Autumn-Winter-Spring Itinerary for Walt Disney World
WALT DISNEY WORLD AUTUMN-WINTER-SPRING ITINERARY
This Autumn-Winter-Spring itinerary works for most weeks of the year other than the Easter and summer weeks.
It will not work for every week–check your arrival date on this page to make sure you access the correct itinerary for that week.
This itinerary is eight nights long– click here for shorter itineraries.
Click the graphic to enlarge it; keep clicking to make it bigger.
LINKS FOR THIS ITINERARY
- Summary
- To-Do List
- First Saturday
- First Sunday
- Monday
- Tuesday
- Wednesday
- Thursday
- Friday
- Second Saturday
- Second Sunday
ITINERARY LINKS
- For itinerary design goals and the basic December Itinerary, see this
- For shorter and longer itineraries targeted at the same December weeks, see this
- For itineraries covering all the other parts of the year, see this
- To design your own itinerary, see this
- For rides that might be skipped, see this
- For a comprehensive guide to rides and attractions, see this
MORE ON WHEN TO GO TO WALT DISNEY WORLD
- For when to go to Walt Disney World, see this
- For the next best dates, see this
- For the best and worst times to visit, see this
- For 2011 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
- For the 2011 Week Picker, see this
- For 2012 weeks to visit, ranked in order, see this
- For forecasting crowds at Walt Disney World, see this
- For seasonal pricing at Walt Disney World, see this
- For 2011 price seasons, see this
- For projected 2012 price seasons, see this
- For weather at Walt Disney World, see this
27 comments
I noticed in your itineraries that you give a lot of time to Hollywood Studios. In the itinerary above you give more time to that park than epcot, and in the basic itinerary when you cut down time in the parks you tend to cut HS least of all (I think in one variation you even had as much time spent there than MK). I usually here this as the 3rd ranked park at Disney World. Do you disagree or have some special affinity for this park?
Hi Alex!
Interesting observation. When Disney limited Fantasmic showings, many of my intineraries shifted from one day at HS to a day and an evening–the extra time aimed at getting to Fantasmic in an evening without touring HS that day (as the park is typically mobbed on Fantasmic days.) The additional time at HS came from “free time” in prioir itins.
The itineraries I do that are shorter than my standard ones tend to shrink Epcot and free time, but don’t add time at other parks. The Epcot shrink comes simply from it being, on average, the least favorite park of kids. It tends to be the favorite, or second favorite, for adults, but this site is not aimed at adults.
Personally, HS is my least favorite park, and Epcot my second fave, but that’s a different issue than what I advise to families with kids on their first visit who may never return! Again, thanks for the interesting and thoughtful question!
Hi Dave,
I just found this site and love it! My husband & I are planning a 7 day/8 night trip to WDW in mid October of this year. Arriving on a Monday & leaving on a Tuesday (the dates are fixed). We are 30 yrs old and have no kids. Do you have any tips or itineraries geared toward adults traveling without children? We’re planning for 2 days in Epcot.
Do we need to plan extensively for the crowds that week? Everything I’ve read so far points to that week being fairly calm.
Our sample itinerary:
Monday – Arrive at hotel, go straight to Epcot
Tuesday – Epcot
Wednesday – MK
Thursday – HS
Friday – AK
Saturday – off
Sunday – not sure
Monday – not sure
Tuesday – leave
We would rather not be at Epcot on the weekend due to the crowds being there for the Food & Wine Festival (we’re not interested in the extra events offered at the festival). We won’t be attending the Halloween party so plan to avoid MK on those days.
Hi Florie, and thanks!
All my itins are geared for families with 3rd grade or older children. So I skip the really little kid stuff…but don’t have anything strictly for adults.
That said…there’s a pretty strong corrleation between what 3rd graders like and 30 year olds! There’s not much in my itinerairies I’d say skip this for sure if you are over 15/18/25!
