Vacation Length...???...

I was looking at the calendar for next year and I have a choice between a 12 night vacation or 3 4-night vacations. I'm kind of torn. I have a 2 1/2 flight. If I do 12 nights I think I miss 3 days of work, if I do the 3 4-nights I don't think I miss any work which will free me up for other vacations. Money for the flights is not a huge constraint, but getting away from work is. I also kind of like the idea of maybe three different vacations with three different resorts. I've really enjoyed my prior long weekends at WDW. It seems like we packed more into less time.

Decisions, decisions...

It takes us about 6 hours to drive down. Usually we leave after work and get there LATE that night and then up early to hit the first park. November will be my longest trip. We normally do long weekends as I travel on Mondays and Thursdays for work. Normal trips are Thursday-Sunday with 3 days in the parks. I am looking forward to 5 days and think a 2 week would actually be perfect. NOW, if I could just get the time off and someone to cover 4 travel days for me...

We have a 16 hour drive so 10 days in the parks 2 days at DTD and 1 or 2 days at Kennedy work for us. I wish we could get 14 day tickets here in the states!

As a brit who normally does 2 weeks.. If you're going to spend 8/9 hours on a plane you might as well make the stay worth it.

I'll admit that 14 days just Disney is a bit too long. (And like you guys I'm a Disney nut! )

It's best to break it up - Go over to "The Dark Side" (universal) - Do a days shopping.

Remember to take the time out to relax - There's plenty of time - You'll not likely miss anything.

And the chances are you'll be planning your next trip within a week of getting home anyway!

We are up to 9 days in the resort and that's fine. Our flight is about 4 hrs because of no direct flights from Oklahoma. If we drive it's 20hrs.

8/9 hours frum the UK plus a 1hour flight to get to the UK.
14 days is a minimum for us

I would love a longer vacation however with work that is not possible. We fly so I try to book our flight for morning so we have half a day when we get down to Disney. I would love 10 days of park time and maybe someday I will get my wish.

I have been working out my itinerary for this years trip out recently we are going for 15 nights which is a day extra than usual and I'm struggling to fit everything in, so if money, holiday leave weren't an issue I think id like to go for 3 weeks and hopefully fit everything in!

I think my ideal would be 8 days in Disney, 1 1/2 days at Universal, and 1 1/2 days for exploring the resorts and swimming. Hubby's work would never let that happen tho ...So maybe I'll just have to do it by myself after DS is out of the house in 16 years

Our third trip in 2008 we ended up 14 nights on site by pure accident..We tried to book another two centre vacation,but our I- Drive hotel..The Wyndham was fully booked in July & August..Our travel agent then said she would give us a good deal if we stayed 14 nights at PORS...At first we thought it would be too much..It turned out we loved it..We done one day outside the bubble as in 2010... But we've done Seaworld twice..Uni/IOA..Three times...Yes and Harry Snotters...Phew! ( That queue for two hours and the wand still doesn't work ) All the shopping Malls ( I've still got trainers from 2008 ) So this year we have a 12 night and 13 day vacation...You wanna know something...With all my must see..do...eat...drink...The only sleeping I'll be doing is 6 hours a night.. Bring it on...

Hubby is a partner in the company that I work for. Although that sounds like we can take vacation whenever we want, the exact opposite is true. He's the one that schedules work for everyone in the office. Without him there, people don't know what to do. So our vacations have become long weekends only. I would love to do a full week (which, if we include weekends can become 9 or 10 days), but that's just not possible. Our flight itself is less than 2 hours, but if I include getting up early to get to the airport at least an hour before the flight leaves and also include picking up the rental car, driving to WDW and checking in, total travel time is probably closer to 6 or 7 hours. This trip I did manage to get him to go for 6 days, but we're leaving early on the last day, so that one really doesn't count.

We always drive and it is 16 hours of driving time. We usually leave on a Friday morning, stop for the night when we are tired and usually arrive in Disney World around noon. So far most of our trips have been 7 nights in the World. I would love to do a 14 night trip some day. We both get 4 weeks of vacation but do not want to leave Mister for more than a week at a time. I could never take off work for more than 2 weeks at one time. Even taking two weeks would really be pushing it.

