How many nights is best?

[ScottOKW2K]

If I could afford it - 365. Maybe 366 every 4 years. In my dreams ...

In the past I truly enjoyed 12 night trips. With DVC weekends were higher in points cost for the room so we would maximize our stay by only having one weekend in the trip. It was truly enjoyable hitting the middle of the first week and realizing that instead of your trip being half over you still had a week and a half more. Good times!

Things have changed since then - different job and other changes so my trips are shorter.

 

[gorkt]

I like 7 days at WDW. I generally do 9-10 day trips to the area with two days at Universal. I do 1.5 days at MK, 1.5 days at Epcot, 1.5 days at HS (I like a half day at GE) and a day at AK. The rest of the time is resort time and Disney Springs.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

When traveling basically anywhere for what we consider a "full length" vacation, I generally aim for at least 8 or 9 nights. In Disney, our sweet spot has been 10/11 nights, which we like to split between two resorts (one Crescent Lake resort and one MK area, for convenience sake). I think this is because when we do Disney we're trying to merge the MILLION things to do there with the need for a relaxing vacation, which means we wind up "needing" more time there than we might at an all-inclusive beach vacation, where the whole entire point is just to relax. With so much to do in Disney and two unpredictable little kids, the longer stay just allows us to go slow, RELAX, enjoy the resorts, and not stress when we inevitably miss something because we know there is plenty of time to go back.

I know a lot of people do marathon Disney and get in and out, but we prefer to treat it like a true vacation, which means we need plenty of time to chill. I like that with 9+ day trips, you get at least 7 FULL days after knocking off the travel days. Because in my opinion, whenever you travel, you eat up Day 1 and your last day (especially when flying) as travel days, then Day 2 you're still getting your bearings, and the the day before you leave you're gearing up to go home. Those 4 days always feel like almost a wash to me. But those MIDDLE days...those are the sweet spot where you can really relax and live in the present and enjoy the fact that you're on vacation. So for me, I want literally as many of those middle days as possible!

Of course everyone's vacation goals and budgets are different so this is a really personal question.

 

[snikki]

When traveling basically anywhere for what we consider a "full length" vacation, I generally aim for at least 8 or 9 nights. In Disney, our sweet spot has been 10/11 nights, which we like to split between two resorts (one Crescent Lake resort and one MK area, for convenience sake). I think this is because when we do Disney we're trying to merge the MILLION things to do there with the need for a relaxing vacation, which means we wind up "needing" more time there than we might at an all-inclusive beach vacation, where the whole entire point is just to relax. With so much to do in Disney and two unpredictable little kids, the longer stay just allows us to go slow, RELAX, enjoy the resorts, and not stress when we inevitably miss something because we know there is plenty of time to go back.

I know a lot of people do marathon Disney and get in and out, but we prefer to treat it like a true vacation, which means we need plenty of time to chill. I like that with 9+ day trips, you get at least 7 FULL days after knocking off the travel days. Because in my opinion, whenever you travel, you eat up Day 1 and your last day (especially when flying) as travel days, then Day 2 you're still getting your bearings, and the the day before you leave you're gearing up to go home. Those 4 days always feel like almost a wash to me. But those MIDDLE days...those are the sweet spot where you can really relax and live in the present and enjoy the fact that you're on vacation. So for me, I want literally as many of those middle days as possible!

Of course everyone's vacation goals and budgets are different so this is a really personal question.

Yes to this!

For Disney I like 8-9 nights. It's enough time to hit each park twice or 3 times and not rush. We do some RD days, some sleep in days, we get pool time and rest time. If we did shorter than that it would NOT be a relaxing trip at all. We did 10 nights once and by the last day it felt too long. And we were missing our home and routine.

When I travel to other places it really depends on where I'm going when I decide on number of nights. For Key West we did 4 nights and 5 full days. It felt like just the right amount. I don't mind doing all inclusives for 5-7 nights. But Disney is really the longest vacation we take. When we do Europe (one day soon hopefully!) I plan on doing two full weeks.

