How Many Trips Per Year?

[Christin82]

Hi!

I have been to Disneyland about once a year all my life, and now I’m 37.For the first time, my husband, two kids, and I have annual passes, and we’re trying to plan how many trips we’ll take this year.

We live about 5.5 hours away. Budgeting aside, how many trips per year is ideal in your personal opinion? Once every 3 months? Every 2 months? Once a month? I know the answer to that question depends on the individual, but I want to try to go often enough to enjoy it but not so often that my family gets bored with it. I know I personally wouldn’t ever get bored, lol, but please share any suggestions you may have. Thanks!

 

[cruisehopeful]

It will also depend on how many days you spend there. For a weekend visit, I'd go 4 times per year. Once when it's slow, once in peak summer, Halloween and then Christmas time. That covers all the main things without getting too bored.

My kids did get bored of Disneyland when they were in their teens. They started enjoying it again as adults.

 

[SteveH]

Back when we lived in Stockton we got APs and would go every 2-3 months. We got really good at using Priceline to get hotels, staying at the Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton and Clairon for around $80/night. We often would go last minute, mostly weekends.

 

[Delilah Bleu]

I live in Northern California and I try to go at least 4 times a year! I wish I could go more. Disney is my happy place.

 

[wench]

We live in near Seattle, so we can’t stop in as easily as we’d like. But, if money allowed, I’d probably go each month.

In reality.... We used to do 1 big trip each year. Once we started buying APs that changed. For 2019/2020 we’re getting 4 trips in. Our best was 6 trips in 1 year during the 60th. For the year we had Premier passes we did 3 trips. Only 8 days at DLR that year, but we had 15 or 16 at WDW.

I tend to go a little too big though, so I don’t renew the pass every 12 months. Normally I need some financial recovery time before I buy APs again. It’s just my son & I, so I only need to buy 2. But $2500 at a time on 1 income still hurts quite a bit.

 

[dieumeye]

Uhhhhh, is it weird if I say every week?

 

[jedimdes]

If we were that close I would say every 1-2 months for a weekend and maybe 1 or 2 longer trip a year. We live in Washington and try to make it once a year for a week at least

 

[Princess351]

I had an AP last year, and live in Oregon. I made it my 'mission' that year to get the most out of it, so I went once a month for a year. That was pretty ideal for me; any more often would have just been 'too much' with all the flying, packing and unpacking, etc, (not to mention, any more often would have been cost prohibitive.) But if I lived closer, I probably would have gone a couple times a month! I haven't ever gotten to the point where I've ever been "bored" with Disneyland. : ) It was just me on most of the trips, though. I can imagine it being a bigger production with taking kids along, : )

 

[midnight star]

Family friends who have passes and live in Vegas (4 hours away) come once a month for a weekend. They will either stay with family nearby, or use DVC points.

Other people who I know that live in Vegas or Phoenix (6 hour drive), come once every other month. They are constantly looking out for flight deals. Or if they have a credit card that gets them flight points they will use that. I know some of them have gotten several flights just by using points, no money, so that cuts down on their travel expenses.

 

[tzeitel]

We are in CO and so far had APs for 3 years. We do 2 5/6 day trips - May and Oct/Nov. Spring and fall are off-season here, it's a nice way to end the crazy seasons

If we lived closer and were doing short/weekend trips I think we would do one every other month. If we lived a couple of hours away we would do a weekend every month.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

Uhhhhh, is it weird if I say every week?

Haha, saaaaaame... actually, we often go 6-7 times a month! Of course, that’s often just for a few hours after school, or a Saturday until noon or something... but still.

Ah, the perks of living seven miles away...

ETA: I think a weekend every other month, plus maybe a couple extra trips for special events or special park offerings seems like a nice amount if you’re farther away.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Haha, saaaaaame... actually, we often go 6-7 times a month! Of course, that’s often just for a few hours after school, or a Saturday until noon or something... but still.

Ah, the perks of living seven miles away...

ETA: I think a weekend every other month, plus maybe a couple extra trips for special events or special park offerings seems like a nice amount if you’re farther away.

