On this first episode, we’ll be going over what I wish I knew for my first Disney World trip as a physical therapist.

Topics we’ll be going over on this episode include exactly how physically demanding each of the four theme parks are, the weather that you can expect, and it’s not exactly what you would always expect, how to stay hydrated at the four theme parks, and then also a little bit of my perspective as a California native who’s been to the Disneyland parks plenty of times.

So here we go.

Disney World Covers a Massive Area

Let’s address the most obvious piece of information in the room.

Disney World is huge.

And if you’ve ever ridden the Disney World Skyliner from Hollywood Studios heading over towards Caribbean Beach, you’ll hear on the overhead speaker that Disney World is the equivalent to two times the size of the island Manhattan or the size of San Francisco.

At 27,000-some acres, it’s massive.

Of course, that includes the four theme parks, the two water parks, the 30-some Disney World resort hotels, and extra land that Disney hasn’t built on yet. But exactly how much should you expect physically from each of the four theme parks?

Let’s go over those.

And I do talk a lot more about this in my pocketbook guide, Disney Ready, Your Pain Free Parks Survival Guide, but let’s go into each of these four parks. I’m gonna go ahead and rate them from the least amount of walking you would expect to do all the way down to the most amount of walking you would expect to do.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios sits at around 135 acres of land and has about 17 rides and shows combined. Of course, that number I think is gonna change a little bit in the next few years, but roughly, roughly under 20.

What that means in terms of how big the park is and how many rides there are, it means you’re gonna get relatively less walking compared to the other three theme parks. And then on top of that, the fact that there are only 17 rides compared to what we’ll find out to be more than, you know, more than 20 some rides at the other theme parks, you’re not gonna walk as much around this park.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

If you don’t account for Kilimanjaro Safaris, which adds something like 110 or 120 extra acres to the theme park, Animal Kingdom is still around 470 acres. It is massive. But, there is only a total of 16 rides and shows at the park. So, that means everything is pretty well spaced out.

You’re gonna expect to do quite a bit more walking than you would do at Hollywood Studios. But, with less rides, that means less walking to go to each ride. And then, on top of that, what I haven’t mentioned yet about the two parks we’ve talked about so far is Animal Kingdom tends to close a lot earlier in the day, which means less theme park hours and less time in the park.

Less time in the park means less walking overall. Now, with that being said, since it’s a lot larger than studios, that also means you’re gonna get more walking than you would expect to get at Hollywood Studios.

EPCOT

At about 260 acres, not including World Showcase Lagoon, it’s definitely not as big as Animal Kingdom, but it’s also got 26 rides and shows combined. That means more walking around, but also a lot more standing in line to wait for some of these rides. Some of them having longer wait times than being e-ticket attractions like Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind or Frozen Ever After or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.

And on top of having to wait for some of these longer rides or having to wait in line longer for these rides, you’re also gonna be walking more, especially if you’re spending more time around World Showcase.

What I mean by that is World Showcase is set up all the way around a big lagoon called World Showcase Lagoon. So that means every time you’re gonna wanna walk around, say from one end of World Showcase to the other, you can’t simply go from Canada straight to France.

You can’t go directly to France. You have to go around World Showcase Lagoon to get there. So what that means is extra walking. And I think the circumference of World Showcase Lagoon, someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s about 0.8 miles, at least three quarters of a mile, just to get around the whole thing once. So going around World Showcase and doing that multiple times throughout the day definitely adds up.

That’s a lot of stress on the body at the end of the day and if your body isn’t physically ready to take on all that walking, you may be paying the price either at the end of the day or if you’re doing fine on that one day, you might pay the price more closer towards the end of your trip.

Magic Kingdom

Now, surprisingly, Magic Kingdom is 107 acres, give or take, give or take.

Now, even though it’s 107 acres, it also has the most amount of rides between the four theme parks. So we’re talking 29 rides and attractions. Again, that number is gonna be changing in the next few years, but give or take.

That’s still significantly more than 26 at Epcot, 16 at Animal Kingdom, 17 at Studios.

With that being said, Magic Kingdom, with its amount of rides and shows, that’s a lot of walking to and from each of the different rides and shows. And then on top of that, character meet and greets, different other attractions. And then the big kicker to all of this is the fact that Magic Kingdom is open the most amount of time in the day.

