Length of trip vs distance from Orlando

[Meriweather]

10-14 nights, 3 times every other year.....then 5 nights at DLR 4 times the other year.
We do take other vacations....usually 2-3 cruises a year and something else more local.
Arizona

 

[jodls01]

We live 1,160 miles from Orlando. We (3 families) rent a 5 bd villa in Davenport for 10 days every 2-3 yrs during Christmas vacation because adults are educators and we cannot coordinate our kids' summer schedules. We visit WDW and Universal.

 

[Rowlf the Dog]

I live in Germany and so I take trips from at least 10 days (only WDW) or 14+ days (with Universal, SW and BG) once a year. Besides trips for concerts and/or music-festivals all over Germany I usually go skiing in Austria for a week every year and at least every two years I take one other longer vacation with varying destinations.

 

[NotANewbie]

We're in Nashville - 12 hr drive away. I am the only driver and can't do it in one day, so the price of gas + the price of hotel + 24+ hours of my time ... yeah, I'll pay $180-$200 r/t per person to fly non-stop on Southwest. It's only two of us and we only do long weekends - 3-4 nights.

 

[Kaadk]

I think there's one other factor at play with people's length of trip, frequency of the trip. For us, we're 1900 kms away, usually go for 5 'park days' each trip, with trip lengths 7-8 days total (including airplane days) and based on our past travels, get the itch to return about every 550 days. If we didn't go as often as we do, I'd probably want to be even longer at the parks. Like, if we went every 5 years, then I'd be doing 12 day trips. If we went 3 times a year, we'd be doing 3 day trips.

For us, this is our only 'major' vacations (i.e. flying). But with the trailer, we go camping (glamping) several times a year, with usually at least one 'active' (i.e. tourist place, like Hershey, Pigeon Forge, etc...) week long camping trip per year.

 

[gharter]

We live in the midwest. Normally take a week for F&W and 4-7 days during FLower and Garden.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We’re 950 miles from Orlando and spend 2 weeks there each year during the early winter. We also take a week long vacay to myrtle beach each summer and every other year we go to France for 2 weeks to visit family. We also usually take 2 or 3 weekend trips to more local places throughout the year. We’re lucky though because DH owns his own business so he can take as much vacation time as he wants and I work part time and my work is very accommodating. Traveling is our favorite thing to do so we make it a priority.

 

[PSUGuy]

About 1081 highway miles, according to Google Maps. With 2 exceptions in the last 20 years we fly to a yearly WDW trip of from 8 - 10 days. The flights are a fixed expense so we save around $500 by making 1 long trip as opposed to 2 shorter ones. In addition to this our extended family of 11 hits Myrtle Beach for 10 - 14 days in late June early July. We both retired this time last year and decided to treat ourselves well the first year with 2 extra MB trips of 10 days in addition to the family one and we rented a house with a pool 20 mins from WDW for the whole month of Feb, one daughter, SIL and 2 grandkids joined late in the trip to take in the Star Wars stuff, got back just before CV hit the fan. We locked ourselves in the Fri before St Pattys Day. Thank God for Netflix, Amazon Prime and alcohol.

Bill From PA

 

[Bullseye]

1170 miles away. We stay 11 nights annually. It's the only big trip we take every year. We'd go more often probably if it weren't for the cost of airfare each time. Will be retiring to central Florida in the next five years or so.

 

[Racefan1]

We do 14 nights in Orlando and 1 night down and back. We live 1200 miles away. We do Disney, Sea World, Busch Gardens and Gatorland plus both waterparks. We also have season passes to Cedar Point and spend most weekends there in the summer and fall. This year is kinda screwed up but plan on coming as soon as the parks reopen.

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

Google maps tells me that I am 983 miles from the Dolphin where we normally stay. We have made probably 20 trips over the past 10 years, but have flown every time. We have finally realized that we don't need a rental car since we can Uber anywhere, so flying our family of 4 is probably close to breakeven with costs as compared to driving and paying for gas, a hotel each way (about 15 hours of drive time) and parking at the resort.

We usually go to DW about every 3 years, but for that year we get an annual pass and make two longer trips plus a shorter one as well. For example, we went over Thanksgiving 2018 for 12 days, May 2019 for 5 days, then early November 2019 for 7 days. We feel this gives us the best bang for the buck. Also gives us a chance to visit other places in the off years. Were planning on Atlantis this August and probably Aruba over the holidays, but now everything is up in the air.

 

[agamble]

I think there's one other factor at play with people's length of trip, frequency of the trip.

I think you are right. Because we live in California, we can get our Disney fix by driving to Disneyland. But I really want to take my kids to the World, so I've planned this trip. And since we'll probably only do this with the kids twice, it seems like we should make it a nice long trip. We were originally planning to go to Universal too, but then the crowds scared me away. But now I'm considering Universal again, especially if we have to reschedule to September.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We live in NJ and are about 1000 miles from WDW. We fly out of PHL.

