Park vs Resort Days

[Chelcj014]

My children will be 2 and 8 when we visit WDW in early 2022. We plan to stay for 5 days. Of those 5 days, how many park days vs resort days would you do?

 

[GBRforWDW]

My children will be 2 and 8 when we visit WDW in early 2022. We plan to stay for 5 days. Of those 5 days, how many park days vs resort days would you do?

Depends. Are you wanting to visit all 4 parks? Are you going to do park hopping or 1 park?

if you want all 4 and no hoppers, I’d do 2 park days, resort day, 2 more park days. If all 4 with hoppers, I’d probably do 3 days and spend 1 full day at magic kingdom while the other 2 hop between as necessary. But I’d do park,resort,park,resort,park.

If this is a first trip, I’d skip the hoppers, plenty to do and see in each park, and you’ll save money by not getting them. So I’d figure out which parks are must do, and whether you want todo the other parks this time or next and go from there.

 

[OpieDoodle]

Zero for us. We don't do days at the resort. We would rather spend all the time at the parks because no matter how much time you have you won't be able to do everything at the parks.

We usually end up doing 2 days at all the parks minus AK which gets one day. No resort days

EDIT: I also want to add. We do a family vacation every year to the beach where we get to spend time relaxing at the pool, beach, hottub, etc. My kiddos also swim at their grandparents pool all summer so pool time isn't a deal breaker for us. [Plus we go in Feb usually so sometimes its too cold for pool anyways]

 

[Lilsia]

That is really up the individual family. We usually went to at least one of the parks every day. We were more likely to do partial park days instead of going open to close. We never set our alarm and let the kids get up naturally, have breakfast at the resort and then head on over to a park. We would see how it went from there. Some days the kids just wanted to hang out at the pool in the afternoon. We found this to be the best way to insure that everyone has a great vacation.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

My children will be 2 and 8 when we visit WDW in early 2022. We plan to stay for 5 days. Of those 5 days, how many park days vs resort days would you do?

Agree with GBRforWDW, really depends on how you like to vacation, how many parks you want to visit and if you'll hop.

If you want to do 4 park days you could do 4 park days and one resort day maybe right before your last park day as you might need the break. If you guys are less inclined to run from park open to park close and have some partial resort/partial park days then you may not need a full resort day and you could do 5 park days if you like. Really it just depends on what you know you would all enjoy. We are not run at a million miles a minute disney family but we also don't spend a ton of time at the resort and don't sleep in most days, I'd say our trips are 80% park, 20% resort.

We only do a resort day if we stay longer than 5 nights and on our shorter trips, we'll make our arrival/departure days our resort day since drive in we're flexible on when we get there/leave. It is nice to have a resort day or Disney Springs day built in so we can sleep in, relax or do whatever.

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

My children will be 2 and 8 when we visit WDW in early 2022. We plan to stay for 5 days. Of those 5 days, how many park days vs resort days would you do?

It would be 2 or 3 park days for us. We would typically go for 4 or 5 days and spend a day or two at the parks. One day is arrival/Disney Springs. One day is character breakfast and/or Disney transit (monorail, boat ride, or even all 3). For my oldest's 4th birthday, we did 3 park days. Last time we went, we were there 7 days and went to parks on 5 of the days, and it was just too much for my 2.5 year old.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

5 Park days with a little time spent at resort pool. We did 7 days once and did a resort day in the middle and felt like we wasted a day.

 

[martikus]

We prefer to visit a park every day. And my son was an early riser so we’d do open until 2/3 and then afternoon/evening at resort/pool.

 

[Meglen]

I'm with the others. I don't like to miss park days but those days might be shorter so early morning resort pool time and lunch than head out. Or mid day break than back to the parks if we felt like it

 

[Feberin]

Last time my kids were almost 2 and 4. We did 5 park days and were exhausted at the end. Next trip we're planning on doing 5 park days and 1 break day on the fourth day.

 

[Merlin's Magic]

This is really dependent on what your family is like and where you're staying.
We try to build in a resort day in the middle of our trip, with the option to go to the park (no dining reservations). But the resort day gives us a chance to recoup, do laundry if needed, do things outside of the parks..
A 2yo won't be walking much, but if the 8yo isn't used to the long days (it's 7-10 miles for us each day), then it might be a good idea. If you wanted, you could plan that day to do a dinner show like the Hoop-dee-doo or Ohana, or pick one o f the other activities at a resort.

 

[Meglen]

Just assume your going to be in alot of pain by day 3. Now how you recover will depend on your family. Some folks do DS but I have tried that and it's just as much walking. So we just stay in bed and putz around a few days in the middle till we feel like heading to the park.

This trip we are not doing many if any ADRs so if we don't make it to our park reservations till 2-3 pm it's no big deal, than we can hop where ever.

 

[Lilsia]

Just assume your going to be in alot of pain by day 3. Now how you recover will depend on your family. Some folks do DS but I have tried that and it's just as much walking. So we just stay in bed and putz around a few days in the middle till we feel like heading to the park.

This trip we are not doing many if any ADRs so if we don't make it to our park reservations till 2-3 pm it's no big deal, than we can hop where ever.

Pain, why are people going to be in pain? Am I missing something?

 

[Daisy7425]

The pain comment also confuses me. I suppose it matters on your fitness level. I'm average and felt zero pain. My husband is significantly overweight and felt zero pain.

We did not take any resort days. The price of adding an additional day's ticket is not much, so in the planning stages, we bought tickets for every single day and then just used our FPs and left if we wanted to. Not having Fps doesn't change that too much for me. Analyze the ticket prices. Sometimes its just $20 more to go to Magic Kingdom for the day compared to a resort day.

 

[Meglen]

Pain, why are people going to be in pain? Am I missing something?

Most folks have foot pain not from no fitness lvl but from standing still most the day in lines. I never knew I had planters fasciitis till I went to disney. Also when kids walk that long most complain lol. My son can play and run all day but onces hes in the park on the black top 10 min in.. "my feet hurt" haha.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

Most folks have foot pain not from no fitness lvl but from standing still most the day in lines. I never knew I had planters fasciitis till I went to disney. Also when kids walk that long most complain lol. My son can play and run all day but onces hes in the park on the black top 10 min in.. "my feet hurt" haha.

That never happened to us, but we always wear good quality shoes.

 

[The WDW 3]

5 days or 5 nights?

 

[Meglen]

That never happened to us, but we always wear good quality shoes.

Each family will be different for sure. But I feel like untill you have been there you wont know how everyone reacts. I have read folks who wear shoes they ahve used all year no issues and they all of a sudden cause blisters at disney.

 

[The WDW 3]

My feet always Hurt in the morning as soon as I wake up. Those first few steps are painful. But, once I get socks and sneakers on and start moving around a bit they losen up and are fine through the day until the next morning. Otherwise I only really notice it standing still, and mostly at the end of the day like standing around for the fireworks.

 

[flowergleam1211]

When I had three full days with my four year old children who longer need to nap, I planned two park days and the first day was spent at the resort and we hopped to Art of Animation. For their physical abilities (walking, handling heat) and emotional capacity to practice patience (particularly for waiting on lines) and handle situations that can sometimes seem scary or overwhelming (e.g. rides, crowds), it was perfect. We didn't have a single meltdown, which was a surprise, believe me.

For older children, I imagine that may not need as much down time?