Is it worth doing 7 days

[LauraDaveCharlie]

Hi. I am a teacher so I really am stuck with the school holidays! We were supposed to be having a year off this year after taking our DS the last three years at either Easter or Summer but my husband has a big birthday coming up in October so I have arranged a 7 night trip as a surprise. Our son is now 6.

My advice is mostly the same as on here. Try to stay up until 8/9pm at on the day you get there if you can. You will be awake by 4am probably but I have to say, I love this! There's nothing to beat that I-am-here-in-Florida-at-last-and-the-whole-holiday-is-in-front-of-me feeling! I love being awake so early and letting the anticipation of the first day build. So we always get early starts the first few days. But we never try to burn the candle at both ends, especially with a young child. We have never yet done the fireworks. I must say I like to try to keep roughly to our home routine for bedtimes although now he is getting a little older we do stretch to 9pm on special occasions like holidays! But I know my son is better for being in bed by 8pm really especially if he has been up since 6am or earlier! We also will not have mad busy crowded days - we don't on a two week break so we will really look to prioritise and make sure we take it easy on our one week break. When he knows he is going I don't think he will complain it is only for a week!

Before we had our son we always went to the US at February half term which was obviously only for one week. We visited Disneyland, San Francisco, San Deigo and Las Vegas all for a week each and it was great. When people used to ask if I was mad I would say that there was no point in going somewhere we were not interested in around Europe just because it was nearer.

 

[Elise79]

But we never try to burn the candle at both ends, especially with a young child. We have never yet done the fireworks. I must say I like to try to keep roughly to our home routine for bedtimes although now he is getting a little older we do stretch to 9pm on special occasions like holidays! But I know my son is better for being in bed by 8pm really especially if he has been up since 6am or earlier!

This really depends on the child up until this trip DD always napped of an afternoon and we would go see the fireworks etc however she has just turned 4 and didn't want to nap everyday however we still stayed out with her till midnight s few nights and she would sleep till 8 the next morning and be ready to go again. First few days she wakes early so we do AM EMH and then we switch to late nights but still most days hit rope drop.

No 2 children are the same and she has never really cared about routines and is easy going . This makes taking in her to Florida easier plus now with 8 trips under her belt she now knows what it's all about.

 

[chmurf]

7 days is too short for me, but that's just me.
I have a medical condition and can't really spend a whole day at a park. If I make RD I usually can't go past noon until I crash.
DS no longer requires a nap, except on some occasions, he can't stay put for long (kids, lol) when I need a break. So it's off to the pool and resort activities.
7 days, including 2 full days for the trip, just means that we don't get anything done. And for us such a trip would just be for the sake of being able to get cocky and brag about having been to florida once more.

So I guess if it wouldn't work for us is because we NEED to take it very slowly and easy

BUT, for a very active family, with good planning (and, man, from the planning standpoint, it doesn't get any better than the DIS), you can certainly make it work.
But prioritizing would be the key element. whenever a "new guy" comes around and asks about planning, we always tell them to avoid trying to cram all of florida in one stay.
For a short 7 day trip, you'll need to make choices, and we all know how hard it is to decide what to do and what not to do

 

[Tink1987]

I would personally go for 7 days and probably just stick with the Disney parks. We visited Cuba in June 2009 for 7 nights (I understand it's a very different type of holiday!) but the 9 hour flight was fine twice in a week.

I would rather go for 7 nights then not got for a couple more years - we may have the option to do this next September!