This nice thing about spending a weekend at Walt Disney World (besides that you get to be at Walt Disney World!) is that you definitely won’t run out of things to do. The downside is that you can’t do everything and it’s even challenging to hit the highlights at the resort. But we’re here to help you prepare to put together a perfect weekend at Disney World!
There’s no best way to spend a weekend at Disney World. You could spend two full days at Magic Kingdom, you could spend two full days outside the parks, you could do all four parks both days, or anything in between. The route you choose to take is going to depend entirely on your priorities, but don’t worry, we’ll provide plenty of guidance in this post to help you sort through everything.
This post is based on having two full days at the parks. If you have more than this, you may want to check out our Three Day Itinerary for Disney World.
If you needed to cut one afternoon short for an evening flight, you could, but both mornings are necessary. If you have fewer than two mornings, this is still probably the best post to read for your trip, but you’ll need to significantly modify the suggestions. (We link to our one-day park itineraries below, so those would be the next best thing to read.)
Everything Other than Parks
The bulk of this post focuses on park strategy—which parks to go to when, which to skip, what rides to target, etc. Before we get to that, let’s quickly talk about everything other than park strategy. Read more at our Walt Disney World Planning Guide or our Tips for Planning Your Disney World Vacation.
Tickets. You’ll probably need two-day Disney World park hopper tickets. There are four parks at Disney World. If you plan to visit just one or two parks—one on each day—then you won’t need park hopper. But if you hope to visit more than one park in a day, you’ll need park hopper.
Buy your tickets from an authorized seller of discount Disney World tickets. Link them to your My Disney Experience account.
Hotel. For starters, we highly recommend staying at a Disney hotel on short trips. This gets you access to Early Entry at the parks, along with other small conveniences like Disney’s free transportation to the parks.
Chances are you’ll be clocking 16-hour days and not dining at any restaurants in your hotel. Location/transportation could matter, but for this short visit consider relying on Uber or Minnie Vans. This is a good time for a value hotel or a moderate hotel.
Our top recommendation would be Pop Century—a value hotel with Skyliner access to Hollywood Studios and Epcot. The ease of transportation allows you a bit more flexibility, crucial for a short trip.
Alternatively, I’d consider Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs. This is arguably the nicest of the Disney hotels even though it’s only categorized in the “moderate” tier. When staying at Gran Destino I tend to rely a lot on Uber/Minnie Vans.
A deluxe hotel can make sense if (1) it’s well within budget and (2) it fits specifically well to your park plans.
This means you’ve got one of two plans. If you’re planning to only visit Epcot and Hollywood Studios, staying at Boardwalk Inn, Yacht Club, or Beach Club can make sense. (We also have a separate post discussing the best hotels for visits focused on Hollywood Studios and Epcot.)
If you’re planning to only visit Magic Kingdom, then Contemporary, Polynesian, Grand Floridian, or Wilderness Lodge can make sense. (Deluxe hotels can also make sense if the Extended Evening Hours perk is an option to enhance your trip.)
Travel Days. If you’re tight on time, you want to carefully evaluate your options for getting between the airport and your hotel. If it’s an option, Uber is probably best.
Dining. We recommend a maximum of one table service meal, a lunch around 2PM, during two days in the parks. 2PM is when waits for rides are the highest (temperatures are the highest, too), so it’s a fine time to have a meal. Importantly, you don’t want to plan a lunch at Magic Kingdom that results in you missing the parade.
But personally, the only way I’d book a table service meal for a two day trip was if it made sense to do a dinner on my arrival day or a breakfast on my departure day. I wouldn’t take the time away from the parks for a table service meal on a short trip. It’s much better to have the flexibility to eat a quick meal when it fits into your schedule.
Genie+ and Lightning Lanes
Genie+ is Disney World’s comprehensive “skip the line” system. Select rides also require a separate purchase in order to “skip the line.” Realistically, on a two day trip you should be prepared to spend $20 to $50 per person per day on some combination of these.
If keeping busy is your goal, you could make this trip without paying for the privilege of skipping lines because it just isn’t at all hard to fill two days with things that won’t have huge lines. But if you want to hit any significant volume of the highlights, you’re going to need to skip the lines.
