A Disney Trip … the perfect length of stay … is

KikoKea

Well-Known Member
We use the 4 day Military Salute offers, so our trips are usually 5 days, not counting arrival day and the day we leave. We take a day off and enjoy visiting different resorts and trying a new restaurant. We don't rent a car and don't leave the property. Recently, we've added DL once a year, which is fun and helps me with my Disney fix. :)
 

Princess Kaylee

Well-Known Member
For me it’s two weeks. We only got to do this twice, 2001 and 2002. The DSs were 6 and 11 in ‘01, and 7 and 12 in ‘02. We flew out from NYC on Saturday and arrived early afternoon. Ironically my sister-in-law, mother-in-law and kids drove from CT, leaving Friday morning and arriving around the same time (2 p.m.) on Saturday as we did. We’d checked in (rooms were actually ready --- this was All Star Movies). Dropped our luggage in our rooms, got our mugs, a snack and then after that caught the bus to DTD (now DS). Can’t remember exactly, but most likely we ate dinner at Planet Hollywood or Rainforest Café. And by about 9 p.m. we’d be back in our room. We would get 5 day park hopper tickets, 3 day water park tickets and we’d always do a water park on Sunday, MK on Monday, EP on Tuesday, DHS on Wednesday. We'd always hop over to another park at some point, depending on crowds. We’d take Thursday off, sleep in (because we would open/close the park and never go back to the room all day, just take some long breaks). On the days off the kids would swim and we’d do laundry, reading and relaxing and go to Medieval Times for dinner. Most like, if my memory serves me, we’d do go to Universal on Friday. Saturday we’d do another water park and Sunday relax again. We’d go into town shopping on Monday and back to DTD. On Tuesday we would park hop AK, DHS, EP. Final Water Park on Wednesday, relax on Thursday and open/close out the MK on Friday. We would get a stroller, that my DS 6, 7 would use sparingly with my nephew 4, 5 and sometimes when they weren’t in it, my DS 11, 12 and niece 8, 9 would use it…LOL. Then on Saturday the in-laws would drive home and we’d fly home. Best two weeks for the kids for sure. Plenty of park time, plenty of down time, plenty of swim time.

6 nights 5 days!
 

fireworksandfairytales

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
The longest trip I've ever went on was nine nights and it was amazing. I've never felt so relaxed on a Disney vacation before. There was so much time to enjoy the resorts and stroll around (then) Downtown Disney and we didn't feel pressured to do the parks open to close every day. Five days is the shortest length that still doesn't feel super rushed to me.
 

glvsav37

Well-Known Member
12-14 days for us is perfect.

I kill most of my vacation time in that 1 trip, but my wife is a teacher, kids in school and all of our sports and other activities we can't travel outside of summer. So we like it make it more of a mega-vacation. That length of time—esp in summer when its crazy hot— allows us to the parks casually in the am and at night, and then enjoy the resort and other activities during the day. We don't feel so rushed to jam everything in and do the parks all day.

not to hijack, but it's been brought up....we Americans are killing themselves with the lack of vacation time our companies are 'offering' ...it's borderline criminal. All this talk of 'buying in,' 'accruing,' and other ways of 'earning' time is ridiculous (and I'm a slave to it too). Not to mention the expectations some companies have of us being on email or call after hours and weekends. I wish we could adopt more of the Euro mentality and have more mandated holidays. Production will level itself off. Then when I hear of people not taking their time, I want to shake them and be like "Wake up man!!!" lol
 

The Mighty Tim

Well-Known Member
Our last trip was 10 days in length, and I thought that was the optimum length.

Also, did anyone else read the thread title in a Yoda voice?
 

Disnee4Me

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
12-14 days for us is perfect.

