andrea_atl
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2017
- Messages
- 14
Posting this in advance of booking lightning lanes on Saturday, trying to see what I missed. (And... I've completely re-done Magic Kingdom while doing this write-up!)
Group:
Day 1: Sat 1/04 Animal Kingdom with everyone in morning followed by Hollywood Studios with just the 4 of us.
LLMP: I'm buying only for the 4 going to Hollywood Studios. We're looking for a late morning Expedition Everest plus an 8 am option to tap & one more throwaway to rebook.
If we're not able to book Flights of Passage ILL, the 4 of us will arrive at the gate by 7 am for 7:30 am early entry to Flights of Passage.
Otherwise: arrive at gate at 7:25 am (as early entry begins) then:
Day 2: Sun 1/05 Epcot morning with all but my dad followed by Magic Kingdom & fireworks with everyone
This was initially my plan for our last day, but there's an afterhours Magic Kingdom event on the 3rd day. Then it was going to be my Day 1 until I realized how hard it is to get Remy & Frozen LL's right now with Test Track closed, so I'm trying out moving it to Day 2. If we don't get Remy but can get Frozen LL, we'll likely just skip Remy altogether and arrive a little later and head to Soaring first, and rework the plan in future world quite a bit. Remy is one of the few rides I've never ridden so I'm almost tempted to stand in line for it. Almost!
Day 3: Magic Kingdom morning and then Epcot for fireworks
Group:
- My immediate family. Me, my husband & our kids ages 18 & 20.
- My sister's family. My sister, her husband, her daughter age 38 & very pregnant with baby #2 & my great niece age 3 who is the reason for the trip. My great niece was 38.5" barefoot when we measured her at Thanksgiving.
- To our surprise: my dad age 91! Only for part of each day. This will be his first trip on a scooter. He's very mobile for his age so transferring and some walking won't be an issue.
- We all have park hopper tickets, which gets a little complicated because we need daily park reservations and my dad typically won't be with us for mornings.
Day 1: Sat 1/04 Animal Kingdom with everyone in morning followed by Hollywood Studios with just the 4 of us.
LLMP: I'm buying only for the 4 going to Hollywood Studios. We're looking for a late morning Expedition Everest plus an 8 am option to tap & one more throwaway to rebook.
If we're not able to book Flights of Passage ILL, the 4 of us will arrive at the gate by 7 am for 7:30 am early entry to Flights of Passage.
Otherwise: arrive at gate at 7:25 am (as early entry begins) then:
- 7:45 Na'vi River Journey (wait range = 5-15 minutes) (note: for all I'm using 11/23-12/25 so Thanksgiving week to Christmas crowds plus some early December)
- 8:05 Kilimanjaro Safari (ride 20 minutes; expected wait 20 minutes) (wait range = 1-34 minutes)
- My niece & I will be on Gorilla Falls Trail, & I'll also be running to go do our throwaway tap in (probably at It's Tough to Be a Bug?) then rebooking LL for my 4 over to HS looking for Rock N Roller Coaster & then whatever we luck into for Falcon, Toy Story Midway Mania, Runaway Railway & Slinky that's after 5 pm.
- 8:45 I'm hoping for Flights of Passage ILL for my 4 & everyone else: Wildlife Express Train to petting zoo.
- 9:45 Line up for 10 am Festival of Lion King
- 10:40 Maharajah Jungle Trek (with my 4 slipping off to Everest as close to 10:40 as possible & adding another slot to look for Hollywood Studios)
- 11:20 head in for 11:30 Feathered Friends (or maybe slip in late)
- 12pm lunch at Flame Tree
- 12:45 line up for 1pm Nemo
- At 1:30 my 4 will leave to go rest. I'm leaving my sister strongly encouraged to do just Boneyard & then go back to rest also.
- 5:00 Rock N Roller Coaster LL
- 5:30-ish Star Tours (depending on what worked out with other Lightning Lane options)
- 6:00 Muppet Vision (again depending on what LL's we can pick up from 8 am to 6 pm)
- 6:30 Eat at Docking Bay 7
- 7:15 Falcon Smugglers Run (expected wait 20 minutes) (wait range = 10-55; average 23)
- 7:45 Rise of the Resistance (expected wait 50 minutes) (wait range = 20-220 minutes; average 45)
- 8:45 get into one final line before closing (kids will likely pick Smugglers Run so I'm hoping we get a Toy Story LL so we can work that in earlier)
Day 2: Sun 1/05 Epcot morning with all but my dad followed by Magic Kingdom & fireworks with everyone
This was initially my plan for our last day, but there's an afterhours Magic Kingdom event on the 3rd day. Then it was going to be my Day 1 until I realized how hard it is to get Remy & Frozen LL's right now with Test Track closed, so I'm trying out moving it to Day 2. If we don't get Remy but can get Frozen LL, we'll likely just skip Remy altogether and arrive a little later and head to Soaring first, and rework the plan in future world quite a bit. Remy is one of the few rides I've never ridden so I'm almost tempted to stand in line for it. Almost!
