Has anyone stayed for a month?

[ebenmax]

Even though retirement is quite a few years away for us as a couple (me - not so long), I was wondering if any of you stay for an extended period of time - a month or more. And do you find there is plenty to do? I mean, I know it is WDW, but I didn't know if it got "old" staying there for a month or if you can comfortably settle into a routine and live there for an extended period of time.

I'd would love to hear how you spend your time and what you suggest!

Thanks tons-

 

[Kurby]

the longest we've stayed was 16 days -

the way we do it is 1 park per day plus DTD which covers 5 days

then a day off to stay around the hotel pool and visit other resorts to see what they are like then back to the parks

so 2 rotations is 12 days

the other days is for doing what we want to see for a 3rd time which is usually MK for sure and even twice more.

we don't rush the parks - taking one or two sections a day - ie Fantasy and Adventure land one day and toontown and tomorrow the next time.

then there is also the water parks which we haven't been to yet because our daughter was too young and before that one (can't remember which one) was closed for repairs.

the other great thing about staying at the resort and having the AP (my guess is if you are staying a month you'll prob get it) is that you don't have to go to disney every single day - i know... the horror

there are a few parks (who shall remain nameless) that are a short drive from disney that we will visit when the kids are a little older plus just visiting the beach (not sure how far it is from Orlando) or Orlando itself should take a couple of days at least.

if you plan it out you can account for ever day even if you have do nothing days in there.

maybe it's just me but i love to plan it out - we start even before we decided when we are going back (already have the next trip worked out with what restaurants we will eat at too and we're aren't exactly sure if it will be next Jan or later) but to us planning is just part of the trip. we can revisit it in our minds and say - oh we didn't see that last time make a note of it for next trip - or we've eaten at that restaurant 2 or 3 times now lets try something else" and look up the menus to decide

i'd love to stay a month - wonder how many points we'd need.

 

[Ms. WDW]

11 days was the longest I've stayed. As much as I love WDW I don't know if I could do a full month. But I think I'd like to try!!!

 

[WolfpackFan]

Before I retired, it was my dream to spend the month of January down in Florida. We haven't done it yet, but I still would like to do it someday. What I have in mind is maybe 2 weeks staying at a DVC resort, 1 week taking a cruise and 1 week down in Key West or perhaps even Vero Beach. The main problem doing this is being concerned about what will happen at our house while we're gone - like pipes freezing, etc. Also I don't know what we'd do with out cat. That is another big concern.

 

[daisyduck123]

We always stay 8-10 days.

I'd love to be able to stay for a month...when I retire...Oh YES!!

 

[isyt]

My retirement plans include a month or two in Disney World. A month in Disneyland and another month in Hawaii. I have enough points for 3 months in Florida but I see the add ons in CA and HI in my near future. My longest time now has been 2 weeks and that is always between DW and Vero with a 2 or 3 nights at Universal. Its good to dream but since we have a good 20 years until retirement I'll just keep planning!

 

[Donna]

My retirement plans include a month or two in Disney World. A month in Disneyland and another month in Hawaii. I have enough points for 3 months in Florida but I see the add ons in CA and HI in my near future. My longest time now has been 2 weeks and that is always between DW and Vero with a 2 or 3 nights at Universal. Its good to dream but since we have a good 20 years until retirement I'll just keep planning!

I no longer have enough points to stay at a DVC for a month or more but we definitely plan on staying in our motorhome at Fort Wilderness for at least that long in the future. I priced it last night for the heck of it and it is $2,200 for the month of June. Now by the time we can do that (we are retired but have a son in 7th grade), i'm sure that price will be higher, but we are doing it for sure. Don't have to worry about the pets, they will be coming with us. Mail can be forwarded and with the computer, you can always do banking online, his pension check is direct deposit. We just have to wait til our son is in college since there's always something going on with school and sports for him. I could see us escaping the NE winter!

 

[edk35]

I would love to stay a month but I would love to stay more than 8 days. Actually I would love to stay at least 2 weeks starting Wed. after Thanksgiving. The crowds would be much lower and all the decorations would be out. We hope to be able to go for like 10 days sometimes soon. We went for 6 in Jan. 8 in Aug. and we are going another 8 in Nov. but we can never find more time all at once. Maybe ONE DAY.

 

[lisaviolet]

Can't wait to hear all the stories.... And dream.

