Help With MK Touring Plan!

[pinkgirlmommy]

This is our first time to go to WDW as a family and I am just learning about everything including having a Touring Plan. However, I am not sure where to start. I want to start with a 2 day touring plan for MK. Day 1 we will be going to Crystal Palace for a late breakfast or even for lunch our first day if that works better for the Touring Plan. We want to ride all possible rides and do all possible Princess Meet and Greets as well as other characters as well in two days. I have a 10 year old and 5 year old. We will do Rope Drop but don't think we will leave the park for a break, just take one in the park. Day 2 we have a BBB appointment at 2:20 and a BOG reservation at 9:20 pm. Touring Plans and Easy WDW are so different that I am confused! They also have a Character-Centric PLan which skips a lot of rides and a regular plan that doesn't have character visits, but I want to do both rides and characters. Any suggestions? Am I trying to do too much in one day and how do I add in character visits? The Easy WDW that I am trying to use jumps from area to area and doesn't seem to make sense to me.

Do I need to wait until I have my FP+ to even look at this?

If I follow Easy WDW and switch Day 1 and Day 2 it might work but I will have to add character visits in and am trying to figure out how to do that so that I don't miss any. I would like to work our way around the lands, but the Touring Plans don't always do that so I am not sure what to do. Here is what Easy WDW has if I follow theirs and switch days and add in other attractions in the same area where we will already be. It skips so much is there a better way to do this? See below for questions!


My Day 1

Tomorrowland:
BTMRR 9:10- 9:20
Splash Mountain- 9:23-10:15

Liberty Square:
Haunted Mansion- 9:55- 10:15

Fantasyland:
It's a Small World- 10:17-10:40
Peter Pan's Flight w/ FP 10:42- 10:55- move to later
Option A- Crystal Palace 10:30- won't make it in time?

Adventureland:
Jungle Cruise w/ FP
Option B- Crystal Palace 1:00
Pirates of the Caribbean w/ FP
Aladdin's Magical Carpet
Festival of Fantasy Parade 3:00
Enchanted Tiki Room
Swiss Family Tree House

Tomorrowland:
Country Bear Jamboree
Tom Sawyer Island

Liberty Square:
Liberty Square Riverboats
Hall of Presidents

Fantasyland:
PhilharMagic

Break/ Dinner
Main Street Electrical Parade 9 or 11 depending on how tired we are
Celebrate the Magic
Wishes



Day 2:
Tomorrowland:
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
Astro Orbiter
Tomorrowland Speedway

Fantasyland:
Winnie the Pooh
Mad Tea Party

New Fantasyland:
Dumbo
Barnstormer
Pete's Silly Sideshow Characters
Meet Ariel
Lunch- Try for BOG FP
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train FP
Enchanted Tales w/ Bell FP

Castle:
BBB 2:20

Fantasyland:
Anna & Elsa FP 4:00
Dream Along w/ Mickey 5:15
Move it shake it Dance Party 5:40

Tomorrowland:
Incredibles Dance Party
Carousel of Progress
Tomorrowland PeopleMover
Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor

Break- and/or
Meet Cinderella & Rapunzel?
Meet Tinkerbell- when should we do this?

BOG- 9:10
Celebrate the Magic- 9:45- Will we make this?
Wishes 10 PM- will we make this?
What can we do after Wishes before Main St. Electrical Parade?
Main Street Electrical Parade- 11:00

 

[Ari37]

Hi pinkgirlmommy,
How exciting that you are planning your first family trip! Regarding your Day 1 plans, I think it would be doable to do your Frontierland (BTMRR and Splash) and Liberty Square (Haunted Mansion) attraction selections before a 10:30 AM reservation at CP, but if you want to squeeze in the Fantasyland attractions too before your meal, I would book the lunch reservation. Remember to leave a few extra minutes before your reservation to walk over/ check-in. You're technically supposed to be 20-minutes early to your table service reservations! It looks like the times overlap a bit for your Splash and Haunted Mansion steps also, but I still think that you could most likely ride BTMRR, Splash, and Haunted Mansion before 10:15 AM (depending on the time of year that you're visiting). The rest of your day looks very doable. Remember to leave some time to line up for the FoF parade though (ideally 45 min. for Main Street viewing, 30 min. for Frontierland). If you go with the 1:00 PM CP reservation, and have at least an hour-long meal, by the time you use a PoC fp+ and ride the Magic Carpets, you may not have much time before the parade. I think that a break for dinner/ rest that evening before the parade and fireworks is a great idea!
With regard to the second day plan, everything looks pretty reasonable, except you may have a very long wait to meet Ariel/ other characters mid-day (again, depends on the date of your trip?) Depending on the wait times, it may be a bit much to try to squeeze these in before lunch. Also, SDMT is a very short ride, so unless you use this fp+ at the very end of your ride window, you may have a little while to kill before your ETwB fp+ (which probably wouldn't be a bad thing- you could explore New Fantasyland/ grab a snack at Gaston's Tavern/ ride something you missed earlier!) Other than that, I definitely would NOT count on making Wishes or Celebrate the Magic that second night. Figure that table service restaurants will each take at least an hour, and Be Our Guest dinner is not an experience that you'll want to rush!
I hope that you have a great trip

 

[baseballnut]

Yay for your upcoming trip!!! So exciting!!!

