Welcome to the Super Simple Disney World Trip Planning guide! The goal of this guide is to provide guidance for planning an entire Disney World trip in fewer than 1000 words (not counting this section). That might not seem “super simple”, but when you consider that our Complete Guide to Planning a Walt Disney World Trip is over 8000 words, I think 1000 is a pretty good goal.
Links throughout this post take you to posts that explore topics in more depth, but my goal here is that you shouldn’t have to read too much else. Let’s get planning!
Super Simple Disclaimer
Look, this is specifically a simple guide. That means basically everything should be taken with a pound of salt, and everything I say will have exceptions and caveats that I leave out. I linked the complete guide above, and that’s where you should go if you have more time and tolerance for a more complicated endeavor. I also link to posts throughout in case you want to learn more.
Now, on with the post…
Consider Working with a Travel Advisor
Working with a travel advisor can be a good way to offload some of your work planning your trip. I don’t think this should make everything easy. Instead, I think it frees you up to focus on things like mastering Multi Pass and learning about the parks. We book our trips with Lauren Quirk of Travel With Character LLC.
Ideally you stay for five nights, four full days. Three full days is nearly as good and won’t require major compromises. Two full days will require compromises and some research and planning if you want to hit all the highlights.
Get Tickets
If you have four full days, skipping park hopper is simpler and cheaper. Then you’ll just have to focus on spending a single day at each park.
With fewer than four full days, you’ll need to either skip a park or get park hopper. It’s simpler to just pick a park to skip than to put together an effective park hopping strategy, but skipping a park means missing at least one major attraction.
Buy tickets from Undercover Tourist. You’ll need to set up an account at DisneyWorld.com and link the tickets to your account. Download the “My Disney Experience” app (the Disney World app). When you login you should see your tickets and, after you book it, your hotel.
Pick Your Hotel
Stay at a Disney hotel, and book it through DisneyWorld.com (or your travel advisor). Anything else is significantly less simple.
Disney’s value resorts are about $200 per night, with the “All Star” resorts being the cheapest Disney hotels. For value hotels, consider Art of Animation or Pop Century, which have access to the Skyliner to get you easily to Epcot and Hollywood Studios.
For moderate hotels—in the $350 per night area—consider Gran Destino Tower at Coronado Springs (a nice hotel) or Caribbean Beach (which has access to the Skyliner).
For deluxe hotels—in the $600+ per night area go with:
BoardWalk Inn if you’re planning to spend more time at Epcot and Hollywood Studios
or Polynesian Village (on the monorail) if you’re planning to spend more time at Magic Kingdom
or Animal Kingdom Lodge for a deluxe hotel at a lower price (and with animals!)
Book Flights + Get to Your Hotel
Fly to Orlando International Airport (MCO). Use Uber, Lyft, or Mears Connect to get to your hotel.
Avoid the temptation to fly a budget airline that charges for carry-on bags. It’s very easy to pack tightly on your way to Disney World, only to acquire souvenirs that push your into another bag when it comes time for your flight home.
Plan Park Days
If you’re going to spend more time on one topic, make it the actual time spent in the parks, since that’s probably the most important part of your trip. To that end, I highly recommend supplementing this post with these four itinerary posts for the parks:
Lightning Lanes. You can buy Lightning Lanes (Disney’s “skip the line” options) in the Disney World app. Purchases begin 3 days in advance of your visit or, for guests of Disney hotels (which you should be), 7 days in advance of your check-in for the first 14 days of your trip.
You should definitely buy Multi Pass for the days you plan to visit Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. You can skip it at Animal Kingdom and Epcot.
Whichever parks you get Multi Pass at, you’ll need to know which rides to book initially:
At Hollywood Studios, pick Slinky Dog Dash, Toy Story Mania, and Tower of Terror
At Epcot, pick Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Spaceship Earth, and Mission: SPACE
At Animal Kingdom, pick Kilimanjaro Safaris, Navi River Journey, and Expedition Everest
Once you use a Lightning Lane, you can fill that slot with a new one.
At the same time, buy your Lightning Lane Single Passes:
At Magic Kingdom, buy both Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON
At Hollywood Studios, buy Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
At Epcot, do not buy Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
At Animal Kingdom, do not buy Avatar Flight of Passage
Virtual Queues. Three rides currently use “virtual queues”, which are different than Lightning Lanes. You join these inside the Disney World app. These rides also don’t have regular lines—you join the virtual queue, or you pay for the Individual Lightning Lane, or you don’t ride.
At 7AM the morning you visit Magic Kingdom, you can join the virtual queue for TRON. Since we recommend buying the Lightning Lane for TRON, you don’t have to worry about this. As of this update, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure still uses a virtual queue. If that’s the case on the day you’re visiting, either book the Lightning Lane with Multi Pass or try for the virtual queue at 7AM.
At 7AM the morning you visit Epcot, you can join the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind, and 1PM if you’re in Epcot you can try again. I recommend trying for the 7AM queue immediately at 7:00:00AM. If you don’t want to risk missing it, just buy the Lightning Lane Single Pass in advance.
Rope Drop. “Rope drop” just means “arrive early and go to the correct ride first.”
For Magic Kingdom rope drop, be at the gates 15-30 minutes before the start of Early Entry. Go to Peter Pan’s Flight first.
For Epcot rope drop, be at the gates 15-30 minutes before the start of Early Entry. Go to Frozen Ever After first.
For Hollywood Studios rope drop, be at the gates 15-30 minutes before the start of Early Entry. Go to Tower of Terror first, then go straight to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.
For Animal Kingdom rope drop, be at the gates 30 minutes before the start of Early Entry. Go to Avatar Flight of Passage first. If you’re late, go to Na’vi River Journey first.
The rest of your day in the park. Use Multi Pass to book Lightning Lanes whenever you can. Check the Disney World app for entertainment times, particularly parades and fireworks.
Simple, right?
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.