Minimum number of days?

la79al · May 1, 2019

Just wondering what people feel is the minimum number of days per park to see 'most'. Taking DDs (11, 9, 4) next year, hopefully late February. The way it looks now we will be in a park by lunchtime our first day, have 6 full days and then leave a park late evening on the last day. We want to hit a lot of the bigger rides, meet a handful of princesses, skip Star Wars stuff and probably do some wandering through World Showcase. Trying to decide which park to do on arrival day, which parks should get 2 days and whether we should take a full day off or whether we should just do a late start/early end day.

nkereina · May 1, 2019

With those ages, I would do two days at MK and two days at DHS. My 7 y/o niece and 5 y/o nephew like DHS the best, and with the Star Wars crowds, you may need two days to do everything even skipping the Star Wars stuff. AK take us 3/4 of a day and we like two days at Epcot, but I think you can get away with one with kids in tow.

I would probably do something like this:

1/2 Day (Arrival) - DHS
Day 2 - MK
Day 3 - Epcot
Day 4 - Pool / Rest Day
Day 5 - AK / Disney Springs
Day 6 - DHS
Day 7 (Departure) - MK

GillianP1301 · May 1, 2019

Assuming time/budget allows, I always recommend a minimum of 5 park days to get to see a lot of what is there, including covering off most headliners. 2 days MK and 1 day at each of the other parks. Ideally, I like 10 park days (we do 9 - 10 park days over 11 days usually). It allows you to slow down your pace, allows you to not be open to close at parks and rather enjoy some down time at your resort, the pool, shopping, etc... My 10 park days (none are full park days, we do lots of hopping and partial days at each) usually results in about 3.5 days MK, 2.5 days EP, 2 days HS and 2 days AK

YesterDark · May 1, 2019

My ideal trip is 8 night 9 days.

Travel, Park, Park, Off Day, Park, Park, Off Day, Park, Travel (I'm doing this in August! see my trip report in my signature)

You can start the trip with Magic Kingdom, end the trip with MK and hit all the other parks. You get a few rest days in there (I don't recommend doing 3 full park days in a row). I've also done the following tempo:

T/P/O/P/O/P/T and T/P/P/O/P/T

Depends on what you want to do. Minimum would be 6 days, 4 parks, 2 travel days. I'm not sure I would suggest hopping with 3 kids, youngest being 4, but you could hop AK/HS and make it 5 days. But I wouldn't do all that without a rest day. So if you're adventurous:

T/P/O/Hop2/P/T - 5 nights 6 days.

If you're more relaxed traveler, then add an extra day for a off day in there somewhere or maybe do a half day like:
T/P/O/P/halfday/P/T

If this is your first time a park on arrival day may be a bit much. My personal preference is travelling to the resort and getting adjusted and relaxed. Especially with a 4 year old. (I have a 6, 4 and 1.5 yo as a point of reference)

SG131 · May 1, 2019

I agree with the above poster. If it’s been awhile or it’s a first visit, 9 days is enough to see most. 6 days isn’t enough to see most especially if you throw a rest day in there. You can probably do a decent amount of the headliners if you have a good plan but it will involved a good bit of waiting in line and a somewhat faster pace. But there are so many cool shows etc that you won’t have time for.

At 6 days I would definitely do 2 days MK, one at Hs, one at AK and one day plus your first day at Epcot. If you want to meet princesses I’d suggest a meal at either Akershus or Cinderella’s Royal Table. That will allow you to meet a few at once and save a lot of time in line.

KenHutch · May 1, 2019

The shortest trip we have ever done was 2 days per park. We don't hop and we don't do water parks. As the girls got a little older we changed a bit. Now we do 10-12 days and I include a hang at the pool day and at the younger girls request a day at Universal. We are different people because we do not schedule time off from vacation. I respect people who have to do it but I have never understood it.

Sargeant Tibbs · May 1, 2019

You'll want two days in MK. If you want to take a day off, but still want to do something, consider one of the water parks, or Disney Springs.

Edited to mention my next trip is only four days. It's not enough to do everything, but I'll take it! It's better than not going to wdw.

Edited again to tell you that 6 days, planned right, is enough time.

