How Long to DO Disney (FL)?

I haven't fully read the previous responses, but I highly recommend the park hopper pass. It is one ticket that allows you to go to different parks as many times as you want, in a given time period (they have different intervals, depending how long you want to stay).

Good luck!

I would say 10 days because there are so many other attractions than just Disney if you really want to get it all in. We went last summer and went to Gatorworld it was great, oldtown is another outing that the kids loved, we went to a petting farm, minature golf, and drove to daytona beach spend the day at the beach. We stayed two nights at the nickelodeon hotel and we did disney. Since it may be six of you going you might want to try a vacation home instead of a hotel. On our last trip we were a party of 8 and we rented a home went food shopping cooked on the grill, and ate out we had the mix. The house was beautiful a big pool in the back, a play-room and in the gated community it had a club-house that showed movies and a huge pool with a slide for the kids, a gym, etc, etc. Here are some sites you could check for renting a home www.floridasunvacationhomes.com, www.homeaway.com, www.vacationhomerentals.com. Be sure to really check the weather we went to magic kingdom 20 minutes after we got there it rained and never stopped we spent five hours and my kids were only able to get on 5 rides they do not reimburse you if it rains or give you a voucher to return. Hundreds of dollars wasted!

Get the Steven Birmbaum disney world book. It comes out every few years and has all the updated info. Hotels, food, parks, transportation etc. also I would suggest doing only disney. don't do a lot of outside stuff. or if your staying outside and only doing disney for a day then plan the other stuff. stay onsite if its an option for you. bringing mom along to help with the kids is a great idea. especially if you have an infant. rent or bring your own stroller. you will need it. no just for the infant but for the others as well lol. bring a big tote type bag you will need that also. make sure you have hats for all the kids.
must see's at disney
sci fi theater is our fav for food
great movie ride is a fav and the kids love everything at epcot

I would say do at the bare minimum a week. There's so much to see and do! Here's a helpful site: disboards.com They go into depth with any question you could want and since it's a forum you can ask your own questions of people who have been there/done that. At the disboards there is also a list of the deals that Disney offers so you can check that out too.

Our first time we stayed five nights and that was plenty. We stayed at a moderate resort - staying in a park resort is the best option for extra hours in the parks. Check out Disney's web site and allears.net. Have fun.

Nobody does vacation fun like Disney.

My wife and I took all 8 of our kids twice and stayed for a week the first time and two weeks the second time . . . and that wasn't enough. The special meal plans you can get if you stay at a Disney resort are great. A friend told me about his experience (meal plan) with his family and they loved it. (He didn't tell me until I had returned.) If you can arrange to participate in a character breakfest, do so. To save money on meals, if you don't get Disneys meal plan, we bought buckets of chicken for dinner, two liter bottles of soda and potato chips and tortilla chips from one of the grocery stores and ate at our hotel around the pool or in our room. Sam's has an eating area and you can buy rotisserie chicken there or already cooked pizza much cheaper than anywhere else. Walmart has the least expensive souviniers, including t-shirts. Go to the parks the first day. Then go to Walmart for the souviniers, and go back to the parks wearing your Disney t-shirts, etc. the next day(s). (If you REALLY want to go cheap, e-mail me.) When our kids were older, we would pair up the oldest one with the youngest one, the second oldest one with the second youngest one, etc. for the morning. We'd meet for lunch ($.99 hamburgers from McD's, Burger King, Wendy's, etc and cans of soda from the grocery store) and then let our kids go off, in pairs of their choice on their own and we had the littlest ones. They had a wonderful time. We had a wonderful time too. Then we'd meet for dinner. And we'd meet to go home. Some of the kids chose to stay with us some of the time and dad would buy the ice cream or what ever as we visited the attractions.

If you are into gardening, Epcot had a behind-the-scenes garden tour that is great, but the number of openings are limited.

The last time we went we bought the 10-day park hopper that included the water parks, but the water parks weren't counted as part of the 10 days. Typhoon Lagoon will be wonderful for your older two. They will have a blast. 10 days was not enough and we had to choose which attractions to do and which to pass up. :(

Disney has a cruise line. You can get a 7-day deal and spend 3 days on a cruise and 4 days at the parks, or 4 days on the cruise and 3 days at the parks. (They also have a 7 day cruise.) The only bad part of that will be knowing how much you missed at the Disney World parks. You'll want to schedule another trip. This is a wonderful time to schedule your trip because the tourism industry is hurting and the discounts are fantastic.

