Best MK touring strategy for offsite guests?

[kaybee1476]

We are planning our 2nd trip to WDW for June 15-23. As of now, the plan is 3 days at MK, and 1 day each at DHS, AK, and EP. We have 2 girls, who will be 8 and 5 at that time, so MK is definitely the favorite park for us. Since we are staying offsite and can't schedule FP+ until we get in the park each day, I'm wondering what would be the best strategy for doing everything we want to do with the shortest possible wait times. I know we'll hit Fantasyland first and spend the most time there, but what other land should we try to cover that same day? Theoretically, I'd like to cover roughly half of MK on our first day there, the other half on day 2, and use day 3 (the last day of our trip) to more leisurely revisit our favorites and cover anything we may have missed in the first 2 days. We will need to use child swap for several attractions, since DD8 is a bit of a chicken, so that adds to the time it takes to cover everything. We plan to arrive prior to rope drop every day.

Any advice would be appreciated! Our last (only other) trip was in November and we didn't have large crowds. We also didn't have to settle for onsite guests' FP+ leftovers.

Thanks!

 

[mesaboy2]

We don't know that you won't be able to prebook for a June trip--the system is still in flux.

The green link in my signature not only works for prioritizing FP+, but also for any ride early in the morning when waits are shortest.

 

[ckelly14]

Also, Josh at easywdw has a 2 day MK Touring strategy with pics for those unfamiliar with FP+.

 

[kaybee1476]

We don't know that you won't be able to prebook for a June trip--the system is still in flux.

The green link in my signature not only works for prioritizing FP+, but also for any ride early in the morning when waits are shortest.

I know things are still changing, but as of now, I can't count on having access to FP+ before we're actually in the parks each day, and the neurotic trip planner in me needs to have some sort of plan of attack, even though I'm sure it will be tweaked several times before June. I figure we'll ride several of the more popular rides before we visit the FP+ kiosks. No sense waiting in line to book FP+ when we can take advantage of shorter lines for rides early in the morning.

Thanks!

 

[DisneyDoc5]

Also, Josh at easywdw has a 2 day MK Touring strategy with pics for those unfamiliar with FP+.

http://www.easywdw.com/cheat-sheets/disney-world-cheat-sheets-maps-touring-plans-and-wait-times/

I agree, read Josh's advice, it's better then any of the panic you will read here.

 

[ariel326]

I know its a bit unorthodox, but when we were there over MLK weekend we actually skipped Fantasy land and went to the back of the park and worked our way forward.

We got there early -9:00ish and stopped in Fantasy land and made our fastpass times there wasn't a line of the kiosk at all- we choose thunder mountain earlier and peter pan and belle a bit later in the afternoon.

We then went adventure land and frontier land and did pirates, jungle cruise, magic carpets of Aladdin, haunted mansion, used our FP for Thunder railroad, and some meet and greets. The longest we waited in line was for pirates at that was about 20 minutes. Splash Mountain was closed so we couldn't do that.

We then went back towards Fantasy land and did our fast passes for peter pan, then went to small world, Winnie the pooh, Belle.

Then stopped for lunch and let LO take a nap in the stroller

After nap we milled around mainstreet and watched the mini parade and the show

Then we went back to fantasyland and did Little Mermaid, Ariel Meet and Greet, dumbo, barnstormer, the caraousel and the teacups.

Finally headed to tomorrowland and did tomrrowland speedway, monsters inc, carosel of progress, and the people mover and I did space mountain while DS and DH did tomorrowland speedway again and went and had some dinner

It was a long day, but we got a TON done. It seems like by skipping over fantasy and going to the back of the park first, we escaped the bottle neck of that fantasyland causes and we used our fast passes for peterpan and belle.

The longest ride all 3 of us had to wait in was 40 minutes for The little mermaid and I waited an hour for space mountain.

 

[kaybee1476]

Since this is only our second trip to WDW and the last one was over 2 years ago (when the new Fantasyland was just beginning construction), there's no way our kids will let us go to any other land first. In fact, I'm sure they'll want to head straight for Dumbo. So the question remains: Which of the other lands should we tackle that first day after Fantasyland? I'm thinking maybe Adventureland? Hopefully we could get FP+ for Jungle Cruise and/or Pirates. Then on our second day at MK, we could cover Tomorrowland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square, in that order. Hopefully we could get a FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which our kids may or may not ride (not likely for our oldest, so we'll have to child swap). What are your thoughts on this plan?

