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MermaidHair
05-09-2011, 09:43 AM
I am an infrequent visitor. We try to go to DLR every 18 months or so for 3-5 days. I often get so envious of you locals who visit frequently but then I think, if I did live in the area, how often would I really get to the parks? My life is hectic enough would I really take advantage of an AP if I had one? I couldn't figure out how to post a poll (are they even active?) but I would love to know:

How many days do you go to DLR per year?
And, for the locals, about what percentage of those days are full days vs. just coming in for the evening?

MidwayManiac
05-09-2011, 10:03 AM
How many days do you go to DLR per year?

56. I wrote about it here (http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?164799-Midway-Maniac-March-21-2010-March-20-2011)



And, for the locals, about what percentage of those days are full days vs. just coming in for the evening?

We stay a minimum 4 hours, usually maximum 6 hours starting at either 8 in the morning or about 7 in the evening. We avoid mid days at DLR.

cstephens
05-09-2011, 10:47 AM
On average, we're there about every two weeks. With specific circumstances, we might go 3 weeks without visiting or we could be there every week or even twice in one week if something is going on.

We rarely spend an entire day there, except for something like July 4 or July 17 or New Year's Eve. We're usually there for a few hours in the morning or in the evening. Sometimes, we purposely go, and sometimes, we're in the area doing something else, and then we're done, so we head there for a bit.

And that doesn't count the couple days a year when we don't actually make it into a park and are instead just in Downtown Disney.

nbaum
05-09-2011, 11:14 AM
We usually go about once a month, but sometimes more, and in December we are there almost every week due to everyone's birthdays.

Tan Da Man
05-09-2011, 11:18 AM
Ive been 5 times this year, and I live in Arizona. Last year, I went probably close to 200 times..but I worked there ;)

Teddi
05-09-2011, 11:50 AM
We started going on a "regular" basis again in 2006 .. regular being once a year for 4 days like '06, '07, '08... though we did go twice in '08.

Then in 2009 we got annual passes and in that rolling year from when the passes first started I spent a total of 14 days in the park over 4 trips. I'm not local, I live in the SF area.... If I had my druthers, I'd be down there quarterly for about 3 days at a time.

mrsdisney68
05-09-2011, 11:59 AM
We live less then 2 hrs away and we have been going once a year for the last 11 years...We usually stay between 3-5 days...I have never done the ap thing we wouldn't have the time to go that much. I like how we do it, it seems really special when we go. I just can't bring myself to do anything different for our summer vacation. I just know I would be dissapointed if we did have our annual trip....

houseofmouse
05-09-2011, 12:01 PM
We usually go once a year in summer for about 4 or 5 times. We are there in CA for 2 1/2 weeks so we break up our days over that time. From 2008 on though I have been able to go 2 times a year for 4-5 days and 2010 was there in May for 4 1/2 days, July 5 days and took my DD for her birthday in December for 4 days. :) We have AP's. Next year 2012 we won't go at all though due to a WDW trip and a hopefully a trip to Texas. :)
We usually stay a full day even when my kids were younger. I really don't like leaving a coming back since in summer we stay with family and it's about 30 mins from the resort. If tiredness occurred we just took it easy and hung out for a while. It was never an issue.
This year we are doing 5 days in June/July.

trypticon
05-09-2011, 12:34 PM
I'm not a local. I don't know if I could stand living in Southern California, honestly. I know I don't make enough at the moment to live there at all. But if I could be in Disneyland full time, like as a job, or a place to live, you could bet I'd find a way to make it happen.

As much as I am crazy about the parks, I can tell by my frequent browsing of the forums here, that I'm not as insane about it as some other frequent posters who seem to have no interest besides trolling those who don't go to the parks as often as they do. There's no use in denying this observation, for anyone who read that line and suddenly feels inspired to do so. I've seen it enough on here the last few years that I do know it happens.

Though I live roughly 1000 miles away from the nearest Disney park, I am an annual pass holder. I don't get to go down as often as I'd like, but by the end of October this year, I should have spent approximately 21 full days at the park. I don't go back to the hotel to rest during the day, nor leave the parks during meal times. I figure I've paid a price to use the park utilities (toilets, rides, electricity, water, heating, etc,) for a full day visit, and you can bet that I'm going to take every opportunity to do so during a stay. It's the way I was raised to visit the park, honestly; my parents never left the park when we'd visit during my youth. Of course, we only stayed a day back then, as opposed to multiple days, or even a week like I do now. I just love the atmosphere of being surrounded by the things going on in the parks. The sights, smells, tastes, and most of the people make it a pure joy.

Average days per year would be at least five or six. This year is going to be a lot more though. Average length of stay during each individual day is going to be from opening to past park closing, allowing me to take in the last bits of Disney going on during the Main Streat shopping hour, which I've never been particularly interested in. Besides some of the pins that I find in the Emporium, I've rarely ever seen any merchandise in the stores that I'm interested in, although a few shirts have caught my eye from time to time before I saw their price tags.

lola2009
05-09-2011, 01:04 PM
I'm about 4 1/2 hours away from Dl and we go about every 2-3 months or so for an average of 3 days per visit. Our trips tend to be seasonal, we always go for spring break, summer break, halloween time and Christmas time. We have lots of birthdays in Jan and Feb so we will sometimes take a long weekend during those months. We are annual passholders and probably average about 18 days a year.

