What's your WDW musts on a short trip

[Lici]

We'll be at WDW for 3 full days - what are your must dos and don'ts? Without running yourself ragged

 

[glassslippergirl]

All of our trips are this short. The must-do is to prioritize park time. As nice as the hotels are, park time is more valuable on a short trip. Park hoppers help so that you can spend time at all four parks in three days.

We spend the whole day in the park all three days. We just go slower in the afternoon, taking a long lunch, a really extended snack break, a rest in a shady area, etc. Plan to eat lunch and dinner in the park where you are; don't travel somewhere else just for a meal.

I always head to work the day after (sometimes a few hours after) we get back, so I like to buy a few Disney treats (my favorite are the big Carmel chocolate apples with Mickey ears) to bring for lunch to make me feel like I'm still at WDW.

Have fun!

 

[carlymcqueen]

I recommend the park hopper if you want to try and visit all the parks. If your kids aren't too young or don't get tired easy try and stay the full day at the park if you're not hopping. Put places like downtown disney (or disney springs) and the waterparks at the bottom of the visit list and try to hit the big parks first. fast passing also helps with getting to more in the parks

 

[Lici]

We definitely have the park hopper, never go to WDW without it! Thanks for the feedback!

 

[RoadTrip72]

Park Hopper is a definite for me on a short trip. I usually spend half a day at AK and half a day at Studios. Then a full day at EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom.

 

[hopeful4fl]

Do DHS and Epcot in a single day.
-> If young kids, boat rides (Land, Mexico, etc) and Sea, along with Soarin. If older Kids, Mission Space and Soarin. Illumiation
-> If young kids, Star War Jedi training and Toy Story Mania. If older kids, TWT. Early Fantasmic Show
Give MK a whole day. Doubt you need do's and dont's there
AK half day.
-> If young Kids, Dinosaur and Festival of Lion King. If Older kids, Everest. Nemo
If staying on Disney resort, half a day of enjoying the resort
If staying off site, I would give Epcot another half day.

On the don't, with such a small stay, I would not do > 1 ADR.

 

[bhartman]

We're taking a short trip in Sept - 4 nights, but only 3 full days for parks (we'll get to the resort around 2:30 on arrival day and we'll leave the resort at 7:30am on our last day.)

We're doing DTD (mostly the Lego store and Raglan Rd) on our arrival night. Then we're doing a full Epcot day, one and a half MK days, and half day at HS. I took someone's advice on here and just had my kids (5 and 7) pick their top three attractions at each park. We'll focus on those and if we do anything else, it'll be a bonus.

 

[scarslegalcounsel]

We did this in October of last year and it worked great -
Arrival evening - Boardwalk
Day 1 - DAK (morning)/DHS (afternoon)
Day 2 - Epcot
Day 3 - MK
Our fastpasses for Day 1 were all for DHS - we got to DAK at rope drop and did Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest first, so we didn't really need FP for DAK.

 

[disneywarriorprincess]

The "mountain range" and fantasyland at mk. Also the wishes fireworks and at least one character meal. Epcot you should walk around the world and ride mission space and finding nemo and friends.Ak you should do expedition Everest and festival of lion king show. Hs tower of terror and toy story mania

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Kilimanjaro Safari - for a short trip, that's the only "must do" for me. Everything else (including visiting MK at all) is optional