 

[kylenne]

I know a lot of people do marathon Disney and get in and out, but we prefer to treat it like a true vacation, which means we need plenty of time to chill. I like that with 9+ day trips, you get at least 7 FULL days after knocking off the travel days. Because in my opinion, whenever you travel, you eat up Day 1 and your last day (especially when flying) as travel days, then Day 2 you're still getting your bearings, and the the day before you leave you're gearing up to go home. Those 4 days always feel like almost a wash to me. But those MIDDLE days...those are the sweet spot where you can really relax and live in the present and enjoy the fact that you're on vacation. So for me, I want literally as many of those middle days as possible!

This is exactly our view also. 8 days felt too short when my partner and I went back in 2018 so we aim for at least 10 days now for our long trips together.

My solo trips are much different. With an AP I don't feel that pressure to do everything so much so even on a long weekend trip of 4 days I still have plenty of rest time at the resort/pool/wevs. I don't do as much on those trips but they serve a different purpose than the long trips I take with gf and are still fun but in a different way. But I don't commando regardless. Never understood that "we need a vacation after our vacation" stuff.

 

[Edeyore]

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!

If you can add a 9th day to the Polynesian do it. You have a lot more money than I do. The last time I stayed at the Polynesian was in
1998. Since then I haven't been able to afford it.

 

[DisneyGrammyT]

We usually do 10 nights. The first night you never know what will happen during travel so we don't really count it as "being at Disney." One trip when we were supposed to arrive at Disney at 11 in the morning we didn't arrive until 3 the following morning because of flight delays and weather. It's kind of like the first Pancake, the first night is a throwaway LOL

 

[LaDonna]

I like having 2 days at each park……but we also have kids so we need extra time to do and see. We’ve never stayed at anything other than value resorts and did POR once. It’s just never been in the budget to stay deluxe

Now that our youngest is 4(we have 5 total)we are getting pretty much priced out of our normal Disney vacation, we like trying to go every year or two(I keep adding babies to the mix though so sometimes that lengthens a little bit longer I don’t like going pregnant or with babies lol)…….we are stay in the parks all day people so a hefty price tag on a room is not worth it to us, rather stay cheaper and get more park days……we now are looking at future trips staying offsite.….If I’m paying almost $100 per day per person we gotta enjoy those park days as much as we can.……sooooo I’ve been really thinking about how we can make a Disney vacation at least every other year or 3 and I think we are going to try the 10 day tickets and stay offsite that equals out to about what we paid for our yearly trips before

that probably was about as clear as mud

the 10 day ticket ends up being so cheap per day, and it’ll make for a more relaxed go with the flow trip

 

[Sue M]

We are 10-14 night people. We aren‘t park commandos and enjoy a more relaxed trip. We go at rope drop, leave for afternoon pool break then go back to park for evening. Also build in resort rest day, Disney Springs day….
With the way wdw is now, or was last Aug anyway, I found we needed at least 2 days per park to ride what we wanted with the ridiculous wait times and still didn’t ride everything. Nothing like the past Fast Pass system where I actually got to ride my favs more than once!

edited to add, we fly from the Pacific NW, so first and last day are travel days.

 

[DeutscherDon]

I think it depends on how you want to spend your time. Do you only go to Disney or do you break it up and do the beach or universal studios? We usually go for 10 or 11 days. One day for universal and 1 day for Busch gardens (6 roller coasters) and a beach day. We have been going since are girls were little now we go with their families. Also do you stay on property, do you drive, because if you fly you lose a day in and out of vacation. But those can be Disney springs days. And sometimes you need a relaxing day. Either way it’s family on vacation. Enjoy!

 

[rangerxenos]

I usually end up doing 8 for my longer trips.

 

[stinkpickle]

7-9 usually works best for us.

 

[Mazz519]

When the kids were young we always did 10 nights spending 1 day at Universal.... now they are older so we pretty much only do 6 nights now... But I loved 10 !!!

 

[ppony]

Our visits are usually 9-11 but this one will be our longest at 13. I find that the longer we’re there, the more relaxed we are. We don’t sweat not getting to something one day, because we have a few more chances. By day 11 last time, I was ready to go home. This time I have a few more I added bcz of flight costs. Your mileage may vary. You know your family and touring style and priorities best.

 

[MamaBear58]

We did a week last time and came back tired. And it was the week before Thanksgiving so it wasn't crowded.

This time we are doing 8 nights (after 3 at Universal) in June. I am thinking it gives us rest days and or partial park days to deal with crowds and summer heat and lack of FP+ (as it sounds like ILL and Genie+ are disasters).