How did you decide what was the best length trip for your vacation/family?

[tom1944]

This is what we are working on now. Our week trip last month was great, but we are thinking additional days would be even better.

We have pets at home so I cannot see going for more than 10 days. We will either do an 8- or 9-day trip next August. Originally the idea of a split stay for that trip was a given however my granddaughter will only be 5 so I might delay the split stay idea until she is a little older.

We fly down from NJ.

Did you try various lengths of stays before you purchased additional points, or did you purchase and add on and have that dictate how long you stayed?

We have enough points to do the 8/9-day trip next year but would either have to skip an August 2025 trip or make another purchase. The day 9 trip would use all of our points for 2024 and 2025 and the 8-day trip would leave us with 58 2025 points to bank. Our use year is August.

I am getting antsy to make a second purchase, but I really can wait until the fall of 2024 before it impacts our use. I would like to base that purchase on not only where we want to stay but how long we want to stay.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Not knowing your exact situation, but my initial reaction to your summary is with a 5 year-old granddaughter - an amazing age for a Disney vacation - I'd certainly look to stay as long as I could and enjoy the time and memories. I would also contend that at 5, your granddaughter might have fun with a split stay - it's almost like starting over on a new vacation and a new adventure. Depending on how you do the split stay, you certainly could make plans to keep the entire family occupied while you're without access to a room for 3-6 hours that one day. For us, a perfect split stay (as an example) is half at AKL and half at BC. We'll spend our transition day at one of those amazing pools, or perhaps even a water park.

How long we stayed was usually based on work, family availability, and time of the year. If you're going in August, it's going to be really hot/humid, but the crowds might be lower and you don't have to worry about things like school for the kids. We also had dogs, and eventually got to the point that if we boarded them or had someone come by, whether it was 7 nights or 10 nights, they really didn't seem to realize that extra time away - and were always happy to see us upon return! FYI - if you're thinking this much about another purchase, you're probably going to do it! Good luck and have a wonderful trip!

 

[tom1944]

There is no doubt I am going to do it. I just want it to be the correct number of points- not too many or not too few- just right.

 

[Sandisw]

When we were doing one trip a year, we found 5 to 7 days was enough for us.

Then, when we decided to go more often, we added points to do several 3 to 4 nights.

So, for us, we prefer shorter but more frequent trips, even though it means more airfare!!!

 

[Brian Noble]

Our kids had a week off at a stretch sometime between mid-February and early March, and that's when we wanted to be in Orlando so we figured a week at a time made the most sense. Ideally, we'd make that Saturday-to-Saturday, giving everyone a day back in reality before work/school resumed, so seven-night stays. Over the years, we have sometimes extended that, but if we are bumping into Friday obligations and/or coming back late on Sunday, it just ends up being more trouble than it is worth, so I only do this if I have assets that I have to burn.

At 5, these considerations of school don't matter, and they may not for a few more years after that. But it may sooner than you'd hope.

We did not think about other times of year when they had more time off. Christmas/Winter break is longer, but there are enough other extended family traditions/expectations during that time that made a trip difficult. Also, we did not think about summer, because I do not want to be in Central Florida anytime even remotely like summer.

I've done summer a few times (see: assets to burn) but it is not my preference. The most successful summer trip we took involved a water parks AP, and a lot of time in air-conditioned sit-down restaurants. We didn't set foot in a theme park. It was great.

We didn't ever really consider shorter trips, because flying with younger kids is a pain, and I want to amortize lots of vacation per unit pain. As they got older, it would have been easier, but by then we were in the habit of week-long trips. Week-long trips sometimes "feel short" because there are things we'd like to do that we don't get to. History has shown that those trips tend to work out better than the ones in which we run out of "list of things to do" before we run out of time.

 

[intamin]

The most I can see us taking due to work limitations is probably 9 days starting from Friday night to Sunday of the following week. However, most of our trips we do Saturday to Saturday now. Going in on Saturday instead of Friday saves us one weekend night of rooms. We just arrive early in the morning or afternoon to still take advantage of the day. We like finishing our trips on Saturday because it gives us time to recover and run errands at home on Sunday and prepare for the following week so most of our trips end up being 7 days. We do split stays in order to try out more resorts but it also gets us housekeeping basically when we switch rooms.

 

[Brian Noble]

I avoid split stays whenever I can. (see above re: pain).

