Advice on panning a two week trip?

[ammag]

So we went for a week last year, only four nights/ two park days this trip. We just got back and we want to go for two weeks next time! I thinki will need about three years to save up so I have lots of time but I want to make savings goals. So what advice doody outage for staying so long? I think we will use one week of my inlaw's timeshare and either one night at universal or buying their express pass thing as we will definitely want to experience HP. The rest fo the time would be on property.

 

[The Hendies]

We just finished 1 week at our condo and 4 nights on property. I spent months setting up a rather rigorous park schedule, and we ended up using it as a guide only! We slept in more, left early one night and twice left for a mid-day break. How much you can do in any single day depends on when you are going and how the crowds are.
Unsolicited advise? If it was our family, we would go twice for one week rather than once for 2 weeks. But that's just us!

 

[kschafer]

Our last trip was 15 nights and we never left property...it was awesome!!!

We had 10 day non-hoppers but did add the Water Park addition. Our strategy was...
Day 1: rope drop in AM, tour through mid-afternoon and call it a day
Day 2: rope drop in AM, afternoon break, return for evening activities
Day 3: sleep in and do a non-park activity (this is when we used our additional entries for water parks, DQ, etc)
Repeat 5 more times

We did the dining plan also and the only change I would make would be to do more 2 credit meals since we did tire of a scheduled (and big) meal every day.

Next trip is Christmas so we won't have that much time but the trip after that will be another extended one...we loved it that much!

 

[loislane]

We just spent 11 nights at Fort Wilderness in August and had 10 day passes with hoppers and the water parks & more option. We found that gave us a ton of options when it came to things to do. We went miniature golfing, regular golfing, spent a morning at Disney Quest, slept in late sometimes, stayed up late other times, did the trail ride at Fort Wilderness, took the hot air balloon ride in DTD. With our park time, we did some more of the longer attractions and shows. For the majority of the trip, we had the mindset that if we didn't get to it that day, we'd get it another day. Helped us to be really laid back and made the trip super enjoyable. Of course, we didn't get to everything on our list - but that's just reason to go back again!

 

[ammag]

I have an illness that causes pain and fatigue, if I want a chance at an awesome trip I have to rest every other or every third day! So doing two weeks I the best way to see a lot and accomplish that I think. If not then I might do two one week trips. This last trip I couldn't enjoy AK much be I was suffering and too dizzy to ride the end ride I wanted to conquer, Everest! Didn't even do Dino whirl. Poo. Just made the day so much harder.

Now my kids will be 5 and 9 (or 6 and 10) would you advise trying to do one week on a school vacation? It's not worth it to me if we have 45 min lines for everything, and not doing mid or late summer because of the heat.....so far my oldest has no issue keeping up missing a week of school but who knows by then. We would love to do the Halloween party too. HMM.

I've been a bit sad after our trip was over someone suggested I jump into trip panning again right away and it has helped!

 

[ElizabethG]

We don't plan much in the morning. I find we need more sleep on a Disney vacation. Our whole family slept for 10 hours on some nights. When we plan our touring like that, no trip is too long.

 

[disneyerin]

I have an illness that causes pain and fatigue, if I want a chance at an awesome trip I have to rest every other or every third day! So doing two weeks I the best way to see a lot and accomplish that I think. If not then I might do two one week trips. This last trip I couldn't enjoy AK much be I was suffering and too dizzy to ride the end ride I wanted to conquer, Everest! Didn't even do Dino whirl. Poo. Just made the day so much harder.

Now my kids will be 5 and 9 (or 6 and 10) would you advise trying to do one week on a school vacation? It's not worth it to me if we have 45 min lines for everything, and not doing mid or late summer because of the heat.....so far my oldest has no issue keeping up missing a week of school but who knows by then. We would love to do the Halloween party too. HMM.

I've been a bit sad after our trip was over someone suggested I jump into trip panning again right away and it has helped!

Until our daughter was in 7th grade, we would always take her out of school the first or second week of December. We would let her teachers know the first day of school. I know some elementary schools aren't as flexible, but it might be worth asking. I would pick a slow week sometime in winter, and talk to your kids teachers about it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have an illness that causes pain and fatigue, if I want a chance at an awesome trip I have to rest every other or every third day! So doing two weeks I the best way to see a lot and accomplish that I think. If not then I might do two one week trips. This last trip I couldn't enjoy AK much be I was suffering and too dizzy to ride the end ride I wanted to conquer, Everest! Didn't even do Dino whirl. Poo. Just made the day so much harder.

For the Universal part, remember that one night's stay on-site (at the deluxe properties...Hard Rock Hotel, Royal Pacific, or Portofino Bay) gives you TWO days of early entry to Wizarding World as well as the unlimited Express Passes. Those things are good from the moment you do the checkin process until midnight the day of checkout. On checkout day you can leave your things with luggage services so you can just get out there and hit the parks. and they have lovely pools, by the way, in case you run into the need for downtime while you're there. Express Pass and the ability to pool-hop (at least between the Deluxe resorts...no one knows exactly what will happen with that once Cabana Bay is open) can make a trip there VERY simple, especially if you stay longer. So...depending on how much your family might do there, you might want to stay a little longer than just the one night.

 

[ammag]

Thanks for the hug! Well as for Universal I was loving the minion kids suite! Bt so far the price seems to be about $650 a night so might have to give that up. I wonder if its too much of a pain to end up going to three hotels in this time? There should be a service that transports your stuff for you all over Orlando what am I saying there probably is! I am working up a budget with a high and a low end..I have two years until I can book so we can see what happens between now and then. Either way we will definitely have the one free week at the Marriott from my inlaws so will move at least once.

At my daughters school people take their kids out for a month to visit other countries, so I don't think, if my kids are doing well, it will be an issue. DD might have to do homework on a non park day, that's ok when on a long trip IMO. I will look into the ticket posts here but do most people who do long trips do the annual pass? I don't think we would do enough $ meals to need tables in wonderland....though who knows? Or do you buy a 10 day and a 2 day? I love the idea of going to a park late or leaving at lunch, that freedom.....will be awesome!

 

[Laketravis]

We are leaving tomorrow for 16 nights/17 days at CSR. I figured that would give us enough time this year to just take everything in stride and at a casual pace, but I still ended up with a spreadsheet of ADR's, park-hops, late park nights followed by sleep late days, and strategic FP+ times.

Just couldn't suppress the OCD.

 

[ammag]

Lol laketravis! I will be the same. It's not OCD it is making the most of your time!!!

 

[mill4023]

Our best trip ever was a 2 week trip, staying in a 4 bedroom house with a pool.
Unlike our previous trips, this actually felt like a relaxing vacation. We only had 8 day tickets, so having many "rest" days throughout the trip kept everyone from getting overexerted. On many days, we slept in, the kids walked 10 feet out the backdoor to hang out in the pool, we had a nice relaxing lunch, then went to a water park or downtown disney in the afternoon.
And the total cost of this trip was the same as our 6 day trip staying at POR.

 

[Meriweather]

We always stay 2 weeks.....have 3 trips planned for next year.
We have APs.
We are always at rope drop to do the things we really want to.
Have lunch and then go back to the resort to rest.....or for DH, nap
Then back to the park for dinner and evening activities.
We usually plan 2 or 3 days with no park plans.........go downtown or play minigolf of just hang out at the resort......or if we want go to a park anyway.
I love the nonrushed feeling of a long stay.