How To Plan Your Daily Schedule at Disney World

Disney World is a pretty huge place with plenty of attractions and activities you can come across. In fact, you won’t be able to experience all of them in a single day. That’s why if you plan to visit Disney World, you must plan your daily schedule ahead of time.

It just makes things a lot easier since you’ll have an idea of where you should go, what you should do, and when you should do them.

If you want to make the most out of your Disney World experience, then you need a detailed daily schedule planned. Let’s have a look at how you can do it.

Planning for the Walt Disney World Parks

Disney World features four massive theme parks, so if you don’t plan your daily schedule, there’s a huge chance you’ll miss one or two of them. This means that a considerable part of your planning process should focus on which parks you want to stay in the longest.

This is especially true if you’re only planning to visit for a few days.

These four parks are the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. Since each park has its own variety of attractions, you want to think about which park to visit first and on which dates.

With that out of the way, let’s have a look at some useful tips to help you plan your daily schedule at Disney World.

1. Prepare Your Budget

This is a no-brainer considering that a visit to Disney World is typically expensive. On average, you’d be spending around $5000 for a budget-friendly trip to Disney World for a family of four (two adults and two children). This includes things like park tickets, hotel stays, transportation, flights, dining, and a five-night stay.

You can go below that budget, of course, but it would greatly affect the overall experience since you have to give up a lot of conveniences.

When preparing your budget, you also want to consider the date you want to visit Disney World. Months like January, August, and September are off-seasons which only means they typically have the lowest rates available.

Meanwhile, months like December are something you’d want to avoid. Not only are the rates quite expensive, but you can also expect lots of crowds.

2. Decide on Which Parks To Visit First

As mentioned, there are four parks you can visit during your stay at Disney World. However, to make things much smoother, you’ll want to decide which of them you want to visit first – and which one you want to spend the most time in.

Making a to-do list for each park will be a great help as it lets you stick to a certain schedule when it comes to attractions and activities.

You can start by researching each park’s attractions and activities, such as fireworks, nighttime shows, and more. Then, you align the schedule with your traveling party. If you have kids with you, you want to make sure you can meet and satisfy their needs.

Another thing to consider is the restaurants you’d like to try. There are full-service restaurants in each park, so if that’s what you’re going for, then you have to keep in mind that they normally have longer wait times.

3. Consider Your Length of Stay

Your travel days will greatly affect your daily schedule in Disney World. Ideally, you want to arrive at your resort early in the afternoon. This way, you can still have time to make plans for the evening, such as where to dine in or which activities to take part in.

Also, if your itinerary includes the weekends, you have to remember that those days will be crowded.

Of course, this will vary depending on the season, but Disney World is normally a bit crowded during weekends as the locals will also visit. This means you’ll have to spend more time waiting in lines, so plan accordingly.

To help you with this, you can use crowd projection calendars from websites like Dad’s Guide to WDW, Kenny the Pirate, Touring Plans, and more.

4. Include Travel Time in Your Schedule

It’s easy to forget that traveling from one place to another in Disney World takes a lot of time. This is because you’ll have to contend with wait lines on monorails, boats, buses, or Disney Skyliners.

Then there’s the actual travel time and the time you have to spend going through security checks and park entries.

This is why you should never forget to include travel time when planning your daily schedule at Disney World. These logistics will play a huge part regardless of the activity, be it park hopping or making dining reservations.

5. Make Dining Reservations Ahead of Time

Regarding dining reservations, most of the popular dining locations in Disney World can get booked quickly. While there will be some open slots every now and then, waiting for them can be exhausting.

To save yourself the hassle, making your dining reservations as early as possible is highly recommended.

However, you have to make sure that it aligns with your schedule for the parks you want to visit. You don’t want to make a reservation for a restaurant that’s pretty far off from your current park.

You also want to ensure that it won’t conflict with the nighttime shows you plan to attend.

6. Choose the Activities You Want To Do on a Certain Day

Using a calendar, you want to choose which park you visit each day and what activities you want to take part in. You also want to do this on the succeeding days that you’re staying at Disney World.

Among the things you want to consider while you’re at it are the following:

• The available hours for each park, each day – Opening and closing hours will vary from one park to another. Some might close earlier, while others could remain open for a little longer. You want to visit a park with longer opening hours if you have a specific activity there that you want to enjoy.
• Research the specific days and times activities like nighttime shows, fireworks, and parades start – On some days, the activity that you want to enjoy won’t be available in a certain park. Nighttime shows also vary every night, with some nights ending earlier than others.
• Watch out for special events – Special events are sometimes hosted in any of the Disney World parks. On some nights when a special is hosted, you won’t be able to enter a park if you don’t have an event ticket.

For all three, you can use Disney World’s website to have an idea of their opening and closing hours. Check the Parks & Tickets section for the first two and the Special Events section for the third one.

7. Fit Your Schedule Based on Your Family’s Habits

If you and your family aren’t used to waking up early, then you’d want to avoid planning a schedule that involves activities early in the morning. The same applies if your companions don’t like staying up late.

Ideally, you want to plan a daily schedule that will fit everyone’s habits, so you’ll all be able to get enough rest and energy to spend on the activities.

8. Don’t Overplan and Don’t Stress Yourself Too Much

Planning a daily schedule for each day, you’ll be staying in Disney World is already as stressful as it is. While it helps to have an organized structure to follow throughout your trip, you don’t want to overplan. A little bit of spontaneity can help as well.

Relax, enjoy yourself, and take your time in each attraction you visit.

Conclusion

There are TONS of fun activities and attractions in Disney World, so much so that your choices are virtually endless. Don’t make a schedule for all of them, and consider your family or group’s preferences when making a daily schedule.

Most importantly, plan ahead of time, preferably weeks or even months, before your scheduled visit.