How many nights is best?

[disneyfam1986]

So we have done 4.5.7 and we now have a trip booked for 8 nights at Polynesian in December. I keep feeling like I want to add a 9th night!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

My family's sweet spot is 8 nights, which gives us 7 full days.

2 Magic Kingdom
1.5 Epcot
1.5 Studios
1.5 Animal Kingdom
0.5 Disney Springs

We like to go down on Friday and come home on Saturday so we have that next Sunday to unpack, do laundry, and go to bed early before heading back to work and school.

 

[disneyfam1986]

My family's sweet spot is 8 nights, which gives us 7 full days.

2 Magic Kingdom
1.5 Epcot
1.5 Studios
1.5 Animal Kingdom
0.5 Disney Springs

We like to go down on Friday and come home on Saturday so we have that next Sunday to unpack, do laundry, and go to bed early before heading back to work and school.

How old are your children?

 

[krybandt]

We started with 5 nights for our first trip and have settled on 7 or 8 nights for more recent visits. We did 7 nights for our upcoming trip to save enough dvc points to use next year. I get wanting to add a ninth night at Polynesian. If you can swing it, I doubt you’d regret it.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

How old are your children?

7, 4, and 2

 

[loves to dive]

I've never stayed longer than 7 nights but I'm thinking if money weren't an issue and I could pull it off 2 weeks would be my sweet spot. My thinking is I would like a day or two just to enjoy all there is to do at the resort and take it easy. Not saying I wouldn't go to a park because that seems to be impossible if I'm on property. I like to take my time in the parks and would love a day or two to just maybe ride one or two rides but enjoy all the shows or just sit on a bench with a refreshing adult beverage and enjoy the place. While I'm not ride centric and don't rush around trying to ride all the rides, I think two weeks would give me more just relaxing time.

 

[disneyfam1986]

7, 4, and 2

Do they do good with park hopping? We haven’t been brave enough to try it yet! They will be 6 and 3 this year.

 

[disneyfam1986]

We started with 5 nights for our first trip and have settled on 7 or 8 nights for more recent visits. We did 7 nights for our upcoming trip to save enough dvc points to use next year. I get wanting to add a ninth night at Polynesian. If you can swing it, I doubt you’d regret it.

We are taking a “Disney break” after this year for a Disney cruise! I think that has me just wanting more too!

 

[kanerf]

I usually do 10 nights which I split among 3 of my resorts, 3, 3 and 4.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Do they do good with park hopping? We haven’t been brave enough to try it yet! They will be 6 and 3 this year.

We usually do rope drop until after lunch, then back to the resort for a nap, then back in the parks from about 4 to 8. Sometimes we'll skip nap for something like an afternoon parade, but bed by 9:00 at the latest is absolutely necessary.

 

[disneydreamer781]

Years ago we always did Sun - Thu (5 nights) because we got more out of our DVC points that way. Starting in 2013, we were doing 9-11 nights but since it cost more now we're down to 7 nights and I feel that's just about right for us.

 

[Tess]

We are 8 night/9 days or 9 night/10 days people--we do two trips one is the former and the other the latter. Although this year we had a wild whim and will be there for two nights in February--shortest trip ever!

 

[_19disnA]

Think the optimum # of days depends on the ages of your party, your budget, how many times you have been to Disney previously and how energetic you are. We don't find that much changes very often, so if this is your first time there will be more things to see/do compared to going there frequently. If a frequent visitor, you already know the things you want to do and the rides/shows or even parks to skip. Disney parks involve a LOT of walking so that is also a factor in how many consecutive park days to do vs. taking a break some days. With younger children seems MK is a bigger deal. When only adults in the party, Epcot is a bigger draw. AK and HS is somewhere in between.

 

[gregskellington]

My ideal WDW trip is 5 nights:

Day 1 is a partial day somewhere or resort day
2 days MK
1 day HS
1 day AK

Hop to Epcot most nights to eat, drink, stroll around. I've been enough times that any more than that is too much. I'd rather go for more 3-5 day trips then less long ones.

 

[skippytx]

8 nights is our sweet spot. Plenty of time to see what we want to see at a somewhat relaxed pace, but not too long. We did 12 nights once and by night 9 the kids were asking to go home. 8 nights lets us fly in on a Saturday and leave on a Sunday so we only have to take 5 days off work.

 

[nonnadisney]

I have gone for a weekend just 3 nights and the longest was 10 nights. I still wasn't tired of WDW at the 10 days trip! We had the free dining plan and stayed at a family suite in AsMu back when it was still really a free dining plan no paying to upgrade it to the reg dining plan. Generally we go 5nights because of cost. If you can afford it go as many as you want!

 

[MouseOfCards]

I usually do 10 nights which I split among 3 of my resorts, 3, 3 and 4.

This is what we've been doing as well. Need time to enjoy the resorts and all they offer.

 

[Disneylover99]

We do 14 days at a value or moderate, then add on 4 or 5 days at a deluxe.
We’d stay longer if we could.

 

[5Tulips]

Our ideal is a 5 night Sun-Th stay. We have teens/tweens and hit the parks hard. We’ve tried to slow down but that’s not the way we do Disney. And after 6 days of Disney food & cost…It’s enough..

 

[Scubadaddy32]

There is no one way people vacation, so it all depends on your expectations. Being Park people we would rather save money on the resort and extend our days at WDW. I've never once thought to myself, I wished I would have spent money to stay at that resort rather than spent the money on extra days at WDW.
After multiple trips per year for most of the last decade, we finally settled on a 12 day trip. We fly in on a Sunday stay at GDT at CSR, but ultimately we are park people, so where we stay isn't critical as we spend most of our time at the parks. We just do a little skyliner tour for some resort hopping and eat a bite for lunch at one of the QS on arrival day. Then, later we head over to DS for dinner. We found if we fly in on Sunday, we obviously only have one weekend to contend with during the 12 days and typically take a day off from the parks the following Saturday. We sleep in on that Saturday or it's a good day to do those must do breakfast ADR's at a resort or two. We book the latest flight out of the MCO and just use our last 10 day park hopper ticket on our departure day. Typically we take off from the parks around 4-5 to head back to the resort and take off to MCO.
I've never once thought at the end of my trip, I wish I would have spent more money to stay at a resort rather than I wished I could spend an extra day or two on my vacation at WDW. My suggestion to people is take your budget and compare vacations... For example in Sept. a party of 2 could stay at GDT for 12 days for with park hopper tickets in a water view room for about 6K or we could stay in a standard Poly room for 8 days for a little over 6K. No telling how many days a park view would knock off but I'd guess it would be significant at WDW. Ha