Is 12 nights too long?

[pixiemama91]

we are planning on a 12 day trip next summer and may possible do a full 2 weeks. We are liking the idea that we will have more down time and spread out our park time a little more.

 

[bettymae1121]

Sorry I've been away from the DIS for a few weeks (its my busy time of year at work). Thanks for the continued feedback everyone!

Good point about the clothing, I do plan on doing laundry halfway through so we'll just pack a week's worth. My last few week long trips I've had to run loads for random reasons and it's no biggy. We are US based (Chicago area) so it's not the length of time it takes to get there (we fly), it's just we always feel like it's either do it Theme Park Comando style in order to "do it all" and we leave exhausted, or we take it easy and miss half the things we wanted to do. And we are going to be there in summer when it's HOT so that means a lot of time out of the parks to avoid the worst of it. I want an easier pace but still be able to do a lot.

All this said, we're 2+ years out and A LOT can change between now and when I start making bookings.

 

[YesterDark]

Only 12 days?

 

[YesterDark]

As far as a serious answer, I won't tell you that your plan is bad, because far be it for me to tell someone how to spend their money and how they do their vacation. You can't vacation wrong.

But your plan needs some help (imo)!

Don't rope drop the same park two days in a row. You have 8 total park days listed there: MKx3, EPx2, AKx2, DHSx1. Any reason why you're doing DHS once? If you're there 10 full days (minus two travel days), you have room to do two full four park tours. It'll feel like two separate Disney Vacations. If I was advising you as a professional (and who doesn't think they are a professional Disney planner on these boards?) I would say do this:

• Day 1 - Arrive, Resort explore, swim, whatever. Relax and get ready for a great vacation.
• Day 2 - Magic Kingdom Rope Drop
• Day 3 - Epcot (or another park)
• Day 4 - Do your listed Day 4 plans, those seem fun.
• Day 5 - Rope Drop AK
• Day 6 - Do DHS (Rope Drop or early departure or late arrival)
• Day 7 - Do your resort hopping plans
• Day 8 - Rope Drop AK - Break - Evening MK (Do you hoppers?)
• Day 9 - Rope Drop Epcot etc.
• Day 10 - Resort Day or whatever activity you want to do
• Day 11 - Rope Drop DHS - break Epcot evening
• Day 12 - Rope Drop MK
• Day 13 - Go home.

I'd do something like that. AK/Epcot/DHS are interchangeable, I picked them at random.

 

[PixieT78]

We’re looking at doing a long trip in April 2021 to celebrate DH’s 50th. Our very tentative plan is 9 nights at WDW followed by 6 nights at Universal. Another option would be doing Universal in the middle because it tends to be a bit more relaxed type of vacation so the break might be good, but not sure if we want to move twice.

We are afternoon break people as our preferred touring style. So we’ll rope drop a park, take a break to relax and have some pool time and then hit up another park. We’ll also likely have days where we only do one park and maybe one where we don’t do parks at all. We definitely do park hoppers and don’t do the same park in the same day. And California Grill Sunday brunch is high on the list of must-dos!

 

[starry_solo]

12 nights is not too long at all!

 

[Someluck]

We travel from the west coast and always plan at least 10 days to make it worthwhile. We have rented a car and driven 2 hours to St Agustine which is a lovely side trip, and we have also gone to Universal as well. We have no problem filling our days at a leisure pace on a trip of 10-12 days.

 

[Dingdingding]

We're just heading back after a month trip (29 nights), that included Universal though, but 17 nights in WDW. We we thought we needed resort days but when we were there, we opted to do all day parks since we felt that we wasted a day if we didn't go. We had quite a few days in which we slept in though.

 

[Nancyg56]

We have gone for 12 days and generally get a 10 day hopper. I plan Park days almost every day, if for nothing else but evening entertainment and dinner. If you can get tickets for the 10 days, I woudl suggest that you do that. It is really only pennies more per person, and allows so much flexibility.