Usually Magic Kingdom opens at eight and then closes around 11 o’clock, sometimes midnight. And then if you go to an after-hours event, sometimes it closes even later than that.

So we’re talking eight to eight is 12, plus another four, maybe even five or six. We’re talking at least 16 hours, or it could be at least 16 hours in the day that you’re gonna be on your feet and walking.

That adds up at the end of the day.

And then that also compounds itself if you’re doing a multiple day vacation at Disney World. A lot of walking, a lot of stress on the body, which really in the end means, okay, you’ve got to physically prepare to be able to walk and to be able to stand all that time.

Disney Springs

Let’s not forget Disney Springs.

I feel like, and this is anecdotal, but I feel like a lot of people tend to forget how much walking y’all do at Disney Springs. Disney Springs is, well, let’s just say it’s huge.

From what I know, I think it’s around 120 acres.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but regardless, it covers a lot of area to go around from one end to the other. And in fact, if you mapped it out, say going from Cirque du Soleil on one end of Disney Springs all the way to the other end, maybe towards like Earl of Sandwich, that’s about 0.7 to 0.8 miles.

And that is equivalent to maybe 12 or 15 minutes of walking, depending on how fast you walk or if you’re stuck behind crowds.

It’s a big area.

And don’t be surprised if you get the same amount of steps at Disney Springs that you would get at, say, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, if you’re spending that much time at Disney Springs, which you definitely could. Something to really consider when you’re planning your Disney World trip.

For example, let’s say you’re taking a rest day from the theme parks to try and recover for your next day at the theme parks and you decided to go to Disney Springs. It’s really easy to spend a lot of time at Disney Springs and then forget how much time you’re on your feet.

And when your whole point of a rest day was to take an active rest where you are letting your body recover, you’re ending up walking the same amount you would on a theme park day and you’re not really recovering as much as you could for your next theme park day.

Compare to Downtown Disney District

Let’s really quickly compare this to Downtown Disney at Disneyland.

For any listener that goes to Disneyland, Downtown Disney is only 15 acres. And really to walk from one end to the other takes about five to seven minutes.

It’s really short compared to walking across Disney Springs.

Compare to Disneyland Resort

Let’s compare it really quickly to the size of Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.

I mentioned earlier Disneyland is 85 acres, whereas Magic Kingdom is about 100 acres and change.

Big difference.

Disney’s California Adventure is also even smaller than Disneyland at around 70, 72 acres. That makes it, man, if you’re doing some quick math, almost half the size of Hollywood Studios, to put that into perspective.

It’s a lot less walking at Disneyland or Disney’s California Adventure.

Now, to be fair, and I feel like a lot of people will be saying, oh, if you park up between Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure, that does end up being around 150 acres of walking around and that can add up. So to be fair, yes, step counts can add up quite a bit if you’re park hopping between the two parks.

But in the end, you will be walking a lot more generally at Disney World at any of the four theme parks than you would at Disneyland.

Now, if you would disagree with me, please let me know. Maybe leave a comment. I would love to hear from you and hear what you have to say about that.

How Disney World’s Size Affects Your Vacation

So let’s wrap that section up and talk about what this really means in the end.

And I could go into a travel planning perspective and talk about how I’d probably recommend two days at Magic Kingdom, two days at Epcot, one day at Animal Kingdom, one day at Hollywood Studios, simply because of the amount of rides and attractions that are at each park.

But really, let’s talk about it more from how much you’d expect to walk and how demanding it is physically, that type of perspective.

Factor In Rest Days

If you’re planning to do all four theme parks during your trip, I highly, highly recommend that you factor in rest days.

And if you factor in rest days, there’s a few things that I want you to keep in mind when you schedule those rest days and schedule those park days.

So first, I highly recommend you do not stack Magic Kingdom and Epcot on back to back days.

Since those two parks, you’d expect to walk the most amount in those two parks. I wouldn’t put them back to back because that means walking, you know, 20 to 30,000 steps at one park on one day, and then maybe 20 or 30,000 steps or more at the other park the next day. Combining those two, you know, 30,000 step days adds a lot on to the body and you may be feeling it extra afterwards.

