how many days to do it right?

[dbal]

Hi- I know this question has been addressed before, but .... any suggestions would sure be helpful. This trip our biggest issue will be budget, so we will be staying offsite. 2 adults 4 kids. We are planning on the week after Thanksgiving or the following week.


My question is - How may days to do the world without running everybody into the ground? Another factor is that the Airline only runs on Th,Fr,Sn,&Mn. My husband thinks we should be able to do it in 4- 5 days. I of course am holding on to 6.


Does anyone plan their travel days (wkdys. vs. wkends) into their itinerary plans? we did this last time (travelled on wkends so as not to waste park days on busy times) - Or am I just overthinking this too much?


Thanks for your help.

 

[MagEpcDisAni Voyager]

If you plan on doing strictly the Disney Parks, and then extra stuff (Downtown Disney and Boardwalk at night) only once you may only need five days.

For example you could get five day hopper passes, and in five days you could jump from park to park. You could do Magic Kingdom all day one day, or One day Epcot at night and disney Studios at day. Animal Kingdom is easily one in a day.

So I would suggest five days with a five day hopper pass which gives access to the four major theme parks (Magic, Epcot, Disne Studios, Animal) for any five days.

It is also good because say you leave early in the morning for Magic Kingdom and feel tired by four, you could drive back to your hotel and rest for a few hours. Then you could go back to the parks and it still counts as one day.

There is not a regular six day hopper pass. There is a six day hopper plus pass whihc also allows access to the water parks. You may wnat to spend an extra day at a water park as well.

If you have any questions I would be glad to answer them to help you.

 

[~Czarina~]

Well, uuummm.... let me tell you what we did. We stayed off site for a grand total of 11 nights. We were a 16 year old girl, a 12 year old boy, a 8 year old boy, a 47 year old woman, a 55 year old man, a 8? year old woman and a 6? year old woman. Two of which could walk no more then 2.5 feet. One day was our down time and we all really needed the down day. We roamed around MarketPlace or Gatorland or swimming or one spent the day reading. Then we went to Hoop De Do Review that night. The 11 days gave us plenty of time to see ALL the night shows, spend two days at Magic Kingdon, two days at Animal Kingdom, two days at M.G.M. and four days at E.P.C.O.T. We saw everything at M.K., everything at A.K., everything at M.G.M. and everylast last show at E.P.C.O.T. plus all the attractions but Mission Space. We got annual passes because we could do that and have it come out cheaper for the park admission and then we made use of the 10% off at certain resturants for lunch. We made sure we ate breakfast at home and then would eat a moderatly late lunch at a sit down resturant then we could genreally make it home without spending more money for yet another meal at the parks. There were times that we were going to eat the next moving thing we saw so we ate at the park but that only happened a few times. If you mkae sure not to be a killer drill sargent and scream "keep it moving" and making everybody run around so you can see everything you are going to miss some serious memorie making moments and miss more then you are gonna see. It will also keep you from running into the ground. If you take ten minutes to lay in the grass and watch the cloud while eating your ice cream you pop up more refreshed and are ready to tackle more of the park. Drink plenty of water, you might see more of the restrooms then you want but it is worth it. There are some wonderful people at hte nurses station but I prefer walking by them and saying hello then stopping in and saying help. Weekend are as a rule busier then the week days so there are going to be some time issues with that. You might be able to run through Magic Kingdom and see everything you want on Monday or you can spend Saturday and Sunday trying to herd your way through. Early entry days generally lead to more then a packed park. They are great in the morning but by noon people are crawling all over each other. If you want to see SpectroMagic I highly recommend that you do NOT spend the entire day at that park but bop in just in time to get a good seat. When we go SpectroMagic is only there once/twice a week so the days that they have it are very cramped. Traveling on weekends is wonderful! We leave on a Satuday and get home on a Sunday. We do that so we aren't missing some calmer times at the parks. The only down side is we get home and unpacked Sunday and are back to work on Monday. I hope this answers some of you questions or at least helps.

~Czarina~

 

[dbal]

Thanks for your tips. Actually as we speak dh is supposed to stop on his way home from work at the DS to check how many days are left on our 5 day hoppers. soooo.. I guess we will have to go from there to figure out how many more to get.



I doubt we will be doing any waterparks, but my older dds and dh are talking about doing a day at Universal. I say we don't have the time for it. I know- I should be just grateful that we are going. Right?

 

[XStAnt]

How many days for Disney? Let's see, to see EVERYTHING which includes 4 main parks, 2 water parks, DTD and DQ, PI along with character meals, the luau, HDDR, Cirque, special tours-- I'd say 10-15 days!! Add in Universal, Sea World and a couple of days to relax at the pool-- easily 3 weeks

Okay, seriously. We all have budget concerns. I think you need at least 5 days to do the main parks. 1 1/2 - 2 days for MK, 1-2 days for Epcot, 1 day for MGM, and slightly less than a full day for AK. This also allows some time for one or two evening activities (such as HDDR or Cirque) if the parks aren't open late. However, you really don't have time for the water parks and may have to make other sacrifices. For example, you may have to miss Illuminations at Epcot if you want to do PI one night.

6 days is better because it would allow a day for a water park and another night for an activity. I find my AK day is good to plan a night time activity because that park closes early anyway. I'm not missing something like wishes, Fantasmic or Illuminations. A water park day is also a nice day for a night time activity.

Of course this will leave you exhausted by the end of your trip, but so what!!! If you want to do Universal that would involve either more time or not doing a water park. In reality, US would take 2-3 days because it has two theme parks and lots to do.

You can see how time really adds up. If you're on a budget I'd plan 5 days for the main parks and skip the water parks and US on this trip. You'll see a lot at this time of year, but not everything. It just gives you a reason to go back in a few years.

 

[WIcruizer]

Here's what we're doing this year, not necessarily in this order:

1- MK
2- Epcot
3- Animal Kingdom, US City Walk at night
4- MK then MGM late afternoon and SpectroMagic
5- DTD, maybe some outlet mall shopping, mini-golf,etc.
6- New Smyrna Beach, or some other beach
7- Daytona USA
8- Pool..checking out AKL,WL, whatever strikes our interest


Only opinion mind you, but we have a hard time filling a day at MGM. One full day at Epcot is plenty. A day at AK is about right (we just love the ambiance, layout etc. there so we spend all day- probably more than most). MK is easily 1 1/2 days.

Then we'll take the other 4 days to just do whatever we feel like when we wake up.

 

[dbal]

Thanks everybody- these are great tips. My husband just found out we can NOT find out the remaining days on our hopper passes. I'm not sure what we are going to do. I thought for sure we did that before our last trip. -But after reading a few of the posts from other people in the same boat....oh well.