For the bulk of this post, we assume you’ll be paying for some combination of Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes. We have a post covering all you need to know about Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Disney World, and we’ll link to park-specific posts below.
Building A Two Day Itinerary at the Parks [Park Hopping]
We’re going to start with helping you build a two day itinerary that involves park hopping. If you’re not park hopping, you’ll need to skip at least two parks, and we have a section below—“Skipping Two Parks (No Park Hopping)”—to help you pick which. Whether you’re park hopping or not, you also should be aware of our one-day itineraries for the parks:
Even with park hopper tickets, you might decide, for example, to do one full day at Magic Kingdom and a second day split between two or three of the other parks. In that case, the Magic Kingdom full day itinerary will get you through that day.
We’ll start this section with some general tips before providing a sample itinerary and a park-by-park breakdown to help you understand how the parks fit best into a two-day trip with park hopping.
General Park Hopping and Touring Tips
Before we get to our sample itinerary, there are some general tips you should know.
Pay attention to park hours. Typically it makes sense to start your day at the park that opens first and end if at the park that closes last. With Magic Kingdom open until 11PM or midnight some weekends, a three-park day can be easy to come by.
Be a Genie+ Expert. You’ll almost always want Genie+ for both days of a two-day trip, and you’ll always want to make sure you understand how the system works. But don’t stop there, become an expert. Read what we have to say, read what everyone else has to say, watch (recent) YouTube videos. If you stopped reading this post here, or never read it at all, and instead became a Genie+ expert, you’d probably be in a better position to plan your two-day trip.
For your park hopping days, the strategy you’ll really want to look into is “stacking”—the practice of booking a lot of Lightning Lane times later in the day, rather than booking the soonest available ride. (Stacking is a part of all our content, but we don’t often call it out specifically.)
Single Rider Lines. There are a few rides with single rider lines at Walt Disney World. If your group is willing/able to be split up, you might take advantage of these for shorter waits. Opting to use a single rider line also frees you up to pick something else with a Genie+ selection.
The Last Ride of the Day. You always run the risk of a ride being broken down if you wait until the end of the day, and you need to make sure you check ride hours in the app. But if a ride is operating and open until the park closes, you can get in line up until the time the park is scheduled to close. This means you can visit a popular ride—like Rise of the Resistance or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train—last thing without missing out on the rest of your day (but you might miss a nighttime show, depending on when those are scheduled).
Don’t Uber to or from Magic Kingdom. If hopping to or from Magic Kingdom, take Disney’s buses or monorails, or take a Minnie Van. Ubers drop you off and pick you up at Transportation and Ticket Center, requiring an extra boat or monorail to get to the park.
We’ve got one last thing to talk about before we get to planning your days at the parks…
Ticketed Events and Extended Evening Hours
Ticketed events often don’t get a ton of attention from first timers, who are usually trying to wrap their heads around the basics. But getting the most out of two days requires more than the basics! These events come at a cost, so if budget if the reason you’re taking a short trip, these might not be a good option for you. But if your bigger constraint is time, then these events can be a game-changer for a short trip.
Magic Kingdom After Hours, Hollywood Studios After Hours, and Epcot After Hours are excellent, ride-focused ways to supplement short trips. The holiday parties at Magic Kingdom—Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party—don’t tend to be as good for getting on a ton of rides, but they are unique, fun experiences in themselves. (Also, if these parties are going on, Magic Kingdom will close early those days and usually be less crowded in the morning.)
Moreover, on select nights at select parks, guests of Disney’s deluxe resorts get access to extra evening hours. If your trip coincides with these and you can afford a deluxe resort, then you might consider using these to maximize
Our Suggested Two-Day Disney World Itinerary
We’re going to start this section with a quick sample itinerary for a weekend with park hopping. Then we’ll go park-by-park and discuss some of the issues you need to be aware of fitting them into your day and why you might divert from our recommended itinerary. Here’s a “core” recommendation that I would recommend for a generic two-day visit…
Day 1 — Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. Buy Genie+ and make your first pick at Animal Kingdom. Buy an afternoon Individual Lightning Lane at Magic Kingdom (Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or TRON). Begin your day at Animal Kingdom, finish your day at Magic Kingdom.
