2 Park Days Out of 7? Possible? Realistic?

[baleeve]

Is it possible to do the parks only 2 days out of a 7 night vacation?

We will be in WDW for 7 nights at the end of August. My thought is we would do 1 day at Disney Quest, 1 day at a water park and 2 park days (MK and HS). For the other 3 days I thought we would explore, swim and just wander. We are staying at POP.

Is this realistic to think I can get away with only 2 park days if Im traveling with an 8 and 10 year old?

P.S. We were in WDW Christmas of 2010 and we did it all. We were exhausted! So they have been to all 4 parks.

 

[disney1990]

Is it possible to do the parks only 2 days out of a 7 night vacation?

We will be in WDW for 7 nights at the end of August. My thought is we would do 1 day at Disney Quest, 1 day at a water park and 2 park days (MK and HS). For the other 3 days I thought we would explore, swim and just wander. We are staying at POP.

Is this realistic to think I can get away with only 2 park days if Im traveling with an 8 and 10 year old?

P.S. We were in WDW Christmas of 2010 and we did it all. We were exhausted! So they have been to all 4 parks.

It would be hard for us to be there and only go for two days. We sometimes take off a day or two.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

For the three of you it would cost an additional $230 plus tax in total to add two extra Park days and it would also add 2 extra fun visits. The kids are three years older and would be more appreciative of the parks, especially Epcot (don't tell them Epcot is educational).

 

[Nancyg56]

It sounds like a good idea when you plan it but for my family, it did not work out. We had tix for our entire stay, but thought that since Thanksgiving Holiday was going to be crazy in the parks, we would keep busy elsewhere and use the rest of the week to hit the parks. My DD still thinks we had a good plan, but she is the only one. My 11 YO DGD never complained, but she wanted the parks, as did my DH and DSIL.

We stayed at BC, so we did go in and out of Epcot, but that was not the same, we wanted park time.

 

[choppee]

actually, i guess i am a dissenter here because we are doing pretty much the same thing this june. we will be there for eight days and are only spending two days in the parks! last time we went to wdw we did the marathon thing and spending each and every day touring all four parks. all our kids wanted to do after the first three days was to stay by the resort and play in the pool. we hit the wall, but still plodded along! what a mistake. this year, we are only doing our favorite two (mk and hs) and will spend the rest of the time enjoying the resorts and the pools. if it seems like it's not enough, we can always find something else to do! i'm not worried about that, though. our kids are more into the pools than anything else (9, 7, 6). do what's best for you! nothing can take away that right that you have, and remember...it's VACATION. it's what that word means to you!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

actually, i guess i am a dissenter here because we are doing pretty much the same thing this june. we will be there for eight days and are only spending two days in the parks! last time we went to wdw we did the marathon thing and spending each and every day touring all four parks. all our kids wanted to do after the first three days was to stay by the resort and play in the pool. we hit the wall, but still plodded along! what a mistake. this year, we are only doing our favorite two (mk and hs) and will spend the rest of the time enjoying the resorts and the pools. if it seems like it's not enough, we can always find something else to do! i'm not worried about that, though. our kids are more into the pools than anything else (9, 7, 6). do what's best for you! nothing can take away that right that you have, and remember...it's VACATION. it's what that word means to you!

I have to agree with you! When we went in 2010 (DD11, DS 13) we did the marathon: Sea World, MK, EP, AK, HS, Typhoon Lagoon & Blizzard Beach all in 7 days and the park days were comando days. We never had time to swim in the resort pool or visit DTD and we were exhausted. My kids, now 14 & 16, are excited to go again but asked for more downtime to just relax. We will be there 7 days in early June and will only do 3 park days (MK, HS for SWW, & an AK/EP combo day). We will also hit the waterparks (maybe not both), rent water mice, visit DTD for shopping & DQ, play golf...it will be a more relaxing trip.

 

[indimom]

We're doing something like that this year.
We'll be at Ft. Wilderness six days.
We are visiting two major parks (probably DHS and Epcot) and the two water parks (BB and TL).
I'd just keep Cheshire Figment's information in mind, and if you realize it's not working out or you want to do more, upgrade your tickets.
Have a great trip!

 

[klangkat]

As an adult now, no I couldn't bear it! We'll be doing 20 FULL park days on our 19 night stay this trip - not a single pool afternoon on rest day in sight
However as kids our parents had to drag us out the pool to go to the parks, so we probably could have done a trip like that then.
The only problem would have been that our favourite rides were 'scattered' over three of the parks... I think it would have been hard explaining to a six y/o that they had come all this way and couldn't do their favourite ride. I'm guessing your kids are totally happy with only doing two parks? And that they understand which attractions are at which park so they know exactly what they'll be missing?

