5, 6 or 7 days in parks?

[nacho113]

Hello, WDW experts!

I have been planning for a big trip in late Feb/early Mar 2021 -- our longest stay ever with 8 nights and 7 full park days. My husband has expressed some reluctance about the length of the trip (9 days, including travel). As much as he has come to appreciate Disney parks, he worries he will get major Disney fatigue and that our children (age 4) will be exhausted by a trip that long. He would prefer a shorter trip of 6 nights and 5 park days. My counter argument is that a longer trip allows us to slow down, enjoy the moment, and avoid fatigue by not cramming so much into our days (especially as we may have grandparents with us, which definitely slows down touring.)

The main goals of the trip are to:

• Include one day that is a birthday celebration for our girls (relaxed day of characters, fireworks, parades - limited rides)
• Hit most of the headliners and everything new in the past 5 years
• Hit most of the rides aimed at small children
• Do multiple character meals
• Do a few non-park, non-home-resort meals, like Hoop de Doo and Sebastian's

*Note: We plan to stay Club Level and to purchase CL FPs, and we would likely also book a morning magic or after hours event. (We seriously hate standing in lines.) So these things would expedite touring.

With these things in mind, I would love opinions on whether we should do 5 park days, 6 park days or 7 park days.

Our preference has always been longer stay but with some down days or beach days. Taking the time to enjoy the vacation.
On a 2 week trip we will usually get 7-8 day tickets but several of our park days will be partial days...morning extra magic hours or just an evening for fireworks show.
Nothing worse than coming home from vacation feeling like I need a vacation...from the vacation

 

[Kaadk]

I'd recommend you just price them all out, and make your decision from there. Once you get up there in the number of days, the incremental cost to add an extra day isn't all that much of a difference. For example, on our upcoming Aug trip (with fairly middle of the ground prices), these are the prices Disney's currently got posted:

5 Day with PH: $532.58/Adult, $513.65/Child
6 Day with PH: $554.15/Adult, $534.53/Child (Incremental difference of $21.57/Adult, $20.88/Child, $84.90 for a family of 4)
7 Day with PH: $572.61/Adult, $552.31/Child (Incremental difference of $18.46/Adult, $17.78/Child, $72.48 for a family of 4)
8 Day with PH: $586.38/Adult, $565.18/Child (Incremental difference of $13.77/Adult, $12.87/Child, $53.28 for a family of 4)
9 Day with PH: $597.00/Adult, $575.22/Child (Incremental difference of $10.62/Adult, $10.04/Child, $41.32 for a family of 4)
10 Day with PH: $611.59/Adult, $589.29/Child (Incremental difference of $14.59/Adult, $14.07/Child, $57.32 for a family of 4)

And that's just the base ticket prices, not taking into account any package deals, discount ticket sellers, etc....

When you start looking at it that way, if it's only going to cost you, say, $50.00 or so more for an extra day for the whole family, then you know what your was if you decide to skip going to a park that day.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'd recommend you just price them all out, and make your decision from there. Once you get up there in the number of days, the incremental cost to add an extra day isn't all that much of a difference. For example, on our upcoming Aug trip (with fairly middle of the ground prices), these are the prices Disney's currently got posted:

5 Day with PH: $532.58/Adult, $513.65/Child
6 Day with PH: $554.15/Adult, $534.53/Child (Incremental difference of $21.57/Adult, $20.88/Child, $84.90 for a family of 4)
7 Day with PH: $572.61/Adult, $552.31/Child (Incremental difference of $18.46/Adult, $17.78/Child, $72.48 for a family of 4)
8 Day with PH: $586.38/Adult, $565.18/Child (Incremental difference of $13.77/Adult, $12.87/Child, $53.28 for a family of 4)
9 Day with PH: $597.00/Adult, $575.22/Child (Incremental difference of $10.62/Adult, $10.04/Child, $41.32 for a family of 4)
10 Day with PH: $611.59/Adult, $589.29/Child (Incremental difference of $14.59/Adult, $14.07/Child, $57.32 for a family of 4)

And that's just the base ticket prices, not taking into account any package deals, discount ticket sellers, etc....

When you start looking at it that way, if it's only going to cost you, say, $50.00 or so more for an extra day for the whole family, then you know what your was if you decide to skip going to a park that day.

