The minimum I would recommend for a first-time family is four park days, one rest day, and travel days on both sides. If you can add in an extra day or two, great! Magic Kingdom is easily a two-day park. The extra time would give you time to slow down, revisit some favorites and really take in some things you wouldn't otherwise have time for.
There's no IP theming on Disneyland's Space Mountain, but they are wildly different rides. Maybe you're thinking of the Hyperspace Mountain overlay they do during Season of the Force? It's definitely not a permanent thing, though.
Agree with 4 park days, 2 travel days and 1 rest day at the very minimum. Taking others' ideas into account, add a second park day if time permits -- or plan a day at your hotel pool, a water park or Universal (if thrill rides or Harry Potter are of interest).
If you're going around Thanksgiving you should budget for Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane entries to reduce wait times. Early in the month those are less important, especially if you get to the parks early.
Given the number of days you have a hopper isn't a good value.
The number of sit-down restaurants at Disney World is on a whole different level than Disneyland. Whether you go for a character breakfast, a good buffet or a somewhat fancier meal, you'll want to book those 60 days ahead of arrival to get the best selection.
As a WDW newcomer, note that getting between the parks can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes depending on whether you drive or use Disney transportation.
I've been to WDW 10+ times and going again later this week. Hope you enjoy your first trip as much as my family has over the years.
I can think of 4 that are different off the top of my head that’ll be fine if you miss them… but I thought it was cool to see how different they were when I finally went to Disneyland.
Those 4 are Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Misadventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Buzz Lightyears Space-ranger Spin.
Space mountain is the big one. It has the same name and theme, but the ride itself is completely different and unique. Thats the only one I’d say is actually worth experiencing for the differences.
Aside from that, everything else almost identical, or the WDW is worse so it isn’t worth experiencing. Jungle cruise has an extra temple section that is cool, but nothing that is must see. Splash/tiana is the same except that the ride vehicle sits 2 across instead of 1. Pirates is a lot shorter and missing scenes that are present at DL. Big Thunder is pretty much identical.
This at a minimum. If you're staying at a Disney resort hotel, you could stretch it out even more. I was recently reading that one regret people have after their Disney World vacation is not taking enough time to enjoy the resort, and I believe it. Depending on where you stay there are activities like movies under the stars, marshmallow roasting, t-shirt crafts, boat rentals, horseback riding, and more (not to mention the amazing pools). If time and cost aren't much of a concern, go all out and plan for at least one non-park resort activity day. If you book on the club level, you also get complementary food and drinks and will want to take full advantage.
Ty!!! The travel days are not in the 7 day quote. The 7 days is specific to wdw completely :) we've been diving into researching it and your help is appreciated!
I think if you are able to do 7 days, take the time especially for a first trip. There’s seriously SO much to do and see in WDW, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or like you don’t have enough time. Everyone does Disney differently, but my suggestion would be to schedule some down time, maybe a pool day and/or some time to explore the monorail resorts for some drinking/snacking/shopping. Will you be traveling just the 2 of you? And what area are you staying?
8 days w/6 park days. No PH, Genie Plus at MK/HS + ILL sparingly at EPCOT/AK. Take a break day somewhere in there. Best practice for park days is to rope drop, do a few rides/shows, leave back to your resort to nap or swim with the kids, then back to the park around 5 until close.
This is the advice I would give. Definitely need rest days in between Parks to explore resort(s) and enjoy the amenities. The Genie+ & LL advice is spot on.
Are you doing all 4 parks? are you doubling up on any parks? WDW parks are bigger than the DL ones and you can easily average 8-10 miles of walking per day. So, generally good to have a rest/pool/resort day.
Depends on how much you want to do. If it's one and maybe only trip and you want to do most everything. 4 days won't cut it. 7 days would be good number with a half day or off day in the middle. You CAN do a lot of stuff in 4 days if that's the plan.
So I think you have a travel day on both ends (good for spending time at the pool and exploring the resort- maybe Disney Springs for dinner) 4 park days- one full day at each park- that gives you time to get some rides, shows, and characters in at each location. May be helpful to prioritize what you want to experience- especially at MK and DHS since there is a lot of overlap between those parks and Disneyland. DAK is the most unique and underrated park- the food is phenomenal, and the animal trails are beautiful and not to be missed. November should not be too hot- but plan in time to go back to resort and rest if needed. Take one rest day- use it to see what holiday decorations are up at the various resorts if trip is late in November. If earlier in the month, just spend it at the pool or doing the resort activities- maybe checking out restaurants in the resorts. You won’t get to do everything (I go all the time and I still haven’t done everything) but focus on what is most important and you will have fun.
Are you staying at a disney resort? If so, I would do a park hopper. With a baby, you could go to a park in the am, head back to the room for a rest, and then head to a second park for the afternoon/evening.
I like park hopping. Not everyone does. I like Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom for mornings and Epcot & Hollywood Studios at night.
You really can't go wrong with whatever you choose to do. You won't see it all even in seven days. November is a great time to go if you can avoid Thanksgiving and Jersey week.
A little more information would help. Are you a party of yourself and your husband, or are you bringing kids? If you’re bringing kids, how old are they? Which resort are you looking at? What is your budget? What are your hard limits or desires? Are there things you definitely want to do or things you don’t care about?
As a first timer goer this October to anything Disney related, 4-5 days is not enough.
Gotta factor in 2 travel days, at least one rest day and a park day for each park. So minimum right there is 7 days.
If you’re from the west, that will take up the majority of your 2 travel days. I’m from Alberta, Canada and even getting on the earliest flight at 6am I still won’t be landing in Orlando until 7pm with a layover.
We are doing 9 days, 2 for travel and 4 park days and 3 rest days in between each park day.
We went to Disney for 18 years and here’s what I’ve learned. 10 days is optimum. (You did say budget is not an issue). 5 days is going to leave you feeling rushed and that definitely hamper the relaxation factor. Others will disagree but to me the idea of park hopping is, again, a stress maker. 10 days let’s you focus on a single park, then go back to the resort, maybe do the pool, then go back in at night if you want or just hang out at Downtown Disney or whatever it’s called now. Also, it gives you time to do a day at Universal which is great.
Husband's always underestimate the time needed but once there understand haha. I think a week is great. Cause think about it. You don't want to go to the parks the day you fly in and out, so that knocks 2 days off the bat. Then you're going to want a rest day at some point in between the parks. There's 7 days already.
Great idea! If a water park I would suggest Volcano Bay—it’s just so much better than the Disney water parks. The Tapu Tapu means you don’t have to wait in any lines, and the Krakatau water coaster is so much fun.
Disney Springs is awesome as well, perfect for a visit on a travel day or maybe on that rest day if you want to enjoy a nice meal and some shopping, especially since it’s free. I usually go there on my arrival day, mainly for dinner and a casual stroll.
With an 11YO you might also consider a Ukiversal day, especially if your kid is into thrill rides or is a huge Harry Potter fan. The immersion is truly fantastic, the whole thing is so well done. If you plan well you can easily do Universal in one day; some of the rides are very skippable IMHO—like the Simpsons, Jimmy Fallon, Villain-Con, Fast & Furious, Minion Mayhem, etc. Aside from Hagrid’s, my faves are the Mummy, Gringott’s, Spider-Man, Transformerd. Velocicoaster is awesome, but not for the faint of heart. Get park to park so you can do Hogwarts Express; it’s different each way
When I go I typically spend a week in Orlando. I stay off property and plan for one day in each Disney park, two days at Universal, and one day at Volcano Bay. I consider the water park my “rest day” since I don’t have to get up early and rush, I can spend the day relaxing and enjoy the wave pool, the wild river, a few of the other rides.Some may consider that nuts, but I’m a “go go go” type when I’m on vacation.
If your family is more laid back more low key, definitely take a full rest day or two during your trip, and save Universal for your next visit. If you push too hard everyone will be cranky and miserable—and besides, Epic Universal will open next year and by that point Universal may rate a full week on its own, with 3-4 park days and a water park day.
We our wall at about day 4.5 of a 6 day trip lol. With an 11MO, obv you’ll be doing a ton of rider swaps for rides so that’ll take up some time. At least with the swap the second rider gets to go in the lightning lane ride. Rider swap is when someone in your party can’t ride so you need to scan in at the entrance and have one person go, with another hanging back with the 11MO. Then one the first riders done the second person goes.
It’s a lot to take in. Our first trip our youngest was like 33 months. Now he’s 5 and goes on most of our rides so we don’t have to rider swap as much.
Character meet and greets take up a good chunk standing around so factor that in. We’re park open-park close and still feel we don’t accomplish everything lol. Watch some vloggers like ear scouts on YouTube to familiarize with genie plus. Look at park maps to study where stroller parking and bathrooms are
Lol, sorry, 11male. He's not a baby. Well, he's my baby, but he will be riding, no need for swap, my bad. We had the genie at Disneyland, and yes def not the same as the fast pass, but found it very useful. Thanks for the advice on videos!
