Disney Vacation Tips and Advice | planDisney (2024)

FAQs

How many days do you really need at Disney? ›

We always recommend spending at least two full days at Magic Kingdom, one day at EPCOT, one day at Hollywood Studios, and one day at Animal Kingdom. This is especially true for families visiting Disney World with young children or first-time visitors to Walt Disney World.

Frugal couples should budget about $4,000 for a seven-night Disney World trip, but trips can easily cost more. Sally French is a travel rewards expert who joined NerdWallet in 2020. She previously wrote about travel and credit cards for The New York Times and its sibling site, Wirecutter.

Using the above analysis as a guide, a good daily budget for Disney is around $233 per person per day if you are traveling as a family of four, or a total of $935 for the whole family. This figure includes theme park tickets, parking, food, and spending money, but not accommodation.

Five days should be more than enough to experience much of what Walt Disney World has to offer. The list of "Must Do" attractions really changes based on your preferences and traveling party makeup. Nevertheless, adding some things to your "Must Do" list can be easy to do. Here are some you can start with.

So what's the average? Nine rides. In a whole day. Considering that a one-day adult ticket costs $87 and change, and entrance for a child age 3 to 9 is $78.81, this means typical visitors are paying roughly $9 or $10 per ride.

Visiting Disney on a Budget

As you can see, it's totally possible to visit Disney World for under $1000 a person. Using the calculations above, it would cost around $2,000 for a family of 4. That's pretty impressive when you recognize that the usual cost is between $3000 and $5000 for a family of that size.

In general, the months of January and February (except for the days around Presidents Day weekend) are usually priced lower than during mid-March through April when many schools have spring break. Early May is also a good time to visit as well as later August and also September.

I have brought $100 bills to WDW several times and have never had any trouble having them accepted in the parks and resorts. If you had any concerns, you could go to the front desk of your hotel and periodically ask them to change your $100s into $20s. They should be able to do this for you with no problem at all.

Cash is widely accepted throughout Walt Disney World's theme parks, resorts, and at Disney Springs. I find that using cash at Disney World helps me budget how much I spend daily and has always been super convenient.

Disney World is free to visit for children under the age of 3, making the already popular destination especially appealing to young families.

Will Disney check my child's age? ›

When visiting Walt Disney World Resort, you will not need to show proof of your child's age to enter the theme parks. However, if you are making advance dining reservations, you do need to include your young child on the reservation to make sure that the restaurant can accommodate enough space for your entire party.

Happily, no matter their age, you'll be able to find attractions to suit your family. Epcot has many different activities available for children of various ages, even as young as infants. Several rides have no height requirements.

For Disneyland, we find two days at that park and 1 at California Adventure to be perfect (no parkhopper). Just not sure how much time to budget for DW parks or if parkhopper is a must have.”

Our standard recommendation for a Walt Disney World trip is four full days, one day in each park. But three days is a good amount, too, and we take pretty frequent three-day visits as well.

With so much to see and do, it's imperative that you plan to budget enough days for your Disney vacation and decide exactly which theme parks you simply must visit, so you and your family can enjoy the full flavor of the experience. In fact, the average length of stay at Walt Disney World Resort is six days.

A four-day park ticket with entry to one park per day is a great way to experience it all! It gives you the chance to explore all four theme parks in depth each day. To add the Park Hopper Option to your ticket package, you will need to add it for each day of your stay.