How many days should we spend at Disney?

[Unregistered]

I was just wondering how many days should we plan to spend at Disney to make sure we see everything and that we don't get bored? We were at the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom 7 years ago for two days. It was not enough. So now I'm wondering should we plan like 4 days? Would that be enough or would we need longer? We are taking the kids there in April when my husband gets back from deployment. The only thing I know for sure is that we will be staying at the Shades of Green. Also, to those that have been in April and May which one is the better month as far as weather, crowds and all of that. Thanks so much for any help!

 

[laura001]

We have gone twice at the end of April beginning of May and the weather has always been great for whatever we wanted to do.

As far as how long...well....it depends on what you want to do. Do you want to go to every park, the water parks, have some down time, explore other activities or areas like the Boardwalk etc. It is all personal preference, and in all fairness very difficult to judge. In my own experience, you will never get to see everything or do all of the things you want to do, so you just have to set those things aside for your next trip If you wanted to say spend a day in each of the parks (=4) , two water park days with evenings in the parks (=2) and one day trying to do whatever else was on top of your list (=1)....well that is seven very very exhausting days filled with loads of fun. What you might want to do is figure out what you want to do, take a day for each and then add at least one extra day.

Myself, I prefer 9 or 10 days, that way I can actually have some downtime, although there still seems to be a rush at the end to fit things in. When we were in WDW this year, it was one of the first times that we were able to spend time exploring other areas and features of WDW and that was great.

Hope this helps you somewhat.

 

[Dale-n-Chip]

I think question number one is: What is the maximum number of days you can afford to spend there? When I say "afford" I'm talking about more than finances. That includes how much vacation time do you have to burn (if you are employed outside the home), school schedules (if you have kids in school), as well as how much family time you can handle in what amounts to a hotel room. Personally, I couldn't hack 10 days of family togetherness in a hotel room, even at WDW! But that's just me and I know I'm not the poster child for family togetherness. I hope that gets better when DS5 gets older and we can split up some.

We just joined DVC and are also trying to determine the "magic number." I can't wait to read all the responses!

Happy planning!

 

[mommystieg]

I was just wondering how many days should we plan to spend at Disney to make sure we see everything and that we don't get bored?

We spend an average of 9 days--this June will be our 5th visit and we still haven't seen/done everything WDW has to offer. As the previous poster stated it is best if you decide what is important to your family and then decide on the length of your stay based on that. You may want to pick up a couple of guide books like the PassPorter and the Unofficial Guide to help you decide. On our first visit I had each member of our family list what would be most important to them to see/do and then we planned our park days around everyone's "must do's". HTH

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks so much for the replies. I'm in the beginning stages so I haven't really started to research yet. I was just wondering how long most people stay. I was browsing a bit after the post and it seems like most stay at least a week. I think I will have to get a handbook to help us figure out what we want to do. Thanks for the tip.

Mommysteig,
Which park did you take the family picture in? That is so cute. I would like us to do something like that? Was it very expensive?

 

[mommystieg]

Mommysteig,
Which park did you take the family picture in? That is so cute. I would like us to do something like that? Was it very expensive?

We had that picture made in Epcot in the Imagination pavilion. When you exit the Journey into Your Imagination ride you will pass through the Kodak What IF! Labs where there are a bunch of free interactive areas and then the portrait studio. We usually have an 8x10 picture made there--it was less than $20 last June ($16.95, I think). They have lots of fun backgrounds to chose from and a variety of picture packages.

 

[cmonroe]

You're right, this will be interesting to see.

Personally, we don't get to Disney as much as we'd like, but that could be because we never go for anything less than 7 days, and it's usually 10. We are by no means rich.
We do however, save for vacations and will be staying at a value resort. My family are such addicts that we feel anything shorter doesn't allow us to savor the vacation.

 

[annie1995]

When we flew down in September, we saved our flying days for just relaxing days, we arrived in Orlando by 10 am, so we had the whole day to do what ever we wanted, and the day we flew home we just hung around the pool, and DTD. We also took one day as a relax day, when the kids started to act kind of burned out, we just slept in and hung around the pool that day. We had a 7 day park hopper pass, without the water parks, so we definately accomplished everything we set out to do. I won't do a trip that long without break time, it saves on having cranky kids and parents . I think 9 or 10 days is ideal, that way you aren't rushing around trying to do and see it all. You can take the time to enjoy the sights and sounds and everything else Disney has to offer!

