Who does long Disney stays?

[rotlex]

We started doing 14 day trips 4 years ago. Our trips started at 8 days and we have just kept adding over the years. Honestly, if we could stay a month we would. For us, the longer stay makes it a totally different more relaxed trip. Resort time, waterparks, no rushing to the parks etc.

Basically, cost wise, we started driving down quite a few years ago, and slowly started making the vacation longer by simply not having flight\travel costs. As a family of 4, we save roughly $1500 alone. We also usually stay moderate so honestly, the only additional cost to stay longer is the room - add in free dining bounce backs and 14 days at Disney costs less than a week at the Jersey shore, lol.

 

[Moliphino]

Lately we've been doing 8 nights/9 days (so the most I can swing using 5 vacation days from work, I use the other 5 for a Europe trip). I don't do relaxing trips even when they're longer, the only way we slow down is taking more time in lounges.

 

[PollyannaMom]

We tend to do shorter Disney trips now, as my folks retired and started spending the winter in Florida, and we split the week with visiting them. But we did do a week+ trip when DS was about five.

Our days on that trip typically started early and ended early, and we took two whole days off - one at the resort and one to go visit DH's grandparents about and hour and a half from Disney.

If we did that today, there would be more late nights, fewer early mornings, and we'd take a day to go to Kennedy Space Center.

 

[jlee003]

we tend to do 14 night stays ourselves. We also don't resort hop, so we cozy in nicely. The biggest thing to remember is to pace yourself in the first few days. The excitement tends to get to you and you forget that you have plenty of time to explore.

 

[KPeterso]

I do one long trip and one shorter trip each year. The longer trip tends to be 10-12 days, although this year is going to be 13 days. And the shorter trip is 6-7 days now (first year was only 4 and too short, so I moved up to 5 days, and last year was days and the plan for next year is for 7 days. I take things at my pace and go into the parks every day. We rarely are out much past dinner. And normally are lucky if we are in the parks before 10 AM being from the west coast on the longer trip. The short one I take solo and do often get to the parks in time for rope drop.

 

[indimom]

Our first trip was ten days. Pop Century. Meal Plan. We did all ten days in the four major parks and used hoppers to break up the days.

We also had a 14 day trip once. We stayed at Pop Century again. No meal plan or hoppers this time. We spent two days in each of the six parks ( including the water parks). Our other two days were spent at then Downtown Disney including the huge arcade (I've forgotten the name) and some resort activities.

 

[BarlowFamily]

We love Shades of Green! Really convenient "off-site" location to get Disney transportation. Our long trips look different now that we have a little one. In the past, we could start at Rope Drop and stay until closing with a few relaxing days interspersed. Now with the little guy, we can easily fill two weeks with Parks, Waterparks and Disney Springs. It's a really great location to do some resort hopping too. We'll be back at SoG in November and are planning on taking a boat (or two... whatever) over to the Fort for a day. I'm assuming staying at SoG means you're eligable for military tickets? We love and so appreciate the military tickets! The PLUS option is only $50 more per ticket and includes 5 Waterpark visits or Mini Golf rounds. And they DON'T expire 10 days after first use, like regular tickets. We have stretched our 5 day tickets into 10 days of WDW fun. Sea World also has great military offers, and there's a shuttle from SoG if you don't have a car.

 

[monica9]

9 nights/10 days is our favorite trip and the one we do most often. We don't do less than 8 nights/9 days. We get tickets for each day and typically do 2 days at each park and then the other extra days wherever we want to go back to. Usually HS and EP. Our last day is a partial park day, almost always at EP, and we leave to start the drive home whenever we feel like it, usually by 4:00. We get water park tickets and try to hit those as our afternoon break at least 3 days. We don't tend to hop much, although we did a "4 parks in 1 day" day on our last trip and that was a lot of fun. We are always at the parks at opening and almost always there at closing; we take a break in the afternoon even though nobody needs a nap except me

We did one "rest day" last year where we didn't go to a park at all, and we will never do it again. It worked well because we had to have the windshield replaced in our car due to a thrown rock on the way down, but that was the only good thing about it. DH had to take it, they didn't have availability to come to us and change it.

What did you not like about it? Do you have kids and what age? I’ve always considered doing a non park day in the middle of our trip but I think we’d be antsy. I’m all down for half days though. Did you swim or do mini golf or springs?

