Which Days to Visit Which Disney World Theme Parks
A visit to Walt Disney World involves visiting any number of the four theme parks, two water parks and Disney Springs. But how do you decide which parks to visit and when? Maybe use our way of decide to help guide your decision. Our upcoming Disney World vacation is mostly planned, all except for the moments we’re leaving up to whim. Take a look at which parks we’re visiting on which days of our vacation.
Monday-Magic Kingdom
Tuesday-Epcot
Wednesday Evening-Animal Kingdom
Friday-Hollywood Studios
Our vacation runs from Saturday evening until the following Sunday morning. 8 nights and 7 days. We purchased a 3 day park pass. We opted out of park hopper passes because we prefer to stick to one park per day, for more on that click here. We only had to purchase a 3 day pass because we are attending the DVC Moonlight Magic event at Animal Kingdom on the Wednesday night of our vacation. For more on that click here. How did we narrow down which days we would visit which theme parks during our visit? Here are a couple of things that caused us to choose these particular days:
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party is a Halloween party that happens periodically at Disney’s Magic Kingdom throughout the months of August, September and October. The days that these parties are happening, guests without a party ticket must leave the park by a certain time. During our vacation, there is a Halloween party on the Tuesday and the Friday. This narrowed down our options to only Monday, when we brought in the other factors listed below.
Moonlight Magic
During our Disney World vacation we are enjoying a DVC Moonlight Magic event. DVC Moonlight Magic events are Disney Vacation Club member events that have the park open to members and their guests after hours. This event falls on the Wednesday of our vacation, so we didn’t want to visit another park that day. We want to be fully rested to enjoy the most of this event. We also didn’t want to go to a park the next day because we expect to be very tired.
Park Ticket Expiry
With the park reservation system, you have to use your park tickets within a certain amount of time. For us, with our first park reservation falling on Monday, we had until Friday to book all of our park days. This gave us Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to choose from. Wednesday was off the table because of the Moonlight Magic event. Thursday was off the table because of the Moonlight Magic event. Tuesday and Friday were off the table for the Magic Kingdom due to the Halloween party. This meant Tuesday and Friday were going to be Epcot and Hollywood Studios days.
Park Location
With the Halloween party narrowing down our Magic Kingdom day, and the moonlight magic event dictating non-park days on Wednesday and Thursday, the next determining factor was park location. Our Magic Kingdom day had to be Monday because we couldn’t visit there on Wednesday or Thursday because of our DVC party. We couldn’t visit there on the Tuesday or Friday because of the Halloween party. And we had to use our park days by the end of Friday because of park ticket expiry. This left Tuesday and Friday open for Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Both are within walking distance of our resort, Beach Club Resort. But Epcot is literally outside our door, more specifically the entrance to World Showcase. This made Tuesday the ideal day for Epcot because our kids can stumble out of bed and be in the park within 10 minutes. The perfect park to go to the day after a long Magic Kingdom day.
Arrival Day
We never visit a park on our first full day at Walt Disney World. We like to keep this day as a buffer. An extra day for any flight problems. It also gives the kids a day to rest after our travel day. Because of this, we couldn’t do a park day on the Sunday. So Sunday will be a pool day at our resort’s amazing pool, Stormalong Bay. In the evening will enjoy a meal at Disney Springs’ T-Rex Restaurant.
When choosing your park days make to give it some thought and don’t just choose them on a whim. With the park reservation system you can’t change your mind as easily. For more tips on planning your Disney World Vacation check out these previous posts:
How to Choose Your Disney World Hotel
How to Choose Your Disney World Restaurants
The Best Restaurants For Kids at Disney’s Magic Kingdom
How to Get the Best Deal on your Disney World Vacation
Should You Visit Disney World in 2022 or 2023?
