How much theme park

Nuclear Monkey

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 3, 2013
i was just curious, for those that plan on visiting, how many theme park days do you do? For my family of four (me, my wife, 7 year old, and 2 year old), I figure 4 days plus water park during a 7 day 8 night trip. What does everyone else do?
 
We have been going, at least annually, since our 17 year old was 9 months old. We always buy tickets for the entire trip, usually 8 days. We stay at BWV, and like being able to walk over to Epcot for a bite to eat or a snack.
 
Right now we have annual passes. So we go for a few hours at a time. Or just for a meal when we are able to walk to Epcot. We stay a minimum of a week, so usually we will go to parks about 4 or 5 times.

When I used a non expiry park hopper, I'd do a couple of days, and I would try to get to all the parks for my favorites. I've still got a few stashed away.

I think your plan is good for you.
 
Before we had annual passes, we used to buy a 5-day ticket for our trips - but we usually wound up adding days to it. Once you purchase the 5-day pass, additional days are very inexpensive (about $10 per day.)
 


We have APs and go to parks for a bit most days. On our 2 night trip this week, we went to DHS for about 5 hours, next day Epcot for 3 hours and BB for 3. Love the Water Parks for the lazy river and wave pool! Thank you, DVC,
 
I think your plan sounds fine. Like others we buy tickets for our entire trip, or have annual passes. We typically go to a park, use our three fast passes and leave now. It's the perfect amount of park time. We usually go back for one night time show on our last night.
 
We've only held WDW Annual Passes twice, maybe 3 times, since making WDW a fairly regular pattern over the past 20+ years. In those rare years, we've maximized the number of trips and are in the parks every day except for departure day. That said, most of our WDW trips are for a business conference and unless we already had an active AP, we have zero park days during those visits.

For vacation purposes, our trips are shorter (~4 nights) and we generally plan to be in the parks "every full day minus 1." So if if trip is four nights, that gives 3 full days ... two of which will be in the parks and the remaining day will be a down day to sleep in, relax at the pool, visit the spa or whatever else the traveling group considers 'pampering.' For this coming trip, we have 4 nights -- but only 1 day remaining on old Park Hopper passes from 2002. So, we'll do only one park day this visit: AK for daytime, Epcot for evening. Done.

@DisneyRegulars, I don't know that we will ever get used to the "use our three fast passes and leave" mentality. I'm well aware of that level of expectation and have grumbled against it many times. I'm so used to 8-11 great rides in a single day from my old-school DLR days ... I simply can't accept "3 rides and done". Nope, I'm not ready to reset my personal expectations ... yet. ;-)
 


The first few years we were park nutz, each year after we reduced our park time and turned our Disney vacations into resort stays with parks available if we feel like it.

Our last 10 day stay we went into the parks/Epcot only once.

:earsboy: Bill

 
Just a thought but given the age of your kids I would actually plan more park days of shorter duration. The 2 year old, if still napping, will want a nap whether at Disney or not, so that might be the time to head back for some pool or Community Hall activities. The 7 year old is going to have short legs and tired feet, and if you go during the heat, be hot. So based on your families sleep habits, plan early days at the park, nap time/pool in the afternoons, and then return to the park for a few hours. You can see the parks in 4 days but I wouldn't plan on doing the parks in 4 days. Have fun!
 
We've only held WDW Annual Passes twice, maybe 3 times, since making WDW a fairly regular pattern over the past 20+ years. In those rare years, we've maximized the number of trips and are in the parks every day except for departure day. That said, most of our WDW trips are for a business conference and unless we already had an active AP, we have zero park days during those visits.

For vacation purposes, our trips are shorter (~4 nights) and we generally plan to be in the parks "every full day minus 1." So if if trip is four nights, that gives 3 full days ... two of which will be in the parks and the remaining day will be a down day to sleep in, relax at the pool, visit the spa or whatever else the traveling group considers 'pampering.' For this coming trip, we have 4 nights -- but only 1 day remaining on old Park Hopper passes from 2002. So, we'll do only one park day this visit: AK for daytime, Epcot for evening. Done.

@DisneyRegulars, I don't know that we will ever get used to the "use our three fast passes and leave" mentality. I'm well aware of that level of expectation and have grumbled against it many times. I'm so used to 8-11 great rides in a single day from my old-school DLR days ... I simply can't accept "3 rides and done". Nope, I'm not ready to reset my personal expectations ... yet. ;-)
Keep in mind though, that there is time between those fast passes. Last week at Magic Kingdom my daughter and I left right after using our third fast pass. However, we rode eleven rides that morning. Only three with fast passes.
 
Another AP holder who has been going at least every other year for over 30 years and the last 5 years at least twice a year and we still go to the parks at least a little while every day. Back before we got APs we got length of stay park hoppers and hop around a lot.
 
I think with kids of 7 and 2 you might consider 2 days at Magic Kingdom. There's a lot to do, and my kids always wanted to "ride it again".
 
I agree with 2 days at MK for the 2 and 7 year olds. They always want to return there.
 
We don't do water parks but we'll hit a park every day (maybe not departure day.) We usually only stay a few hours in any one park, and probably no more than 6-7 hours park time total--but we've been going to WDW for 40 years and there's always a next time.:earsboy:
 
On a typical 5-7 day trip we go to the parks 3-4 days with the rest being water park days. We always bought 10 day non expiring park hoppers with the water park add on and would squeeze three trips worth of park admission out of each ticket. This November we will use the final park admission days from our last purchase. We each have 17 water park days left across two tickets.

I am not sure what we will do for park admission going forward, whatever we do it will certainly cost us more money. I miss the non expiring option. :(
 
A normal 7 day trip we hit the parks every day. We don't gungho 100% of the available hours, but we go every day. Last year we took a 13 day trip, and we didn't hit the parks on arrival/departure days and we took a day off in the middle of the trip. That day we checked out different resorts and spent time at Disney Springs.
 
When we plan our trips no matter the length we plan:
two parks days, take a day off, two park days, take a day off, etc.
 
If we don't have an AP, we usually get park hoppers for the number of full days we will be there. We don't get tickets for our travel days. We usually go to the parks in the morning and ride the rides until it gets busy. Then we will go grab lunch and perhaps a nap at the resort. Sometimes we will take in a round of mini-golf. Then we head back to a park for the evening. It's just DH and me though. No kids to worry about.

If you've never done the mini-golf, it might be something fun to check out. The Winter-Summerland course would be the one I would recommend for the littles.

I think your plan sounds like a grand idea! It will give the kiddos lots of pool time and give you, hopefully, some rest and relaxation time.

Have a great trip!
 
We go everyday for basically the entire day.. I know its not the norm. We go usually 3-4 times a year for 5-7 days at a time and it doesn't matter how many times I've done rides I'm not crazy about, if I'm in disney I need to do them or I feel like my trip isn't complete.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top