The Plan
Without further ado, here is the rough draft of our daily plans. Keep in mind that flights and hotel are not booked yet, but I am aiming to have that taken care of before my 60-day FP+ date. Also, thanks to the recommendation of some lovely people over on the Dining board, I have decided to forego any table service meals in the name of more park time. I am hoping to have a longer, more food-centric trip in the near future. So, with all that being said, please let me know if there are any adjustments that you would make to my plan!
Day 1: Monday
Our travel day will begin as any other day, and I know I will be anxiously waiting to get to the airport for our red-eye flight. I am hoping to book a red-eye to get the most of our two full days at WDW, and also in case I get scheduled this day at work.
Day 2: Tuesday
The plan is to land at MCO sometime early, early, early on Tuesday morning. From there, we will take the Magical Express to our home for the next two nights:
Disney’s All Star Resort (actual complex tbd). All we need in the room is a bed, a shower, and a quick breakfast, so this resort fits the bill. I am considering requesting a room close to the bus stop, but we will see. After check-in, storing our luggage, and a quick bite to eat (either the food court or the nearby McDonald's? Is that close to All Stars?), we are off on the bus to
Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I am hoping I allocated enough time to get from the airport to the hotel to the park; it opens at 9 AM, and we’ll get there as soon as possible. For our very FIRST ride in Disney World, we will use our FP at
Flight of Passage, I am planning on a return time between 9 and 10 AM. Next up, we will do standby for
Na’Vi River Journey, before heading for our
Expedition Everest FP for between 10 and 11 AM. Then, we will wait standby for the
Festival of the Lion King, possibly grabbing a snack beforehand. In a perfect world, this will coordinate perfectly with a 12:30ish FP for the
Kilimanjaro Safari. After this, we will either end our time at the park with lunch at
Satu'li Canteen, or squeeze in the
Kali River Rapids before we eat.
I am hoping that we wrap up our time at Animal Kingdom by 2 PM, and at that time are on the bus to
Epcot. While I’m not sure how the same-day FP booking system works, I am planning on trying for FPs at
Test Track,
Soarin’, and
Spaceship Earth. With a little bit of pixie dust, preferably an evening FP at
Frozen Ever After. Even without FP’s, these are the four must-do attractions I have for Epcot. Eventually we will make our way over to the
World Showcase, snacking our way through each country and the
Festival of Holidays booths. Question for the audience: would you suggest picking out a WS counter service, or will we be okay just eating as we go? Finally, at about 9 PM I plan on finding seats for
Illuminations, with the show starting at 9:30 PM. Afterwards, we will make our way out of Epcot and back to All Stars for a good night’s sleep before another fun-filled day!
Day 3: Wednesday
This will be our last full day in Disney World, and we are going to make the most of it! First things first, the bus to
Disney’s Hollywood Studios for a 9 AM park opening. Just like our Flight of Passage strategy, the plan is to have a FP for
Slinky Dog Dash between 9 and 10 AM. We will further explore Andy’s Backyard, hopefully getting on standby for
Toy Story Mania and
Alien Swirling Saucers. Between 10 and 11 AM, I am planning on a FP for
Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith; and another FP for
Tower of Terror as close to immediately after as I can get. Next, we will tie up any “loose ends” from Toy Story Land/ this area of the park, and if the wait is relatively short we will make
Star Tours our last ride in DHS. However, it is a take-it-or-leave-it, as our Star Tours in
Disneyland is exactly the same.
At this point, I am hoping it’ll be between 1 and 2 PM, and we’ll be on the bus to
MAGIC KINGDOM. This is the castle I have waited my whole life to see, and I am so excited to get to have a “first time at Disney” experience in this park (as I was only 4 my first trip to Disneyland and don’t remember all the first-time feelings). Our first destination? FOOD. I am planning for us to make a beeline to
Be Our Guest for a late lunch, hopefully having an ADR; if not, we will wait it out. This is a quintessentially Disney experience that I can’t wait to enjoy. Side note: this night is evening Extra Magic Hours from 9-11 PM, which we are planning to take full advantage of. So, any rides we don’t get to before fireworks, we will hit during EMH. After eating, I am hoping to have a same-day FP for
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train lined up (is this even possible?) OR just waiting standby, as this ride is unique to WDW and definitely on my list of must-do’s. In Fantasyland, I also want to check out the Florida version of
it’s a small world, before hitting the Liberty Square section of the park. I’d love to see
Festival of Fantasy at 3 PM as well, possibly from Frontierland. In order, these are the attractions I’m planning for the afternoon, either same-day FP or standby:
Haunted Mansion,
Splash Mountain,
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad,
Pirates of the Caribbean, and
Jungle Cruise. I also have
Columbia Harbor House planned for dinner at some point. If there’s time before fireworks, we will do
Space Mountain and the
Peoplemover, hopefully with a same-day FP for Space. At around 8 PM, we will grab dessert and find some prime seats for
Happily Ever After, which is set to start at 9. After the show, our first order of business will be to hit Tomorrowland (in the case that we didn’t get to it before fireworks), and the rest of the night I have a loose plan for us to ride as much as possible until the end of EMH. After all is said and done, it will be a sad “see ya real soon” to Magic Kingdom, before heading back towards the All Stars.
Day 4: Thursday
While our adventures in the park are over, our Florida adventure is not! We will be up bright and early once again for either a shuttle ride or flight to Miami. I am hoping to get a big breakfast in one of the WDW resorts or Disney Springs (any suggestions?) before either hopping on the Magical Express or catching an Uber to a shuttle pickup. Any experience getting from WDW to Miami would be greatly appreciated. We will have two days in Miami (Thursday and Friday) to explore and watch the tournament before flying back to California early on Saturday morning.
Thanks for reading this update, and stay tuned for the next installment!
Have a magical day!
As you mentioned, it is the exact same ride as in California.