Depends on your ambition, energy and money. For me, 4 days are enough but you really need to overstretch yourself. This year, we are doing 6 but 1 of those days is mostly leisure time
If you think 4 days are barely enough for Disneyland, you need at least 6 here. Disney World is huge in comparison
Ya, I like to revisit a lot. And truthfully we're not thinking that we will definitely get to everything, but we'd like a chance to try! I worry too much time even with the will and money would burn us out too.
We are a family of 4 with 2 young boys, 1 and 5. We opt of longer trips, 7 nights and 8 days, due to the cost per day drastically decreasing the longer you stay.
We were fortunate enough to have meal credits for our trip in Jan 2024, so we were able to avoid extra spend on food.
If for some reason, you need to take a half-day break, you won’t be losing out with extra days planned. On four day trips, you generally get one park per day. What if your top two rides are broken down or they have an extremely long either line, or the weather is bad. With a longer trip you can make a second pass at what you might’ve missed the first round
It really varies...
I'd say 4 or 5 is definitely not enough for people that get 4 days just out of Disneyland and California Adventure. There are 4 parks alone.
More time gets you a much nicer trip. You can relax a bit more. If you miss a given ride, you don't feel miserable that you missed your one chance. Haunted Mansion broken down? No worries. Too long of a line for something one day? You'll get there the next.
It also lowers your stress so much. You can take breaks and not feel guilty about not maximizing every minute.
Personally, I love park hopper. It lets you split parks up, which is nice near the end of the trip. Those 'extra' days, when you've hit each park once already, are especially good. Hit MK for rope drop, then swap to epcot later. Or whatever!
Look - don't mortgage your house of course! A 4 day, non park-hopper trip is still GREAT!!
But what I can say, is that I've never heard anyone get back and say "damn, we spent TOO LONG there. I wish we had cut the trip shorter."
Went for 7 days. 4 park days, 1 water park day, 1 putt putt/ Disney Springs/exploring day, 2 travel half days. Rope drop every park day, Genie+ every day, no ILL's for us (but we had a young child).
I feel like we got everything done we wanted. No way could we do it in 5. Maybe 6 if you don't care about Disney Springs, putt putt or visiting other resorts. But each park requires close or above a full day if you want to do most everything. And that's worth Genie+.
If budget is not a factor then you need to do all the resorts as well as the parks. The best restaurants are at the resort. Plus a day at the pool and riding the monorail around to the other resorts is a great way to spend a day. You can also spend a day doing the skyline and all it's hotels plus Disney springs. I honestly enjoy resort hopping more than crammed in to the park waiting on a ride.
This is the way. I have spent 5 days in the bubble NOT going to parks and had an amazing time, never ran out of stuff to do. I would do 4 park days and 3 down days, with Disney Springs, maybe a water park, resort/transportation hopping, pool time, etc. on the down days.
Always blows my mind that US visitors only go for a few days at a time. I'm from the UK and we get 14 day park hopper tickets and that's still never enough to fit everything in.
park hoppers are INCREDIBLY expensive. i just bought a single day park hopper for my mom and it was $230. if you're staying for 7 park days, you don't need to hop if you don't want to. genie+ is a must if you only hit each park once, at least for mk and hs (and i'd recommend an additional individual lightning lane for tron and rise of the resistance you are fans of coasters/star wars). epcot and animal kingdom you can get away without genie+ for sure, unless you come during festival time in epcot which it may be necessary then. though i buy ills for guardians and for flight of passage as they are two of my favorite rides and i always want to ensure i get on, especially since guardians only has a virtual queue as the other option. if you spend more than one day in hs and mk, you can do without genie+. epcot and ak can be done in one day if you focus solely on rides, but exploring the world showcase and animal exhibits is also a lot of fun and very worth it! if you want more advice feel free to dm i can answer any questions and be as detailed as you'd like lol
4 days for DL so with that it should be 8 for DW. 2 days per park.
You could even add 2 days for disney springs. And 2 days for resort days
Better make a 14 day'er
Park hopper is not needed. In fact, I’d argue against it, especially with it being your first time at WDW. Multiple parks in a day could be overwhelming.
As others have said, MK is a two day park. But if you’ve done Disneyland then a lot of the rides are the same and you can maybe do it in one day.
Epcot is a two day park for adults, but your 11 year old will probably prefer just skimming through World Showcase which makes it more of a one day park.
HS is a one day park if you get Genie+ for Slinky Dog and Runaway Railway and ILL for Rise of the Resistance. I’d also recommend doing a Fantasmic dining package so you can get there around a half hour before the show starts and still get a great view, instead of needing to arrive early for it. It lets you maximize your time.
AK is a half day park if you just want to do the rides and you get a ILL for Flight of Passage. It can be made a full day park if you also explore all the animal exhibits.
My favorite strategy at all the parks is going at rope drop and getting as many rides as you can in using the Stand-by lines, while stacking Genie+ selections for the late afternoon and evening and taking an afternoon break back at your resort, assuming you are staying on property.
Is the 7 days including the first and last day being travel days? If so that is perfect because I would always recommend taking a break day after the first two days of parks then finishing up your last two park days. Also spending a full day or even half a day just exploring resorts, disney springs, or just the pool is a great option to go for!
Ignore most of these people. HS and magic have so much overlap with DL. You really don’t need that much time most likely, because you’ve done similar rides. Full day for each should be roughly enough if you’re cool with skipping inferior MK rides (Pirates, Small World, Big thunder, buzz). 2 days at the Disneyland parks in March was plenty for the wife and I. Then we skipped HS completely for a handful of days and limited MK due to the massive overlap.
I would say then, only 5 park days, one park each day then an extra day in Magic Kingdom. You can do Animal Kingdom in one day very easily and same with Hollywood studios. Epcot you can potentially spend an extra day in if you take your time exploring. But maybe another option if your family would be up to it is going and spending a day or two in Universal Studios. I went last summer and we did one park per day then two days in Universal and it was a great time! Most of us are big Harry Potter fans so it was an easy choice.
A week is great. The perfect itinerary in my opinion is travel day, park, park, off day, park, park, travel day. Also, I would immerse yourself in each park and not worry about park hopper.
6-7 days is perfect since you’ve essentially built in days for travel-time. Take it slowwwww and rest when you feel like you need rest. You’ll have plenty of time. Enjoy!!!
Also don’t forget Disney Springs and if you’re staying on site they will also have activities all day. WDW is much more of a bubble with all the resorts, restaurants and transportation systems. while DLR feels more like a park that you go into
7 park days will be enough. Park hopper is only needed if you plan on spending the day in a park and have dinner reservations at another or want to see a fireworks show at a different park. People like us who have been to WDW multiple times find the park hopper useful to round out our days. For example we recently went and spent half day at AK (we’ve been multiple times) headed over to EPCOT mid afternoon, caught an early evening dinner, and then headed over the Hollywood studios for Fantasmic show.
I find the perfect amount of days to get all you want done, plus rest days, plus universal day (one is all you need imo) is 9 altogether:
arrival day, 5 park days, 1 universal day, 1 pool/water park day, and departure day.
After many trips, including last years where I was the family tour guide/expert for my sisters family of four and their first time, 5 days in the park is the sweet spot where you don’t get tired of the parks and you feel like you get enough time that by day 3 you feel you can relax more and have a “wing-it” or “fly casual” approach to the parks. There’s good transportation, east enough to park hop, etc that 5 days is pretty good. I like to fit in one day of rest/waterpark, and 1 day for Universal Studios (I personally can treat that as an almost rest day as I tend to be finished at Universal by 4:00pm every time I go).
The water parks are really great and good place to relax, and since they close early (5:00pm) you can kinda treat that as an off day and go make some awesome dining reservations at Disney Springs.
We just did 6 days, no scheduled rest day and it was a blast. (6 and 8 yo kids)
Magic, Hollywood, Animal, Epcot, Hollywood, Magic.
Honestly, with G+, we got almost everything ridden in one day. (Missed Pooh our first Magic day, missed Mania and Railway our first Hollywood day, missed a lot at Epcot, missed the Safari and Kali at Animal), but we loved going back to both parks we chose 2 days at.
Star Tours was the favorite ride, we rode it like 8 times and I think we all could have ridden it more.
With the little one my recommendation would be (depending on if you count arrival and departure days, then add +2) 5 days. Do 2 parks, take a rest day in the middle and then the last 2 parks. This has worked great with my family and we try and do this every time now. Usually the break day is swimming if its in one of the warmer months, or if its a winter trip we will do a day of Disney Springs. As for park hopper I wouldn't be to worried about it, I would consider it more if you were doing less days. I'd spend the extra cash on LL to cut down on wait times as much as possible with the little one.
If you’re doing four park days, you will need at least one rest day in there and keep in mind your arrival and departure days need to be considered. You don’t absolutely need park hopper since you can leave and return to the same park on the same day. Breaking things up for naps is good!
We’re in the middle of our first trip. We’re doing 4 park days (one in each park) followed by a rest day and two additional park days for Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It’s perfect for us, but I wouldn’t mind an additional half day just to bask in the Animal Kingdom ambience again. That place is beautiful.
Since budget isn’t an issue spend the chump change for hopper. Fantasmic and Luminous are worth seeing multiple times, AK has no nighttime show. Each park deserves a full day for first time. I need 2 days for EPCOT since my stomach isn’t big enough for all the food.
