This part is ridiculous - at minimum it should be 4 days for the 4 parks. LOTS of AP holders are NOT locals and Disney couldn't survive without the guests staying offsite, they are the majority of their guests. All they are doing is driving that spending money elsewhere .... since having an AP means I book the restaurants, the special events and shop. If that hasn't changed by my Oct trip then I will just be taking my money to Universal - where I bought an AP as well now.
To OP, we went with big group in July, we booked reservations the minute I bought all the tickets which was in the spring.