I don't know much about the touring plans since we've only been with a toddler so we don't go on all the rides. But if seeing princesses is your thing and you're short on time, perhaps switch your CP to CRT? You'll meet five of them, then can go FP+ for Anna and Elsa and then meet Rapunzel. Or Akershus if you have a day in Epcot but probably not.

I also wanted to mention you may want to leave time for breaks if you're going open to close two days in a row so that no one gets crabby, lol.

I would select priority rides that you must do and that way if anything happens and you're short on time you can skip the ones that aren't priority.

Have fun!!!

 

[kaymil]

Day 1 we will be going to Crystal Palace for a late breakfast or even for lunch our first day if that works better for the Touring Plan.

If you don't have reservations for Crystal Palace already, I would HIGHLY recommend trying to get a breakfast reservation for before park opening. I saw a recommendation to do this here on the dis boards last year and it was the most magical experience we've ever had at DW. If your reservation is before opening, they will let you in to the park for your reservation and you pretty much have an open park to take pictures of the castle and such with very little people around. We had an 8:15 reservation on a morning when the park opened at 9. We got to MK at 8 and were let in off to the left of the turnstiles. It was SO COOL seeing main street and the castle and feeling like we were the only ones around. We also made it out of breakfast by 8:50, and since Crystal Palace is in the park, we were way ahead of the crowds who were back at the entrance for the welcome show. We went over to the tomorrowland rope (they have each of the lands roped off before opening time) and a Cast Member asked us where we wanted to go. When we said we were just waiting for opening so we could head to Space Mountain, she said go ahead and let us through the rope. We got to ride Space Mountain by ourselves before the park was even open. Coolest experience ever!

Keep looking for reservations regularly if you can't get the time you want at first, especially a few day before your trip. Lots of reservations get canceled last minute.

 

[YouGotaFriendInMe]

So here’s my imput… I used to try and plan like you are, but I ran around with a timed schedule all over the park and was much like a decapitated chicken. You want to enjoy this trip with your whole family. Understand you may not be able to do everything… this simple understanding will save you from being upset about it later… But ive come to know that doing all of one land at a time saves your walking and your paid for in park time… so heres everything you listed that you wanted to do, rescheduled and planned to hopefully save your walking and time… REMEMBER you do not need FP at the first part of your day since not everyone makes it a rope drop (you want to) you will need them about after lunch. So here it is:
Day One:
-Get an ADR for Crystal Palace Breakfast preferably prior to park opening (to beat the rope drop) or as
early as possible…
Adventureland: (this will take about 3-4 hours)
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
Aladdin's Magical Carpet
Enchanted Tiki Room
Swiss Family Tree House
Tinkerbelle and friends

Frontierland: (this will take about 2 hours)
Big thunder mountain railroad FP
Splash Mountain
Country Bear Jamboree
Tom Sawyer Island
(Try and break for lunch after 2 pm)

Tomorrowland: (This will take about 3 hours)
Space Mountain FP
Buzz Lightyear FP
Astro Orbiter
Tomorrowland Speedway
Carousel of Progress
Tomorrowland PeopleMover
Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor

Night Entertainment: (we always find a spot and just wait through all these… one time we even got dinner and sat out and ate on the sidewalk through all of this…)
Main Street Electrical Parade
Celebrate the Magic
Wishes

Day Two:
Fantasyland:
Enchanted Tales w/ Belle (GO HERE IMEDIATELY)
Winnie the Pooh
Barnstormer
Pete' Mad Tea Party
Dumbo s Silly Sideshow Characters
Peter Pan's Flight w/ FP
It's a Small World
PhilharMagic
Lunch- Try for BOG FP (remember this is a fourth fastpass and does not count against your first 3)
BBB 2:20
Anna & Elsa FP
Meet Cinderella & Rapunzel
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Meet Ariel
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train FP

Liberty Square: (this will take about an hour and a half)
Liberty Square Riverboats
Hall of Presidents
Haunted Mansion

Try and catch these throughout the day:
Festival of Fantasy Parade 3:00
Dream Along w/ Mickey 5:15
Move it shake it Dance Party 5:40

***this may not work for you, as I don’t even know when in the year you will be traveling and ive never planned around having children, but just as a guide I hope this does help!***

 

[Robo]

My Day 1

1. Tomorrowland:
BTMRR 9:10- 9:20
2. Splash Mountain- 9:23-10:15

Liberty Square:
3. Haunted Mansion- 9:55- 10:15

Fantasyland:
4. It's a Small World- 10:17-10:40
Peter Pan's Flight w/ FP 10:42- 10:55- move to later
5. Option A- Crystal Palace 10:30- won't make it in time?