 

[ariel326]

Since this is only our second trip to WDW and the last one was over 2 years ago (when the new Fantasyland was just beginning construction), there's no way our kids will let us go to any other land first. In fact, I'm sure they'll want to head straight for Dumbo. So the question remains: Which of the other lands should we tackle that first day after Fantasyland? I'm thinking maybe Adventureland? Hopefully we could get FP+ for Jungle Cruise and/or Pirates. Then on our second day at MK, we could cover Tomorrowland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square, in that order. Hopefully we could get a FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which our kids may or may not ride (not likely for our oldest, so we'll have to child swap). What are your thoughts on this plan?

Adventureland and Frontierland are both pretty small and both have rides that can be enjoyed, but also ones that would can be skipped (tom sayer island for example) I would probably try and tackle those with Fantasyland

And then yeah I would do whatever wasn't covered on day 1 - so tomorrow land, liberty square and other fantasy land rides that couldn't be seen on day one.

If you have more time on day 1 to see more things then great. I would make a list of the rides that you want to see in order or priority and then go from there.

Good luck!

 

[kaybee1476]

Thanks, Ariel! I also meant to ask if you had a lot of options for FP+ since it sounds like you booked all of yours once you were in the park, which is what we'll have to do unless it changes before June. My concern is that, with more onsite guests (and I think they're getting ready to add AP holders) making FP+ reservations ahead of time, we might not have much left to choose from. Am I worrying too much about that?

 

[ariel326]

Thanks, Ariel! I also meant to ask if you had a lot of options for FP+ since it sounds like you booked all of yours once you were in the park, which is what we'll have to do unless it changes before June. My concern is that, with more onsite guests (and I think they're getting ready to add AP holders) making FP+ reservations ahead of time, we might not have much left to choose from. Am I worrying too much about that?

We had lots of options, yes. But really the computer did the work not us. WE told the guy what we wanted and he put it in the computer and it spit out times for us. One of the times didn't work, since we had a character meal that afternoon, so he found a different time for us.

As a strategy, I would send your hubs with your tickets (to get the FP times, you need to scan all the tickets) ahead of you when you get to the park to the kiosk line, kind of like you would in the FP legacy days. One person can travel faster then a family. So I would send him to the kiosks with a plan, giving you and the kids time to catch up. Send him with the camera or smart phone too- you can take a picture of the computer screen to keep track of your times. Nothing prints out for you.

Also one thing that worked for me, and my OCD is I brought a couple sharpies and went through the map and circled the attractions we wanted to see. I used two different colors- red and green. Red's were must do's. Greens were do's if we had time. Then as we saw them I X'd them out on the map. It helped me visually we what we still had to see, and it helped me map out a route to the different attractions. I also used MDE on my phone to keep track of wait times.

 

[kaybee1476]

We had lots of options, yes. But really the computer did the work not us. WE told the guy what we wanted and he put it in the computer and it spit out times for us. One of the times didn't work, since we had a character meal that afternoon, so he found a different time for us.

As a strategy, I would send your hubs with your tickets (to get the FP times, you need to scan all the tickets) ahead of you when you get to the park to the kiosk line, kind of like you would in the FP legacy days. One person can travel faster then a family. So I would send him to the kiosks with a plan, giving you and the kids time to catch up. Send him with the camera or smart phone too- you can take a picture of the computer screen to keep track of your times. Nothing prints out for you.

Also one thing that worked for me, and my OCD is I brought a couple sharpies and went through the map and circled the attractions we wanted to see. I used two different colors- red and green. Red's were must do's. Greens were do's if we had time. Then as we saw them I X'd them out on the map. It helped me visually we what we still had to see, and it helped me map out a route to the different attractions. I also used MDE on my phone to keep track of wait times.

That's great information! Thanks for your help! I've read the tip about taking a picture of the kiosk screen, but can't we enter our FP+ return time in MDE on our phones? If so, will it give a reminder?