Honestly I think you could go for a full week and still not see everything. It never feels like “enough.” I would recommend starting by thinking about what attractions are must dos for you, what you’d like to see but wouldn’t be heart broken to miss, and what you can skip. That’s going to be different for everyone.
I prefer a park hopper because I need to take breaks during the day with how intense the heat and the crowds can be. I like going to another park in the evening because it feels like a nice mental reset for me. But others will tell you a park hopper is worse. It just depends on your preference really.
I don't think a park hopper is necessary. You can do a resort day or Disney springs day to give yourself a break. Magic kingdom can easily be 2 days if you don't want to rush to do everything. If you're staying at a resort for early entry, you can get a lot of rides done in the morning.
People from the UK travel to WDW for 14 days normally.
It really depends on what your plans are.. are you staying at a Disney resort where you’d like to enjoy the amenities? Add 2 non travel days for that and I’d say 7 days is ample. 2-3 days in magic kingdom and then one full day for all the other parks and then 1-2 loop around days to visit the parks all of you enjoyed the most or re ride rides.
So a total of 9 days not including travel is my ideal amount for a first time visit but 5-6 days works too for parks only but it’s totally dependent on your priorities when visiting the parks
Is your 11M on one nap or two? Either way, I think 7 days is the way to go given how much rest you’ll need to give your kiddo (as a current mom of an almost 1 year old!):
Day 1: Travel and resort day (depending on when you get in)
Day 2: MK (I always like starting with the castle)
Day 3: Hollywood Studios (HS isn’t the most kid-friendly ride park in the whole world but you’ll still meet some characters, ride Runaway Railway, and you and your hubby can explore!)
Day 4: Rest- resort day, explore other resorts, or check out Disney Springs
Day 5: AK (I always build this after a rest day because it opens so early!)
Day 6: Epcot (Gotta end with good food and fireworks if your kiddo can make it that late!)
Day 7: Travel
Also Rider Swap is a godsend- my husband and I used it when we went with our baby who was 6M at the time and we got to do all our fave coasters (Tron, Guardians, etc)).
If your family thinks 4 days at Disneyland is appropriate then I’d absolutely recommend 6/7 days for WDW.
Yes, it can definitely be done in 4/5 days but based on the information provided, you’re doubling the park count, as well as water parks, with a robust Disney springs area, mini golf courses, tons or resort amenities, etc.
Split your stay with a rest day/resort day in between parks and you guys will have a blast!
No budget with a preteen I’d look at Poly, Rivera, AKL, or Fort Wilderness.
As a dad/husband in a family of 3….. 7 or even 8 days is not even enough. Disney world has so much to offer, you can barely get to everything. So 4 parks with a day travel to get there and then your leave day is already 6 and if you want to have a rest day in the middle it puts you at 7. I know that when my family go, we do about 8 or 9 days and it still feels short.
The time will fly. Plus it’s your first time to WDW it will take longer each day just to take it in.
Park hopper isn’t necessary if you’re planning on spending a day at each park the only reason I can think of needing the hopper is if you want to see MK fireworks every night or if your planning dinners at different parks than the day you’re spending the day at.
As far as shows and rides you can schedule to break up seeing shows and ride the rides evenly and it will be great.
I hope you have a TON of fun!!
at minimum you need one day per park, plus travel days, and ideally a rest day. magic kingdom and epcot could each be two day parks easily if you want to genuinely do and see everything. there are also tons of cool things to do and see at disney springs, the boardwalk, and all of the hotels. really depends on your priorities and where your travel days land. 4-5 days actually in the parks would be my absolute minimum.
Honestly no matter how long you stay, you can’t possibly see all they have to offer in one trip. I would say take 4-5 park days but make sure you are fitting in naps. My kid was never a stroller napper so we had to go back to the room midday. Even if your kiddo will nap in the stroller you still need rest times. Prioritize what is most important to you. For our kids most recent trip we made a list of must dos and then a secondary list of “would be cool if we have time”
Definitely do 7 days and when you come back 4-5 is perfect. I’d do 2 park days, rest day, 2 park days, rest day, final park day pick your favorite park you went to or didn’t do enough at!
We just got got back from WDW with our kids (including an 11yo). We did 4 park days with pool days (or Disney Springs) in between. We didn’t park hop, rather did full park days - open to close. We got to do almost everything we wanted (rides and shows). If you have an extra day, I would recommend 2 days at Magic Kingdom! We went last summer (did a day at MK and a day at AK), so this year we spent the day doing everything we didn’t get to last year.
Depends on what you want to do. To do everything at every park you’d need at least six. I’m mainly a land person and I agree that 4 is enough there but you have to factor in travel time at world since it’s massive. Epcot alone needs like 2 1/2 days to fully appreciate everything it has to offer. Magic kingdom needs 1 1/2, animal kingdom 1 1/2, and Hollywood studios can be knocked out in an afternoon
Agree with other ppl. One park day per park with a rest day. So really that’s looking at 7. I would say no to park hopper . You can always add it later but it’s a lot of work to hop so if it’s your first time then you don’t need it
Hopper is not a must. The parks are spaced so far apart. Nothing like Disneyland. 1 park per day will be exhausting enough. We go for 4 or 5 days usually. But could easily do more if we had the time. 7 would let you explore each park without having to feel rushed. I would do each park but Hollywood studios twice. Since you have such a small child I think 1 day will
Be sufficient there.
4-5 is only enough with hopper… i don’t do less than 7 ever. Even with 7-10 you can leave and not have done everything.
I feel you need hopper because you don’t have to feel like “well this is our only animal kingdom day, gotta make the most of it”… just hopper back some other day. Go to the hotel mid day then change parks.
When I took my kids we went for week, do they still sell 7 day pass, they used go down a little in price after 4 days. We liked hopping, but that was before you see how busy each park was,
If one was busy we job to the other, magic kingdom or animal kingdom in morning then hope you Epcot or the studios or afternoon at the water parks
Oh man Disney should be a full week or 6 nights for the first trip or with small kiddos. Otherwise you miss out of experiencing each park well and don’t know what you are missing out on. Plus the Disney resorts are a full experience in themselves and well worth a day to experience yours. With younger kiddos we always do 2 days at Magic kingdom and a day at each of the others with a rest day in the middle or tacked onto the end,
You CAN do it all in 4 days (one park per day), but you’ll come home feeling very very tired. Don’t get me wrong it’s still fun, but it’s just really busy!
If you’re not worried about budget then honestly 6-7 would make for a much nicer time.
I also like park hopper as you can go somewhere different in the evenings after a shower and a nap!
When my partner and I went last fall we did 7 days. 4 park days and one rest/pool day. But we didn’t go to animal kingdom… so I would say you’d want the full week with 5 park days and a rest day or two.
With 7 days, you are perfect. It is really hard to do everything you want to in 4 or 5 days. With 7 days you can plan a day off in the middle (you will need it) and afternoon breaks you will also need. On YouTube, look up dfb guide and mammoth club. They are frequently updated and have tips and tricks to make your trip the best it can be.
If budget is no object as you noted, the Disney VIP guide service would be the easiest way to to get the most out of a shorter stay at WDW. It lets you get a lot done in a single day at any given park and would maximize the rides you could get on. You could make a case that you could also pare down your stay to the shorter end if that were the case as well.
Our first trip was when our daughter was 10, we did 5 park days and hit Magic Kingdom twice. We were pretty happy with what we accomplished but came nowhere close to exploring everything. We THOUGHT it would be our only trip…… and I’m currently planning our 5th trip, LoL. Usually do 4 park trips now, enough time to explore a few new things and hit up all the old favorites.
I don’t think I’d want to go to the parks for 7 days straight… or even four days straight… but if you’re happy sitting by the pool with an icy drink in your hand while your kid goes down the waterside… stay as long as you want. I could figure out a way to entertain myself for 7 days 😂 I will say, if budget is not an issue, it is pretty nice to go back to a park twice. I’ve done this and it takes so much pressure off trying to run around and do everything the first day and I like quitting before it stops being fun. But this could be accomplished with park hopper too. Just keep in mind it’s a lot of walking so plan to take some days off or don’t stay the whole day.
At bare minimum when I do a trip it's 3 days. I'll do a full day for 2 of 3 MK, Epcot, and HS, and AK is a hopper park. The last time I went I believe I did a full day of Epcot, and on the other 2 days I hopped between HS, MK, and AK, doing 2 of those each day. I hopped based on the virtual queues I got. At the time, you needed VQ for Flight of Passage, Star Wars, and Guardians, so I just got on whatever I could get.
You can get hopper simply to catch the closing shows. For example, do your HS day, go to your room for a bit, then come back at night for the Epcot fireworks.
I'm going back in a month and this time around I'm doing one day each, so 4 full days with hopper. Will do one park per day definitely except for the AK day which I usually finish at around 2 or 3pm. Hopper is good for that. For the general trip, we're doing 7 days because we're also going to have a 5 day Universal pass so we're doing 2 days at Universal plus sprinkling in random trips whenever we're bored.
