What is the shortest time period you would visit Disney World?

[kwonyong]

I am looking for some advice from fellow Aussies who have done the trek to Disney World concerning trip lenght. We had planned to go to orlando for 4 weeks, but hubby's work won't let him have that much time off. What is the shortest time period you would consider going to disney world for, given it takes so long (and is so expensive) to get there. Thnaks

 

[Jade+3]

We had 2 weeks in Orlando, and that was perfect for us. We have 3 young kids so move at a slow pace. Our trip was actually 4 weeks, with a 4 night cruise and a stay in Anaheim at the end. Poor DH was Disney-ed out by the end of it.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I've gone twice for 2 weeks to Florida. 10 days in WDW and 4 nights doing other things in Florida. Both times, I've taken DS. This is a great time and pace with kids.

For my October trip, DH has to go to a conference at WDW. So, I'm tagging along and we are going to leave DS with the Grands. This trip will be 4 nights and 3 days; and we will have 3 nights and 2 days in Silicon Valley afterwards. I don't know if it is worth it yet for WDW; but a lot of the Americans seem to spend about this amount of time (or possibly one more day) visiting the park.

 

[platypus67]

We did six nights as part of a six week holiday in 2007 and found that we needed more time. This next holiday we will spend 12 nights and plan at least six full days in the parks.

 

[DVCAustralia]

You should definately plan to be there a MINIMUM of 14 days.
The 10 day ticket is only a few dollars more than many of the shorter tickets and it gives you 10 out of 14 days in the 4 parks. If you add the water park option then you get 10 passes for the two water parks, DisneyQuest etc. and these can be used on the same day as a park entry and on the other 4 days. Otherwise you can plan to do non-WDW parks or other activities on the other 4 days.
Americans can get there easier and tend to go much more often than Australians and so the length that they spend is pretty much irrelevant.

 

[Kalice]

We had eight days and found that enough. We did only parks and a couple of hours in DTD. That said we were at the end of our trip, and had been at DLR at the beginning and found many repeated rides in WDW. We did two days in MK, Epcot, one in AK and 3 and HS (my daughter was addicted to animation, and we loved the ToT and RnR).

Definately would say around 10 to give you a couple of days to chill out.

 

[aussietravellers]

I don't think that we would stay less than 14 nights, but maybe 10 nights I think is really needed to experience the place. Coming from so far away and not being somewhere that you can pop to regularly like USA residents, its nice to spend some time there so that you can really experience a lot. We are going for 22 nights this trip and last trip we were there 21 nights and we could have stayed longer

 

[JennyN]

I agree with the people who said 14 days. With a 10 day pass this gives you time in the park as well as a few days to do other stuff ( like shopping). Each of our trips to WDW have been at least 14 days in Orlando. Give your self as much time as you can.

 

[JennyN]

Jade +3 your holiday sounds like the one we did in January this year. There is no such thing as too much Disney, at least that is what I told my DH.

 

[Jade+3]

Jade +3 your holiday sounds like the one we did in January this year. There is no such thing as too much Disney, at least that is what I told my DH.

It musn't have done too much damage as he has greed to go back next year - but gave me the choice of either a Disney park, or a Disney cruise, but not both. I have got around him by booking a Carnival cruise!

kwonyong, I should have added in my first post that in our 14 days, we didn't do Disney Quest or the water parks.

 

[ehsmum]

We had 11 nights in Orlando - 8 at WDW and 3 at Universal. If we ever go back, I would want to do at least 14 nights. I'd still do the 3 (or maybe 4) at Universal as that was plenty of time to do everything there but we needed more time at Disney. The kids (and DH!) really wanted to do the water parks but we didn't have time. And I'd like some time to just hang out and enjoy the resort too.

 

[Dommiekazommie]

I don't know about anyone else but the shortest trip I have done is 6 nights. Flew in Thursday was home the Saturday after. Yes was a short trip. But totally worth it!

 

[cola]

If you've not been to any Disney parks, and also depending on the ages of everyone involved (no small kids needing afternoon naps), you can manage Orlando in 10 days, 10 looooong days, and it helps if you are staying on property to manage the loooooong days because of Extra Magic Hours.
Universal is 2 days (or 3) now with Harry Potter, though they aren't loooooong days, they're just pretty full days. Disney is at least 5 days on a first trip, one day for each park and an extra day to repeat visit at least one park. You also need one day for rest and/or shopping, and you should allow another day to go visit some of the Disney resorts. You then need another week to recover from that frantic 10 days in Orlando, but that doesn't have to be in Orlando. Or you can go slower in Orlando and take longer

If you have people that can't manage looooooong days, you need longer in Disney (Universal is much smaller, so other than Harry Potter queues, you shouldn't need longer. pre=Harry Potter Universal was 1.5 days)

There is also a lot of other stuff in and around Orlando, you could easily add another week just adding a few more of those attractions.

 

[MouseFan Down Under]

I did a solo birthday trip last year - was there for 8 nights. (Went no-where else - just flew Melbourne-LAX-MCO and back again)

It was planned with military precision (of course!) I could easily have stayed longer (no matter how long your trip - I think we could all happily stay longer) but felt like I had, had a good break. I also did all the things that I REALLY wanted to do and a few extra bits.

Going for 10 nights/11 days next year in WDW, with 5 nights at US - I will fit the shopping in on the US part of the stay, so my time at Disney will purely be Disney!

 

[GrazingGoat1966]

Couldn't agree more with the other posters. We've just come back from 10 nights/ 11 days with a 3 year old daughter, a 60 year old uncle and the two middle aged in-laws and that wasn't quite enough time to do it all because we all had a list of things that we hadn't quite got to at the end of the trip.

And this was our 3rd trip!! If it's your first (and most importantly you have to decide if it's going to be the one and only time that you get to the world), then go for AT LEAST 14 days at an absolute minimum. Any less and you will regret it for the rest of your life.