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. In this post, we’re going to discuss planning a three-day visit to Walt Disney World.
This post covers three full days at Walt Disney World. You could reasonably trim one evening if you had a departing flight that day, but the three mornings are necessary. If you don’t have three mornings, you should look at our Disney World Weekend Itinerary, which covers two mornings.
But if you’re set on a three-day trip, read on to see how to start planning your three-day Walt Disney World itinerary!
Everything Other Than Parks
The bulk of this post (like the bulk of this site) is concerned with park strategy—which parks to go to, which to skip, what Lightning Lanes reservations to get, etc. Before we get there, I’m going to quickly discuss the other things to know about in planning your three day visit. Read more at our Walt Disney World Planning Guide or our Tips for Planning Your Disney World Vacation.
Tickets. You can do three days without park hopper and skip one park, or you can get park hopper and visit all four parks. We discuss these options more below. Either way, we recommend buying three-day tickets from an authorized seller of discount Disney World tickets, like Undercover Tourist.
Hotel. I don’t particularly see a reason to think differently about hotels for a three-day visit than for stays of other lengths. You can just check out our Walt Disney World hotel guide. You might prioritize location and transportation a little more than usual, figuring you’ll have less room / hotel time and more park time.
If budget isn’t an issue, a hotel along the monorail (for Magic Kingdom access) or the Boardwalk (for Epcot / Hollywood Studios access) is good. On a budget, you’ll probably want a Skyliner hotel for easy access to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
Dining Plan and ADRs. There’s little reason to get a Disney dining plan for a three-day visit. Savings will be minimized and flexibility is more important for short visits. Similarly, if you want to make an advance dining reservation for a table service meal, go ahead, just recognize the time commitment for that and that you’ll give up some amount of flexibility. Consider doing this on an arrival evening or departure morning if you aren’t going to the parks with that time.
Whatever you reason for looking at a three-day plan, it’s worth reminding you of some other things to do in the area besides the four Disney theme parks.
The two water parks, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, won’t make most three-day itineraries. If they ever return to both operating on the same day, I could see justifying spending one full day split between the two.
Disney Springs shouldn’t get a significant amount of your time, but the dining/shopping district can be fun for a night.
And Universal Orlando Resort—not part of Disney World, but home to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter—is definitely worth a half or full day for any Harry Potter fans. Read more about visiting Harry Potter from Disney World.
Genie+ and Lightning Lanes
This post assumes you’re familiar with our Genie+ and Lightning Lane Strategy at Walt Disney World. If you’re not familiar, you’ll need to read that (or at least quickly read a shorter post on someone else’s site). We’ll link the individual Genie+ posts for each park later on.
Three days without park hopping - which park to skip?
Before we get to our recommended approach—which includes park hopper tickets—we’ll tackle the other situation quickly. If you have only three days and you don’t have park hopper tickets, you’ve got two straightforward planning steps.
First, you’ll need to pick at least one park to skip. I say “at least” because some families—particularly those with younger children—may prefer two full days at Magic Kingdom.
Second, you’ll need to just spend your three full days at the remaining parks. Here are our one day itineraries for the four parks, for reference:
Now, as for which park to skip in this case…
Don’t Skip Magic Kingdom
No itinerary at Walt Disney World should skip Magic Kingdom. It’s an incredibly well-rounded park, home to a great lineup of classic rides and shows and home to the resort’s only parades and the feature firework show. It’s probably not my personal favorite park, but that’s irrelevant because it’s a great park and a cornerstone of any visit to Walt Disney World.
Probably Don’t Skip Hollywood Studios
If you have a small child, you might skip Hollywood Studios because the rides tilt so heavily toward older kids and adults. Otherwise, you won’t skip Hollywood Studios. Its ride lineup—which includes new things like Rise of the Resistance, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Slinky Dog Dash alongside the classic Tower of Terror—is unbeatable.
Maybe Skip Epcot
Epcot has two new rides—Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The latter is brand new and a fantastic ride. The other thing Epcot has going for it is the amazing World Showcase—the eleven pavilions dedicated to eleven countries around the world.
