What is an adequate amount of time to spend in the parks each day?

[mom2rtk]

If that's what worked and you had a good time, I see no reason to not continue that plan. I did a 12 hour day at MK in September and never again, it was far too hot and I was exhausted and my feet were killing me.

With a good plan and FPs you can get as much done in 4-5 hours as you can in more time, and you can go back to the beautiful resort you chose and enjoy it fully. I enjoyed resort time in September as much as I did park time!

That might be a little "optimistic". Sure a good plan will help immensely. And sure a long day can be wrong for a fair number of people. But you'll be hard pressed to fit a full day into 4-5 hours, regardless of the plan.

But I agree. If they were happy with 4-5 hours, no reason to change. It's very individual.

 

[smsmsw]

If you take a longer trip at least over a week then you can get by with shorter days at parks each day.

We find using the extra magic hour in the morning most helpful. You can train yourself to do this by practicing at home just before you go to get up earlier. Then, it won't be such a shock. You can accomplish a lot in that extra hour when the general public is not there. You work your way to the back of the park in that first hour and you have some good time in the back of the park before the general public catches up to you. Then, you use your three Fastpasses on rides, not shows. If you get done early with a fastpass then take in an attraction on standby but watch the time waiting to make sure you don't screw up your other Fastpasses. We then break for lunch for a rest. After lunch if you decide you can continue, get a fourth fastpass while eating lunch. Doing shows, not rides in the afternoon provides for more rest. With most shows if you get there ahead of the show time you will get in without a problem. You may not have the best seats, but it's doable.

The other approach is to take an afternoon break, but do it early; so, you can get back to the park for early evening. If your kids won't take an actual nap this may not work. This will involve two commutes and that can be harder on a person. Make sure your Fastpasses are used up in the morning; so, you can go for a fourth fastpass when you return in the evening. Now, you can enjoy fireworks and maybe some late extra magic hours.

Finally, I don't think there's a wrong way with visiting Disney. For us, it comes down to economics. We want more park hours to get our money's worth. You pay for park tickets whether you stay in the park for an hour or ten hours. If long days at the park are tough for you, maybe consider alternating a long day with a short day the next day. Obviously, choose your favorite parks to be the long days.

Thanks, this is great advice. Luckily, all of us are early risers. Might have to push my husband along in the morning though!

If you are a repeat visitor, then I would just spend the amount of time in the parks that you need to accomplish what you want to, not what you think you need to. It's not like there's a right way and a wrong way - there's just the right way for your family. If you really enjoyed your last trip, and didn't feel like you missed out, or wished you had done more, then I would plan a similar trip this time.

I am a frequent visitor, and I would guess that I spend about 4-5 hours tops in the parks each day, with at least one non-park day scheduled midway during my trip. Sometimes it's a morning, sometimes afternoon, sometimes evening, depending on why I'm hitting that particular park on that particular day. I prefer to go back to work a little more rested than I was when I left, and commando touring just doesn't do that for me. But I can totally understand the concept of wanting to be in the parks from open to close, especially if you don't get to go very often.

Thanks, I agree that there is no right or wrong way. I am sure we will come up with something that works out well for our family!

When my kids were little, 7-8, butbalways took an afternoon nap/break. Now that we’re all adults, 10-12, still with afternoon break, RD to lunch and 3 or 4 til close.

This sounds like a good plan.

I would leave disappointed if I only got 4-5 hours in the parks on a given day. Some are quite happy with that amount of time. We tend to stay for very long days, but we like to see parades, shows and fireworks.

Thanks, I do want to make more time for shows and parades this time.

I loved the original insight and this response.

I have a touring plan. I have fastpasses. I have adrs....

But if we are feeling rushed in a non excited way, I will let things go.

I have a plan and willing to deviate.

one thing I l8ke about touringplans, too. I can deviate, then rerun the "plan" to get a new one in case we are done deviating.

That is great feedback and I agree we will deviate if it's not working!

We are open to close people, but my kids are teenagers and love the parks.

It’s one reason we smacked ourselves and realized a moderate resort wouldn’t be worth the extra money and booked a value again.

If I had young kids, I doubt I’d spend all day at the park (heck...probably wouldn’t even be at the parks since I always thought vacations with young kids was no vacation at all! )

Haha, I can definitely relate to this feeling!!

I guess I should have asked this earlier -- exactly WHY did you end up limiting your days to 4-5 hours in the parks? Were you and your family tired after that amount of time? Did you just feel that's all you should do each day? Was the weather bad?

I think, in general we just were ready to move on to something else. Also, we tried to take it slower because we had my husband's parents with us and they weren't up for all the walking. It will just be us this time, kids no longer nap, so I think the pace could pick up a bit. Still don't want to feel rushed, but also don't want to feel like we're wandering around getting caught in crowds with no plan.

If that's what worked and you had a good time, I see no reason to not continue that plan. I did a 12 hour day at MK in September and never again, it was far too hot and I was exhausted and my feet were killing me.

With a good plan and FPs you can get as much done in 4-5 hours as you can in more time, and you can go back to the beautiful resort you chose and enjoy it fully. I enjoyed resort time in September as much as I did park time!

