What is your parks frequency on WDW trips?(Survey)

[jmenjes]

My trips are usually Monday afternoon-Sunday morning. My Monday is a Disney Springs night. Tuesday through Saturday are park days, and I leave for the train station late Sunday morning.

 

[rdevans_2000]

After a conversation with my husband tonight, I’m curious - what is your frequency of parks days/resort days on your WDW trips?

We were talking about our next bigger trip, and I suggested 8 days total with 4 days in the parks. He thinks that’s too many park days. I know this is all very subjective, but I’m just curious about what others do! (Clearly, we like doing a lot of resort/pool days - we usually won’t do 2 park days in a row)

We love doing on-off-on-off etc. However, our first day is typically on and our last day is typically on, so that means we are one day more on than off. We also try to sprinkle in one extra event on an off day, such as Mickey's Not So Scary.

 

[sadiecatie]

Maybe our group composition also changes the calculus for us a bit - we pretty much always do Disney with an expanded group of close friends who live across the country (a couple other families). Our non-park days are not just rest days, but the kids playing in the pool together, all of us hanging out (usually in a shared rental house), and we'll also do character meals and Disney Springs visits on these days. Park days are full park days (rope drop to close and no hopping), so it's nice to have a slower pace for things in between those days.

If we did a trip with just our immediate family, it would probably be shorter and all park days (we just haven't done that at this point).

 

[leebee]

When DD30 was young, we frequently went to Disney with my sisters and nieces (now 25 and 23). We'd be in the parks between 8a and 9a, and stay until they swept us off the streets! I learned that I am good for 2 days of this, then I need a day off. We'd travel on Saturday, hit the parks on Sun and Mon, take Tuesday off for pool time/recuperation, do a park on Wednesday, Disney Springs/relax on Thursday, park on Friday, fly home on Saturday.

When I travel with DH, it's a crap shoot as he is not a park-lover. We often get 3 day park hoppers and take the rest of the time as vacation time. We'll do MK, AK, and DS and hop to Epcot for the evenings/dinner. Other days are spent being tourists, going to Cocoa Beach, checking out the local wineries and breweries, state parks, KSC, etc. It's a good balance for DH.

DD and i are about to do a whirlwind trip. It was supposed to be a solo trip, staying at ASMu with a 2 day PH. My plan was to travel on day 1, DS/Epcot day 2, relax day 3 (but maybe go watch MK fireworks from the Poly), AK/Epcot day 4, home on day 5. I had a knee replacement in June so I'm planning on taking it easy, hence the day off. Also gives me a chance to roam through and eat at Disney Springs. DD is joining me but has to fly home late on day 3. It's going to be a short trip but she needs the break. These days we take it slower, but we go every year so it's easier to do that than to go every 5 years and feel like you have to do it all, every trip.

 

[Jacksonian]

We normally travel Sunday thru Saturday with those days being our travel days. I normally get 4 day PH tickets and go to the parks Mon-Tues and Thurs-Fri, with Wednesday being a pool/Disney Springs day. The days we go to the parks could change based on the weather.

 

[peabody58]

DVC/AP here.

Our park days remain the same *5 day trips, 5 park days), but our park hours are decreasing.

A few hours at a park is enough for us, and we enjoy the resort the rest of the time.

 

[MonaMN]

We typically go for a week. So if we fly in/out on Saturday, we'd get park tickets for Sunday - Friday. We usually don't go all day for those days... some days we might sleep in or call it a day early, but we're there for Disney.

We used to not need park hoppers either but as my kid gets older, our priorities at each park have changed so it's helpful to be able to be more flexible.

 

[WDWLODGE]

A typical trip for us is 10+ days. I would say about 8 of those days are full park days. The other days are at least 1/2 park days with resort time, golf, etc. mixed-in.

 

[bullcat_02]

In a 9-10 day trip, my family usually takes 1-1 1/2 days off the theme parks. Usually do Disney Springs/Cirque. Have done the water parks. We don't go often enough to not do the theme parks. Rope drop to close most days also.

 

[WLWildlife]

Trips are 7-10 days long in the past. Now, no more than 7. And we don't go very often, every 3 - 5 years. Disney is pricing us out. When the kids were little, we went longer, did parks every day, including arrival day, and we always park hopped. We always skipped Downtown Disney and water parks. We never rope dropped, always spent the afternoon swimming at the resort, and went to a park for the evening for fireworks. We were able to see and do everything we wanted and hit our favorite things 4 or 5 times. Really felt like we had a great experience and wanted to return yearly. Now, children are adults, trips are never more than 7 days. If I travel with DD, we park hop every day, up at 7, still back at resort for afternoon break, no swimming, head to a different park for late afternoon and evening, watch fireworks, call it a day. If I travel with DH, trip is 5 -7 days, same schedule, but sleep later, afternoon break is longer, more relaxing. Our next trip is 5 days and NO PARKS at all. Genie + has really changed the park experience and not for the better. I love disney, but this next trip could very well be our last. We were disappointed. So many things we didn't get to do. Wait times posted as 45 minutes, but are actually 90+.

