Crowd Level 7/8 - What Ride Strategy Do you Use Mid Afternoon at MK

[viluvsdisney]

Hi all - family of 4 (DD18 and DS14) will be in the parks May 29 to June 3. I'm looking for some guidance on how to maximize rides mid afternoon when crowd levels are high. Let's assume we have early morning/day Fast Passes (I can't schedule those until the end of this month). How we should go about the afternoon in the MK to maximize the reminder of our day? We're flexible on ride experiences. Hoping to enjoy most of the rides and we don't have a big "must do" list. Thanks

 

[cnunley424]

We typically either take a mid-afternoon break to to swim at the resort or do attractions that are shows and have a large capacity in the afternoons.

 

[J. Iminy]

Hit biggest wait rides in the morning with your pre-planned FPs (e.g., 7DMT, the Mountains, Peter Pan). Immediately get on MDE after last fast pass to schedule more. Then just use MDW app to find lowest line waits.

 

[starjazz]

We haven't been during Spring Break before. Always go during early Feb to avoid crowds, and get out of Minnesota during the worst cold of the year.

So, this year, I've been planning differently. One thing that comes to mind on our MK day, is that if everything is totally packed, we may use the time after lunch to head to Tom Sawyer Island. The kids always love playing around over there, its shady for the most part, and the adults can hang out and chill.

 

[afwdwfan]

Good suggestions already... I'll echo the idea of using FP early and try to schedule more for later in the day for some of the less popular attractions that can still get a decent standby wait. Take a break if you're so inclined, but if not, the busy afternoon is a great time to get off your feet in the AC. Shows like Carousel of Progress, Monster's Inc, Philharmagic, Hall of Presidents, Tiki Room, Country Bears can be done virtually any time.

 

[mshanson3121]

Basically what others said: do the rides with the biggest wait tmes in the morning when crowds are lowest. Save the afternoon for the "smaller" rides/shows etc... that normally don't have as much wait. You can also try and get more FP+

 

[DrummerBoy523]

Hi all - family of 4 (DD18 and DS14) will be in the parks May 29 to June 3. I'm looking for some guidance on how to maximize rides mid afternoon when crowd levels are high. Let's assume we have early morning/day Fast Passes (I can't schedule those until the end of this month). How we should go about the afternoon in the MK to maximize the reminder of our day? We're flexible on ride experiences. Hoping to enjoy most of the rides and we don't have a big "must do" list. Thanks

I will be at the World this same time frame. Most calendars have this week as 6s and 7s, but we typically go at this time. While at the World, we actually rope drop and schedule FP+ for the afternoons. this is how we maximize our day.

 

[nco91590]

I schedule all my FP's for before noon. That way, I am always guaranteed to get on the rides that we definitely want. My kids are little (4 and 6), so any line is a long line to them lol. Sometimes we have to play it by ear with them after lunch to see if they want to keep going or they need a break for naps/swimming. I don't want to stay around the parks with cranky kids until 3pm because of a FP. Sometimes there's not an option to reschedule them so I just don't even like taking the chance. It's been pretty easy for us to add FP's for the secondary rides like Pirates, Small World, etc in the afternoon/evenings.

 

[Suzanne74]

I usually go back to the resort to swim but if it is your only MK day, you will want to maximize it without doing a ton of walking.

I would not schedule FP in AM. I would do as many rides as I could in the first few hours without having to be at a certain FP. For kids your age, I would go left and do Thunder, Splash, Pirates, Jungle first in the morning. Go thru the walkway to Liberty Square and do HM if the wait isn't too long. I would set my FP up for the big wait rides in the afternoon (Peter Pan 12-1pm, SDMT 1-2pm, and Space2-3pm) Before and between these FP casually go to other low-wait time rides. Small World, Philharmagic, Carousel, Ariel, Teacups are some ideas. You could also make a Be Our Guest lunch reservation around 1:15pm. Great place to cool down and great food. Once you get in line for your FP for Space, set up another one for either Speedway or Buzz Lightyear after 4pm and then go get ice cream and watch the parade near Casey's. Have a dinner reservation for around 6pm (Liberty Tree Tavern?) to get you thru the rest of the night. Take the evening casual and sightsee more, get additional fast passes as they are available, enjoy the fireworks, etc...

