How Many Trips Per Year?

[azdisneylover]

Uhhhhh, is it weird if I say every week?

No, but it makes me a tad envious of you.

 

[montreid]

Too Many, but not enough

 

[mouschievous]

As a teacher, I would want to go 3-4 times a year - once during Halloween, once during Christmas, and once during some other time that seemed like it'd be lower crowds but wouldn't require I take time away from school. Honestly, I'd probably be more likely to try to go 2-3 times over the summer because I have that time available.

If I weren't a teacher, I'd try to spread it out. I was ready for another trip 2-3 months after getting back, so I would probably plan for once every 3ish months. Probably, September or October for Halloween, November or early December for Christmas, sometimes February or March midweek (not spring break though) for a slow time, and then once in the summer, but probably like early June before everyone is out of school.

 

[MillauFr]

We live in Seattle and go 4 to 5 times a year.

 

[tsumgirl]

I do 3-4 trips a year with a minimum of 4 days per trip.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

If you are trying to break even on your passes, crunch the numbers on how many park visits you'll need to make the math work out. Then factor that into how many trips would work well for your family's schedule this year. You'll be looking at how many trips, how many days per trip, parking (hotel and parks), discounts (hotel, food, merchandise), gas/flights, hotels (include AP discounts if offered, both on site and off), etc. Don't forget hard ticket events like the OBB if that would interest your family. Each family is unique -- there is no right or wrong number of trips, only what works best this particular year.

 

[James From Utah]

We go every 8 to 10 weeks. We usually travel Monday morning then spend the afternoon and evening in DCA. We spend all of Tuesday at Disneyland. On Wednesday morning and afternoon we park hop hitting our favorite rides before heading home Wednesday night. Been doing this for a few years and it never gets old for us.

 

[Pamela M]

I live in Northern California and will be getting an AP for the first time. My goal is 3 trips this year for at least 3 days. I’ll do a spring trip, Halloween (sept/oct) and then Christmas time.

 

[Malcon10t]

We live 5-6 hours. How often we go depends on the month. Jan-Oct, we may go once a month for a long weekend, with the exception of June/July when we go a little longer. Nov-Dec, we have a few trips. We usually go for Veteran's Day, then Thanksgiving, Candlelight weekend, then 2 weeks at CHristmas.... We just got home, but will be heading back for opening of Rise.

 

[Malcon10t]

As a teacher, I would want to go 3-4 times a year - once during Halloween, once during Christmas, and once during some other time that seemed like it'd be lower crowds but wouldn't require I take time away from school. Honestly, I'd probably be more likely to try to go 2-3 times over the summer because I have that time available.

My daughter (and travel partner) is also a teacher, which is why we do long weekends. We generally leave Friday's after school is out on 3 day weekends, and head home on Mondays.

 

[mich311e]

We live 5.5 hours (Phoenix) away. We had APs for one year November 2015-2016. My son and I made the trip 8 times for 26 entries each. My husband came along for 6 of those trips. We had a long trip over Thanksgiving, 5-day park hoppers, and then returned for 2-3 day visits. We absolutely loved it.

We definitely felt we got our money's worth. At the time we were staying at the Quality Inn on Manchester. I have the Choice Privileges credit card and was able to get rooms or around $119-$140 a night, with free breakfast and a short walk. We had free rooms probably 4 times over the year.

The best thing about having AP's is being able to show up in the afternoon of your arrival day, go to the park all day the next day or two, then go for a few hours in the morning before you hit the road. If I was paying $150 a day for a ticket I'd have to get my money's worth and stay all day. We were able to take Disneyland at a more leisurely pace. One time my son and I drove over in the morning and went to Disneyland all day, then woke up and went for a few hours in the morning. Then we drove over Indio and went to a festival to see my favorite band play. I wouldn't have done that if we didn't have passes. It totally made going to the concert in Indio extra worthwhile since we also went to Disneyland.