My last trip was 4 nights and upcoming trip in May is 3 nights. On those shorter trips, we really focus on 2 parks (MK and EPCOT are our faves!). In past years, my family has usually gone for a week, but we normally stayed offsite and only went to the parks a few days (shopping day, pool day, etc). This fall, I'm really excited to be in the 'Disney Bubble' for a full week! We are staying onsite and plan to do all 4 parks and really get the full, immersive experience. The direct flight from Nashville to MCO is less than 2 hours.

In a perfect world, I would spend a week in the bubble every trip, but with work and expenses (and the propensity to visit more than 1x per year), that's not always possible. Although I couldn't be more excited about our fall trip, I think it's fun to do multiple shorter trips because I like to see the different highlights that happen from season to season (Food & Wine, Flower & Garden, holiday decor, etc). Also, the less time between trips 'home', the better!!

I have always done a week trip. It is just over a 2 1/2 hour direct flight from Detroit. For our upcoming honeymoon we are flying in Thursday night and leaving the following Saturday afternoon, so a full 8 days in the bubble. I am so excited to be spending as much time as we are there this trip.

It's funny but my sis in law comes from Los Angeles..It takes her just over 4 hours to Chicago then another flight lasting over 8 hours to London,then another flight lasting just over 1 hour to Scotland..So after 14 hours flying,she goes thro it all again 8 days later..Takes her a full day to get here,and a full day going home..She's a nurse and that's her holidays used up..We have done 3 weeks twice,but that was on the island of Crete..Loved saying cheerio to folks after the two weeks..LOL

It's a 26 hour drive or almost 3 hour flight. We've done both but I prefer driving. We usually drive and stay a week at Disney. Last year we flew and stayed at Disney for 2 weeks. I loved the extra week! If we had a villa with kitchen I could definitely stay even longer ( I was ready to cook my own meals after the 2 weeks).

It takes about 2.5-3 hours flight from Newark to Orlando Intl Airport. I took a long-distance Amtrak train on my last trip because I was fed up with the airlines and all the hassles of going through the airport. It took about 18 hours from Newark Penn Station to the Kissimee Amtrak station, then an additional half hour from the Kissimmee Amtrak Station to my resort. I learned never to pay coach seat and I'm willing to spend more on a roomette or bedroom sleeping compartment. I had plenty of leg room in coach but not much space width wise. Not only that, sleeping on a recliner chair was hard. (I can't handle sleeping in my seat on long distance flights!) But other than that, the employees were nice, I got to move about the train and the scenery was nice to see going by all the towns on the rails. I don't think I could do a long solo drive to Disney.

As for my ideal vacation, I would prefer somewhere around 11-12 days. Two weeks seems too much and I know 6 days doesn't really suffice for me. A little more rest days and not feeling the urge to rush everything would help tremendously and put my mind at ease.

I would love to do 7 days but the cost and the time off work just doesn't work for me. I do get 5 weeks off but I can only take one week at a time because of the type of work I do.

yes, 7 days was just wayyyyy too short from the UK, not gonna do that again... unless I get another cheapy deal lol

We have gone for over 3 weeks, I think in 2012 it was 24/25 days and this year on October we are going back for 26 days. And no matter how long you go for, you still find things to fill that time with!

For WDW we like to do 14 -16 days. It's a full day of travel for us. , 2 days if we are leaving DS at his grandparents. Our upcoming DL trip is 8 nights. Gives us enough time to do what we want.
We tend to do longer trips ever few years. Wish we were closer. But we do plan on having at least 2 more short trips to DL next year, gotta use that AP.

For me it depends on who is going. If just me and DH, I think we could entertain ourselves for two weeks, easy peasy. We could never be gone that long, though...maybe when we just have one at home or have them all grown and gone.

With the family, 7 nights is about the limit. The kids get worn out, for sure, but that seems to be enough days to get a mix of parks, pool, food, and other resort fun.

