The length of your trip can make or break a Disney vacation…
Underestimating how much time you actually need for a Disneyland or Walt Disney World resort vacation remains one of the most common mistakes guests make when booking trips to Disney parks. Particularly in the case of Disneyland, 1-2 days may seem like more than enough—maybe 3-4 days for Walt Disney World.
There is a lot to do at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort—aiming too low when planning days for your trip can result in unnecessary stress taking over your vacation. Fun trips become exhausting as you frantically try to fit in every experience, and in the end, many guests are disappointed they missed too much. Even having a perfect itinerary may not be enough to see everything if your vacation is too short.
So how much time do you actually need to have a magical time at Disney parks?
A few important considerations
Before we dive into specifics about how much time you’ll need when visiting Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort (we’ll be focusing on Disney’s US parks), there are a few important points to consider that will affect how much time you will need in each park.
The most important of these is the age of your party members—particularly if you have kids. Kids’ contagious joy is a large part of what makes Disney parks magical, but kids introduce a number of crucial factors to Disney trips. For one thing, the age of your kids will play a big role in how much time you’ll be able to spend in the parks. Children under the age of four tend to have mixed reactions to Disney parks—some enjoy the sights and sounds while other experiences might be surprisingly frightening. Babies and toddlers are likely to require extra attention that may require you to plan extended breaks (even a return to your resort). Many kids under four tend to enjoy the resort pool more than anything else on a Disney vacation.
Kids from the ages of about 4-5 up to 11 will likely want to spend a lot of time enjoying Disney’s kid friendly rides. Magic Kingdom tends to be a favorite park of younger kids at Walt Disney World (Disneyland Resort is more evenly split in its kid-centric attractions thanks to the addition of Cars land at Disney California Adventure). There are certainly things for kids in this age range to enjoy at all of Disney’s parks, but depending on their favorite characters and activities, there may be parks you’ll want to spend extra time at if it matches their interests.
Pre-teens and teenagers tend to scorn all things “kiddy” unless they have a strong nostalgia attachment to a particular park. We’ve explored before how teens’ favorite parks at Walt Disney World tend to be pretty much anything but Magic Kingdom (even Epcot, which they really enjoy!). Beware the trap of planning your whole vacation around the youngest child if you have teens—they’re going to want to experience much, much different things and enjoy a little autonomy in some of those choices. Teens are likely to enjoy both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure since both have an excellent selection of attractions for teens.
If your party is entirely made up of adults, you may not have much interest in kid-centric attractions at all—this will dramatically shift the amount of time you need in each park. In particular, it may reduce time at Magic Kingdom to less-than a full day unless you have strong nostalgia for that park. On the flip side, the other three parks (particularly Epcot) might be places you’ll want more than one day to explore.
In all of the above scenarios, ride preferences will play a significant role—classic Disney fans are likely to want to spend a lot of time at Magic Kingdom while Star Wars fans and thrill seekers are likely to enjoy Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom best. If you know you are likely to really enjoy a particular park, it’s worth planning extra time there.
One last important consideration—adding a park hopper option to your ticket might be worthwhile. While some guests prefer the one-park-per-day model, park hopping can add some welcome flexibility into your touring plans. Right now, guests can only park hop after 2pm, but this still opens up a lot of opportunities for creative itinerary planning. In particular, if you will be visiting Disneyland Resort for 3-4 days, it can prove well worth it to add a park hopper option onto 1-2 of those days.
So how much time do you need at each Disney park? Let’s start with the smaller of Disney’s two US resorts…
Disneyland Resort (California)
Home to both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, Disneyland Resort packs a lot into its small confines. Surrounded on all sides by the bustling tourist traps of Anaheim, it’s easy to assume Disneyland Resort can easily be enjoyed in one day—this is a problematic assumption as these two parks absolutely brim with attractions.
Most experts recommend a minimum of 3-4 days to enjoy Disneyland Resort—there’s just too much to experience to hit it all in 1-2 days in most cases. On a three day trip, this would mean dedicating one full day to each park, with a third day either spent revisiting one of the two or park hopping.
Of the two, many guests would say Disneyland is the park most deserving of a two day visit. Between the park’s broad selection of classic attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, The Indiana Jones Adventure, The Matterhorn, and recent additions like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, you are going to need more time than you might think. For Star Wars fans, Galaxy’s Edge alone can consume a good portion of a day.
Disney California Adventure may have gotten off to a rocky start in its early years, but this park has balanced out well as another strong contender worthy of more than a single day visit, largely thanks to expansions like Cars Land, Avengers Campus, and attractions like Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT. Once again, you are likely to need a full day minimum, but an extra half-to-full day will give you breathing room to explore.
Walt Disney World Resort (Florida)
Walt Disney World is a bigger beast to explore—even just based on the fact it’s larger than the city of San Francisco. With this in mind, we’ll be looking at each park individually—before that, there are a few things to consider about the resort as a whole.
