Wondering how many days you need for a Walt Disney World Vacation? Here are some questions to ask yourself:
1. How many days you can take off of work?
2. Which parks do you want to visit? Do you want to go to all 4 parks? Do you want to spend time at Disney Springs? The Water Parks? What you want to do is going to determine how many days you need to plan for your vacation.
3. How much are the tickets per day? The longer you stay to play, the cheaper the tickets get per day. Disney really wants you to stay longer.
4. How many days does it take to see it all? To really see a good amount of what each park has, you need a minimum of one day per park. So that’s at least 4 days.
If you are really interested in a certain park, you will probably want at least 2 days for that park. Plus I recommend an additional day for you to go back and ride all your favorite rides and see your favorite sites again before you depart.
But then you’ve also got to factor in if you want to do 1 or more of the Water Parks. You want at least a half day, if not a whole day for them.
So we are up to what, 8 days if you want to do both water parks? See how frustrating this can be? I vote that we spend at least a month at Disney. Then, maybe, just maybe, we can see everything we want to see.
5. My opinion. I would go with at least 6. That gives you at least 2 days to cover either Magic Kingdom or Epcot depending on your interest and an additional day to revisit your favorite attractions/park or visit a water park.
How many days do you feel you need to do everything on your must do list?
Here are some tips on picking the best time of the year to go to Walt Disney World.
Learn more about planning your Walt Disney World vacation. Plus overwhelmed with all the planning? Destinations in Florida can help you plan your perfect trip.
The last four times we went, we stayed the 14 nights allowed, with the 10 days admission tickets.
We always flight during the night, arriving in Orlando at 6:00AM, and usually our room is ready because we go with the lightest crowds.
That means we have 5 days to visit Disney Springs, go resort hopping or just rest by the pool. The last day (our 15th) we enjoy Magic Kingdom all the way to closing time. Good night kiss the parks and go straight to the airport to catch the 2:00 AM flight back home.
If I could, I’ll stay two more weeks in a heartbeat.
We just went in December and we stayed 4 days. 1 day per park and no downtown disney and no water parks. We had no where near enough time. There are not enough hours in the day when you visit disney. I want to go back and stay at least 6 maybe 7.
4 just leaves you wanting more.
We did a nine day/8 night trip (not including travel days) in October with our 3 girls (2, 6, & 8) and definately did not have enough time! We did 4 days in MK (our favorite park with the 4th day being only a half day to do the kid’s favorite rides one more time before we drove home to NC), 1 each in Epcot, HS, AK, and Blizzard Beach. We only swam in the resort pool once and went to Downtown Disney for a few hours. This was our first trip since having kids and I greatly underestimated the amount of time that meeting the characters (and standing in line to do so), bathroom breaks, looking around in all the shops, and then the kids discovered pin trading the day we arrived and were hooked! We also did the DDP with table service meals which I will NEVER do again. We would have to stop what we were doing, get to the resturant with our reservation, and wait for a table then the food. This took up a huge amount of time and with the cost of tips that are out of pocket it’s not worth it in my opinion. For our next trip (Oct. 2013) we are going to plan on 10 full days in the parks with the quick service dining plan and pay out of pocket for Cinerella’s Royal Table (we went on of 1st day in MK our 2 year old was too scared to talk to the princesses!). We did love Donald’s Safari Breakfast and Chef Mickey but might only do one per trip from now on.
Thanks so much for the advice. I’m planning a trip to take my 2 little ones next summer. They will be 4 and 2. I grew up near Disneyland and will be moving back there next summer so I’m planning on avoiding any duplicate rides and shows so that we can hit more.
I like to stay 8 days, when I can have the time off from work, but usually only spend 4-5 days. There are only a few months that I have NOT been to Disney, but am actively planning on remedying that in the next few years. Thanks for all the training tips, please keep them coming. As much fun as it is to be in the World- planning is a big part of the excitement for me!
We just got back from a 9 night/10 day trip to Disneyworld with a 3 1/2 year old and a 12 month old. I don’t think we could have done less. We did not do any water parks or downtown Disney (except for the Boutique.) We had one day totally off and swam at the hotel. It was great to relax and just go to the park whenever we wanted (I think we were only there at opening once.) We also did lots of character meals (free dining) that ate up time. I would have liked about 2 more days for a little more rest time at the hotel, though. But I think we were able to cover all 4 parks to our satisfaction with our 8 day passes (with park hoppers as we often did one park in the morning and one in the evening.) Of course, we also ended up on It’s A Small World NINE times!!!!! (And most other fantasy land rides as well as Mexico in Epcot probably 4-5 times!) I am glad we didn’t have less time as otherwise I would have felt rushed. This way we were able to go with the flow and with our children’s schedules.
We have been twice now and both times have gone for 6 days. We always get the park hopper option and so decided that the water parks aren’t necessary since the resort pool is good enough. We usually start the day off at one park and go back to the hotel mid-day for nap/pool time and then spend the evening in a different park (most of the time depending on where dinner is). This has worked out perfect for us for now, as our kids get older we will probably go for more days since we hate having to leave.
We just came back from an 11 day trip (not including travel time…drove down from Ohio). We spent 2 days at both MK and Epcot and one day and HS and AK and we also spent 1/2 at Downtown Disney.
In order not to feel like we needed a vacation from our vacation….we did the first 2 days at parks and then took a day off to just lounge around, then we did another 2 days of parks and another day off and so on.