YesterDark · May 1, 2019

KenHutch said:
The shortest trip we have ever done was 2 days per park. We don't hop and we don't do water parks. As the girls got a little older we changed a bit. Now we do 10-12 days and I include a hang at the pool day and at the younger girls request a day at Universal. We are different people because we do not schedule time off from vacation. I respect people who have to do it but I have never understood it.

You would go full park days 8-9 days in a row? Good god. Are you a marathon runner by any chance?

What I mean by off day is go swimming, go shopping, maybe hit a park for a few hours with no plan. For example my two off days this year will be going to Cinderella's Royal Table for dinner and Marakesh for Dinner in Epcot.

monkyby87 · May 1, 2019

My trips are only ever 4 days, maybe 5. Anymore than that gets pretty expensive. Of course the more days the better. But 2 days at MK is good. Right now a half-day at HS is fine, as well as AK even though I love that park. Epcot can take a day, but if you aren't super into the World Showcase than a half-day. There aren't really many rides in the World Showcase if that's what you enjoy. Having a full day off is nice, especially in the middle of things.

KenHutch · May 1, 2019

YesterDark said:
You would go full park days 8-9 days in a row? Good god. Are you a marathon runner by any chance?

What I mean by off day is go swimming, go shopping, maybe hit a park for a few hours with no plan. For example my two off days this year will be going to Cinderella's Royal Table for dinner and Marakesh for Dinner in Epcot.

Marine even thou I am out I still wake up at 04:30 every morning 7 days a week to hold reveille for platoons I no longer command.

MainMom · May 1, 2019

6 full days. We like to spend our arrival afternoon at Epcot.

Patches Lee · May 1, 2019

la79al said:
Just wondering what people feel is the minimum number of days per park to see 'most'. Taking DDs (11, 9, 4) next year, hopefully late February. The way it looks now we will be in a park by lunchtime our first day, have 6 full days and then leave a park late evening on the last day. We want to hit a lot of the bigger rides, meet a handful of princesses, skip Star Wars stuff and probably do some wandering through World Showcase. Trying to decide which park to do on arrival day, which parks should get 2 days and whether we should take a full day off or whether we should just do a late start/early end day.

Personally I'd is DS on arrival day, that's from a ticket cost and possibly tired from travel point of view though.
Day 1-DS
Day 2 MK
Day 3 Epcot
Day 4 AK
Day 5 HS
Day 6 MK
Day 7 EP if time allows

disneydreamer1980 · May 1, 2019

MK needs at least 2 days (we do 3 or 4 each trip), Epcot needs at least 2 (we do one full FW day and one full WS day which is a sleep-in day, and usually an extra evening as well). AK can be 1 day but we prefer to do 2 days there, and DHS is a 1 day park, even with TSL. With your schedule I’d probably do WS at Epcot on arrival day, then 2 MK days, and 1 in each other park.

bigbabyblues · May 1, 2019

8 full park days is perfect for us, 2 days for each park If we have hoppers, we do 2 mornings and 2 evenings at each park. We tried a "rest" day/pool day for the first time last June, on our 11th trip, and we won't do it again. We do usually take an afternoon break for a few hours but arrive for rope drop and leave at closing. We don't do a park on arrival day anymore because we stay offsite; we get 9-day tickets and do a half day somewhere (almost always Epcot) before we leave to start the drive home. Sometimes that is a half day, sometimes we stay until 7 or 8 pm, it just depends on how we are feeling. The shortest trip we've ever done was 5 days, and it wasn't really worth the trip down. We won't do less than 7 days anymore.

la79al · May 1, 2019

Thanks all for the responses. A few more details- we did MK for MNSSHP in 2017. We did a day at MK and AK in 2016. We are not doing DS, resort hopping or a water park as these can be day trips on any other Florida trip. We won't hop, I can't justify the price and folding the stroller up for the bus any more than I'm already going to makes me cringe. We typically do not take afternoon breaks (I've done the disney with kids things with step kids before I had my own) and have traditionally been open to close people. We are only staying at ASMo so nothing terribly exciting to do on an off day. We are arriving a day or 2 early and staying with the inlaws about an hour and a half away and then have a day or so at their house after disney too. We will get to the resort on our first day as soon as we can get DH up and out the door to drop us off. On the opposite end, I have no problem with making him come for us after parks close on our last day. So technically we could have 8 full park days. I think this is our longest trip yet but I also know how long it takes us to do things at home sometimes and I guess I'm nervous. They did pretty well on the days we've done in the past couple years so I'm optimistic.

