How many days at WDW for family of 4?

[dis ms.]

I know there have probably been tons of these types of questions, but please bear with me!

We (DH, me, DS & DD) will be going to WDW in October, followed by a Disney cruise. We also plan on visiting Universal and Sea World prior to WDW.

The last time DH and I were at WDW was our honeymoon, and we didn't have the kids then, so I really am not sure how many days we will need to do the parks as a family. We won't be doing the water parks, just the 4 theme parks. As of now, we are figuring no less than 5 days.

Some additional info: Vacation time is not a factor (I'm a SAHM and DH has tons of days banked) and my DS will be on fall break from his year-round school, so that's not a factor, either. Also, we most likely will be getting parkhoppers, if that helps at all.

So my question is: what is a reasonable number of days at WDW for a family of four (including a 4 and 6 year-old).

TIA!

 

[rocket9]

We were there in the spring, with kids of the same age, for 7 days (6 nights) and covered everything very well. We didn't hit Animal Kingdom this time (were there 2 years previous), or the Water Parks (wasn't quite warm enough for us) and by the end felt we covered everything just to the point of being done. Our guys did find that they wanted to do their favorites over and over, which meant mostly time in MK and Studios, with just one visit to Epcot (though they both did love Test Track and Soaring).

 

[siestakeys04]

My kids are dd10 and ds6 and we are staying for 7 nights. This is dh and the kids first time going to WDW so we wanted to try to see alot. Hope this helps.

 

[scrappinmom]

I would say if you plan of hitting everything you will need a day for AK, 1 day for MGM, 2 for Epcot, 2 fo MK & 1 extra to go back to either MK or Epcot. It also depends on your kiddos...when mine were younger like yours...Epcot was a bore to them...however this last time at 11 & 6 it was their favorite park. I'm sure MK will be a huge hit with both of them...we spent 3 days there the last time. The weather in October is great! so a ay at the water parks and maybe mini-golf? When we took our dd at 4 and the 2 kids at 7 & 2...we spent 14 days total & really did everything you could think of (Universal & SeaWorld & Space Center too).

Year round school ----- you're so lucky!!!! I wish we had that!

 

[Lancer]

I think five days sounds pretty good. With your childrens ages, you can plan on spending two days at Magic kingdom, and one each at the other three parks. Most adults agree that you can do MGM and Animal kingdom each in less than a day, so with kids you may be able to spend full days there especially if you want to stay and catch Fantasmic at the end of the day at MGM. If you can easily add a sixth day, it may be helpful when you go to Epcot. If yours kids are willing and able you can take your time and see everything at world show case (which may be boring to them). If you do it in less than two days you can always go back to the other park and hit some favorites again(assuming you get a park hopper).

I hope this makes sense! Good luck!

 

[denisekayt]

When we went for the first time last year we had 6 days in the parks (family of 3, DH, DS (6 at the time), and myself)....it wasn't quite enough. We did MK, MGM, and AK parks pretty well, but really didn't get to as much as we would have liked to at Epcot.

For our next trip in Dec 2006 we are planning for 8 days in the parks. This will give us enough time to relax and not feel like we need to kill ourselves each day to see what we want to see.

Another thing to think about is where to stay and stay close to the park you think you'll be visiting the most. My DS's favorite rides were Splash Mtn and Big Thunder Mtn. Staying at the WL and being able to just go over there for a quick couple of hours later in the evening was a nice way to get his extra rides in.

 

[dis ms.]

Thank you all for the great information!

Okay, so it sounds like 7 days (possibly 6) would be good. And, if we don't get to see something this trip, we'll have a good excuse to go back, right?

I can see the kids wanting to redo their favorites (me, too!), so we definitely are going to get the hoppers.

Any other suggestions?

 

[HollyJoy]

On our last trip to WDW, which was also our girls first trip, we stayed 6 nights, and found it was a day short! This year, we will be staying 7 nights, and I bought 8 day park hoppers (a much better value!). This ought to be just right!

 

[Pixiedust34]

As many as possible!

Seven or eight days would be nice. That would be 1 park per day for 4 days. Then you can revisit your favorite attractions (plus hit the attractions you couldn't do on previous days) the other 3-4 days. Two days per park would be great, though some families say that they can do AK in one day. I love AK and could easily fill 2 days there, but then again it all depends on what types of attractions your family enjoys the most.

And, if you stay up to 7 or 8 days, you won't feel rushed to get everything done in a few days. You can take some downtime to swim at your resort and to explore all of the nooks and crannies of the parks.

 

[dis ms.]

Just for more responses!

 

[Collette]

We've had 5, 6, 7 and 8 night trips. Five and six definitely left me wanting more. If I could, I would like one day AK, one day MGM, one and a half to two days Epcot, two days MK, one rest day, and one day at the end to redo everyone's favorites. And there will still be many excuses left to go back

I guess that's not exactly a reasonable number of days, but it would be fun!! Then there is Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, too! And the Food and Wine Festival!

Have fun planning!!

Collette

 

[Camping Griswalds]

I think you need to plan at lest one day for each park (so 4 days) and then at least one "off day" to enjoy your resort (so 5 days) and then a day to do a water park (so 6 days) and then a day to hit your favorites again and DTD. So my total would be 7-8 days at Disney world. This would not include an arrival or departure day. If you want to do Seaworld, it is easily done in a day, but they usually have a second day free with your admission (so 9-10 days), and I think you can do IOA in one day and Universal in one day. Well so my total is now up to 11-12 days, and then of course you would probably need more time (days) to just relax, so I think 2 weeks would be an awesome relaxing vacation to get all of this done. My family did this in 10 days several times when we only had 2 kids, and we went in January which is very low crowds. However we have been lots, and know what we like, and what we want to skip. We usually do all 4 Disney parks, then 2nd day at MK split with MGM, and another day at DAK and DTD. We use an off day every 3 days when possible, but use DTD as our off day sometimes. We do Seaworld in a day, and actually have done IOA and Universal in one day. I would not recomend that pace for everyone though! We are going for 11 nights but only actually 10 full days in Jan/Feb with our 2 boys who are 13 and 9 and DD first trip and she will be 17 months. We only plan on doing the 4 kingdoms and the water park. Much slower pace with the little one in mind!!

MOST IMPORTANT.......please don't think you will see everything in your one trip...even if you went for a month you could not see everything!!!

 

[pixiepower1971]

In my experiance with kids that age a very long trip can be too much.

I would plan a day in each park and one day for SeaWorld and one day for BOTH universal parks. Be sure to check the calendar for US/IOA. Try to go on a day that there is no Halloween Horror night! Also, I would highly siggest Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party but you will want the day of the party to be a light day.

So that would be 5 days for Disney and 2 for other parks. We always go with the mindset that we can always come back...the best trips we have had are the ones where we left wanting to stay longer. A few have actually been TOO long...we were ready to go. We have found more then 7 days to be too much at one time. Kids are now 7 and 9. Hope that helps some!