 

[mello]

We were just talking about this the other day - staying a month or two when we retire. We're not commando style people, we like to take things leisurely, but we do like to see things thoroughly, so we try to do 2-week minimum vacations whenever we travel. We stayed 14 days on our first trip to WDW and didn't manage to do it all. We're staying 18 days this coming May. It'll take us longer to do stuff on that trip 'cuz there will be 17 people from age 4 to 68, lots of them who've never been. Our plan is to do 2 leisurely days at each park, then a couple days to hang around the resort and pool (BCV/SAB), and to park-hop back to favorite things, & do a couple Grand Gathering events too. Then we'll spend a day switching to OKW or SSR, do DTD, Seaworld and DC, then a couple more days relaxing and park-hopping for highlights at the end. I can't wait and DH is even more excited than I am! We can definitely see settling in for a month or more when we retire... just 8 years to go

 

[kritter]

The most we stayed was 13 days and that was not long enough for us. This summer we are doing two weeks which is perfect for us....

 

[Caskbill]

We spend at least a month every year, but not necessarily all in one trip.

We did spend 6-weeks straight once, but not all of it was DVC. We had the RV that trip and spent some of it at Ft. Wilderness. Basically we did DVC resorts on the weekdays, and moved to Ft. Wilderness on the weekends.

The 1st week was at Ft. Wilderness, then we did OKW for 5-nights, then Ft. Wilderness for the weekend. We repeated this pattern, staying at BWV, BCV, VWL and OKW (2nd time). Thus a total of 25 nights in DVC accommodations, and I think 15 at Ft. Wilderness.

Yes, there was a lot of moving, checking-in a number of times, but it wasn't that bad. We had the car with us also (can tow it behind the RV).

The big plus was the variety of accommodations we had the whole trip.

This was before SSR was opened. And now that AKV is there, I can envision another big trip, taking in all 6 DVC resorts during one trip....

 

[DVC Grammy]

Like Caskbill, we spend more than a month's worth of days in WDW, but broken up into at least 3-4 trips. We could use our points for all of January, but we'd rather save some for the F & W and F & G Festivals.
So far, that schedule works for us. If and when DH retires, maybe it will change, but since we're contemplating a possible move to Florida (even if he doesn't retire), I think we'd be more inclined to go more often and stay for shorter times.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

we have stayed 3-weeks in the 1-bdrm. you really do settle in. the pace of the vacation is some much nicer. no need to wake up early and rush the parks. stroll down to the store and get a coffee, pick out a table on the boardwalk and read the paper, (or do this on your balcony). get groceries because eating out every meal gets old (who would have thought ). I think I could get really used to extended stays of a month or more

 

[ebenmax]

Than you so much for all of your suggestions and ideas. We (I) have been planning (to some extent) to build up our point totals to eventually allow us to stay for a month, but still have enough points to bring our children and potential grandchildren, too. So,we are trying to plan ahead for when the time comes without over purchasing for our current needs/wants.

My thought was similar to Caskbill, where we would move weekly to avoid monotony, save points, and be in a 1BR on occasion. Our thoughts were to stay in SSR or OKW studios for a full week and then a 1BR at one of the others for Sun-Thurs.

We are just hoping to knock off at least a month Jan/Feb of the cold Ohio winters.

Thanks again!

 

[LIFERBABE]

We were fortunate enough to have all the stars align with schools and jobs back in 2005, and we spent 12 nights at BCV, 2 at Tampa Marriott and then 12 more at SSR.

All in a studio. We had a great time and II did not want to leave. We had plenty to do and didnt go to the parks much at all.

I found my TR:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=836351&page=2

 

[LVSWL]

That is our dream! We have to wait until either the kids are in college and go without them or go with them during the summer months to do it. Our longest trip so far is 15 days. We try to mix it up, not so much with resorts, although we do stay at a different DVC each time we go, but we try to remember to hit ALL of the attractions just for fun. I guess that we found that we were bypassing a lot of things over the years, even though we were going 3 times a year because they weren't our favorites or the kids had "outgrown" them. Now we say "what the heck" let's try that again and we are seeing the parks through whole new eyes. I think that for us anyway, we really got in our comfort zone of liking this and this and not that, and when you go so often and stay for a while you really could start to run out of things to do I can't believe I just said that!! Anyway, so the more days the better, and if we want to spend all day at the pool, no one is stressed about missing the park for the day! That's where those APs come in handy! Oh, and if you go for a month, do a trip report!!

 

[Madi100]

I would love to do this. We would definitely rent a car and do a lot of cooking in our room. I really wish that we could go and not visit the parks at all. I'm not sure that would happen, though. My kids are still young enough that with the parks there, they'd want to go. But, I'd love to be able to do all the resort stuff and just relax. We've got some friends we are taking to Hilton Head, and I wish I could talk them into going to Florida instead.

 

[Sammie]

We stayed 21 days one year. It was wonderful. Due to work and such we now have to take shorter trips but try to schedule at least 2 or more a year.

 

[DisneyBB]

We normally stay 3 weeks, as we can only do 1 trip a year. But in Christmas 05 we managed 4 weeks! Mind you the last week was spent at the doctors, then the hospital with our dd5. We are only managing 19 nights this Christmas!