Park Days

[Sandisw]

So, all this talk about APs got me curious about people’s typical yearly visits snd days they do parks…ie: shorter Trips more often or longer ones less.

I will now be visiting 6 to 8 times a year usually no more than 3 night trips. So, for me, a ticket that allows 30 says admission over the year would work.

What are other people’s travel habits when using DVC?

ETA. Rarely do weekends.

 

[MBland54]

Two retirees. We go Oct, Dec, Feb and May. Throw in the occasional quick Mar or July. @45 Nights. Need two out of state APs.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Often 3 trips, 18-20 nights per year. The AP is a big plus. I'm not one of those who feels DVC members are entitled to APs, but it would certainly change our vacationing if we had not continued to renew and have them now. I guess we'll see if that continues.

 

[What-r-ya Goofy?]

We're nearing retirement, but for now we do two trips per year. We like to stay longer than a week whenever possible, so 16-20 nights per year.

We had been able to take advantage of getting three trips in on our AP's by staggering dates, but it looks like that is no longer feasible. We'll need to decide what to do moving forward when our AP's expire in October. From what we hear coming from the rumor mill, renewing AP's may not be an option for us this time around. We shall see.

 

[peabody58]

Our AP years: Late Sept, Dec, Jan, May, Mid Sept. 25-28 nights. Few if any weekends.

Used to do Oct, but points too high now.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We do 2-3 weeks over Christmas, 1-2 weeks over March break, and then sporadic long weekends (Cdn Thanksgiving, July 1, May 24, etc.)

Really do need Platinum APs for us. Thankfully have one more set of vouchers waiting to activate December 15.

 

[Sandisw]

Just to add..people who don’t need APs can share too. Just wondering what and how often others go!

 

[WilsonFlyer]

We go (DW and DD17 usually with a guest with her that we pay for) 3-5 times per year for 6-8 nights with varying accommodations and usually another long weekend along the way that's just DD and me. I work for myself and my DW works from home (as do I) and I have a very flexible work schedule thanks to great clients and what I do for a living, I can do most of it from anywhere so long as I have a strong internet connection. The only thing really controlling our schedule is the DD's school schedule, which has rightfully become much more rigid since she passed into HS. I know. Way more than you asked, but it plays into our planning and how we vacation at WDW.

WDW is quite literally all the vacation we have done for the last 20+ years. We go down there. We go back home and go to work. Rinse and repeat. One day of a trip can be near park commando (though never for more than a few hours anymore) and the next, we may walk around all day and literally never get on a ride or in a line. I usually end up every night walking around Epcot and having a beer or maybe two. My DW may have 1 or 2 drinks the entire trip, and usually at Epcot or at dinner.

All that to say this. We go to the parks every day, even if it's just for an hour or two. It's why we go, after all. We people watch and just soak in the vibes and the atmosphere. That's what it's all about to us now. I could probably count on three fingers how many days (minus departure day) we have not at least walked into a park in our 25 or so years, including arrival day which is usually after 3:00pm or so. Again, the gates are why we go. I don't even remember the last time we didn't enter a major gate on a given day.

We have never stayed offsite since becoming DVC members, aside from an occasional arrival day at Bonnet Creek Hilton to save a few points. That's the reason I brought up the thread a while back supporting an AP hard-tied to resort stays. I suspect a lot of DVC members travel like we do as far as where we stay. We are there to be THERE. Again. Why we go.

Anything other than a PH AP would completely decimate the way we 'tour' (I hate that terminology but I won't go into that tangent now. LOL). Because of the way we use the parks, MYW tickets would be completely out of the question for us. We just couldn't justify the cost for the way we use the parks, and after 25 years, that style isn't going to change. Interestingly, my DW isn't bothered by any of this. She would be happy as a lark just staying at a DVC resort and sunning by the pool all day and bounding outside the bubble to see the other sites the Greater Orlando area has to offer. The parks were much more about the parks for her when DD was younger. I'm the hang-up on park entries. My DD lies somewhere in the middle, though I suspect she leans more heavily towards 'my side.' She loves taking friends who have never been and playing independent 'tour guide.' It's sort of become her thing. We get a kick out of watching her do that also, and probably enjoy watching her do that with her friends as much as anything we do.

