We go for 3+ weeks because this is our one *real* vacation each year. We plan it down to the ps for every dinner/activity each day. Our plan looks like this:
Day 1- airport, rental car, shop for groceries, go to villas, go to a park, ps for dinner (yep, pretty busy!)
Day 2 - water park, pool hop, epcot, ps @ epcot restaurant
Day 3 - pirate cruise (for little ones), water mice (for big ones
), lunch at GF, park, ps @ park
Day 4 - 15 - same idea, planning itinerary for each day (especially for July 4 since ps are important to have on holidays - like the fireworks cruise)
Day 16-23 - Cruise on
DCL - have ressies for each excursion desired for each port.
I think DVC'rs have a little bit of the obsessive/compulsive disorder about planning
, but I find it makes the trip a lot smoother when I know ahead of time what's happening. Also, with 3 kids it makes it easier at dinner time to have those ressies (tables for 5 don't come easy/quickly). I don't feel we would miss anything on a shorter stay; it's just the distance travelled and available vacation days from school that make it nice to do the trip in one large dose rather than a few small ones. I highly recommend it.