The challenge with this day is just that Animal Kingdom might not be worth it for you. Personally, I’d include it, but if it has an early opening (it often does) and you’re only going for a few rides, you might not feel like waking up to get there super early and then leaving after only a few hours makes sense. You might think about this another way: Assume you’ll spend most of your day at Magic Kingdom, based on what the parks offer, would you rather do a full day at Magic Kingdom or start with a morning at Animal Kingdom?
Magic Kingdom is filled with attractions, characters, and entertainment to keep you plenty busy until the evening hours. With Genie+, you’ll be able to get on either a few major rides or several more minor rides. This plan concedes you won’t be able to do everything at Magic Kingdom this trip. If you feel like Magic Kingdom is more important, you might opt for a full day there, cutting one of the other three parks.
Day 2 — Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Buy Genie+ and make your first pick at Hollywood Studios. Buy a late (evening) Lightning Lane for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. Maybe buy an early Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance. Divide your day between Hollywood Studios and Epcot as appropriate. (Important note: As I’ll discuss below when talking about these two parks, there are good reasons you may want to flip the order of these two parks.)
The goal of this day is to see as much of Hollywood Studios as you can (or want to) before hitting some highlights at Epcot. Seeing “everything” at Hollywood Studios will take the overwhelming majority of your day, but you could do almost everything and still have time to get to Epcot and onto Guardians of the Galaxy if you buy a late enough Lightning Lane for that ride.
Now we’re going to move onto a park-by-park breakdown of how to fit these parks into your two days at Walt Disney World. Basically, the sample itinerary we gave above is the product of how we weigh all the factors we’re going to discuss next.
Fitting Magic Kingdom Into a Weekend Itinerary
When you’re on a two-day trip, Magic Kingdom is the park most likely to justify its own full day. We have a One Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary if you want to learn more about that option. But, assuming you’re park hopping, let’s talk about how to make that work.
Mornings vs. Afternoons at Magic Kingdom. As part of a two-day trip, we only recommend a morning at Magic Kingdom if you’re planning a full day at Magic Kingdom. To be clear, we think a full day at Magic Kingdom is a great use of time on a two-day trip, but it just usually won’t make sense to do a morning and then leave.
It will almost always make sense to check off a few rides at another park before coming to Magic Kingdom, with its hefty ride lineup, for the bulk of the day. Notably, Magic Kingdom has the afternoon parade, Disney World’s flagship nighttime fireworks show, and usually the latest park hours of the four parks.
The one exception would probably be if your group is all about thrill rides. Then it could make sense to start at Magic Kingdom with TRON, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before heading to Hollywood Studios for some afternoon and evening Lightning Lane times.
Lightning Lanes at Magic Kingdom. The paid individual Lightning Lanes at Magic Kingdom are, as of this update, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON. We recommend buying an individual Lightning Lane at Magic Kingdom, probably for a time just after the parade, giving you as much flexibility in the first half of your day as possible.
We always recommend Genie+ when a day involves Magic Kingdom. The park has a deep ride lineup with some all stars you won’t want to wait hours for and some less popular rides you’ll usually be able to get good Lightning Lane times for. It all boils down to Genie+ being the most useful at Magic Kingdom.
Read more about Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Magic Kingdom.
Fitting Animal Kingdom Into a Weekend Itinerary
Morning at Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom is ideal for an early morning. It’s often the first park to open, meaning you’re getting the most out of your limited time. Most everyone is going to the same ride to start—Avatar Flight of Passage. That means if you’re at the front of that group, you can stay ahead of the crowds for a bit and get short waits on other rides.
Read more about Early Entry and Rope Drop at Animal Kingdom.
Afternoon/Evening at Animal Kingdom. You really shouldn’t be heading to Animal Kingdom in the afternoon on a short trip. The park has no major nighttime show and often closes earlier than the other parks.
