Category — i. Itineraries for Walt Disney World

SKIPPABLE DISNEY WORLD RIDES

Every ride at Walt Disney World is worth trying.

But not at the cost of your sanity.

If your pace it getting too intense–or you just need to cut some time out of your vacation–the image (click to enlarge) presents a few rides that almost no one will regret missing, and a longer list of rides that appeal to some and not to others, with notes about to whom these would most appeal when it’s not obvious from seeing the ride.

(See the Comprehensive Guide to Rides for a view of rides that includes not just skippable rides but also favorites by age group.)

For detailed reviews of each Disney World ride and attraction, see this.

ITINERARY LINKS

• For itinerary design goals and the basic December Itinerary, see this
• For shorter and longer itineraries targeted at the same December week, 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

LINKS FOR HOW OLD/TALL YOUR KIDS SHOULD BE

• How Old/Tall Your Children Should Be
• What if They’re Too Short/Young?
• Taking Your Too Short/Young Kids Anyway,&*#$@!!
• The Comprehensive Guide to Rides
• Rides That Might be Skipped

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DISNEY WORLD RIDES RANKED FOR LITTLE AND BIGGER KIDS

This chart (as always on this site, click it to enlarge it) ranks all attractions at Walt Disney World based on two different points of view:

• Vertically from the eyes of pre-school kids: best loved, to be avoided, or neither;
• Horizontally from the eyes of kids in the third grade or older, and their parents: skippable, favorites, or neither.

Groupings are based on ratings by age from a number of sources, on height restrictions, and on “scariness.”

If you have trouble interpreting it, this should help

• The lower right shows rides and attractions everyone likely will love
• The upper left shows ones everyone may find skippable
• The upper right shows ones 3rd graders and older guests will likely love, but that pre-schoolers should avoid
• The lower left shows ones pre-schoolers will love, but that every one else likely may find dull

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MORE ON WALT DISNEY WORLD ITINERARIES

This page brings to one place links to itineraries for Walt Disney World and other related stuff on this site. 

It’s part of a series on navigating this site.

The site recommends an 8 night itinerary for every week of the year, usually about six months out.

It also provides a few longer and shorter itineraries, guidance on crafting your own itineraries, and other helpful material such as a guide to Disney World rides.

You can find links to all of this below.

PRINCIPAL WALT DISNEY WORLD ITINERARIES AND ITINERARY LINKS [Read more →]

MULTIPLE UPCOMING 8A MAGIC KINGDOM OPENING TIMES

Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Calendar is showing multiple 8a openings in later February 2011 and all of March, and more may be added.

Moreover, depending on crowds, other parks—most likely the Animal Kingdom—may have 8a openings added as well.

Most typically the 8a openings at the Magic Kingdom are Friday, Saturday and Sunday mornings, although the park’s calendar currently also shows 8a openings the entire week of March 12th—which I expect to be the busiest Disney Spring Break week other than those surrounding Easter itself.

Since most itineraries suggest arriving at the parks before they open, this is a big deal, as you may need to get up an hour earlier!

If you will be at Disney World this period, check the opening hours frequently—either at your resort, on Disney World’s online calendars, or here.

Disney’s April Magic Kingdom operating hours currently show 8a opening the first Friday and Saturday, and the weeks before and after Easter. I expect the April calendar to be updated, and to perhaps show more 8a openings as well.

DISNEY WORLD ITINERARY HELP

I get lots of helpful comments and mail—for example see this.

Rarely, however, does a user of the site submit a detailed critique.

David G recently provided one.

Stuff like what David wrote is incredibly helpful in improving this site, so thanks!

David used the Autumn-Winter-Spring Itinerary.

His thoughts on it are below; my responses are inset in parentheses and italics.

DAVID’S EMAIL ABOUT THE DISNEY WORLD AUTUMN WINTER SPRING ITINERARY

Firstly, thank you for a great website which really helped in making a fantastic holiday.

(You are welcome! And thank you for the detailed comments, which are incredibly helpful in improving the site!!)

The best part of your advice for me was ensuring that we planned and booked well in advance and highlighting what to see/where to eat etc. Disney World is very complicated for the first time visitor and therefore it is very helpful to have someone steer you through it all. We used your itinerary to direct where we went every day but used the Unofficial Guide Touring Plans to work out how we moved around the parks when we got in. The combination of the two worked very well.

(While I’m satisfied with the day by day plans in my itineraries, TouringPlans.com‘s park itineraries are the best in the business. The key difference is that mine are integrated over an entire 8 night trip, whereas theirs mostly relate to single parks.)

A few specific comments I would make are as follows: [Read more →]

SEVEN NIGHT WALT DISNEY WORLD SUMMER ITINERARY

Update: this itinerary will not work for June 2014, and I don’t know yet if it will work for July or August 2014.

Instead of it, use this.

This Walt Disney World itinerary is based on the eight-night Summer Itinerary, but is one night shorter.

It is designed for the incredibly busy weeks from late May to mid-August, and for most other high-crowd periods (Christmas week, Easter Week, etc.)

The 8-night Summer itinerary itself is jam-packed; this 7 night version, which I don’t recommend but provide due to popular demand, is even more strenuous.

[Read more →]