Epcot can easily fill a day, and Guardians is certainly one of the best rides at Walt Disney World. So, why would you skip it? Well, both Epcot and Animal Kingdom offer unique experiences, and I don’t just mean rides. Our opinion is to look more into what these two parks offer and pick the one that’s best for you. That said, we lean toward keeping Epcot. Let’s talk about more about Animal Kingdom to see why.
Probably Skip Animal Kingdom
When I started this site, I wrote a ton about Animal Kingdom being the best theme park I’d been to. We were huge Animal Kingdom fans. Still are.
But the truth is basically that the Disney World parks tend to rotate through development, and right now Animal Kingdom is due for some major work. Since Pandora opened at Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios has gotten two new lands and another new ride, Magic Kingdom has TRON, and Epcot has two new rides plus some more work ongoing around Future World.
Animal Kingdom has actually lost a ride in the last few years, with Primeval Whirl closing permanently. The park is still excellent, but it’s not an obvious pick over Epcot like it was pre-Guardians.
We still love Animal Kingdom and would personally choose it over Epcot. Zoe loves the petting zoo at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the Boneyard, and Kilimanjaro Safaris. We like Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, and the streetmosphere in the park.
If you’re in a situation where you have to skip a park, you’ll probably want to compare Epcot and Animal Kingdom. As a default—Epcot has the newest ride, along with the World Showcase, a famed, unique Disney World experience, so we give it the edge.
Our Recommended Three-Day Disney World Itinerary
Now, assuming you are getting park hopper, a whole new world of flexibility is opened to you.
Before we get into the weeds, here’s my first suggestion for how I would outline three days at Walt Disney World. Note that these days might not be in this order (more one this below, but things like park hours will determine what days you visit what parks):
Full day at Magic Kingdom
Morning at Hollywood Studios, maybe Epcot in the afternoon
Morning at Animal Kingdom, Epcot and/or Hollywood Studios in the afternoon
The first day is textbook—a full day at Magic Kingdom. The second day puts your energy into getting through the small but high-quality Hollywood Studios ride lineup.
The third day is a bit of a catchall. You start at Animal Kingdom, but your afternoon is a little more free. Epcot is a good option if you don’t feel your first afternoon there was enough. If your Genie+ strategy has developed a bit, though, you might also find that visiting Hollywood Studios this afternoon allows you to cover more of that park, if necessary.
With that go-to strategy in mind, let’s talk about the details of how we got here and what you might do differently.
park hopping & Splitting Days
if you are park hopping, then you don’t have to worry about skipping any park, you just have to figure out what parts of what days you’ll visit what parks. Here are some quick tips…
Give Magic Kingdom A Full Day
There are ways to apply the rest of these tips to splitting up a day at Magic Kingdom, but we generally advise against this. The park requires the most of your time and it’s more difficult to park hop to/from than either Epcot or Hollywood Studios.
For some families, skipping Magic Kingdom altogether might makes sense—you’ve got older, thrill-seeking kids who also want to spend a day at Universal Orlando Resort, for example. But that’s sort of outside the scope of this post. If it’s Disney World you’re after, we suggest you don’t overthink it and, you know, instead just go to the flagship park of the resort.
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.
If Animal Kingdom opens at 7AM, you can often be at your second park in time for a late breakfast (not having seen all of Animal Kingdom, to be clear).
Guests of the deluxe resorts also get access to Extended Evening Hours at select parks on select nights.
Mornings Are The Most Important Part of the Day (With a Caveat)
Morning is when crowds are lowest and when you have a chance to implement a good rope drop strategy that gets you on your first few rides of the day with next to no wait. You have three mornings which means you get to pick three parks to rope drop.
There’s a big caveat though—you need Early Theme Park Entry to really make mornings work. Early Theme Park Entry is a perk of staying at a Disney hotel that allows these guests exclusive access to each park every day for 30 minutes before other guests. On a three-day trip, it will usually make sense to pay a bit more to stay at a Disney hotel and enjoy this perk.
