DVC Members: How often do you go to the park during your trips?

[Shellyred8]

We go every day, but not full days. We usually head to the parks around 9-9:30, to miss the rope-drop crowd. Our first 3 fast passes are usually for late morning, so we use those up and then see how things are going. Sometimes we will try for more fast passes at that park. Other times, we will just wander around the park for a bit and then head out for a late lunch and a lazy afternoon. We then usually head back to a park in the evening to catch one of the fireworks shows. We might see if we can score a fast pass while we are at that park too.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We go most days and we make sure to have breaks during the days that we are at the parks and to have a couple down days to go resort hopping, go to DS, and to lay around by the pool. We typically go for 9 nights/10 days (sometimes longer) and like to go to the parks a couple of days then have a down day, then go a couple more days then have another down day, then go back 1 or 2 more days before our departure day, which on arrival days and departure days we tend not to do any of the parks either.

 

[AdamsMum]

We go every day, but not full days. We usually head to the parks around 9-9:30, to miss the rope-drop crowd. Our first 3 fast passes are usually for late morning, so we use those up and then see how things are going. Sometimes we will try for more fast passes at that park. Other times, we will just wander around the park for a bit and then head out for a late lunch and a lazy afternoon. We then usually head back to a park in the evening to catch one of the fireworks shows. We might see if we can score a fast pass while we are at that park too.

That's me. Didn't answer your poll because none of it applies to me.

 

[Ansky]

We go every day, but not full days. We usually head to the parks around 9-9:30, to miss the rope-drop crowd. Our first 3 fast passes are usually for late morning, so we use those up and then see how things are going. Sometimes we will try for more fast passes at that park. Other times, we will just wander around the park for a bit and then head out for a late lunch and a lazy afternoon. We then usually head back to a park in the evening to catch one of the fireworks shows. We might see if we can score a fast pass while we are at that park too.

This is pretty close to what we do as well. Use up our 3 FPs in the morning then book another for the evening usually in a different park. We head back to the resort around lunch to rest/nap/swim then head back out to catch a nighttime show. So only spend a few hours in the morning and a couple at night in the park. Seems to work best for us right now. We'll see if things change in the future.

 

[ray3127]

We have had annual passes since 2015, before we bought DVC. Having APs definitely reduces the pressure to get the most out of your ticket by being a park commando every day. Also, we still have young kids who can be pretty random, and their desires and needs change as they are getting older. We used to be very regimented about the afternoon break and we'd all take a nap at the resort, so we had to have PHs. Now that we've gotten to resort hop and park hop more, we are discovering resort restaurants that we all like, savoring pool time, and are much more relaxed about what we do each day, and how we do it. I still book FPs for every day, but if we are not feeling it that day, or decide we want to quit early, I don't stress about missing a FP. On our last couple of trips we also tried to take in more shows and parades and not have the whole day uber-planned-out. On our upcoming trip (9 days!!) we are talking about theoretically taking a day off from the parks, but looking at our plans, we can't seem to find a day (and FP) we are willing to "give up"! So, we will play it by ear.

(Also, we got the PAP+ which has water parks on it and have yet to visit a water park...)

Love this post. We bought DVC with the hope of getting to a place like this, where we don't feel the pressure of a regimented schedule (which has this far accompanied our trips). It's nice to hear this work out for others; over time and several visits, I hope we can get there, too!

 

[kboo]

Love this post. We bought DVC with the hope of getting to a place like this, where we don't feel the pressure of a regimented schedule (which has this far accompanied our trips). It's nice to hear this work out for others; over time and several visits, I hope we can get there, too!

We are here now, and had loosely planned to do the Easter egg hunt in the UK this morning, and dinner in Germany at Biergarten. We’d also booked 3 FP, including Frozen Ever After. The only thing that went “according to plan” today was dinner at Biergarten. We didn’t use a single FP. (We rode FEA standby in the AM, canceled our afternoon FEA FP (our 7yo was not happy), booked an illuminations FP, and ended up watching from france. Oh well.