 

[choppee]

As an adult now, no I couldn't bear it! We'll be doing 20 FULL park days on our 19 night stay this trip - not a single pool afternoon on rest day in sight
However as kids our parents had to drag us out the pool to go to the parks, so we probably could have done a trip like that then.
The only problem would have been that our favourite rides were 'scattered' over three of the parks... I think it would have been hard explaining to a six y/o that they had come all this way and couldn't do their favourite ride. I'm guessing your kids are totally happy with only doing two parks? And that they understand which attractions are at which park so they know exactly what they'll be missing?

whew!!! wish i could stay that long, and yes! have a similar touring plan, but with our kids we have to slow it down. i would probably do as you, but have a few days of lounging and dtd days. i explained to our kids that they would miss out on the rides in the two parks we are missing, and they seemed fine with it...we will see when we arrive how it goes! if we need to upgrade, we will. if not--cool beans! we will get to the point where we can roll a bit more soon enough.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

We couldn't do it. If I'm paying the high prices to stay on Disney Property, then I'm going to the parks.

Otherwise it doesn't make sense to me to spend all that money staying onsite.

 

[Oathkeeper13]

For me it's not a vacation unless I go to all four parks. I would recommend spreading it out over the seven days, doing less intense days between the park visits. But then again I'm not a big water park fan. If visiting both water parks is important to you then I could see forgoing one or more of the parks. I'm a big advocate of only one park a day scheduling and I think you could pull off three parks if you want to.

Example:
Day 1 Arrive do Disney Quest and Downtown Disney
Day 2 Magic Kingdom
Day 3 Blizzard Beach
Day 4 Hollywood Studios
Day 5 typhoon Lagoon
Day 6 Animal Kingdom or Epcot
Day 7 Lounging or Downtown Disney

Remember when you go to a park you don't have to hit every single ride, and see every show. Take it easy, just do the things you really like and take breaks to go back to the hotel and lounge by the pool.

 

[pooh4evr]

Definitely could not do it, my kids would revolt! They would move into the castle if they could. I can see maybe taking a couple of days easy shorten the park touring then swim, dtd, minigolf or whatever. If you haven't been since 2010- three years ago- things have changed, the kids have changed too- for us each trip is different just because our kids are some much different each time, for 1 they are bigger and want to ride bigger rides, and their interests change. I haven't done Disney Quest so can't comment there, but, I would get bored with the one pool at Pop, and would miss the parks magic.

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

The only problem would have been that our favourite rides were 'scattered' over three of the parks...

This is the reason we could never get away with it. Disney does a great job of spreading out the magic & we want to see our individual favorites in each park. We could never get away with it over 7 days. Maybe 1 day off, but probably more like an afternoon spent walking around DTD.

 

[uccats97]

I think you will have a great time with a more low key vacation. There is so much to see and do outside of the parks! The kids will have time to participate in the resort activities which are mostly free. You can visit other resorts and try their free activities/tours, etc. In December 2011 we were in WDW for 5 nights. We did E, HS, & AK all in one day, Blizzard Beach another day and MVMCP at MK one day. It was so much fun! We saw all we wanted to see and still had time to chill. Have a great trip!!

 

[Danielle3699]

You could go to Downtown Disney one day and walk around. We spent an afternoon there on one trip and went in a bunch of shops, ate lunch at Planet Hollywood, the kids got to pin trade, and it was still a fun, relaxing but totally Disney day!

 

[carissa1970]

We will be there for 6 days in July and we only have 2 park days planned. DTD, a water park, Disney Quest, Visiting other resorts, pool time on the other days. We plan to enjoy our room and resort (OKW). We know we will be back, so we aren't in a hurry to do everything. Plus we know Disneyland and CA Adventure quite well, so a lot of the rides aren't new to us.

 

[pooh4evr]

when everyone says they visit other resorts what do you do there? You can't swim in their pools, do you just look at the lobby, out of curiosity? Just wondering...

 

[carissa1970]

when everyone says they visit other resorts what do you do there? You can't swim in their pools, do you just look at the lobby, out of curiosity? Just wondering...

We plan to check out the resort, tuck info away for possible future stays, and as DVC members we actually can use the pools.

 

[pooh4evr]

Ahh see I didn't realize that about DVC.

 

[carissa1970]

Ahh see I didn't realize that about DVC.

Well, that's what they say, at least. We will see if it is true!