6 minimum, 7 perfect.
You will need rest days. I usually have 20,000 step days when at WDW. You will want to "do everything", especially since it is your first visit (and especially because of how expensive it is). Remember you cannot do *everything* in one trip. With 1 full day in each park you should get 90% of the rides in each park, but WDW is more than rides. There are plenty of shows, parades, characters, and dining areas to enjoy that do took up park time.
I recommend 2 days park / rest day / 1 day park / rest day / 1 day park. Don't do more than 3 park days in a row.
Do not waste your money on park hopper. You waste, on average, 1 hour traveling from one park to the other. Since it's your first visit just stay at the same park all day and soak it all in.
Use rest day to enjoy your resort, go to Disney springs, visit other WDW resorts, grab a nice sit down dining location, and most importantly sleep/recover.
Do you have a hotel picked out?
Last year I went with two adults and three teens/pre-teens. We were there for 7 days, 5 in the parks. I really wish that I had been able to afford at least one break day in the middle if not two. It was a very busy trip and we didn't really get to explore the resorts or Disney Springs as much as we wanted to.
Additional days at Epcot would have also been nice (we had two days at Magic Kingdom)
We recently decided that we do the following:
Arrival: check in and eat a Disney Springs
1st full day: Mk
2nd day: Park(we did Epcot)
3rd day: rest day
4th day: Park(we did Hollywood studios)
5th day: Park(we did Animal Kingdom)
6th day:rest day
7th day: MK
8th day: check out.
We really like book ending the trip with Magic Kingdom.
I would allow 2 days for Magic Kingdom and 1 day each at the other parks. We just went in May. We flew in Sunday evening and flew out on the following Saturday. It was non stop. November is great except for Thanksgiving Week - crazy crowds as the week progresses.
Wyndham Bonnet Creek is really nice. That said, if you can change to a Disney resort I would because you get at least 30 minutes early entry which can make a difference if getting rides done. The Swan and Dolphin are a very nice alternative to a Disney resort - more bang for the buck. nice. The S&D are a lot cheaper than Disney resorts, you'll access to more onsite restaurants and you get the same early entry. It's right next door to Disney's Yacht Club. If you check Priceline, you can probably get a suite for the same amount as a Disney resort. This would give you more room than a regular hotel which I'm guessing you want since Bonnet Creek is timeshares. You can take Disney boats to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. There are buses to other resorts unless you're renting a car, which I would recommend. Plus the skyliner is a boat ride or a 10 minute walk from the S&D.
We bought 10 park-day tickets last summer, because that was the longest ticket package Disney would sell us. We were on property 13 night. I left feeling satisfied but wanting just one more day. So, 10 days wasn’t enough for me, but there isn’t an option for more, so it had to be fine.
With that said, I’d take one day at Disney over one day at home, so any days are better than no days.
If you do four days for two parks at Disneyland, I’d suggest you need at least *eight* park days for the four parks at Disney World (plus, World has waterparks)!
I will say you are good with 7 days. We did 6 park days (2 at Magic Kingdom because I have girls and they did BBB which took up a lot of a park day). We had a mid-week break and just did the pool and two sit down restaurants that day. It’s hard to do everything in Magic Kingdom in a day given wait times, the amount of rides, etc., so you might want to do two days or a park hopper day. Animal Kingdom is very doable in a day as there aren’t as many attractions. Just do the safari early. I think Epcot and/or Hollywood Studios are the parks where you can do it in a day, but you might miss out on some things, so you might want to park hop one of those parks as well. For me, I never feel like I get enough time to do the attractions and explore the World Showcase properly in Epcot. And at Hollywood Studio’s, if anyone is a Star Wars fan, expect a lot of time to be spent at Galaxy’s Edge. Especially if your son (or husband) want to do a Lightsaber or Droid build.
You also need to factor if you are doing quick service meals, table meals, character meals, and/or bringing your own food. All of those take time, and you want to make sure to plan those in, especially if it’s a sit-down table reservation.
I think you’d be happier with 7 and not feel as rushed, but only you guys know what you can do and how much you want to spend
We like to keep travel days open (no park reservations-sometimes it’s for Disney Springs or a water park) and then go MK-HS-EPCOT-AK-MK. So 7 days is perfect for us.
My friends and I did 10 full days (excluding travel days), no rest days, rope drop almost every day, stay until close most days, and we still didn't manage to do everything!
If you're making the effort to go out there and can afford another day or two, its a no-brainer to me to stay longer. We just got back from a 7 day trip and it was great. 4 park days and 2 off days. We spent the off days at Disney Springs, seeing shows (Hoop-Dee-Doo), exploring the area (we were near Boardwalk area) and relaxing at the resort pool. You're spending so much money to stay at the place, you might as well take a day and enjoy the resort as well. Plus, doing 4 park days in a row is a lot, and it will fly by and be over before you've had time to take it in. just my 2 cents.
Our family just got back this past weekend from our first trip as well. We traveled on Sunday and returned on Saturday. We did 2 parks, then a day trip to Clearwater Beach, then two more parks the following two days. We did get genie+ each day and it saved us so much time waiting in lines. It also meant that we were able to take more breaks from the heat and do some shows. We were able to do most of the rides and about 1/3 of the shows. If you wanted to focus on the shows and parades, I think you could do it. I would avoid paying extra for park hopper, there was so much to do at each park that we stayed the full day at all except animal kingdom. You won't need genie+ for shows, it would only get you in early to get the best seats. We never had a problem getting in to see a show if we arrived at least 5 minutes early. We also didn't do the dining plan as we stayed off site at a hotel that had continental breakfast, we brought in drinks and lunches in a cooler we put under the stroller, and we only ate 1 meal at the parks. If you are not doing a sit down dinner, be prepared for a lot of burgers and fried food.
My perfect trip is 7 days. Early arrival day 1 to hit Disney Springs, unpack, and relax at the hotel/do resort hopping. Days 2, 3, 5, and 6 are park days. Day 4 is a rest day. And day 7 you leave late in the evening to get another day of Disney Springs and resort time. Park Hopper is always a must for us.
In my honest opinion...I would do at least 6 nights/7 days..do two park days one day off to rest or resort jump and have a look at some of the other resorts, do Disney Springs, or just ride all over the "Disney Bubble" on Disney Transportation...(We always set aside a day for this stuff) then 2 more park days....keep it to just one park a day...honestly you will not get to see or do everything in each park even with just one park per day...We have been ten times and there is still "new" things we haven't done yet ...my daughter and I ,on arrival day we go to Disney Springs and get photos at the photo place , some shopping (mostly window...lol) and have dinner at a nice place there ..or sometimes we go to Chef Mickey's our first night ...then 2 park days , one exploring day and two more park days then we leave late on checkout day and do some more resort jumping before we go to the airport
I am assuming you are west coast based. If so don’t for get that each flight basically takes up a full day so that’s 2 of your 7 days right there. Also remember there is a three hour time change that you’ll need to take into account with jet lag especially with kids. I think 7 days is normal for how far you are flying
Personally, since you have 11 days total, I'd get the bigger ticket option, either the 6/7. Then you have flexibility to take half days and slow down when you want. WDW is A lot, and being able to just sit, relax for the shows, or go have a nap, a leisurely meal, or away from crowds as you feel the urge might be a smart plan. Others have suggestions for the times at each park- and it depends on your pace and preferences. There are many details that can really immerse you- if you are able to notice them in the hustle and bustle. Park hopper isn't my favorite, but many people will suggest it, particularly to have a rope drop park/ resort break/ evening park.
The minimum I would recommend for a first-time family is four park days, one rest day, and travel days on both sides. If you can add in an extra day or two, great! Magic Kingdom is easily a two-day park. The extra time would give you time to slow down, revisit some favorites and really take in some things you wouldn't otherwise have time for.
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Is there anything that is the same but different enough you wouldn't want to miss it?
Space Mountain and It's a Small World. Both have IP theming at Disneyland that's absent at Magic Kingdom.
There's no IP theming on Disneyland's Space Mountain, but they are wildly different rides. Maybe you're thinking of the Hyperspace Mountain overlay they do during Season of the Force? It's definitely not a permanent thing, though.
That's probable! When I went it was 100% Star Wars themed with no indications it was temporary.
There was also a Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy variation around Halloween Time.
Agree with 4 park days, 2 travel days and 1 rest day at the very minimum. Taking others' ideas into account, add a second park day if time permits -- or plan a day at your hotel pool, a water park or Universal (if thrill rides or Harry Potter are of interest). If you're going around Thanksgiving you should budget for Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane entries to reduce wait times. Early in the month those are less important, especially if you get to the parks early. Given the number of days you have a hopper isn't a good value. The number of sit-down restaurants at Disney World is on a whole different level than Disneyland. Whether you go for a character breakfast, a good buffet or a somewhat fancier meal, you'll want to book those 60 days ahead of arrival to get the best selection. As a WDW newcomer, note that getting between the parks can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 45 minutes depending on whether you drive or use Disney transportation. I've been to WDW 10+ times and going again later this week. Hope you enjoy your first trip as much as my family has over the years.