 

[BigredNole]

I use the monorail/tram/ combo to enjoy my resort, have an adult beverage, cook dinner, and head back near dusk.

 

[quhawk]

All of the above are excellent suggestions, and here is proof they work. We just got back from 2/22 - 2/28, and if you are reading some of the trip reports, the crowds were quite crazy. Being from the West Coast, we mainly stayed on WC time, so the kids (11 and 8) can stay up late, since the park hours were extended. All of our FP's were between 1200-300pm ish. We were in MK the last 3 days, used up our 3, and used a total of 10FP's EACH of the last 3 days. Basically once our allotted 3 were used, we went wherever FP dictated.
It did help that we could pre-book 60days in advance, and included in that were 1 Peter Pan and 2 7DMT. Looking back, i would book at least 3 7DMT and maybe 2 PP. Every FP+ was attainable after 3pm, except for those 2. Occasionaly one would pop up but it would be around 9pm-10pm. If we took those, that eliminated our ability to utilize other FP's.
Then again, we were prepared for crowds...thus why we did a 6day stay vs a normal 4 or 5 day stay that we typically do. That helped because my expectations for what we'd be able to do ahead of time where limited. And we exceeded them quite a bit.

 

[viluvsdisney]

I usually go back to the resort to swim but if it is your only MK day, you will want to maximize it without doing a ton of walking.

I would not schedule FP in AM. I would do as many rides as I could in the first few hours without having to be at a certain FP. For kids your age, I would go left and do Thunder, Splash, Pirates, Jungle first in the morning. Go thru the walkway to Liberty Square and do HM if the wait isn't too long. I would set my FP up for the big wait rides in the afternoon (Peter Pan 12-1pm, SDMT 1-2pm, and Space2-3pm) Before and between these FP casually go to other low-wait time rides. Small World, Philharmagic, Carousel, Ariel, Teacups are some ideas. You could also make a Be Our Guest lunch reservation around 1:15pm. Great place to cool down and great food. Once you get in line for your FP for Space, set up another one for either Speedway or Buzz Lightyear after 4pm and then go get ice cream and watch the parade near Casey's. Have a dinner reservation for around 6pm (Liberty Tree Tavern?) to get you thru the rest of the night. Take the evening casual and sightsee more, get additional fast passes as they are available, enjoy the fireworks, etc...

Ohhhh - I like this approach! hmmm - something to consider!

 

[viluvsdisney]

All of the above are excellent suggestions, and here is proof they work. We just got back from 2/22 - 2/28, and if you are reading some of the trip reports, the crowds were quite crazy. Being from the West Coast, we mainly stayed on WC time, so the kids (11 and 8) can stay up late, since the park hours were extended. All of our FP's were between 1200-300pm ish. We were in MK the last 3 days, used up our 3, and used a total of 10FP's EACH of the last 3 days. Basically once our allotted 3 were used, we went wherever FP dictated.
It did help that we could pre-book 60days in advance, and included in that were 1 Peter Pan and 2 7DMT. Looking back, i would book at least 3 7DMT and maybe 2 PP. Every FP+ was attainable after 3pm, except for those 2. Occasionaly one would pop up but it would be around 9pm-10pm. If we took those, that eliminated our ability to utilize other FP's.
Then again, we were prepared for crowds...thus why we did a 6day stay vs a normal 4 or 5 day stay that we typically do. That helped because my expectations for what we'd be able to do ahead of time where limited. And we exceeded them quite a bit.

Thanks so much for this! I'm rethinking my approach and I like the mid day FP use

 

[buyerbrad]

With planning, there is no need for a FP before 11am. We usually schedule our fastpasses from 11am-noon, noon-1pm, and 1pm-2pm. We use our 1st fastpass as close to noon as possible, eat lunch, then use our 2nd right before 1pm and our 3rd fp immediately after. This will allow you to start booking your extra fps fairly early.

We typically like to use Pirates as our 2nd fp and Jungle Cruise as #3. There is a FP+ machine at the exit to Jungle Cruise too!