I'm not sure where I was headed with all of this, or if I've even answered your question. Maybe I just needed to get this all on paper for myself to remind myself why we still go with a week-long trip coming next weekend.

Even having worked for Disney, and even with all the change recently, there is still a Magic there. It is fascinating to me that even knowing what I know as an insider, I still can't explain it to anyone. That's what makes it Magical. And that's what makes it uniquely Disney. I can't make it go away though a part of me wishes I could because I hate a lot of things it has become. It is not the Disney I worked for, and certainly isn't the WDW we took our DD to when she was a toddler or even a pre-teen. But it's a Disney we all love, and despite my *****ing and complaining, I keep going back and watching it evolve, and dreaming of the way it used to be with eyes towards the future that I live long enough to see it that way again. It's not gone completely. There's still nothing quite like seeing the sparkle or occasional tear in a 5 YO's eye when he or she meets their first Disney Princess or meets Mickey for the very first time. That just never gets old, and I don't even know who they are. That, is why I go, and spend as much time there as I can.

 

[mrsdoubie]

I’ve been going 3-4 times a year and that was even before buying into DVC or an AP. I was able to snag one in September though. This year I’ll complete 4 trips and all of my trip have been at least 4-5 days each. I already have 3 trips planned for 2023.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

We go (DW and DD17 usually with a guest with her that we pay for) 3-5 times per year for 6-8 nights with varying accommodations and usually another long weekend along the way that's just DD and me. I work for myself and my DW works from home (as do I) and I have a very flexible work schedule thanks to great clients and what I do for a living, I can do most of it from anywhere so long as I have a strong internet connection. The only thing really controlling our schedule is the DD's school schedule, which has rightfully become much more rigid since she passed into HS. I know. Way more than you asked, but it plays into our planning and how we vacation at WDW.

WDW is quite literally all the vacation we have done for the last 20+ years. We go down there. We go back home and go to work. Rinse and repeat. One day of a trip can be near park commando (though never for more than a few hours anymore) and the next, we may walk around all day and literally never get on a ride or in a line. I usually end up every night walking around Epcot and having a beer or maybe two. My DW may have 1 or 2 drinks the entire trip, and usually at Epcot or at dinner.

All that to say this. We go to the parks every day, even if it's just for an hour or two. It's why we go, after all. We people watch and just soak in the vibes and the atmosphere. That's what it's all about to us now. I could probably count on three fingers how many days (minus departure day) we have not at least walked into a park in our 25 or so years, including arrival day which is usually after 3:00pm or so. Again, the gates are why we go. I don't even remember the last time we didn't enter a major gate on a given day.

We have never stayed offsite since becoming DVC members, aside from an occasional arrival day at Bonnet Creek Hilton to save a few points. That's the reason I brought up the thread a while back supporting an AP hard-tied to resort stays. I suspect a lot of DVC members travel like we do as far as where we stay. We are there to be THERE. Again. Why we go.

Anything other than a PH AP would completely decimate the way we 'tour' (I hate that terminology but I won't go into that tangent now. LOL). Because of the way we use the parks, MYW tickets would be completely out of the question for us. We just couldn't justify the cost for the way we use the parks, and after 25 years, that style isn't going to change. Interestingly, my DW isn't bothered by any of this. She would be happy as a lark just staying at a DVC resort and sunning by the pool all day and bounding outside the bubble to see the other sites the Greater Orlando area has to offer. The parks were much more about the parks for her when DD was younger. I'm the hang-up on park entries. My DD lies somewhere in the middle, though I suspect she leans more heavily towards 'my side.' She loves taking friends who have never been and playing independent 'tour guide.' It's sort of become her thing. We get a kick out of watching her do that also, and probably enjoy watching her do that with her friends as much as anything we do.

I'm not sure where I was headed with all of this, or if I've even answered your question. Maybe I just needed to get this all on paper for myself to remind myself why we still go with a week-long trip coming next weekend.

Even having worked for Disney, and even with all the change recently, there is still a Magic there. It is fascinating to me that even knowing what I know as an insider, I still can't explain it to anyone. That's what makes it Magical. And that's what makes it uniquely Disney. I can't make it go away though a part of me wishes I could because I hate a lot of things it has become. It is not the Disney I worked for, and certainly isn't the WDW we took our DD to when she was a toddler or even a pre-teen. But it's a Disney we all love, and despite my *****ing and complaining, I keep going back and watching it evolve, and dreaming of the way it used to be with eyes towards the future that I live long enough to see it that way again. It's not gone completely. There's still nothing quite like seeing the sparkle or occasional tear in a 5 YO's eye when he or she meets their first Disney Princess or meets Mickey for the very first time. That just never gets old, and I don't even know who they are. That, is why I go, and spend as much time there as I can.