If you've never been on a cruise and you have enough time, a Disney Cruise is worth your time. They have a children's program that is the envy of all others. (Princess Cruise Lines also has a fantastic kids program. Our kids couldn't wait to finish breakfest to go to their kids program, and hated to leave when we picked them up for dinner.)

Universal Studios had the best Luau entertainment of anywhere we've been, including the three we went to in Hawaii. Hawaii wins on ambeince, but Universal wins on entertainment. (There is a "Henry the VIII" dinner threatre in Orlando, but it was worse than awful. Not a Univeral Studios program. Hopefully its no longer in business.)

I could write more, but books have already been written. Good Luck.

I would spend at least a week there. There's so much to do that it's almost impossible to do it all in one visit. The last couple of times that we went, we built in rest days where we would do nothing but play by the pool all day. It helped alot!
There are a bunch of websites out there but the one that I like is mousesavers.com. It's filled with tons of suggestions, discounts, etc. I would also suggest that you may want to consider staying in a condo type setting. It's more comfortable than a hotel and in alot of ways it's cheaper because you can make your own meals, do your laundry, etc. We usually stay at the Hilton grand vacations club on international drive. It's just minutes away ffrom downtown Disney. If you want to stay on Disney grounds, Disney has their vacation club properties. You can look onmousesavers.com to get info on doing that.

Have fun!!!!

I would do a week. I would stay at any of the hotels, even the cheap ones. Cause really how much are you in the room. You might even find a condo that way you can eat breakfast at the condo and make lunches. Food is expensive, but if you are going for it.. you can get the meal package, which is nice it includes the real meals ( not the popcorn sancky stuff) and might keep you eating healthier. My hubby and I did this at Bush Gardens when we went last year and for a snack, we got strawberries and water instead of the popcorn and other stuff. Plan on 2 days for the Magic kingdom, that is where the kids are going to have the most fun. But I would also go to Epcot, when you and your hubby are alone go on soaring it is awesome.

Sign up for the princess breakfast for the girls, they will love it and get pictures with all the characters as I think they come to all the tables. Or/and have lunch in the castle.
Disney is a lot of action, I would take my time. Allow for rest peroids as even the 5 & 7 yrold will be tired. you may want to take a day just to lounge at the pool in the middle of the week for full family rest.

We have always done one park one day cause my parents could not afford to take us longer, but we went to FL. every other Christmas so we always went back.

Good luck, I hope you have a terrific time.

There is a great website www.touringplans.com that gives a crowd calendar for each day of the year and the best parks to attend that day. They also give "touring plans" to help avoid waiting in lines. If you buy the book Unofficial Guide to Disney, you get a discount on joining the website, but there is a small charge either way. But the plans really work! Another good site is mousesavers.com.

I think you will need at least 2 days each for MK and EP. I day at AK and DS should be fine. So that is at least 6 days at the parks. Then if you want to do a water park as well, that is at least another day and you'll have to decide on SeaWorld and Universal. The tourning plan site recommends leaving the park in the middle of the day if you have young kids and relaxing/napping at the hotel/pool for a few hours so everyone can recharge. We didn't do this because it was too cold when we were there to use the pool. If you choose to do this, you might not need any "down days". But if you do the parks from opening to closing and have naps in the park, the kids will be worn out and probably will need a few down days mixed in. The parks are definitely less crowded in the AM, so if you possibly can, you want to get there when they open. But then you also won't want to miss the fireworks at night... So you have to decide what works. We just went all day and had some down time in the parks, but if it were warmer, it might have been good to go to the hotel.

I recommend NOT going to Disney Studios on a day that they have Fantasmic- the light show- at night. Currently it is running Thurs and Sunday nights, but you should check this. The park is so crowded on those days. Better to go on a quieter day then use "Park Hopper" to go back on one of the nights of the show- just get there at least an hour early.

Where to stay... if you can get a good deal at a disney resort, that is the best experience. Sometimes they offer "free dining" depending on when you are going, if you stay at one of their resorts. Or a substantial gift card that can be used on food or anything else at the parks. We didn't do this our last time because it was a last minute trip and we got an incredible deal through hotwire. Again, if you will be spending a lot of time at the pool, a disney resort is your best bet. Port Orleans Riverside is a good choice.

Hope this helps. Have a great time!! And DON'T MISS Soarin' at Epcot.