For people who take short (3-4 day) trips

[larandtra1990]

We do one trip of about a week each yer and several "long weekend" trips. I think those who go a lot dont need more than a few days to do the things they want to do. We have APs, so we can go whenever and generally use them when special events are going on or just get a free weekend and want something to do. We plan them out, sometimes off property, sometimes on. But, because we do it so often, it isnt like not riding Space mountain this trip is going to be a big deal.

 

[dashofsunshine]

We always do shorter trips, usually 4-5 days. We go once a year generally, and we know what we like in each park, so we go do it! It's just myself and my husband, no kids yet, so that is probably a big factor. I'm sure if we had little ones, we would probably stay longer. It's just too hot and tiring for me, to stay like 14 days at Disney World walking 13 miles a day on the hot asphalt. No thanks, lol. We know we'll be back next year!!! Plus, we take several smaller vacations a year because of our vacation time from work. Then, every 3 or 4 years, we go somewhere international for 2 weeks instead

 

[Venaros]

We tend to just do a weekend here and there when money allows. We'll go down on a friday night after work and head back on sunday evening. We live within about a 4 hour's drive so it's not that bad. Just enough to get away from the hustle and bustle of the real world and get our Disney fix.

 

[think-like-tink]

We have a 3 day 4 night trip planned for Christmas and I feel it is not enough time. We usually stay a week. I am very happy to read the responses here about short trips.

 

[elaine amj]

My preference is 10-12 day trips. The longer, the better. The last couple of trips though, we've only managed shorter visits....2 nights pre-and post a Disney cruise one year and last Christmas, we spent 2 nights at an off-site resort enjoying the resort amenities, 3 nights at the Dolphin for Disney, and 1 night at Clearwater to see Winter. Our Disney time was short, but pretty awesome.

I find we do very long, pretty exhausting days because I just want to go, go go. But it's worth it for me to get my annual Disney fix. I want to plan a proper, long WDW trip but still not seeing how it will be doable, even for next year. Free dining periods are not aligning with vacation times. So it may be 2017 before I can plan a "proper" WDW trip.

 

[Hisgirl]

We have gone for 3 nights and always felt it was one day too short. When we go for 4 nights, we have seen all we wanted to see, but not had much down time (ie lay by pool drinking frozen drink). I think 5 nights would be perfect. The one time we did go for a full week, it really felt like a relaxing vacation, but the money we spent, lord have mercy! Add to the $60 per day for dog kennels, it really adds up.

 

[Baptist]

We usually go for 8 days, but this past time was only 4. With park hoppers and older kids (11,9), we can take advantage of EMH and get to see everything we want.

The only drawback is having a disadvantage in booking dining reservations. I think it's unfair people with longer stays get to book dining before those with shorter stays. It makes no sense to me. Should there be a separate pool, concierge, or lounge for those with longer stays? Of course not.

 

[scrapquitler]

I read on here of people going to Disney for a long weekend sometimes, a lot of them flying to get there as well. For all you who only go for a short trip. Does it feel like enough time? Do you regret not going for a full week? We have never gone for less then a week. Our upcoming trip will be 11 nights. We don't go commando, so maybe that has something to do with it. Do people who go for short trips, go to the parks from morning til closing? Isn't it expensive with airfare for such a short trip?

We have almost always done 9/10/11 day trips. A few years ago, we went for 4 days/3 nights without the kids because that's all the time we could manage a babyssitter. To be honest, we had fun on that trip, but it was exhausting and we felt very rushed. We had to REALLY adjust our expectations. I didn't really enjoy it as much as a longer more relaxed trip. Last month we went for a 5 night/6 day and it was more relaxing than the shorter one, but we will be back to 10 days when we go in the fall. We always feel we get more value out of the trip that way because the flights cost so much as a % of a shorter trip.

 

[Yensid67]

One of my favorite trips to WDW was over a weekend. Flew down from Philadelphia on a Friday after work. Checked into the Animal Kingdom Villas around midnight. Went to Animal Kingdom the next day and did the Wild Africa Trek tour. Spent the afternoon at the pool. Had dinner in Jiko that night. Then back to Animal Kingdom on Sunday for some rides before ME took us back to the airport.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

Of our 7 day trip, our 4 day trip and our upcoming 10 day trip, I definitely had the most fun planning the 4 day trip inside of 30 days, but I'm an uber planner which might not be for everyone. As for the trip itself, it felt pretty packed with stuff to do, but in a good way. Yeah there was one morning when our 3yo just looked exhausted so we had to forgo RD at DHS, but other than that it was far and away my favorite trip. Granted it was during Christmas, which was on my bucket list, but that only added things for us to do and we still got it all in.