This is exactly why we get length of stay tickets for our trips. We also go on arrival day and departure day. With FP+ it makes so much sense for us. Last trip, on departure day, we hit up DHS and got another FP+ for SDD. It really makes for a much more relaxing trip.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I vote for a longer trip with some non-park days (ot at least half days) mixed in to relax! If you go to the parks everyday for full-ish days, you might feel burnout on a longer trip.

 

[Kaadk]

This is exactly why we get length of stay tickets for our trips. We also go on arrival day and departure day. With FP+ it makes so much sense for us. Last trip, on departure day, we hit up DHS and got another FP+ for SDD. It really makes for a much more relaxing trip.

Well, we don't usually plan on the parks for arrival or departure days, since too often have I seen delays in arrival, and usually our departure is like a 2:00 pm flight, so we're catching DME at like 10 or 11 AM. But usually (except for this upcoming trip, which was booked with another family) just get tickets for all the days in-between our arrival and departure days. This trip, is booked:

Arrival: Disney Springs
Day 1: Park day 1
Day 2: Park day 2
Day 3: Typhon Lagoon/More Disney Springs
Day 4: Park day 3
Day 5: SeaWorld
Day 6: Park day 4
Departure: just hang at hotel until it's time for DME.

But if it wasn't for their want of TL and SeaWorld, we would normally have gotten a 6 day ticket for a trip of this length. If we went all 6 days, great. If we don't and only went 5, oh well, that extra $84 was worth having the option to go if we wanted.

 

[MomOTwins]

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here and side with your husband. The longest we have ever stayed is 5 days, usually 3-4, and we never felt it was too short. You pay so much to be at Disney, paying that kind of premium and not really using the parks most days seems nuts to me, although given your plans for the trip it sounds like budget isn't a really a concern. But even beyond the price, I think there are a couple of other factors to consider.

First, your kids are 4, so won't meet the height requirements for a lot of rides, and even some rides with no height limit may not be appropriate (e.g. if your kids scare easy, they might not like Haunted Mansion). That limits what you can do, and means you are going to be doing a lot of repetition after the first day in each park.

Second, kids that age can really get overstimulated easily and go into full on meltdown mode. The same can be true for husbands I think a shorter trip is lower risk because at least then if you wind up in a situation where everyone is crying and/or yelling about how they are not having a good time and want to go home, you actually will be going home soon. Remember, these message boards are full of lifelong, die-hard Disney fans. Not everyone (whether kids or adults) finds WDW to be the most magical place on earth. All you have to do is glance around main street USA and you can usually see a family coming very close to murdering each other.

My DH is not a big Disney guy--he doesn't hate it, but he'd rather be chilling on a beach. If I tried to force him to do a much longer trip he would NOT have a good time. So instead, we often combine a short WDW trip with a short cruise so we can both have our preferred vacation types.

Third, it actually can get quite cold in February. So if your plan is a lot of a pool time, you might be disappointed. We stayed in late Feb. 2019, and there was really only one day that was warm enough for swimming.

Fourth, cold and flu (and Covid) season. Enough said.

 

[Stigsmom]

My favorite trip plan is 4 or 6 park days with a resort day off after each 2 days. I like even numbers of park days so you can do 2 on, 2 off with a day in between to rest your feet and enjoy the resorts. Highly recommend!! It’s not worth it to me to pay for the awesome resorts if you don’t have at least one full day to rest and enjoy them- I also like having at least 1 day to flex if the unexpected happens and you need to make any schedule changes.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

7 days in the parks isn't ridiculous. That's 2 days in 3 parks and 1 day in 1 park. Although honestly, my family would be happy with 1 day each in Epcot and Animal Kingdom.

 

[disneyguy87]

My wife and I don't have children so we typically do 5 Park Days, one of each and the fifth a repeat of a park (Epcot is usually a front runner for us). But since you have kiddos and grandparents, I don't see the harm in 6-7 park tickets which should give you plenty of time to take the parks you go to leisurely. I am booked for a 10 day trip with 6 of those being in the parks (I have to see Galaxy's Edge twice!). If I had kiddos I'd probably have done 7 or 8 days on my 10 day trip because I know how flustered they can get throughout a day.

 

[DisneyJade]

I'd recommend you just price them all out, and make your decision from there. Once you get up there in the number of days, the incremental cost to add an extra day isn't all that much of a difference. For example, on our upcoming Aug trip (with fairly middle of the ground prices), these are the prices Disney's currently got posted:

5 Day with PH: $532.58/Adult, $513.65/Child
6 Day with PH: $554.15/Adult, $534.53/Child (Incremental difference of $21.57/Adult, $20.88/Child, $84.90 for a family of 4)
7 Day with PH: $572.61/Adult, $552.31/Child (Incremental difference of $18.46/Adult, $17.78/Child, $72.48 for a family of 4)
8 Day with PH: $586.38/Adult, $565.18/Child (Incremental difference of $13.77/Adult, $12.87/Child, $53.28 for a family of 4)
9 Day with PH: $597.00/Adult, $575.22/Child (Incremental difference of $10.62/Adult, $10.04/Child, $41.32 for a family of 4)
10 Day with PH: $611.59/Adult, $589.29/Child (Incremental difference of $14.59/Adult, $14.07/Child, $57.32 for a family of 4)

And that's just the base ticket prices, not taking into account any package deals, discount ticket sellers, etc....

When you start looking at it that way, if it's only going to cost you, say, $50.00 or so more for an extra day for the whole family, then you know what your was if you decide to skip going to a park that day.

Thanks for pricing this out. Good to see at a glance. Though it does seem like the biggest savings would be in the hotel stay.

I'm going to be the voice of dissent here and side with your husband. The longest we have ever stayed is 5 days, usually 3-4, and we never felt it was too short. You pay so much to be at Disney, paying that kind of premium and not really using the parks most days seems nuts to me, although given your plans for the trip it sounds like budget isn't a really a concern. But even beyond the price, I think there are a couple of other factors to consider.

First, your kids are 4, so won't meet the height requirements for a lot of rides, and even some rides with no height limit may not be appropriate (e.g. if your kids scare easy, they might not like Haunted Mansion). That limits what you can do, and means you are going to be doing a lot of repetition after the first day in each park.

Second, kids that age can really get overstimulated easily and go into full on meltdown mode. The same can be true for husbands I think a shorter trip is lower risk because at least then if you wind up in a situation where everyone is crying and/or yelling about how they are not having a good time and want to go home, you actually will be going home soon. Remember, these message boards are full of lifelong, die-hard Disney fans. Not everyone (whether kids or adults) finds WDW to be the most magical place on earth. All you have to do is glance around main street USA and you can usually see a family coming very close to murdering each other.

My DH is not a big Disney guy--he doesn't hate it, but he'd rather be chilling on a beach. If I tried to force him to do a much longer trip he would NOT have a good time. So instead, we often combine a short WDW trip with a short cruise so we can both have our preferred vacation types.

Third, it actually can get quite cold in February. So if your plan is a lot of a pool time, you might be disappointed. We stayed in late Feb. 2019, and there was really only one day that was warm enough for swimming.

Fourth, cold and flu (and Covid) season. Enough said.

Thank you for the alternate perspective. I do worry about the meltdowns. You put that much money and time into planning a trip, and it's heartbreaking if the family is unhappy. And I do have kids who are on the small side and a little scared of new experiences.

I really appreciate all of the input here. I am starting to lean toward a 6-day trip, no days off, but a few early nights and a couple of sleep-in days. This thread has been super helpful in giving me perspective and options to consider!

 

[scdufek]

We’ve been a few times so now we stay 7-8 nights and do 5-6 park days with lots of down time

 

[nkereina]

If you can swing the additional cost and it doesn't affect anything at home (i.e. work deadlines, vacation time, pet sitters, etc), then I would always opt for the longer trip. I agree that having more time allows you to go at a slower pace and not feel rushed to make the most of each day since you're limited. DH and I do 9-10 day trips and will purchase 8 day tickets. We often will not go on our arrival/departure days, and we will designate a day mid-week where we sleep in, go to the pool, and Disney Springs. We also will sleep in other days and only do a few hours in the park. Its nice to have "free" time and not have to rigidly schedule everything, so you can be flexible and do what you feel like doing in the moment.