How many days at each park?

[deebee29]

We've only spent one day at Magic Kingdom and no time at the other parks and are planning an upcoming week-long trip to the World! How many days each would you plan for the parks?
Also, is it better to take advantage of or avoid EMH days?

[stitchingirl]

I've been several times, and we usually allot one day per park, although MK takes the longest, as there's just soo much to do! I would take advantage of the EMH myself if given the opportunity, especially for the Magic Kingdom. But that's just me.
Have fun! :mickey:

[baby minnie's mommy]

You'll probably get different opinions on this. Here's my idea:
AK - 1 day
MGM - 1 day
Epcot - 2 days
MK - 2 days

AK and MGM both offer shows with particular schedules, which means you may have to plan your tour of the park around show times. If you miss some you may wish to return on another day.

[mrsHerbie53]

AK - .5 - 1 day, although that day is getting fuller with EE, Dinosaur, Safari, etc.

MGM - 2
Epcot - 2
MK - 2

I know that is too many days, but we get hoppers and split many days up between parks. Especially eating in Epcot.

We tend to avoid EMH and avoid more of the crowds, but that isn't foolproof.

Good luck!

[Pipalotta]

AK- 1 day
DHS - 1 day
MK - 2 or more days
EP - 2 days

When we are going we are not planning on doing EMH as not all the rides are open, and it seems like lots of resort guests take advantage of it meaning the parks are crowded. If you go for EMH especially in the morning I would do the rides you want and then hop to another less crowded park!

[LoriMistress]

I would do 6 days/7 nights. That should be plenty of time to see everything.

[Taam Hamms]

AK - 1 Day
DHS - 2 Days..
Work from there.

Although I love the thrills of EE and Dinosaur, and even the Activist Roots of Kahli, I still can't do more then one day in AK. I have a list of must sees at the DHS and although it seems it's been getting smaller these days I'm still loyal as it was my favorite growing up. As for MK and Epcot thats my heaven, I'll spend the rest of the days there! :mickey:

[2Epcot]

We always do 2 days at Epcot, 1.5 to 2 days at Magic Kingdom, and 1 day each at the Animal Kingdom, and Disney MGM (Hollywood) Studios. Depending on how long we stay, and if we are going to visit other places around Orlando, we may space those days out a bit.

[kakn7294]

Depending on how many days we are there, we spend the most time at MK, followed by Epcot, then MGM, with AK having the least amount of time. Here's our usual:

AK - 1 to 1.5 days
MGM - 1.5 to 2 days
Epcot - 2 days +
MK - 2 days +

We've never done the morning EMH's although I hear that they are a great time to take advantage of low crowds. In my experience, we've found that the parks are less crowded on non-EMH days. We like to get a park hopper and go to a non-EMH park, then possibly go the the park with evening EMH's if time permits.

[Tink#64]

I notice a pattern here:

MK - 2 days
Epcot - 2 days ( at least! 1 day each for FW & WS)
MGM/Studios - 1 day (we were there for 13 hours last year!)
AK - 1/2 to 1 day - we never do a full day at Ak - we have some fav's here - but not our fav park! We can do what we like in about 3 - 4 hours, we always arrive at park opening.

We've done trips ranging from 4 days at the parks to 9 days total. We've decided that we really like the longer trip, we have a couple of days to sleep late, maybe not do parks at all, swim, visit other resorts, DTD, etc. We enjoy a little down time & not be rushing to do all that we want to do! We don't do EMH at all! We tried once, waited over an hour to do Star Tours, the next morning (not EMH) we walked on - no wait at all!

Hope you have a magical trip! :tink:

[Von-Drake]

We always try to allot 2 days at MK depending on the length of our trip. We have not been spending a lot of time in EPCOT since our son has not had a lot of interest in it in the past, but plan to spend more time there in April when we go. I would try the following:
2 days at MK
1 day Disney Studios
1-1.5 days at EPCOT
1-1.5 days at AK

We also like to allow time for riding the monorail to the resorts and walking around them. A good way to take a nice break form the crowds and give our son some peaceful downtime.

[WishingStar2006]

Don't forget to leave some time for a trip to DTD....it's a great time with lots to do and see and some great food as well.