Agree with so much of this, the school calendar, the only vacationing at Disney, staying on-site, etc.

I’ve never worked for Disney (well, not directly) so I haven’t seen how the sausage is made. But I have travelled extensively and there’s no better place for us as a family to visit. I reassess every year but Disney, and specifically Disney world in Florida, always ends up being the best choice for us.

Disney makes their choices. We make ours.

 

[Marionnette]

We typically go for 7-8 nights, once a year. Can't really vacation for much longer because we own a small business and it requires us to be hands-on. APs have worked well for us because we are able to choose our vacation times. We would vacation in December one year, October or November the following year. And then we would take a year off from APs and start up again in December the next year.

Every once in a while, I might make a trip with my siblings for a 4-5 night visit in the spring, but that's not an annual thing.

We might have gone more often for short trips if air travel were not such a hassle. I just really hate traveling days. Too bad that we can't go by flue powder, port key or just plain apparate

 

[Madame]

We tend to do 1 week at Christmas and 1 week in August. Some years we travel on our spring break in March, but DD now has a student job and DSs will turn 13 this year so not far behind. I’ll be spending 7 nights solo this March as DH’s job doesn’t allow for spring travel. We might use 10-20 days per year. Hardly super users and we only spend 2-4 hours/day in park.

 

[BeachClub2014]

We typically go to WDW at least twice and sometimes three times a year. The trips will be of varying lengths but generally adds up to around 20 nights on average. Historically we would have AP's and hit the parks for at least a few hours each day. The AP's, and the knowledge that we would keep returning, took all of the pressure off having to go commando on the parks. If access to AP's goes away forever, it will definitely change how we approach the parks.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

We tend to alternate (childless couple). One year we do just us for 4-5 nights around F&W..doing the parks every morning then coming back for nap/swim. Then Epcot at night. We usually bank points these years.

The next year we do a big family trip in a 2br where we bring family. We do parks everyday that trip as well. This year was an outlier as we did 2 4 day trips in October, 8 day trip in Jan with fam, last minute 3 day trip for GotG preview, and then a 4 day trip for Labor Day.....all on a DVC recovery AP.

We've bought annual passes pretty much every other year or so. We've also had 4 Aulani trips which stopped us from buying APs some years.

I really do LOVE WDW, but just don't want to allocate as much vaca time as some others here do. So at this point the AP discussion doesn't really affect me. But we're 43/40 years old. I plan to retire in 10-15 years and at that point could see us needing some sort of AP or 30 day ticket....as we'd like to add enough points to stay for 3-4 weeks. I have to think at some point Disney will make a DVC ticket available for people who have enough points to stay multiple weeks aren't forced to buy multiple 10 day tickets. I love WDW....but not that much

 

[Pens Fan]

Now that my husband has retired, we will probably go 3-4 times a year. Before we usually chose between Fall for F & W and early Dec. Now, we'll do both. We've already booked a quick Jan trip to check out Festival of the Arts. We may add another trip, and our son and his friends will usually go down for a long weekend here and there.

While my husband and I would probably shy away from weekends, our son likes to fly down late Thursday or Friday night after work and then fly back Sunday night (we all live in PA). He's only 24, so just starting out and only gets 2 weeks of vacation and he hoards them like gold . As long as he's willing to come hang out with his old parents, we will gladly accommodate him by going to the parks on weekends. So a weekday only pass doesn't work for us, but I would be happy with one that allowed a certain number of days a year - maybe 25 - 30 days would easily work for us as while we might stay for a week or more at a time, we don't go to a park every day. In reality a full fledged AP - even the Sorcerer's is kind of wasted on us. We don't need that much access. But paying for date based tickets would cost way more than that, so if something like that does come available we will grab it. We learned a harsh lesson last year:

We had hoped to already have AP's, as we added on in 2020 with the plan of going multiple times a year. Some of you may remember this, but last year (prior to AP's going back on sale) there was a thread going where someone had challenged DVC on the language regarding AP's in our contracts and had success in buying an AP. I don't want to derail this thread about the details as they've been argued ad nauseam on other threads. But it did peak my interest at the time, and as we had two week long trips planned I reached out to DVC about it. A very nice woman got back to me and over the course of a month or so we had multiple phone conversations and emails where for the most part she agreed with me that we should be able to purchase them - but she wasn't the one making the decision. In the end, she could not get us AP's, but gave us 6 day complementary tickets for one of our trips. I was flabbergasted as I never expected anything like that. At the time I was very grateful. When AP's did resume we didn't need them due to the comped tickets and planned on buying them in 2022. Oops!!! So here we are again with several trips planned and no AP's. We will still go, but unless some type of AP is offered, we will be taking a lot of resort days and exploring the other offerings in the area. I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face, but I also will not blow the bank on individual tickets for the entire time we'll be down there. I'm sure eventually we will be able to join the ranks of AP holders (or whatever they morph into). We just have to be patient (which I'm not very good at ).

 

[Paddy Pat]

We (DW & I) go at least twice a year. Usually around 16 days or so. I have done a few solo long weekends in the past to utilize expireing points. Like others mentioned. We like to stroll the parks for few hours, relax and grab dinner and drinks in the evening. We just returned last month for an eight day stay and only saw one firework display. Didnt bother us at all, knowing we will be back down in a 118 days. AP's are a must for us, mearly for some flexability and overall comparibale cost.

 

[john7994]

Our investment into DVC ramped up our visits from once every other year.

Now, we tend to do short trips of @4-5 nights (mostly during weekdays) about five times per year. We have the flexibility to work around the popular times of year, but we are now also looking to rotate in Aulani and Hilton Head for one of the trips each year. For us, it might be just the wife and myself, with friends, or family. Each trip focuses on a different priority and having different extra experiences, ADRs and parks.

I like the idea of 30 Days worth of admissions per year (as long as they included park hopping or Genie + in some form). Preferably no blackouts or reservations needed - I would pay premium, but less than current rack rate.

 

[npatellye]

We only bought APs right before the shutdown. Year 1, we did a total of 17 nights across 2 trips (8 in November 2020 and then 9 in May 2021). Year 2, we will do 12 nights (across 2 trips-7 nights in January and 5 in November) before hopefully renewing. After we hopefully renew in November 2022, we will only do 8-9 nights each year on the AP because we are cutting down to just the Thanksgiving trip. But it’s still cheaper for us to renew APs than to buy tickets.

If we have to buy tickets, we will only buy 4-5 day PH tickets. I really think it would actually be better for our wallets if we did that because we spend a lot in the parks between ice cream, popcorn, food, water, and so many things our young kids just “need” to buy in every single park in addition to the mass of stuff they buy at DS.

I would like to see an AP that’s only good when you stay on property with no blockout dates. I would even be okay with a weekday only AP since we don’t spend much time in the parks on weekends due to crowds.

 

[BeachClub2014]

We only bought APs right before the shutdown. Year 1, we did a total of 17 nights across 2 trips (8 in November 2020 and then 9 in May 2021). Year 2, we will do 12 nights (across 2 trips-7 nights in January and 5 in November) before hopefully renewing. After we hopefully renew in November 2022, we will only do 8-9 nights each year on the AP because we are cutting down to just the Thanksgiving trip. But it’s still cheaper for us to renew APs than to buy tickets.

If we have to buy tickets, we will only buy 4-5 day PH tickets. I really think it would actually be better for our wallets if we did that because we spend a lot in the parks between ice cream, popcorn, food, water, and so many things our young kids just “need” to buy in every single park in addition to the mass of stuff they buy at DS.

I would like to see an AP that’s only good when you stay on property with no blockout dates. I would even be okay with a weekday only AP since we don’t spend much time in the parks on weekends due to crowds.

Disney used to sell a length of stay pass that was valid at all parks for the length of your stay at an on-property resort. I wouldn't mind if they were to bring that option back.

 

[Marionnette]

Disney used to sell a length of stay pass that was valid at all parks for the length of your stay at an on-property resort. I wouldn't mind if they were to bring that option back.

My guess is that if they did have a "length of stay" pass, split stays would count as separate stays and require the purchase of multiple LOS passes because...profits!