 

[nkereina]

Our trips have always been 7+ days, however last trip we did 4 days because we added on Universal at the end. Having been to WDW before, I had a good strategy and it helped knowing what we liked and didn't like. We accomplished everything we wanted, and I was honestly ready to leave by day 4 after some frustrations in the parks. It was just the right amount of time, and we're doing the same this year.

 

[lahobbs4]

While a 10 day trip sounds fantastic… it's just not feasible for 6 of us. We have always said we don't want to take the kind of vacations that we have to save up for, only the ones we can pay for immediately. That's why we do the 4-5 day trips and because of that, we get to take them every year rather than every few years. It's working best for us also because we have children ages 6 and younger and their attention spans can only handle so much and they like their regular schedules, for the most part.

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

When we lived in New York, we took at least week long trips. The airfare simply wasn't worth it for us to only go for a few days. Now that we only live 3 hours south of WDW, we usually take 3-4 day trips. I'm a lunatic, so I like waking up at like 6am, scarfing down a breakfast, and heading to the park by 7:30, (I love being early to things) and staying til' closing. Every day of the trip. Even then, I'm envious of those that stay for at least the week. 3-4 days just doesn't cut it, even though I go so often.

Then again, it's practically impossible for me to take week trips between work and nursing school.

 

[jrtoastyman]

I read on here of people going to Disney for a long weekend sometimes, a lot of them flying to get there as well. For all you who only go for a short trip. Does it feel like enough time? Do you regret not going for a full week? We have never gone for less then a week. Our upcoming trip will be 11 nights. We don't go commando, so maybe that has something to do with it. Do people who go for short trips, go to the parks from morning til closing? Isn't it expensive with airfare for such a short trip?

Our normal M.O. is to do week long trips, but we just got back from a trip where we got in Friday at 5:30 and left Tuesday afternoon -- basically 3 full days -- and I loved it. It was just enough time to get a bit of a Disney fix without completely wiping us out, which is how we feel after a week long trip. It left me excited for our next trip, which is a great feeling.

I think it does depend upon how you travel, though. We do a big, week-long trip once a year, so going for a long weekend is more of a bridge than a "normal" trip for us, and we go often enough that there's not a huge compulsion to run around and try to get as much done as possible. We try to hit the highlights, and whatever we don't get done, we'll do on our next trip. If we were doing a 3-4 day trip as our once-in-a-great-while trip, I probably would either think it wasn't enough time, or I'd find it way too hectic. That's just us, though.

On the airfare thing, my air situation is part of what drives us to take the weekend trips. I fly a ton for work and have many, many points stored up, and I also have Companion Pass status on Southwest, which means that wherever I go, my wife can fly along with me for free. Combine the two, and the end result is that no one in my family has paid for a personal flight in years. It's the one nice perk of being away from home frequently.

Because we generally do a big trip once a year, we buy annual passes, and plan the trips so that we do the second one just slightly under 1 year after the first. Once you've got the AP, though, it makes the quick trips appealing. Our airfare is covered, our park tickets are covered, and we get a discount on hotels. Makes it pretty easy to justify a quick jaunt down to WDW. We're planning to do another this fall for MNSSHP.

 

[cheshirecollector]

I usually try to do a five night/6 day trip, and it's sometimes years between trips for me. This last trip ended up being a shorter one, park-wise, due to an injury. I was limping for the last day and a half, and didn't feel comfortable going to the parks. The three days I had in the parks were fun, but it felt a little too short. If that was all the time I had for a trip, though, I think I'd still do it.

 

[kathy884]

I LOVE the mini trip and have done lots of three night/two day stays. Orlando just never makes it in the list for main vacation for the year, but our budget lets me throw in a little Disney/Orlando fix trip. With a short trip, I love the idea of going back again the next year too. A week is too long for me and burns me out for the place. But with just two days, I can do new stuff and / or stuff I haven't done in ages. With a mini trip like this I do a park each day -- usually it's a SeaWorld park and a Disney park, but sometimes Universal can make it too.

