8 days too much?

[mjallemand]

It's kind of a tradeoff. Every trip in my lifetime has been five park days, but because of this we try to cram as much park time as possible into every day and end up pretty worn out by the end of the week.

If we had eight days to spread out Park visits, we wouldn't be out from open to close every day and would relax a bit more, meaning we wouldn't burn ourselves out so quickly.

 

[Mainemama]

That sounds like enough time to make sure you don't feel rushed and can actually be flexible! With our family (we have not yet done an 8 day trip, but close), we make sure the 3rd or 4th day is a rest day... We actually did this at FW last February. Just pool (at WL), playing on the beach, a nice walk to check out the horses, fishing. This kind of day breaks up the trip and keeps everyone going.

 

[Mainemama]

Has anyone not had their room ready by 4 p.m.?

I'd split the numbers and go for 7 days of tickets. With those ages my guess is you will want a down day at some point. If you do 7 days you can still upgrade if you decide you need 1 more day, but if you only end up going for 6 days you are only out $30 rather then $60 for the 2 extra days.

we did this last year and it worked great when 3/5 of our party decided to do a park visit on our rest night. One kid said, "I want to go to bed" and we actually listened! The other 2 were up for a trip to Epcot to buy a baguette. Yup, that's all we did and it was lovely. Waiting to add means you can break your group apart if wanted.

 

[bellebud]

When mine were little, we'd do resort-only days, but often on those days, we'd end up running over to MK for an ice cream on main street, to do 1 or 2 rides, etc. I like the option of being able to run over if I want.

 

[ktlm]

We go to the parks every day. When DD was 2 and 3, she would not stand for any type of resort day- she wanted in those parks. Once she was good and awake, she would usually be standing at the room door with her stroller telling us to hurry up. When she was 2, we did 6 days in the parks and did not feel like that was enough time. You move much slower with kids under 5. You have to let them stop and smell the roses. Since that trip, we have typically done at least 7 park days, and have always felt like we could do more and were not ready to leave.

 

[msmama]

I've never done rest days, so I would say 8 park days for an 8 day trip would be fine. None of them would be full, open to close days, though. Personally, that's my favorite way to do it!

 

[caroline1851]

I'd keep 8 day park tickets. You seem super flexible. Maybe there's a day or two in there that just one of you takes the 6 year old or just the 2 year old or whatever. Or maybe you go to parks every day but don't stay too long...

 

[LuvMyEAR]

I might lose momentum after 12 to 15 straight park days. Maybe. I am in total agreement with those who said they loved the idea of being able to go into a park each day if only for dinner or an ice cream. No marathon days!

Have a fabulous trip.

 

[jaz0308]

My 2 cents is stick with the 8 days. I always love to have the option available to me since the cost is pretty minimal. I usually book FP for our absolute must do on 2 separate days because with little ones you never know when a tummy/ head/ tantrum problem will arise! This takes the pressure off me! Then if we use our FP I can keep the ones for the second day or change them to something else! Also, some days we go just to do our 3 FPs and then head back to hotel!

 

[moesy4]

I've done 14 days at WDW/Universal and spent 10 days in the WDW parks and water parks. I didn't find it too much, because I didn't do rope drop to closing everyday. If I had, I would probably have burned out after 6 days.

My question is, why rent a camper and stay at ft wilderness. The spots with full hook ups are as expensive if not more than a value resort. With the added cost of an Rv and the spot, you are probably paying the same as a moderate.

Haha trust me, I have priced everything out and researched like crazy and you are right, we could go much cheaper with a value and probably still cheaper with a mod, camper rental is not cheap. The reason I chose Ft. Wilderness is A) Except for the odd night, our younger two need to be to bed by around 8ish to not be bears since they never sleep in. I would hate being stuck in a tiny value room without being able to use the tv or anything (those two are very sensitive sleepers). B) Our 2 year old absolutely cannot share a sleeping space, he will be up all night, so we would be looking at the family suite and ASM which isn't significantly cheaper, and C) My oldest and I both love camping and that atmosphere, so I feel it's like rolling two vacations into one.

Thanks so much everyone for all your input, I really liked everyone thoughts. I think we will stick with the 8 days because the cost savings isn't significant and I like the idea that even if we stay at the resort 90% of the day, one of us could run over with the 6 year old to hit a couple of favorites.

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

We like eight days. With your kid's ages, having the extra time might be nice since you probably won't get to everything, and you'll feel more comfortable taking it at a slower pace since you won't be worried about missing anything since you'll have the time to make it up later in the trip. If you keep at at a casual pace, eight days can really be perfect.

 

[epcotty]

I say to always look at the average cost per day of the ticket (of course even at 6 days it's a good average cost however). But yeah, start w/ what you know you'll do at the least and increase it if/as necessary

 

[DisneyOma]

Don't forget to book FP+ in advance for all 8 days - nothing wrong with going into the park with the older child to ride some busy attractions with your FP+ for a few hours while other parent stays with little ones.

We find we need at least 6 days of FP+ to ride everything we want with minimal wait. 8 days gives you the chance to ride some stuff twice, if you know in advance what a favorite ride might be.

 

[rwdavis2]

Keep the 8 days and the 8 day tickets. You don't have to spend all day, every day in the parks. Maybe drive up to Kennedy Space Center? A day at Universal?

 

[eliza61]

for my family 8 days is too long but basically for us HS is a 4 hour max park and we have no desire to go there more than once. animal kingdom is up there also. there simply isn't all that much to do there.

Now since we have our dvc we do plan long stays but we go other places and/or simply enjoy the resort. 5-6 imo is all you really need, I definitely wouldn't buy 8 day park hoppers.

 

[AngiTN]

8 days is not too much for us. There is no such thing as too many days for us.

 

[Ava]

I would get the 8 day tickets. As others have said, it's only $20 more per ticket than getting 6 days and you'll have the ability to pop into a park for a few hours on an otherwise "off" day if you want to. We ended up doing that on our August trip; we missed doing a few rides that we'd planned to do on our first MK day so on our non-park day when we went to Hoop de Doo in the evening, we went into MK for a couple hours afterwards just to hit up those missed rides. Because we had the 8 day tickets already, I was able to go into MDE that morning and schedule FP+ for us for those rides without messing up the FP+ I already had scheduled for the rest of the week. The little bit of added flexibility is well worth the extra $20/ticket.

 

[supersnoop]

I'd say it all depends on how much you want to plan and make FP+ reservations for. Personally, We usually stay for 11 days, but after 5 or 6 days, we need a day off. You can always add a day to your tickets if you decide to use them. I'd probably buy 6 day tickets and wait to see who, if anyone, wants to spend more time in the parks.

 

[jacksgirl]

Eight days is the minimum for us. That gives us two days for each park, if needed. Of course, we get park hoppers, and usually wind up hopping from park to park a good bit and spending far more time in Epcot and MK, although AK has become a real favorite for us the past couple of trips. We also spend some time in DTD (Disney Springs) and the Boardwalk. We leave for WDW next Saturday, and will be there for nine days and have length of stay park tickets. I can't wait!

 

[poppinspenguins]

8 park days for me is way too much.

We have 2 little ones and the thought of 8 days makes me tired.

To be fair...when we go for a week...we only hut the parks 2 or 3 days.

Both parents and kids need a break. Half the time kids like pool more than the parks.

In addditon..not a ton to do for that age range at epcot and hs.

I would personally not do more than 5 days.

Waterpark might be a good compromise...something different...more.relaxing...my toddlers.loved the kiddie areas

Good luck and enjoy.