How much walking

[cseest]

My family are WDW vets going to DLR for the first time in October. Wondering how much walking we can expect in a day considering we probably put on 5 miles a day minimum at WDW. It it about the same, more or less in your experience? Would love to hear your thoughts!

 

[Minnie Loves Mickey]

I think that sounds about right. DL and DCA are much closer together. We even walk back to our hotel in the afternoons for a break.

 

[KateDrake]

For us, it depends on how much we park hop. If we stay in one park, we tend to walk less than when we are at WDW - maybe only 3 or 4 miles. Especially in DLR, it is much more compact than MK.

But, if we hop, we walk more like 7 or 8 miles a day. We also walk to and from our hotel on Harbor. It's fantastic, because I always eat a bunch of junk food while in the parks but still manage to lose a couple of pounds each trip!

 

[tarheelalum]

We average about 9 miles per day on my pedometer.

 

[tarheelalum]

double post

 

[kylie71]

We did 10 and over last Thanksgiving, but we frequented the Grand Californian, White Water Snacks, Storytellers and Hearthstone Lounge, at least sometime during the day...

 

[llump41]

Last time I wore a pedometer it was about a mile per hour in the park.

 

[ScottyK86]

We have both wore fitbits when we went in August. We walked to and from the Super 8 on West Katella Avenue and we walked about 12 miles a day.

 

[bayoulife4me]

Walking in Disneyland and DCA isn't a hurtful thing on my knees. There's something in the mixture of the sidewalks and streets. I can walk a whole day at Disneyland and not feel like my knees are breaking. On regular concrete, I can't make it more that a few blocks of walking.
But I would say that me and my family walk about 9-10 miles easily.

 

[scrapshappen]

With walking back and forth to the Tropicana and touring the parks, my fitbit registered over 25000 steps (10 miles) most days of our last trip. Good shoes make all the difference in the world to me.

ETA: We are going to WDW in January and I am curious to see if I walk more or less there.

 

[whoever]

I think we do about 11 miles/day

 

[GatorChris]

It depends on where your hotel is. If you're right across the street on Harbor, or at one of the Disney hotels, you're walking a lot less at DL. The walk to a hotel isn't much more than a walk to a bus stop at WDW.

As for the parks, you'll be walking A LOT less. Epcot and AK are huge, and the WDW version of the MK is bigger that DL. California Adventure is probably a little smaller than DHS, which is WDW's smallest park. Overall, your legs and the legs of your family will feel much better at the end of the day than they do in Florida.

 

[Disneyluvr2]

I think I read somewhere that the average person walks 10-12 miles a day when at the DLR. I'm not a exercise fan, but never see to mind all that walking. It's much for fun, than walking in the real world, when you can stop for a churro or a Dole Whip!

 

[Minnie Loves Mickey]

WOW I never realized we could be walking that far. I will have to wear a fitbit next time and see.

 

[Butterfly123]

I don't mind a lot of walking. It's all the standing that is so hard on my feet! Besides, all that walking helps balance the eating.

 

[klh-or]

Whoa, I'm panicking! No way can I walk that far in a day. I understand it's not steady walking with rides, meals, etc breaking it up. 10 miles...does this include bouncing back and forth between parks frequently? We have a 5-day hopper pass and kind of plan to spend two days in each park and hop on the last day if needed to hit anything we want to do again. So, we don't need to cover the whole park in one day.

Any step-saving tips for someone traveling with a 2 and 4-year-old (we'll have strollers), a young mom, a young auntie, and this overweight gramma?

(Besides getting in as much walking ahead of time to build stamina, which I'm already doing.)

Thanks!

 

[PinkBudgie]

You'd be surprised how much you actually walk in an average day. I wear my Fitbit to work everyday and most days I walk around 4 or 5 miles. I'm a preschool teacher and just walking around the playground or around the school adds up.

I took my Fitbit to WDW this summer. We walked 10 miles a day. I'm pretty sure we will see this July that we walk even more at DLR because we walk to and from the park each day to CCI (and back for nap) plus we park hop several times and may or may not also visit DTD.

 

[PinkBudgie]

Whoa, I'm panicking! No way can I walk that far in a day. I understand it's not steady walking with rides, meals, etc breaking it up. 10 miles...does this include bouncing back and forth between parks frequently? We have a 5-day hopper pass and kind of plan to spend two days in each park and hop on the last day if needed to hit anything we want to do again. So, we don't need to cover the whole park in one day.

Any step-saving tips for someone traveling with a 2 and 4-year-old (we'll have strollers), a young mom, a young auntie, and this overweight gramma?

(Besides getting in as much walking ahead of time to build stamina, which I'm already doing.)

Thanks!

For saving steps- don't park hop back and forth. Just stay in an area and move on after you've seen it. A park hopper makes sense though if you want to visit a different park after nap time, for example. You can also send young mom or young auntie to get any FPs you may want while you stay with the little ones. Have several meal ideas in mind ahead of time so you know what you might want that's near where you are. That way you aren't wandering from food place to food place to see what's there.

DH and I are rather nuts. Our kids are grown so we just zip back and forth all over on a whim. When we are with our little niece and nephew, we slow way down.

 

[crystal1313]

We have a 4 and 6 year old and we average about 10 miles a day. DS4 still uses a stroller. DS6 did great this last trip without a stroller. We just took more breaks and a couple times he asked to sit for awhile.

 

[sandgrace]

There's a lot of walking, but I feel that there's more walking at WDW. We are DLR vets that went to WDW last May, and everything at WDW was so much more spread out. The size of the Magic Kingdom seemed huge compared to Disneyland to us. It could be that we are so much more familiar with DLR and don't need to look at maps...but I really felt WDW had more walking.

I agree with the earlier poster that said standing in lines is worse than walking, I've always felt that way too.