Planning a Longer DVC Stay

DisneyStarWisher

Love My DVC!!!
Joined
Jun 13, 2008
All of our trips have been shorter trips (around 4-5 nights with about 2-3 park days). I'm retiring in 64 days, and we will be taking our first AP trip in November. We would love to do a 9-10 night stay, but we are planning 3 trips within a year and have a limited amount of points, so we have a 7-night stay booked at AKV. Even though I'm several months out, I've started trying to figure out how to plan the trip. My issue is we really want to be a little more spontaneous on this trip. We want to spend way more time at the resort, maybe just a few hours in a park each day. We will probably eat 1-2 meals in the room each day. Due to a food allergy, we do mostly TS meals when eating out. There's a part of me that wants to make NO ADRs and just wing it, but if we want to ride the headliners, I feel like I'll have to make some FPs. So if I'm going to plan certain parks on certain days, then I might as well make ADRs? How do all of you who take longer more relaxing trips plan your days? I thought this would be much easier to plan, but I just feel like I'm at a loss. Why is this more complicated to me?
 
To be perfectly honest we really don’t do many TS meals any more. We usually get the DDP for one night, sometimes two (staying in a studio) then switch to a one bedroom. I feel like we waste time in restaurants. Not that we are park commandos or anything. We always make breakfast, make sandwiches or chef salads for lunch, and make simple dinners like shrimp and pasta or tacos, frajitas. We enjoy eating on our deck and watching the world go buy. If you are okay getting take out with the food allergies, there are a number of good places not far from AK. However I do always make sure to get fast passes for every morning. And get a forth one for a different park. We spend mornings in the park, have lunch by the pool and hang out there. Dinner in room, out to a park if we feel like it, wine and cheese on the deck later.
Congrats on your upcoming retirement! You will love it.
 
For a more relaxing trip we will make dining reservations at DIsney Springs a few nights (so many great choices!). This way, we’ll do our FP’s by noon along with whatever else we can get in. Then, head back to the resort for the “Magic” hours (noon-3) to enjoy the resort amenities, then meander to the Springs for a nice dinner out.
 
Congratulations on your retiremen!

Most of our stays are longer than ten days. What I usually do is alternate two park days with a non park day. On park days, though, we rarely ever arrive at opening, sleep is too precious!
 


We usually go in October and stay 9 nights, but we have done up to 12. We book a few fastpasses each day and basically hit those and a couple stores and leave. We spend as low as 3 hours up to maybe 6 hours in the parks each day. Once or twice we’ll do a longer 8-9 hour day. We don’t book a huge number of dining. We books the one or two places we really want, and then wing the rest. We will sometimes check the app at night to see what had been cancelled for the next day, a lot tends to open. Some of our best memories are when we had no plans and just ended up going wherever we felt like that day.
My husband and I splurged on highway in the sky once. Not sure what your allergies are, but that experience was amazing.
 
We go for 2 weeks. I have done it at AKV. We would wake up late, have coffee on the balcony, and sit there for a couple hours. Then, we would hit the park for fastpasses and and a meal. I’m missing it right now!
 
Our trips are always 2 weeks. It’s nice because multiple days at each park helps with fast passes (especially the tiered ones) and you don’t have that rushed “gotta run to the next attraction” feel because you know you’ll hAve plenty of time. We do breakfast in room, quick service lunch and TS dinners. We typically do morning to night parks with 2 “off” days per trip. Not relaxing but we do take our time, soak in the atmosphere and enjoy the parks. We decided years ago to use our points for one long trip instead of a few shorter ones because we like that feeling of not having to rush. Love long trips!
 


Thanks for all your replies. They have helped me figure out what we might like--maybe. Right now, I'm leaning toward planning a few days of FPs, probably late morning. That way we can sleep in, eat breakfast in the room (except for one morning because we have to eat at The Wave at least once), and then head to the park for about 2 hours. We will probably go back to the resort, eat lunch in the room, and relax. Then we will choose somewhere to go that night. I like the idea of checking the app the night before to find a place. I will make a couple of ADRs at 180 days, especially to the popular places. What I'm having some trouble with is what to do with some of these rides that don't have FP like RttR and possibly others. That will force us to RD. Not super happy with that. I guess we could try riding right at closing. We have done that with FoP a couple of times. I'm also hoping I can handle leaving the resort twice a day. I hate Disney transportation. Because of that, the other side of me is leaning toward planning late FPs so that we can stay at the resort for breakfast and lunch, and then do FPs at the park and dinner at either a park or resort. I'm just not sure which way I would like. Then again, we could mix it up--some mornings, some nights. Boy, this is much harder to plan that I thought it would be!
 
