Before I had children, I was a huge fan of shorter trips to Disney World. I’d usually go for three nights, sometimes as little as two, going from morning until night. Happily, because my visit was so short, I never went home feeling exhausted. What I found when I had children however, was that this type of trip doesn’t work very well, at least with the under-five crowd. The biggest issue is that kids take a while to adjust to their surroundings; in our case, the first night or two they tend not to sleep very well, which makes for a very grumpy day for all of us in the parks. And if anything goes wrong–and if you’re a parent, you know how high the potential for that is–your whole trip is pretty much doomed.
Having said that, probably the biggest reason people don’t take shorter, more frequent trips is a big one: Cost. Go for just two long weekends a year and you’re better off buying an annual pass because ticket prices are more expensive on the front end (the first three days, as opposed to just a few dollars a day after day four). Plus, if you’re not close enough that you can drive, airfare can really add up. From a financial standpoint then, longer trips are ideal.
Still, I love taking shorter trips. I love the excitement of always being in “planning mode” even if it’s just for a short weekend trip. When I come back from a trip and don’t have another one planned or when I have one planned so far out that it seems like it’s never going to happen, I really start to miss Disney World, which is how I’m starting to feel right now as I hit the six month mark from my last trip. This got me thinking about the pros and cons of longer vs. shorter trips. Here are a few:
Benefits of a longer trip:
1. Opportunity to relax and really immerse yourself in the experience.
2. If something goes wrong (sickness, lost luggage, weird weather) you still have time to make up for it.
3. Paying airfare once.
Cons of a longer trip:
1. Can be difficult to get time off of work and school.
2. Burn out. No matter how much you love Disney, at some point you have to slow down. You may even get tired of being there.
3. If you’ve been going like a true theme park commando for a week or more, it’s hard not to feel like you need a vacation from your vacation when you get home.
Benefits of a shorter trip:
1. You stay in planning mode, so it’s less likely you’ll experience the post-Disney blahs when you get home.
2. You get to enjoy different times of the year: Food and Wine, Flower and Garden, Christmas. You don’t just have to pick just one. You can do all of them.
3. It’s easier to take a long weekend off rather than an entire week or more. This is especially true with kids who are in school, which allows you to go during slower times of the year.
4. It’s more okay to splurge. Two nights at the Grand Floridian look a lot more affordable than an entire week.
Cons of a shorter trip:
1. You have to try hard to see everything you want to see.
2. Little flexibility for minor disasters. If something goes wrong, you’re out of luck.
3. The cost of park admission and airfare. There are ways around this. You can buy an annual pass, which confers other benefits like resort discounts, and you can drive. But the bottom line is you will be paying more by taking more trips, even if number of nights you stay remains the same.
So what about you? Do you prefer longer or shorter stays? Given a choice, would you rather go on three short trips or one long trip every year?
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My family goes to Orlando every March, but it is NOT a Disney vacation… so I can usually only sneak one or two park days in. This is great for getting my Disney “fix” in and it's better than nothing… but I always leave wishing I had time to do more. Plus, since its just the one or two days a year, I always end up picking Magic Kingdom and/or Epcot and rarely get to do the water parks or AK and HS.
However, about every 2 or 3 years I get a nice long trip in. This August I'm going for two full weeks, two years ago I did two years with my best friend, and 4 years ago I did 10 days.
This is a pretty perfect setup, because I get that day or two in every year to leave me satisfied, yet wanting more… and then just when I feel like I miss it too much I get a nice long trip in and get to do everything I want.
Oh, and I drive and I'm a teacher… (I go on spring break and the summer), so paying for flights and taking time off isn't really a problem luckily.
Yeah I am really feeling it now, as it's been 7 months since we were there….and we have 7 to go. What is kind of helping is that at least we have our family vacation in August so I have that to look forward to. Not WDW but we'll be at Disney's Hilton Head so at least it will be Disney so that's ok lol!
Planning becomes much more complex once kids are in school. We took Melissa out of school a couple of times, but by the time she was in high school it was not really a possibility. Even now that she is in college, she wants to go too, so we do try to plan around her schedule if possible. And hubby won't do summers any more…so we end up kind of limited. Add in other events etc….hence 14 months between.
I console myself by living other's WDW vacations vicariously, and blogging about Disney. It helps….. 😉
Same here. Airfare really gets you. I've been doing one family trip and one weekend a year, but we definitely save for it and cut corners elsewhere.
Nancy, that is hard. I'm usually okay for about 5 months and then I start to get the itch to go.
MJP, congrats. I hope you enjoy every minute of your trip. I think that for a first family trip, going for longer is definitely better. With such a long trip, I'd say try to stick to a plan for the first few days so that you see everything you want to see and then take it easy. The only problem with a longer trip is that there's a tendency to put things off until “tomorrow” and then end up not doing everything you wanted to do.
If you haven't already bought some, get a really good sunscreen. The stuff they sell in the parks is expensive and not good for all day exposure, especially if you tend to burn. It's also thick and greasy. I like the Nutragena brands, although I'm super pale so you might not need that kind of protection. Hats are always a good idea too. If you'll be taking a stroller, you'll have some space for bringing extras like Crocs of flip flops for the kids. This time of year they will get wet (there are plenty of water features even if they don't go on rides that will get them wet), so it's nice to have a back up pair if you need them.
Have a wonderful time. Feel free to leave us a message on FB or here about your trip and post some food photos if you want!
Ideally, we would love one long trip and a couple of short trips each year. The problem is airfare, which is why we tend to do longer trips. Somehow I have to crack that nut…
I think for my family and me the longer trip will be the better option. I believe it will give us time to do ally the parks without feeling rushed. Plus it will give us pleanty of time for relaxing by the pool, and going on day trips around Orlando. We happen to be leaving in just a week and half. It will be our first time in WDW as a family, the trip is going to be for 14 days. Any advice??
Interesting post. We definitely are doing more shorter trips these days for exactly the reason that you mention: school and work schedules. It can be affordable but I really have to know pretty definitely when we plan to go back again, so that I can take advantage of things like an annual pass if it works for us. It is easier too, since we stay on DVC points so I don't have to pay for accommodations: makes it easier to justify travel expenses more than once. Even with that, some years we are able to go more than once (last year) and others, due to schedules, we just can't swing it. This time there will be 14 months between our visits…and I am just dying I miss WDW so much!