Days in each park?

[FirstDown]

Hi! Long time lurker here! Went to Disney in April but just 1 day in MK and 1 in EP.

Returning Easter week again of 2017 for 8 nights.... Leaves us 6 full days without traveling. Staying offsite WBC.

We LOVED MK and EPCOT, but we have no clue how many days we should figure for those or AK and HS since we've never been.

Also not sure about hoppers. Ideas? Thx for helping!

 

[siskaren]

I would recommend 2 days each at Epcot and MK, and 1 day each at HS and AK. I'm curious though - don't you mean 2016? Or can you book WBC this far in advance?

 

[FirstDown]

Thanks! I booked April 2017. Most people didn't let me, but I found someone who would! He even asked me if I meant 2016 as well... LOL.

 

[niffer5150]

2 mk, 2 epcot, 1 hs, 1 ak. any extra days or half days can be split up to cover what you feel was unfinished. we usually end up back at mk for 2 more half days at least.

 

[FirstDown]

So you would suggest park hoppers then right?

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I'm personally not a fan of Park Hoppers, it greatly depends on your family and what you like to do. I'm a one park, per day kind of gal.

With 6 full days, I'd do two at Magic Kingdom, one at Epcot, one at Animal Kingdom, and maybe one or two at Hollywood Studios, depending on what or if any new attractions are open yet. If they aren't open yet, I'd definitely do two days at Epcot.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

We usually go for 7 1/2 park days, but we use park hoppers as we are not rope drop to close folks. Generally, we hit rope drop or Extra Magic Hours in the morning, go back to the resort in the afternoon for a nap or pool time, then back to a park for the evening until close. Our plan is 100% for avoiding the heat of the day, so if you don't mind the heat, it may not work for you. Based on our schedule, we usually hit each park for at least three half-days and use the extra 3 half-days for Disney Springs and more time at MK and Epcot.

 

[Thomas Gingerich]

it greatly depends on your family and what you like to do.

 

[Aladora]

We just did 6 days and our original plan was 2 day each at HS and AK and 1 day each at MK and EP. We went to HS first and by the middle of the day we had all agreed that 1 day there was enough. Our second day was at AK and we definitely needed a second day there especially after DS discovered the Wilderness Explorer activity. Epcot was out third day and we felt that a second day there was needed after DS started the Agent P adventures. We are a DL family so MK was familiar enough that we all agreed that we could do only 1 day there.

So, the tl;dr version? We did 2 AK and EP and 1 each HS and MK.

 

[mlayton14]

4 days MK , 1 day Epcot (2nights), 1 day AK

 

[trouttigger]

I commend you for planning so far ahead.

I'm here now. We have park hoppers for the first time (had to buy to get free dining), and I'm not a fan either. It took us an hour to get from DHS to EPCOT dining reservation yesterday.

If MK has really long hours, you can do it in one day if you plan ahead and know what you want to skip. HOWEVER, I think MK is best done over 2 days. Same with EPCOT. I love EPCOT and especially the atmosphere of WS. We are only spending 1.5 days at EP, but my ideal is 2 days. If you don't care to linger in WS, you could be happier with less time there.

In summary, ideal:
MK 2 days
EP 2 days
AK 1 day
DHS 1 day

Also, our family likes 1 down day in the middle of our trip to recover. (I'm in bed with coffee typing this.) We go as close to opening as possible and stay till closing if we can. (Unless it is Christmas opening at 7 am with EMH till 3 am.)

 

[Musicman20]

When was your last long trip to Disney?

Do you have a large party with you?

I figured 2 weeks in Orlando would be more than enough (UK family - we hadn't been for ten years, some of the family had never been, plus we had two young children).

It wasn't.

I'm off back with my girlfriend next October 2016.

Time in each park?

If you really want to do almost everything in the parks, and have some time to relax, eat and enjoy the whole experience, I could easily spend:

3 days Magic Kingdom. You will need few evenings there as well.
2 days plus an evening in Epcot. If a festival is on, you might spend more time at Epcot (I personally love it).
2 days Animal Kingdom plus a night if the new night shows are on when you go (we wanted to take it easy and see all the animals and we still didn't do everything).
2 days Hollywood Studios plus one night (despite the fact it is being changed dramatically, I still think the park has great things to offer).

In all honesty, it might sound ridiculous but I like the parks so much that I can see us spending more time in each park in 2016.
E.g. 3-4 MK, 3 days Epcot (Food and Wine Fest), 2-3 days AK, 2-3 days HS.

We always want to do everything though, and more than once. I could easily ride 7DMT 3-4 times if given the option! Same with Star Tours.

 

[sandy77d]

I think it depends on who is travelling with you. I am taking my two 10 year old daughters. We are doing 3 days MK, 1 1/2 Epcot, 1 HS, and 1 AK. On our arrival day, we are going to spend the evening at Epcot.