Lightning Lanes at Animal Kingdom. The paid individual Lightning Lane at Animal Kingdom is Flight of Passage. You’ll usually want to just plan to be at the park early to ride that ride first, saving your money for other purchases (or, you know, you can just spend the money). We’d prioritize Kilimanjaro Safaris over Na’vi River Journey on Genie+. Realistically on a two-day trip you might have to skip Na’vi. If you can use Genie+ for quick rides on Expedition Everest and DINOSAUR, you’ll have plenty of day left for another park.
Read more about Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Animal Kingdom.
Splitting a Day Between Hollywood Studios and Epcot
Our park-by-park discussion will continue below, but we need to discuss this specific split—Hollywood Studios and Epcot—first. Because they’re readily connected by three convenient (i.e. more reliable than the buses) transportation systems—walking path, Skyliner, and boat—it will often make sense to pair Hollywood Studios and Epcot on a single day.
There’s no “best” way to pair these two parks. You could start at Epcot, stack Lightning Lanes at Hollywood Studios for the afternoon, have a good lunch of festival food, and then finish the day with a thrilling afternoon at Hollywood Studios. Or you could start with the thrills of Hollywood Studios, see as much of that park as you please, and then have a chill evening at Epcot. Or some other plan.
The point is that it’s going to make sense in most cases to look at these two parks in tandem and figure out how you want to divide a day between them.
Fitting Hollywood Studios Into a Weekend Itinerary
Like Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios is worth considering a for full day. The big reason why I don’t usually do a full day at Hollywood Studios is—as you’d expect—that it’s just too easy to spend some time at Epcot the same day.
Morning at Hollywood Studios. There aren’t any perfect mornings at Hollywood Studios anymore. If you can get two major rides done without waiting more than 30 minutes for the second one, you’ve had an amazing morning. Anything less than an hour for the second one is probably a win. But Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway are excellent rides. Even with a some long standby waits in the morning, if you left with these four rides done you’d be leaving satisfied.
Because Lightning Lanes times at Hollywood Studios get booked quickly, you shouldn’t count on be able to use more than two good Lightning Lanes in a morning here. Some days you won’t even get two done.
Read more about Early Entry and Rope Drop at Hollywood Studios.
Afternoon/Evening at Hollywood Studios. Hollywood Studios has a popular nighttime show (Fantasmic) along with some simpler nighttime shows projected onto the Chinese Theater. Combined with the fact that Lightning Lane return times quickly get pushed into the afternoon/evening here (i.e. you can easily “stack” Lightning Lanes here), the park is a fine option for an afternoon/evening.
The downside is that once you get to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon and use the three-four Lightning Lanes you stacked, you probably won’t have good options for any more Lightning Lanes. You also won’t find many short waits.
Lightning Lanes at Hollywood Studios. The paid individual Lightning Lane at Hollywood Studios is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. While Rise can be ridden at rope drop, it’s not uncommon for the ride to be down to start the day, meaning you might arrive early and get all the way there (while everyone else is beating you to other rides) only to be told you wasted your morning. On a two-day trip, I’d recommend you just pay for the Individual Lightning Lane.
Genie+ is a bit trickier. The downside to Genie+ at Hollywood Studios is that it’s very popular, so the return times get pushed into the later part of the day very quickly. You’ll be booking return times for the afternoon by the time you make your second pick. With some bad luck your first pick might even wind up in the afternoon.
This can make Hollywood Studios a fine park to visit later in the day, but then your day is only as good as your Lightning Lane stack. Without rope drop to cover one or two major rides in the morning, you might just have to skip them entirely. You also won’t be picking Lightning Lanes at your first park because you’re using them all for Hollywood Studios picks.
Read more about Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Hollywood Studios.
Fitting Epcot Into a Weekend Itinerary
Morning at Epcot. As of this update, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind uses a virtual queue instead of a regular standby line. If you join the virtual queue for Cosmic Rewind, you can check Thrill Data to see roughly when you can expect your group to get called to decide if you want to be in Epcot at the beginning or end of the day.
At some point soon (maybe, who knows), Guardians of the Galaxy will drop its virtual queue and become the major ride to start your day at. Until then, mornings are all about Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, and Test Track. Since these first two have no height requirements, they’re quite popular for families with small children.
