Can you visit Magic Kingdom on a Friday night with no fast passes?

[bruinred]

I am a former D/L cast member and annual passholder at D/L for twenty years. I live 15 minutes from D/L. We have visited WDW and Disneyland Paris multiple times. DH and I are traveling to Orlando to run in the EPCOT Wine & Dine Half Marathon next weekend. But we have very little time "on the ground" in FL. We arrive around 5:30pm on 11/6. D/L stays open until 10pm. We are not staying on property. I'm wondering if we get into MK around 7:30pm, what is the likelihood we will be able to ride the "new" rides in Fantasyland; the mine train and Ariel. If it were here in CA, I'd go for it. But access to the park is a little easier here, and we don't have fast pass plus. Just not sure how all the impacts what we would be able to see in 2.5 hours. Our only time that weekend to visit a theme park is Friday night; other than technically being inside the parks during the race. I do not want to spend all day Saturday running around the parks, when I'm going to run 13 miles Saturday night. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[LuvDaisy&Minnie]

You can definitely do Ariel. And then if you line up right before closing for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, that should be the shortest wait I would think. Do you already have park tickets? Or could you go ahead and get park tickets? That is what I would do and then make FP now for the rides I want. 7DMT would probably not be immediately available, but if you keep checking a couple of times per day, it may pop up as an option for 2 people. And sometimes it will come up the same day because people are constantly changing their plans.

 

[Alesia]

You can, but is there a reason you don't want to just go ahead and book fastpasses?

 

[IceSkatingPrincess]

You can ride mine train, but you are going to wait awhile for it (I'd guess 30/40min MINIMUM). Why not just book FPs since you know you want to do those two things?

 

[bruinred]

I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the fast passes. That "book ahead" system is new to me.

I just read the responses to the "Is Disney responsible if your trip is disappointing" thread and I see that FP+ is necessary. That's very different than here. And I haven't been to WDW since they implemented that program.

Thanks for your responses.

 

[Alesia]

I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the fast passes. That "book ahead" system is new to me.

If you have tickets, you can book fastpasses.

 

[Canuck16]

Book your FP's so that you know you will have at least 3 rides set for when you arrive.

Then you can play anything else like 7DMT by ear when you see what the wait times are.