We haven't used Minnie Van, but you might get back "home" more quickly on your evening park visit - especially from the International Gate at EPCOT since you can walk or take the boat over to BWV.
 
Also if you are going in November (I think that’s what you said) they will hopefully have switched over to fast pass for RotR like they did for Falcon Run. We didn’t even try for it, figure we will wait for our next trip.

AKV is a great place for relaxing and being apart from Disney craziness. It’s like it’s own tucked away resort.
 
Also if you are going in November (I think that’s what you said) they will hopefully have switched over to fast pass for RotR like they did for Falcon Run. We didn’t even try for it, figure we will wait for our next trip.

AKV is a great place for relaxing and being apart from Disney craziness. It’s like it’s own tucked away resort.
I agree. I love it there. I just don't want to make plans for being there for long spans of time and then feel bored. I don't think that will happen, but since it's our first longer trip with APs, we won't know what we like until we do it.
 
You have some outstanding suggestions in this post. Congrats on your retirement. I hope to be there soon!

In a way, we've been "practicing" for retirement! We've done a few trips like you are describing, and we even favor the AKL for our stays. What we tend to do is set up some 'just in case' dining reservations and fast passes. We'll take our best shot at some places and times we'd like to eat, and set up ADRs. As we get closer, we might adjust a few things. And when we are at the resort, it's not unusual for us to decide on a Monday we don't really want to go to Cali Grill on Wednesday, so we cancel. We have also found that many of the restaurants will still have some availability if we decide to make a reservation while we are there (probably because others will at times cancel their reservations before they get into the 'charge your credit card' window).

So set up a light schedule in advance, perhaps make ADRs for 2 or 3 of your favorite spots, take a good shot at some fast passes, and go enjoy yourself. We find AKL to be one of the most relaxing resorts anywhere. Breakfast on the balcony watching the animals, some great restaurants, fun pools, and a really nice time. Hope you have an amazing trip and retirement!
 
We own at SSR and always do a 10 day trip when we go every other year, usually 2 park days, resort day, 2 park days, resort day, water park day, resort day, park day, resort day. It breaks it up very nice, and plenty of relaxing at the resort, while still getting out there. No more rope dropping days for us lol. We do however plan the meals out for the whole trip and eat very well, try and do at least a couple of signature resturants like steak and lobster at Narcooses. We also must do Hoop de Doo every trip which is nice, usually do that in a resort day and take a minni ride there, then boat back to Magic Kingdom for Fireworks, and back to SSR. Unfortunately I believe that being spontaneous at Disney in regards to resturants means a lot of counter service. I do also plan the fast passes for the park days as well. We did the safari tour at AK last trip which was awesome but very expensive. We are thinking of doing the MK tour that takes you into the Utilidors under MK now that our kids are grown, but they want to still come too lol. 10 day trips are fantastic!!
 
You have some outstanding suggestions in this post. Congrats on your retirement. I hope to be there soon!

In a way, we've been "practicing" for retirement! We've done a few trips like you are describing, and we even favor the AKL for our stays. What we tend to do is set up some 'just in case' dining reservations and fast passes. We'll take our best shot at some places and times we'd like to eat, and set up ADRs. As we get closer, we might adjust a few things. And when we are at the resort, it's not unusual for us to decide on a Monday we don't really want to go to Cali Grill on Wednesday, so we cancel. We have also found that many of the restaurants will still have some availability if we decide to make a reservation while we are there (probably because others will at times cancel their reservations before they get into the 'charge your credit card' window).

So set up a light schedule in advance, perhaps make ADRs for 2 or 3 of your favorite spots, take a good shot at some fast passes, and go enjoy yourself. We find AKL to be one of the most relaxing resorts anywhere. Breakfast on the balcony watching the animals, some great restaurants, fun pools, and a really nice time. Hope you have an amazing trip and retirement!
I figure we will adjust some things as well. I do like the idea of checking for ADRs the night before and picking something on a whim. I agree that AKV is amazing, and I know most love their restaurants. Our problem is that we don't love the restaurants. We found out that African food is really not our thing. We do love Boma for breakfast, and we are going to try Sanaa again soon. A few years ago, we tried Jiko, and I ended up having a severe allergic reaction from their bread; of course, this was before I realized what I was allergic to, but having such a bad experience like that kind of ruins the restaurant for you. It makes me afraid to eat at Mara just because CS is dangerous to me anyway, but I also worry that Mara uses similar bread products as Boma and Jiko. So the issue is if we decide to eat out each night, we will have to go somewhere besides AKV.

