If you're only doing 9 rides a day, you're seriously doing something wrong.

Posted By Anthony F on December 29, 2010, 4:21 PM

Nine rides might not seem like a lot, but considering how many people show up and how long those lines can get, it's about right. Definitely try for the Fast Pass if you can (although you have to wait to go on the first ride before using it at another ride) and try to go in the off-season when it's less crowded.

Posted By willwrite4food2 on December 29, 2010, 4:39 PM

C'mon, Will. I can knock out 9 in a morning without even breaking a sweat.

Posted By Anthony F on December 29, 2010, 9:00 PM

When are you going Anthony? I live in Orange County so fortunate enough to have a year pass to Disneyland. I'm not sure when you are going, but in the 15-20 times I go a year, I don't think I have ever gone on more than 10 rides in one day. The last time I went was a Wednesday the first week of Novemeber and there was a 2 to 3 hour wait for majority of the rides. There has definitely been a few exceptions to that, but for the most part 9 or 10 seems to be right.

Posted By LindseyE on December 30, 2010, 12:47 PM

Lindsey, I go all different times of year. (I avoid the major holidays, though.) Between Fastpasses, smart planning, past experience and general common sense, I never wait longer than a half hour for anything. Before my daughter was born, I could knock out the entire Magic Kingdom by 2PM.

Posted By Anthony F on December 30, 2010, 3:12 PM

I believe the unofficial record is 72 attractions in 11 hours. (WDW doesn't get involved in this stuff but the UG people do) If you are into trying to pack as many things in as you can. There is more to the experience than how many things you can get on. That being said- If you are only doing 9 to 10 a day then you are doing something drastically wrong. You show up and be at the gate 30 minutes prior to park open, You hit the major crowd attractors and then work your way around to the lesser attractions. Yes it involves bypassing something only to come back to it later. You leave the park around noonish and go relax someplace. Come back just after dinner. Repeat. You also use fastpasses during the day.

Posted By wdwfan4life on January 2, 2011, 4:32 PM

I have been to Disney World six times during February and April school vacations. I don't think the lines were ever less than 45 minutes. However, I just went to Disney World this past November, and it was amazing! The parks were so empty. We had rides with 0-minute waits, 5-minute waits...usually never more than 20-minute waits. Sometimes the longest wait was actually just making our way through the line switchbacks! So I have no idea how many rides we went on but I'm sure it was a lot! Much more than 9 or 10. We even had a boat on Pirates of the Caribbean completely to ourselves.

Posted By Amanda on January 5, 2011, 12:11 PM

If that's the average, I'll never waste my money there. I live for rides, but I've got to actually RIDE them!

Posted By WEG on January 5, 2011, 1:48 PM

We went the first time over spring break--NEVER again! The crowds were awful and lines so long. I don't know if we got on 9 rides a day. The second trip was in September, just after school started. We hit at least 9 rides before lunch.

Posted By Jennifer on January 6, 2011, 10:12 AM

this was a ok site!!!

Posted By justice on January 6, 2011, 3:11 PM

We just went to Disney two weeks before Christmas. The longest line the entire week we were there was 30 minutes--and that was for 1 ride. Most of the time, we walked on to the loading platform, or at least within 5 minutes of getting on the ride. We probably averaged the 9 or 10 rides before lunch. There are times when homeschooling totally rocks!

Posted By CAS on January 6, 2011, 5:01 PM

Anthony is right -- you can do a whole lot more than 9-10 rides if you know what you are doing. Especially at Disney World where the lines are shorter than at Disneyland. It all depends on if you have small kids in tow, are bothering to focus on riding rides, instead of the many other experiences in the parks (and the number of people doing these will possibly drive down the average number of rides that people get to, as people make choices to do other things), where you eat (fast food vs. sit down, if you have priority seating reservations, etc.) Even whether you know which restrooms are where, and which are generally less crowded. A lot of it is just understanding the crowd dynamics which can vary even by time of year and whether the crowds are mostly locals on a passholder allowed day, or if you are there at, say, Christmas, Spring break, or in the summer when more people are "newbies". It also matters how well you know your way physically around the parks, as there are short cut routes from area to area, and others that are jammed with crowds at certain times of day, prior to and after parades, etc. Much like a cabbie in New York at rush hour who really knows his stuff, you can navigate much better if you know these things. Some people spend hours waiting just for parades or Fantasmic at Disneyland, but if you know the best spots that others don't know are good viewing you can show up 15 minutes before and still see just as well. And if you think I am telling you all of my secrets, well, forget about it! ;-)

