How many park days in January?

[parkbr]

Hi,

We're going in January (16 - 23) and DH and I are having second thoughts on park days.
16 and 23rd is really booked for traveling.

Our initial plan is to use our existing NE park pass just for 2 days - AK and MK, and rest of the days, just the resort, DS, checking out other resorts - Poly, AK and Wilderness (as we didn't really get to see that before) etc.

However, given the crowd level in January and short park hours, DH is suggesting to purchase Canadian Resident ticket and go to the park 4 days (or 5).

Any thoughts? We're staying at CBR.

FYI... we're traveling with 3 y/o child who's in love with princesses (Aurora in particular, for now) and we spent 13 days in Disney last December, with 6 park days with WPFAM and thought that was plenty.
We do not plan to any of buffet and character dining this time. We want to see how 'little' we spend without DDP.

Thank you!

 

[BriLovesDisney]

I would take advantage of more park days. Disney Springs is max 1 day, and resort hopping is a half day adventure.

 

[kniquy]

More park days is always a plus, especially with a 3 year old. Buy for at least 5 days - This would allow for your 2 travel days off - you have to figure if you have more days of park tickets then this gives you more fast passes thus more opportunities to get FP for those princess meet and greets. So only 2 days of tickets will get you 6 FP, but 5 will get you 15 each. It would allow you to do a morning at a park and then just enjoy the resort in the afternoon or time to do a monorail tour. Most people here would always vote to get as many park days as possible.

I always refer back to this story i read on this board -- someone was complaining/commenting on how busy the parks were. They had booked a 10 or 14 day trip but only had 5 park days - well when you are trying to hit 4 parks in 5 days you have to be on the move to accomplish everything. But had they increased to 8 days of tickets then they would have had more FP opportunities they could have had more pleasurable park days - done rope drop, leave when it gets busy at noon and then returned for evening fireworks and would not have had to stress about only having 5 park days.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Yes, I would buy the extra tickets. DS and the resorts will not fill up 4 days, IMHO. Especially with a princess-loving DD, I would plan some time visiting all of the princesses in EP WS.

 

[Klayfish]

It's just me, but if I were there from Jan 16th through the 23rd, I'd be in the parks on the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd (travel day permitting). Sure, I'd want to see the hotels, go to DS, etc...but I'd mix that in with park days. It's just our philosophy, but when we go to WDW, we're there for the parks.

 

[rwdavis2]

I would have tickets for every day. Not necessarily be in the parks from open to close. We would sleep in and just go later using FP+.

 

[dwheaton]

I'd suggest doing the extra park days, which allow you to spread out what you're doing and enjoy it more. You won't be trying to cram so much into the two days and still will have time to visit DS and the resorts.

 

[rwdavis2]

I'd suggest doing the extra park days, which allow you to spread out what you're doing and enjoy it more. You won't be trying to cram so much into the two days and still will have time to visit DS and the resorts.

Much better description than mine. But this is the way to go and how we did it last year.