I appreciate these thoughts! I definitely want to strike a nice balance between park, resort and dining. Which is why I want time in parks to be well thought out and purposeful.[/QUOTE]

 

[smsmsw]

That’s why first planning which days you’ll rope drop determines your FP planning.

Rope dropping or a PPO ADR for DHS keeps you from wasting time waiting in line for JTA sign-ups. And you’d have all of sessions from which to choose.

Yes, I agree! Thank you!

touringplans.com

you build what you want to do, they optimize it.

Will look into this, thanks!

Trust me, I fall into this same trap every trip. Please reflect on your own words. Having an amazing time and accomplishing as much as possible are NOT synonymous. The second can actually negatively impact the first. Especially with younger children.

I have to continually remind myself that the purpose of our WDW vacation is to enjoy ourselves, not check off as many attractions as humanly possible. It's tough for a "Type A" personality but your family will thank you for the effort!

I totally agree and completely relate, thank you!

 

[smsmsw]

That might be a little "optimistic". Sure a good plan will help immensely. And sure a long day can be wrong for a fair number of people. But you'll be hard pressed to fit a full day into 4-5 hours, regardless of the plan.

But I agree. If they were happy with 4-5 hours, no reason to change. It's very individual.

Thank you, I think a good plan will help, but I will also try to be realistic about what we can actually accomplish in that timeframe.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

8-12 then midday break by the pool. Back to the Park around 5-close. So a good 9-12 hours depending on park closing time.

 

[GeneralTso]

With kids, you really need to plan and play according to their schedules and tolerance levels. If your kids are older and can handle going deep into the night for fireworks, by all means.....have fun!
I have seen the most epic meltdowns around 8pm, both parents and kids.
You've probably seen it on the boards here numerous times, take a break. Go back to your room and take naps, swim, relax. Then go back for some evening activities.

I always feel so bad for families doing the Death March. Everyone looks exhausted and ticked off. But WE ARE GETTING OUR MONEY'S WORTH ON THIS VACATION NO MATTER WHAT!!!!

 

[anomamatt]

The right amount of time is however much time you want to spend! My kids are young (5 and 3). We usually do 4 morning hours (9-1) in one park and alternate afternoons/evenings (5-9) with going either staying at the resort (pool) or going to a 2nd park.

 

[smsmsw]

8-12 then midday break by the pool. Back to the Park around 5-close. So a good 9-12 hours depending on park closing time.

Thanks, I do like the idea of midday pool break, however we are at AKL, so a bit further away from MK.

With kids, you really need to plan and play according to their schedules and tolerance levels. If your kids are older and can handle going deep into the night for fireworks, by all means.....have fun!
I have seen the most epic meltdowns around 8pm, both parents and kids.
You've probably seen it on the boards here numerous times, take a break. Go back to your room and take naps, swim, relax. Then go back for some evening activities.

I always feel so bad for families doing the Death March. Everyone looks exhausted and ticked off. But WE ARE GETTING OUR MONEY'S WORTH ON THIS VACATION NO MATTER WHAT!!!!

Thank you! I do need to plan for what will be the most appropriate schedule for the kids. And I do not want to set us up for crankiness, which can be expected when tired/hungry/etc.

The right amount of time is however much time you want to spend! My kids are young (5 and 3). We usually do 4 morning hours (9-1) in one park and alternate afternoons/evenings (5-9) with going either staying at the resort (pool) or going to a 2nd park.

This actually sounds perfect to me! Thank you.

 

[Micca]

We take park days the same way we do "All you can eat" buffets: Keep going until it isn't fun anymore/you've had enough. We seldom do more than 4-5 hours in a park but we've been dozens of times over the past 40 years and we'll be returning as long as we're able to.

 

[McNs]

Our touring has always been park opening until middayish when we head back to the hotel for some pool time. Depending on park hours we might then go back in around 6pm until we have had enough. We've just done this for the first time at WDW (usually go to DLR) and it worked well. We didn't see everything but we saw the stuff that was important to us, sometimes multiple times (7DMT 5 times...).

I used TouringPlans with some success - this was particularly useful at AK. I would reoptimize through the morning depending on how we were going and what else caught our eye.

 

[Anabelletoronto]

Our official plan with my 6 year old is for 5-6 hours a day. One day start early and then the next day, start later.
But its just a base plan. If we have more energy, we will stay longer or arrive earlier and if we get tired then we won't. We booked our FP in our base plan and we can always wait in a line for a show or ride if we have to.
My daughter will be thrilled with dinner with Cinderella which we do on day 1 so the rest will be a bonus.

 

[Smbmoyers]

I have the same age spread as you and we love going to the parks in the morning and heading back to rest for lunchtime. We return to the park or hop in the evening

 

[smsmsw]

Thanks everyone!

 

[quandrea]

I know we are happy with 4-5 hours at a park. We rope drop, get in our fast passes as well as other attractions when waits are low. Grab lunch. Head home. If we spend an evening out, we don't head to the parks in the morning. Our trips have a lot of resort time, lots of swimming. We have long trips though--12 to 14 nights and are AP holders. We get everything done that we want, but we aren't big on the parade or night time shows. It works for us. Any longer in the parks is park overload for us.

Heck, on Monday we headed into Animal Kingdom just to eat at Satu 'li Canteen, walk around Pandora and grab an ice cream.

You have to find what works for you. More doesn't necessarily translate to better.