 

[IluvMGM]

We had 10 days planned but because of the hurricane we ended up flying down 2 nights early (Disney gave us the 2 extra nights free) because the airport would likely be closed when we were supposed to arrive. So, we had a 12-day trip. Our initial flight was super early in the morning, but the new flight was in the late afternoon, so we didn't do anything the first day. We ate at the hotel and went to bed early. That was actually pretty nice because we were well rested for the next day. We also didn't do anything our last day. So we had 10 full days to hit the parks which was great. We were beat of course by the end of the trip, and I don't know if I would have "rested" the first and last day had we actually paid for the extra nights. The nice part about it also is that you have a long trip so if one day you decide you want to skip something or rest, etc.. you have plenty of time to do so.

 

[tinkerhon]

We refuse to go for any shorter these days - we leave out of NYC and just can't justify a fast trip, given the airfare cost - we are booked for three weeks in July 2020

 

[Miffy]

Two years ago, the couple staying next door to us at SSR was there for a month. I was totally envious. 12 days too much? No!!!!

 

[CapeCodTenor]

I would think a 12 night stay would be perfect. You can do things and not feel rushed.

 

[katherine52478]

So we're planning a 12 night trip for June 2022 (yeah, I like to plan ahead! But part of it is we need to save up for a trip this big). And while I've dreamed of a long WDW trip in the past, now that it's looking possible, I'm starting to wonder if on day 9 or 10 everyone will be like "well this is fun and all, but I kinda want to go home now".

The general idea is to have two park days then a non-park day. Over the course of the trip, it will be 3 days MK, 2 days each Epcot and AK, and 1 or 1.5 days at DS.

So I'm looking for advice from anyone that's done more than 10 days. It's me, DH and DD who will be 10 on the trip. This is the rough schedule I have so far.

• Sunday - Day 1 - Arrive at Poly about 2ish. Swim until room is ready, unpack, change, dinner at Kona, early bedtime.
• Monday - Day 2 - Rope drop MK until lunch, afternoon break, MK in the evening
• Tuesday - Day 3- Rope drop MK until lunch, afternoon break, MK in the evening
• Wednesday - Day 4- Pool day at resort, rent patio cabana at Poly. Evening open for resort activity or maybe Disney Springs​
• Thursday - Day 5 - Rope drop Epcot until lunch, afternoon break, Epcot in evening (will only tour FW this day)​
• Friday - Day 6 - Sleep in, get to Epcot about 11 to tour WS, stay until close to watch evening show (whatever is replacing Illuminations).​
• Saturday - Day 7 - Resort hop to either BWV or BCV (haven't decided yet, renting DVC points so likely it will come down to what's available). I was originally thinking of dropping our bags to be transferred then heading to a water park for the day, then returning to the new hotel to check in and change, then dinner. But turns out that DD has a fear of water slides, so depending on her feelings 3 years from now, we may skip the water park. So I'm open to suggestions on what non-theme parks things we can do on a resort hop day (we want this day to be a non park day).​
• Sunday - Day 8 - Rope drop AK until lunch, afternoon break, AK in evening​
• Monday - Day 9 - Rope drop AK until lunch, afternoon break, AK in evening
• Tuesday - Day 10 - Pool day at resort, evening will either be free for a resort activity OR I'm kicking around the idea of doing an evening at DS, as we'll otherwise only have one full day at DS and I'm not sure if that will be enough time there. We'll have seen SWGE at DLR in 2020 so I'm not sure how much of a time suck that will be for us.

First of all, I would LOVE to spend 12 nights at Disney. My most has been 7 nights and that feels really short sometimes...

A couple of comments on the above schedule:

1) are you planning on renting points for the Poly? Even at 11 months out, a Poly studio is hard to get so you may need a back-up plan. With so many trips to MK, Bay Lake Tower is a great alternative since you can walk to MK.

