How do YOU do Disney?

[StuckInKS]

Who are the travelers? Me, DH and 6 kids. Sometimes my mom and (on our last trip and maybe this next trip) my niece and nephew.

When do you go? Almost always mid-May to early June. We did late Oct/early Nov twice in 2013 and 2016.

How many days? After out first 5 night trip in 2009, we decided it was not worth the long drive with the kids for anything less than 10 days. If we have AP (like this year) then its 2-3 weeks.

Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Started offsite, but have been mostly onsite since 2013. We stay in value (need 2-3 rooms) unless we exchange for SSR. We did pay for one night at AKL last May and it was awesome!

Car or Disney transportation? Always Disney if onsite. We don't even want to look at the car until the end of the trip after being in it for 2 straight days.

Dining: plan (type) or OOP? Started OOP but have been mostly DP since 2013 or 2014. Its either QSDP or DxDP. Usually a mix of both if we are staying 2+ weeks.

Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? Sleep in and get to a park anywhere from mid-afternoon to mid-evening. We try to let the kids swim a few afternoons before going to a park. We rarely park hop and we don't plan anything besides which park on which days, FP and ADRs.

 

[stindall]

Who are the travelers? This time it's myself, my younger brother, and his girlfriend.
When do you go? Usually we go in the fall, September or October but this time we're shooting for February!
How many days? This time it's 7 but we don't normally go less than 5. We like to hit each park once and have a down day or a park free travel day.
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite although I think in the past as a child we've stayed offsite, I can't remember though. We always choose Pop although I'd love to check out some of the Moderates eventually.
Car or Disney transportation? Disney Transportation. I hate driving irl (and I live in California where driving sucks) so I don't want to do it on vacation.
Dining: plan (type) or OOP: In the past we've done plans most of the time with "free dining" but this trip we're going plan free because we never finish a full meal so we'll be sharing a lot.
RD or sleep in? Sleep in usually till about 9 unless the park is closing early or we have an early FP.
mid day breaks? No, takes too much time away from the parks for us.
pool days?: Nope, I like swimming but generally if we swim we'll do it in the evening. my brother is not a fan of swimming though so we'll likely pass this trip.
touring plan or go with the flow?: I like to go by Easywdw's crowd calendar but usually we leave the day pretty lose except for fast passes.
park hop?: Not usually, I can't justify the extra cost. When we did get hoppers we'd just use it to go to a park that closed later.

 

[sdomino11]

I love hearing how others tour! Thanks for starting the thread!

Who: Me, DH, DS10, DS8

When: always mid April- mid May

How long: 7-12 days. 8 this time.

Where: Always onsite (after one sad-to-leave-the-bubble-every-night offsite trip). We've done value and moderate. Can't imagine ever staying deluxe because if the budget allowed for it I would rather extend our days at a moderate instead.

Car/bus: Bus! Definitely bus!

Dining: Tried DDP once and tracked our spending. Wasn't worth it for us. OOP from then on.

RD or sleep in: Sleep! We're all night owls.

Midday breaks: No, never. Once we're in a park they have to kick us out to get us to leave! We've got one day scheduled on our upcoming trip where we'll have to leave one of our Epcot days in time for an ADR at Disney Springs. I'm not sure how we'll like that!

Pool day: yes. We schedule trips so the middle of our trip lands on a Saturday and we make it a non-park day. We usually swim in the late morning, lunch at the resort, then head to DS to do our traditions (design-a-tee, pick a treat at Goofy's candy place, then dinner). We tried one year to do parks every day, all day and came home exhausted! Now we take a full day (or two of we're there 10 days or more) off and also schedule some park days to not begin until after lunch. We still get everything done we want.

TP or go with the flow: Touring plan, definitely! I plan every day out so that we know without a doubt that we'll do everything we want at least once every trip. But, I also plan open time into each touring plan so we have time to wander.

Park hop: nope. Never have imagined this to be worth it. We've never gotten anywhere close to being bored by another park to make us want to hop. And if a park closes early there are tons of other things in the world that we love to do.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Who are the travelers? Core group is me, DH, and DD, but we often travel with others. Next trip will include our two good friends and their son.
When do you go? It varies.
How many days? As many as we can finagle away from our work schedules.
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite only. We used to mix it up with resort level, but are DVC members now, so only deluxe.
Car or Disney transportation? Disney transport.
Dining: plan (type) or OOP? Usually OOP.
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? I don't consider when we get up to be "sleeping in", but its certainly not rope drop.
mid day breaks? Sometimes. DD attitude dependent.
pool days? Not so far. Maybe next trip.
touring plan or go with the flow? Well, we generally know what parks we want to visit on a given day, but we're not married to a plan.
park hop? Yes please.
meals? Umm....we have those? I guess you mean do we plan sit down meals? Yes, we do. We tend to average about one table service location per vacation day.
evening plans? Evening plans USED to be Disneyquest and Pleasure Island until each closes. But then they dismantled the Adventurer's Club and let Disneyquest decay, so our evening plans are pretty nonexistent these days. We usually stay for the fireworks, if nothing else.

