Sat to Sat or Wed to Wed?

[triciari]

Which makes for the best trip? I think the Wed - Wed would allow me to get cheaper airfare. Any advice?

 

[backyardponder]

I don't know that it really matters...whatever fits into your schedule the best. Since I am working, I'd prefer Sat to Sat so I have the 2 weekends...I'd actually do a Sat to Sun. Of course, you will probably get better airfare mid-week.

 

[bookwormde]

Tuesday to the following Thursday (you can never get enough of WDW)

bookwormde

 

[WDWFERN]

I think the parks tend to be busier on Saturdays than the week days, so we like to go sat-sat and use the saturdays as travel days.

 

[tjkraz]

If it's a hard-to-book time or resort, you may find it more difficult to secure something with a mid-week arrival. Most people seem to arrive on weekends. With the current booking rules people booking a trip starting on Saturday or Sunday essentially have first dibs on some of the dates included in your trip.

Really this only comes into play on a very small number of situations. It would hurt your more when trying to book at 7 months than 11 months.

If that's not a concern, I would go for the midweek trip. With most vacations starting on the weekends, Saturdays are actually pretty slow days because so many people use them as a travel day. Sunday and Monday tend to be busier because that when folks hit the parks hard after arriving.

 

[ToddyLu]

Last year we went for 10 days...from Wed to the following Friday, then I got that weekend to recover...Worked out great except for the hold out to build my vacation hours for that length of time. Well worth it and we are repeating those days this Dec.

 

[Goofy DVC]

Wed to Wed will be cheaper flights and easier check-in. Sat check in can be crazy. Also, I think that at certain times of the year Sat is a good park day because a lot of people are checking in and checking out. Good luck with your decision.

 

[triciari]

Yikes! So many well thought out answers - yet they're all so different! Thank you all!

 

[sjs314]

Midweek travel dates Tuesday to Tuesday or Wed to Wed usually seem to have better fare deals. All depends how long you want to spend in WDW, we use to travel from Friday until the following Sunday, 10 days. Trying something different this time a Monday to Saturday trip, late flight on Saturday and will spend the day at the resort thereby avoiding the weekend entirely since they tend to be busier because of local visitors to WDW. Checking air fares I did not find a big difference for this timeframe.

 

[Sandisw]

From Syracuse, it is definitely less expensive to fly mid week to mid week. Once you hit the weekends, it gets to be a lot more.

This summer, we are leaving Friday and coming back on Thursday. Originally, it was Sat, but changing by one day, saved us over $200 for 3 people. So, we changed the reservation. We then simply adjusted our split stay from 2 nights in a studio and 4 nights in a 1 bedroom, to 3 and 3. This saved us money and kept the points similar.

Since it will just be me, DH and our one DD 14, this worked out great. That is what I love about DVC--I can change things around to make everything work out. Now that weekends will be even cheaper for points starting in 2011, it won't matter where they fall in terms of the studio or 1 bedroom part of our trips.

 

[kelann7]

I find that some people and I have done this also - is to plan for a short trip instead of the whole week so the trip ends up being a long weekend - Thurs -Sun or Fri - Mon.

That being said - I found that Wednesday is the slowest day in the parks - at least the last time I went for the whole week - I couldn't believe how great MK was on Wed morning - very few people compared to the other days we were there - I felt like I had the park to myself. So, I would suggest traveling on a Tuesday and going to the parks on Wednesday - so maybe go Tues - Tues instead of Wed - Wed.

Thanks.

Kelly

 

[kdepot]

We do Wed to Wed, Tues to Tues for the cheaper air fare

 

[dizfan]

Airline prices will definitely be cheaper Wed-Wed. We changed the dates for our October trip after SW came out with their prices. We would have paid double to fly Saturday.

Most people travel weekends. For example, last December we checked into BLT on a weekend. The CM told us 1/3 of all the rooms had checkouts/checkins that day.

 

[dianeschlicht]

When we were only doing 1 week stays, we liked to book Sun to Sun. Then we discovered the airfare was more on the weekends, and we wanted longer trips, so we started booking Tues, Wednesday or Thursday and stay for 10 nights. Our most common trip is to arrive on a Tuesday, stay until Friday of the following week giving us 10-11 days.

 

[toniosmom]

It really depends on your airline and what time of year you are traveling. I usually fly JetBlue and checked several months. I found the Saturday flights to be the same price as the weekday flights (as long as you are not close to a holiday). Of course, holidays will affect the prices regardless of what day of the week it is.

As long as there is no price difference, I would prefer to go Sat-Sat.