Malcon10t
05-09-2011, 01:55 PM
We are about 5.5 hours north. We average once a month or once every six weeks for a long weekend (leave after work on Thurs and drive back Sunday afternoon.) We also spend 2 weeks at Christmas.

3Princesses1Prince
05-09-2011, 02:14 PM
I'd love to live close enough to go for a day here and there. When we had APs we went 21 days over 4 trips in 9 months.

jananafish
05-09-2011, 02:31 PM
i live about 40 min from DL. we go anywhere from 1 - 3 times a month and park hop between DL & DCA. It depends on the month though; sometimes we go more often in the summer because of everyone's birthdays. I'm jonesing right now because I haven't been since the beginning of April!

depending on who i am going with we'll either get there really early in the morning, stay a few hours to do everything, then leave to go eat somewhere off site like zankou, or we'll just go "nap" in the car. then head back to the park after a second wind :) so we can watch fantasmic or the fireworks or WOC.

fairestoneofall
05-09-2011, 02:42 PM
My response is almost identical to cstephens (although we don't visit together). We got at least twice a month, but currently we haven't been since April 3rd since we just returned from 8 days at WDW. We usually just go in the mornings at RD and are gone by 130 or just go in the evenings from 4 to 9-ish.

About every three months we do an overnighter and stay on property and storm the parks for the better part of the day. I used to keep track of how many days we used our APs a year but I don't anymore. It's usually between 30 and 40.

In fact, I'll be there Thursday morning sans children to meet a dear friend for some adult DL time!

disneyobsessed
05-09-2011, 03:00 PM
We got 30 days on 6 trips with our last set of APs. I think 14 of those were partial days, most often because they were our driving days. We live about a 7 hour drive away.

3Princesses1Prince
05-09-2011, 03:14 PM
In fact, I'll be there Thursday morning sans children to meet a dear friend for some adult DL time!

Jealous!!! Say Hi to HB for me!

newhdplayer
05-09-2011, 03:42 PM
Over 30 visits in 2010, on track for about 40 in 2011.

Usually Saturdays, some week day (nights) mostly, and usually one or two 2-3 night overnight stays.

We're an hour away, otherwise it would be about 100 visits (back in the Lakewood days, almost every other night (back in the day of the PAP with preferred parking)

Drince88
05-09-2011, 03:53 PM
I'm likely done with DL trips in 2011 - so that was one trip in Feb for 8 days, but 1 day I didn't go into the parks at all, and another just for a few hours. And April for 4 days. I'll also be hitting WDW in early November for 8 days. Have to qualify for the Coast-to-Coast MouseAdventure!

Raven83
05-09-2011, 07:45 PM
When I used to live in Cali I was there every weekend. Now I live across the country and only go twice a year.

Sleeping Beauty's mom
05-09-2011, 08:24 PM
Live about an hour driving time away and we usually go about 15x/year. This is my 3rd year with a So cal pass, blocked out w/ Saturdays. Keeping in mind, that I work every other weekend, (gotta pay those pesky bills) and I do go often during the week. Probably go about 11 and leave about 8 or so. Usually its a planned day, not a spur of the moment of being in the area because I'm only in the area if we're going to see the mouse. :D

ChurroGirl
05-09-2011, 10:38 PM
DH and I live in Arizona and we go about 3-4 times a year. More if we could!
Each trip is usually 3-6 days except for our December trip we go 6-8 days.

This year we are only able to make it out 3 times but the third trip will be 8 or 9 days, we have yet to decide on that one!

Grandpa Louie
05-10-2011, 07:01 AM
Between one and three times per month.

MermaidHair
05-10-2011, 10:38 AM
Wow - I am enjoying hearing all your experiences. I realized when reading this that if my DH was as into the parks as I am (he loves going but requires different destinations in between visits) then we would probably be right there with some of you. Although, not with you, MidwayManiac - I don't think I could schedule in 56 days in one year - as much as I would want to!

DisneyFunFamily4
05-10-2011, 11:45 AM
When we lived in San Diego and had AP's we were at DLR at least once a month for the day, and I'd say about every other months for a long weekend at a DLR hotel. Occasionally we'd go for a evening but more often than not we'd make a day or a weekend out of it. The last month and a half or so before our AP's expired (and we moved back east) we were there every weekend for one reason or another. We just purchased WDW AP's (we're 10 hours away) and we have two more trips planned this year, and I'm working on a 3rd.

Lekta
05-10-2011, 12:43 PM
We live about 1000 miles away, which is roughly a 16-17 hr drive. We had generally gotten down there once a year for at least 5 days at a time, with a few years in the past 10 years going twice a year. Our last trip was in April 2010, and I'm DYING to go again (was a trip where my son got very ill). We have a trip planned for early November this year and we'll be staying 5 nights.

I love SoCal and was actually born in LA, however, I don't know if I'd want to live that close to DL. For me, I think it would take away from some of the magic and build up that we experience before our trips. If we could just drive there anyday, we wouldn't feel that and I would miss it. On the other hand, I've always wanted to live in the parks, so there you go =)