If you don’t have Early Entry, you can still have a good morning (particularly if you have Genie+), but you’ll be entering the park to decent crowds already.
Here are our posts for rope drop posts followed by our recommendations for where to start your days…
Obviously we said to give a full day to Magic Kingdom, so you’ll be rope dropping that park.
We also recommend spending one morning at Hollywood Studios. Even with Genie+ and individual Lightning Lane purchases, Hollywood Studios is made much simpler by a successful rope drop to get through one to three of its great rides.
We also recommend spending one morning at Animal Kingdom. If you don’t have an individual Lightning Lane for Avatar Flight of Passage, it’s necessary that you spend one morning starting with that ride. If you do have an individual Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage then it’ll usually make sense to spend a morning doing everything else in the park before you head to that ride.
Park Hopping to Epcot and the Guardians Virtual Queue
As of this update, there are two ways to ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. First, you can buy an Individual Lightning Lane for about $15 per person. For this itinerary, this is what we recommend—buy a return time for late in the afternoon the morning that you are starting at Hollywood Studios.
The second option is to join the virtual queue. This can work (and may work well some days), but you won’t have any guarantee of when your slot will be called.
If budget is a concern, it’s worth doing a little research into how popular the virtual queue has been recently (start with Thrill Data). But for planning a short trip, this uncertainty (both of securing a slot and of when that slot will be called) makes this a less appealing option.
Balance Mornings With Afternoon Genie+
We touched on this a bit above, but your rope drop plan should complement your Lightning Lanes. This doesn’t mean they have to be at different parks, though they often will be. You can read our Genie+ strategies for the individual parks:
While you might get a few Genie+ reservations in a morning, at some point you’ll only have later times available.
If you buy Genie+ for a day, you can use it any all four parks that day. Often this will mean, for example, starting at one park and then “stacking” late Lightning Lane times at a second park.
Pick Your Nighttime Shows
Your schedule might work out so that you can catch nighttime shows in all four parks (as of this update Animal Kingdom doesn’t have a full nighttime show). You’ll just require two parks to have shows about two hours apart on a night that it makes sense to park hop.
Keep in mind that Hollywood Studios has up to three nighttime shows, and you typically can’t catch them all in a single day. I wouldn’t advise spending two evenings at Hollywood Studios just for the shows, though.
Other Touring Tips
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.
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 Flight of Passage 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).
Disney World After Hours
Note: After Hours events come and go from the schedule, so you cannot count on them being available on your specific trip until dates for your timeframe are announced.
The After Hours events are separately ticketed events that allow you access to the park with heavily reduced crowds for a few hours late in the night, mostly when the other parks have closed (so you’re only gaining time with the event).
Magic Kingdom After Hours and Hollywood Studios After Hours are the most common After Hours events. These events are a great way to squeeze the most rides possible out of a short trip.
Hollywood Studios After Hours returned to a very different park than when it was last held in 2019. Reviewing the updated event, I was disappointed overall but have to concede it is still a great way to experience the ride’s stellar lineup on a short trip.
At Magic Kingdom, I was able to ride 16 rides (including the major highlights) and greet one character (keep in mind I’m a fairly fast walker and was solo at that visit). While there’s no substitute for a full day at Magic Kingdom…that’s a pretty impressive haul.
In particular, if your group is on the older side (kids above, say, 11 years old?), Magic Kingdom After Hours probably allows you to cover most of your “must do” rides, leaving you your three full days the other three parks.
Other Ticketed Events
The holiday parties—Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party—are great but are not substitutes for days at the park. These special events are more focused on their unique entertainment, though they do have rides operating throughout the evening.
Early Morning Magic—Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom was my favorite ticketed event, though as of 2024 it isn’t being offered. It would make a day at Magic Kingdom easier and perhaps help you get out of there earlier (keep in mind the 3PM parade, though), but it’s value is really in making a full day at Magic Kingdom easier.
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.