9 Days in the Park

[tabithamarie4]

If you have 9 days in the park with 2 adults, an 11 year old and a 14 year old, how many days would you spend at each park? Last trip was 2018 so lots of new rides!

 

[CynBeth]

We are adults no kids who visit every 2-3 years and plan for 2 days at each park. Sometimes we park hop if we need to add time at another one.

 

[Mikey15]

Plan it off favorite rides / what people are interested in. You can even make it a group activity ahead of time where each person lists the things they’d like to do most, and you build plans around that!

Since 2018 I don’t think they’ve added much to AK, but it’s still a fun park for at least one full day. DHS added Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, maybe you want more time to explore and take it in. Epcot has Ratatouille, Guardians, and Journey of Water. MK has Tron, and the railroad is back, but of course it already had more attractions than the other parks.

With the virtual queue rides, Tron and Guardians, you only get one free ride a day, but at least the line wait is somewhat limited. This means two Epcot days, for example, can almost guarantee (be ready at 6:59am) you two Guardians rides without paying for an Individual Lightning Lane. Hollywood and Animal Kingdom have Rise of the Resistance (have to do this at least once, IMO) and Flights of Passage, but your only options are pay or wait (/rope drop).

If the youngest in your party will be 11 then the thrill rides could be a good focus, but there’s good ones in each park. But maybe that’s not even what your party is interested in, so preplanning with them may be fun!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I posted this on another thread a few weeks ago. It could be helpful. We also last went in November 2018 so lots of new stuff when we went in November 2022.

We do 9-10 days and we like to hop around. We also mix up our days with RD, sleeping in and starting around 11-12 or sleeping in, doing the pool and starting around 3-4. Going this long and not doing full park days allows us see and do everything we want without feeling completely rushed and exhausted.

We also buy length of stay tickets because I don’t do entire rest days and I’m not a big fan of DS. By 5 pm I’m itching to get into a park even if it’s just to watch the night time show or ride a few rides. By the time you hit 6-7 days it’s so cost efficient to add a day on IMO so we just go for it.

This was our mix last November:

Fri 11/4 - RD MK all day with a midday break

Sat 11/5 - RD Epcot, midday break, DHS until closing

Sun 11/6 - sleep in - arrive AK by 2 pm, leave at AK closing, hop to MK until closing

Mon 11/7 - sleep in - Disney Springs by noon, hop to Epcot until closing

Tues 11/8 - RD AK, midday break, DHS until close

Wed 11/9 - RD Epcot (parks closed early hurricane Nicole) - initial plan here was sleep in and get to Epcot around 2-3 pm and do WS until closing but they closed all parks early so we did RD instead

Thurs 11/10 - sleep in - DHS at 4 pm (parks had late start hurricane Nicole) - initial plan was to RD DHS, midday break and hop to AK since we love that park at night !

Fri 11/11 - RD MK leave by 3 pm

Sat 11/12 - sleep in - arrive DHS by 12:30 pm - leave by 6 pm to fly home

The hurricane messed up our extra half day at AK. We did everything we wanted plus the trails at AK but we really wanted another evening there. Next time we will keep with the same kind of park time because it worked for us well. My DD loves DHS so we do spend a lot of time there too.

 

[nw6675]

Do you have park hoppers?

 

[fla4fun]

Do you have park hoppers?

Also, what time of year are you visiting and do you plan to purchase Genie+ and/or ILL? All these factors can play into your itinerary.

If it is a busy time of year, you don’t have hoppers, and you don’t plan to purchase G+ or ILL, I would recommend two days in each park and for the ninth day, going back to the park you weren’t able to complete.

If it is a less busy time, and you are willing to purchase G+ and/or ILL, then you won’t need as much time in each park to get through the same amount of attractions. A hopper can be very beneficial for doing repeat rides on your favorites if you finish a park early. So you might spend one full day in each park, a second full day in a couple of parks, and then some days just filling in with rides you want to experience again.

There are so many details that can affect your itinerary and how long it takes you to accomplish what you need to in order to have a great vacation. The good thing is that your trip is long, so most itineraries will work once the details are ironed out.