 

[mshanson3121]

Hi! Long time lurker here! Went to Disney in April but just 1 day in MK and 1 in EP.

Returning Easter week again of 2017 for 8 nights.... Leaves us 6 full days without traveling. Staying offsite WBC.

We LOVED MK and EPCOT, but we have no clue how many days we should figure for those or AK and HS since we've never been.

Also not sure about hoppers. Ideas? Thx for helping!

I would plan on 2 days at MK, 2 days at EP and 1 each at HS and AK. By then the Sunset Safari and Rivers of Light will be open at AK for sure, and possibly Pandora (?). The new Frozen Ever After will be open at EP, too.

 

[scrapquitler]

We usually park hop, and we like to start at least one day at HS and one at AK, then hop over to MK or Epcot later on because HS and AK usually close earlier, and MK and EP stay open later. We also like to have at least one full day at MK and EP. So we end up doing MK or EP every day of our trip.

 

[niffer5150]

we never get park hoppers. our half days come from that our flights put us in orlando at 4pm, we take late flights out, and usually plan at least a half day at typhoon lagoon and a half day at DTD. it leaves wiggle room to shift plans around in case of illness or weather.

 

[dekraut]

I love MK best and we have younger kids so we usually spend most time there. In January we have a trip planned for 6 park days. We are planning 3 at MK and 1 at each of the others. I would like to involve the kids in more World Showcase explorations and therefore have been reconsidering taking a half-day from MK and adding it to EP, but I am not sure if they will really be interested in world showcase or not. If they seem to be, we may rob part of an MK day to add more time to do Epcot. Soarin' is down while we are there (BOOOO!) so that is one major attraction we don't have to hit.

To answer more directly, I think that in a less busy time of year, one day can be enough for HK and AK, although there are a ton of shows at HS that only run certain times of day. If you want to hit lots of stage shows and other entertainment attractions, as well as the new Launch Bay with Vader and Chewie meet and greets, Hollywood might need more time. Also, AK has lots of exploration trails and optional diversions that can add time, depending on what you are into.

 

[FirstDown]

I commend you for planning so far ahead.

I'm here now. We have park hoppers for the first time (had to buy to get free dining), and I'm not a fan either. It took us an hour to get from DHS to EPCOT dining reservation yesterday.

If MK has really long hours, you can do it in one day if you plan ahead and know what you want to skip. HOWEVER, I think MK is best done over 2 days. Same with EPCOT. I love EPCOT and especially the atmosphere of WS. We are only spending 1.5 days at EP, but my ideal is 2 days. If you don't care to linger in WS, you could be happier with less time there.

In summary, ideal:
MK 2 days
EP 2 days
AK 1 day
DHS 1 day

Also, our family likes 1 down day in the middle of our trip to recover. (I'm in bed with coffee typing this.) We go as close to opening as possible and stay till closing if we can. (Unless it is Christmas opening at 7 am with EMH till 3 am.)

LOL... My husband says I'm obsessed so thanks for the compliment for my planning!

 

[FirstDown]

When was your last long trip to Disney?

Do you have a large party with you?

I figured 2 weeks in Orlando would be more than enough (UK family - we hadn't been for ten years, some of the family had never been, plus we had two young children).

It wasn't.

I'm off back with my girlfriend next October 2016.

Time in each park?

If you really want to do almost everything in the parks, and have some time to relax, eat and enjoy the whole experience, I could easily spend:

3 days Magic Kingdom. You will need few evenings there as well.
2 days plus an evening in Epcot. If a festival is on, you might spend more time at Epcot (I personally love it).
2 days Animal Kingdom plus a night if the new night shows are on when you go (we wanted to take it easy and see all the animals and we still didn't do everything).
2 days Hollywood Studios plus one night (despite the fact it is being changed dramatically, I still think the park has great things to offer).

In all honesty, it might sound ridiculous but I like the parks so much that I can see us spending more time in each park in 2016.
E.g. 3-4 MK, 3 days Epcot (Food and Wine Fest), 2-3 days AK, 2-3 days HS.

We always want to do everything though, and more than once. I could easily ride 7DMT 3-4 times if given the option! Same with Star Tours.

We went in April but did an Orlando trip with Discovery Cove and lots of stuff. Only did one day MK and one EP.

I didn't do more days because I thought I would hate it! Too funny.

Not a big family... 2 boys who will be 5 and 10 and husband.

 

[Accident]

We don't really plan, generally we plan to hit the 4 parks in the first 4 days and then wing it the rest. In reality, we figure out where we can get adr's for. We go a lot so we know what parks we don't mind just hanging out in and do our fastpasses around that for the entire week..

We hop, but that's more to help my daughter with her anxiety and we're AP holders so we dont' spend extra to hop. I recommend to friends and family to plan around not hopping and just budget that you might want to add it on while there. It's the same cost to add it later and it's expensive enough that it's a nice savings if you find out they don't fit your style for a long trip.