I wish we lived 7 miles away! Or actually maybe that would be dangerous, ha ha.

We live about 40 miles away. It’s about a 45- to 60-minute drive, plus 30 minutes to park and get to the parks... each way. So transportation time alone is about 3 hours every time we go. Even so we are there 1-4 times a month. We never get bored! Caveat... my husband doesn’t come. He had a pass one year, went maybe 6 times and was done. He’s just starting feeling like he wants to come back again. Mostly for Star Wars though and he will only come for a day.

 

[Lumpy1106]

^ My family is with your husband. We stopped getting AP's because the price kept going up, but moreso because it started feeling like a forced march. We have a free Sunday, whelp - off to DL...again? Gotta go at least 8 times or it won't "pay off"... It just stopped being fun. Now we just go to DL or DCA about once a year, and spend a week in WDW each year. With DVC and frequent flier miles it's about the same as we would pay for DL AP's and it's a lot more fun.

 

[Whistlebee]

We’ve had annual passes a few times and live 5.5 hours north. The best year I made it 6 trips. It’s just me and my 2 kids that have the passes and 1 “trip” was just an evening date night in the parks with just my husband because we were in LA for a couple of nights. It was a fun year tho! Ideally, I’d do two 4-5 day trips and then two or three 2-3 day trips.

 

[amyg1975]

We have had passes since 2015. This year we have gone 8 times, mostly for a weekend (we live in Northern California).

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

Hmm...looking back at my notes. Apparently I went 4 times in 2016, 5 times in 2017, 6 times in 2018, and 7 times in 2019. So I would say 8 times a year.

 

[LeiaOfAlderaan]

We live in NorCal and had APs for 3 years. We averaged about 3 trips a year but we would try to stay 4-5 nights each time. I will say by the end of the 3rd year I was a bit over DL, which I didn’t think was possible! I think the massive crowds and constant price increases in food, etc. started bothering me. So we took a break for about a year and waited to go until it felt special again.

 

[asharerin]

We are a family of 4 in Oregon. Last couple of years we went once per year. This Christmas we purchased Flex passes for all and will be going Spring, Halloween time, and Christmas time. Summer is just too hot in Anaheim for us but perfect in Oregon so we love to stay home for summer. We stay at the the DLH at Christmas time, and this Spring will be trying the Anaheim Hilton (super cheap deal through Hotwire - I hope to post a good review of it with plenty of pics). If the Hilton works we will use it Spring and Halloween and keep DLH for Christmas time. At the moment i'm thinking 3 times per year is good for us but we have very flexible schedules so we will see by year's end how it all works out.

 

[mel2014]

We live in Northern California and have been going on average once every year to 18 months since my oldest was 2 (after a 20-year hiatus). We upgraded 3-day hoppers to Flex passes for our family after a Veteran's Day weekend trip in November as a combination bday and Xmas gift to our kids (9 and 11). Our plans for the next year are:

Mother/son trip 1/10-1/12 (2 park days, plus evening)
Trip 2/7-2/10 (3-day weekend for us)(3 park days plus evening)
Memorial Day weekend (driving instead of flying to save money)(3 park days, if we can get a Monday reservation after we enter the parks on Saturday)
July 9/10 -- trip for me and the kids combined with a weekend with my best friend who lives in the LA area (2 park days)
September 11-15 -- Trip with our extended family MIL/FIL/SIL/BIL and Niece (2) and Nephew (5) for their first visit (4 park days)(We've never been at Halloween time before)

I figured this was a prime year to get a FlexPass since my kids may be close to temporarily aging out of Disney. I don't see us renewing, but who knows what the future holds. Even though park admission is "free", the weekend trips are much more expensive on a per-day basis since you have to factor in airfare, so a single longer visit in summer probably makes more sense.

 

[Katiebird]

We live 1.5-2 hours away and go 1-2 Sundays per month for the day, and do 2-3 one night and 1-2 two night trips per year. We also try to take 6-12 months off between annual passes.

At 5.5 hours away you’ll obviously need to stay over night each time. I would probably try for a 2-3 night stay every other month.