See however this http://yourfirstvisit.net/2011/03/09/the-comprehensive-guide-to-walt-disney-world-rides-and-attractions/ and this http://yourfirstvisit.net/2011/03/09/rides-at-disney-world-that-might-be-skipped/
Florie I’ll comment on your which days/which parks later, but a couple of quick thoughts:
You are right, you don’t need a lot of planning during less crowded weeks.
What you do need to do is show up at each park before opening at least one day (2 at MK) and to know which are the most popular rides, so that you can knock them off on opening or FASTPASS them.
You also need ot know which nights MK is showing Wishes and HS is showing Fantasmic, as both are don’t miss and they are not on every night during lower crowd times…
Florie, are you arriving the 10th or the 17th?
We are arriving on the 17th. Sorry I failed to mention that in my previous post!
OK, Florie, here’s some thoughts…
17th: fine
18th: Epcot has morning EMH. Suggest you do AK instead. See the 21st.
19th: fine
20th: maybe… but since this is one of only two days HS has Fantasmic showing during your period and both days are PM EMH, suggest the following: taken the morning off, and book the Fantasmic Dinner Package to lower your wait time, arriving at HS late in the afternoon
21st: AK has am EMH, suggest you do Epcot instead (swapping with the 18th)
22nd: avoid HS
23rd: avoid HS
24th: HS (since you will have seen little on the 20th)
Hope this helps and let me know if you have any questions!
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! In your experience are crowd levels at Epcot on a Friday night during the F&W Festival better than EMH mornings in AK and Epcot?
Florie–evening crowds at Epcot don’t matter much, as you are experiencing the environment. Rides and such you would be doing in the morning!
That makes sense. I switched those days
So EMH mornings aren’t the best route? We aren’t morning people. Even with the best of intentions we’ll be doing good to make it to park opening at 9 am. I’m sure you cover this on your site, but I’m too tired to look. My brain is mush at this point. Two weeks of non stop planning will do that to a person.
Great Site just found today. As of now nothing is booked but time off from work. We are planning on arriving November 19th early AM and leaving late November 24th so we can have the weekend back home before returning to work. We are traveling with our 4yr old and 1.5yr old. What Itinerary do you suggest? As for a resort at that age which one are you fond of? Thought about the PO ones since they are centrally located to parks by bus only transportation.
The hour of am EMH itself, and the hour or so after, are great. However, over the course of the day that park becomes more corwded than on non-EMH days, tho, so all in if you plan to spend all day at a park it isn’t worth the loss of sleep!
Hi Stephen and thanks!
As you probably know, I don’t recommend that week because of the crowds–see http://yourfirstvisit.net/2009/11/20/2011-weeks-to-visit-walt-disney-world-ranked-in-order/
I don’t have itineraries for kids that young, but you’ll be able to find a ton on Touringplans.com.
For my recommendations on where to stay, see http://yourfirstvisit.net/planning-your-first-family-trip/where-to-stay/
Hope this helps and have a great trip! Dave
Arriving on Nov17th until Nov 22. I know to expect crowds we were there the same time the year before however do you think this plan looks ok considering?
Thur nov 17th – animal Kingdom (Dinner @ yeti and yak)
Fri. Nov. 18th- Magic Kingdom ( ADR at Chef Mickey at 7pm) trying to decide between that and the MVMCP
Sat. Nov. 19th Epcot ( lunch at coral reef and dinner at Le Celliers)
Sun. Nov. 2oth HS ( lunch at 50′s Prime time)
Mon. Nov.21th Magic Kingdom ( lunch @ the Plaza)
Tues. Nov. 22th — Downtown Disney – Lunch ?? Then head home!
We will be traveling with children ages 8 and 2! Thanks for any advice!
Hi Whitney, I like what you’ve done! I can’t think of a better way to go about this…
My family will be heading to WDW Sept 2012 for 7 nights. Our group includes my in-laws, husband and kids (5 & 7). I am trying to determine if the Park Hopper is the best option for us. We will arrive late on Saturday and do not plan to go to a park that evening – just do Downtown Disney as a warm up. I was thinking of doing a 6 day pass since we would have a mid-day flight on the last day (maybe do a character breakfast at a WDW resort). Would it make more sense to buy an 8 day pass and use two separate passes in one day to allow us to visit two parks. We would most likely spend 2-3 days at MK and then split days between AK, DHS and EPCOT for two days. It is $250 savings if we buy 8 passes vs 6 with Park Hopper. Your thoughts?