We own at SSR and always do a 10 day trip when we go every other year, usually 2 park days, resort day, 2 park days, resort day, water park day, resort day, park day, resort day. It breaks it up very nice, and plenty of relaxing at the resort, while still getting out there. No more rope dropping days for us lol. We do however plan the meals out for the whole trip and eat very well, try and do at least a couple of signature resturants like steak and lobster at Narcooses. We also must do Hoop de Doo every trip which is nice, usually do that in a resort day and take a minni ride there, then boat back to Magic Kingdom for Fireworks, and back to SSR. Unfortunately I believe that being spontaneous at Disney in regards to resturants means a lot of counter service. I do also plan the fast passes for the park days as well. We did the safari tour at AK last trip which was awesome but very expensive. We are thinking of doing the MK tour that takes you into the Utilidors under MK now that our kids are grown, but they want to still come too lol. 10 day trips are fantastic!!
Thanks for all the suggestions. That's a good idea to spread everything out. I feel like I will want to go into a park each day though, even if it's just for a couple of hours. I'm pretty excited to finally have APs! Haha. I hope that we can be spontaneous and still eat at TS. I've been checking the app every night, and it's amazing what pops up. Of course, we will make some ADRs in advance that we really want. That is cool that you are doing some tours now. I hope that one day we can do that. Right now, it pushed our limits to do the AP, just because we have several other trips planned.
 
Re your allergy, Disney is excellent about food allergies. I wouldn’t worry at all-now that you know what you’re allergic to, you’ll just communicate that and you’ll be perfectly safe. Really :)
 
we usually do 13 days twice a year, mostly at BWV. I book FPs for every day based on Undercover Tourist's crowd calendar.
The first night is booked with a different membership (we have a few) or different room/view so we can get the Deluxe Dining Plan for the first 2 days (the refillable mug is good for 14 days).
On Day 1, we get to the resort about 11AM, and have TS lunch at Epcot about 12:30. Dinner is about 8:30 so we can watch the fireworks from the restaurant. While we may make an FP or 2, most of Day 1 is about relaxing. Day 2 starts with gallons of coffee, checking where/what we have planned, and maybe popping back into Epcot to shop/roam. Dinner is usually about 6PM, at Epcot or the BW. The rest of the days are pretty much governed by our moods - some days we get to our FPs, some days we don't. Most days we sleep until about 8AM, & most nights go to bed about midnight. We may make a dining reservation if we really want to eat somewhere. A few days into the trip, we get a rental car for a week, go grocery shopping, and maybe hit the outlets, iHop, etc. Sometimes, we just walk around Crescent Lake, stroll the BW, play a game at Community Hall, lay by the pool, sip wine on the balcony & people watch. We will often try a new tour.
Last Oct, we went to MK once, rode the PeopleMover once, and left.
So, yeah, we relax ;)

Btw, DH & i also went to Italy (the real one!!) last year. About the third day, he announced that while he enjoyed all we were seeing & doing, WDW "is sooooo much more relaxing". The difference between being a tourist & being on vacation really startled him.:rolleyes:
 
Re your allergy, Disney is excellent about food allergies. I wouldn’t worry at all-now that you know what you’re allergic to, you’ll just communicate that and you’ll be perfectly safe. Really :)
Yes, I know they are great--except when it comes to CS. That has just been a nightmare.
 
Since we only go every other year our trips range from 10-15 nights and we LOVE it.
One thing I have found that allows the best flexibility is on park days we book a TS lunch for 12:30.
Leaves plenty of time to use FPs(allows us to book at least a 4th) gets us some time out of the heat, and fills our bellies. We use up any remaining FPs and head back to the resort. This means we can do anything at all we want for the rest of the day.
We’ve also found park day, rest day, repeat works great because any park day can become a late night without impacting the next day.
 
We usually go to Disney for 21 days at a time. Our focus is on fun and relaxation. We never wait more than 20 minutes for a ride. Typically we use fast passes in the evening.

If we want to go to the parks in the morning we go first thing and usually leave about 11.30am. We head back to the resort and either hang out by the pool or do another non park activity.

In the evening we arrange our fast passes around our dining reservation.
 
Sadly, it is hard to just "wing it" at DIsney any more due to crowds year-round. It helps, even on longer stays, to do some planning. I would pick 4 days, one at each major park, and do the FPs and ADRs, then wing it the rest of the trip. Yes, I do miss the spontaneity, but it is what it is. Especially if you want to do a newer attraction, or Soarin'. And I'm hoping to be able to get a reservation at Space 220 in June, but we'll see.

I'm 60, and semi retired (I have rental properties) so can pretty much travel when I want.

I almost always have breakfast in the room, and sandwiches in the evenings after we return. We have at least one down day during an 8 night trip, where we go to Disney Springs and have lunch somewhere...trying a new place. The next two trips are with 11 year olds, so probably will do a character breakfast somewhere, but getting them up and ready is just about not worth the stress.
 

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