How many days....

[RuthieT]

How many days would you recommend if time wasn't an issue to spend at each park?? We will be traveling in January when crowds are lower

 

[mzsarah10]

On our January trip, we went to the parks 6 days. We skipped animal kingdom for two days at Epcot, 3 days at magic kingdom and a day at HS. 3 days was too many for us at MK. By the third day, my then 5 year old said we've done everything I want to swim; should have gone to AK.

 

[alliecat523]

5 is usually our max.

 

[eastendlights]

It really depends on what you want to do. My kids are older teens, so the days of standing on line to meet characters are long gone. That frees up a lot of the time we used to spend in MK. We can see and do everything we want there in two days. However, we like to allow two days for each of the other parks and an extra for MK so 9 days total as a minimum. That said, our upcoming/ last few trips will be/were 12 days. This trip will have an extra day plus a half day (arrival) at MK and half day (departure) at Epcot. We eat TS meals for almost every meal so that uses up a fair amount of time. We don't rope drop or park hop but arrive at 10 or so and stay until close most days. We will leave MK for lunch or dinner at one of the monorail resorts sometimes.

 

[Raenstoirm]

IT really depends on your touring style. When it was just my husband and I, we were total commando and 6 days was about the sweet spot. Now traveling with our twin infants, 8 days is better so we can spend a lot more down time and not feel like we are missing out.

 

[TeamSy]

We do one day at each park except for MK which is 2.

 

[Neesy228]

As others have said, it depends on several factors - who you're traveling with, what their interests are, what is closed at each park, how often you go to the Parks etc.

When my children were little, we spent a lot of time in MK. As they have gotten bigger, they're looking for things like Everest and Test Track and less for characters and Dumbo. With their ages now (between 9 and 15) we do 2 days in MK, 1 at Epcot, 1 at AK, 1 at HS and usually an extra day to hop and finish the things we didn't get to do at each park. 6 day park hoppers serve us well, but we can also do 5 days without missing much.

 

[Alesia]

For us, 9 park days is just about right. A few hours on arrival night, 1 day with a late start in the middle, and 7 full days (open to close.)

We'll generally break it into 2.5 days at Epcot, 2 days at MK, 1 day at DHS, 1 day at AK, and the rest for water parks and disney springs. If it's too cold for water parks, we'll just go to whatever park sounds best at the time.

 

[Shanti]

In January, when both the water parks and resort pools are typically not going to be on the agenda, I would ideally allow for four full days (1 per park), plus the partial shoulder days for arrival & departure. That would require five nights.

In the summer, I would add days for the water parks and at least one full resort day for swimming, mini-golf, etc.

Both cases are assuming you're trying to get the full Disney experience in a single trip. You can also have a nice shorter visit if you focus on only a couple of parks. I actually prefer to visit this way, as I get weary of any trip anywhere by the end of a week, and you can get a deeper experience by focusing on just one or two places at a time.

Different strokes for different folks, though. Have fun!

 

[SplashMo]

Three days may be too brief:

1 Day Rope Drop MK
1 Day Rope Drop Epcot
1 Day Rope Drop AK and then hop to DHS at 1-2PM.

4 Days is better:

1 Day Rope Drop MK
1 Day Rope Drop MK then hop to Epcot
1 Day Rope Drop Epcot
1 Day Rope Drop AK and then hop to DHS at 1-2PM.

5 Days is better:

1 Day Rope Drop MK
1 Day Rope Drop MK then hop to Epcot
1 Day Rope Drop Epcot
1 Day Rope Drop AK and then hop to DHS at 1-2PM.

6 Days is often better

2 Day Rope Drop MK
2 Day Rope Drop Epcot
1 Day Rope Drop DHS
1 Day Rope Drop AK and then hop to another park at 2-4 PM. (Use FP+ in second park)

From there you can add more days to MK etc..

 

[mshanson3121]

How many days would you recommend if time wasn't an issue to spend at each park?? We will be traveling in January when crowds are lower

We spent 7 days in park: 3 at MK, 1 at EP, 1 at HS and 2 at AK. We also had 3 "rest" days.
Next time we plan on 6 parks days (2 MK, 1 EP, 1 HS and 2 AK) with 1 day at BB and 4 rest days.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

5+ days is my preference (one day per park, plus at least one additional day to go back and hit what you missed or repeat your favorite things)

 

[Mikie]

We've not used hoppers and have gone when weather isn't too oppressive, so we don't cut out hours for midday breaks. Also haven't done water parks or mini golf, bu we do get to Downtown/Disney springs once. With that agenda and because we DO have time constraints, it's always been 6 park days (2 each at MK and Epcot and 1 each AK and DHS). Without time constraints, but still no water parks, I think I'd like to add one more full MK day and at least one full rest day, and that's not counting any partial time we get on arrival and departure days.

 

[larissawbb]

We do 10 nights in the park and relax at the resort during the day.

 

[Dreamin192]

We're going for 8 days: 4 MK, 2 HS, and 2 Epcot. We're traveling with three kids (5, 2, 2) and only planning half days. I'm still torn on AK and may switch it out with a HS day since the offerings for our kids age group are limited. It's going to depend on your group and touring style.

 

[Sona99]

I don't care for hopping myself.

2 days MK
2 days Epcot if you really like the showcase
1 day HS
1 day AK
1 day for non park stuff

Since you are talking January, no water parks.

 

[RuthieT]

Are water parks closed in January?

 

[RuthieT]

We will most likely go at opening and leave for a 3 hours or so and come back for the evenings.