1 Day in MK with 2 Kids - Help Me Plan!

[mirak]

This is my first time back to Disney in over 5 years, and my first with kids. I would appreciate any advice for maximizing our day at the Magic Kingdom.

It's my wife and I and 2 boys, ages 4 and 7. We arrive at Wilderness Lodge on Wednesday, February 11. Staying just two nights, and we only purchased a single-day admission to Magic Kingdom for Thursday, so we'll lounge around the resort Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday is officially the last day of "low season" before the President's Day weekend mid/high season. That Thursday is also EMH for Magic Kingdom, and we plan to take the ferry from the resort to the park to get there prior to opening. Good idea to take the ferry?

We don't plan to try doing everything in the park - in fact there's a lot of simpler spinny rides that we'll probably skip - but I want to hit all the big, iconic attractions, hopefully more than once in some cases. My younger son is tall enough for everything except Space Mountain. Here is the stuff we're interested in, in no particular order (sorry for incorrect naming):

- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Junge Cruise
- SFR Treehouse
- Splash Mountain
- Big Thunder Mountain
- Snow White Mine Car
- Speedway
- Haunted Mansion
- Buzz Lightyear
- Tom Sawyer Island
- Space Mountain (maybe)
- Light Up Parade

And maybe if the line is short and time allows:
- Small World
- Peter Pan

Our only current reservation is for Pirates League in the early afternoon, which I think the boys will love. I'm really not interested in paying exorbitant prices for "character meals" so we'll just try to hit them up at public spots.

Ok, so with all that info - what's the best strategy for traveling the park and booking FP+? I know only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are open for EMH, so we'll probably head straight to Fantasy and hit the minecar ride first? Then maybe the speedway?

 

[MrInfinity]

Minecar ride first? Then maybe the speedway?

Pretty reasonable, yes. Minecar is the first priority, then you can circle back to the Speedway, then maybe Space Mountain, then hit the other attractions in Tomorrowland like Buzz Lightyear, the Astro Orbitor, or People Mover.

This'll take you an hour and you should get most of it done in your EMH hour. Probly not quite all of it, but you can gauge as you go. Then you can head over to Adventureland / Frontierland, and get on any rides over there as this side of the park will just be opening.

You'll be able to knock out the Jungle Cruise, POTC via walk-on, maybe take a FP late morning for BTMRR. Pass by the tree house for now, you can go on this later when everything else is busy. Splash Mountain probly wont have a huge wait as it's winter.

Then have lunch, then do your Pirate adventure. Now you've done most of two lands. This leaves Fantasyland. Use your 2nd and 3rd FP for the minecar after lunch (if you want to do it a second time, or not have to rush to it in the morning)...and Peter Pan. Then see if you can get a FP to Mermaid, Small World, Haunted Mansion or whatever else in Fantasyland at a kiosk in the park. Or just ride those standby depending on the lines.

That's breaking to the right after the Mine Car. You could just as easily go left after that and hit Peter Pan early on, then Small World, Haunted Mansion, then work down into Frontierland from above, planning the afternoon to be in Tomorrowland. You can really go either way. Just depends what you want to do when. In this latter case, Fast Passes would be for Jungle Cruise right after your Pirate adventure, that way you're walking out of Adventureland toward Tomorrowland and you pick it up on the way, filling in the space with the Tiki Room and Tree House. Then Space Mountain via FP, then you're hanging out in Tomorrowland hoping to pull a late FP to Buzz (which should be doable).

-mike

 

[got2sammies]

If you really want to go Peter Pan- get a fastpass for it. I am going to assume since the new que is open the line will be longer. The fast pass line bypasses the que though.
Fastpass for Minetrain and another mountain- Space or Big Thunder.. That will be for three you can pre-book..

You can try for a fourth for buzz but his line moves fast anyways....
Since they are boys they prob wont be all into the princess but Buzz meets by COP..The Captain Jack Tutorial is cool

Oh.. They might like playing the Sorcers of the Magic Kingdom card game.. Check it out on youtube but if your more into rides the game will take about 30-40 minutes..but the cards are free and its a nice souvie...

 

[JeninTexas]

We just got back and managed to do everything, but it took several days. Your itinerary seems pretty ambitious to me, especially with two small children. I wouldn't count on a lot of walk ons, other than first thing in the morning.