There are plenty of rides to fill a morning at Epcot, which is good because afternoons at Epcot tend to be spent in the World Showcase exploring the pavilions. The World Showcase may physically open around the same time as the park, but the stores and restaurants/booths often don’t get going until closer to 11AM. This can still leave you plenty of time, but if the World Showcase is what you’re coming to Epcot for, it might be better in the afternoon.
Afternoon / Evening at Epcot. With tons of restaurants, decent same-day Genie+ space, and proximity to Hollywood Studios in case you need to park hop again, Epcot fits right into one (or even both) of your afternoons. Epcot offers a nighttime show (Epcot Forever, as of this update), but the shows at Magic Kingdom (Happily Ever After) and Hollywood Studios (Fantasmic) are much more well regarded.
If there is a festival going on at Epcot, this definitely can impact your planning. You may feel like you definitely need a full afternoon there, or you may decide to avoid the park completely.
Lightning Lanes at Epcot. The Individual Lighting Lane at Epcot is Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. The (free) virtual queue is a fine option—but you’ll just have to count on good fortune to get a return time that works for your day. Consider just paying for the Individual Lightning Lane to fit the ride perfectly into your day.
Genie+ is useful at Epcot, particularly if you have small children. The park has six rides without height requirements on Genie+, including the very popular pairing of Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Without small children, you’ll get some use out of Genie+ and be able to get on several rides, but you might not find it as worth it as at the other parks.
Skipping Two Parks (No Park Hopping)
If you don’t have park hopper tickets, you’ll have to pick two parks to skip and two to visit. We really recommend getting park hopper to avoid this section, but there is something to be said about two full days in two amazing theme parks. So, which to skip?
Should You Skip Hollywood Studios?
Skip Hollywood Studios if this trip is for your small child.
Hollywood Studios has several of the best rides at Walt Disney World—Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, and Tower of Terror—but almost all the rides at the park have height requirements, and the park overall isn’t too appealing for small children.
You definitely can still have a fun day at Hollywood Studios with a small child, but if this trip is specifically for that child to have the best time, I’d skip Hollywood Studios (and to be 100% clear, not every trip with a small child, or every day of that trip, has to be for them).
Should you Skip Magic Kingdom?
Skip Magic Kingdom only if you have to.
You can only pick two parks if you don’t have park hopper. If you have to ride Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios and you have to ride Guardians of the Galaxy at Epcot, then you have to skip Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. I think Magic Kingdom is overall the best park at Walt Disney World, but the other parks arguably have better top-tier attractions.
But if you’re at all unsure, then Magic Kingdom is easily the best bet for a full day. It will offer more variety, more opportunity to use Genie+, and more rides than the other parks.
Should You Skip Epcot?
This is where things get awkward. Basically the above two answers tell you that in most cases we think the two parks you should visit are Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, which is to say we think you should skip Animal Kingdom and Epcot on a two day, no hopping trip. But if you cut either Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom, these next two sections should help you decide between Epcot and Animal Kingdom (or hey, maybe you pick both of those instead).
Skip Epcot if you’re here for the rides. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind might be the best ride at Walt Disney World. Test Track, Frozen Ever After, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure are fan favorites, too. But it’s still clear that if you’re comparing rides across the four parks, Epcot gets the short straw. The World Showcase is a ton of fun, and lots of people plan trips just around the Festival circuit, and those are good reasons to visit the park.
But maybe there’s an exception. If you review the Disney World Height Requirements, you’ll notice Epcot has seven rides with no height requirements, more than Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios combined. Add in the Kidcot Fun Stops and Epcot is (somewhat surprisingly, to many people) a great park with small children. Take it from us, our toddler also loves the stores and snacking, too.
Should You Skip Animal Kingdom?
Okay, at this point I think we’ve made things pretty clear, but we’re going to finish with some positive framing…
Visit Animal Kingdom for its combination of thrills and animals. Animal Kingdom has three great thrill rides—Avatar Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, and DINOSAUR. Thrill seekers are probably served better by this park than either Magic Kingdom or Epcot. The problem is that after that, things get pretty thin. Kilimanjaro Safaris is a unique attraction and one of our favorites, but if it doesn’t appeal to you then I doubt you’ll find much else you like in the park and its animal-heavy focus.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.