I use freebie frequent flyer points, so no out of pocket for air and what a great way to use miles. I have a nephew who lives and works in Orlando and a cousin that lives in Tampa also, so this is partly extended family visiting. Usually one of them takes time off and joins us for the stay. They pick us up at the airport, so no rental car expense. We pay for a condo or hotel (almost always offsite -- Orlando has great deals) and usually treat them to dinners both days. My nephew has a full time theatre job, but works part time for Disney and often gets us in for free on a Disney park day (We never expect it or ask, but he usually insists.) He has season passes for all the other parks and has worked for Universal and SeaWorld part time too, so we don't have to pay for a ticket for him either. My cousin usually has a season pass for at least one of the park families too and with him if we go to one that he doesn't have a pass for, we usually buy his ticket. Love to see/visit with them. My nephew is just 21 and I love having the chance for my son who is 19 to be able to get together with his cousin. And my cousin who lives in Tampa is my very favorite cousin and so much fun to go to the parks with. Plus he gets along great with my 19 year old. // I personally think two days is perfect for a extended family visit and theme parks are a great backdrop for this What's not to love.

And pretty weird I suppose, but I really don't like being in Orlando for more than three days/four nights. I'm ready to go home after that. Maybe it's that I've been coming since 1971, so I've been there, done that, and bought the T-shirt.

DH by the way hates Orlando and stays home -- another reason for a mini trip I suppose -- lets our bigger trips be something everyone in the family loves.

Oh and we on our two park days usually just go from rope drop till 5 or so. That time usually gets us on everything we want to do, and we like the evening for going out to dinner and visiting.

 

[decker96]

Every trip we've taken has only been four park days (with a day on either end for travel). The first 2 trips, I had one child that was 2 and so we came back to our room every afternoon for a swim and a nap, which was normally about a 3-hour break. I never felt like we were rushed or missed out. Did we do everything? No, but it always seemed like we got to do everything that we wanted to do. Our last trip, all of my kids were old enough that we spent little time at our resort and most of it touring. We used our arrival day to spend the afternoon/evening in the pool and at DTD. We did many things we had never done before like Tom Sawyer's Island and the Kim Possible missions in Epcot (no longer exist I don't think) and still managed to hit all the rides and attractions we wanted to do.

I think the time of year you go helps. We were never there during extremely busy times - mid-October and beginning of December and took advantage of the Halloween and Christmas parties for extra park time with lower crowds. It is rare that we do more than one TS meal in a day. Usually once there is a breakfast and a dinner, but otherwise, we only normally do TS for dinner. We are not big eaters so there were many times we didn't eat lunch either, just grabbed a snack and ate on the go. And while I always had a plan, it was still kid-driven. If they decided they really wanted to go back and swim, that's what we did. We ended up doing the Kim Possible thing twice in a row because they loved the first one so much. We missed out of FP's for Soarin' because of it, but no one seemed to mind much.

If you have a plan, it's definitely doable. It's funny because I know people that go for at least a week to ten days every time they go and while they can't fathom doing everything they want in four days, I also can't imagine being there for that long. It's all in what you're used to, I think.

 

[goofyernmost]

I was far more inclined to do that when the 10 Day Park Hopper, no expiration was available. A couple of days here, a couple of days there, once a year or twice a year over 3 or 4 years. Now, If I am going I have to decide that it will be for whatever days I bought. It might indeed decrease my visits. I like short trips and I plan for X number of days. If I have extra time I might be able to make up for bad weather, etc. But, now living in NC, I usually just go for as long as I feel like it at the time. If I planned for 3 days, I would reserve 4 nights at whatever offsite hotel I might chose. Then if it was nasty, weather wise, I would only go for two and head home. Now I have to buy 3 days and if I don't use them, I lose them. Doesn't make me real happy.

It had gotten way to expensive for a non-expiring anyway, but, it still worked out to about $60.00 per day. Which was doable.

 

[bhartman]

I've never heard of people with longer stays getting to book ADRs first. I thought everyone got 180 days and those staying on property got 180 + 10.

 

[Angieandsteve]

We did 6 days in 2013 but it was an all Disney trip. I was so tired by the end of day 5 and my feet hurt so bad I was happy to go home at the end.

Last year we did 5 days at Disney and then drove to St. Pete's beach and did 5 more. The beach after definitely helped me recover from WDW and made me realize I need a beach relaxing vacation after Disney.

This year we are doing 4 days followed by one in Clearwater to go to the aquarium, and then 4 in Captiva Island.

We only fly but overall our trips end up longer when we add the other locations. We could break them up into 2 trips but since we are in FL already we just do a large one which means one set of airfare.

I do wish I had that 5th day at Disney World this year but I have adjusted my expectations of what I want to accomplish. We always take a midday break too.