 

[jsmla]

I used to be a rope drop-park close every day person but things have changed over the years. I do go to a park every day on some trips but not on others. The biggest change is that I no longer spend all day in the parks. These days I tend to either rope drop and leave around lunch time or arrive in the afternoon and stay till close. Getting older has definitely slowed me down but I’m also taking longer trips (usually 2 weeks for WDW/SW/UO) since I’m no longer tied to work/school vacation schedules.

 

[snowwite]

When DD30 was young, we frequently went to Disney with my sisters and nieces (now 25 and 23). We'd be in the parks between 8a and 9a, and stay until they swept us off the streets! I learned that I am good for 2 days of this, then I need a day off. We'd travel on Saturday, hit the parks on Sun and Mon, take Tuesday off for pool time/recuperation, do a park on Wednesday, Disney Springs/relax on Thursday, park on Friday, fly home on Saturday.

When I travel with DH, it's a crap shoot as he is not a park-lover. We often get 3 day park hoppers and take the rest of the time as vacation time. We'll do MK, AK, and DS and hop to Epcot for the evenings/dinner. Other days are spent being tourists, going to Cocoa Beach, checking out the local wineries and breweries, state parks, KSC, etc. It's a good balance for DH.

DD and i are about to do a whirlwind trip. It was supposed to be a solo trip, staying at ASMu with a 2 day PH. My plan was to travel on day 1, DS/Epcot day 2, relax day 3 (but maybe go watch MK fireworks from the Poly), AK/Epcot day 4, home on day 5. I had a knee replacement in June so I'm planning on taking it easy, hence the day off. Also gives me a chance to roam through and eat at Disney Springs. DD is joining me but has to fly home late on day 3. It's going to be a short trip but she needs the break. These days we take it slower, but we go every year so it's easier to do that than to go every 5 years and feel like you have to do it all, every trip.

I’m planning a solo visit and trying to decide how many days I need passes.

 

[Simba's Mom]

I used to be a rope drop-park close every day person but things have changed over the years. I do go to a park every day on some trips but not on others. The biggest change is that I no longer spend all day in the parks. These days I tend to either rope drop and leave around lunch time or arrive in the afternoon and stay till close. Getting older has definitely slowed me down but I’m also taking longer trips (usually 2 weeks for WDW/SW/UO) since I’m no longer tied to work/school vacation schedules.

Same here! I always went solo, and it used to be a joke that Disney Security always had to "encourage" me to leave the park at night, and to me it was blasphemy to get there after park opening. But now my pace has slowed down considerably, I enjoy just being at WDW, not necessarily the parks, ticket prices are so high, so I spend about half my days at the parks, and although I'm still a park opening-type, I'm rarely in the park by dinner time. The only night time fireworks I've seen lately is at Epcot, and not often, and only if I'm at BCV.

 

[jsmla]

Same here! I always went solo, and it used to be a joke that Disney Security always had to "encourage" me to leave the park at night, and to me it was blasphemy to get there after park opening. But now my pace has slowed down considerably, I enjoy just being at WDW, not necessarily the parks, ticket prices are so high, so I spend about half my days at the parks, and although I'm still a park opening-type, I'm rarely in the park by dinner time. The only night time fireworks I've seen lately is at Epcot, and not often, and only if I'm at BCV.

I don’t watch the fireworks evety trip and I usually book a viewing package for the times when I do. It’s one of the perks of solo travel-one overpriced dessert party is a lot more doable than four! I’ve done Seats and Sweets (X3), Rose and Crown and will be doing both Candlelight and Fantasmic dining packages next month.

 

[loves to dive]

I go to a park every day of my trip including arrival day and sometimes departure day I'll hop into one in the morning if there is some shopping I missed. I have an AP so why not. Now, I don't go from park open to park close and I never stay in one park all day. Usually I go a little after park open and stay until around 1, go back to the resort for a break. That is sometimes at the pool, sometimes in my room or just around the resort or even resort hopping. Then I go back to a different park around 3 or 4. Depending on the park sometimes I'll stay until park close or even just hang around if I want to eat in that park then hop to another one. I'm rarely at a park at park close. My trips can range anywhere from 4 nights to 6 nights.