Rides Per Day

[Mousemommy1]

We typically get our FP's for the morning. So, that's 3 definite rides there. If the crowds aren't too bad, then maybe we will do 1-2 more rides before heading back to the resort for pool time/naps. We will go back out at night and hit maybe 3-4 more rides. I guess that's a possible total of 9 per day, but we don't really race ride to ride. We just kind of fall into wherever doesn't have the most crowds.

 

[kimmyg26]

I think a few rides an hour is very doable. Although the time of year directly impacts your schedule. We are going mid September and we rope drop every day.
We go hard and heavy in the am, eat lunch, one or two more rides than back to the resort to rest and swim. We will head back out in the evening and usually hit another park during close.

While I always want to ride and do everything, I have come to the very hard realization that is just doesn't happen. We make a list of the most important and work from there. Rest is important since it is vacation. But so is seeing all the magic!

 

[gharter]

We usually do 2-3 per hour (sometimes more, some less). It varies depending on the length of the ride or show, crowd levels and how far away the next attraction is. We also work the FP selection process as best we can. That helps alot with getting more activities in.

 

[kiford]

Totally depends on what your preferences are (thrill rides, tame rides, shows, etc.), which attractions (popularity), how early you go and how late you stay, the stamina of those involved, the temperature, the crowd levels, the pace you prefer, if you want time to shop, the amount of time you spend eating and whether it's QS or TS, and even what you want to get out of the visit. So many factors. We've had days where we hardly do any rides even though we're there all day and others where it's one after the other especially when crowds are low. I can't even say what our average is.

 

[LoganBrown1990]

The last couple of times we've gone, it's been 1 day in MK so we've played pretty hard open to close. Even with busy Christmas crowds, we managed to get an average of 2-3 things done per hour.

 

[Tbiafore]

I think since some rides and FP+ can are quick to get on and then you have rope drop (if your doing that), mixed with rides you may spend more time in line, a safe number to go with is 2 rides per hour as that would most likely how it would play out by the end of the day.

 

[tlmadden73]

When I look back at my last few trips (only 2 park days) that included myself, wife and preschooler we weren't very efficient, but we didn't care.

Since there is more to do at WDW than just "rides" (there are shows, streetmosphere, meals, shopping, etc.) and plan on going back a lot I try not to push it. Sometimes those non-ride experiences are even more fun and memorable than the rides themselves.

But let me give you some numbers:
Last trip I was with my son (4) and daughter (5mo).

Day 1 - DHS and MK
Star Tours, TSMM, Launch Bay (including a M&G), build a droid at Tatooine traders, Star Wars Show, Watching the March of the First order, break for lunch waiting for express bus.
Hop to MK with Express bus (probably about 20 minutes).
Carousel of Progress, Buzz (FP), SDMT(FP), Carousel, play with the Sword in the Stone, Peter Pan(FP), Country Bears Jamboree, shop at Pirates, dinner at Skipper Canteen
Time - 8:00 am to 6:00 pm

Epcot
Test Track (broke down longest wait of the day - 45 minutes), Spaceship Earth, Soaring, Lunch at Garden Grille, Living with the Land, Finding Nemo, Turtle Talk, wander around the aquarium, wander through world showcase to see topiaries and get photo pass pictures.
Time - 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

As you can see .. not many "rides" .. we average about 1-2 "things" per hour as I didn't really want to push it with the kids. We are just slow moving with infants/toddlers/preschoolers -- I mean a bathroom break could take 20+ minutes .

We definitely get more done from RD to Noon than noon to 5 usually .. (naps, breaks, shows, etc.).

If I wanted to really be efficient and push it (like if I was just going with my wife), I could probably easily get 2-3 "things" done per hour.

 

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

We usually go from 9 am to evening (leave sometime around 6-9 pm) in one park. We have two young kids so make a lot of stops for the bathroom, and we like to do a table service lunch. We also do an occasional rider swap. I'd say we do about 10 rides a day plus 3-5 character meets.

 

[rebrick2006]

You guys and gals are the best! I need to figure out how to get good at this FP+ thing... moving rides around, grabbing others!

