Time spent in the parks

[rtkane]

With the price of tickets adding so much to the cost of a vacation, I was curious as to what percentage of your vacations were spent in the park vs. doing other things that didn't require admission. If, for example you were going to stay for a full week (8 days / 7 nights) at your DVC resort, how much time do you think you'd spend in the parks? Since the 1BR's and up have a full kitchen, I could see that it would be "easier" to just have a few relaxing days at 'home' if you'll be in WDW that long.

 

[imgoingtodisney]

When we were at Disney last Nov we stayed for 8nights. This was the day after Thanksgiving until the following wknd. We didnt go to our 1st park until that Mon. Tues we visited the VWL and did Mickey's Christmas party that night. Wed-Fri we spent at the parks and flew home that Sat.
We would have broken up our off days more but wouldnt have planned on that wknd to begin with.

 

[DebbieB]

We usually hit the parks everyday but for shorter periods. We get AP's so skipping days doesn't matter. When I take my mom, we'll go out in the morning, say 10:00-10:30, come back 2:00-3:00, go back out 4:30-5:00. She has health problems and needs to rest in the afternoon. Sometimes we'll go to the outlets in the morning/afternoon and only go to a park at night. When I'm there with friends, we are usually out of the room by 8:30, come back for a short break in the afternoon and then back out again. We sometimes do not go to a park on the last day if we have an early flight (12:30pm).

We usually get 3 trips out of 1 AP (6 or 7 nights each). We'll be buying new ones mid-May, then use it for December and then early May next year before it expires.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

We have AP's also. We go in the parks almost daily but for only 2 to 3 hours a day, 5 tops.

 

[JimC]

We have APs, so we visit the parks each day, but we rarely "spend the day" at the parks. Usually we are there early and stay until lunch. Afternoons are generally at the resort and evenings are a toss up as to park, DD or resort.

 

[DVC-Don]

We will hit the parks every day, but not for the whole day. Even if we go offsite for a day, we'll hit Epcot in the evening.

 

[Doug Wolfe]

The only day we do not go to the parks is our day of arrival. We are usually fairly tired, so we have lunch and spend the rest of the day & evening unwinding at the pool.

 

[eva]

I voted 4 days, but lately we have been buying 7 Day Hoppers and spending 4 days one trip and 3 days the next. For our trip coming up in May we will only have 3 days for the week. Last year we went to USF and IOA a couple days, but this trip we just plan on relaxing and maybe hitting a waterpark one day. I think that spending time outside the parks really gets you to relax and enjoy some of the other things that central Florida has to offer. I think that we may head over to Celebration again this year for a tour of the homes. We did that a few years ago and had a really good time looking at the homes and eating a bite of lunch there.

 

[dianeschlicht]

I answerecd 8 days, but there was no real choice that fit me. We usually stay more than 8 days at a time, and we go every day. The problem with the poll is that we don't spend several days traveling there either. We buy APs and try to get 2-3 eight to 13 day trips each AP.

 

[Uncleromulus]

These days we'll spend a few hours at each Park, usually leaving NLT than 1 PM (and often before then). Rest of our week is spent at miniature golf, swimming, going to a movie, shopping, eating out each nite, and just plain relaxing.
Of course, we've been to WDW 25 times now, so we just hit our park "favorites" (plus anything new) and that's it. I'm sure new visitors, or visitors who haven't been in years, would tend to spend a lot more time in the parks.

 

[A1A1]

One reason we have the AP's is that I don't have to worry about counting days of park entry. We don't do the parks commando style. We come and go. If one park is busy, we walk around a bit, and then go back to the resort or go to another park.

 

[crisi]

Currently we spend at least part of every day in the parks. As our kids get older and we've done more trips - that will change. Eventually, I'm sure we will skip Disney days for Universal or a day at the Space Center. After that, there will be plenty of trips where at least Mom and Dad are planning on spending more time on the golf course and less time in the parks.

 

[MinnieGi]

We typically go to the parks everday but not for a whole day. We usually just go in the mornings and head out in the early afternoon to enjoy our resort.