 

[MichelleWDWfan]

I schedule my 1st 3 fastpasses for the 1st 3 hrs of the morning, that way I can use Fastpasses the entire rest of the day.
I don't ride anything unless I Fastpass it....except for Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, and the train.
As soon as I use that 3rd pre-planned fastpass I load up MDE on my phone and pick my next FP, ride that ride, then pick another...and so on.

I have never had a problem doing that.
Only thing is the FP's will start to be sparse and eventually run out sometimes in early evening when it is busy.

 

[d-train]

I agree with scheduling fp's first thing, then getting on MDE to continue schedule fp's and also looking at wait times, choosing rides with short wait times as your fp's come along, and along your route to the next fp. Last June, I used the third fp about 1pm. I got over 20 more fp's using MDE until close, which also included stopping at Columbia harbor house, some shopping, and wishes dessert party! It was an awesome MK day!

 

[Suzanne74]

I schedule my 1st 3 fastpasses for the 1st 3 hrs of the morning, that way I can use Fastpasses the entire rest of the day.
I don't ride anything unless I Fastpass it....except for Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, and the train.
As soon as I use that 3rd pre-planned fastpass I load up MDE on my phone and pick my next FP, ride that ride, then pick another...and so on.

I have never had a problem doing that.
Only thing is the FP's will start to be sparse and eventually run out sometimes in early evening when it is busy.

Aren't you walking all over the park this way?

 

[JackOliva07013]

@nco91590 - we went with our kids about the same age as yours 2 yrs ago. I do agree that kids will not survive full day and it becomes a nightmare. cranky kids and angry parents. how we solved the problem?

always picked the park with Morning Extra hours. our kids are used to getting up early so that wasnt the problem. and than utilize what can be done by limiting walking and avoiding long lines. Epcot as example: 8am and went straight to Soarin, we couldnt get younger on due to height restriction but older one went twice plus we got swap pass as extra. so Soarin from 8:15 to 8:45 twice with no lines. After that in the same building we did Living with the Land, than we walked towards Nemo that had no lines, after Nemo we waited for Crush at 10am. by 10:30 without any lines and minimal walking we did what we wanted. at 10:45am we had our first FP for Test Track that older did with my husband and got swap pass for younger one. Lunch at 11:00am and we were out of the park by 12:30pm. We would go to the pool for 1-2 hrs and mandatory nap. It didnt matter that kids dont sleep at home. they were tired and we were tired. all of us needed breaks. than at 5-6pm we would go back and use remaining fast passes and swap passes. also avoided mid day heat and lines. by doing mandatory nap - kids behaved better and were able to stay up till 9pm for fireworks.

the above plan worked to perfection for Epcot with smaller kids. We did similar approach for MK. sure - we might have missed midday parades but it gave us a time to rest and be ready for the night time. but 3 things that we wanted to eliminate: long waits, walking in the heat, kids/adults being tired.

 

[MichelleWDWfan]

Aren't you walking all over the park this way?

Well sure...but I don't walk from one end to the other for a ride.
I pick fastpasses based on where I am in the park.
Sure I gradually move around the park, but I don't pick a ride on opposite ends of the park.
I try to ride everything where I am after that 3rd fastpass before moving on to the next area.

 

[DisneyDreamers3]

I schedule my 1st 3 fastpasses for the 1st 3 hrs of the morning, that way I can use Fastpasses the entire rest of the day. I don't ride anything unless I Fastpass it....except for Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, and the train. As soon as I use that 3rd pre-planned fastpass I load up MDE on my phone and pick my next FP, ride that ride, then pick another...and so on. I have never had a problem doing that. Only thing is the FP's will start to be sparse and eventually run out sometimes in early evening when it is busy.

I agree with scheduling fp's first thing, then getting on MDE to continue schedule fp's and also looking at wait times, choosing rides with short wait times as your fp's come along, and along your route to the next fp. Last June, I used the third fp about 1pm. I got over 20 more fp's using MDE until close, which also included stopping at Columbia harbor house, some shopping, and wishes dessert party! It was an awesome MK day!

We have used the same approach for our last six trips, some with wall to wall crowds and it has always worked like a charm. We have yet to wait in line for any attraction, except for those that don't offer FPs. On our last trip in February we rode SDMT 4 times on a Friday (afternoon and early evening) getting FPs as they were available.