There is a lot of planning and strategy that goes into your Walt Disney World vacation. Guests have to determine where they want to stay, how long they want to be in Walt Disney World, and where they want to eat.
Now with Park Pass Reservations, Guests also need to determine which of the four theme Parks they are going to visit each day of their Disney vacation. After purchasing Walt Disney World Theme Park tickets, Guests need to go into their My Disney Experience account to select a Theme Park for each day.
We highly recommend making these selections early on in your planning process as we are seeing Parks max out and not have any Park Pass Reservations available for Guests. Because you are going to want to do this early on in your planning, you need to think about what are the best days to visit each of the four main Disney Theme Parks.
Although it has been hard in 2022 to predict crowds in Walt Disney World, there are some strategies to think about when it comes to when to visit each of the four Parks.
We hope that these tips will help you as you plan your touring plans for Walt Disney World.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The hardest Disney Park right now to navigate and make predictions about is Disney’s Hollywood Studios. With the most popular ride in all of Walt Disney World Rise of the Resistance, the Park always seems busy.
This is the most important Park Pass to get as it is the Park that fills up that quickest out of the four. So what days are the best ones to visit this popular and busy Park?
We would recommend looking at weekdays over weekends. Weekends get even more crowded as locals are able to visit during this time easier than during workdays.
If you are wanting to have lower crowds, starting this month, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will be participating in extended evening hours. This allows Guests of Walt Disney World deluxe resorts to stay at the Park after it closes to the general public. Even though we haven’t seen this play out at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Magic Kingdom it is a huge benefit.
Guests of all Walt Disney World Resorts are also able to take advantage of early entry allowing them to get into the Park thirty minutes before Park opens. This again is a huge advantage as Guests who are willing to get up early can knock out one or two main rides.
See our most recent day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios HERE. As well as how to skip the lines HERE.
Magic Kingdom
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Magic Kingdom remains extremely busy most days of the year. As the iconic Disney Park for Walt Disney World, Guests visiting from one day to weeks make sure to visit Magic Kingdom.
Because of this, it is hard to narrow down exactly what days are the best to visit Magic Kingdom; however, overall it seems like the middle of the week is better than Friday through Monday. We tend to see slower days on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. If you are able to choose one of these days for your Magic Kingdom-focused day then we highly recommend doing so.
Like with Disney’s Hollywood Studios, select Guests are able to take advantage of both extended evenings as well as early entry at Magic Kingdom. See our thoughts on these options HERE. For lower wait times, overall these early and late hours in Magic Kingdom seem to be a fantastic way to experience the Park with lower wait times.
When it comes to visiting EPCOT, festivals play a huge part in crowd levels. If you have the option, we highly recommend looking at visiting EPCOT Monday through Wednesday for lower crowd levels.
The weekends in EPCOT tend to have higher crowds as locals like to head to the Park to enjoy the festivals as well as visit the great dining locations throughout the World Showcase. We tend to see higher crowds in EPCOT, especially in the World Showcase area, starting Thursday and Friday evenings and then through the weekends.
If you are wanting lower crowds and shorter lines at the variety of festival booths that are offered, look at spending time in EPCOT early on in the week.
This also goes for being at EPCOT early in the day vs the evening. Crowds are definitely larger in the evenings at EPCOT as people hop to experience the dining locations and festivals before enjoying Harmonious.
Like with Magic Kingdom as well as Disney’s Hollywood Studios, EPCOT also offers both early entry as well as extended evening hours so take advantage of these lower wait times if possible.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the one Disney Theme Park that we are going to suggest visiting on the weekend. Even though we typically see very consistent crowds in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, if you have to pick a Park to visit on the weekend it should be Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
As with all the other Parks, we highly recommend making your Park Pass for Disney’s Animal Kingdom just as early to ensure you are able to visit on your specific day. Even though we don’t see the Park Passes for Disney’s Animal Kingdom book up as quickly as Magic Kingdom or Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it is still important to get those made.
Currently, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the only Disney Park that doesn’t have extended evening hours for Deluxe Resort Guests. It does offer early entry, but it is early-early like 7 am which can be a lot during a vacation.
These are the best days, overall, to visit each of Disney’s four main Theme Parks. Keep in mind how holidays might impact the crowds or how special events such as the first days of festivals in EPCOT or the opening of a new ride, can truly throw all of this out the window.
Again, check out How to Disney for tips, tricks, and suggestions on touring the Disney Parks.