It was crammed full (even with the days “off”) but it felt more relaxed than the last time we went for 7 days and crammed 5 days of parks right in a row.
We usally go for 9 days. We live in Indiana and only get to go every 3 years, with kids crazy scheduals, and mine and hubby’s work scheduals. So when we do get to go it’s for 9 days, seems to give us time to slow down and take it all in and not feel so rushed.
I really think it also depends on the people you are traveling with. If you’re going with small children or someone who may not get around as easily then you’ll need more…lots more days. And you also have to factor in weather. If you’re going during really hot months you’re more likely to go at a slower pace because you just can’t move as efficiently when it’s at atomic heat & humidity.
We just got back from a 7 day 8 night trip there with 2 kids ages 5 & 3 and honestly, I don’t think it was nearly enough to cover everything. WDW is massive and huge sensory overload. We cut a LOT off of our to do list because it’s not our 1st time there. We were there 2 yrs ago and did a lot of the “must dos” so this trip was more of a take it slower and take in the easily missed gems of WDW with some “must dos” thrown in. Animal Kingdom alone took us 2 days largely because it was SO hot on the days we went. It was just too massive and too exhausting to cover in 1 day. Originally we’d only plan on hitting the parks for 4 maybe 5 days out of our trip (we did not get the Water Parks option because that wasn’t on our agenda) but we ended up getting a 7 day pass and good thing too because we needed the extra days to not practically kill ourselves trying to do what we wanted to do. When you factor in weather (rain, heat, etc) plus crowds/lines, that can throw a lot of wrenches into your planning in terms of how many days you’ll need. Personally I would plan at least an extra day just to give yourself some leeway. It’s not a fun time for anyone involved when all you’re doing is rushing around.
When I go in November, think we’re doing 6 at the parks plus 4 extra for Downtown Disney, shop, rest, whatever. We wll for sure go to MK 2 times, maybe 3. It’s MY fave and I figure it will be my son’s too bc we plan to ride lts of rides. I know we won’t do Epcot more than one day because I HATED it when we went last year. Son has never een so I want him to go once. More educational than fun and found it very boring. We will for sure hit HS and AK at east once.
In September I am going on a Mom’s only trip. We are taking 4 days fo parks- one for each. If it wasn’t for Soarin’,I’d talk her out of Epcot.
Have a great night y’all.
for the Mom’s trip you should consider the Segway scooter tour of EPCOT it was awesome, my sister and I did it and it only takes a couple of hours in the AM
We usually go with at least 7 days. 1 day for each park and then 1 extra day for Epcot and another extra day for Magic Kingdom. We always take a day off from the parks to relax, it just gets too crazy if we don’t plan down time.
We go for 8 days because we like to explore the night life of downtown disney and we also like to go to the boardwalk and spend a few hours going to the ESPN club and riding 9 person bikes :) We also go to the wilderness lodge and ride in their small boats around the river!
We always take 2 weeks…From PA–2 days down, 2 days home, and 10 days in disney. We always get a 6 day park hopper w/ water parks. We drive down (it’s 22 hrs if we go straight through). My husband doesn’t mind driving during the overnights so the last time we went, we left PA at 11PM. Drove till Georgia (with a couple hr break in NC). Stopped driving at 5pm. Then left Georgia at 8am. I had 5 kids with me….11, 10, 8, 5, and 2 year old . I kept all kids up till we left and about 9pm gave them baths & put them in comfy clothes (sweats).
That’s what I’m planning for next year with a toddler and we’re in PA. It says 19 hours for us non-stop, and I was thinking of doing the same thing as you with leaving overnight.
I also drove at night when my children were younger (now 14, 12, 8). It is really the best way to go. You as the driver end up tired but the magic of Disney keeps you awake once you do arrive. We ALWAYs head straight to Downtown Disney & the Disney outlet so the kids could get some goodies. This will cut down on spending in the parks. Plus since you will be tired it will be a way to get a taste of the magic without hitting a parks.
I have to echo the above. We go for at least 7 days, but usually only 4 days at the park. Last year we went to E, MK, HS for one day and then spent our last day at MK. It worked out well, but we are planning 5 days for our next trip. I always try to take a day off in the middle just to sleep in, swim and rest. We really need it to recharge so we can finish out the week having fun instead of tantrums!
We always go for 7-9 nights, but we fly cross country and can only go once every couple years at most, so it’s not worth it to us to do any less. Plus we feel we need at least 1 day per park and 1 for a waterpark, so that alone is 7 days (since we require 2 full days for travel).
No matter how long we stay, our trip is almost always crammed with activity. We recently spent 2 days there, visited 2 parks, and were busy from sun-up to sundown. We’ve been for 9 days and for 12 days in the past, and still kept busy. There’s just so much to do! We like to have at least one day on those longer trips to just relax at the resort — we usually stay at DVC resorts. We are going for 4 days this summer and have acknowledged that there is no way we could do all we wanted. We are going for 12 days next summer, Lord willing, and will fill that trip too, even with only getting 3 day tickets!
We were there for 7 days. Even though we definitely could have (and would have loved!) to stay there longer, 7 days gave us time to devote one day to each park and then revisit the ones we wanted. We’d need more days if we wanted to really explore Downtown Disney and any of the resorts.
We are on our third trip-leaving a week from today-and we do 5 day park tickets. We choose to not go to Animal Kingdom because our kids don’t enjoy it as much. We do 2 or 3 days at MK, 1 day at Epcot, 1 at HS. However we build an additional day in our trip for DD and to hang at the resort.