I kill most of my vacation time in that 1 trip, but my wife is a teacher, kids in school and all of our sports and other activities we can't travel outside of summer. So we like it make it more of a mega-vacation. That length of time—esp in summer when its crazy hot— allows us to the parks casually in the am and at night, and then enjoy the resort and other activities during the day. We don't feel so rushed to jam everything in and do the parks all day.

not to hijack, but it's been brought up....we Americans are killing themselves with the lack of vacation time our companies are 'offering' ...it's borderline criminal. All this talk of 'buying in,' 'accruing,' and other ways of 'earning' time is ridiculous (and I'm a slave to it too). Not to mention the expectations some companies have of us being on email or call after hours and weekends. I wish we could adopt more of the Euro mentality and have more mandated holidays. Production will level itself off. Then when I hear of people not taking their time, I want to shake them and be like "Wake up man!!!" lol
Probably why Europeans live longer.
 

yellowb

Well-Known Member
Six or seven days works for us. 2.5 days in MK, 1 day in HS, 1 morning in EP FW, 1 afternoon in EP WS, 1 not full day in AK, the rest park hopping to anything we didn't get to, resort pool, Disney Springs, drinks at Grand Floridian.
 

Tony the Tigger

Well-Known Member
3 to 4 nights. Once we left ourselves the option of extending to a full week, but ended up choosing not to. We had done "everything" and it started to get repetitive - plus we started thinking about saving money.

Now we get AP's every other year - allowing us time to miss it - and then go 3 to 6 times per year, from 2 to 4 nights each, depending on our schedules.

I own my own business, so the only pure vacation would be to close it down. Doing that for 2 weeks or even one would be rough. When I am at WDW, I am always "on call" to answer questions, place orders, etc.
 

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
2 weeks. I always say I'd like longer but I find by the time I'm reaching the last days I'm missing my pets, my own bed, my daily routines at home, my normal life and of course certain friends and family members. All my time at Disney's used to the max and by the 13th day I've visited each park multiple times, dined out at all the favorite spots, seen enough and done enough to say its time to leave. But it always happens that the moment I pull out of the resort I can think of a thousand more things I should have done and I say next time I'm staying longer.
 

RScottyL

Well-Known Member
I would definately suggest a minimum of 6 days...........2 days each in MK and Epcot, 1 day each in Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studious!

That would be if you can go during the slowest time!

As suggested above, if you have to go during peak times, I would do at least 2 weeks!
 

danyoung56

Well-Known Member
Wow...I'm in my mid fifties and have never been able to take 2 weeks off at one time. I feel lucky to get one!

When I was a kid we always took 2-week family vacations. But that involved a 2-day drive from Washington state down to SoCal where the relatives (and Disneyland!) are, and a 2-day drive back home. Nowadays I never even consider doing my vacation all at once - gotta have something to look forward to every 3 months or so!
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Wow...I'm in my mid fifties and have never been able to take 2 weeks off at one time. I feel lucky to get one!.
Yeah I can't figure out the two weeks thing. It's not a matter of total vacation time, because my employer offers plenty. My bigger question is how you can be away from the office for that long without work backing up. When I took paternity leave, my coworkers did their best to cover my areas of responsibility while I was away, but there were certain things that I was the expert on and couldn't be done until I got back.
 

StarWarsGirl

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Yeah I can't figure out the two weeks thing. It's not a matter of total vacation time, because my employer offers plenty. My bigger question is how you can be away from the office for that long without work backing up. When I took paternity leave, my coworkers did their best to cover my areas of responsibility while I was away, but there were certain things that I was the expert on and couldn't be done until I got back.
My dad's an attorney, and we regularly take two week trips. He is able to plan ahead and get a lot done beforehand. We bring a laptop on vacation so that he can work on some stuff while he's away. His paralegal can do a lot, there are three other attorneys in the office if she can't do something, and he calls every day in case his paralegal needs something, and in case of an emergency, she can reach me or my mom on our cells (he keeps his turned off most of the time). I imagine for some jobs, two weeks is impossible, but for some, there's ways. :)
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom