Pacing the parks over length of stay or going park commando with family!

CapeCodTenor

CapeCodTenor

Dis Veteran; Dis Dads #865
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
What I mean by "going park commando" is that trying to do all that you can in one day at one park, taking a break the next, then another park and so forth. I'm planning a trip to the World for my family, and I know that each family is different, as is each child, and I will ultimately make my own decision, but I was wondering what others with young kids have done. Going on this trip will be Me, my DW, and my DD (now 6, maybe 7 when we go). I was planning on a seven night stay with five day park passes. My thought was to do a park one day, then take a break (resort hop, pool side, whatever), then head to another park and so forth. But then I caught a vlog on YouTube by Dreams Unlimited about traveling with family (Nov. '18), and one travel agent said to basically do a length of stay and spread out the time you're in the park. This makes sense to me as it allows you to spread things out and not rush, even if you sleep in. This would help if you want to stay late and catch the fireworks at the end of the day. As I said before, it'll ultimately be my decision, but I was wondering what other families have done. Thanks for your input.
 
What we like to do is stay for 12 nights and have 5-6 park days. Arrival and departure days we don't ever do anything due to when our flights are. We alternate a park day then a water park day all throughout the trip. We don't pack as much as we can into each park day. We do stop and smell the roses (sometimes literally as on this last trip with a toddler and a 7 yo) and don't rush between attractions, but we still get a good bit done. We usually spend around 10 hrs in the park (a little more if the parks are open later), getting there around 11 and staying until close, as rope drop wouldn't work for any of us. We don't take mid-day breaks at the resort, but will stop for a snack when needed and prefer one sit-down meal a day. The water parks we also get to around 10:30 or 11 and stay until close, go to a restaurant for dinner, then back to the resort sometimes to swim more.

We've thought about length of stay passes, but once you factor in the time to get to a park and go through security, we'd rather just stay the whole day than eat up 1.5 hrs in round trip transportation just to spend a couple hours in the park each day. We also like our break days, especially when it's hot, to relax at the water park/pool and give our feet a little bit of a break.
 
I would get a park pass to go everyday as going from 5 to say an 8 day pass is not.much more expensive and you can pick up more FPs. You can still do a commando day if you wish and maybe on a down day only go for a couple hours at night to hit your 3 FPs and watch the fireworks after enjoying a relaxing day at the pool. Personally we like to spread it out and like flexibility to go whenever especially considering unknown weather conditions etc.
 
We do both. We do 14 or 15 night stays with 10 park days. Generally each of those days are rope dropto close for us but we don’t rush around all day. We move fast in the morning to take advantage of the low crowds then after lunch we go slow, take in the atmosphere and do whatever we can with extra FPs or short lines we happen to pass. We take one or two rest days and our 2 Epcot days are sleep in days for us.
 


We did 2 park days to start, then 3rd day was a sleep in, pool, DS day, then day 4 park day. Day 5 can be either depending on how everyone feels.
 
We do a combination over a week. A couple of packed hard core park days, with lighter/shorter ones in between. No completely no park days but that's only for a week- if it was longer we maybe would throw one in!
 
LongLiveRafiki said:
What we like to do is stay for 12 nights and have 5-6 park days. Arrival and departure days we don't ever do anything due to when our flights are. We alternate a park day then a water park day all throughout the trip. We don't pack as much as we can into each park day. We do stop and smell the roses (sometimes literally as on this last trip with a toddler and a 7 yo) and don't rush between attractions, but we still get a good bit done. We usually spend around 10 hrs in the park (a little more if the parks are open later), getting there around 11 and staying until close, as rope drop wouldn't work for any of us. We don't take mid-day breaks at the resort, but will stop for a snack when needed and prefer one sit-down meal a day. The water parks we also get to around 10:30 or 11 and stay until close, go to a restaurant for dinner, then back to the resort sometimes to swim more.

We've thought about length of stay passes, but once you factor in the time to get to a park and go through security, we'd rather just stay the whole day than eat up 1.5 hrs in round trip transportation just to spend a couple hours in the park each day. We also like our break days, especially when it's hot, to relax at the water park/pool and give our feet a little bit of a break.
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As to the highlighted:
When I was flying solo I tried, and succeeded, in packing in quite a bit. However, subsequent trips I would try and pack a lot in in the morning with the rides I wanted to ride, by taking advantage of rope drop, then slow it down in the afternoon. Security post 9/11 is something I didn't think of. I guess it depends on the time of day and how early you get there, but in general, how long does it take to get through security?

ForMyBoys said:
I would get a park pass to go everyday as going from 5 to say an 8 day pass is not.much more expensive and you can pick up more FPs. You can still do a commando day if you wish and maybe on a down day only go for a couple hours at night to hit your 3 FPs and watch the fireworks after enjoying a relaxing day at the pool. Personally we like to spread it out and like flexibility to go whenever especially considering unknown weather conditions etc.
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As to the highlighted:
I was thinking more of the fireworks than extra FP's, but yes, that's an option, too. Actually, not even sure if my daughter will stay up that late, but just to be able to see the parks lit up at night would be pretty cool.

disneydreamer1980 said:
We do both. We do 14 or 15 night stays with 10 park days. Generally each of those days are rope dropto close for us but we don’t rush around all day. We move fast in the morning to take advantage of the low crowds then after lunch we go slow, take in the atmosphere and do whatever we can with extra FPs or short lines we happen to pass. We take one or two rest days and our 2 Epcot days are sleep in days for us.
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Wild4Walt said:
We did 2 park days to start, then 3rd day was a sleep in, pool, DS day, then day 4 park day. Day 5 can be either depending on how everyone feels.
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I initially thought of having a down day to not only sit by the pool, but resort hop as well, I've always wanted to explore the Grand Floridian. I also though of taking a day and just ride the monorail around, I think that would be fun.
 


We normally do a longer trip of 12 nights and then one or two shorter trips of 6 or nights each every year.( For the past 6 years anyway, before that it was once a year.) On the longer stay, I schedule fast passes for every day...then when we wakeup i see if we feel like doing what I have planned that day. If we do, we go, if not we stay at the resort. On the shorter trips, we normally go do what we have planned that day( 4 or five rides) then go back to the resort to swim. If this is the only trip you will take, I would do shorter days with rest time each day. I wouldn't take ' a day off' because you may miss something on your must do list. If you will be back on another trip, whatever you miss you can do the next time.....much less pressure. Have a magical trip!
 
I did 9 park days over a 9 niggt stay with my 5 year olds and really liked that set up. On days where we were trying to make it to fireworks, we went in later so that they'd make it through to the end of the night. Other days, we RDed but left the park early for a nice dinner and then bed time close to when they're asleep at home.

Having multiple days in the parks allowed us to be more flexible in the daily plan, go slower, and shift things around so that must dos that got missed on an earlier day could be added back later. We didn't have any full resort days, but we had a couple of nice afternoons by the pool before doing night activities in the parks.
 
On our first trip our kids were 2 and 4. They are now 12 and 14. We've been 7 times over the last 10 years. What we did when they were young - and we always did a week, 7 night stay. Is we would either go in late or end the day early. And take a day to spend at the resort swimming and do Disney Springs. We've only done the waterparks once but we don't like to waste time at them when we are at Disney. We have several big waterparks around us and granted they aren't "Disney" but it's just one of those things where we would rather be in the parks. If we absolutely have to swim, it's fine at the resort.

Anyway, before our first trip, I had read how when you have young kids, you should leave and go back to the resort to rest and nap and we tried that once and never again. It is WAY too much of a hassle to leave and come back. Especially when you are dealing with little ones and strollers. And that trip we had our own car and they fell asleep in the car on the way back to the resort but then woke up when we got there. It was such a waste of time. So we started out just keeping our days a little shorter by getting a late start and staying until close or getting an early start and leaving after dinner. Our son also would nap every day from about 1-3 in the stroller and we would take advantage of that time to take our DD on rides that he couldn't go on.

I'm definitely of the opinion that you need AT LEAST 7 days to do it right and not be rushed. Especially when your kids are still little. We just got back from a quick trip to see our daughter march with her band at MK and it was so crazy. We did all 4 parks but it was go-go-go every second. My feet hurt so bad every night and we were all like zombies when we got home! Lol
 
saraheliz said:
We do a combination over a week. A couple of packed hard core park days, with lighter/shorter ones in between. No completely no park days but that's only for a week- if it was longer we maybe would throw one in!
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A

I was thinking of that lighter day. It's been a while since I've been down, but Animal Kingdom use to be a half-day park, which meant being able to head back to the Magic Kingdom. Now that Avatar is in there I don't know if Animal Kingdom is still a half-day or a full. I would suspect a full-day, but I could be wrong.

TheOneWithTheTriplets said:
I did 9 park days over a 9 niggt stay with my 5 year olds and really liked that set up. On days where we were trying to make it to fireworks, we went in later so that they'd make it through to the end of the night. Other days, we RDed but left the park early for a nice dinner and then bed time close to when they're asleep at home.

Having multiple days in the parks allowed us to be more flexible in the daily plan, go slower, and shift things around so that must dos that got missed on an earlier day could be added back later. We didn't have any full resort days, but we had a couple of nice afternoons by the pool before doing night activities in the parks.
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That's a great idea, sleep late to make it easier to make it to the fireworks.
 
bdiddy said:
On our first trip our kids were 2 and 4. They are now 12 and 14. We've been 7 times over the last 10 years. What we did when they were young - and we always did a week, 7 night stay. Is we would either go in late or end the day early. And take a day to spend at the resort swimming and do Disney Springs. We've only done the waterparks once but we don't like to waste time at them when we are at Disney. We have several big waterparks around us and granted they aren't "Disney" but it's just one of those things where we would rather be in the parks. If we absolutely have to swim, it's fine at the resort.

Anyway, before our first trip, I had read how when you have young kids, you should leave and go back to the resort to rest and nap and we tried that once and never again. It is WAY too much of a hassle to leave and come back. Especially when you are dealing with little ones and strollers. And that trip we had our own car and they fell asleep in the car on the way back to the resort but then woke up when we got there. It was such a waste of time. So we started out just keeping our days a little shorter by getting a late start and staying until close or getting an early start and leaving after dinner. Our son also would nap every day from about 1-3 in the stroller and we would take advantage of that time to take our DD on rides that he couldn't go on.

I'm definitely of the opinion that you need AT LEAST 7 days to do it right and not be rushed. Especially when your kids are still little. We just got back from a quick trip to see our daughter march with her band at MK and it was so crazy. We did all 4 parks but it was go-go-go every second. My feet hurt so bad every night and we were all like zombies when we got home! Lol
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My daughter is too old for a nap, but that hasn't stopped me from trying to get her to take one :D, but I figure if we need a break we could do the People Mover or a sit down meal, scheduled of course.
 
CapeCodTenor said:
That's a great idea, sleep late to make it easier to make it to the fireworks.
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Well, my kids never actually managed to sleep late. By the end up the week, we had successfully shifted things so that they were waking up at their normal hour, rather than a full hour early: Disney excitement at its finest. What we did do is chill in the room and let them veg out to Dis Jr on the mornings where we were attempting a late night. Even if it's not as good as sleeping, sitting still in bed left them with more in reserve than if we were touring parks all morning.

They typically have a 7:30pm bed time and we managed to keep them up for an 8pm HEA (they fell asleep before OuaT though), 8pm Fantasmic, 9pm Illuminations, and 7:15pm RoL (that was easiest, of course).
 
We are going with our three youngest boys- ages 7,5, and 1. We are doing six nights, so five full days. We do parks Mon-Wed-Fri, and do pool/relax days Tues-Thurs. My kids are really big on pool time so they look forward to that just as much as park days, and they've never had an issue with doing a full day. We're fine as long as we schedule a sit down meal to take a break at some point.
 
CapeCodTenor said:
When I was flying solo I tried, and succeeded, in packing in quite a bit. However, subsequent trips I would try and pack a lot in in the morning with the rides I wanted to ride, by taking advantage of rope drop, then slow it down in the afternoon. Security post 9/11 is something I didn't think of. I guess it depends on the time of day and how early you get there, but in general, how long does it take to get through security?
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We got to the parks between around 11 usually. Once we actually got in the security lines, it took anywhere from 10-30 mins. We did have 2 small bags with not much in them and a stroller, but honestly, that didn't seem to affect how long security took. Sometimes we'd send someone in our group through the bagless line and they'd be getting through security around the same time we were.

Once you factor in the time walking from your room to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, the ride to the park, then walking from the bus stop to security and getting in, it took us anywhere from 45-75 mins to get from our room to inside the park, with it usually being toward the longer end. Getting from the front gate to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, the bus ride, then back to our room took anywhere from 30-90 mins. It was more often in the 45 minute range, but coming back late from MK always seemed to take forever waiting for buses.
 
LongLiveRafiki said:
We got to the parks between around 11 usually. Once we actually got in the security lines, it took anywhere from 10-30 mins. We did have 2 small bags with not much in them and a stroller, but honestly, that didn't seem to affect how long security took. Sometimes we'd send someone in our group through the bagless line and they'd be getting through security around the same time we were.

