A No-Planning Magic Kingdom Day

[Brian Noble]

So yesterday was a really interesting experience. I brought someone who had not been to WDW for almost 30 years--since 1996. We had a "typical" TourGuideMike/EasyWDW/TouringPlans MK day last Sunday. Rope drop morning/break/evening day, strategic use of LL, no waiting for anything, and hitting up almost every ride in the park. Like the pro that I am.

However, in the words of Arlo Guthrie: "But that's not what I came here to tell you about." And no, I am not here to talk about the draft. I'm here to talk about a very uncommon sort of MK day. At least, uncommon around here.

For our second MK day, our plan was to show up after a late breakfast/early lunch at "home" at OKW, with the plan to see all of the show-style attractions, plus anything we came across with a short wait. We showed up at about 12:30, never once got in a line with a posted wait over 15 minutes on a moderately-crowded Mardi Gras Tuesday, and stayed until close (which was 11PM). It was an Anti-Plan day, and it was surprisingly glorious.

We showed up at the tail end of the noon parade. Ducked into meeting Mickey with a posted wait of 5 just as it ended and beat the crowd in.
We then shopped for about a half hour before the Dapper Dans (who roped me into both a dance step *and* a solo singing part) then the Main Street Phil.

From there we hit Monsters, CoP, the Liberty Belle, and "the Other Belle" (Enchanted Tales) which was posted at 15, but maybe was closer to 20. This took us close to an ADR at Crystal Palace, so we shopped for a few minutes, and caught the Hoedown before dinner. After dinner: HEA, Tiki, Country Bears (the Big Al Throwback Joke was *fantastic*--if you don't know what it is, don't spoil it for yourself---see it first.), and Philharmagic. That brought us to about 9:30, from there: Pirates (5 minutes), Jungle (15 minutes; Mansion was down) and Space (15 minutes, but close to a walk on.)

No planning. No getting up at Oh-Dark-Thirty. No extra-charge line-skipping. No running from place to place to stay ahead of the pack. Granted, it probably relied on me knowing the park pretty well, and it did mean not doing any of the Must Dos that everyone talks about. But it was a GREAT day---honestly, one of the best days I've ever had in MK. And it brought home something I often say, but in a very visceral way: It doesn't matter what you do in the Parks, because everything is great.

 

[hardcorestitch]

Absolutely true. Screw whatever Samantha Brown or some so called "travel expert" wants you to do within Disney. I still had a great time in DL and MK, and I barely used Lightning Lane. I scripted much of my attractions before even setting foot, and that kind of aided me with getting around the park and not feeling terribly stressed out about standby times. I just head to the attractions I want, irrespective of standby times. Everything else is merely a bonus. This is definitely something that I will be factoring as I push towards a return to DL later this year (Epic Universe's crowds are going to be Cars Land x10 this year).

The same thing is true with the food, too. In fact, the elusive Mickey ice cream is so magically tantalizing that I vowed never to eat any Mickey ice cream from a grocery store ever again. It just hits different when you're in Disney and eating Mickey's ears-be it through a cold ice cream sandwich or a pretzel or anything else. Eating Mickey's tasty ears isn't the same back in your own hometown.

 

[chekhovgirl]

So yesterday was a really interesting experience. I brought someone who had not been to WDW for almost 30 years--since 1996. We had a "typical" TourGuideMike/EasyWDW/TouringPlans MK day last Sunday. Rope drop morning/break/evening day, strategic use of LL, no waiting for anything, and hitting up almost every ride in the park. Like the pro that I am.

However, in the words of Arlo Guthrie: "But that's not what I came here to tell you about." And no, I am not here to talk about the draft. I'm here to talk about a very uncommon sort of MK day. At least, uncommon around here.

For our second MK day, our plan was to show up after a late breakfast/early lunch at "home" at OKW, with the plan to see all of the show-style attractions, plus anything we came across with a short wait. We showed up at about 12:30, never once got in a line with a posted wait over 15 minutes on a moderately-crowded Mardi Gras Tuesday, and stayed until close (which was 11PM). It was an Anti-Plan day, and it was surprisingly glorious.

We showed up at the tail end of the noon parade. Ducked into meeting Mickey with a posted wait of 5 just as it ended and beat the crowd in.
We then shopped for about a half hour before the Dapper Dans (who roped me into both a dance step *and* a solo singing part) then the Main Street Phil.

From there we hit Monsters, CoP, the Liberty Belle, and "the Other Belle" (Enchanted Tales) which was posted at 15, but maybe was closer to 20. This took us close to an ADR at Crystal Palace, so we shopped for a few minutes, and caught the Hoedown before dinner. After dinner: HEA, Tiki, Country Bears (the Big Al Throwback Joke was *fantastic*--if you don't know what it is, don't spoil it for yourself---see it first.), and Philharmagic. That brought us to about 9:30, from there: Pirates (5 minutes), Jungle (15 minutes; Mansion was down) and Space (15 minutes, but close to a walk on.)

No planning. No getting up at Oh-Dark-Thirty. No extra-charge line-skipping. No running from place to place to stay ahead of the pack. Granted, it probably relied on me knowing the park pretty well, and it did mean not doing any of the Must Dos that everyone talks about. But it was a GREAT day---honestly, one of the best days I've ever had in MK. And it brought home something I often say, but in a very visceral way: It doesn't matter what you do in the Parks, because everything is great.

I love this!

 

[RickNJane]

We always go free-form. Always go standby. Have not bought LL ever. We just Go with the flow. DW has a bad ankle and we just cannot rush between rides anymore. We do rope drop and take advantage of early entry as we are early risers. We just dont stress. We do make sure we have multiple park days, so we dont fell pressured in doing everything all at once. I do look at Touring Plans and make a plan, but that usually goes out the window once we hit the ground.
We dont want to be held to a schedule. I dont want to keep my nose in the phone. We do want to enjoy the vibe. We do want to relax and not stress. Simple as that. Been doing it the same way since the mid 90s. I guess I am just stuck in my ways