 

[gumbo1009]

When are you going? If Summer, you may want to reconsider your "no rope-drop" idea --> it's generally less crowded in the morning, which translates to shorter lines, with the added benefit that the sun is not at its zenith. If you're staying on site, you might consider hitting a morning EMH, staying 2-3 hours, then heading back to the resort/pool, finally heading to a second park in the eve (after dinner). You might even opt for Fastpasses at the second park (rather than the morning park).

 

[pooh4evr]

It really depends on the time of year you are going. I would say summer and the busier holiday weeks (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Spring Break) being there early for rope drop can really make or break your day. We do rope drop, and do our fastpasses for about 11-1ish. Those first hours are invaluable when going during busy or hot times. We usually save the shows for afternoon, and rarely go back for breaks. But for us WDW is far from a relaxing restful vacation!

 

[ww52]

As you can see .. not many "rides" .. we average about 1-2 "things" per hour as I didn't really want to push it with the kids. We are just slow moving with infants/toddlers/preschoolers -- I mean a bathroom break could take 20+ minutes

We're going in less than 2 weeks (YEAH!!!) and I was going to post something similar regarding expectations. Meaning, it depends - a LOT - on the age of the people in the group. And the time of year.

We are expecting similar to you - 1 or 2 "things" per hour. And no more than 4 hours per visit. (A 4 and 2 year old). Strollers for both of course. It will be hot so we don't want to push it.

We used Touring Plans and scheduled breaks - and used their option to minimize walking (rather than minimizing wait times).

We are hoping to get in 5 things in four hour chunks. Anything more would be fantastic.

The main "attraction" we need to keep in mind is being there in the first place!

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I think twenty rides per day is a little high in terms of general expectations.

I'm thinking we did about 19 total in MK on our most recent visit, but we go hard, and had extended hours. We also didn't do any shows, we do some things twice (back to back), and we didn't do any TS dining.

For Epcot, the total would be much lower, because the attractions are further apart, and take longer. I think on an Epcot day we manage about 12-14.

If my goal was simply to do as many rides as possible, I'm fairly confident I could ride the Prince Charming Carousel 20 times in under 2 hours most days.

It also depends, I suppose, what you call an attraction. Is seeing the fire works an attraction? Part of a parade? Seeing characters? part of the Sonny Eclipse show while you eat? (If I count all of those, then we actually did at least 21 things in one day on our most recent trip.)

At the other end of the spectrum, it is also possible to wait well over an hour for some attractions, especially if you aren't able to get a fast pass for it. the Nemo show itself- not counting any waiting is 40 minutes long, and to see it, you really have to arrive well before it starts. We usually skip it, but I say you probably have to arrive at least 30min before it starts, and most folks go even earlier.
New attractions can reach waits well over 2 hours, even some of the older attractions like Space Mtn and Splash.

Meals average 90min, plus travel time. Though it isn't uncommon to wait well past your ADR time to be seated. Quite a few times we've been seated 30+ minutes past our ADR time, so our meal took more like 2 hours.

 

[tlmadden73]

We're going in less than 2 weeks (YEAH!!!) and I was going to post something similar regarding expectations. Meaning, it depends - a LOT - on the age of the people in the group. And the time of year.

We are expecting similar to you - 1 or 2 "things" per hour. And no more than 4 hours per visit. (A 4 and 2 year old). Strollers for both of course. It will be hot so we don't want to push it.

We used Touring Plans and scheduled breaks - and used their option to minimize walking (rather than minimizing wait times).

We are hoping to get in 5 things in four hour chunks. Anything more would be fantastic.

The main "attraction" we need to keep in mind is being there in the first place!

I like that .. the main "attraction" is being there! A lot of people just don't get that about those of us who are fanatics (but would easily pay hundreds of dollars a ticket to "be there" for their sports team during a playoff or championship run).

I've never gone in the heat of summer with the kids (late August when my son was 3 was the "hottest"), but I wouldn't sell yourself short with just 4 hours. I've been able to do a whole day (Rope Drop until 5-8 pm) with my son when he was 2 and then when he was 3 (and when we had 2 (daughter was 5mo and son was 4) by simply taking a long lunch break and then making sure a nap happens in mid-afternoon -- with some more leisurely activities (aka shows) in the afternoon. Luckily we were able to find nice spots to nap in the park, but that won't be as easy to do in the summer heat.
But my general philosophy for little kids ... go early (cooler and more energy for them) . nap break in the park (just a hassle to get to/from a park unless you are staying close and leave early.

