so going into parks for just a few hours isn't wasting our money, sometimes we go just for a favorite meal. We also have one or two down days, those days are for the waterparks and DTD shopping. The first day of our vacation we never go to a park, but lately with the AP's we do. We take care of our grovery shopping for the trip laying in our beverages and snacks and such and re-acquaint ourselves with our resort of choice, see that going on and wahtever has changed. We have an agenda before we leave home and readjust our plans that 1st day going over new stuff we might have missed.

A 10 night stay is just about right, plenty of park days, though we wouldn't go to the parks all 10 days even with AP's. Two down days for all the other stuff to do at WDW and with the first day a none park day leaves about 7 park days and we like 2 days at each park busted up into 1/2 day at each park. We been doing this for years and we enjoy it.

 

[MickeyNicki]

We usually go for 4 days but we live 3 hours away....when the hurricane came by last October we stayed for a week, since we have annual passes we saved on tickets and the room at POR was super inexpensive so we just had to pay for food....we were ready to leave after 4 days but had to stay longer and since we did not know what type of damage the hurricane would bring we did not want to spend any extra money, I would have like to do Universal, the mall and SeaWorld but we chose to save instead....we did the parks every day all day!

 

[ougrad86]

I would love to go for 10 days . We have 6 full days, and two half days on either side. I would love to take the parks slower, spend more time at DQ for my DS. It feels like we're going to have to go fast .
I would take the 10 days. There are parks besides Disney, and scheduling a day or two were you can hang out at the pool and doing nothing is a nice break from running around parks. Take one day with a rental car and go to the coast. Not sure about the tickets for the water parks (we're not going). Since we're going to DQ just once, we're going to buy those separate.
Before committing, sit down with the books and decide what you want to do, and how long it will probably take. I thought I had forever, and my time ran out!
Guess that means I have to come back !

 

[DisneyNutzy]

Does the 10 days include arrival and departure? My family won't go for less than 10 but we schedule down days by the pool and non Disney activities to break up the trip. I am the one pushing everyone out of bed at the crack of dawn everyday so a 2 down days to let everyone sleep in and relax by the pool seems to recharge everyone's batteries.

If you have the time I would use the 10 days and schedule a few down days. I would go for the 10 day pass anyway since the cost is minimal and you could always hit one of the parks at night on a rest day to go to a restaurant or see a show/parade.

 

[Randy K]

Are you including travel?
Our 1st trip was what I consider 6 days but it was actually 8 days since coming from California with the 3 hour time difference the 1st and last days are pretty much travel days. We felt a little tired on the 6th day because we were busy but at the same time felt we needed another day to see everything we wanted to. So this time we are doing 8 days(10 counting travel) so we won't have to be quite as rushed and will have some relaxing time and time to go back to most of the parks 2 or 3 times. I keep thinking about a 9th day but then I think fatigue will definately set in. So I think 7-10 days including travel is about perfect. Any Longer then you definately need to plan for some slow off days.

 

[bopper]

I agree with those who say DON'T GO TO THE PARKS EVERYDAY. Do a couple of days of parks, then a sleep in/go to the pool kind of day. Or do activities at your resort...at POR you can rent a boat, go on the surrey bicycles, etc.

 

[kbpelton]

Thanks everyone for your helpful replies ALREADY!

We are driving from Ontario, Canada - our current itinerary is 3 days driving, 5 days in Orlando (including one day where DH runs the WDW Marathon), then 9 days at WDW (including check-in day), then 3 days of driving home. The 10th day at Disney might be the day of the Marathon (I'm thinking we could do a special lunch for DH, and then wander MK - walking is a good thing after a marathon).