2) if you are staying at the Beach Club, you won’t need to go to a water park as the pool has so many activities and is ridiculously huge. You may want more than a day off here as June will be very hot.

3) personally, I don’t know that you need two days at Animal Kingdom. Definitely not two whole days. And I wouldn’t do them in a row since there is a lot of walking to do and you may want to rest between visits.

4) I’m assuming DS is for Hollywood Studios and not Disney Springs?

5) I would suggest planning the first 7-8 days and then just going with the flow the rest of the time. Decide on what parks you want to do again when you wake up. Visit some other resorts, have drinks and apps in the lounges, wander through the World Showcase. With 12 days, you don’t need to be rushing anywhere.

6) I also echo the PP who suggested park hoppers. You may not want to visit the same park at night that you did during the day and you will have more flexibility for ADRs if you can visit multiple parks per day

Otherwise have so much fun!!!

 

[katherine52478]

Also, my son’s favorite thing to do on vacation is sleep late in the morning. Your daughter will be 10 and probably just finishing up her school year, so she may prefer some extra mornings off. There is a huge difference between a 7-8 year old and a “tween”. I know once my son turned 10, vacations were way more about balancing his needs with my wants.

 

[Cyberc1978]

When I'm on a Disney vacation (or any other vacation) I'm there fore relaxing and ofc enjoying myself with my family.

I know everyone is different, but we rarely do rope drops (maybe if we have an early TS breakfast) we normally arrive between 11-01 and use our FP+ We are normally there for a few hours then return to the resort for some pool time. Maybe we will go to another park in the evening.

As a DVC member I know that what I dont get to experience on this trip, I get to do on my next one. I understand that if you dont go on a regular basis you would want to make the most of it while you are there.

On our latest trip we did a resort trip only, and though I have to admit that I missed the parks a bit it was kind of liberating to not think about booking FP+, standing in line etc.

 

[DisLiss]

If our schedules would allow it, I'd totally go for a 12 day trip! With a 6-8 day trip (our norm) we like that we have a day each per park with some extra wiggle room, but I'd love to have enough days to devote 2 half days to each park and then fit some other Disney activities and some relaxation into the rest of the time.

 

[Julia Ann]

Definitely not! We are booked up for our 7th trip of 14 nights. We used to have 14 days of Disney/universal and sea world but the park tickets are so expensive now . So our next trip in April is Disney only which include the water parks and I think mini golf.

We can pace of out, first few mornings will be awake at 4am (yes I'm a brit And the jet lag works in our favour) and can easily take advantage of EMH

Go for it!

 

[happysavermp]

I would love to stay for 12 nights! We stay 10 nights every year and I’m always wishing we had a little more time.

 

[Donald - my hero]

****** Disclaimer - 2 middle-aged lazy adults here
Oh heck NO! I just changed our flights and tacked on 3 nights at the beginning of a 2 week trip because we were both already feeling it wasn't long enough Hubby thinks mornings shouldn't start before 10 and he is a miserable bear if I make plans that involve needing to set an alarm. Our trip in 2016 he never got out of bed before 11 except for check-out day. Just the 2 of us and we love a low-key approach to our live in general and that just flows into Disney as well. We get 10 day hoppers and that allows us the freedom to head to a different park if one gets crowded or closes before we're ready to head back to the resort. We love to resort hop, play Disney Transportation Roulette (get on whatever the next bus/boat/monorail comes next and go where ever it's headed), wander on the Boardwalk, head to Disney Springs for a gander and a snack.

I looked at your schedule and the only thing I'd suggest is don't go to the same park 2 days in a row! Split it up and maybe think about alternating early days with days that are night-time parks? I would suggest leaving your last couple of days open for swinging between the parks you enjoyed the most. AND, unless you've got your heart set on specific restaurants (or have dining credits to use) keep your ADR's minimal, it's gonna be hot and you won't want a lot of heavy meals (but the break in AC comfort will be welcome to everyone)