My niece and her ex have court ordered custody of their children. When they first divorced, they had joint custody (50/50) They lived in the same school district, and the boys could live at either place without their schooling being disrupted. They stayed at one place during the week and the other on weekends, and switched every other week to who had them during the week and who had them on weekends. When she got a new job and moved to a different area, they could no longer do that. They asked the boys what they wanted to do, and went to court to get the order changed.
The boys (now 16. 15 and 10) wanted to stay in the area their friends were in and didn't want to change schools, so they live primarily with their father and stepmother now. My niece has Court Ordered parenting time, which includes every other weekend, most holidays (they still live close enough for one to have Christmas Eve and the other Christmas Day), 6+ weeks during the summer, any other times that are convenient for all parties. Just because most of the visits are "court ordered" it doesn't mean that the boys are forced to go or even that they don't want to go. It just means that their mother (in this case, and father in DR's) has a legal right to see them then.
I have a feeling I'm not being clear in what I'm saying, but I don't really know how else to explain what I mean.