 

[HappyLawyer]

i say 2 to 3 weeks in florida if possible for everything

 

[sanilacjack]

We usually fly in late on a Fri. night, have 7 days and fly home on a Sat.

We do 3 days of parks, one rest day in the middle and another 3 days of parks.

We do this every 1.5 years and we'll be back to WDW in 22 days.

We are DW, DH, DD-12, DS-7.

We have found with our family, we need that day off in the middle. We sleep in, swim, do DTD or DQ for awhile.

Now with the new magic your way ticket, it was only 5.00 or 6.00 per ticket to add on the 7th day, so maybe on our rest day we might head to one of the parks for the evening show only.

If you go this time of year, the parks close at a earlier hour, so we find its not as hard being up in the morning and at the parks before opening.

Welcome to dis, planning is half the fun!!!

-Kim

 

[kapica3]

First of all in answer to your which month question I definately say MAY. April still has the end of spring break/Easter crowds. My favorite month is May.

We started out with something like three days way back in the days of staying off site and even though we have already "seen everything" after so many trips we keep stretching out the vacations in order to take it all in at a leisurly pace, because each trip we see everything over again, and don't want to miss anything. This year's trip will be 15 days (first time such a long trip most recently 9 or 10 nights).

Of course it all depends on the amount of $$ you have to spend. I don't think you could get board even with 2 weeks - there is just soooo much to do.

We drive down and usually arrive after driving all night and just jump into the magic. This time we have decided to unwind a bit and take it easy first. We are all getting older and could use some reooperation from our approx 20 hour car ride before we get started.

Don't forget to plan 1 or if possible 2 downtime days into your trip - it makes for a happier group. On your downtime days you could sleep late - lounge by the pool let the kids play at the playground and then after dinner go play mini-golf and maybe grab the boat from one of the Epcot resorts and ride around with the kids and eventually land at Beaches and Cream for Ice Cream. Depending on the ages of your children this could be a fun filled day.

This is what I figure you will need to see it all -

2 days of waterparks (1day each)
AK 1 full day
MGM - 1 full day or possibly 1 1/2 days - you must see FANTASMIC!
Epcot - at least 2 full days - don't want to miss Illuminations
MK - at least 2 full days - must see afternoon parade, Spectromagic and fireworks.
Downtown Disney time, mini-golf time, shopping time. = 1 day total.
at least 1 day to spend at your hotel pool - somewhere in the middle of trip to recooperate.

Brings us to somewhere around 10 days I guess.

If you are bored you could always look for more "magic" - rent watersprites, send your children on the pirate cruise, or teaparty (depending on their ages), spend time visiting other resorts, you could also look for the campfire sing along at Wilderness campgrounds. There are carriage rides through Ft. Wilderness and Port Orleans. (and I think possibly pony rides too)Oh and I forgot to mention DisneyQuest at DTD. There is the shopping at DTD and Pleasure Island.

If your kids are little, don't forget to take time to enjoy the little kiddie things - like letting them run through the fountains in the ground at DTD and Epcot (remember to bring change of clothes) leave enough time for them to play in the playground in Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, and extra time to stand in line for autographs.

One of the mistakes I made my first few trips was not leaving enough time to stop and enjoy the magic when it happend spontaneously, like a Barbershop Quartet along main street or the Streetmospher players at MGM. Now we take it slow and take it all in.

My suggestion is go for as many days as you can afford.

 

[GrumpyCAdad]

My family and I took our first vacation to WDW in November 04. We went for 8 days and took it slowly, resting often and swimming at the hotel. We had a great time and plan on going back next year, doing the same thing.

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks for all the tips! Many of you have included lots of info about specific spots we might like to see. Thanks so much. BTW, once we go to Disney my boys will be 12, 7 and 5 years old.

 

[canwegosoon]

We go for a 7-10day period every year. More than 7 days is very hard for DH to recover at work. But I could stay 2 weeks with the kids.

 

[LauraAnn630]

For us its more like how many days and nights can we afford this time.
Each year we saved more to stay longer!

Last year we stayed 14 days. We never got bored. I could of stayed longer!

With our 2 DSs we need that down time too.
This next Christmas we are going and we decided to take a day off
every other day. We will sleep, swim and shop on our days off.

 

[byoung]

As many as you can afford. The more the better.

 

[highland3]

We were there for seven and I could easily have stayed seven more!!!!

Unfortunately it can also depend on the kids. DS was just four and he was ready to come home (or a least we were ready to bring him home!)

As someone else said, look at your $$$ situation and judge accordingly.

Have fun and read all the great info here on the DIS!