 

[CarolynFH]

When we bought (way long ago), we were constrained by work and school, so 7 nights was our standard. Now that we’re retired empty-nesters, we sometimes stay more or less than that, based on pet and family responsibilities. But 7 nights is our basic plan even now.

 

[tom1944]

Thanks everyone

We are traveling the back half of August to go with my daughter (NJ teacher) and granddaughter so school is not in play.

We treat arrival and departure days as no commitment days and decide what we want to do on the spur of the moment.

We did a 5 day ticket this trip which meant we did 3 days of parks a day off and 2 days of parks. My travel partners want to do 2 days of parks and then a day off at most.

We enjoyed our 7 days but it felt like we could have enjoyed at least one more free to do what you want days.

We only have 180 points so an additional contract is necessary to go every year. We stayed in a 1 bedroom at BLT. Our initial contract carried 2022 points so we had enough points.

I think we have to try a 2 bedroom before we make our next purchase.

 

[CarolynFH]

We enjoyed our 7 days but it felt like we could have enjoyed at least one more free to do what you want days.

Yep, the first time we stayed 8 nights, meaning we had 7 full days at WDW, it was amazing!

 

[Nursemanit]

When we were doing one trip a year, we found 5 to 7 days was enough for us.

Then, when we decided to go more often, we added points to do several 3 to 4 nights.

So, for us, we prefer shorter but more frequent trips, even though it means more airfare!!!

I agree with this - I have been doing 7 day trips but will be cutting down to Sunday to Friday -

1 - parks are busy on the weekends and much better during the week.

2 special events tend to be mid week

3. There is more of a “ I will do that next time “ feeling when you are DVC - less stress and rushing makes for more fun.

 

[RuntheMouse]

Our go to is a Monday to Friday/Saturday depending on airfare $. I feel like we can do most things on our list but knowing we’re coming back takes the stress out of missing anything.

In January though we do love to stay longer (we drive then) to escape winter. This year we are doing 8 days at WDW, 4 days at HH, then 14 more days at WDW. That trip is more about sunshine than park time though.

 

[beccasmom]

It has evolved for us over the years, but 6-7 nights is our sweet spot at the moment. Our longest trips have been 10 nights. School (having both students and a teacher in the mix) necessitated mostly summer trips and we’ve always had pets, so that was a major consideration as well (still is). We’ve also enjoyed visiting more than once a year. Although these trips might have been just 3 or 4 nights, we tried to schedule for slower seasons and that usually worked well, but it didn’t happen every year.

However, that may change a bit as we segue to semi-retirement, grandkids who are crazy for Disney, and the demands on our time and commitments easing a bit. Whether we do longer trips or visit more often remains to be seen, but my money is on visiting more often (dare I say 3 or 4 times a year?). Also, although we have always flown (took Amtrak once), we would probably start driving for at least a few trips. As your family and life changes and grows, you’ll make the adjustments that work for you. Good luck!

 

[smileyanna]

We are a likely rare DVC breed, in that our family loves Disney enough to go regularly but the place drives us crazy after Day 3. Whenever we've experimented with longer stays, the trips suffer. So we fly all the way from the Northeast for a quick and magical stay.

For your case, it sounds like you are considering whether you should try out longer trips in the same way you should try out a room with more bedrooms (like a 2 bedroom) - to see whether the benefits are worth the added points ahead of your next purchase. It's possible that length of stay is different than room size, however. As others have mentioned, a trip length of 7 days vs 8-9 days will likely be dictated by the kid's schedule sooner rather than later, even in August. But you won't really know this for sure when purchasing in a year... so in contrast to the 2-bedroom experiment (which I imagine will be a hit ), the added information may not be so helpful.

 

[kboo]

Not knowing your exact situation, but my initial reaction to your summary is with a 5 year-old granddaughter - an amazing age for a Disney vacation - I'd certainly look to stay as long as I could and enjoy the time and memories. I would also contend that at 5, your granddaughter might have fun with a split stay - it's almost like starting over on a new vacation and a new adventure. Depending on how you do the split stay, you certainly could make plans to keep the entire family occupied while you're without access to a room for 3-6 hours that one day. For us, a perfect split stay (as an example) is half at AKL and half at BC. We'll spend our transition day at one of those amazing pools, or perhaps even a water park.