Our last few trips have been 10 days. We only go every 2-3 years. I find it cheaper to make one longer trip since extending the tickets to 10 days is much cheaper than going 5-6 days twice. I also prefer the longer trip for the ease of obtaining hard to get FP+, riding headliners multiple times, enjoying our resort more often since we don't have to be commander, sleeping in some days, having more pool time, trying more restaurants and it's a much more relaxing trip. We actually get to just enjoy the small things at Disney.

I get 6 weeks of PTO and my SO gets 5 weeks.

We go on other vacations. That's why we only do Disney every 3 years or so. Even on the years we do Disney we do other mini trips but that year Disney is our big trip. The years we don't go to Disney we do other big trips.

My kids are almost grown up and I'm looking forward to adult only trips one day. When that happens I see us doing 5-6 day trips and maybe little quick getaways. Maybe even an AP one day. We would be able to plan trips around cheap airfare if we didn't have the kids school schedules to work around. We can both get off fairly easily.

DD has made mentions of going to college in Florida. I told her if she does I would get us APs and I could visit and we could do little WDW trips.

 

[ILovePixieDust]

We live 3200 miles away.

We always go for at least 2 weeks and it might be a mixture of WDW, Disney Cruise and/or Universal. We will do other vacations as well during the year.

This year is supposed to be WDW in August and the UK in December but we'll see what kind of travel will be allowed later this year.....

 

[wilbret]

I think you are right. Because we live in California, we can get our Disney fix by driving to Disneyland. But I really want to take my kids to the World, so I've planned this trip. And since we'll probably only do this with the kids twice, it seems like we should make it a nice long trip. We were originally planning to go to Universal too, but then the crowds scared me away. But now I'm considering Universal again, especially if we have to reschedule to September.

If crowds scare you, Universal is the place to be! Express Pass blows Fast Pass out of the water. (I know people have differing opinions, but with the Express Pass, you can ride EVERY ride in the parks (sans Hagrid for now). Enjoy!

 

[StevieB81]

We go for 10-12 days every other year. We're about 980 miles away and drive. We stop in Charleston, SC overnight (get there mid afternoon) each way because that is where our families live. We don't take any other big trips during a Disney year, but do in the off years. Also do a couple golf trips each year, but they are only 3-4 days each. We do longer trips mostly because we have 4 kids and getting everyone aligned for a trip works better that way and they like being there as long as possible. Once the kids move out, our trips will probably be a little shorter and more frequent.

 

[hereforthechurros]

We live about 1000 miles away. Always fly. Trips have ranged from one night to seven nights. We travel all over the US when not at WDW. Past 12 months we’ve been in VA, DC, MD, PA, IN, IL, WI, MI, NY, AZ, CA, CO, FL, many of these states multiple times. Our son is young so haven’t done out of country travel since he was born but hopefully in the next 2-3 years.

As Joe Rohde has so eloquently put it on Instagram recently, WDW is fictional representation. Fun, of course, but still fictional. Seeing things that aren’t is of utmost importance too

 

[agamble]

If crowds scare you, Universal is the place to be! Express Pass blows Fast Pass out of the water. (I know people have differing opinions, but with the Express Pass, you can ride EVERY ride in the parks (sans Hagrid for now). Enjoy!

Yes. I saw that. But for June the pass costs more than a ticket. And I read that without a pass or hotel stay it is very difficult to get to a lot of rides during busy days. If we have to reschedule to September though the days were listed as low attendance.

 

[nkereina]

We live in Buffalo, so its a 2.5 hour nonstop flight to Orlando. We usually will do Disney for 8-9 days, or we'll do Disney and Universal in one trip and stay in Orlando for 10-11 days. We usually do one other trip elsewhere during the year, and try to space it a few months apart. Last year we spent 10 days in Southern California doing Disneyland in May, and then went to Las Vegas for a week in October. This year, we were supposed to spend 10 days at Disney in April and do a week long cottage rental in upstate NY in August, but our April trip got moved to October and we decided to do 12 days, adding on Universal.

 

[wilbret]

Yes. I saw that. But for June the pass costs more than a ticket. And I read that without a pass or hotel stay it is very difficult to get to a lot of rides during busy days. If we have to reschedule to September though the days were listed as low attendance.

We tend to stay at an express pass hotel when we go to Universal, but not every time. We’ve never experienced crowds and waits there like at WDW lately. (New rides excluded). Universal has single rider lines on most attractions (not all). On last visit, we didn’t have express passes, the week of Christmas, and we walked on Hulk and Rip Ride Rocket several times in a row.

Point being, don’t be scared away. Even with crowds, it’s a nice change of pace.

Oh, and don’t rule out SeaWorld! Great coasters there, and many hotels offer free Quick Queue!

Happy Disney-or-other-ing!