Once you factor in the time walking from your room to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, the ride to the park, then walking from the bus stop to security and getting in, it took us anywhere from 45-75 mins to get from our room to inside the park, with it usually being toward the longer end. Getting from the front gate to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, the bus ride, then back to our room took anywhere from 30-90 mins. It was more often in the 45 minute range, but coming back late from MK always seemed to take forever waiting for buses.
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Really?! Wow! I think I'd just stay in the park.
 
CapeCodTenor said:
Really?! Wow! I think I'd just stay in the park.
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Yeah, that's a big part of why we stay at the parks all day. Sometimes it may not seem like it should take long to travel, but adding in the walking distance and waiting for buses/to get through security really does add up. We only park hopped once from Epcot to MK using the monorail and that took nearly an hour and a half from gate to gate. Granted, that particular instance was after Epcot closed so it was crazy busy, but still. If you have your own car or use Uber, you might have better luck not spending so much time travelling to and from the parks, but I haven't tried that.
 
We never commando park tour. Nor do we do "resort" days...we stay offsite but even still don't take days away from the parks. We're there for WDW, so we go every day. However, the length of the day will vary. Sometimes we do 10am to 4pm, sometimes it's 4pm to 10pm, sometimes it's noon to 8pm or any variation. We don't do mid-day breaks intentionally either, they don't make sense to us. Once we're there we stay until we're ready to leave, but it's never open to close. We mix it up so we don't wear out.

Our experience with security is a bit different. I can't recall ever waiting more than maybe 10 minutes, usually it's much less.

Our travel time from "door to door" when we stay offsite will be anywhere from 30-55 minutes depending on the park (MK being the longest) and where our rental is.
 
Informative vid by Dreams Unlimited!
Here's the link if anyone else wants to view it:


We visit Disney differently depending on how many days we're there. Our average visit is currently 12.5 nights cuz I have to get back all that moolah paid for our APs;).

The longer the stay the less "efficiently" we visit the parks although there are constants no matter the trip length: keep transport to a minimum and try eating at the park being visited if at all possible. The latter is easy at 3 of the 4 parks for us. We are not fond of the hustle and bustle, and general quality of food at MK, so frequently eat at nearby resorts.

The adults are early risers, the children not so much so, and only one of us is interested in rope dropping so we have set up a definitive compromise for our next trip: kiddos can sleep late as long as they are finished eating breakfast in the lounge by 10:00 AM and meet us outside by 11:00 AM. Adults will be out and about early in the morn walking and/or swimming laps in the pool. In line with that no FPs were made before 11:45 AM and the current last one is around 4:00 ish. This coming stay we were given 2 anytime FPs p/p per day for 4 days so the spontaneity is appreciated and will be used as we will. Cheaper than buying extra CL FPs.

We prefer to eat a lot of our dinners at DS in part because we don't have to waste time searching for ADRs in the parks. Nice especially since our current resort (BWI) is only about a 25 minute bus ride to Disney Springs and the buses run pretty regularly to that locale.

We travel with children who are no longer in diapers, enjoy walking, and thus can travel light with only one of us waiting on the parks' bag check lines. Kind of funny when I present my wristlet for inspection as I observe some of the other park visitors but at least security gets me through fast and with a smile.
 
LongLiveRafiki said:
What we like to do is stay for 12 nights and have 5-6 park days. Arrival and departure days we don't ever do anything due to when our flights are. We alternate a park day then a water park day all throughout the trip. We don't pack as much as we can into each park day. We do stop and smell the roses (sometimes literally as on this last trip with a toddler and a 7 yo) and don't rush between attractions, but we still get a good bit done. We usually spend around 10 hrs in the park (a little more if the parks are open later), getting there around 11 and staying until close, as rope drop wouldn't work for any of us. We don't take mid-day breaks at the resort, but will stop for a snack when needed and prefer one sit-down meal a day. The water parks we also get to around 10:30 or 11 and stay until close, go to a restaurant for dinner, then back to the resort sometimes to swim more.

We've thought about length of stay passes, but once you factor in the time to get to a park and go through security, we'd rather just stay the whole day than eat up 1.5 hrs in round trip transportation just to spend a couple hours in the park each day. We also like our break days, especially when it's hot, to relax at the water park/pool and give our feet a little bit of a break.
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Wow ! I could have written the same reply ! Basically do the same ! We are going for 14 days in July, and doing 8 park days - we don't count arrival and departure days as park days - we usually do DS on arrival day - maybe a quick bite ( the kids love "Blaze") and catch a movie - we do have our set days, ADRS and FP set up - ( tough traveling with kids ( 8 and 13) and just "winging it" - we have our fave restaurants and want to make sure we are able to get a table, so always book ADRS
 
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