Next thing, I would highly recommend stacking Magic Kingdom and Epcot or sorry, I would highly recommend stacking Magic Kingdom or Epcot with Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios.

Stack the parks you would expect to get the most amount of walking with the parks you would expect to get the least amount of walking. That way you can offset or stagger basically a high walking park day with a lower walking park day. And that way you don’t compound all of the walking in the two days or more.

Third thing, do plan on Magic Kingdom or Epcot early in your trip.

This is because if you do otherwise, and you put Magic Kingdom or Epcot towards the end of, say, a seven-day trip at Disney World, imagine spending time at, say, Hollywood Studios at the beginning of the week, Animal Kingdom the next day, and then putting Magic Kingdom and Epcot towards the end of the week.

Your body had already walked 15, 20,000 steps, maybe two days in a row, maybe three days in a row, and you’re starting to feel tired, and then all of a sudden, you put your body through a 30,000-step day, two days in a row, because you went to Magic Kingdom and you went to Epcot the day after.

It’s a lot of demand on the body.

You won’t have as fresh of legs to be able to walk all that distance towards the end of the week. Basically, you’re walking on fatigue legs.

I would highly recommend doing the opposite, putting Magic Kingdom or Epcot earlier in the week.

That way, you won’t be as fatigued towards the end of the week. You’ll feel a lot better. You’ll be able to do a little bit more. You won’t feel as painful or sore.

Then my final thing to talk about – I do highly recommend planning rest days after Magic Kingdom or after an Epcot Day.

That way, you have time to recover from all that walking before you hit the parks again.

How Your Disney World Hotel Affects Your Trip

The second thing I would want to talk about and the second thing I wish I knew on my first trip to Disney World is that there is a lot of extra walking that you’re gonna be doing not at the theme parks, but getting to the theme parks and coming back from the theme parks if you’re staying at a Disney World hotel.

So I talk about this on my free guide, “10 Mistakes Disney Guests Make That Result in a Painful Trip,” but it can sometimes take between 5 to 15 minutes just to get from your hotel room to your Disney transportation and then an extra few minutes to get from where you get dropped off to the front of the theme park.

So one way to take advantage of your hotel room when you’re reserving a room so that you walk a little less and save energy for yourself is to reserve a preferred room at your hotel.

Preferred rooms tend to be closer to your hotel transportation. That way you have less steps to take to get your transportation. But if you think about it, that also means less steps to take when you’re coming back at the end of the day to go back to your hotel room.

Less walking on tired feet after you get out of the theme parks.

But I know a lot of guests do drive to the theme parks.

So something to also consider on this topic is that walking from where you park to the front of the theme park also adds, you know, sometimes five to seven minutes of walking just to get to the tap point at the front of the theme park. So on top of that, parking at Magic Kingdom or parking to get to Magic Kingdom adds a lot more walking as well.

We’re talking about parking at the transportation and ticket center, walking, you know, five, maybe sometimes more, five minutes to get to security, getting to security, walking up the ramp to get to the monorail or walking over to the ferry to get across Seven Seas Lagoon.

All that extra walking adds up, especially if you’re going to Magic Kingdom, where you expect to take the most amount of steps compared to all of the other four theme parks. So you can always get the upgraded parking pass, that way you’re parking near the front of the parking lot, getting less steps to get to the theme parks.

Consider a Walking Program

Or you can also, again, physically prepare yourself to be able to walk all of that.

Get on a walking program, get your body ready, get your body more resilient to handle all the stress that compounds on a Disney World park trip, and have a magical vacation.

Consider the Types of Terrain You’ll Walk at the Disney Parks

Okay, third thing that I wish I knew is, I wish I knew about all the different types of terrain that you’ll be walking on when you’re at the different theme parks.

And I don’t mean how Main Street USA is slightly slanted so that you’re walking up to get to Cinderella Castle and walking down as you leave the parks and it doesn’t feel as taxing on the body when you leave at the end of the day.

I mean things like, for example, there are several amphitheater style shows where you have to walk down steps to get to your seat or how you have to walk up a steep ramp to get up into the monorail or the amount of steps that you’ll be walking up or down depending on whether or not you’re getting out of, for example, Flight of Passage or Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind.