Edited- I should probably point out that this may be our last disney trip for a very long while. I think it steals DHs soul to spend that much on a vacation and we have a lot of other places we want to visit as the kids get older.

Tiggerlover91 · May 1, 2019

monkyby87 said:
My trips are only ever 4 days, maybe 5. Anymore than that gets pretty expensive. Of course the more days the better. But 2 days at MK is good. Right now a half-day at HS is fine, as well as AK even though I love that park. Epcot can take a day, but if you aren't super into the World Showcase than a half-day. There aren't really many rides in the World Showcase if that's what you enjoy. Having a full day off is nice, especially in the middle of things.

I'm a FL resident. Because they only discount the tickets up to four days, that's what I get to spend in the parks. Typically we only go for 4 days, spending a 1/2 day in MK on our last day. This year I decided I want 4 full days and booked an extra day that we'll dedicate to Disney Springs on our checkout day. Even though I'm a resident, you are right....it starts to get a little expensive beyond that. I don't buy a FL AP because we just don't visit enough to justify it. Maybe if we moved closer I'd consider it.
Even with my 4 days, I accomplish mostly everything we want to in the parks. We don't do HS, so that actually makes it easier. I do 1/2 day in AK, 2 in MK and one in EPCOT. LOVE the World Showcases and plan on spending most of the evening on their EMH day right there touring the lands with my son.

rteetz · May 1, 2019

la79al said:
Just wondering what people feel is the minimum number of days per park to see 'most'. Taking DDs (11, 9, 4) next year, hopefully late February. The way it looks now we will be in a park by lunchtime our first day, have 6 full days and then leave a park late evening on the last day. We want to hit a lot of the bigger rides, meet a handful of princesses, skip Star Wars stuff and probably do some wandering through World Showcase. Trying to decide which park to do on arrival day, which parks should get 2 days and whether we should take a full day off or whether we should just do a late start/early end day.

My ideal trip is probably 7 days. 5 full park days and some park time on each arrival and departure day. However go with what works best for you and your schedule.

Definitely 2 if not 3 days in MK
At least 1 full day in each other park. I would recommend maybe that arrival day doing Epcot or Animal Kingdom. If you are avoiding Star Wars you really only need one day there.

teach22180 · May 1, 2019

I would suggest 2.5 (arrival day probably) in MK, 2.5 (departure day?) In Epcot, 1 in AK and 1 in HS. I also hit a park every day for at least 6-8 hours. My favorite part of FP+ is not having to always rope drop. If I can sleep in a little bit that helps me.

kay1864 · May 2, 2019

We usually do a minimum of 5 days: 2 days for MK (one day for left half, one day for right), 1 day for each of the others. We always use RideMax, so we get to see/ride everything we want. Oftentimes we take an afternoon break on an MK day to go to a waterpark (usually Blizzard Beach) for a couple of hours, then return to MK in the evening to play Sorcerers of the MK and ride some a second time, if we have FP for them.

This plan works most any time of year, even summer.

For your arrival day, it depends on what time you arrive. We take an early morning flight, and are entering AK about 930. Since you're getting there at lunch, I would do DS on your first day, and/or a waterpark. No sense in paying for a half park day.

DHS or AK works well for a last day.

RideMax works very well with FPs. When the FP window opens up, I get the hard-to-get FPs, enter them into RideMax, then leave the others open and have RideMax recommend which times I should get the others. RideMax also has recommendations for which park, which day.

Can you tell I like RideMax?

It's awesome. We never wait more than 15-20 minutes for a ride.

goofyintoronto · May 2, 2019

MK needs two days for sure. Without a doubt. Epcot usually need two days as well, but not everyone likes epcot. Some are fine with just one day.

I agree with a pp suggestion of having an "off day" to just do whatever you want. Whether if its Disney Springs, water park, or winging it at a park/going to an ADR.

Minimum number of days?

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