 

[NH-to-FL]

For many years we followed the following pattern:

Who are the travelers? DW and I
When do you go? Early December
How many days? 6-7 nights
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite - deluxe - BWI
Car or Disney transportation? We always rented a car, used Disney transportation to MK, walked to Epcot, boat to DHS, drove to AK
Dining: plan (type) or OOP: no dining plan
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans? We would RD the morning EMH park, take a break (nap) mid day, and usually wander over to Epcot for our evening meal.

As the years went by we increased our visit length to 9-10 days and then to two, 1 week visits. We used the increased time to slow the pace and add "off" days to relax.

We always rented a car so that we could visit Walmart for food supplies and other expendables we didn't want to try and squeeze into our carry ons. We would shop on our arrival day and at least once during the visit. Not sure why but I always found it easier to drive to AK. We would often us the return trip to stop somewhere off site.

So, in summary, it was blend of EMH RD intensity and afternoon relaxation.

Today it is almost all relaxation as we snowbird near Disney.

 

[nooneshome]

Who are the travelers? It used to be me, DW, DD and DS. It has evolved to just me and DD.

When do you go? Mostly around Thanksgiving. We usually get FD and we love the Christmas decorations.

How many days? It is either 4.5 or 5.5 park days. Mostly we do MK 1.5 days and the other parks each one day.

Onsite/offsite? Always onsite. Resort Level? Always value.

Car or Disney transportation? Disney transportation for onsite activities. We drive from LA but mostly the car stays in the parking lot.

Dining: We try to the QS FD. If not we can eat out of pocket fairly cheap. DD and I aren't big eaters. On one of our last trips I put DD on a friend's FD package and we the two of us ate off that with ease. We only paid for one meal OOP. Last trip we both had FD and we gave a few meals to another friend.

Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? touring plan or go with the flow? Definitely RD. We get a ton done in the morning, eat lunch and then mostly wing it after lunch. At AK we try to catch all the shows after lunch and then head out to Disney Springs. At DHS we also catch the shows after lunch, ride GMR & Star Tours, eat a snack and wait for Fantasmic. At EPCOT DD likes to circle the WS and when we are done we may ride SSE and head out before Illuminations. At MK we have to ride Splash, Big Thunder, Astro Orbiter and 7DMT at night. They are so much better at night.

mid day breaks? Nope pool days? Nope. park hop? Nope.

 

[Raeven]

Who are the travelers? Me (24) and my boyfriend (31)
When do you go? Any time of year it's less crowded and we can get off work. We've been in May, September, and December. We avoid summer/spring break, I can't get Oct/Nov off at work, and he doesn't get his days off till March so that limits us to those months anyway.
How many days? 9-10, but 3-4 of those will be at USO too.
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite, we've stayed value, moderate, and deluxe (Pop, AKL, Poly, CSR, POFQ). Probably most often moderate, but will switch to deluxe is discounts are good. We also stay on property at USO when we're there too.
Car or Disney transportation? Disney transportation
Dining: plan (type) or OOP-OOP always
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans?
RD on occasion but we usually sleep in. Mid day breaks sometimes but it's not always at the hotel, no pool time because I don't really like swimming. I usually have a touring plan figured out. We have APs so we can park hop and be more relaxed about our days if we want by only spending a few hours here and there. We usually do 1-2 TS a day. I prefer to be out in the evening over the morning so always evening plans.

 

[Farro]

Who are the travelers? Myself and Micky (SO of 20 years ) This year two of my sisters and my brother will be meeting up with us during our trip

When do you go? Usually late October

How many days? 9 nights

Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite, deluxe. Usually Beach Club, this year Polynesian

Car or Disney transportation? Disney transportation (maybe an uber here or there)

Dining: plan (type) or OOP Last time we did quick service, missed having a sit down dinner each day. This time regular table service plan. Two snacks will be perfect for food/wine

Daily schedule: Used to rope drop often. Now we will rope drop once or twice. We have have hoppers. Usually one park during day, relax at hotel, dinner, then another park at night. Pretty relaxed as we have 9 days.