How long we stayed was usually based on work, family availability, and time of the year. If you're going in August, it's going to be really hot/humid, but the crowds might be lower and you don't have to worry about things like school for the kids. We also had dogs, and eventually got to the point that if we boarded them or had someone come by, whether it was 7 nights or 10 nights, they really didn't seem to realize that extra time away - and were always happy to see us upon return! FYI - if you're thinking this much about another purchase, you're probably going to do it! Good luck and have a wonderful trip!

i went through a lot of the same questions when we bought in at 185 points (we are wayyyyy above that now). A lot of people told me that our patterns would change, our preferences for size of villa, time of year, etc would change. One thing that didn't change, though - now that my kids are older and have less flexibility with missing school, I find that I wish I had taken more trips on off (most kids in school) times. You may want to (or be able to) take your granddaughter when their teacher parent has to work - we took a few trips when our kid(s) were that age and they were really special (and less crowded!)

We have a little dog now and luckily she is easy to care for, so we have no shortage of friends who want to have dog for a week or so but not permanently!

We thought we'd try the winter holidays "once" to see what it was all about - and found that we loved it more than any other time of year (notwithstanding the crowds). I'd love to go more over February break but hubby wants to ski. So most April vacations (easter + passover) we go somewhere DVC related even though it costs a lot of points. And, of course, late summer - we love how empty it is and how there are usually plenty of special events ...

Split stays: even with little kids, we did them almost all the time. There are new resorts and new pools to explore. Now that we are several years in, the kids are still all about going to the parks, while DH and I could stand to take a day off here and there. Our compromise has been annual passes so we can spend a few hours in the parks, go to the pool when we feel like it, and go wherever we want for dinner, including a park restaurant. And we live 7 days or more, ideally, it feels like such a luxuriously long time.

There is no doubt I am going to do it. I just want it to be the correct number of points- not too many or not too few- just right.

I laughed at this because we had 185 points at BLT for 8 months before we added on another 200 points (at VGF) ... I actually finally feel like we have enough, now that the girls actually sleep better in a separate bedroom and we take my dad along. We went from studios to 1br to 2br in a matter of years. And also it's helpful to have more than 1 shower and more than 1 toilet.

3. There is more of a “ I will do that next time “ feeling when you are DVC - less stress and rushing makes for more fun.

^^ this was definitely us... We didn't ride 7 dwarves mine train on a 9-day trip and usually my kids love it.

 

[pianomanzano]

Ultimately depends on who’s with us. If it’s just me and my wife, a short weekend trip is perfect. If it’s with extended family like the grandparents or sisters in law, then 4-6 days is the sweet spot as we usually get a bigger room and they don’t have APs.

If it’s just us and the kids, then the sky’s the limit (at least until they’re school aged). It’s usually a function of how many vacation days and how many points we have. We’ve done everything from a long weekend to two weeks in a mix of studios/1BRs. We’ve also done 3 weeks last year offsite in a 2BR villa at Sheraton Vistana (thanks II getaways!) to round out some parental leave. We would’ve done longer if it weren’t for the hurricane.

Our only “plan” for how we added points was if we could realistically afford it in addition to the trips we take. Which in hindsight probably wasn’t the best plan (but definitely a fun one), as we ballooned from 210 to 1005 in less than 2 years. We figure that as the kids start school we’ll probably have to go during high point seasons. In addition, when we retire in 20 years, we’ll stretch some points out and try and be snowbirds during the winter. So some long term planning, but not necessarily anything in terms of x number of days per year during a particular season, resort, or room type.

 

[Memorymakerfor4]

We go about once a year. We've done everything from 2-9 nights and 7 is the sweet spot for me. It allows us the chance to get into each park at least twice and take the pace down a notch.

 

[PolyRob]

My shortest trip was 3 nights and my longest trip was 10 nights. I never get bored at WDW and always feel I am leaving before doing everything I truly could in a trip. 7 nights is my typical stay due to work like many others have posted. I am not against flying, but I find my arrival and departure days are both draining and unpredictable. 3 nights was way too short because of that. 4 is the minimum I will ever do now.

 

[tom1944]

I avoid split stays whenever I can. (see above re: pain).

I have a feeling we might try it once and end up the same place as you.

 

[RoseGold]

We go 3x a year, maybe more. Never stayed more than 5 nights. We have APs and a quick air route. We don't mind split stays, and often book last-ish minute.