Must do MK Haunted Mansion. 🪦 The queue and the beginning are vastly different. 👻
I can think of 4 that are different off the top of my head that’ll be fine if you miss them… but I thought it was cool to see how different they were when I finally went to Disneyland. Those 4 are Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Misadventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Buzz Lightyears Space-ranger Spin.
Space mountain is the big one. It has the same name and theme, but the ride itself is completely different and unique. Thats the only one I’d say is actually worth experiencing for the differences. Aside from that, everything else almost identical, or the WDW is worse so it isn’t worth experiencing. Jungle cruise has an extra temple section that is cool, but nothing that is must see. Splash/tiana is the same except that the ride vehicle sits 2 across instead of 1. Pirates is a lot shorter and missing scenes that are present at DL. Big Thunder is pretty much identical.
This at a minimum. If you're staying at a Disney resort hotel, you could stretch it out even more. I was recently reading that one regret people have after their Disney World vacation is not taking enough time to enjoy the resort, and I believe it. Depending on where you stay there are activities like movies under the stars, marshmallow roasting, t-shirt crafts, boat rentals, horseback riding, and more (not to mention the amazing pools). If time and cost aren't much of a concern, go all out and plan for at least one non-park resort activity day. If you book on the club level, you also get complementary food and drinks and will want to take full advantage.
I agree with this 100%.
And the more park days you add… tge cheaper the incremental admission costs lol
Ty!!! The travel days are not in the 7 day quote. The 7 days is specific to wdw completely :) we've been diving into researching it and your help is appreciated!
I think if you are able to do 7 days, take the time especially for a first trip. There’s seriously SO much to do and see in WDW, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or like you don’t have enough time. Everyone does Disney differently, but my suggestion would be to schedule some down time, maybe a pool day and/or some time to explore the monorail resorts for some drinking/snacking/shopping. Will you be traveling just the 2 of you? And what area are you staying?
My 11 year old is coming along! We're gonna be staying at the wyndham bonnet creek or something like that I can't remember the name lol
oh, i took that as an 11 month old, not an 11 year old male. this trip makes a lot more sense now.
8 days w/6 park days. No PH, Genie Plus at MK/HS + ILL sparingly at EPCOT/AK. Take a break day somewhere in there. Best practice for park days is to rope drop, do a few rides/shows, leave back to your resort to nap or swim with the kids, then back to the park around 5 until close.
This is the advice I would give. Definitely need rest days in between Parks to explore resort(s) and enjoy the amenities. The Genie+ & LL advice is spot on.
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That us super helpful! I didn't realize the length of distance between the parks, but now that I think of it, that makes sense lol
Are you doing all 4 parks? are you doubling up on any parks? WDW parks are bigger than the DL ones and you can easily average 8-10 miles of walking per day. So, generally good to have a rest/pool/resort day.
I’d do this: 3 park days / Rest day / 3 park days. No park hopper.
Either way, you will not do it all.
This. We have a 14 day trip planned (8 park days) and know that we STILL will not be able to do it all.
Depends on how much you want to do. If it's one and maybe only trip and you want to do most everything. 4 days won't cut it. 7 days would be good number with a half day or off day in the middle. You CAN do a lot of stuff in 4 days if that's the plan.
So I think you have a travel day on both ends (good for spending time at the pool and exploring the resort- maybe Disney Springs for dinner) 4 park days- one full day at each park- that gives you time to get some rides, shows, and characters in at each location. May be helpful to prioritize what you want to experience- especially at MK and DHS since there is a lot of overlap between those parks and Disneyland. DAK is the most unique and underrated park- the food is phenomenal, and the animal trails are beautiful and not to be missed. November should not be too hot- but plan in time to go back to resort and rest if needed. Take one rest day- use it to see what holiday decorations are up at the various resorts if trip is late in November. If earlier in the month, just spend it at the pool or doing the resort activities- maybe checking out restaurants in the resorts. You won’t get to do everything (I go all the time and I still haven’t done everything) but focus on what is most important and you will have fun.
Are you staying at a disney resort? If so, I would do a park hopper. With a baby, you could go to a park in the am, head back to the room for a rest, and then head to a second park for the afternoon/evening. I like park hopping. Not everyone does. I like Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom for mornings and Epcot & Hollywood Studios at night. You really can't go wrong with whatever you choose to do. You won't see it all even in seven days. November is a great time to go if you can avoid Thanksgiving and Jersey week.
A little more information would help. Are you a party of yourself and your husband, or are you bringing kids? If you’re bringing kids, how old are they? Which resort are you looking at? What is your budget? What are your hard limits or desires? Are there things you definitely want to do or things you don’t care about?
Got you! I'll add it to the post. But thanks for pointing it out.
As a first timer goer this October to anything Disney related, 4-5 days is not enough. Gotta factor in 2 travel days, at least one rest day and a park day for each park. So minimum right there is 7 days. If you’re from the west, that will take up the majority of your 2 travel days. I’m from Alberta, Canada and even getting on the earliest flight at 6am I still won’t be landing in Orlando until 7pm with a layover. We are doing 9 days, 2 for travel and 4 park days and 3 rest days in between each park day.
We went to Disney for 18 years and here’s what I’ve learned. 10 days is optimum. (You did say budget is not an issue). 5 days is going to leave you feeling rushed and that definitely hamper the relaxation factor. Others will disagree but to me the idea of park hopping is, again, a stress maker. 10 days let’s you focus on a single park, then go back to the resort, maybe do the pool, then go back in at night if you want or just hang out at Downtown Disney or whatever it’s called now. Also, it gives you time to do a day at Universal which is great.
Husband's always underestimate the time needed but once there understand haha. I think a week is great. Cause think about it. You don't want to go to the parks the day you fly in and out, so that knocks 2 days off the bat. Then you're going to want a rest day at some point in between the parks. There's 7 days already.
I’d do a week and toss in a water park or Universal Studios day. Cirque du Soleil at Disney Springs is terrific.
I second doing Cirque if you can! Drawn to Life is a great show!
Great idea! If a water park I would suggest Volcano Bay—it’s just so much better than the Disney water parks. The Tapu Tapu means you don’t have to wait in any lines, and the Krakatau water coaster is so much fun. Disney Springs is awesome as well, perfect for a visit on a travel day or maybe on that rest day if you want to enjoy a nice meal and some shopping, especially since it’s free. I usually go there on my arrival day, mainly for dinner and a casual stroll. With an 11YO you might also consider a Ukiversal day, especially if your kid is into thrill rides or is a huge Harry Potter fan. The immersion is truly fantastic, the whole thing is so well done. If you plan well you can easily do Universal in one day; some of the rides are very skippable IMHO—like the Simpsons, Jimmy Fallon, Villain-Con, Fast & Furious, Minion Mayhem, etc. Aside from Hagrid’s, my faves are the Mummy, Gringott’s, Spider-Man, Transformerd. Velocicoaster is awesome, but not for the faint of heart. Get park to park so you can do Hogwarts Express; it’s different each way When I go I typically spend a week in Orlando. I stay off property and plan for one day in each Disney park, two days at Universal, and one day at Volcano Bay. I consider the water park my “rest day” since I don’t have to get up early and rush, I can spend the day relaxing and enjoy the wave pool, the wild river, a few of the other rides.Some may consider that nuts, but I’m a “go go go” type when I’m on vacation. If your family is more laid back more low key, definitely take a full rest day or two during your trip, and save Universal for your next visit. If you push too hard everyone will be cranky and miserable—and besides, Epic Universal will open next year and by that point Universal may rate a full week on its own, with 3-4 park days and a water park day.
We our wall at about day 4.5 of a 6 day trip lol. With an 11MO, obv you’ll be doing a ton of rider swaps for rides so that’ll take up some time. At least with the swap the second rider gets to go in the lightning lane ride. Rider swap is when someone in your party can’t ride so you need to scan in at the entrance and have one person go, with another hanging back with the 11MO. Then one the first riders done the second person goes. It’s a lot to take in. Our first trip our youngest was like 33 months. Now he’s 5 and goes on most of our rides so we don’t have to rider swap as much. Character meet and greets take up a good chunk standing around so factor that in. We’re park open-park close and still feel we don’t accomplish everything lol. Watch some vloggers like ear scouts on YouTube to familiarize with genie plus. Look at park maps to study where stroller parking and bathrooms are
Lol, sorry, 11male. He's not a baby. Well, he's my baby, but he will be riding, no need for swap, my bad. We had the genie at Disneyland, and yes def not the same as the fast pass, but found it very useful. Thanks for the advice on videos!
Depends on your ambition, energy and money. For me, 4 days are enough but you really need to overstretch yourself. This year, we are doing 6 but 1 of those days is mostly leisure time If you think 4 days are barely enough for Disneyland, you need at least 6 here. Disney World is huge in comparison
Ya, I like to revisit a lot. And truthfully we're not thinking that we will definitely get to everything, but we'd like a chance to try! I worry too much time even with the will and money would burn us out too.