Those small things end up adding up quite a bit at the end of the day or in the middle of the day.

And then, something that isn’t talked about enough is how Animal Kingdom has a lot of uneven walking surfaces. And what I mean by that is the way Animal Kingdom was set up is to be more like you’re walking on off-road trails.

And because the walking areas around Animal Kingdom are a little more uneven to mimic those off-road trails, they’re just a little bit more demanding on the feet as you walk around.

So a little bit more demanding can add up at the end of the day to make your feet feel a little bit more tired. And especially if you put Animal Kingdom on a back-to-back day, if your body isn’t quite ready to handle all of that walking, you might feel a little extra fatigued at the end of the day.

The Weather at Disney World

OK, fourth thing I wish I knew about my first trip to Walt Disney World is the weather.

Now, Orlando, Central Florida, Disney World is already well known for its unpredictable weather, its afternoon thunderstorms in the summer, its heat and humidity. So of course, yes, you’re going to want to pack a poncho or an umbrella.

You’re going to want to pack extra socks in your theme park bag so you can change out socks after it rains.

Yes, the rain usually lasts 30 minutes or so, so you don’t have to expect to be in the rain for too long. But really, what I want to touch upon is how it can actually get cold at Disney World.

We’re talking about during the months of November, December, and usually January where temperatures sometimes can drop into freezing levels. And I’ve had this on multiple occasions now living near Disney World for the last year where I would look at my phone at the weather app and see that the temperature at Disney World is lower than the temperature at Disneyland.

I still think that’s crazy.

And then on top of that, the same humidity that makes the summer heat feel hotter, makes the winter cold feel colder. What I mean by that is, for example, let’s say it’s 35 degrees in the morning at Disney World, which is not unheard of, believe it or not.

It may actually feel like it’s 28 because of the humidity. And then I add on top of that, if it’s a windy day, it makes it feel that much colder. That’s a lot of wind chill.

So dress in layers, excuse me, have a jacket, be ready to take that layer off if it does get warmer in the middle of the day, but also be prepared to keep that layer on throughout the whole day. Get a beanie, stay warm.

And the whole point of this is, if you’re prepared with the right clothing for your Disney World trip, you’re gonna be that much more comfortable. Your body’s gonna regulate its temperature better. You’ll be able to last longer throughout the day without having to look for the next place that’s hotter so you can warm up.

And then you can have a much more wonderful time with your group.

There are Plenty of Water Refill Stations Around Disney World

Okay, the fifth and final thing I wish I knew on my first trip at Walt Disney World was that there are a lot more water refill stations around the four theme parks than you would expect.

Now, especially more than before, because Disney has added a lot more refill stations in the last few years, which thank you, Disney. But before, on my first few trips to Disney World, we would always buy like a 24 or a 32 pack of water bottles to take to our hotel room. That way, we would refill with those water bottles into our refillable bottles, take those into the parks, and then do that again the next day.

Now, Disney World between the four theme parks has a bunch of refill stations.

I was counting and I believe it’s around 25 refill stations between the four parks. We’re talking four at Magic Kingdom, which personal opinion, I think Magic Kingdom needs to have more refill stations.

But four at Magic Kingdom, eight at Epcot, six at Animal Kingdom, seven at Hollywood Studios, which is a little ironic that Hollywood Studios has more water refill stations than Magic Kingdom, because you expect to be at Magic Kingdom for a longer period of time and walk a lot more.

I have all of the exact locations of these water refill stations in my pocketbook guide Disney Ready Your Pain Free Parks Survival Guide.

But the point is you can actually get through a full theme park day at Disney World with a 12 ounce refillable water bottle and refill that water bottle every time you pass by a water refill station. And if you don’t believe me, you can also go to a quick service restaurant and get a cup of water and then pour that cup of water into your refillable water bottle and you’re off to the races.

So not only does that mean, okay, you can stay hydrated throughout the day, which is really important, especially when it’s hot and humid, but that also means you can carry a smaller water bottle, which means you carry less weight in your bag, which means less to worry about on your shoulders, less weight on your shoulders, which means you can last longer throughout the day, feeling better, more energetic.