Hi Joanne–you can’t use the same ticket to enter more than one park a day without a park hopper– so you can’t use two “days” to see two different parks on the same day. See this: http://yourfirstvisit.net/2011/06/12/disney-world-2011-2012-admission-ticket-prices/
My advice is to buy six-day regular tix and to add the park hopper once you are there only if you need it.
We are planning a trip for Feb 23 – March 2 and because of my husbands work schedule we will be arriving Thursday late am and leaving Friday late afternoon. Would we still follow the schedule above or how would that work. I thought about following it starting with Thursday but not sure if any adjustments would need to be made.
Hi Jamie–you can’t “shift” many days because the Disney scehdule varies by day. Do the “First Saturday” itinerary on your arrival Thursday, then do the “Friday” itin on Friday, the “Second Saturday ” on Saturday, and then follow the rest of the days as is–”Sunday” on Sunday, etc.
We will be taking our first trip to DW on 4/21/12 and leaving on 4/29/11. I have pretty much followed your scheduel for this time with a few exceptions. Please tell me your thoughts on these potential changes. Thanks.
On Sunday 4/22/12 – instead on going to HWS in the evening we will go to MK since it is an EMH night We may or may not stay to see Wishes that night.
On Monday 4/23/12 – stay for HWS EMH and see Fantasmic that night instead of on Sunday night, since Sunday is not an EMH night.
Do you see any reason why this wouldn’t be a good idea?
Thanks.
James there’s a lot of merit to your approach. The only issue is that evening EMH tends to make the respective park more crowded all day, which is why I don’t have any in my itineraries.
Thanks! I was looking at that for a while yesterday and just couldn’t get it figured out. You save me a lot of stress. I was going to build our own itinerary but with so much to do I just couldn’t figure out how to sort it out. We are tailoring the things we do at each park to our circumstances as I am pregnant and can’t ride many things and my husband has a heart condition that prevents him from riding most things and both are kids are young. We still want to make sure we are in the right parks on the right days for crowds, performances, parades, etc.
This site is very helpful. I didn’t think planning a WDW trip would be so hectic since we do annual trips to DL (as that is where I am from originally and have been so many times I know the park in and out) but I am finding that there is so much more to planning a trip to WDW that I wish I had started planning the minute details earlier.
Again, you have saved this pregnant woman a lot of time and stress, THAnK YOU!
Hi Jamie I’m glad the site helped! And your experience at Disneyland means you aready know the critical stuff–arrive before the parks open, ride the most popular rides first, and use FASTPASS!
You’ll have fun in MK–it’s close enough to DL to be familiar, but different enough to be interesting and fun…
Hi Dave, we are planning our first trip to WDW with 2 kids (6 and 4), and are looking at arriving the evening of 10/30 and leaving 11/6, so having 6 full days in the parks (10/31 – 11/5). How will the crowds be, as we would be there for Halloween and the beginning of Jersey Week? Since we are doing a Wed – Mon, which itinerary would you suggest we follow? We would be interested in the Halloween party – how will crowds be? Will there still be showings of Fantasmic, Wishes, parades, etc. this time of year? When would we expect to see the hours of operation and schedules for these types of events, for the fall? Thanks so much!!
Hi Shawn! Operating hours for then won’t be out til late March for October and April for November.
In recent years Disney has had October schedules that don’t look a lot like other months, so I can’t recommend an itinerary until those hours come out.
Based on recent practice, Illuminations, Fantasmic, and Wishes will be on almost every night (Wishes some nights only during the halloween party), but the evening parade at MK may show only a few times.
Crowds will be fine before Jersey Week, and OK–not great, but not horrible–during it.
Check back with me in late April and I’ll be able to give you more specific thoughts on itineraries…
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