how long is the average stay on property

[Nancyg56]

As to why i asked the question- if your staying on property and want to book fastpasses- if the average stay is 7 days and you stay 10 since disney lets you book fastpasses for entire stay-days 7- 8-9 might have far less competition for fastpasses

Of course you have a better chance for any of the bookable experiences such as FP and ADR's if your stay is longer rather than shorter, however asking for specific information that no one can help you with won't help you with your FP dilemna if you are trying to book a trip that is one day longer than the "average" stay if that is what your ultimate goal is.

 

[goodeats]

I would guess it's less than 7 days. When I told non-Disney type people that we were going for 8 nights they were flabbergasted!

 

[JFox]

Maybe the Dingo ate your baby.

 

[bumbershoot]

I am asking average stay that only Disney would know and if they have ever mentioned it.

No they’ve never mentioned it.

Stay how long you want to stay. Don’t pay for extra time just for FP purposes.

My guess based solely on what Disney tends to use as suggested examples for discounts is 5 nights/6 days.
Or at least that's what they would like people to stay.

That’s for the american market, though. They have sold amazingly discounted tickets to Australians and the British, so they seem to indicate that different groups stay different amounts of times.

I would guess it's less than 7 days. When I told non-Disney type people that we were going for 8 nights they were flabbergasted!

If you’re in the US, that’s likely because people here tend to have such small amounts of vacation time. If you’re from elsewhere it’s likely just a Disney judgment.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

No they’ve never mentioned it.

Stay how long you want to stay. Don’t pay for extra time just for FP purposes.



That’s for the american market, though. They have sold amazingly discounted tickets to Australians and the British, so they seem to indicate that different groups stay different amounts of times.



If you’re in the US, that’s likely because people here tend to have such small amounts of vacation time. If you’re from elsewhere it’s likely just a Disney judgment.

True.
So for example the UK the likely average is 14 days since that's one of the most popular tickets because Disney basically offers the 14 day ticket for the same price as the 7 day ticket.

 

[_19disnA]

As others have mentioned, average stay information isn't publically available and even if it was, seems like a rather round-about way to try to increase your changes at getting dinner reservations or FastPass slots. Even if you could find out the average, it would tell you nothing about restaurant or ride capacity on any given day/time.

 

[roxiepenguin]

That is often pointed out on the FP thread(s) on the Theme Park board and some of the ADR threads on the Restaurant board. You have a better chance of getting the harder-to-book FP and ADR towards the end of your trip.

I'm curious as to how this works. Just because it's day 10, 11, 12, 13 of my stay (and by this logic, FPS and ADRs should be easier to obtain), doesn't mean those same four days aren't the first four days of at least 100 other families also trying for those FPs and ADRs.

(I'm not knocking this, I'm truly just saying I'm not sure how the logic works!)

 

[AngiTN]

I'm curious as to how this works. Just because it's day 10, 11, 12, 13 of my stay (and by this logic, FPS and ADRs should be easier to obtain), doesn't mean those same four days aren't the first four days of at least 100 other families also trying for those FPs and ADRs.

(I'm not knocking this, I'm truly just saying I'm not sure how the logic works!)

It's not logic it's all about averages. Fewer people have longer trips.
It doesn't work if your trip is only 4, 5 days, by the way. It makes little difference.
But if you have a 10 day trip, heck yeah it makes a difference. Day 10 from your FP booking day will have much fewer guests competing for those FP than days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 will.
So on Day 10 you'll be fighting with say, 2000 other guests for those FP, where on day 1 you'll be fighting with 200,000 other guests (just tossing numbers out of the top of my head for illustration purposes). It's a lot easier to get the FP you want when you are only trying to get it along with 2000 others vs. 200,000 others. Make sense?

 

[roxiepenguin]

It's not logic it's all about averages. Fewer people have longer trips.
It doesn't work if your trip is only 4, 5 days, by the way. It makes little difference.
But if you have a 10 day trip, heck yeah it makes a difference. Day 10 from your FP booking day will have much fewer guests competing for those FP than days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 will.
So on Day 10 you'll be fighting with say, 2000 other guests for those FP, where on day 1 you'll be fighting with 200,000 other guests (just tossing numbers out of the top of my head for illustration purposes). It's a lot easier to get the FP you want when you are only trying to get it along with 2000 others vs. 200,000 others. Make sense?

Thanks AngiTN, this makes a lot of sense!

(Our trips as of late tend to be "Hey, let's go to WDW in 2 weeks" or "Let's go in a month" so we lose out on those early windows anyway)

 

[Jimmy Mouse]

My calculations suggest that the average stay is 8.3 days.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I would guesstimate the average WDW stay is between 4 and 5 nights. This would correlate with the average time most families spend on vacation time according to the US Census Bureau and various news reports:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/by-the-numbers-the-american-vacation/.
It also makes sense when you look at how much Disney lowers the cost of park tickets based on stay.

 

[Animal]

I would guesstimate the average WDW stay is between 4 and 5 nights. This would correlate with the average time most families spend on vacation time according to the US Census Bureau and various news reports:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/by-the-numbers-the-american-vacation/.
It also makes sense when you look at how much Disney lowers the cost of park tickets based on stay.

Real data?! I don’t know if that compares favorably to anecdotes and feelings.

 

[tex1989]

I know the OP is not looking for how many days we as responders stay but rather what is the average stay for the sake of booking FP+'s. So here is my thought, we stay 7 days when we go and what I have found is that since FOP opened (4 trips for us since then) I have always planned our AK day on the 5th day plus. Our last full day is always in MK. As a result in those 4 trips including one that starts this Saturday we have never had an issue getting the FP+ at the time we wanted at the 60+5 mark.

So the long way around would make me think that the average stay (for FP+ booking purposes) is 5 days. No hard data, just my personal experiences projected out to try and answer the question.

 

[kiford]

This would correlate with the average time most families spend on vacation time according to the US Census Bureau and various news reports:

Don't forget that there are a significant number of people staying at WDW for conventions and conferences. Some of those will be a week long, others only a few days. This can skew the averages and has no correlation to vacation time. People there at conferences may or may not go into the parks on any given day and may or may not use ADRs or FPs.

And a large number of people are not staying on property but are using ADRs and FPs. A lot of local people have APs and do use ADRs and FPs. Or don't and just wing it.

Basically: we've no idea what the average length of stay is, whether it's different between vacationers or conventioners or AP holders, how it impacts ADRs and FPs, or how the split between onsite and off property visitors impacts ADRs and FPs. Disney knows but isn't telling us. Even if they did, it probably wouldn't be helpful since you don't have access to any of the other related data that Disney has that allows for useful analytics. In short - don't bother with trying to find out, figure out, or make use of any this information, just pick what works best for you because it isn't going to be enlightening.

 

[pooh2001]

7- 10 days
We do 2 days at MK, 2 days at EPCOT, 1 day at AK and 1 or 2 days at DHS
Then we add extra days to do a park again for repeats, go to DS, do mini-golf,
relax at the pool and do laundry.

We sometimes base how many days we go on the price of air fare.
If we can get $135 one way vs $181 it is a nice savings.