Enjoy!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

:cloud9: Well, I guess I have to go with the crowd.

MK-2 Days
Epcot-2 Days
MGM-1 1/2 Days
AK-1 Day

Try to get to Downtown one evening as well!

[Mackflava99]

AK - 1 day
MGM - 1 day
Epcot - 2 days
MK - 2 days
.

I agree with above-
MK just has too much too offer, its not good to rush, Epcot has alot of land to cover and alot of good food sampling, and more movies, so you should take your time
Ak is a one day, just get there early-
MGM can easily be done in one day with some planning.

Basically you should map out what you really want to see and get those things done first.

Have a great time

[SBETigg]

I recommend park hopping. The freedom it gives you is well worth the extra cost and we have more fun repeating our favorite attractions at each park if they aren't all crammed into one day per park, one park per day.

EMH is a mixed bag. With hopping, it's easier to take advantage of the EMH. If it seems crowded, you can head to a different park. If you're morning people, the early EMH seems to be a great advantage in seeing the parks without crowds, however; those parks fill up by ten or eleven and seem more crowded than usual. Similarly, evening EMH is great after hours but the parks seem more crowded than usual from 4 pm to regular closing time. We'll hop to an evening EM park typically after enjoying another park for most of the day. If you don't plan on hopping, I would probably avoid EMH days at parks.

We typically fit visits to the MK or Epcot in for almost every day of our trip. If you're going for a week, I would hop and break it up to do parks in half-days, two a day, instead of one park per day. Generally in a seven day period, we would do the equivalent of
*three days at MK (or no less than two)
*two at Epcot (no less than two)
*one at Studios
*one at AK.

But that's changing for us as the AK grows more interesting and the Disney Studios park slightly loses our interest. The AK might be a day and a half while the Studios will be a half day. We also like to fit in extras like water park visits or trips to Downtown Disney only on trips longer than seven days. Otherwise, we feel we are shorting ourselves out of park time.

[prttynpnk]

We usually pick a park for the 1st part of the day and then return to the hotel midday to rest,change,whatever. The evenings we leave open for returns to favorites, shows, special meals. Usually we end up in WS at night. So we do 2 MK days, 1 Studio day, 1-2 AK days and 1 Epcot day. we like the unplanned evenings to revisit things we really enjoyed-

[TheRustyScupper]

I recommend to people:

1) Four full days at WDW
. . . 1-day MK
. . . 1-day Epcot, plus 1-night after MK
. . . 1-day AK then MGM until close
. . . 1-day MK and Epcot replays

2) Five full days at WDW
. . . 1-day MK
. . . 1-day Epcot, plus 1-night after MK
. . . 1-day AK then MK
. . . 1-day MGM
. . . 1-day MK and Epcot replays

3) Six full days at WDW
. . . 2-day MK
. . . 1-day Epcot, plus 1-night after MK
. . . 1-day AK then MK
. . . 1-day MGM
. . . 1-day MK and Epcot replays

[Davyjones]

1 day per park is what I ask my wife to allow me. ;) Anything more is a bonus.

[tennantsrwe]

We always do one day at AK, MGM & EPCOT and then 2 days at MK. Our girls really like everything at MK and just the bigger size of the park really takes two days to see, IMHO. Plus it's nice to maybe do half the park one day and then go back again to do the rest before the trip is over.

[#1donaldfan]

We try to do at least 2 days in each park.....we like the early hours the best. This past year we did almost every EMH they had, and I have to say by the end of our trip we were "trashed"......next time we'll pick and choose more wisely and try to keep our minds and bodies in tact......

[Nurse Kim]

:cloud9: Well, I guess I have to go with the crowd.

MK-2 Days
Epcot-2 Days
MGM-1 1/2 Days
AK-1 Day

Try to get to Downtown one evening as well!

This is what we are planning to do for our March trip. I am hoping we get a week that is light crowds with this being Spring Break season. My kids don't have spring break until April but mine is March so that is when we are planning our trip. We are going before Easter though so I hope that helps us.

[Figgyluv03]

Since DBf and I aren't going to the water parks, we are going to do two days at each park, except for AK. We are going there, and doing WCC for dinner, and hading to MK for the rest of evening.

