How long is too long?

Our last trip was 7n/8d at Royal Pacific, and it was awesome. However, my kids were 14 & 16 at the time and very comfortable with theme park navigation. After a day at the resort, they had made friends with a group of British kids and they travelled in a crowd of 10 all day and night. Our rules were that they had to stick together at all times and have their cell phone sound on so we could communicate with them. We bought them quick service meal plans for the days they planned to be gone during meals, and had several meet up times scheduled everyday along with curfews.

8 days was not enough for them - they had a blast. They still talk about that trip as the best time of their lives. It was wonderful for DH and I too as it was the first time in 16+ years we had time to ourselves. We took our time in the parks, lots of pool time, stopped for beverages and had leisurely meals. It actually felt like a vacation instead of the usual commando style touring we'd always done in the past.
 
we are lucky enough to come from EU and have very long vacations.
we've done several 3 weeks stays at CBBR and enjoyed every bit of it
we're AP holders, but we don't do parks everyday, there are so many things to do in the area. But since we have been giving disney a miss for a few years now, setting camp on universal property was the logical thing to do.

if you're asking me if 8 days would be too long ... no, for us, it's too short, lol.

now it all depends on the kind of vacations you want and what you want to do.
If you have to split a stay between disney and universal, it's a question of balancing the center of interest between the resorts

If you'll only do universal with maybe a touch of disney (we do MNSSHP for one night for example, as our only disney fix) then I'd go all in, and enjoy universal for the full duration
 
Everyone is different.

2-3 days is more than plenty for us. We stay at a resort that offers EP, and by the end of the 2nd (usually), or by lunch of the 3rd (rarely), we're done. We don't care anything about Volcano Bay, or hanging out by the pool, etc.
 
we've done several 3 weeks stays at CBBR and enjoyed every bit of it
I am definitely envious of you. I'd love to have a 3 week Universal vacation. :) We usually will do two week long (7 or 8 nights) trips each year. And I'm always sad when its time to leave.
 


We’ve done a week there and still missed doing things on our list. It’s just so easy to relax and take your time there, especially if you are at a resort with ep included. Sleep in, leisurely coffee/breakfast, park, pool, dinner, more park. Just no worries no rushing. And the option to pool hop is great. You can try all the pools you want! Haven’t done VB yet as I’d rather do parks then a water park, but if there was time I’d fit that in too.
 
We usually do 3-4 days at Universal, which includes pool time, so 8 days would be too much for us. I think if we were to do it, we'd want some time off-site too - perhaps shopping, restaurants on I-Drive, Disney Springs, or even Sea World or Legoland. An 8 year old boy would probably love Legoland if you've never been.
 


We do 9 nights twice a year and never access our car the entire trip. But we don't do park days and pool days like some suggest. We swim every day. Hit 1 or both parks every day. Can pop over and ride a couple rides real quick before dinner if we want, etc.

It takes like 13 minutes to walk from the Portofino boat dock to the IoA entrance - even less to the US entrance. If you're on site, virtually no wait to ride, so there's no need to plan/spend marathon days at either park. You treat the rides just as one of the many things you have immediate access to throughout the resort.
 
We do 9 nights twice a year and never access our car the entire trip. But we don't do park days and pool days like some suggest. We swim every day. Hit 1 or both parks every day. Can pop over and ride a couple rides real quick before dinner if we want, etc.

It takes like 13 minutes to walk from the Portofino boat dock to the IoA entrance - even less to the US entrance. If you're on site, virtually no wait to ride, so there's no need to plan/spend marathon days at either park. You treat the rides just as one of the many things you have immediate access to throughout the resort.
What do you guys do during the evenings on your trips out of curiosity? I'm asking because DH and I got a little bored after we were done at the parks for the day. We don't have kids and we aren't club goers or bar people, so we lacked for things to do. We did play mini golf and ordered a movie in our room, but I'm always looking for new ideas.
 
What do you guys do during the evenings on your trips out of curiosity? I'm asking because DH and I got a little bored after we were done at the parks for the day. We don't have kids and we aren't club goers or bar people, so we lacked for things to do. We did play mini golf and ordered a movie in our room, but I'm always looking for new ideas.

Mostly eating and drinking. :D

We'll do mini-golf, spend evenings on the PBH Piazza at the Thirsty Fish people watching - especially if a group has rented the piazza for an event. Head over the the Sapphire Falls and have a late night drink in the outdoor seating of the rum bar. Go back to the parks for one of the night shows. Grab a Voodoo doughnut and walk around City Walk shopping, then grab another Voodoo doughnut for the walk back to the hotel. ;)

But as the kids - and now our grandkids - get older, we're able to have later dinners. So where we used to need to kill time between kids' bedtimes and our bedtimes in the hotel, we now eat late enough that by the time we head back to the hotel, it's usually around 9:30 - 10pm, so we don't have a lot of time to kill beyond our dinner and drinks.
 
Having recently had a trip cut short from a week to just a bit under 3 days, I can say for us definitively that 2-3 days is nowhere close to enough.

Sure, we were able to cram in almost everything we wanted to do park-wise in that shortened period (especially with EP), but it was all rush rush, go go. And we had to cut out a ton of non-park stuff we had originally planned to do (some different restaurants we wanted to do, some ample pool time etc.)

It solidifies for me that ~1 week (7-8 days), with 4 park days (with mid-day breaks on each park day) is the min. optimal amount for us.
 
What do you guys do during the evenings on your trips out of curiosity? I'm asking because DH and I got a little bored after we were done at the parks for the day. We don't have kids and we aren't club goers or bar people, so we lacked for things to do. We did play mini golf and ordered a movie in our room, but I'm always looking for new ideas.
 
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