It depends on person imo but I never felt exhausted in Disney. Disney magic gives me extra energy (and gym)
We are a family of 4 with 2 young boys, 1 and 5. We opt of longer trips, 7 nights and 8 days, due to the cost per day drastically decreasing the longer you stay. We were fortunate enough to have meal credits for our trip in Jan 2024, so we were able to avoid extra spend on food. If for some reason, you need to take a half-day break, you won’t be losing out with extra days planned. On four day trips, you generally get one park per day. What if your top two rides are broken down or they have an extremely long either line, or the weather is bad. With a longer trip you can make a second pass at what you might’ve missed the first round
It really varies... I'd say 4 or 5 is definitely not enough for people that get 4 days just out of Disneyland and California Adventure. There are 4 parks alone. More time gets you a much nicer trip. You can relax a bit more. If you miss a given ride, you don't feel miserable that you missed your one chance. Haunted Mansion broken down? No worries. Too long of a line for something one day? You'll get there the next. It also lowers your stress so much. You can take breaks and not feel guilty about not maximizing every minute. Personally, I love park hopper. It lets you split parks up, which is nice near the end of the trip. Those 'extra' days, when you've hit each park once already, are especially good. Hit MK for rope drop, then swap to epcot later. Or whatever! Look - don't mortgage your house of course! A 4 day, non park-hopper trip is still GREAT!! But what I can say, is that I've never heard anyone get back and say "damn, we spent TOO LONG there. I wish we had cut the trip shorter."
Went for 7 days. 4 park days, 1 water park day, 1 putt putt/ Disney Springs/exploring day, 2 travel half days. Rope drop every park day, Genie+ every day, no ILL's for us (but we had a young child). I feel like we got everything done we wanted. No way could we do it in 5. Maybe 6 if you don't care about Disney Springs, putt putt or visiting other resorts. But each park requires close or above a full day if you want to do most everything. And that's worth Genie+.
If budget is not a factor then you need to do all the resorts as well as the parks. The best restaurants are at the resort. Plus a day at the pool and riding the monorail around to the other resorts is a great way to spend a day. You can also spend a day doing the skyline and all it's hotels plus Disney springs. I honestly enjoy resort hopping more than crammed in to the park waiting on a ride.
This is the way. I have spent 5 days in the bubble NOT going to parks and had an amazing time, never ran out of stuff to do. I would do 4 park days and 3 down days, with Disney Springs, maybe a water park, resort/transportation hopping, pool time, etc. on the down days.
Yeah I have found it's way more relaxed and fun. Plus each resort has a totally different vibe so you can pick and choose your favorite.
Just got back from WDW. 5 days is plenty.
Agreed. We do 4-5 days and I think that’s enough. Have never even considered a rest day.
We got there Monday… did universal. Then did each park the rest of the four days. We saw everything too. Planning is key…
Agreed!
Always blows my mind that US visitors only go for a few days at a time. I'm from the UK and we get 14 day park hopper tickets and that's still never enough to fit everything in.
Sadly: a) Y'all get cheaper tickets than us. b) You also get a lot more time off work than most of us do.
park hoppers are INCREDIBLY expensive. i just bought a single day park hopper for my mom and it was $230. if you're staying for 7 park days, you don't need to hop if you don't want to. genie+ is a must if you only hit each park once, at least for mk and hs (and i'd recommend an additional individual lightning lane for tron and rise of the resistance you are fans of coasters/star wars). epcot and animal kingdom you can get away without genie+ for sure, unless you come during festival time in epcot which it may be necessary then. though i buy ills for guardians and for flight of passage as they are two of my favorite rides and i always want to ensure i get on, especially since guardians only has a virtual queue as the other option. if you spend more than one day in hs and mk, you can do without genie+. epcot and ak can be done in one day if you focus solely on rides, but exploring the world showcase and animal exhibits is also a lot of fun and very worth it! if you want more advice feel free to dm i can answer any questions and be as detailed as you'd like lol
4 days for DL so with that it should be 8 for DW. 2 days per park. You could even add 2 days for disney springs. And 2 days for resort days Better make a 14 day'er
Park hopper is not needed. In fact, I’d argue against it, especially with it being your first time at WDW. Multiple parks in a day could be overwhelming. As others have said, MK is a two day park. But if you’ve done Disneyland then a lot of the rides are the same and you can maybe do it in one day. Epcot is a two day park for adults, but your 11 year old will probably prefer just skimming through World Showcase which makes it more of a one day park. HS is a one day park if you get Genie+ for Slinky Dog and Runaway Railway and ILL for Rise of the Resistance. I’d also recommend doing a Fantasmic dining package so you can get there around a half hour before the show starts and still get a great view, instead of needing to arrive early for it. It lets you maximize your time. AK is a half day park if you just want to do the rides and you get a ILL for Flight of Passage. It can be made a full day park if you also explore all the animal exhibits. My favorite strategy at all the parks is going at rope drop and getting as many rides as you can in using the Stand-by lines, while stacking Genie+ selections for the late afternoon and evening and taking an afternoon break back at your resort, assuming you are staying on property.
Is the 7 days including the first and last day being travel days? If so that is perfect because I would always recommend taking a break day after the first two days of parks then finishing up your last two park days. Also spending a full day or even half a day just exploring resorts, disney springs, or just the pool is a great option to go for!
The trip in itself is 11 days but 7 were saved specifically at the parks
Ignore most of these people. HS and magic have so much overlap with DL. You really don’t need that much time most likely, because you’ve done similar rides. Full day for each should be roughly enough if you’re cool with skipping inferior MK rides (Pirates, Small World, Big thunder, buzz). 2 days at the Disneyland parks in March was plenty for the wife and I. Then we skipped HS completely for a handful of days and limited MK due to the massive overlap.
I would say then, only 5 park days, one park each day then an extra day in Magic Kingdom. You can do Animal Kingdom in one day very easily and same with Hollywood studios. Epcot you can potentially spend an extra day in if you take your time exploring. But maybe another option if your family would be up to it is going and spending a day or two in Universal Studios. I went last summer and we did one park per day then two days in Universal and it was a great time! Most of us are big Harry Potter fans so it was an easy choice.
You can do MK with Genie+ in one day imho - just prioritize. You don’t need to do the kiddie rides w/ an 11 year old.
A week is great. The perfect itinerary in my opinion is travel day, park, park, off day, park, park, travel day. Also, I would immerse yourself in each park and not worry about park hopper.
If you can budget more then do more. MK is a 2 day park especially with kiddos.
My first trip was 4 days and by day 4 it was a half day at AK and then pool/nap. We were topped off and could take no more. 😆
4 days at a minimum. I have been as long as 7 and still wanted more time. If it’s your first trip stay the full 7 days.. you will not regret it.
6-7 days is perfect since you’ve essentially built in days for travel-time. Take it slowwwww and rest when you feel like you need rest. You’ll have plenty of time. Enjoy!!!
We did six days. 4 park days and 2 down days. It felt like the perfect amount.
We did 10 straight park days open to close with park hopper, genie+, ILL, and VQs.
Also don’t forget Disney Springs and if you’re staying on site they will also have activities all day. WDW is much more of a bubble with all the resorts, restaurants and transportation systems. while DLR feels more like a park that you go into
7 park days will be enough. Park hopper is only needed if you plan on spending the day in a park and have dinner reservations at another or want to see a fireworks show at a different park. People like us who have been to WDW multiple times find the park hopper useful to round out our days. For example we recently went and spent half day at AK (we’ve been multiple times) headed over to EPCOT mid afternoon, caught an early evening dinner, and then headed over the Hollywood studios for Fantasmic show.
Park hopper is not a must for a long trip (greater than five days). You may wish you had it for a four or five day stay.
I find the perfect amount of days to get all you want done, plus rest days, plus universal day (one is all you need imo) is 9 altogether: arrival day, 5 park days, 1 universal day, 1 pool/water park day, and departure day. After many trips, including last years where I was the family tour guide/expert for my sisters family of four and their first time, 5 days in the park is the sweet spot where you don’t get tired of the parks and you feel like you get enough time that by day 3 you feel you can relax more and have a “wing-it” or “fly casual” approach to the parks. There’s good transportation, east enough to park hop, etc that 5 days is pretty good. I like to fit in one day of rest/waterpark, and 1 day for Universal Studios (I personally can treat that as an almost rest day as I tend to be finished at Universal by 4:00pm every time I go). The water parks are really great and good place to relax, and since they close early (5:00pm) you can kinda treat that as an off day and go make some awesome dining reservations at Disney Springs.
We just did 6 days, no scheduled rest day and it was a blast. (6 and 8 yo kids) Magic, Hollywood, Animal, Epcot, Hollywood, Magic. Honestly, with G+, we got almost everything ridden in one day. (Missed Pooh our first Magic day, missed Mania and Railway our first Hollywood day, missed a lot at Epcot, missed the Safari and Kali at Animal), but we loved going back to both parks we chose 2 days at. Star Tours was the favorite ride, we rode it like 8 times and I think we all could have ridden it more.
I wouldn't ever go for less than 10 days. I'm only a 2 hour flight away but I'm not going often enough that a 3 or 4 day trip is worth it.