- 8:15 arrival for 8:30 early admission to Frozen
- 9:10 Mexico (send 1 person to Kringla bakery for school bread)
- 9:30 Spaceship Early on LL (throwaway to get MK LL)
- book on tap: 8 Peter Pan & 8 Jungle Cruise
- my dad's 9th LLMP will be booked for Jungle Cruise & Pirates & it's a small world
- 9:55 Nemo
- 10:10 Turtle Talk with Crush
- 10:30 Journey Water Moana walk through
- 11:00 originally I had Remy LL here. Then I had us picking up sandwiches at the bakery & heading to the Skyliner with 2 of us running to go get the cars & drive them around to Hollywood Studios. I'll have to rework this depending on what we get for LL, but once we tap I plan to get Pirates. Also my goal is to get us in leave early so we're resting before 1pm.
- 3:45 at Magic Kingdom turnstiles with my dad
- 3:55 Walt Disney World Railroad (this is my dad's favorite - one of us will drive the scooter over to meet the train in Frontierland)
- 4:25 Pirates LL
- book on tap: it's a small world for 8 + 1 my dad already has)
- 4:55 Jungle Cruise LL
- goals for book on tap: 2 Space, 4 Big Thunder & 3 Speedway
- I'll book this initially as small group easy LL options then look to see what I can rebook.
- 5:20 Country Bear Jamboree (show: 12 minutes; wait for show average 7 minutes)
- 5:40 Liberty Square Riverboat (ride: 20 minutes; wait for boat average 10 minutes)
- 6:15 it's a small world LL
- 6:35 Peter Pan LL
- We'll only have 8 LL available but I plan to go scout to see if it's too crowded already to get down to disability fireworks viewing. Our last visit was October 2023, and it was insane crowds for fireworks with the Halloween parties ongoing. I'm hoping everyone has had their fill of fireworks by 1/05 and it's not so crazy.
- 6:55pm-7:55pm: pick up quick service dinner while waiting for fireworks.
- 8:00 Fireworks
- 8:30 wait for insanity to clear, and then my dad & my brother in law & possibly also my husband will leave. Unless my dad is especially perky & wants to go do Carousel of Progress - that's the final ride of his Magic Kingdom favorites that's not on the list. But, I'm pretty confident he will already be wishing he were in bed during the fireworks!
- 8:30 I'll take my great niece on Speedway while my kids go to get on any coasters they're able to ride. We may also do a little more of Future World since Magic Kingdom is open until 11 pm, but then again we may also be done for the day as well.
Day 3: Magic Kingdom morning and then Epcot for fireworks
- Note: I haven't posted the Magic Kingdom map because I changed it so much while I was posting.
- 8:25 reach the spoke to be at the end of early entry crowds
- 8:30 Winnie the Pooh (expected wait: 5) (actual waits are hard to tease out of all 8 am opening days)
- 8:35 Dumbo (expected wait: 5) (on almost all days it's 5 until 9:30 am)
- 8:40 Barnstormer (expected wait: 5) (same as Dumbo)
- 8:45 Barnstormer 2nd ride
- 9:00 Haunted Mansion (expected wait: 15; ride 7) (can't use early LL here bc not available)
- 9:20 it's a small world (use LL just to be able to rebook at Epcot; otherwise expected wait 5 minutes)
- book on tap: Soaring, 4 at Mission:Space & begin looking for 2 or 3 at Remy, Frozen
- alternatively: rebook park reservation to Epcot long enough to buy LLMP & then rebook for Magic Kingdom
- 9:40 Prince Charming's Carrousel
- 9:55 Tea Party (expected wait 8 - it's usually posted less but it takes a while) (wait range: 5-20; average 8)
- 10:10 Under the Sea (expected wait 8) (wait range: 5-22; average 8)
- 10:25 line for Enchanted Tales with Belle (opens 10:30)
- 11:00 ILL Seven Dwarves then head out
- 3:30 just the 4 of us will be in Epcot early for Guardians ILL & M:S (if we don't have LL for M:S probably a 15 minute wait so we may want to skip)
- 4:50 Everyone: Soaring LL
- This is the one 40" minimum ride we might try with my great niece. If she's not able to ride we'll do Ride Switch and one person will take her through living with the land while the main group rides & then come back to ride Soaring while the main group is on Living with the Land.
- 5:10 Living with the Land (we don't need LL right? thrill-list data seems really sporadic for Living with the Land & I'm not sure why)
- 5:30 Friendship boat Canada to Morocco
- 6:30 American Adventure (send my kids to do something else?)
- 7:00 settle into a comfortable picnic table with an eye for a good fireworks spot, & send out groups to get dinner & shop
- visit Japan pavilion & trains in Germany
- watch the walkway along America pavilion for characters
- maybe single rider Remy? especially if we're able to get 2 LL's so my great niece can ride
- 9:00 fireworks
