How many days?

[HRHPrincessAriel]

When I take my dance team we typically do 4 nights and 5 days. I feel like that's more than enough because I'm not factoring in nap times ;-) We also go from park open to park close.


I'm unsure of how much time with C(3.5) for the 1st time. I think DH will also need/want a midday break I also don't think he will subscribe to my go hard or go home park attack. Lol

We were thinking 6 nights and 7 days. We'd land around 11 the first day and leave the hotel around 4 on the last.

DH brought up staying an extra night(same flight times). I can't believe I'm saying this but it almost seems like it could be too much time.

His long do you go for?

 

[GeekDad]

The first time we took my DS (then 1.5) was for 10 days. His second trip this past December was 9 days with 7 days in the parks and 2 days traveling (we drove down from NH). We are considering another trip this fall for 10 days flying down this time to save on travel time. Both times we were down with other family so touring was a little tricky to get in everything that everyone wanted to do but that had nothing to do with my son.

7 days may be enough for you, I think it will really matter how your family tours and how much you want to accomplish while there. I think if you are used to 5 days then 7 or 8 days would be fine and probably not too long after you factor in naps. For my DW and I we were ready to come home by the end of our trips but we did not feel we stayed to long so I guess 7-10 days is perfect for us. As for kids, each one is different so who knows lol.

 

[Weather_Lady]

It depends on how much you want to cover.

My sister and her DH took their 4-year-old for the first time last year -- 3 nights and 4 days. They spent 2 days in the Magic Kingdom and 2 in Epcot, saving the other 2 parks for a [longer] future trip.

If you're stopping for naps (as we did with our little ones), 6 days is probably the minimum if you want to hit everything. With touring from 9am-12:30pm and 4:00pm - 8:30pm each day (stopping for naps in between), we did 2 days at MK (1 day for Adventureland, Liberty Square, Frontierland and the parades; 1 day for Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, character M&Gs and the fireworks), 1 1/2 days at Epcot (1 day for Future World and half of World Showcase, 1 evening to return to World Showcase, finish it up and have another dinner), 1 day at HS, 1 day at AK and an extra 1/2 day for Downtown Disney.

 

[MickeyisMyBestFriend]

We go for as much time as possible even when I was 2 and my brother was 4 we would go for a week and even went for 9 days which was not a problem.

 

[mishel635]

We just went for eight days seven nights at the Beach Club (landed at 10 am on Saturday and left on the DME at 3pm for our 6pm flight the following Saturday.). To be honest I don't think it's possible to stay long enough to do everything you want!

We had eight day park hoppers and this was what we did-

Sat- Epcot future world 11-3 and 6-8
Sun- Magic Kingdom 8am-1:30 and 4:30-8:30
Mon- DHS 8-1pm and then pool time
Tues- AK 9-4:30
Wed- Epcot 8-2 both worlds
Thurs- MK 8:30 - 2:30 and 6 - 8:30 for parade and wishes
Fri- DHS 9-1 and DTD- 5-9
Sat- pool day til we left

We didn't even come close to doing everything I had wanted to. That midday break really limits what you can get done in the parks (although with my kids being 3 and 5 it was definitely a must!)
To be honest I'm glad we did things the way we did and wouldn't have changed a thing. Now I just have a to do list started for our next trip!

 

[SAV]

I have been bringing my DD since she was 2 and my DS since he was 1. We tour commando and never take a break. They slept in the strollers. We always did at least 6 days arriving early in the morning and leaving late in the evening.

 

[HouCuseChickie]

Our girls were ages 2 and 4 on their first trip and we stayed for 7 days/6 nights. We also took daily breaks back at our room on their first two trips. Personally, I think a 10 day trip would have been better to comfortably fit in everything I wanted to do; however, some of this is also knowing your family's vacation length tolerances. DH is usually ready to leave WDW after 5 days...so, I know I'm usually playing with fire when I push our trips to the 1 week mark.

What's funny...on their first trip- we did 6 days in the parks - which just didn't feel like enough. So, we went back 8 mos later for another 5 days (3 of which were park days).

 

[gooftroop5]

All of the trips with our kids have been 7 - 15 days. Anything less would not be enough time, IMO. We've traveled with them at 4 months to now 10 years old. They are all 3 years apart. I think we "could" go park open to park close, but that just seems over the top for me especially since it is a vacation. We like to take things easy. That being said we DO go to rope drop, just not every day. We DO stay late at evening EMH, just not every day. We always factor in 1 - 3 low key days depending on the length of our trip to regroup and chill out. The resorts are beautiful and we love having those days to explore the resort, swim, catch up on sleep, etc. Staying longer also gives us the option to go with the flow. If is starts storming we don't necessarily lose a day because we have time to go back. If the heat or crowds start to get to us we just find something else to do like visit different resorts or swim. Staying longer gives us freedom and we don't feel like we HAVE to go open to close just to get it all in.

Also, as adults we can function on less sleep. Going open to close every day really cuts down on sleep. At home my kids sleep 10+ hours each night. Kids NEED sleep. One of my biggest pest peeves at WDW is seeing parents drag their kids from attraction to attraction while they are kicking and screaming. Then the parents threaten them with something like, "I paid a lot of money for this trip so you had better have fun." How can they enjoy themselves when they are sleep deprived? To make it to a MK rope drop at 9am we leave the room around 7:30am or earlier to make the bus. That means we are up at 6:30am. If you were up until 10-11pm (or even later) the night before how is that fair for the poor kids? Ok.....off my rant........

If it was up to me.......I would stay even longer.