When I take school groups, we stay five nights, doing two YES workshops. That is perfect, because it's not enough time to "hang by the pool for a day" or "go to Downtown Disney", which keeps them corralled in the parks.

The longest Disney world vacation DH and I have ever been able to take it 4 nights/5days. We are a 2 1/2 hours drive away from Orlando and we go to WDW every possible chance we have.

Our typical Disney trips are either 2 nights/3 days or 1 night/2 days. DH only gets one week vacation a year, for the next three years. After that, he'll get two weeks. We would rather split our 30-40 days a year up into long weekends instead of using his vacation all in one shot. In the past 6 years, the longest we've gone without a Disney trip is 93 days. We don't go at all June-August. All the other months of the year, a Disney trip is always just a few weeks away. We really love not having to go more than a few weeks, 9 months out of the year, without a visit to Disney world!

But I would love to spend a full week at Disney some day. Preferably in a deluxe Disney resort

Flying down takes roughly 2 1/2 hours for us, but then add in another 2 hours to get to the nearest major airport, plus extra time in case traffic issues slow us down, plus another couple of hours on top of that to negotiate security, checking baggage, etc. At least once we're in Orlando it's just a walk to ME with nothing to worry about.

We usually go for seven nights, which means two travel days and six full days. It's never enough.

So, my dream trip will be some day when we have not quite so many cats (although I'm not wishing that day to come anytime soon because I love the little buggers and don't want to lose any of them). We'll get the truck checked out at the shop to make sure it's in tip-top shape, get the travel trailer checked as well, pack everything up, put the cats in carriers, and drive down to Ft. Wilderness. If I have the cats along I won't worry about them home all alone with just the pet sitter coming in twice a day, so we can stay as long as we want. I'm thinking at least two weeks, maybe even longer once we're retired.

If I get back to Disney World it would be for 2 weeks, it would have to be at least 10 days. I don't know if I could put up with the crowds and that food for 2 weeks though, but if Im going that far again I would wanna make the most of it.
To get home from Disney World we had a 3 hour flight to Dallas and then a 16 hour flight from Dallas to Brisbane. Then a 3 hour car trip from Brisbane airport to my house. So basically it's 19 hours worth of flights and 3 hours of driving, and crossing back over the international date line you lose a whole day.

I sooooo understand those of you who come in from outside the US making your stay longer. For us it's a four-hour flight (tops) and we have soooo many obligations that it's a tight squeeze to get a week.

Someone at Monday nite Chorale rehearsal asked us the other day why we were flying out on a Tuesday and returning on a Monday since Mondays especially are more expensive to fly. So I had to clarify that we are leaving Chorale rehearsal at 9PM on a Monday nite in Southwest Wisconsin, then driving across state to check in at midnight at a hotel that offers park and fly. Then we leave at 6:46 AM so VERY early rise to make airport.
When we return on Monday, we again will drive across the state (stop at respective houses to drop off clothes and briefly adore the cats) and then drive back to Chorale rehearsal.
The person asking was surprise and said, "Won't the director understand that you will miss one rehearsal? We are missing the concert to go!" We replied, "The director wouldn't understand because he and his wife are WITH US ON THE TRIP!"
That is how our schedule of obligations work and so we are grateful for what we are going to experience and move forward!
Maybe that is another perk of Disney - grateful for the time and always leave wanting more?

we have done a week commando trip but its got to be 14 day s for us brits

Only once had a 7 day holiday and that was to a village in Crete which we had been to in the past over a dozen times..Because we knew ever shop,restaurant, and bars, we were ok with that..But we were originally looking at a 10 day WDW vacation this year,then a new flight option arrived courtesy of Tinkerbell...

So your whole family is flying to Orlando on Tinkerbells shoulders ??

In a funny way yes...We were days away from making a European vacation then received an E - Mail from Disney with 40% off deluxe resorts if made before March...Then another E - Mail the next day from Virgin Atlantic for a January flight sale...I'am sure Tink had something to do with it...

we always do at least 10 days Friday to Sunday, but once we did 15 days and it was awesome