We'll see how it when I go this fall when my daughter is 2 and son is 6. It may be harder as the 2yo will be more mobile (and vocal) and the 6yo won't nap (but still be tired!).

What we did is just make sure we didn't stay for night shows and left by their bedtime. We only had 2 park days and had a day off for pool (even if it was on the final day of the trip).

 

[whiporee]

I think if you're expecting 2 rides an hour you're going to be disappointed. You can pull it off, but WDW has a lot of walking, and even with FP and a good plan, we've rarely averaged that during a stay. Heck, even during the six hours of DAH (three pre closing, three post) we got in about 18 rides. That's 3 an hour with half of it in an empty park.

Those who study this stuff have said WDW expects you to get between seven and nine experiences in a full day. You can goose the system to get more -- Rope Drop, DAH, EMM, CL FP, stuff like that -- but on a normal day at MK with normal crowds, if you and your family cane get up to nine experiences (fireworks, shows, M&Gs and rides) WDW would say you've got your money's worth (I know many would disagree, but that's the way I think Disney sees it). If you go in expecting a lot more that that, I believe you're setting yourself up for failure in either trying to do too much, or walking away angry or disappointed.

 

[JETSDAD]

I think if you're expecting 2 rides an hour you're going to be disappointed. You can pull it off, but WDW has a lot of walking, and even with FP and a good plan, we've rarely averaged that during a stay. Heck, even during the six hours of DAH (three pre closing, three post) we got in about 18 rides. That's 3 an hour with half of it in an empty park.

Those who study this stuff have said WDW expects you to get between seven and nine experiences in a full day. You can goose the system to get more -- Rope Drop, DAH, EMM, CL FP, stuff like that -- but on a normal day at MK with normal crowds, if you and your family cane get up to nine experiences (fireworks, shows, M&Gs and rides) WDW would say you've got your money's worth (I know many would disagree, but that's the way I think Disney sees it). If you go in expecting a lot more that that, I believe you're setting yourself up for failure in either trying to do too much, or walking away angry or disappointed.

Wow, I would be quite disappointed with only 7-9 experiences in a day, especially at MK. I know at a park like Epcot a lot of time will be spent with world showcase which will bring the average down but even then we're over 7-9 experiences, not counting WS itself.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

On a recent visit, we were able to hit 16 rides in 4 hours (8 pm - midnight) with no Fast Passes. The key is being there in the evening when the lines are shortest.

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[wgeo]

In my opinion it varies greatly depending on the time of year and crowds. I took a 3 day trip the last week of May and we rode so many rides it was crazy. One day we used 13 Fp and did many other rides. However, using the same methods of refreshing and moving FP we didn't do nearly as much this week. Obviously July 4th crowds are going to be crazy, and we had a great time, but to imply to the OP that they should expect 20 rides in a day could be pretty misleading depending on when they are going and their comfort with taking full advantage of the Fp system. Not to mention that if you're new, everything tends to take a little longer.

 

[slpeters]

I'd be really disappointed with 7-9. I just looked back through our touring plans for November to be sure. The week before Thanksgiving (several days were 10s). We averaged between 20 and 30 steps per day. That's counting M&Gs, shows, meals etc. We did EMHs and opened parks and closed parks but we also took afternoon breaks everyday. And frankly because it was our first time and I didn't want to leave much to chance we didn't really use more than 3 or 4 FPs most days. I'm hoping next time we could do even better!

 

[DisneyAuntie12]

I think this will depend a lot on your schedule. If you go to TouringPlans.com you can get a lot of info about probable wait times for a given ride on the specific day of your trip (go to the site, then type in the name of the ride in the 'search' box. There will be a search result that includes 'wait times', click on that one and you'll get a graph of wait times for today - then scroll to later dates until you find yours.) Then, I would say add about 5 minutes for the ride itself, and about 20 for loading / unloading and walking. (Maybe less if you have a faster moving group. If you have young kids, factor in parking and retrieving a stroller; getting them loaded and unloaded; bathroom stops; sunscreen breaks; oooh and aaaah stops; picture stops; someone wondering where they left their sunglasses, putting new batteries in the camera...)