One Day To Visit Disney World? Here’s How To Do It.

It might be a single destination, but Walt Disney World is essentially an entire city—one the size of San Francisco, in fact. You could easily spend an entire week (or more) exploring the resort’s four parks, two water parks, dozens of hotels and Disney Springs shopping and dining district. But if you’ve only got one day, you can definitely get a taste of everything Walt Disney World has to offer. It’s just going to take some strategizing.

If Money Is No Object: Hire a VIP Guide

The simplest solution is, of course, to spend a lot to get the best experience. Walt Disney World offers VIP tours, where the sky is the limit as to how much you can get done. A VIP tour guide will walk you through the parks, escorting you to the front of every line, and even transporting your group to other parks via private car. There are no lines, no waiting, no shuttles, and the shortest possible routes between attractions, sometimes taking your group “backstage” in the employees-only sections of the park. The downside? VIP tours cost $450-$900 per hour for groups of up to 10 people, tours must be booked for a minimum of seven hours, and guests must purchase park admission separately.

If You Want to See and Do as Much as Possible

Simple. Buy a single day Park Hopper ticket, which allows you to move between all four theme parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Skip the more expensive Park Hopper Plus, which also gets you into the resort’s water parks—you won’t have time—but definitely add Genie+, the paid line-skipping service, to your ticket.

Your park day will begin a rope drop (Disney parlance for park opening) and end long after the nightly fireworks at Magic Kingdom—so wear your most comfortable shoes and get ready for a lot of steps. Animal Kingdom opens earliest, so start your day there. Opening times vary, but if the park opens at 8 a.m., in-the-know Disneyers will line up at least half an hour early. Once you’re in the gates, beeline to Kilimanjaro Safaris; many animals on the tour are more active in the morning and evening than in the heat of the day. Unless the wait is short, use the single rider line on Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, the park’s big roller coaster.

Using Genie+, book Lightning Lane entry for a ride at Hollywood Studios, which will be your next park. Grab Slinky Dog Dash if you can, but that goes quickly, so you might want to choose Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (the only ride starring the mouse at Disney) or Toy Story Mania.

Genie+ is tricky at first, but the rule is that you can book one Lightning Lane every two hours, or as soon as you’ve scanned into the attraction. If you book a Lightning Lane for a ride that you can immediately get on, book another one right after scanning in, and then set a timer for two hours, when you can book another. If you book a Lightning Lane for much later in the day, you can still book another at the two hour mark, even if you haven’t ridden yet. (Seriously, set a timer, it’s a huge help.) A great strategy is to start stacking evening Lightning Lanes early in the day so you can have a whole night of essentially no waits.

Plan to spend your late afternoon and early evening in EPCOT, where you can eat your way around the park while you take in rides. The park has the best array of walk-up kiosks with excellent food, which changes depending on which festival is currently happening at the park, like the EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival in the spring or EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival in the fall.

Hit up Soarin’ Around the World, Journey into Imagination with Figment to see EPCOT’s mascot Figment, Frozen Ever After and Test Track (using the single rider lane). If you can pay extra to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, definitely do it, but if you opt for the free virtual queue you might be waiting up to an hour to ride. Choose wisely: your time is precious on a one-day jaunt.

In the evening, head to Magic Kingdom. There’s nothing quite like Main Street at night, especially during the nightly fireworks spectacular, Happily Ever After. Don’t miss classic rides like Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion, plus the newly rethemed Tiana’s Bayou Adventure which replaced Splash Mountain. If you’re still going when the park closes, here’s a pro tip: as long as you’re in a ride queue when the clock strikes, you can still ride your last ride.

If Big Ticket Rides are the Highest Priority

The progression will be the same—start with Animal Kingdom, end at Magic Kingdom—but this time, you’re going to rope drop Avatar Flight of Passage. Once inside the park, buy Individual Lightning Lanes for the parks’ biggest rides as soon as you scan in. (If you’re staying at a Disney hotel, you can do this as early as 7 a.m., or 9 a.m. for other guests unless you’re already in a park.) These are an additional cost on top of Genie+, but can be purchased without buying the service, too.

Buy an early afternoon Individual Lightning Lane for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Hollywood Studios, and a late afternoon one for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT. You can only purchase two Individual Lightning Lanes per day, so you’ll have to make some tough choices between these and an evening ride on TRON Lightcycle / Run in Magic Kingdom, Disney’s newest roller coaster. Once you’ve got your biggest rides lined up, grab Genie+ for either the Slinky Dog Dash in Hollywood Studios or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Magic Kingdom. Those hugely popular mid-level coasters have consistently long waits. You’ll likely get a return time for much later in the day.

While EPCOT generally opens at 9 a.m., much of the World Showcase doesn’t open until 11 a.m., and the park tends to be quieter in the morning. It’s a good strategy if you’re focused on rides, but since you’ll only have a few hours in the park, you’ll likely miss a lot of delicious food if you opt for EPCOT as your second park. Ride Guardians of the Galaxy and the always-charming Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, one of the park’s newest rides, which is based on Disney’s Ratatouille.

Whether you’ve chosen EPCOT or Hollywood Studios as your second park, take the Skyliner to the other when you’re ready to park hop. The aerial gondola is a new classic when it comes to Disney experiences. At Hollywood Studios, definitely don’t miss the two rides in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, and take a trip to another dimension on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

Whichever you choose, opt for Magic Kingdom as your final stop (from EPCOT, take the Monorail, or a shuttle from the others). Not only will you see the quintessential fireworks show at the park, you’ll benefit from lighter crowds and shorter lines. If you’ve nabbed a virtual queue spot for TRON Lightcycle/Run at night, consider yourself lucky, because the lightning-quick coaster is even more thrilling at night.

If You Want the Classic Disney Experience

If we’re being honest, the best way to spend any one single day at Walt Disney World is to spend the whole day at Magic Kingdom. It’s easy to get caught up in trying to see every park and ride every ride, and that can absolutely be a fun adventure, but the essence of Disney is best experienced when you take it slow and really absorb the immersive atmosphere.

For the most classic experience, buy a single day, single park ticket to Magic Kingdom and just give yourself time and space to explore the park at your leisure. (Definitely still buy Genie+, though, because lines can get long.) This way, you can sit down to a character breakfast at Crystal Palace, where Winnie the Pooh and friends come to your table to say hello while you eat, then stroll through Fantasyland, Liberty Square, Frontierland, Adventureland and Tomorrowland at your leisure.

On a relaxing day like this, you’ll have time to visit some of the park’s sometimes-overlooked early attractions, like Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, which dates back to the 1964 World’s Fair, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, a slow-moving ride above Tomorrowland which Walt Disney personally oversaw for Disneyland. On it, you’ll see an early model for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, Disney’s first vision for EPCOT, decades before it was built.

Another bonus to focusing on Magic Kingdom is that you can take a break from the park for dinner, and head back at night. The Monorail resort loop goes to Disney’s Contemporary Resort (the Monorail goes right through the building), Disney’s Polynesian Resort, and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort. Restaurants like Citricos, Narcoosee’s and California Grill are always winners for fine dining—but for a huge splurge, go for Victoria & Albert’s, which just earned Walt Disney World its first Michelin star. Whatever you do, make sure you watch those nighttime fireworks. It’s a part of the experience you don’t want to miss.