Trouble planning a longer trip. How do you spend your days?

[North of Mouse]

We don't really like to go on the same rides over and over anymore.

I just don't want to get bored. Last time we were at Epcot so often I was actually sick of it.

How do you plan longer trips?

Just don't plan!!! Enjoy the ambiance, relax, and go where your mind takes you. I could never plan our days, other than a very few ADR's. We love to 'wing' it, and we always have 9-12 days. Have a trip planned for end of April-May.

If you got sick of Epcot, then sounds like you are going too often!
Stay away for awhile and go to other destinations. WDW is much too expensive to go to if your heart is not really enjoying it! We go to many other places, then are ready to go back to Disney every year or so.

Could never travel a distance and not go into the parks as some do. We have great resorts, pools, etc.. much closer, nicer, and less expensive near us -would definitely not be worth the effort for us. To each their own! Love the parks!

 

[Farro]

Just don't plan!!! Enjoy the ambiance, relax, and go where your mind takes you. I could never plan our days, other than a very few ADR's. We love to 'wing' it, and we always have 9-12 days. Have a trip planned for end of April-May.

If you got sick of Epcot, then sounds like you are going too often!
Stay away for awhile and go to other destinations. WDW is much too expensive to go to if your heart is not really enjoying it! We go to many other places, then are ready to go back to Disney every year or so.

Could never travel a distance and not go into the parks as some do. We have great resorts, pools, etc.. much closer, nicer, and less expensive near us -would definitely not be worth the effort for us. To each their own! Love the parks!

Hi!

When I say sick of Epcot - we stayed at Beach Club again and we would go to Epcot every single time we didn't have something else planned. I finally was just getting tired of wandering around Epcot because I felt like we needed to be doing something! Also we didn't know what to do at night sometimes, so always ended up there. This time we are staying at Polynesian, so this should be great and we learned from last trip we want a sit down dinner every night, so we are going to do just that. Plus now Disney Springs!

We want to go or else we would be going somewhere else - Pandora should be open, Star Wars stuff is all new for us, new Frozen ride, we thought it would be a good time to go. Our last trip was longer too, but we were go go go everyday. This time other people are meeting us halfway through, and I just want to use some of these great suggestions and give ourselves a more relaxed feel this trip. So I don't get that burnt out feeling overall on Disney. After this trip we won't go back until Star Wars Land is open. We have other destinations for the next few years.

My main takeaway here is that I don't need to have every second planned like our last trip. I will have certain parks planned for certain days, dinners planned and then go with the flow! If we want to leave a park, then we will just leave! If I want to hop to another park just to take pictures, I can do that. If I want to spend an afternoon sleeping by the pool, do it.

Thanks everyone, great to see how others plan (or don't plan)!

 

[Farro]

Great idea about the ride queues. Now I'm not crazy, if the line is 60 minutes and I've already rode with a fast pass I won't wait, but if there is a shorter line for Peter Pan or something I will stand in line and see the new queue. Same for Haunted Mansion, we never seem to have to stand in line, so I never really pay attention. Everest, we love that queue!

And we do plan to go to Nomad for drinks.

 

[dprincessmom]

Well, we don't have an unlimited budget!

Yes, we always try to take in the "details, but we aren't show people. At all. I will make it a point this time to watch the afternoon parade at MK, looks fun. Also, at night I just want to take pictures and ride the people mover in the dark!
At Animal Kingdom we are definitely going to do the trails this time. I love this park for the atmosphere. Especially at night, maybe this will be the park we go back to more often...

I worry myself about going on rides at every park, even when we are visiting each park a few times. Maybe this trip I can let that worry go since I'm not concerned about going on every ride more than once.

The only WDW trip that has ever felt like a "vacation" was our 8 day trip. By this I mean we didn't come home exhausted because we did slow down and take in not only the rides but the little things. We didn't feel the pressure to ride everything at MK today because we knew that we had more days.

If the budget allows and you think there would be interest, I would add the water parks and more to your tickets. We had the best blizzard beach day ever this past October. Waits were not long at all and it was not the summer hot/humid but still plenty warm to be in the water. If you did this and went to one water park and a round of putt putt it will be paid for and you still would have 7 other options to use.

Staying that close to the Magic Kingdom, I would see of the family would enjoy the Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom interactive game. It is free, and game cards are available at the fire house. One packet of cards per ticket per day so you could gets a lot of cards and playing time in. This is something on short trips we often "don't have the time for," but on a longer trip you could easily kill a couple of hours a day with this.

***Just saw that it was adults only this trip, so came back to add that my above suggestions still stand adults (or with kids). Also, something we are trying this year will be a progressive type dinner on the monorail loop. Apps at one resort, dinner at another and dessert at the last one. Might be fun to try with your group

 

[TheOnlyOne]

Longer trips are better / more relaxing.
If you have been to Disney a few times, you don't have as many HAVE TOs. Our first trip with our son was crazy as we tried to pack too much in (still fun but exhausting). We plan our top Fastpass experiences before we go but the rest of the day is Easy Breezy - wherever we decide to go and do. Makes it a lot nicer trip.

Our new game plan is we hit two parks, take the weekend off (too crowded), and then hit the other two parks. (We don't do the water parks.)

We pepper that with going off-site. This year we hit LEGOLAND one day. Sometimes we'll do some off-site shopping or dining. We went to the nearby outlets and hit Charley's steak house for dinner (outstanding).

When we take the weekends "off" over the past few years, we do resort character breakfasts, walk the Boardwalk and take a boat or surrey ride, play miniature golf, hang at the pools and arcades, take our time at resort hotels for nice / fancy dinners, took son horseback riding at Wilderness Lodge, explore the other resorts, etc.

On Sunday, my husband and son go to ESPN on the Boardwalk for one football game which equals about 4 hours of shopping time at Disney Springs for me!

 

[Klayfish]

For us, every trip to WDW feels like vacation...whether it's a 3 day trip or 18 day trip...it all feels like vacation. We refuse to let it feel rushed and crazy and like "work". We want to do as many things as we can, but if we don't get to it all, oh well. It's very easy to get caught up in planning and hustle/bustle of trying to do so much, and it happened to us on some of our first trips many years ago. After that, we completely changed how we view the trips and it's all vacation for us.

 

[GillianP1301]

Our yearly trips are 10 days (9 days in the parks) and I find I can never fit everything into my plans, so pretty much the opposite problem. My advice is to not plan around attractions, but rather just blocks of time for what park you want to be in when (my plan has 3 blocks per day - Morning, Afternoon, Evening) and once I have that in place, then I note my must do attractions so I can plan fastpasses and the rest of the time is spent just exploring the park and taking in any other attractions or shows that interest me.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Love what everyone else has said!

We (DH and I both senior citizens) love the entertainment, and focus a lot on making sure we get to see our favorites each trip. That includes (but is not limited to) FWs in MK (sometimes seasonal), Fantasmic, IllumiNations, FotLK (and absolute must for us), Birds of Wonder, and checking out seasonal or "small" entertainments. (Had a blast with DJ Anaan in AK this trip!), we join in at the dance parties, and look for Citizens of Hollywood, and the Mayor of Main St. We poke around Epcot and make sure to talk to the CMs from each country. We've met some incredibly bright, lively and interesting young people! Basically we do Disney slowly and in small bites. We also enjoy eating out! We love character meals as well as signature restaurants. We are in the group of people who get the Deluxe DP and use every single credit! (No, we usually don't eat 3 meals a day. Usually 1 signature and another meal.)
Disney is magical to us for it's CMs and "experiences"!
Again, there is no right or wrong, just what floats your boat and tickles your feathers!