“I’m planning a trip to Disney World, and I don’t know where to start!” That’s the most common thing I hear from readers (and friends…and family…) these days. There are definitely a few different places to start, but if you’re not quite ready to dive into the depths, a good place for me to start is just by telling you the details of the typical trip that I’d plan. In this post, I outline my “go-to” trip—the Disney World trip that I default to when it’s time for a family vacation. Read on to see just what my go-to Disney World trip entails!
About This Post and Related Posts
We’ve got a lot of resources for people who are just starting to plan a Disney World trip, but it can all be a little overwhelming. While our Disney World Planning Guide is definitely the place I recommend starting, you might want something that’s a little more direct.
Many (most?) readers don’t really need 10,000 words just to pick a hotel. They don’t need the pros and cons of every trip length from 2 to 10 days. And they don’t need a comparative analysis of whether Lightning Lane Multi Pass is worth $20 at Epcot on some Tuesday or $30 at Magic Kingdom on some Saturday.
We already have one relevant post—focusing on the cost of a trip to Disney World, starting with a “baseline” trip. I write that the baseline trip outlined there is basically what I’d recommend knowing nothing about a group’s preferences and needs. That post is also focused on budget, specifically. (For what it’s worth, the baseline trip for a family of 4 comes out to around $7000. I won’t be dealing with budget more in this post. I imagine the trip outlined here is slightly more expensive.)
This post is going to instead focus on my subjective preferences. But my preferences, at least in the Disney planning context, are pretty typical. I’m not sticking us at the hotel that closest to the golf courses or skipping Hollywood Studios because I’ve never seen a Star Trek movie.
We’re a mid-30s couple with a 4-year-old kid, and we like to experience all the core elements of a Disney vacation. Ultimately, my preferences are honed by years of experience trying to get my family to have the best possible time at Disney World. Here’s how I structure a trip to do just that.
Outline of MY Go-To Disney World Trip
I think all the context I offer below is important, but I’m happy to give you the outline of my “go-to” trip in case that’s really all your need…
Dates — Varies, but first weeks of May and December preferred
Length — 5 Nights (4 full days)
Hotels — Split stay at a monorail resort (2 nights) and a value/moderate Skyliner resort (3 nights)
Tickets — 4 or 5 Days with Park Hopper
Parks — One morning at each park, roughly one day at each park
Lightning Lanes — 3 days of Multi Pass, 2 Single Pass
Dining — Mostly quick service, but table service recommendations included below
Breaking Down My Go-To Disney World Trip
Now I’m going to go into more detail about each of those outlined categories. I’ll explain how and why I came to those decisions. Again, since this isn’t the in-depth planning guide (or all the hundreds of related posts), I won’t stray too far into the details. I will, however, link to some key posts if you know you’d like to expand on some topics.
My Favorite Visit Dates — May, December, or Whenever
Our favorite times to visit Disney World are invariably the beginning of May (great weather, tolerable crowds) and the beginning of December (great weather, tolerable crowds, and holiday stuff). Now that I have a kid in school, I’m in the group for whom those recommended times are basically useless.
Those two times aside, there’s really no best time to visit Disney World in the year, at least not from our perspective. I maybe wouldn’t recommend a once-in-a-lifetime trip during hurricane season (roughly August through October). You’ll want to know when different rides / entertainment / lands are opening or closing, and to that end we have a post discussing timing your Disney World trip in the next two years. If you took the rest of the details in this post and said “you can have this trip but it will have to be at {time that works for our family schedule}”, I’d take it in a heartbeat.
My Favorite Trip Length — Five Nights
A five-night trip contains four full days. No matter what, four full days gives you an easy plan for your trip—spend one day at each of the four Disney World theme parks. We basically never wind up doing exactly that, but it’s always a good starting point (notably, as annual passholders, we still have to book park reservations, so four days allows me to just quickly pick one day per park and then make changes later if available and necessary).
My Favorite Hotel Pick — A Split Stay
As an initial matter on the topic of hotels, I have to say I almost never consider a non-Disney hotel at Disney World. Several non-Disney hotels are better hotels than several Disney hotels. Many non-Disney hotels are significantly more reasonably priced than Disney hotels. But as a matter of personal preference, convenience, and the fact that I write lots of reviews of Disney hotels, I stick to Disney hotels.
A five-night trip has the benefit of making for an easy split stay. A split stay is where you take one long trip to Disney World and divide your time between two hotels. My standard approach for a five-night trip is to spend 3 nights at one hotel and 2 nights at another. We’ve done split stays where one hotel is only for a single night, but I prefer two whenever it can make it make sense. You can read more about split stays at Disney World here.
We go with this arrangement for two reasons. The first is that we’re looking for easy access to as many parks as possible. Two nights at a Magic Kingdom resort (Contemporary, Polynesian, or Grand Floridian) means at least one full day easily dedicated to Magic Kingdom without having to deal with buses. Depending on the details, it might also mean two good chances for Early Entry at Magic Kingdom, or an extra night for something like After Hours, Not So Scary, or Very Merry, depending on the season.
Three nights at a Skyliner resort means easy access to Hollywood Studios and Epcot, which are served by the Skyliner. The Skyliner resorts I usually consider are Pop Century, Art of Animation, and Caribbean Beach.
Riviera Resort is also on the Skyliner, but it’s most expensive than those other three. Technically Yacht Club, Beach Club, and BoardWalk Inn have Skyliner access as well, but it won’t provide you an advantage over walking or taking the boat from those resorts to Epcot and Hollywood Studios. If budget is no object, then I’ll consider these four options as well.
But this brings us to the second reason for the split stay—it takes some pressure off the budget. I’m usually spending two nights at a very pricey Magic Kingdom area resorts before switching to a less expensive resort on the Skyliner.
