elaine amj
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2012
Our first trip was for 3 nights with just 2 park days in October. We were go, go, go, go and I had an absolute blast! Came home and booked a 10 night trip for January (just 3 months later!). When I told my kids, i thought they would be super excited! Instead, my DD looked at me and said she just didn't think her legs could last for TEN days.
Well. That sure made me sit back and re-evaluate. So this time, I developed our plans carefully. Late nights would be followed by sleep in mornings. Days would be balanced - either (a) morning, afternoon break, night, (b) sleep in morning, afternoon and night, or (c) sleep in morning, afternoon and early bedtime. I worked within these guidelines, varying the makeup of each day. It worked out great! There were times we skipped the room breaks - but having that downtime in our plans was so nice (especially for a optimizer like me).
Anyway, my tips are:
- sleep in mornings. Rope drop was a priority for me - but the whole family appreciated sleep in mornings mixed in. We often still got to the parks about 9/9:30am...but it made a big difference not to rush around trying to make it at a certain time.
- time between attractions. I am a minute by minute planner. So I started planning 30 mins for each attraction to allow for time to smell the roses in between. Our first trip, I literally figured out whether the walk from A to B would take 5 mins or 10 mins and allowed that exact amount of time - it meant a lot of rushing around to "stay on schedule".
- TWO pairs of running shoes (switch up every day) AND getting your family to train a little. Go on regular family walks before the big trip. It's good and healthy for everyone regardless.
Another trip we did we went for 12 nights with just 6 day passes (the other 6 days were spent at the waterparks/DisneyQuest as we had added that option). So that is similar to what you are proposing. Be aware that 6/7 park days is not a luxurious amount. I would recommend pricing out the difference to add some days. After 5 days, the cost to add on days is VERY minimal. That way you can relax at your resort all day and just pop in for fireworks one night. I know you are coming from very far away...but we mostly stick with Disney because the add on days are so cheap. Going to other attractions are far more expensive (e.g. I really want to do Sea World but when an extra day at Disney is just $10pp, I stay at Disney instead of paying far more for Sea World).
Anyway, back to the whole 6 day pass thing. We did 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day AK, and 1 day DHS. This gave us just enough time to cover all our must-dos and we had to skip a bunch of stuff. It helped that we did RD for most of our park days and did early bedtimes on our non-park days.
For me, the perfect Disney vacay is long and ONLY at Disney. We are bringing my brother and his family from UK this summer and I asked for 14 solid nights onsite with dining plan. I know we still won't get to do everything...but hoping for a nice, relaxed trip just enjoying the magic of Disney.
Well. That sure made me sit back and re-evaluate. So this time, I developed our plans carefully. Late nights would be followed by sleep in mornings. Days would be balanced - either (a) morning, afternoon break, night, (b) sleep in morning, afternoon and night, or (c) sleep in morning, afternoon and early bedtime. I worked within these guidelines, varying the makeup of each day. It worked out great! There were times we skipped the room breaks - but having that downtime in our plans was so nice (especially for a optimizer like me).
Anyway, my tips are:
- sleep in mornings. Rope drop was a priority for me - but the whole family appreciated sleep in mornings mixed in. We often still got to the parks about 9/9:30am...but it made a big difference not to rush around trying to make it at a certain time.
- time between attractions. I am a minute by minute planner. So I started planning 30 mins for each attraction to allow for time to smell the roses in between. Our first trip, I literally figured out whether the walk from A to B would take 5 mins or 10 mins and allowed that exact amount of time - it meant a lot of rushing around to "stay on schedule".
- TWO pairs of running shoes (switch up every day) AND getting your family to train a little. Go on regular family walks before the big trip. It's good and healthy for everyone regardless.
Another trip we did we went for 12 nights with just 6 day passes (the other 6 days were spent at the waterparks/DisneyQuest as we had added that option). So that is similar to what you are proposing. Be aware that 6/7 park days is not a luxurious amount. I would recommend pricing out the difference to add some days. After 5 days, the cost to add on days is VERY minimal. That way you can relax at your resort all day and just pop in for fireworks one night. I know you are coming from very far away...but we mostly stick with Disney because the add on days are so cheap. Going to other attractions are far more expensive (e.g. I really want to do Sea World but when an extra day at Disney is just $10pp, I stay at Disney instead of paying far more for Sea World).
Anyway, back to the whole 6 day pass thing. We did 2 days MK, 2 days Epcot, 1 day AK, and 1 day DHS. This gave us just enough time to cover all our must-dos and we had to skip a bunch of stuff. It helped that we did RD for most of our park days and did early bedtimes on our non-park days.
For me, the perfect Disney vacay is long and ONLY at Disney. We are bringing my brother and his family from UK this summer and I asked for 14 solid nights onsite with dining plan. I know we still won't get to do everything...but hoping for a nice, relaxed trip just enjoying the magic of Disney.
