What is Your Ideal Number of Days to Visit Disney?

[tryingfornumber7]

We're planning another trip for Disney in August/sept and I'm wondering what everyone's number of "ideal" days is to stay at Disney for? We went for 16 das last time. WAY too long. Kids were constantly fighting, we didn't do much of anything and when we tried to cram it in it was a pain. So this time I was figuring 5 days at the parks plus 1-2 down days? Does that sound better? 2 days at MK and 1 day at each additional park. Plus a day at the pools and dtd. Also, is aug/sept a good time to go? low crowds and stuff? We went in oct for Halloween and it was too packed. Thanks!

 

[MSSANDRA]

We mostly go from Saturday to Saturday and have hopper passes for Saturday through Friday. We have NEVER been ready to leave. We tried early in our family history of trips to take a break day but we always ended up wishing we were in the parks and spent way more money on things like DTD than we would have adding on a day or two to our park hopper. We always go winter, and because our boys swam all summer at home, we choose not to do the pools. These however are important to some families.

August and September are going to be very hot. Crowds begin to decrease the end of August as most kids return to school and are at their lowest right after Labor Day.

Maybe you need a different way to organize your trip. We basically know what we are going to be doing everyday when we arrive. With FP+, this is almost a necessity. We also plan at least one sit down everyday. We know where we are going to start each day, and where we need to be for meals. We often will take a break mid-day, and then go back out, often to a different park. We are not commando, and if we get tired we rest, and if we need to eliminate something we will. It works for us and we have had many happy happy trips. Our last two trip, have had to be a bit shorter and we really wished for more time. Plan well and then be willing to adjust as necessary is my bottom line advice.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Our last 3 trips have been 10 nights/11 days, and while they have been very relaxing at that length, it's a wee bit too long. Our kids are ready to go home by about day 9.

Our upcoming trip is going to be 7 nights/8 days because we are adding a newborn to the family on Monday and he will only be 3 months old on the trip. Since we won't be sure how he travels, we are doing a shorter trip.

If all goes well, I think 8-9 nights will be the target amount of nights for our upcoming trips.

Late August crowds are very decent but the weather is NOT. Granted I was 20 weeks pregnant for our August 2014 trip, but my family complained about the heat as much as I did. The kids didn't even want to leave the resort during the day....

 

[tryingfornumber7]

Thanks. And congrats on your baby I am due in June so over the summer isn't ideal to go but figured about when baby is 2-3 months. I agree planning is probably best, which I did not do with our last trip. We winged everything and spent a lot more money then we should've. This time we will have more of a budget.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Thanks. And congrats on your baby I am due in June so over the summer isn't ideal to go but figured about when baby is 2-3 months. I agree planning is probably best, which I did not do with our last trip. We winged everything and spent a lot more money then we should've. This time we will have more of a budget.

Thanks!! And congrats on yours! Yes, having at least a rough plan (some ADR's and FP+'s picked) give at least a framework for getting things done.

 

[sunflowerfields]

We have done 6 park days and 2 travel days, and 4 park days and 2 travel days. If I could choose I would pick 8 days for parks and down time with 2 travel days for a total of 10 days gone from home.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

We will be down at Disney in 5 days (leaving in 4) and will be staying 17 days this trip. First trip was 7 nights, second trip was 11 nights. Can't wait!!! 10 day tickets but thinking of upgrading to annual passes. From leaving to returning home it will be almost 3 full weeks. We stay at Fort Wilderness and enjoy spending a lot of down time while there. Also planning a day or two at the ocean.

 

[lizard1]

I think about 3 weeks. This summer we took two 2-week trips to Disney World. The first two weeks were not long enough, but I started tiring of Disney during the third week. We still didn't get everything done that I wanted to do at Disney either (we missed some shows and attractions!) plus we spent very little time at the pool and never even ventured into a water park.

 

[Lilliputian]

Part of it depends on how you do it. If you stay in a regular hotel room and eat restaurant food that doesn't resemble the foods you eat at home, you'll get tired of it all sooner.

We've gone for 4-5 weeks at a time and loved it. We stayed in a house in Windsor Hills and cooked a lot of our own meals and just ate out occasionally. My husband had a job where he worked from home, so I'd take the children to the parks in the morning while he stayed behind to work. We'd come down in the afternoon for naps for the little ones and school time for the older ones (we homeschool), and then in the evening we'd either swim in our pool or go back to the parks, depending on how we were feeling.

There are still a few attractions we've never done. There is so much to do at WDW, and we keep redoing our favorites, so we haven't done it all. We haven't even stepped foot inside the water parks or Disney Quest (since the kids were born).