You might ask “what about Animal Kingdom?” The only free transportation from all Disney hotels to Animal Kingdom is the bus. Animal Kingdom Lodge is the closest, but with Animal Kingdom being the simplest of the four parks these days, you have no need for a five-minute edge in bus travel time. (I love Animal Kingdom Lodge, but that’s beside the point of this post.)
As for specific hotels, it’s tough for me to pick. My very strong instinct is that I’d say Polynesian and Pop Century. I’m a fan of Polynesian and its Moana rooms. I think Pop Century, Art of Animation, and Caribbean Beach all have merit on the Skyliner, but Pop Century usually wins out for me, in large part because it’s the least expensive. (The Art of Animation suites, which sacrifice budget for space and theming, have also gotten some attention from us lately.) But really, I think any combination of a monorail resort and a Skyliner resort is a setup for success.
If you’d like to read more about hotels, our Guide to the Disney World Hotels is the proper place to start.
My Ticket Type — 5 Days With Park Hopper
Disclaimer: All three of us are annual passholders now, so I don’t actually have to pick a ticket type for trips. But I’m pretty confident in what I would pick.
This trip includes four full days that we plan to spend at the parks, so it requires at least four days of park entries. Park hopper isn’t necessary (just do one park each day), but I’ve long been a fan of hopping. We hop a lot, and picking hotels with convenient transportation makes it that much easier.
If I’m at Animal Kingdom—a park that doesn’t demand or offer late nights—and spending the night at Pop Century, I’ll just take the bus from Animal Kingdom to Hollywood Studios at 4PM so I can spend a few hours there before hopping on the Skyliner home. You can see how this can actually cut down on your Lightning Lane budget too. If you can use Lightning Lane Multi Pass at multiple parks on the days you hop, you might not need it on as many days of your trip. Read more about park hopping here.
If you can make the flight times make sense, I usually think a fifth day of tickets is worth it. I’m not going to cover flight times much here because the best options will vary so much by cost and personal preference. Some days I love an early flight that gets me to Main Street by the early afternoon. Other days I can’t fathom getting Zoe on a plane before noon.
If you’re arriving early or departing late, consider the fifth day of tickets. We typically recommend you buy from Undercover Tourist, and looking at some late 2025 pricing right now a fifth day costs about $64 (per ticket), or 9%, more than a four-day ticket.
My Park Touring Strategy
When it comes to advance planning, this one is easy. I look at park hours and events as part of the process of deciding how to arrange my split stay, and I typically plan one morning at each park. I usually put Animal Kingdom on the day I’m changing hotels. Animal Kingdom requires the bus, the hotel-switch day will require a bus, so it makes sense to align them if possible.
Once you actually get to your time in the parks, well, you might just wind up with one full day at each park, or you might find excuses to hop. This will in part depend on your approach to Lightning Lanes…
My Lightning Lane Strategy
This is probably the toughest section for me to pin down in this post. As a starting point, I think that if I were only taking one trip this year, then I would maybe be getting Lightning Lane Multi Pass at every park, but probably only one, maybe two, Lightning Lane Single Pass rides. Read more about Disney World Lightning Lane Strategy here.
Without overcomplicating this, here’s the rough idea of what I’d go for (links are to the park-specific posts):
I’ll add one caveat to all this. On days that I purchase it, I can be a Lightning Lane addict. Getting the most out of Lightning Lane Multi Pass often requires a lot of screen time, something I generally try to avoid. We’re lucky to spend plenty of time in Disney World without Lightning Lanes too, which makes me feel better about the visits when I feel buried in my phone.
My Disney World Dining Picks
We’re vegetarians and non-foodies. For the most part, we try and stick to quick service so that we’re focusing on doing other things in the parks. We don’t do dining plans. That said, I’ve got a few go-to options when it comes to table service meals. Read more about dining reservations here.
Eat at Sanaa, if we can swing it. Sanaa is the table service restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge’s Kidani Village. It isn’t particularly convenient for most trips, but it offers the deservedly famed bread service.
Eat at Space 220 or Biergarten at Epcot. Our favorite restaurants at Epcot are Space 220 and Biergarten. Zoe absolutely loves Space 220, and Biergarten’s performances are good family fun.
Eat at Roundup Rodeo BBQ at Hollywood Studios. Roundup Rodeo BBQ has an “all you care to enjoy” format that includes a range of fake meat options. I’m not enthralled by the gimmicks of the place, but Zoe gets a kick out of it and the food is good.
Eat at Skipper Canteen at Magic Kingdom. On family trips we very rarely do table service at Magic Kingdom. The park has too much to offer for us to spend time at table service. On solo trips, I’ll often try and get a reservation or walk up time at Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd Skipper Canteen. I go in knowing exactly what I want, and I’m in an out pretty quickly.
Eat at Tusker House Restaurant at Animal Kingdom. Tusker House has a few key things going for it. It’s a character meal, hosted by Donald Duck. It has a tasty African-inspired menu. And it’s located in Animal Kingdom, a park where you’re likely to have some spare time. You’ll even occasionally see Animal Kingdom closing at 6PM, with Tusker House offering 5:45PM reservations. Since Animal Kingdom doesn’t have a nighttime show, you’re fitting in a character meal with no time lost in your park day.
Eat a character breakfast on departure day. If we have a late enough flight time, I’ll book a character breakfast as the last thing we do. We won’t be missing out on park time, and we’ll be finishing the trip on a high note. Just keep in mind that if you’re not staying at a hotel with a character meal, you’ll have to account for travel time.
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 Lightning Lane Guide and 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 Lightning Lane Strategy, Epcot Lightning Lane Strategy, Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Strategy, and Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Strategy.
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.