5 Hours at Magic Kingdom - HELP!

[KookieCanadian]

Hi all,

I will be doing a full-day cruise excursion to Disney during a cruise in a couple weeks time. Despite the 9-hour length of the tour, it seems by the time I get from Port Canaveral to the TTC by bus, then get myself to Magic Kingdom by monorail or ferry and vice versa, I will only have about 5 hours to spend at Magic Kingdom.

Some background information. I am in the 30-ish range, and will be travelling solo for the day (which should help to speed things up!). I did a land trip to Disney 3 years ago with a friend and had a blast. We did everything we wanted to then, so this will just be a brief whirlwind day of magic! Also as I am Booking this as a tour through the cruise line, I won't have my ticket to be able to book fast passes until the day of, when I am on the bus.

So with only 5 hours to spend at MK (on a Monday in Feb if that makes a difference), likely from 3 to 8pm, I'm at a loss of where to start planning and how to best arrange my day to maximize what I'm able to see and do. As I already have pictures with the characters from my last trip, I am looking towards experiencing the rides (hopefully my favorites like Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain, and hopefully the new Mine Train), and anything else I can get on.

So... Tips? What should/shouldn't I aim for? Which direction should I walk in? What might I be able to get fast passes for only 30 minutes or so before arrival while on the bus? Best way to get from TTC to MK (I actually enjoyed the ferry last time I was there - does it take much longer than the monorail?).

Anything that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

 

[alliecat523]

Well, Port Canaveral is only about an hour from Disney. Even if you factor in extra time I can't see it taking 2 hours from port to park. Once you get to TTC it's only about 5 -10 minutes by monorail or boat.

Since you know you'll be going, are you going to purchase a one day ticket in advance? If so, you can pre-book FP+ and not try to get them while riding over that day. This is your best bet for Mine Train and it's still one of the hardest FP to get. We typically go counter clockwise when we enter and start in Adventureland and work back to Frontierland, then Fantasyland, then Tommorowland. But that's just our preference.

 

[KookieCanadian]

Thanks for the reply, alliecat. Being that it's a cruise excursion and I'll be forced to move with the masses, the cruise-line builds in significantly more time for transportation. People who have done the same excursion reported only 5-5.5 hours in Magic Kingdom.

Unfortunately due to the weak Canadian dollar and the fact that I have onboard credit to use from my cruise line which I got for a much better exchange rate, I will not be pre-purchasing my ticket. I won't have the ticket until I get on the cruise transfer bus around 2pm.

Will I still be able to get fast passes if I use my cellular data on the app from the bus? Will it even make a difference at that point, being around 2pm on the day of? Are there any single rider lines at MK? Do they ever pull singles out of the regular lines to fill empty seats?

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Thanks for the reply, alliecat. Being that it's a cruise excursion and I'll be forced to move with the masses, the cruise-line builds in significantly more time for transportation. People who have done the same excursion reported only 5-5.5 hours in Magic Kingdom.

Unfortunately due to the weak Canadian dollar and the fact that I have onboard credit to use from my cruise line which I got for a much better exchange rate, I will not be pre-purchasing my ticket. I won't have the ticket until I get on the cruise transfer bus around 2pm.

Will I still be able to get fast passes if I use my cellular data on the app from the bus? Will it even make a difference at that point, being around 2pm on the day of? Are there any single rider lines at MK? Do they ever pull singles out of the regular lines to fill empty seats?

I would look at a park map and decide which 2 or 3 areas of MK to focus on. I can't imagine trying to race around the whole place in 5 hours.
Perhaps use touring plans.com and plug in exactly what's important for you to do and use their optimize tool to plan it out... There is a fee ($10 - $15) but might save your sanity and time so probably well worth it!
Also, if you're not interested in parades, etc, know that during the afternoon parade (usually around 3 pm) a lot of the ride lines go way down, so take advantage of that...
And you're absolutely right, by not having someone else with you to slow you down, you will get a lot more accomplished!
Have fun!

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Forgot to add, absolutely try to get FP in advance on bus, you'll be a little bit ahead of the game that way!
And there are several single rider attractions. If you check Google and type in single rider attractions at Magic Kingdom, you'll get several sites that list them.
Have fun planning and on your visit!

 

[disneyktee]

I've done this twice before and it worked out perfectly! One thing that helped was really getting to the collection area on the boat early to be on that first bus heading to Disney. We saved what looked like a lot of time waiting in line for a bus. On our boat everyone going on the excursion had to gather in the auditorium so we stood in the back near the doors. The first time we did it we went to Epcot but the second time we did resort hopping & Disney Springs and personally I liked the second way better. It saved $100 pp on tickets that we could use for a delicious lunch and dinner instead.

Not sure if it will be the same with your cruise (we were on Norwegian both times) but they took us to parks, not to the TTC. You just get on the bus for the park you want to go to so you should be able to take the bus straight to the park to help. If this is true for your cruise you might have a bit of extra time.

Also caution they are totally serious that they will leave you behind if you're not at the bus when they tell you to be back so make sure you leave plenty of time for getting out of the park!