 

[PSUGuy]

Who are the travelers? Usually wife and I, kids and grand kids this Nov 11 in all
When do you go? Yearly for Food&Wine
How many days? 9 - 10 days
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Board Walk on rented DVC points
Car or Disney transportation? Rental car, luggage via MDE, walk to Epcot/DHS, bus to MK, drive to AK
Dining: plan (type) or OOP Never Dining plan
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? As close to rope drop as we can
mid day breaks? Rarely
pool days? Rarely, for a few hours only
touring plan or go with the flow? We schedule days based on crowd levels on EASYWDW
park hop? Daily
meals? Breakfast in our room (kitchenette) Graze Around the World at F&W Some other meals in room
evening plans? Park/Illuminations, Boardwalk entertainment

Bill From PA

 

[BudgieMama]

Who are the travelers? Previous trips have been me and my husband. This year, it will be me and my Mum, who is making her first trip!
When do you go? Last couple of weeks in August due to working in a school
How many days? 14 night stay
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? We love CSR. Suits us, so on-site, moderate for us.
Car or Disney transportation? Disney transport. No way would I want to drive a backwards car on the wrong side of the road when Disney are happy to do all the driving for me!
Dining: plan (type) or OOP As a Brit, we get free QSDP with our moderate stays when booked early, so that. We had DDP on our first trip (SSR) but QSDP suits us better!
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans? We have 14 day park hopper and water park tickets, so we make the most of the time. RD some mornings. Shut the park down other days. Pool time most days. We have a few ADRs but mostly just eat when we fancy. Occasionally park hop. Plan first park for each day but might choose to head elsewhere on the day.

 

[MimiOfTwo]

I've been a lot with different family members, all times of year but mostly:
Who are the travelers? Me 55,DD 32, DGD 6, DGS 2
When do you go? Week after Thanksgiving
How many days? 7-8
Always onsite. Last trip Poly, next trip Poly
Transportation? Disney & occasionally Uber/cab
Dining plan? Yes. We do a character meal everyday. It's all about my grands!
Daily schedule: Varies. We did EMM toured MK til 3. Took a nap came back at 7 and did mvmcp and the kids made it til closing. That'll be the plan this year. The other days we plan but not overly.

 

[amberpi]

Travelers? Could be me wandering off from a conference, me and romantic interest, me and the girls, lots of possibilities, I've even been with a kid on 2 trips - and made it with nary a meltdown.
When? I've been all times except Christmas.
How many days? I prefer 4-5 days, like Vegas I find longer overwhelming, but I've done 12 days in Orlando and just posted at the Hyatt regency grand cypress or the Ritz outside of the bubble for a few days and then headed to the portifino.
Transport? Car service from airport and then Disney transport with uber or taxis thrown in.
Lodging? Swolphin is first pick, then cr or yc.
Dining plan? Nope. I don't eat the way it works, at all.
Daily schedule? Flexibleish. Rd, some fps, big mid day breaks at the pool and then closing down another park, lots of hopping, nice food, almost always hit illuminations and then may hop again if there are extra magic hours.
I always hop, usually multiple times a day. Discontinuing park hoppers would be the only thing WDW could do that would definitely make me stop coming. I freaking love it.

 

[Sydney2977]

Who are the travelers? Usually DH, two DS's, and myself, but now that older DS is in the AF he's done a trip without us and we've done a trip without him, and just younger DS and I are going next month with his band

When do you go? As you can see in my sig. we have gone at different times of the year, but prefer to go when it's less busy

How many days? Ideal for us is 7-8 nights and 6-7 full days

Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite for all of us (we're spoiled) but DS and I didn't have a choice so we're staying offsite with the band; we did value when the boys were younger for theming, size, and price, but as they got older we've done mods and deluxe for the more grown up theming and more room. Me- I'd sleep on the floor at Disney, but DH definitely prefers at least a queen bed!

Car or Disney transportation? We drive so we have our car, but mostly stay in the Disney bubble and rarely use the car now. When the kids were younger we always used the car to get to the parks so we could keep stuff in there in case we needed it and we thought it was easier. The year DH had surgery right before our trip and had to have an ECV changed this and we tried the bus system. It was like "Why didn't we use this sooner?" No more navigating and traffic, so DH gets to relax on the way back and forth to the resort each day.

Dining: plan (type) or OOP We used the regular dining plan on all of our trips except the very first and our most recent. I plan all our meals at home and love doing it, so it was easy for me to figure how to get excellent use of the DDP sharing credits at times and using them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now that everyone is practically an adult, or at least eats like one, and our touring style has gotten more relaxed, it's better for us to go OOP. We can all eat at the same place but depending on how hungry we are can order different amounts of food and not have to worry about using a credit. I tracked it last trip and eating whatever we wanted whenever we wanted still came out cheaper for the three of us than the DDP, plus we got to try a lot of things we wouldn't have on the DDP.

Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans? Even when the boys were little we never did mid day resort breaks. The only time we set alarms is when we have a breakfast ADR, but even then we're usually up anyway. We like to sprinkle in a non-park day or two to go to Disney Springs, mini golf, Disney Quest, resort hop, and/or hang at our resort. If we go to a park we generally stay all day at that one, with the exception of AK. We've been saving AK for our last full day, then hopping to MK to finish up our last night- though I know that will change with AK going to an all day park. We've also done a half day at Epcot before heading home after lunch. We plan our park days and maybe on TS meal per day but aren't super rigid beyond that. We don't do a park on arrival day because we either leave home in the morning, arriving in the afternoon and going somewhere for dinner or leave home in the afternoon and arrive at the resort late evening.

 

[hooch11bear]

Travelers: Me, DH, DD 18 and usually a friend.
When do we go: We've been going twice a year the past 2 years. July, August/October for F&W
How many days: Summer 10 days/F&W 4 days
Always onsite at Riverside.
Car or Disney transportation: We always rent a car. Traveling is much faster. I am the one driving and know my way around Disney just like I do at home. Wouldn't do it any other way.
Dining plan: OOP. We like to eat at 3 or 4 deluxe restaurants and TS restaurants. The dining plans never really seemed to work out for us.
Daily schedule: We do not get park hoppers for our summer trips. We like to RD daily and take a nap in the afternoon just after lunch. Head back to the park around 4:00 and eat dinner and close the parks. We usually allow 1 or 2 down days. Last year we used one of those days to go to Discovery Cove and Disney Springs and to the resorts for dinner. For our trips for F&W, we get park hoppers because we like to be in Epcot every day and still want to go to MK and AK. We don't take any breaks for our 4-day trips because of the short stay.

 

[Anal Annie]

I was reading another thread about how someone plans their days at Disney and a few others shared how theirs days looked, and it got me curious about how different people experience Disney World?

So how do you and your family do Disney?

Some questions to get it started:

Who are the travelers? Most (but not all) trips are DH, DS and myself
When do you go? Usually 3x a year with APs - Last few years has been 6 nights in January, 8-9 nights or so sometime in the summer (our pattern is in flux now with DS in college) plus 4-5 nights in the fall for F&W (just me & DH)
How many days? Anywhere from 4 nights to 10 nights
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? We own DVC so always at a DVC resort - we like to resort hop and try different ones
Car or Disney transportation? We fly on our shorter trips and drive down on our longer summer trips to save money (DH has a hybrid). When we fly we use DME and do not rent a car (why rent a car when DME is free - we're not THAT impatient). We get a grocery & alcohol delivery on those trips from Garden Grocer.
Dining: plan (type) or OOP: We charge to our room & pay out of pocket on our last night and we use the TIW card or AP or DVC for discounts. I "collect" gift cards weekly and we try to bring enough to pay our tab at the end. We eat all breakfasts in our villa to save on the dining expenses.
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans?
We typically DO take advantage of rope drops and EMH's. We plan a fair amount of our time but not every single second.
We usually do about 5 or 6 TS meals over the course of a week (although this summer I already have 6 booked bcuz we're there July 4th week & I don't want to deal with CS lines. I may book 1 more...
We usually do take a mid-day break to go back to the resort. Maybe pool time if it's nice. We only do 1 water park per year and only on our summer trips. It's usually not warm enough in January & in Sept. we're short on time. We always park hop to a different park for the evenings...
And I'm sure their are other things that can be shared that I'm not thinking of! Disney Springs! We may or may not find time to go over there. We sometimes book an ADR at Ragland Road so then we definitely go.

Thanks for sharing

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Who are the travelers? My sister and I. Sisters Trip every two years.
When do you go? Always the first or second week in December.
How many days? Usually six days but this year we eked out a little more money and are going for seven days. Woo-Hoo!
Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Onsite and always Value. For the last three trips we've stayed at ASMo.
Car or Disney transportation? Disney.
Dining: plan (type) or OOP We always get the regular plan (QS, TS, 2 snacks per day).
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans? We gogogogo the entire time we're there. Never sleep in, never have a pool day although if it's warm enough at night sometimes we have a dip then. Always a plan, usually which park on a certain day, which restaurant (we eat in Epcot a lot), FP. Evening plans? Not really, except maybe closing the park that has evening EMH.

