How long is your ideal WDW vacation?

[ANG]

How long is your ideal WDW vacation?

What day of the week do you leave/return? Any particular reasons?


We've always gone for a week or less. This time we are considering 8-10 days. Typically we leave on Friday and arrive on Saturday (we take a 14 -15 hours car ride). Then leave on a Saturday, returning home Sunday.

[faline]

Our trips have ranged for 3-4 days up to 14 days. Typically, though, we go from 7-10 days.

Our arrival and departure days vary. We have arrived on a weekend as well as mid-week. Arrival and departure days are more driven by airline costs and time off availibility than by any other reason.

[CzepielCrew]

We have stayed 7 nights and 8 nights. I would love to stay for 11. Maybe someday.

[JerseyDad]

....after seeing "what's to do" at WDW, a minimum stay of 7 days is required to get stuff done and make the trip worth it (in my opinion of course)

....our trips are for 9 days at WDW. We drive to WDW from Jersey ...so, it's a drive day on a Friday, stop for night in Ga. ...get to WDW on Saturday morning by 10am. We leave on a Monday ...and drive home in one day (Labor Day

....this way we get two weekends at WDW.

[buzznwoodysmom]

We have done lots of different stays, from as little as 2 nights to a much as 12 nights. I find our trips that are around 9 nights to be the perfect amount of time. It gives us enough time to be able to relax and enjoy ourselves at a slower pace, yet it's not too long.

The one time we did 12 nights the last few days started to feel repetitive. And we really felt we had been away from home too long. We were so ready to go home by that point.

On the other hand, even a full week(7 nights) sometimes just doesn't feel like enough time and we aren't ready to go home just yet. So for us 9 nights is perfect! :cloud9:

[Dulcee]

Our most recent trip was 8 nights, 9 days and honestly it was a bit long.

We'll go back to six nights, 7 days after this at least as long as it remains just two adults.

[Ms. Mode]

Our first several trips were 4 days in the parks (with hopper usually), but in recent years we have increased it. Once we stayed for 8 days, but it seems that 7 days is about right for us. We leave the house on Friday night after work and go about 1/2 way, about 6 hours. Because we get up early for work (used to getting up early)we are out and on the road by 6am the next morning and make it to WDW Resort by noon. We normally leave on Friday or Saturday morning and drive straight through to get home.

I can't wait until December! :mickey:

[Dragongirlx]

We have found that 7 days is too short but 14 is slightly too long (especially if you are back to work the day after you fly home). We have settled on 10 days as the perfect length

[Zippy 1]

Our typical stay is 7 to 9 days. We have discussed going for longer just hasn't happened yet:)

[Belle of the Ball 051411]

5-7 days is just about right for us.

[ThanxForNoticin]

We have found that 7 days is too short but 14 is slightly too long (especially if you are back to work the day after you fly home). We have settled on 10 days as the perfect length

Ditto for us.

[Itchy]

We generally arrive on a Sunday and leave on Saturday, or 6 nights. We would like to stay longer but for now it is not in the mix.

We leave weekends so we do not run into heavy rush hour traffic in the big cities especially Atlanta. We do this since one trip we left WDW on Friday of Labor Day and hit Atlanta at 3 pm. It was not pretty...:bang:

[BigRedDad]

Ideal? 7-8 days. Since we can go almost any time (assuming funds), we do not need to be there longer than that. If I only got to go every 3 years or more, 2 weeks.

My dream vacation? Win Powerball and move somewhere close so I can blog from anywhere all day every day.

[SBETigg]

We've done many lengths of stay, and arrived during different days of the week. I can't say any have been better than others as far as arrival/departure days. Arriving is always happy and usually no problems, departure is always sad whether we've been there four days or fourteen.

I like 10 days or more best, but my family is more on board for about a 8-9 day stay. Some of our best visits have been our short stays, though. More spontaneity, and the knowledge that we can do what we missed some other time-- so we tend to keep a leisurely pace (defying logic that would suggest you might try to do more with less time). Our satisfying short trips have actually inspired us to be less structured during longer trips.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

I think we need at least 7 nights 8 days...but 8 nights and 9 days are even better

We always leave/arrive on a Saturday usually because it usually is booked during school holidays

[Tygger7]

Our normal trips are usually around 9-11 days. We like driving on Saturday so we don't have to worry about weekday rush hours, and we drive straight through (about 15.5 hours). We just did a super quick trip to drop our DD20 off for the WDW College program, and that was rough. We left early on Saturday, arrived at 9pm that night. Hit the grocery stores on Sunday, MK on Monday, then flew home on Tuesday. For our upcoming trip in May, we're staying 14 nights and I couldn't be more excited! I've always dreamed of getting to stay that long, and our anniversary was the perfect excuse to splurge. My goal is to move to the Orlando area in the next 5 years or so and have the flexibility to go whenever the mood strikes.:mickey:

[Dream'nDisney]

The last couple of times, we have stayed 7 nights and felt that we could have used a couple more days. We've stayed 10 nights nights before and were able to do everything we wanted at a more relaxed pace. It seemed perfect :thumbsup:..... except for the extra $$$ that it cost us. :eek:

We are hoping to stay 9 nights next year. :fingers:

[1DisneyNut]

We are usually there for a week, from Saturday to Saturday. In 5 days we have always seen every single attraction in all the parks and done our favorites again and even went to Magic Kingdom a second day just to hit some highlights and that is during peak season in the summer. On our October and January trips several years ago, we did everything in 4 days and revisited numerous attractions. We also usually go visit another resort or two and in the summer the wife and kids go to one of the water parks for several hours one day (I hate the water parks so I skip that and go sight seeing). We usually go to the beach, Sea World, Busch Gardens or something else a day or two and go hit a good seafood restaurant offsite. I can't imagine what else we would do if we were there for more than a week......in 10 days we could throw Universal in and do all of it as well and still have time left. lol

[tazlikesrobots]

My ideal vacation would be 365 days:mickey:, but realistically we spend 7 to 10 days.....

[stephicakes]

How long is your ideal WDW vacation?


Never... long... enough... :sad:

[NJGIRL]

We go for 10 days....3 days at Universal and 7 days at Disney.

We take the late flight out of Philly Weds Night and come home late Saturday night.

[Mrs Bus Driver]

So far my trips have all been 5 days. Its always very rushed and I don't get to do everything I want. Finances have kept me from going last few years but when I do go again it will be for 10 days. I don't want to be rushed and this way I can do everything I want. Also my dream trip is to go by myself for a few days (but DD would never let me get away with it! :D).

[BigB]

We stayed for seven days for our first two trips and had enough time to do what we wanted. Although it did feel like we had to rush a little. Then, this last trip we stayed for nine days and found that to be perfect. We didn't feel rushed at all and we did everything at our pace. We never felt like waiting for a ride so we would move on because we knew we had another day to do it.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We always go for at least 9 nights, but 10-12 is our perfect amount. In April we're going for 14 nights with our Godson. We can't wait! This doesn't count the2 days driving there plus 2 days driving back.

We find our vacations much calmer and restful when we go longer. We buy 10 day park hoppers with water park fun and more add ons so there is no stress about going to the parks from open to close. Most days, we sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, go for a walk and a swim, have lunch then a nap then go out to the parks for dinner and rides. We take advantage of evening emh but not morning ones. If the parks are too busy we hop to another one or do the underrated attractions. We've gone enough that we aren't going to wait an hour for Peter Pan anymore. It's fun to go with the flow!

Have a great vacation! :mickey:

[Gator]

The last 3 trips have been 7, 8, and 9 full days at the parks, respectively. When it was just the 4 of us, 8 days was great. But when we added the 5th, we needed the 9th day so that we could have 3 days at the MK. That 9th day also made it to where we could come back to the resort on a warm afternoon at MK and go swimming. Once the little one is older, I think 8 full days will be really good. Not too long and not too short.

[cer]

We do 6 nights. That give us one full day at each park and then an extra full day to go back and do whatever we missed. That is the logic behind doing it that way, but we park hop as well so we are not limited in our dining choices.

It works well for us.

[cer]

Our arrival and departure days vary. We have arrived on a weekend as well as mid-week. Arrival and departure days are more driven by airline costs and time off availibility than by any other reason.

This is us, too.

[TheVBs]

We've found that 9 or 10 days is perfect for us. We still don't fit in everything we want to do, but it lets us move at our own pace and we can fit in a lot, which makes it a more satisfying trip for us.

[CuteAsMinnie]

8 nights

Arrive at WDW early on a Friday morning
Return home on a Saturday afternoon

Why....

1) because this is how it's done lol
2) DH 'needs' 1.5 days to decompress and get mentally ready to return to work
3) I do anything to avoid Chicago rush hour traffic and rush hour means 6am-8pm unless for some unknown reason, you get lucky and can cruise on highways.

[Dickson Thunder]

6 Nights seems to work best for us. We have to have at least 2 days in MK and 1 day for each of the other 3 parks. Anything less you just can't get your fill of WDW. For some reason 7 nights is too much. I think it is because we need at least 2 days to rest, unpack, mow yard etc. to go back to work on Monday. Most of our trips have been leaving on a Saturday and coming home on a Friday.

[EeyoresBestFriend]

Since we travel from the West Coast, I gotta make it worth my time.

Perfect for us is between 10 and 21 days. Our last few have been 18 days - approx 3-4 days in Universal and the rest at Disney. By the time we look to packing up, we have REALLY relaxed! :cloud9: It's still hard to leave on the last day though . . .

The days we arrive / depart are generally dictated by airline seat sales.