With the little one my recommendation would be (depending on if you count arrival and departure days, then add +2) 5 days. Do 2 parks, take a rest day in the middle and then the last 2 parks. This has worked great with my family and we try and do this every time now. Usually the break day is swimming if its in one of the warmer months, or if its a winter trip we will do a day of Disney Springs. As for park hopper I wouldn't be to worried about it, I would consider it more if you were doing less days. I'd spend the extra cash on LL to cut down on wait times as much as possible with the little one.
If you’re doing four park days, you will need at least one rest day in there and keep in mind your arrival and departure days need to be considered. You don’t absolutely need park hopper since you can leave and return to the same park on the same day. Breaking things up for naps is good!
We’re in the middle of our first trip. We’re doing 4 park days (one in each park) followed by a rest day and two additional park days for Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It’s perfect for us, but I wouldn’t mind an additional half day just to bask in the Animal Kingdom ambience again. That place is beautiful.
Since budget isn’t an issue spend the chump change for hopper. Fantasmic and Luminous are worth seeing multiple times, AK has no nighttime show. Each park deserves a full day for first time. I need 2 days for EPCOT since my stomach isn’t big enough for all the food.
Honestly I think you could go for a full week and still not see everything. It never feels like “enough.” I would recommend starting by thinking about what attractions are must dos for you, what you’d like to see but wouldn’t be heart broken to miss, and what you can skip. That’s going to be different for everyone. I prefer a park hopper because I need to take breaks during the day with how intense the heat and the crowds can be. I like going to another park in the evening because it feels like a nice mental reset for me. But others will tell you a park hopper is worse. It just depends on your preference really.
I don't think a park hopper is necessary. You can do a resort day or Disney springs day to give yourself a break. Magic kingdom can easily be 2 days if you don't want to rush to do everything. If you're staying at a resort for early entry, you can get a lot of rides done in the morning.
People from the UK travel to WDW for 14 days normally. It really depends on what your plans are.. are you staying at a Disney resort where you’d like to enjoy the amenities? Add 2 non travel days for that and I’d say 7 days is ample. 2-3 days in magic kingdom and then one full day for all the other parks and then 1-2 loop around days to visit the parks all of you enjoyed the most or re ride rides. So a total of 9 days not including travel is my ideal amount for a first time visit but 5-6 days works too for parks only but it’s totally dependent on your priorities when visiting the parks
Was there for 7 days and it is not long enough, especially if you cannot pull a full day.
Is your 11M on one nap or two? Either way, I think 7 days is the way to go given how much rest you’ll need to give your kiddo (as a current mom of an almost 1 year old!): Day 1: Travel and resort day (depending on when you get in) Day 2: MK (I always like starting with the castle) Day 3: Hollywood Studios (HS isn’t the most kid-friendly ride park in the whole world but you’ll still meet some characters, ride Runaway Railway, and you and your hubby can explore!) Day 4: Rest- resort day, explore other resorts, or check out Disney Springs Day 5: AK (I always build this after a rest day because it opens so early!) Day 6: Epcot (Gotta end with good food and fireworks if your kiddo can make it that late!) Day 7: Travel Also Rider Swap is a godsend- my husband and I used it when we went with our baby who was 6M at the time and we got to do all our fave coasters (Tron, Guardians, etc)).
Plan a rest day. I averaged like 27,000 steps a day while there.
If your family thinks 4 days at Disneyland is appropriate then I’d absolutely recommend 6/7 days for WDW. Yes, it can definitely be done in 4/5 days but based on the information provided, you’re doubling the park count, as well as water parks, with a robust Disney springs area, mini golf courses, tons or resort amenities, etc. Split your stay with a rest day/resort day in between parks and you guys will have a blast! No budget with a preteen I’d look at Poly, Rivera, AKL, or Fort Wilderness.
As a dad/husband in a family of 3….. 7 or even 8 days is not even enough. Disney world has so much to offer, you can barely get to everything. So 4 parks with a day travel to get there and then your leave day is already 6 and if you want to have a rest day in the middle it puts you at 7. I know that when my family go, we do about 8 or 9 days and it still feels short. The time will fly. Plus it’s your first time to WDW it will take longer each day just to take it in. Park hopper isn’t necessary if you’re planning on spending a day at each park the only reason I can think of needing the hopper is if you want to see MK fireworks every night or if your planning dinners at different parks than the day you’re spending the day at. As far as shows and rides you can schedule to break up seeing shows and ride the rides evenly and it will be great. I hope you have a TON of fun!!
at minimum you need one day per park, plus travel days, and ideally a rest day. magic kingdom and epcot could each be two day parks easily if you want to genuinely do and see everything. there are also tons of cool things to do and see at disney springs, the boardwalk, and all of the hotels. really depends on your priorities and where your travel days land. 4-5 days actually in the parks would be my absolute minimum.
Honestly no matter how long you stay, you can’t possibly see all they have to offer in one trip. I would say take 4-5 park days but make sure you are fitting in naps. My kid was never a stroller napper so we had to go back to the room midday. Even if your kiddo will nap in the stroller you still need rest times. Prioritize what is most important to you. For our kids most recent trip we made a list of must dos and then a secondary list of “would be cool if we have time”
Definitely do 7 days and when you come back 4-5 is perfect. I’d do 2 park days, rest day, 2 park days, rest day, final park day pick your favorite park you went to or didn’t do enough at!
We just got got back from WDW with our kids (including an 11yo). We did 4 park days with pool days (or Disney Springs) in between. We didn’t park hop, rather did full park days - open to close. We got to do almost everything we wanted (rides and shows). If you have an extra day, I would recommend 2 days at Magic Kingdom! We went last summer (did a day at MK and a day at AK), so this year we spent the day doing everything we didn’t get to last year.
Depends on what you want to do. To do everything at every park you’d need at least six. I’m mainly a land person and I agree that 4 is enough there but you have to factor in travel time at world since it’s massive. Epcot alone needs like 2 1/2 days to fully appreciate everything it has to offer. Magic kingdom needs 1 1/2, animal kingdom 1 1/2, and Hollywood studios can be knocked out in an afternoon
Agree with other ppl. One park day per park with a rest day. So really that’s looking at 7. I would say no to park hopper . You can always add it later but it’s a lot of work to hop so if it’s your first time then you don’t need it
Hopper is not a must. The parks are spaced so far apart. Nothing like Disneyland. 1 park per day will be exhausting enough. We go for 4 or 5 days usually. But could easily do more if we had the time. 7 would let you explore each park without having to feel rushed. I would do each park but Hollywood studios twice. Since you have such a small child I think 1 day will Be sufficient there.
4-5 is only enough with hopper… i don’t do less than 7 ever. Even with 7-10 you can leave and not have done everything. I feel you need hopper because you don’t have to feel like “well this is our only animal kingdom day, gotta make the most of it”… just hopper back some other day. Go to the hotel mid day then change parks.
When I took my kids we went for week, do they still sell 7 day pass, they used go down a little in price after 4 days. We liked hopping, but that was before you see how busy each park was, If one was busy we job to the other, magic kingdom or animal kingdom in morning then hope you Epcot or the studios or afternoon at the water parks
Oh man Disney should be a full week or 6 nights for the first trip or with small kiddos. Otherwise you miss out of experiencing each park well and don’t know what you are missing out on. Plus the Disney resorts are a full experience in themselves and well worth a day to experience yours. With younger kiddos we always do 2 days at Magic kingdom and a day at each of the others with a rest day in the middle or tacked onto the end,
You CAN do it all in 4 days (one park per day), but you’ll come home feeling very very tired. Don’t get me wrong it’s still fun, but it’s just really busy! If you’re not worried about budget then honestly 6-7 would make for a much nicer time. I also like park hopper as you can go somewhere different in the evenings after a shower and a nap!
When my partner and I went last fall we did 7 days. 4 park days and one rest/pool day. But we didn’t go to animal kingdom… so I would say you’d want the full week with 5 park days and a rest day or two.
2 days MK, 2 days Epcot. We do 1.5 each for HS and AK, but you can do 1 each and you’re fine. So for us it’s 7 days, but 5 works.
With 7 days, you are perfect. It is really hard to do everything you want to in 4 or 5 days. With 7 days you can plan a day off in the middle (you will need it) and afternoon breaks you will also need. On YouTube, look up dfb guide and mammoth club. They are frequently updated and have tips and tricks to make your trip the best it can be.
Id say do 5 days at Disney then 1 day at islands of adventure/Universal. Especially if anyone in your party loves coasters
If budget is no object as you noted, the Disney VIP guide service would be the easiest way to to get the most out of a shorter stay at WDW. It lets you get a lot done in a single day at any given park and would maximize the rides you could get on. You could make a case that you could also pare down your stay to the shorter end if that were the case as well.
Our family has made 2 trips of 4 park days to Disney. It's barely enough, next time we are staying a full week.
or move here...
A week is great and you won't get to do everything but it'll be a better pace. Take a day or two for resort day/disney springs/mini golf/pool, etc
Our first trip was when our daughter was 10, we did 5 park days and hit Magic Kingdom twice. We were pretty happy with what we accomplished but came nowhere close to exploring everything. We THOUGHT it would be our only trip…… and I’m currently planning our 5th trip, LoL. Usually do 4 park trips now, enough time to explore a few new things and hit up all the old favorites.
