How many hours do you spend in each park?

[traciedee]

We have never gone before. Can you give me an idea of how many total hours you spend in each park? And do you usually split the parks in to a couple of mornings/afternoons or evenings or do you do the 9-9?

 

[kldmom2000]

I think it all depends on the individual. For us, I've been so many times in the past. In the beginning with my parents when we stayed offsite, we would stay in the park ALL day to get our $$$$$$$$'s worth. Now that DH and I are seasoned Disney veterans, we get there for the opening, stay until lunchtime. Then we go back to our onsite hotel (Beach or Yacht club) and hang out by the pool/take a nap for a few hours and then return to the parks at dinner time and stay until closing This worked out VERY well when we took our 2 girls for the first time at ages 2 and 4 about 1.5 yrs ago.... we're going back in 196 days and intend to do the same thing-it worked out great and kept them from getting overtired and cranky!

 

[wdwgoofeeee]

Like the previous poster, we never spend an entire day at any park. We normally get to the park before opening....you can get a lot done if the first few hours. By noontime we head back to our resort for a break. We then head to another park for dinner and spend the rest of the evening there.
There is just so much walking to do in WDW it's really tough to try to spend an entire day in any park....although I know many people do.
The best advice is not to try to do too much and not to try to see and do everything. Given the size of WDW it is totally impossible. Just take it easy and enjoy. We find that the middle of the day breaks give us the energy we need to have more fun in the evening. This is especially true in the hot summer months.

 

[bicker]

I just did a rough plan of our trip for next year, just as a sample of what we might do, for our guests. Here's how it broke down:

Magic Kingdom: 11 hours
Epcot: 20 hours
Disney-MGM Studios: 10 hours
Animal Kingdom: 7 hours

 

[Marseeya]

It also depends on how long you're staying. On our last trip and on our upcoming trip, we were there for 10 days, so we basically just did half days in the parks and really enjoyed it. We saw just about everything we wanted to see, but at a relaxed and slower pace. If we just had a few days, we'd probably have stayed in the parks all day.

 

[rlovew]

As a child we spent all day in the parks but we stayed with my grandmother and drove over most of the time, when we camped at Fort Wilderness we came back in time for the evening programs, but we usually left the park for an hour to have a picnic lunch.

Now with my DH we have yet to stay all day in the parks, we normally go for the morning and return to the hotel after lunch and then go back to the parks in the evening. Again we live in FL so we can go up as often as we would like, so if we don't do something 1 day because of a long line we don't worry about it.

When I have gone with adults who are experiencing Disney for the first time and we go up for the day then we stay all day. I find that a couple of adults who don't do a TS meal and stay all day can see all the shows and ride the rides we want in one day.

That being said in a trip where we want to see most of a park we usuually spend:
MK: 10 hours(but over 2 days)
AK: 5 hours (once we have seen most of the shows we rarely return except for the night shows)
MGM: 5 hours (again becuase my DH doesn't do shows more than 1 time- although we do the drawing almost every time we visit, sometimes more than once)
EPCOT: FW- 4 -5hours (we skip Energy unless we want to take a nap without leaving the park) WS- it depends on how we are feeling that trip, many times we choose one or two pavillions to really explore and hit the 2 rides, but during the F&G or F&W we will spend 3-4 hours.

That being said with AP we have no worry about going to a park for an hour or two, doing just a couple of things and leaving.

 

[golden1]

I really like going early, taking a break, and then going back later. I will be doing this on our MK and Epcot days. To see MK you need at least 10 hours and EPCOT you need at least 15. For MGM, since it is smaller, you probably need 5-6 hours to tour it not including Fantasmic. I will probably go to MGM right after lunch - tour - and do the Fantasmic Dining Package. AK you can do in about 6-7 hours if you ride everything. I will probably not take a break on our AK day but just power throough until about 3pm and then relax at the resort for the rest of the afternoon.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We usually get to the park in the morning at opening and stay until noon or so, go back to our resort for lunch/break, then go back to a park around 3 or so and stay until closing. Our kids are little and they have to have their naps, so this works for us. Sometimes we go back to the same park, sometimes we go to a different one, it just depends.

 

[PolyHereWeCome]

Like previous posters, we try to get to that day's park at/near opening and stay until we're tired -- probably5 hours - then we go back to the hotel, and hang out and swim and veg-out. We try to head back out in the PM, but many times I get outvoted by DH, DD8, and DS8 who want to keep relaxing on the Poly's beach and pool and TV (yup, TV!). We had hoppers last year, and didn't really need them much, so this year I bought non-expiring non-hoppers. I'd rather us go at this pace rather than drag everyone around, because it's vacation afterall.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We do about the same as others. Our visits are usually 10 or more nights. We have AP's and when we didn't we had hopper passes, never wanted to spend the entire day in one park. We get to a park in the am and stay until noon or the heat gets to us and then resturn to the resort for drinks around the pool and relax time. Sometimes we go to DTD but usuallu hang at resort. If our dinner isn't at the park we scheduled for the evening, we go and eat early and mosey over to a different park for the evening, usually after the sun goes down and stay to see the night displays. After about 3 days of 1/2 a park here and there we have a down day of either a waterpark or our DTD shopping spree. Evening through in some nighttime putt putt and resort lounge hopping and a night time swim and we're ready for more split park visiting. With AP's, we'll pop over to the MK just for some Casey's hotdogs and leave. We even pop to FW and get take out chicken and slaw, its the same chicken thats served at the HDD, and bring it back to the resort pool for a picnic. We never do adr's, we get in where we want and if we find a new place to eat, we don't want to be held to definite ressies somewhere else or a definite time to be somewhere. Other resrts have great lounges and resturants, great food unscheduled into our plans, we're very loose on the planning. If we see something new we really like, we stay and do it and even go back another day to do it somemore. Disney is always changing and after 30 some visits we always fine new things we never done or they added.

 

[ugadog99]

We are a family of three: mom, two girls (12 and 15). We have been to WDW many, many times, and only one day have we stayed from about 11-10. That was at Epcot and we really didn't intend to stay the whole time, but we did anyway. We always take breaks. We go into a park in the mornings for 4 hours or so and then back into another park for the evening hours (4 or more). For us, a break is very important. We swim, rest, eat, and recharge. Now, with evening EMH hours we do things a little differently. Sometimes we don't go in a park until early evening and stay through EMH. That means no early park the next morning, so we rest the next day.

 

[PolyAddict]

Like previous posters, we try to get to that day's park at/near opening and stay until we're tired -- probably5 hours - then we go back to the hotel, and hang out and swim and veg-out. We try to head back out in the PM, but many times I get outvoted by DH, DD8, and DS8 who want to keep relaxing on the Poly's beach and pool and TV (yup, TV!). We had hoppers last year, and didn't really need them much, so this year I bought non-expiring non-hoppers. I'd rather us go at this pace rather than drag everyone around, because it's vacation afterall.

I have this exact same problem with my DH and DD's 14, 12 and 5. They get up and do the early thing, but then tire out around noon and want to do the hotel and shopping. ugh!!!! This annoys me very much. We have rested now lets play again!!

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

We open and close the parks. The only break we take is a sit down dinner. We don't park hop, so if the park we are at closes early we go back to the resort or go to DTD. We haven't been much, so we are still trying to see everything.