 

[disneynewbee]

I think 10 days is great. We went in 04 for 2 wks and still left feeling like there was so much more we could have done. When we went we had an 11yo dd, 13 yo boy (my brother in law), and 2yo dd. We did do some other things like one day at sea world, a day of just shopping and disneyquest, and hoop de doo revue. By the way all the kids LOVED the hoop de doo revue, you'll have a blast. The older 2 loved the hotel pool too and would have loved a full day just hanging out at the hotel doing that. Our next trip we will allow more time at the hotel pool and epcot. We had only scheduled one day at epcot since I didn't think the kids would really enjoy it and we got a late start that day. Well the older two loved future world and we had to drag them out, I only got to see one country Mexico because we spent so much time at future world. I have to admit it was fun in futureworld but I also want to see all the countries next time. We went during value season when the hours were not too long at any of the parks though so I guess it depends on what time you go too. We also needed more time at MGM. Our next trip will be in 11/12 of 06 and we will be scheduling 2 wks again. This time we will have a 1yo dd added to the bunch so we will be even slower and definately need the full time.

 

[hogwartsdropout]

Are you kidding? I've been lucky enough to go to WDW 10 times, and each time we stayed for 14 days!
One time we stayed for just one week and I felt like it was too short.
Staying for longer, there's no need to rush around the parks. Spend time in the area surrounding WDW and perhaps do Universal. There's so many options and I feel it's impossible to get bored. You just have so much time to relax and do things at a leisurely pace

 

[ImarriedGrumpy]

I think 10 days will give you more time to relax and enjoy ALL of WDW because you won't need to be worried about cramming it all into a few short days. You can take a couple days in your favorite parks, check out the mini-golf courses (with famous Disney themeing!), visit the petting zoo at FW, spend a day at the pool, and take time to rest and relax.

Have fun!!

 

[No11's Mom]

There are 7 themeparks in Orlando - the 4 Disney parks, 2 Universal (Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure) and Sea World. If you go to each park, that would be 7 days. The other 3 days could be spent relaxing, repeating your favorite rides, etc. Given the ages of your girls, you should definitely make sure you find time to get to the Universal parks. They will love them. The longest we've stayed is 9 days, split between Universal and Disney. We spent one day going on an airboat ride, then coming back and riding the water mice at the Poly. We ended that day with dinner at Chef Mickey's. It was a nice day even though we didn't go to the parks.

 

[welovedis]

Of the 6 trips we have taken, 4 of them were for either 9 or 10 days. We just returned Jan 13th from the latest 9-day and will go again for 9 in July. However, I am including travel days because we try to arrive before noon and leave after 6pm on those days.

Not sure about the timeframe, but I personally wouldn't count on the weather for January. In Jan 2004, the temps were really cold (marathon morning I froze when the thermometer said around 32-35 degrees!) and not really warm enough for swimming. This year (Jan 5th thru 13th), it was warm enough for DH & DS to swim, I swam 1 time, they swam about 3 times and that was enough. The pools are heated but it was chilly and, on some days, downright cold when they got out. I'm wondering if the waterpark ticket would be necessary as I've heard the pool at PO is nice.

I would probably buy the 10 day ticket & then just see about maybe buying a 1 day pass for each person who would go to DQ. Less expensive than adding the whole thing onto them all for all the days.

Definitely walk the day after the marathon, he's gotta keep moving & start the reverse tapering, right?

Some other ideas, maybe mentioned earlier, but here goes:
ride the monorail to either visit other resorts or just ride the loop, ask to sit with the driver...
play miniature golf, rent a water mouse or some other type of boat...
visit other resorts, the WL has a great hidden mickey hunt that they might enjoy...
visit AKL and check out the awesome wildlife there....
shop in DtD or just sit back with an ice cream from Ghiardelli's (get the BIGI free coupon on their website by signing up for Gmail and putting a b-day close to your trip date!)....
have fun goofing around in Epcot & sending free postcards to your friends and family....
candy land in Japan is so cool...

We've spent 6 trips at WDW, totalling 47 days and we have never gone to SeaWorld, US or IOA. Just our prerogative, we find so much to do in WDW and when we think we've seen it all, we always find more!