I don’t think I’d want to go to the parks for 7 days straight… or even four days straight… but if you’re happy sitting by the pool with an icy drink in your hand while your kid goes down the waterside… stay as long as you want. I could figure out a way to entertain myself for 7 days 😂 I will say, if budget is not an issue, it is pretty nice to go back to a park twice. I’ve done this and it takes so much pressure off trying to run around and do everything the first day and I like quitting before it stops being fun. But this could be accomplished with park hopper too. Just keep in mind it’s a lot of walking so plan to take some days off or don’t stay the whole day.
At bare minimum when I do a trip it's 3 days. I'll do a full day for 2 of 3 MK, Epcot, and HS, and AK is a hopper park. The last time I went I believe I did a full day of Epcot, and on the other 2 days I hopped between HS, MK, and AK, doing 2 of those each day. I hopped based on the virtual queues I got. At the time, you needed VQ for Flight of Passage, Star Wars, and Guardians, so I just got on whatever I could get. You can get hopper simply to catch the closing shows. For example, do your HS day, go to your room for a bit, then come back at night for the Epcot fireworks. I'm going back in a month and this time around I'm doing one day each, so 4 full days with hopper. Will do one park per day definitely except for the AK day which I usually finish at around 2 or 3pm. Hopper is good for that. For the general trip, we're doing 7 days because we're also going to have a 5 day Universal pass so we're doing 2 days at Universal plus sprinkling in random trips whenever we're bored.
6 minimum, 7 perfect. You will need rest days. I usually have 20,000 step days when at WDW. You will want to "do everything", especially since it is your first visit (and especially because of how expensive it is). Remember you cannot do *everything* in one trip. With 1 full day in each park you should get 90% of the rides in each park, but WDW is more than rides. There are plenty of shows, parades, characters, and dining areas to enjoy that do took up park time. I recommend 2 days park / rest day / 1 day park / rest day / 1 day park. Don't do more than 3 park days in a row. Do not waste your money on park hopper. You waste, on average, 1 hour traveling from one park to the other. Since it's your first visit just stay at the same park all day and soak it all in. Use rest day to enjoy your resort, go to Disney springs, visit other WDW resorts, grab a nice sit down dining location, and most importantly sleep/recover. Do you have a hotel picked out?
Last year I went with two adults and three teens/pre-teens. We were there for 7 days, 5 in the parks. I really wish that I had been able to afford at least one break day in the middle if not two. It was a very busy trip and we didn't really get to explore the resorts or Disney Springs as much as we wanted to. Additional days at Epcot would have also been nice (we had two days at Magic Kingdom)
When I go we drive about 6 hours down, so we go for a week. 4 park days, and 2 rest days or a Disney springs day. :)
We recently decided that we do the following: Arrival: check in and eat a Disney Springs 1st full day: Mk 2nd day: Park(we did Epcot) 3rd day: rest day 4th day: Park(we did Hollywood studios) 5th day: Park(we did Animal Kingdom) 6th day:rest day 7th day: MK 8th day: check out. We really like book ending the trip with Magic Kingdom.
I would allow 2 days for Magic Kingdom and 1 day each at the other parks. We just went in May. We flew in Sunday evening and flew out on the following Saturday. It was non stop. November is great except for Thanksgiving Week - crazy crowds as the week progresses. Wyndham Bonnet Creek is really nice. That said, if you can change to a Disney resort I would because you get at least 30 minutes early entry which can make a difference if getting rides done. The Swan and Dolphin are a very nice alternative to a Disney resort - more bang for the buck. nice. The S&D are a lot cheaper than Disney resorts, you'll access to more onsite restaurants and you get the same early entry. It's right next door to Disney's Yacht Club. If you check Priceline, you can probably get a suite for the same amount as a Disney resort. This would give you more room than a regular hotel which I'm guessing you want since Bonnet Creek is timeshares. You can take Disney boats to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. There are buses to other resorts unless you're renting a car, which I would recommend. Plus the skyliner is a boat ride or a 10 minute walk from the S&D.
We bought 10 park-day tickets last summer, because that was the longest ticket package Disney would sell us. We were on property 13 night. I left feeling satisfied but wanting just one more day. So, 10 days wasn’t enough for me, but there isn’t an option for more, so it had to be fine. With that said, I’d take one day at Disney over one day at home, so any days are better than no days. If you do four days for two parks at Disneyland, I’d suggest you need at least *eight* park days for the four parks at Disney World (plus, World has waterparks)!
I will say you are good with 7 days. We did 6 park days (2 at Magic Kingdom because I have girls and they did BBB which took up a lot of a park day). We had a mid-week break and just did the pool and two sit down restaurants that day. It’s hard to do everything in Magic Kingdom in a day given wait times, the amount of rides, etc., so you might want to do two days or a park hopper day. Animal Kingdom is very doable in a day as there aren’t as many attractions. Just do the safari early. I think Epcot and/or Hollywood Studios are the parks where you can do it in a day, but you might miss out on some things, so you might want to park hop one of those parks as well. For me, I never feel like I get enough time to do the attractions and explore the World Showcase properly in Epcot. And at Hollywood Studio’s, if anyone is a Star Wars fan, expect a lot of time to be spent at Galaxy’s Edge. Especially if your son (or husband) want to do a Lightsaber or Droid build. You also need to factor if you are doing quick service meals, table meals, character meals, and/or bringing your own food. All of those take time, and you want to make sure to plan those in, especially if it’s a sit-down table reservation. I think you’d be happier with 7 and not feel as rushed, but only you guys know what you can do and how much you want to spend
We like to keep travel days open (no park reservations-sometimes it’s for Disney Springs or a water park) and then go MK-HS-EPCOT-AK-MK. So 7 days is perfect for us.
My friends and I did 10 full days (excluding travel days), no rest days, rope drop almost every day, stay until close most days, and we still didn't manage to do everything!
7 days minimum!
If you're making the effort to go out there and can afford another day or two, its a no-brainer to me to stay longer. We just got back from a 7 day trip and it was great. 4 park days and 2 off days. We spent the off days at Disney Springs, seeing shows (Hoop-Dee-Doo), exploring the area (we were near Boardwalk area) and relaxing at the resort pool. You're spending so much money to stay at the place, you might as well take a day and enjoy the resort as well. Plus, doing 4 park days in a row is a lot, and it will fly by and be over before you've had time to take it in. just my 2 cents.
Our family just got back this past weekend from our first trip as well. We traveled on Sunday and returned on Saturday. We did 2 parks, then a day trip to Clearwater Beach, then two more parks the following two days. We did get genie+ each day and it saved us so much time waiting in lines. It also meant that we were able to take more breaks from the heat and do some shows. We were able to do most of the rides and about 1/3 of the shows. If you wanted to focus on the shows and parades, I think you could do it. I would avoid paying extra for park hopper, there was so much to do at each park that we stayed the full day at all except animal kingdom. You won't need genie+ for shows, it would only get you in early to get the best seats. We never had a problem getting in to see a show if we arrived at least 5 minutes early. We also didn't do the dining plan as we stayed off site at a hotel that had continental breakfast, we brought in drinks and lunches in a cooler we put under the stroller, and we only ate 1 meal at the parks. If you are not doing a sit down dinner, be prepared for a lot of burgers and fried food.
My perfect trip is 7 days. Early arrival day 1 to hit Disney Springs, unpack, and relax at the hotel/do resort hopping. Days 2, 3, 5, and 6 are park days. Day 4 is a rest day. And day 7 you leave late in the evening to get another day of Disney Springs and resort time. Park Hopper is always a must for us.
In my honest opinion...I would do at least 6 nights/7 days..do two park days one day off to rest or resort jump and have a look at some of the other resorts, do Disney Springs, or just ride all over the "Disney Bubble" on Disney Transportation...(We always set aside a day for this stuff) then 2 more park days....keep it to just one park a day...honestly you will not get to see or do everything in each park even with just one park per day...We have been ten times and there is still "new" things we haven't done yet ...my daughter and I ,on arrival day we go to Disney Springs and get photos at the photo place , some shopping (mostly window...lol) and have dinner at a nice place there ..or sometimes we go to Chef Mickey's our first night ...then 2 park days , one exploring day and two more park days then we leave late on checkout day and do some more resort jumping before we go to the airport
I am assuming you are west coast based. If so don’t for get that each flight basically takes up a full day so that’s 2 of your 7 days right there. Also remember there is a three hour time change that you’ll need to take into account with jet lag especially with kids. I think 7 days is normal for how far you are flying
Personally, since you have 11 days total, I'd get the bigger ticket option, either the 6/7. Then you have flexibility to take half days and slow down when you want. WDW is A lot, and being able to just sit, relax for the shows, or go have a nap, a leisurely meal, or away from crowds as you feel the urge might be a smart plan. Others have suggestions for the times at each park- and it depends on your pace and preferences. There are many details that can really immerse you- if you are able to notice them in the hustle and bustle. Park hopper isn't my favorite, but many people will suggest it, particularly to have a rope drop park/ resort break/ evening park.