There is a lot to experience at Walt Disney World—the resort is made up of 4 theme parks, 2 water parks, an enormous shopping district, over two dozen resort hotels, 3 golf courses, 3 mini-golf courses, a campground and ranch, an international sporting complex… You get the point. You’re going to need more time than the commonly assumed 3-4 day quick visit to see even a fraction of it all.
Most experts recommend a 7 day vacation to visit Walt Disney World. Considering ongoing ramifications of the pandemic, we could adjust that to a 6 day minimum, though 7-8 days remains better. While a long Disney vacation may seem like an impossibility due to budget constraints, it is worth noting that Disney tickets get cheaper the more days you add onto your trip.
The reason for suggesting a full week is two-fold: for one thing, you are likely to have at least 1-2 parks you will want to visit twice, either because you didn’t experience everything or you really enjoyed one more than the others. Second, extra days will give you freedom to explore Walt Disney World’s offerings beyond the parks, including Disney Springs, recreation, the resorts, and Disney’s water parks.
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom remains Walt Disney World’s most popular park. Many guests plan their entire vacation around visiting it, to the point that there is often a temptation to skip the other three.
I will emphasize that skipping Walt Disney World’s other three parks is a mistake—many regulars prefer Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios as their favorite parks, and each one will bring unique experiences to your vacation that you won’t necessarily find in Magic Kingdom.
How much time you are going to need for Magic Kingdom really depends on your party, particularly since it is Walt Disney World’s most ride-saturated park, more than any other park at Walt Disney World. It’s important to realize, however, that many of Magic Kingdom’s attractions are kid-focused, particularly in areas like Fantasyland. The park also relies heavily on the element of nostalgia, something that may not matter as much to those who didn’t grow up visiting Disney parks.
If you will be traveling with kids between ages 4-11 or with anyone who has strong nostalgia for the park, you’ll want a minimum of one full day at Magic Kingdom. Many experts recommend two days ideally if either of these scenarios apply to you. This will give you enough time to experience everything Magic Kingdom has to offer without spending your entire day in line.
For adults, families with teens, and those who don’t have the nostalgia bug, one day is actually sufficient for visiting Magic Kingdom—indeed, it can even be a half-day park for some veteran visitors who arrive at rope drop and have specific tastes. If this scenario applies to you, utilizing park hopping can give flexibility to visit Magic Kingdom without feeling like you need to burn a full day there.
Epcot
Epcot defies simple description even to this day—it’s often written off as Disney’s “adult” park, but this isn’t necessarily true. While Epcot is uniquely adult-friendly thanks to its brainy-attractions and myriad food and shopping options, it has a good number of kid-friendly attractions (such as Frozen Ever After and The Seas with Nemo and Friends) and also goes over surprisingly well with teenagers. It also is home to some of Disney’s best restaurants, as well as seasonal festivals.
Epcot is another park that falls into the 1-2 days category—how much time you need will depend on the make-up of your party. If you really enjoy Disney dining, this is going to be a 2-day minimum park, or it may end up being one you frequent by taking advantage of a park hopper ticket. For others, one day may be sufficient since Epcot isn’t quite as attraction-saturated as Magic Kingdom.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
This park has proven Walt Disney World’s dark horse the past few years, skyrocketing from a half-day experience to one of Disney’s most popular parks, largely due to the arrival of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
In its current state, you are going to want at least one full day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios—two days if you have any Star Wars or thrill ride fans in your group. If you don’t like thrill rides, this may remain a half-day park as you’ll be skipping half of the park’s ride line-up. It is worth noting that Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot are two of the resort’s choices best for park hopping since they are less than a mile apart from each other.
Though the attraction list at Disney’s Hollywood Studios may not look as massive as Magic Kingdom, it is worth noting that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge alone is likely to take up half of your day—the reason why is that much of this land is made up of exploration-based activities like quests connected to the Star Wars Datapad game in the Play Disney Parks app as well as shopping, dining, and character experiences. Both of the land’s attractions will also likely require some extra time spent in line—something particularly worthwhile for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Disney’s Animal Kingdom might be Disney’s most beautiful park—it is also the resort’s largest thanks to its sprawling African savannah and wildlife habitats. It is also home to two of Disney’s most popular attractions: Avatar Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a tricky one to pin when it comes to visiting length—it is not necessarily an attraction-heavy park. It is, however, a park that encourages exploration, particularly in the park’s beautiful walking paths (like the Maharajah Jungle Trek and Gorilla Falls Trail) as well as areas like The World of Pandora. Animals operate on their own schedules, so you’re going to want some flexibility to take it all in.
In most cases, 1 day is sufficient for visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It is an excellent park for park hopping if evening hours are available, particularly since this will allow you to see Pandora come alive at night. Animal lovers may want to plan an extra half-to-full day here.
How many days do you prefer in each Disney park and resort? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook! Thanks for reading!