If you are able to take a bus from WL instead of a boat, I would do that. We always had good luck with the buses being efficient, but terrible luck with the WL ferry. We waited 45 minutes for it once, 25 minutes for it again, and then decided to stop using boat transportation altogether!

 

[mirak]

Thanks for the info everyone. Great, great info.

Kind of annoying that I have to book fast passes in advance without knowing what the lines will be like, and I also don't know whether the mine car is worth doing twice as opposed to splash or big thunder mountain.

Anyway, I think I'll stick to the plan of trying to hit up mine car and speedway in the EMH without a FP. Little Mermaid might be fun but it's scheduled to be down for refurbishment while we're there.

Jungle Cruise might be a really good FP because I seem to remeber always having to wait a while for that. I'll also use one for Big Thunder. Maybe use the 3rd for Haunted Mansion? I really can't remember how fast the line moves for that.

Since I don't know whether I'll even be able to get my 7yo onto Space Mountain, I'm not going to do FP for that. I'll either try to hit is during EMH or late in the evening.

That's good info on the ferry. I sort of assumed it would be less frequent than the busses. I just thought that if we grabbed the very first ferry for EMH, it wouldn't be running behind. But if it takes a lot longer than the bus, maybe we should just do that.

How busy do think it will be mid-February, the Thursday before a holiday weekend?

 

[conandrob240]

I think it is mostly doable,if you FP 7 dwarfs mine car, Peter Pan and Big Thunder. Other possible FPs could be Jungle cruise, Splash Mountain or speedway. I'd FP any of those over Pirates or Haunted Mansion.

If it were me, I'd FP Mine Car for around 10:30 am & Peter Pan for 12 or so. Big Thunder for early afternoon. I'd do EMH and head right for Future world and Buzz Lightyear, then the Speedway, then Pooh. Either then do your FPs or continue filling in time with Dumbo, Philharmagic, Small World until around your PP or 7 dwarfs FPs.

That brings you to HM around noonish. Do that, eat lunch. Big Thunder and then make your way back to the front doing Pirates and Jungle cruise which will probably be tour only long wait with this plan.

Personally, I'd get it out of mind about doing anything twice (especially headliners). You'll waste way too much time.

 

[DisneyWorldbuff]

The Wilderness Lodge bus to MK is the shortest direct bus we have ever taken. Around five minutes, straight shot. Way faster than the boat.

 

[dkrauss]

We just did rope drop at the MK this past Sept. We took the boat, which we found to be quite fun in the early morning. (We had an ADR at Chef Mickey's for breakfast so we went there first). I think taking the boat adds to the ambiance of the trip.....we loved it. Also, the WL is absolutely beautiful.........if you've never been you'll love it.

As for your plan.......I'd see what FP you get and work from there. Your kids are young so you might want to break you day into 2 parts (with lunch at Whispering Canyon.......food is good and its a hoot for kids). At RD I'd pick a path to one of the big rides, make sure you check child heights before you go so you'll know if the little one will be able to ride. 7DMT is the big thing right now......I'd see about getting a FP for that. With 2 little ones it might be tough to make that in quick way......

What we do is pick a side and do a big ride without FP.........for us that is usually Space Mountain. Then we work our way around to another big ride we have FP for........in our case Splash Mountain. We fill-in rides as we walk depending on the time of our FP. I realize this sounds like a lot of planning but it really isn't. Other than which way to start and the FP selections............everything else is open. In Sept we did Space Mountain.......then did Peter Pan's flight (fun ride but try to get done by 11am...the lines are big on this one........We then did the Chip & Dale M&G in Frontierland......after that is was time for our FP at Splash. The key is being flexible beyond the base plan outline and moving in a given direction. I believe you need a base plan............not jumping around the park will reduce the stress too. If you split you're day make a similar plan knowing that when folks are at dinner lines may be muted.

Another thing to keep in mind is we found we were able to easily adjust our FP selections via the MDE app on our iphones. We found the kiosks to be crowded so the MDE app worked best for us.

We went in Sept during a slower time and we had some 40 min waits........keep that in mind.........its the nature of the beast

Wishing you a great vacation!!!

Doug

 

[Ronda93]

I would skip the speedway. Wait, fumes, lurching side to side as you attempt to steer and bouncing off the center rail. Not worth the price in time.