 

[PollyannaMom]

Our other two days were spent at then Downtown Disney including the huge arcade (I've forgotten the name) and some resort activities.

Disney Quest - miss that place!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

We always do longer stays at WDW. Usually 7-10 days. I really wouldn't bother going that far just for 2-3 days. Not really worth it.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

What did you not like about it? Do you have kids and what age? I’ve always considered doing a non park day in the middle of our trip but I think we’d be antsy. I’m all down for half days though. Did you swim or do mini golf or springs?

We throw rest days in every trip. Usually by the 5th day or so legs are almost numb. So instead of going to a park, we usually took the kids to a character breakfast, went back to swim a bit, and then maybe played a round of mini golf. It wasn't a do nothing day. Just a rest the walking muscles a bit day.

 

[Sparkly]

Coming from the UK, the minimum we do is 7 nights and even then that's a bit short, it's a long flight. Usually it's 10-14 nights.

 

[tzolkin]

Our first trip was 9 nights. Most other trips until recently were 11-12 nights. (Now the kids are teens/adults and it's difficult to coordinate more than a week)

We always bought the 10 day park hopper tickets. I would always plan something for a part of each day (like AM EMH at AK on Tuesday, dinner at Epcot on Wednesday, etc) and then we would be able to just do what we felt like for the rest of the day. I didn't plan a "break" day, but instead we may just decide at 11am that we were done with the parks and wanted to go relax at the resort. Or perhaps one day the kids all want to sleep in, so DH and I would go to Epcot and get breakfast in France or something.

We liked the longer trips because at the time the ticket prices were not much more for a 10 day vs a 5 day so we didn't feel the pressure to be in the parks all day long to "get our money's worth". There also wasn't the feeling of needing to get all our "must do" attractions in on a particular day because with 10 park days with hoppers there would be another opportunity to return to that park to ride more.

 

[Disney Frenhines]

The shortest I've done is 13 days and the longest is 21. I come from the UK and I average out at 17 days (which I find perfect) I'm doing 5 days at Disneyland and hopping over to WDW for 14 days next month, still not enough as far as I'm concerned, it's only because I miss my cat that I don't stay even longer.
I couldn't bear the thought of doing the parks at a breakneck pace, I like to take my time and go early for rope drop, head back to the room if I need to and do the evenings either at a park or DS.

 

[THE BARRON]

Our longest was 10, but my wife got approved to take 2 weeks so that’s our goal next year

 

[fuse04]

Usually 14-19 days but haven't been since 2010. Returning next year for 14 nights in 1 bed at OKW.

 

[deelovesdis]

When we go we stay 30 or more days, usually in the summer. But this year we will be there the entire month of January. We can do what we want, stay in if it's pouring or way too hot, and if we don't feel like going out we can stay in and eat by the pool. or BBQ. No rushing to be in a park. we take it easy. and we stay in my timeshare, so the costs aren't crazy.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We usually do 7 days WDW and 3 day UO.

 

[Baduist]

10 days is perfect imho.

Last time we did 2 resorts (AKL & Poly), which made it feel like 2 separate vacations.

It was pretty cool to just go to the park, come back to a new hotel and have all our stuff waiting for us

 

[Tigger in a kilt]

We did 4 weeks (28 days) last October, all on property. We literally did not leave WDW except to go to the airport. I have the same thing booked for this time next year.

Our last trip was different in that we met up with several different sets of family/friends so we did have some repetition. Next year will be just us.

What did we do? We had a few rest days, did lots of Rope Drop (esp in the first week as we came from the U.K.), a few very late nights. However, our general routine was to RD a park, then leave at lunchtime and either return to our hotel for lunch or go to a different resort for lunch. In the afternoon we went to the pool, then went to a park about 5pm, had dinner there, and spend the evening at the park or Disney Springs. Our tickets were park hoppers so we had flexibility. When we stayed at the Boardwalk Inn, we went down to the Boardwalk for a late drink and to enjoy the atmosphere.

We ended up only doing a fraction of what we wanted to do. Some of that was the repetition from having different groups join us but, aside from that, we still have plenty that we want to do and didn’t get the chance. I have no desire to spend 16 hours in the parks each day, so this suited us perfectly.