How long do to Disney "right"?

[pmaurer74]

ten is ideal, 7 at least.

 

[epcotty]

It all depends on how many attractions you want to do at each park and how many days it'd take to do that. Can be less than the following but this is to exhaust the attractions/areas/entertainment. I suggest MK: 2-3 days, EP: 2 days, HS: Probably 1 day now, AK : 1 day

 

[caroline1851]

I would want: 3 days MK, 2 days Epc, 2 days AK, 1 day HS, 1 day of mini golf/dtd/maybe a movie, 1 resort day, I water park day = 11. But that being said, no way would I wan to be at Disney that long because the crowds, etc. drive me crazy.

 

[senadler]

For us 6-7 nights is perfect. We do not try to do everything (we know we will be back), and enjoying the resort and dining options are a big part of our trip. We normally do not spend more than 6 hours at a park each day, and since we mix up mornings and evenings, we find that we don't need full resort days. When we did a shorter 5 night trip due to flight and resort expense over a spring break, it did feel too short.

 

[Jfsag123]

Our first trip was 5 nights and it felt too short. Second trip was 7 nights. Better, but still didn't satisfy us. Upcoming trip is 11 nights and I cannot wait. However, I know that a trip that long is not always feasible, and probably won't be for us in the future. I think future trips will likely be around 8 nights. While I know we can never see everything, I think that will be enough to leave us feeling like we've had a full trip and have seen plenty.

 

[summerw]

We generally do 12+ hours a day. We tried taking a day off in the middle of a trip once, but we were bored to tears by noon and ended up heading to MK.

Wow! You do 7 days straight of 12+ hours? Are you a marathon runner? Iron man? Even if I had the stamina foot-wise, I don't know if I could handle the noise/crowds without a break. I'm very impressed. If you offered disney boot camp to train to go, I would attend.

Lessons could focus on Standing for long periods of time with people bumping you, skills for ignoring that the person in front of you is taking 20 minutes to order, and a stroller obstacle course.

 

[ArmyVet80]

We do not have children so I cannot speak on how our trips would compare with yours. This is one of our typical trips though.

We always do 8 day/7 night trips. That's roughly 2 days per park (we always fly in early on day 1). Since we accomplish most of the things we want to do at AK in 1 day it tends to be our arrival day destination. That then gives us 2 days at HS (this will be changing with all of the construction that will be starting due to the new lands), 2.5 days at MK (the .5 is our MNSSHP day mixed with part of the day leisurely hanging out at the resort or DTD), and finally 2.5 days at Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival. We tend to accomplish 95% of our list of things to do with this schedule.

 

[hamilkm]

We usually just go with how much time we have and then make a plan. We did one trip with 5 nights but only 4 park days and that felt like too little (late night arrival and an early departure, not sure what I was thinking). We went open to close and were exhausted! Next trip we did seven nights with 8 park days. I think we should have taken at least one non park day, but this trip was much more restful with lots of half resort days. Our next trips are shorter trips, but I still have resort days planned. I don't think there is a perfect answer, but I felt like with 8 park days we got to do everything we wanted.

 

[mummabear]

We have gone for 28 days and still not done "everything" we have a 3 year old and a 20 month old at the time.
We now have 3 kids who will be 6,4 and 21 months at the time of our next trip, we are going for 18 nights and will still be short on time to do everything-and this trip we are dropping our normal 1-2 days at Uni but still hitting SeaWorld/Busch Gardens.
2 weeks with 10 day tickets is a good amount of time to get to see "most" things and at a reasonable pace

 

[ABZDisneyFan]

After not visiting for many years, we went for 10 days staying onsite in 2012 & felt that we had achieved just about everything that we had on our list, whilst leaving more to do on our next trip.
We went for two weeks last year & although we hit the parks multiple times we didn't cover everything.
As several posters have already said, there’s no right or wrong way to do it, when we went in 2012 we were on our own & spent a lot of time figuring out where things were & how to navigate around the place using the buses, mono rails, boats & our hire car.
Last year we took the in-laws & although we were there for longer we spent more time showing them around & things that we had discovered so we actually achieved less than the trip before, although we still had a brilliant holiday.

We won’t be back until 2017 which will be just the two of us for two weeks, I expect a more chilled & relaxed trip than the previous ones because we know our way around & the things that we enjoy doing as well as things that we don’t have to bother doing again.
As much as we enjoy the rides, shows & parades we also enjoy just wondering round the parks & hotels to take in the theming & details that Disney do so well, we both worked for a theme park in the UK (Legoland) in the past so we get a kick out of observing how Disney do things.
We also try to fit in as much signature dining in the evenings as our time allows, we also plan to golf on our next trip which will add a new dimension to things as well.
Although this works for us, some people would be bored out of their minds & we understand why.
For us to come from the UK, anything less than 10 days would not be worth our while so by being onsite for two weeks, we are able to take our time & not have to go down the “commando” route which a lot of people have to do when they go for a few days.
However long you decide to go for I’m sure you’ll have a fantastic time.

