What is your typical Disney trip?

[Klayfish]

We're lucky. Our summer trips are 17 days long.

We never rope drop, except water parks

We visit each of the 4 main parks at least 4 or 5 times each

We go to each water park 2 or 3 times each

Disney Springs 3 or 4 times

No days off, unless we decide to go to Daytona Beach

We'll spend between 3 and 8 hours in the park, depending on how tired we are

 

[Accidental Magpie]

3 or 4 Nights onsite, with 2 or 3 park days (MK/EP). Next trip is 4 nights with 2 park days and the MNSSHP (1st time).

 

[IndianaRRT]

We like 6-8 nights, but our previous trip and the next 2 are 4 nights. When the children were young, we didn't go to a park on arrival day. Instead, we visited Disney Springs or explored the resort. Then it was 2 MK days, 2 Epcot days, 1 AK, and 1 HS. On family trips, we had a traditional breakfast ADR on an MK day at CP and always ended our last night at Ohana.

But empty-nestin' has changed us. We make more trips now and they're about 4 nights each. We hit the park about 9-10am, take a break in the afternoon, and head back in the evening. We make a point to watch the Electrical Water Pageant from our room as much as possible. Sometimes we even *gasp* make ADRs on the fly. We love WDW more than ever, and it's been a fun transition from commando warrior touring to relaxed and wandering.

 

[123SA]

12-14 days
10 day tickets - 3 MK, 2 E, 2AK, 2 DHS and the last day to decide during the trip
on the non-park days, water parks 2-3 days, laundry (YUCK!), golf at least once, Disney Springs 1x

last year we started vacation with 7 days at Universal, this year 5 days at Universal

 

[slpeters]

7 nights. During the course of the year we pretty much always have one relax vacation (Puerto Vallarta, Key West, Fort Lauderdale) and one explore vacation (Paris, New York, San Francisco). WDW fits in as the explore vacation. We stay onsite and do parks every day except departure (I hate flying into anywhere late--even home). We do EMH every day and open a park each day and close another with an afternoon "nap" break.

This year, though, we are doing Universal (with a day at SeaWorld and a MVMCP) as a third for the year. We've never done Universal before so, who knows, maybe that will change the formula.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We go once a year and stay 8 nights 9 days with park hoppers. We always arrive early in the morning, relax at the resort and head to Epcot later in the day, as Epcot is always our arrival day park. We do MK on our first full day, followed by DHS then AK and then we do just repeat, visiting MK and Epcot the most. We are early morning people, so we always do rope drop each day, take a midday break and then head back to the parks for the evenings. We have gone so much, that we love spending time at the resort more now during our breaks, when the parks are most crowded/hottest.

 

[disneylover102]

Usually 8 or 9 nights. We take 1 day off. We go really hard the other days. We typically get a 1 day 2 Park ticket to Universal and spend a whole day there and get about a 7 day 1 park ticket to Disney. We spend 1 day at Epcot, HS, and AK. We spend the rest of the days at MK. Some people in our group like Universal more and sometimes go there instead of MK one of the days.

 

[NH-to-FL]

Our Disney visits have evolved over many years. It started with our first five night visit as part of a business conference at the Swan/Dolphin. I remember squeezing in a few parks in between my work commitments. DW spent time wandering around Epcot. What I knew is that I wanted to go back.

We started our WDW vacations staying 6 nights, once a year. We would rope drop each of the four parks, usually taking advantage of the morning extra magic hour. We would then take a break late morning/early afternoon and head back to the resort to relax for a bit. Most years we would do a day at SeaWorld. We would not plan a park for arrival or departure day though since we stayed at the Boardwalk we would usually wander over to Epcot just to walk around on arrival day.

After a few years the 6 nights grew to 9 or 10 nights. The extra time allowed for an extra park day (or two) and another day of relaxing. We enjoyed the more relaxed pace. We would still rope drop each of the four parks with afternoon breaks. One of the "relax days" would include a visit to the laundry as we only travel with carry ons.

After another few years we started taking two trips per year, 6-8 nights per trip. We kept our more relaxed pace with a day (or two) less at the parks. We didn't feel the need to squeeze everything into each visit. We knew we would be back.

A few years later we made a big change. With retirement in mind we bought a vacation home near Disney. We started taking two, two week trips per year. Our trips became more home focused. We still made a point to visit each park at least once. We would usually revisit our favorites, AK and Epcot. We would visit SeaWorld occasionally. These trips were more of a vacation enhanced by Disney rather than a 'Disney vacation'.

We are now snowbirds. We call our occasional visits to Disney "our daily walk enhanced by Disney". I look for a few last minute FP+'s for a couple of rides to help enhance the walk even further. After a couple of years we visit Disney once or twice a week. No more running to rope drop. Well, except for AK when I want to ride FoP.

It has been interesting how our time at Disney has evolved over the years. It is still magical walking down Main Street, seeing Spaceship Earth, or getting that first look at the Tree of Life.

 

[jimmiej]

We usually stay for a week and go to a park every day. With fastpasses and the per day cost of multi-day tickets being relatively low, I try to schedule a couple sleep-in days and a couple late nights. Then, we don’t feel the need to rope-drop every day. Plus we go twice a year at least. Not in a rush to do everything.