 

[LucyBC80]

Who are the travelers?
It's just me and my mom. My first trip was with extended family, aunts and their family but they stopped going once their children grew up. We've been going alone for several years now and we love it, I can't imagine going without my amazing mother.

When do you go?
Usually end of October so we can catch the last Halloween parties and the first Christmas party but this year we're going in December for the first time.

How many days?
We stay in Orlando around 20 to 23 days. We stay at Royal Pacific for a week so we can go to Universal, Busch Gardens and Seaworld then we move on to Disney for another 2 weeks with a 10-day park ticket and two or three party tickets.

Onsite/offsite? Resort Level?
Onsite, ALWAYS. I can't stay off site when doing Disney, we tried it once and it was horrible, the magic just wasn't there. We normally stay moderate but this time around we're doing a split stay between Animal Kingdom Lodge and Port Orleans Riverside.

Car or Disney transportation?
We never rent a car. We rarely leave Disney for anything besides a quick trip to Walmart for water and some snacks. We rely totally on Disney transportation and short of a snafu a couple of years back we've never had a problem.

Dining: plan (type) or OOP
We never travel without the Dining Plan, it's s much easier to have everything already paid for when we get there. Not having to worry about money for food is the main reason we choose to prepay for the DDP.

Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans?
We're RD people for sure. We're are naturally early risers and keep that going for Disney as well. I've seen the sunrise over the Contemporary more than once while we waited for the welcome show at MK. Now that my mom's older we've incorporated mid-day breaks so she can recuperate a little after waking up at the crack of dawn; we usually leave a park by 1pm, she sleeps while I swim (and sometimes I take a nap as well) and then we get ready for the evening. We love our hoppers and we're never at the same park we started our day in. We usually alternate between EPCOT and MK but EPCOT is our favorite evening park; when AK used to close around 5-6pm we always went to EPCOT afterward. When we aren't feeling a park we head over to Disney Springs; people watching is a thing for us and DS is full of great opportunities to do just that, we grab a coffee, a pretzel and enjoy the end of the day just walking around and talking.

 

[rbenn81]

Who are the travelers? DW, DD13, DD15, and myself
When do you go? Varies bu always when school is out since DW is a teacher
How many days? 5-7, typically 7 days
Onsite/offsite? Always On site Resort Level? Rent DVC points so we can stay at Delux resort for less $
Car or Disney transportation? After driving 570 miles Disney Transportation as much as possible!
Dining: plan (type) or OOP When kids were younger DDP, now it's OOP.
Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? Always RD.
mid day breaks? Rarely
pool days? Never
touring plan or go with the flow? Always try to do the rides we want to ride first thing followed by FP's for early afternoon and then whatever we decide on the fly or other try for more FP's
park hop? Yes but not everyday. Generally AK and HS days are hop days for us. We may get tired of the park we're in and decide to go elsewhere.
meals? Last trip we still got ADR's at some of our favs. What really worked for us was a breakfast ADR somehwere around 10:30'ish and then CS around 5/5:30. Or we ate early lunch CS right at 11 and then an early dinner ADR between 5/5:45. We seemed to miss alot of the crowds at the CS locations by eating early.
evening plans? stay in park until fireworks then head back to resort. Or I stay in park trying to grab some night time photos for a while after close.

 

[ShayBells]

Who are the travelers?
Recently it's been me my mom and ds who is 8 but since I was little it was immediate family, extended family, or friends of family. Last trip my sons nana joined us which was nice But this sept trip will go back to me my mom and ds.

When do you go? Always Sept but haven been once in April and once in January.

How many days? We always shoot for a week. Usually Sunday to Saturday.

Onsite/offsite? Resort Level? Stayed offsite when I was little but since I was a teen we've been onsite did value at first went moderate then deluxe once.

Car or Disney transportation? Plane and Disney transportation

Dining: plan (type) or OOP OOP. We did dining plan once and while it was convenient I know we spent more money that way. Too much food.

Daily schedule: RD or sleep in? mid day breaks? pool days? touring plan or go with the flow? park hop? meals? evening plans?
We do rope drop most days but we are naturally early risers so we wake up when we wake up and go. We do park hoppers with one park in the morning pool break then another park. I am an avid planner down to the minute but with full understanding that it will never work lol. We usually book one or two table services bring breakfast for room and QS for the rest. We are usually on the go from morning to night trying to cram as much into our once every two year vacation but last time with my sons older nana I planned it out to go slower and while we didn't get as much in it was SO much nicer and not as exhausting and I think we're going to take that path from now on.

It's been great reading all the Disney ways!!

 

[missmickey]

I just caught up on everyone's post. I love reading how people experience Disney. Thank you all for sharing