 

[rotlex]

As others have said, you can never do everything. We find that the longer we stay, the better the trip. Not that we can "do more", but we can take it easy, and still see all we want to. With that said, for us, 10 days in a minimum. 14 perfect. Our upcoming trip is 12 nights, and that will be just about right. We can take break days to swim, relax, or just tour the different resorts and not feel rushed. That's key for us. Not feeling rushed.

 

[Alesia]

Wow! You do 7 days straight of 12+ hours? Are you a marathon runner? Iron man? Even if I had the stamina foot-wise, I don't know if I could handle the noise/crowds without a break. I'm very impressed. If you offered disney boot camp to train to go, I would attend.

Lessons could focus on Standing for long periods of time with people bumping you, skills for ignoring that the person in front of you is taking 20 minutes to order, and a stroller obstacle course.

The secret is having a good attitude. And pacing yourself.

We're not particularly athletic, but we really don't find it grueling. It sounds harder than it is. It's not like we're sprinting through the park at top speed, we're just walking through at a reasonable pace and sitting when anyone needs to sit. Our pace isn't much more strenuous than our regular daily lives.

The big thing we do differently than other people is that we rarely do table service meals (sitting for an hour while stuffing yourself destroys your momentum.) Instead we share counter service meals and snacks every few hours - it keeps our blood sugar more stable and keeps everyone happier. six 30-minute breaks are more effective than one 3-hour break.

Standing in long lines is another momentum killer, so we just don't do it. We never stand in line for more than 30 minutes, and rarely more than 20. As far as people bumping into us in line, I've really never had an issue with that.

Some of it is personality, too - we've always been action vacationers. We would rather be doing something than nothing. If we spend the money and time to go somewhere, we want to get as much out of it as we can. We can sit around and do nothing at home for free.

I will give you one thing - strollers are getting more ridiculous every trip.

 

[bdiddy]

For our family of four the absolute minimum is 7 days. This last trip was 11 and it was perfect.

 

[summerw]

The secret is having a good attitude. And pacing yourself.

We're not particularly athletic, but we really don't find it grueling. It sounds harder than it is. It's not like we're sprinting through the park at top speed, we're just walking through at a reasonable pace and sitting when anyone needs to sit. Our pace isn't much more strenuous than our regular daily lives.

The big thing we do differently than other people is that we rarely do table service meals (sitting for an hour while stuffing yourself destroys your momentum.) Instead we share counter service meals and snacks every few hours - it keeps our blood sugar more stable and keeps everyone happier. six 30-minute breaks are more effective than one 3-hour break.

Standing in long lines is another momentum killer, so we just don't do it. We never stand in line for more than 30 minutes, and rarely more than 20. As far as people bumping into us in line, I've really never had an issue with that.

Some of it is personality, too - we've always been action vacationers. We would rather be doing something than nothing. If we spend the money and time to go somewhere, we want to get as much out of it as we can. We can sit around and do nothing at home for free.

I will give you one thing - strollers are getting more ridiculous every trip.

That's an interesting point about meals. And I agree it's about personality. My cousin goes to tropical locations but never sits on a beach. I had to drag dh out of bed to see the louvre. I thInk I'm somewhere in between.

I think one major setback for me is that I work from home. It's very peaceful (well, minus ds6) and spending 10 days in the humanity is definitely an adjustment for me.

You're so lucky you haven't experienced the bumping. We go to Disneyland a lot (roughly 70 times in the last 3 years) and I've had to ask so many people to stop. A lot of kids but many adults too.

 

[disneysteve]

My cousin goes to tropical locations but never sits on a beach.

That would be us. We went to Bermuda a few years ago. Spent 3 days on the island. Everyone was asking us about the beaches and we were like, "there were beaches there?". We saw every attraction, historic site, and tourist destination they had to offer but the only glimpse we got of the beach was when we were riding the city bus back to our ship.

 

[niffer5150]

i prefer to do 10. it leaves room for mishaps, errors, and the unforeseen. we did 8 last trip and it was not nearly as pleasant. it felt rushed as all out, even with flying in early on a direct flight and last day catching a way late flight out. the weather was just terrible, i got terribly sick, and there was zero wiggle room in the schedule to shift things around. it was not a good feeling and i don't care to ever squeeze myself that tight again.