I also try to schedule an evening at Disney Springs, many times on our arrival night, as a way to ease into our vacation.

I also like to schedule a meal or two at one of the other Disney hotels, for an excuse to visit other resorts.

At the end of our trip, I like to schedule a late flight home to get a little more time in the parks.

 

[Spencer Wright]

Ours are relatively consistent and not the most innovative; however we love the model we adhere; to this year being the third year in a row. I go with my mother and sister.

We have gone form about 10 days (8 park days, 2 travel days), staying at the AKL lodge. We get a full breakfast platter we split from Mara, eat a QS lunch about 11am, and have a traditional set of ADR's with early times (i.e. 5-5:15). We are rope droppers, however generally arrive about 20 minutes before park opening. Park hoppers are of course a neccesity for us.

The afternoon pool break is of course a must do and we head out to a park after dinner. I would provide more specifics but I'm sure everyone can get the basic idea.




For this year I did try (not very hard) to have a couple of Universal days, but did not have success. We do however have an extra day and our going to Gatorland of which I am quite excited!! I also thought about adding the HEA Dessert party but decided not to go for it (my mind could certainly change)! We are also doing MNSSHP for the second year.

We have done a couple of longer trips (10-12 park days) in years past. I cannot believe I am saying this, but it gets to a be a little long and tiring. Also now, I would miss my cats way too much.

 

[PirateFish989]

We live in California and are about 4 hours north of Disneyland. Those trips range from single day trips to 3 day trips, depending on a variety of things. We had annual passes for a couple daysduring which we made multiple day trips.

Our second WDW trip is coming up I need June for our honeymoon. Our plan is to take th red-eye from Los Angeles to Orlando, arriving on a Monday morning around 8am. That first day is a rest/pool/Disney Springs day. We have 7 day base tickets and will be going to parks Tuesday-Tuesday with a rest day on Saturday. We have one ADR each day we are there. Breakfast will be small snacks in the room mostly. We also are planning on rope dropping most days and then taking an afternoon break to nap or read by the pool before we go back to the park that’s night. We fly back to California on Wednesday, flight leaves mid afternoon.

 

[smp317]

We do 9 days. It’s more of Florida trip than just Disney, do a lot more Disney than anything else though.
We drive and usually arrive in Florida Saturday in the afternoon. We either do Disney Springs or Resort hop the first day, go to Cocoa Beach on Sunday. Monday we do Universal Studios, Tuesday-Friday Disney Parks. We do a park a day, and visit all 4. 2nd Saturday we do more of Disney Springs, go to the malls around Orlando ect. Then Sunday we leave

 

[juuuliebeth]

All of my trips have been different. I've gone for 4 days and I've gone for 9. I've gone in February, May, September, October, and December. I've stayed off site and on site. I've gone alone and I've gone in groups of 6-8. So there is no typical for me. But this is what I've learned after trying so many different approaches:

I like traveling to Disney early in the morning because waiting for late in the day is torture. I usually get there early and have no problem hanging around the resort until check in. I don't over-plan my first day so I can enjoy the Magical Express and the resort before I hit the parks the next day. A nice meal that evening is all I need to celebrate my arrival. Then I rope drop every morning with one day off mid-trip. It's normally one park per day, but I've been known to hop around later in the week. I'm also a planner, but have found it's best to plan my mornings up until lunchtime and then leave afternoons open to react to how the parks are going.

One MUST for me is to begin with Magic Kingdom. I had one trip where I started at Animal Kingdom and I swear it didn't feel like a Disney trip until I finally went to Magic Kingdom a few days later. I also prefer to end with fireworks on my last night. Preferably at Magic Kingdom, but Illuminations will do in a pinch.

I'm also big on table service for lunch. Parks are crowded and hot around that time anyway, so a longer meal break works well for me. QS lines at lunch are also horrendous. Disney is as much about food as attractions for me, so I prioritize good meals.

Another thing I have learned is that I prefer going alone. I love sharing the experience with others, but I find that I stress out (unnecessarily) about whether or not others are having a good time. Am I making them do something they don't want to do? Would they rather be doing something else? And on the other side, I like taking restroom breaks when I have to go, and I hate waiting for people to shop.

So, yeah. I like taking the time to deliberately make things as magical as possible. It's a break from the real world, so I always feel like I've earned to just do whatever I want. Skip what I don't want to do, re-do my favorites as many times as possible, and have a magical time! That's the whole point.

 

[bluejasmine]

typically we stay in Sept around our anniversary for 5 to 9 nights, taking one day off from the parks on our anniversary. We stay deluxe most times but not all with the majority at the MK resorts the Poly mostly.
We buy the DDP and don't park hop normally.

We take daily breaks at the pool most days. We always do 2 days in MK, 2 days in EP and we use to do half days in Hollywood Studios and AK but now we do whole days for each.

On our resort day we have been known to rent a boat from the marina at the Poly or rent a cabana
Ohana, LTT, CG and Cape May are almost always on our ADR list. We are trying many new (to us) restaurants this Sept so we probably will add more to our must dos.

We always drive and drive down 2 nights earlier and stay in the Disney Springs area although this time we are staying at the Dolphin for the 2 nights before. We always make the day before checking into our Disney resort our Disney Springs day, its a great way to ease into the Disney spirit, plus we adore Disney shops.