Posted By KB on January 6, 2011, 5:06 PM

I have been to Disneyland at least 10 times and Disney World 5 times. If you plan ahead and map out the most popular rides early in the morning and then head for lesser popular rides later in the day, you can easily ride 30 times. It takes planning. If a line is too long, jump out, and move on. Planning makes all the difference.

Posted By ALAN R SCHULTZ on January 7, 2011, 1:24 PM

One August day, we docked in Port Canaveral from a cruise ship. We escorted my entire family (10 people) thru the Magic Kingdom, and did 15 rides in less than a full park day (ship docked too late to get there for rope drop, and we had to be back on the ship pretty early). Most had never been to WDW before. So, it *IS* possible to do more than 9 rides per day - with careful planning!

Posted By RH on January 7, 2011, 2:24 PM

Most people don't just go to the Disney Parks for the "rides" - there is a lot more to do and see and I suspect that has a lot to do with the figures provided.

Posted By JL on January 7, 2011, 8:25 PM

The best days to go to WDW are the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, January (after school starts, May and September. Super Bowl Sunday is never crowded.

If going to Universal Studios, stay at one of the on site resorts and get a fast past. WDW also allows early entrance to overnight guests which helps to beat the crowds and hit the biggest attractions first.

Posted By Med8R on January 10, 2011, 9:11 PM

Disneyland is sometimes crowded on Superbowl Sunday. On the free entrance on your birthday year (2 years ago???), that happened to be my birthday and it was VERY crowded. Other guests and even the castmembers were commenting on how it surprised them. No one was in that Superbowl from the West Coast and the weather was gorgeous that day.

We have been known to do about 20 to 25 rides when we are making an effort.....since I have a limited annual pass, I usually just do 10 to 15 rides before leaving the park (around 3 or 4) on a weekday.

Posted By RB on January 24, 2011, 5:14 PM

Riding and seeing close to 30 things in one Disney day is surely not impossible even on a quite crowded day. Here's my ride record of two days ago (Friday Apr 15) in order taken:

Arrive 7:40am and be among the first for rope drop.
Peter Pan, Mr. Toad, Small World, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear. Five down in the first hour. Hop over to DCA, grab the pass for World of Color, then Grizzly River, Soarin', California Screamin'. So far 0 minutes of wait. Next was Toy Story with about 25 mins (had to take a hit somewhere), then Filk's Flyers, Tough to be a Bug and Tower of Terror, again all at zero. (It's noon now)

Back to Magic Kingdom. Ride the Railroad to New Orleans, do Indy as Single Rider, Jungle Cruise, Pirates (10 min), Big Thunder (10 min), Haunted Mansion, Winnie. Railroad to Tomorrowland, take in Autopia (no wait!), see Captain EO and grab a bite. (4 pm by now)

Time to round up Fantasyland: Mad Tea Party, Matterhorn (35 mins), Storybook Land, Pinocchio and Snow White's Scary adventure.

Head back to DCA to make sure I'll see Aladdin, take Monsters Inc. on the way in and re-ride Soarin' (using Single Rider again) right after. Then it was time for World of Color, so see that one and head back over to Magic Kingdom to cap off the day seeing the fireworks on the walk and finally sitting down for a perfect view of Fantasmic! Net result: 27 rides including all the majors (except Nemo which I didn't care about) and 5 shows - of course my feet will hate me for at least a week after this. The strangest part of this: I never needed even one ride Fastpass, only the one for viewing World of Color. The times just never matched my patterns and the two rides where I really could have used them had Single Rider.

Posted By Thalain on April 17, 2011, 2:22 PM