 

[avic77]

I would love 10 days. 2 travel days (one down / one home) 8 Orlando days.
2 in MK, 2 in Epcot, 1 AK, 1 DSH, 2 pool days

 

[PelletierBears]

We usually stay 7-9 nights. We'd love to stay longer but since we have family in Florida we always stay a few nights with them also and I've never been able to take 3 weeks off from work at once.

3 weeks at Disney seems too long for me. I'm always craving home cooked food and our regular routine after 2 weeks. So... My ideal would probably be 12 nights at Disney. Now having said that... I'll take whatever I can get!

 

[MomBird]

We usually have 7 nights and always want a couple more before coming home. We used to try to do one Downtown Disney/pool day. Nowadays sometimes we will just split it and still spend a half day in the parks even on our "slower" days.

As another poster suggested, a bit of a plan will ensure there's lots to do rather than too much or too little. There are some great park visiting/park tour sites out there. I think I memorized the Birnbaum's touring plan when we first stated going.

Have you thought about late Sept. or early October? Those times are great to go, IMO. The weather is milder and the crowds are low.

 

[Disneylover99]

We did 18 days last August/early September. It still wasn't long enough. This year for the same time frame, we've booked for 22 days. We'll see if it's long enough.

 

[ilovebassets]

Eight nights is perfect for us (2 travel days and 7 full vacation days). Long enough to make the drive down feel worth it. Long enough to have one full non-park day. Long enough to try do something new each trip but not so long that we feel like we "did it all" and got bored.

We once went for nine nights, and it was the only trip that I was kind of glad to be heading home at the end. That trip was also only seven months from the one previous which wasn't very much as well. Not sure how the folks who do 2+ weeks handle it. Not that there isn't enough to do--but I just need my own home after that long.

 

[tryingfornumber7]

Thanks so much everyone for all the great advice! Sept/oct sounds better to go so that would probably work great. Would LOVE to stay 3 weeks by myself but with kids it is HARD Thinking this time we might get ap because we visit usually at least once a year and that way we'd ideally get two visits in with the one ap. Is that worth it you think? How much are ap's for adults and kids 3-9? Thanks.

 

[Mousemommy1]

Thanks so much everyone for all the great advice! Sept/oct sounds better to go so that would probably work great. Would LOVE to stay 3 weeks by myself but with kids it is HARD Thinking this time we might get ap because we visit usually at least once a year and that way we'd ideally get two visits in with the one ap. Is that worth it you think? How much are ap's for adults and kids 3-9? Thanks.

AP's are the same price for adults and children. You can price them on the Disney website. I don't know the price because we buy ours at discount through the military base.

However, we get AP's and typically get two 11 day trips in during the year...last year we even snuck in another 6 day food and wine trip too, so in total close to a full month at Disney for the year. Totally worth it!

 

[Cuddlemama]

I think 2 full weeks, including travel days, is perfect. We typically do a 17 day vacation, but travel down takes 3 days and travel home takes two (Autotrain).

We'll have 7 day WPF&M tickets with hopping included, and that's pretty much perfect. I prefer 8 day tickets, but we get what we get when we travel with a group. And, since tickets with Carolina Homeschoolers are super-awesome priced, I'm not going to complain.

When we're traveling in February, we generally take about every 3rd day off for Disney Quest or a Water Park rest day. This year will be our first November trip, so I'm interested in seeing how the warmer temperatures affect that.

I'd get sick of eating out and want to go home if we didn't have a kitchen in our DVC unit. Especially since we have a kid with celiac and she's not interested in 2 weeks of chicken tenders or grilled chicken.

We've stayed as long as 19 days when flying in and out, and at the end of that vacation I was beyond ready to get home. I blame that on traveling with my parents and my inlaws at the same time, though, and not on the house of Mouse.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Used to be average about 10... Now have a place in fla...so average 3 days...

 

[MandiC]

Ideally we'd do a 2 week vacation, 6 days in Disney parks, 2 resort days and 4 days doing other things around Florida (maybe one or two of those days for water parks depending on the time of year, 2 days for travel)
That probably won't ever happen since getting 2 consecutive weeks off of work for my husband is not likely. I thought 6 park days was pretty great though, we did that, we were a little tired, it would have been nice to have a resort day or two mixed in there

 

[North of Mouse]

Our trips are 10 nights, and that is the perfect length of time for us. We are 'ready' to go, and all smiles for the wonderful trip we had when it's time to leave!

Some years we get AP's and go 2-3 10 night trips, other times we skip a year and go only 10 nights. Have always been ready to leave after that many nights.