2 hours for MK on arrival day with 5-yr-olds...choices?

[sjb95u]

We'll be arriving on 5/31 for an 8-day trip and we're staying at the Contemporary so we'll be back in the MK several times. There will be 6 adults and 2 five-year-old princess crazy girls (this is their first trip). We'll arrive at MCO at 12:20pm and use ME. Our plan is to hit MK for the 3pm FOF parade (I realize there is a chance we may not make it) and stay for a couple of hours until we head back to CR for our 5:50pm ADR at Chef Mickey's (the park closes at 7pm this night). Other than the FP+ for the FOF parade, what other 2 should we choose during those 2 hours? What's a great way to start off little girls?

It's been a few years since I've been there, how long is the walk to the pack of the park, would be be able to do something in Fantasyland or is it smarter to stay near the entrance and perhaps do talking Mickey at Town Hall/Tinkerbell and perhaps something in Tomorrowland? Do we assume the crowds will be light due to the early closing?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Melissa8905]

I'm imagining two 5 year old princess-crazy girls might want to venture towards the castle when they first see it. Perhaps walk up to and through the castle, with a ride on It's a Small World afterwards, would be a fun introduction. The Tinkerbell meet and greet afterwards would be a fun idea, too, since they'll be very up close with Mickey and the gang at Chef Mickey's for dinner. Wishing you a wonderful trip!

 

[jitterbug]

Maybe Enchanted Tales with Belle? Or Little Mermaid ride and/or meet & greet?

Not sure how timing will work out for FP+ though, since the hour-long timeslots cannot overlap. I haven't done a FP+ for a parade, so I don't know how it blocks the time. With moderate crowds (sorry, I don't know what you will be experiencing, but hopefully with an early closure, the crowds won't be too bad), we watched the FOF parade from near the hub along one of the spokes towards Tomorrowland. There's little walls around the plants, that we stood our kids up on while holding them. Hope that makes sense. So although we weren't curbside, because of the height of most of the floats, we could see plenty.

The walk towards the back of the park wasn't long at all, but I guess that's determined by crowd levels and how much stop-n-look-around your group wants to do, though. From watching FOF from near the hub, we made it back to BOG for 4:00 ADRs with plenty of time. Maybe got there about 3:40?

 

[Cedarmom]

For our 5 year old's first few hours in the park, we walked up through the castle, we did Enchanted Tales, rode 7DMT, met Ariel and rode Under the Sea. We hit small world and the carousel on a whim as well and she loved those way more than Ariel and Belle. Go figure.

 

[GillianP1301]

For their first visit, I would take them through the castle to Fantasyland. Fastpass Enchanted Tales with Belle and then maybe do Under the Sea followed by an Ariel meet & greet. If you could manage to get a fastpass for Anna & Elsa, that would really round out an awesome first visit for any princess crazy girl.

 

[sjb95u]

Thank you all for your replies! We may try to squeeze in some headliners and go to Fantasyland if it doesn't take too long to walk back there. Next week we'll find out if we can get A/E that first day. I'm trying to figure out if the FOF parade FP + will take up the entire 3-4pm slot or if I can book the next FP+ at 3:30-4:30pm