[luvkatiebug]

I didn't see if you had kids or not, and what they are (if you dO), but we usually can't do a whole park in one day (except maybe AK). My kids (ages 3 and 7 now) get a little whiny around 2 o'clock in the afternoon. We can almost never do MK all in one day. We are going for a week in May, and I am buying a 6 day hopper; I am kind of planning on mornings and evenings in the park with breaks in the middle. When I took my older DD at 3.5 years, I was a little surprised at how often we needed to take breaks in order to keep the peace! I am also planning on a complete day off in the middle of the week.

Either way, enjoy!:mickey:

[jenfriend]

I would recommend first that you plan on 2 "rest" days. Those are days that you do not go into the theme parks, hang out at your resort, or spend a litle time in downtown disney. We found that pacing ourselves was difficult. We got tired!

Magic Kingdom - 2 days or minimum 1 morning & 1 full day, MANY great things, especially liked Peter Pan's ride, Pirates of Caribbean, Big Thunder RR, and show at the castle
Animal Kingdom - 1 day, best live show "The Lion King"
Disney Studios - 1 day, maybe more, best evening show Fantasmic!
Epcot - 2 days, Best ride of all is Soarin, exploring the World Showcases are great (Skip the Canada movie), MISSION: Space really cool but can make you really sick. My favorite park.

Waterpark-1 more day; although the resorts have great themed pools.

We didn't get to see everything in 10 days, but we enjoyed ourselves completely. Have fun.

[cal5755]

We usually do ---

MK - 2 days
Epcot - 2 days
AK - 1
MGM - 1

We save a day at the begining or end for a water park or to go do things we missed. We also liked taking advantage of both early and late emh. We spent the most time we could each day at the parks. We are a family that loves to open and close the parks though.

Have a great trip!!

[wedway76]

I would spend 215 days in MK, 100 days in EPCOT, 49.5 days in MGM and .5 days in AK. And then do the same thing every year.



Ooops, I just saw that you said "week-long" I didn't see that when I originally posted this. I had to edit my post...

I would just take the above numbers and divide by 52.

[Tygger7]

This is what we are planning to do for our March trip. I am hoping we get a week that is light crowds with this being Spring Break season. My kids don't have spring break until April but mine is March so that is when we are planning our trip. We are going before Easter though so I hope that helps us.

From past experience, spring break can be a nighmare when it comes to crowds. The worst dates seem to be the week before and week after Easter. Don't forget...Easter is EARLY next year: March 23rd.

As other posters have mentioned, we park hop A LOT. Usually, we'll hit one park in the morning, then hit a different park late afternoon/early evening. Just depends on where we're eating dinner, and crowds. I would definitely plan 2 days at MK and at least 2 days at Epcot. We've never spent a "whole" day at AK...we usually go there early on EM morning hours and stay until 2-3pm at the latest, then hit MK for the evening. DHS is the wild card...we spend 2 days there because it's my daughter's favorite park.

I guess I'd focus more heavily on the parks you've never been to before, and fill in any extra time re-doing your favorite things.

Have a wonderful time!!

[SignguyTom]

My suggestion:

AK- .5 -1 day
DHS - 1+ day
MK - 2 days
EP - 2 days

Generally, we do the AM EMH until the park gets crowded (10-11ish) and then head to the park that had the PM EMH the night before. Seems to be less crowded then.

We plan our days through dinner time, and then after that, decide what we want to do. Sometimes we end up at the park with the PM EMH and other times head to the resort or DD.

We also pick a day to sleep in (it is vacation, afterall :secret:). Usually we do it in the middle of the trip. I would recommend this to anyone with a week or more. :thumbsup:

[BelleandtheBeast]

2 days for MK and Epcot and 1 day for the others. I like to go to the hotel and then back to the parks throughout the day for breaks.

[KAT1811]

We usually do the following:

2 days in the MK
2-3 days in Epcot (if we do 2 days we tend to miss some attractions due to the enormity of the park)
1 day in Disney Studios
1 day in Animal Kingdom
1-2 days in the water parks (usually try to hit each one)
2 days by the pool with nothing to do but lounge and recharge.