We were able to experience Disneyland at different times of the year and different holidays. I made a bucket list of things we wanted to do during our Year of Disney and we hit all of them. We've eaten at almost all the food places we've wanted to.

So I'd say make a list with your family of all you want to experience at Disneyland. Some of the things on our list were: Blue Bayou Fantasmic dining, eat at Cafe Orleans, Watch fireworks from in front of It's a Small World, ride Big Thunder during fireworks, go to the Halloween party, get pics with rare characters, eat flavored beignets, experience the festival food at Food & Wine and Festival of the Holidays, go to Animation Academy, etc.

Also, we had our best friends with us for one trip and my brother and his family with us for another trip. That made our year very fun!

 

[Indiana Scott]

We're in the Seattle area and used to make trips at least once a year. Sometimes we'd get AP's and go more often. Sadly, the value just isn't there anymore and we'll go 3 years or more between trips.

 

[wilsonarts]

This is our first year having APs and we live about 10 hours away (Utah). We went for 5 days in both August and October. We have a 3 days planned in February and another 5 days planned in May. So for us it will be 4 times.

 

[tink89]

We live in bay area so about 6.5 hours away. We go whenever our schedule allows. In 2019 we went in January for 2.5 days( DH and I), in October for 3.5 days and in November for 3.5 days. We were also very busy that year and we didn't take any other vacations besides DL. In 2020 we will be going many more times.

 

[Jason_V]

Just got my first AP this morning and my plan is once a month. I'm coming from out of state (Seattle), so there is an element of planning to my trips.

Gonna be coming down in two weeks for a whole 36 hours. I know how blessed I am to be able to do this kind of thing.

 

[JoshF]

I'm in Northern California (Marin) and was wondering the same thing. How many weekends do you need to go for the AP to make sense vs buying as you go? a 5.5 hour drive doesn't seem to bad compared to flying these days.

 

[Kittyblue]

We live about 2-3 hours away and average about 18 months, not counting the year we had APs. We were overdue but waiting for ROTR to open, and we were going to go this summer. I think that's a wash now, though.

When we had APs we went about every 2 months. It got the point the kids didn't even want to go, LOL. They are not the Disney nerds their mom is.

 

[JoshF]

My guy is 5 so we've got a lot of Disney Magic to find yet!

 

[cruisehopeful]

I'm in Northern California (Marin) and was wondering the same thing. How many weekends do you need to go for the AP to make sense vs buying as you go? a 5.5 hour drive doesn't seem to bad compared to flying these days.

You need to crunch the numbers and we don't know when they will start selling APs again. How many days will you go at a time? If you are going to the parks at least 3 days in a row, park hopping and always going on weekends, it makes sense to have an annual pass. If you eat there and buy merchandise, the discounts help quite a bit with the Signature Pass. Again, since we don't know what they are going to offer as far as APs go from this day forward, it's really just a guess. If I were out of town, I wouldn't be buying an AP at this time.

 

[Mike_M]

Another Seattle person here. My average has been around every other year on trips, but last year I splurged for an AP and made 3 trips with it. It was definitely worth it for me.

Being able to enter the park for a few hours on my travel days was a nice perk.

The biggest thing I noticed however was that my park habits started to change some by the 3rd trip.

In past trips, it’s been important for me to get as much time in the park per day as possible, considering it would usually be a year or two until I’d be down again. But with more frequent trips, I found that I was more relaxed in the park and enjoyed the ambiance of it in a new way.

The first day of my last trip, which was a travel day, I found myself just strolling through the park and didn’t even hit an attraction for the first hour or two. It was a little unique of a situation because I had flown down alone to meet friends in the park for an adults only trip and was by myself until they arrived, but it was still a new and nice feeling to not have that urgency to get it all in on that trip.

For me, that was the answer to whether or not it was possible to get bored with the park after more frequent trips. I wasn’t bored at all and even enjoyed it more as a result.