Adventureland:
Jungle Cruise w/ FP
6. Option B- Crystal Palace 1:00
Pirates of the Caribbean w/ FP
7. Aladdin's Magical Carpet
8. Festival of Fantasy Parade 3:00
Enchanted Tiki Room
Swiss Family Tree House

9. Tomorrowland:
Country Bear Jamboree
Tom Sawyer Island

Liberty Square:
10. Liberty Square Riverboats
11. Hall of Presidents

Fantasyland:
PhilharMagic

Break/ Dinner
Main Street Electrical Parade 9 or 11 depending on how tired we are
Celebrate the Magic
Wishes

1. Not "Tomorrowland." You mean "Frontierland"
2. Too tight in-between attractions.
3. Your time overlaps with Splash Mtn.
4. Too tight in-between attractions.
5. won't make it in time
6. Yes. Figure that will take 90 minutes.
7. No time for this if you want to see parade.
8. Need to get in position earlier.
9. Not "Tomorrowland." You mean "Frontierland"
10 & 11. With the age of your kids, I'd skip these.

Maybe someone else will jump in with more.

Sorry, but to me, you've scheduled too many things without regard to
how complex and exhausting it would be to try to hit them
at that pace. (Complications will happen.)

I've seen many and many a plan that gets off-track after, say, the second or third event.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

Thanks everyone! I do plan to skip some as needed and i definitely will change to go by land which will help! We are going to MK March 1 and 6, CRT and Little Mermaid are closed. I was reading the lands off of TP and that is weird about the overlap! I just got an 8:05 am CP ADR for the 6th! Yay! Now where to head first after that? I will revamp!

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

Okay so we are going to CP pre-park opening on Day 2 and BOG dinner day 2, so day 1 is open! Here is my revised day 1 plan if we can get our FP+ to work out. I plan to skip things as needed and add in a break but this is a rough plan:
Any comments/suggestions? I was looking at Easy WDW but decided to go by land instead! Suggestions for lunch, dinner, places to watch parades/shows? The times are what come up on Touring Plans when I put in this itinerary so I don't know how accurate they are?


1) Jungle Cruise
9:10am

2) Pirates of the Caribbean
9:28am

3) The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
9:46am

4) Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room
9:59am

5) Swiss Family Treehouse
10:23am

6) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
10:46am FP+ 10-11

7) Splash Mountain
11:12am FP+ 11-12

8) Tom Sawyer Island
11:38am

9) Country Bear Jamboree
12:18pm

10) Dream Along With Mickey
1:00pm

11) Space Mountain
1:40pm FP+ 1-2

12) Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe or lunch somewhere??
2:15pm for 30 minutes

13) Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
2:51pm- Where should we watch this?

14) Meet Tinker Bell at Town Square Theater
3:35pm- Not sure where to fit this in and maybe get a FP+?


15) Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
4:18pm

16) Astro Orbiter
5:02pm

17) Tomorrowland Speedway
5:29pm

18) Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress
6:01pm

19) Tomorrowland
Transit Authority PeopleMover
6:24pm

20) Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
6:48pm

21) Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant or Dinner somewhere??
for 30 minutes
7:50pm

22) Main Street Electrical Parade
8:45pm

23) Celebrate the Magic
9:30pm

24) Wishes Nighttime Spectacular
9:57pm

 

[YouGotaFriendInMe]

Okay. Doesn't this make you feel less stressed? Its so better organized! You're going at a great time btw. Right before spring break crowds!

Let me help you with some of your questions
Best place to watch festival of fantasy is a great question... ive never sat and watched it because i never had to. We just walked up main street and got a great view the whole way! But when you first walk into mk there is a block off where they close the "road". That seems good! But remember you can always pick where its available along the rope!

Foodwise.... honestly, epcot has spoiled me but i dont really have any QS places to eat in Mk that are my go to spot. We just know what the places serve and go there. However my husband is soooooo picky and he always lands at the Lunching Pad by the terrace and i get something there to normally. However the columbia harbor house pulled me and my mom in easy! Also BOG... you will LOVE it! And i hear CP is good (we have our first stop there in Feb) but take a look at menus online for places. Some places continously serve the SAME food but some have really great "rare" things

Also youll find things on this list will go faster and some slower then you have posted. Like 18-21 will be about 30 mins faster then you have but other places will take longer... however if you are hungry and still have 3 rides to go its always better to just stop and switch food and a ride....

just be flexible like if its hot you may want to do splash mountain again or wait til its warmer out. When my mother and i went we found this like half hour that we had nothing to do so we rode something again that had a low wait.

best place for wishes and celebrate the magic is NOT close up... ive seen it 4 times right in front of the castle. It kills your neck. Its not til my pee bags of a mother had to find a bathroom during Wishes did i find that further back is so much easier on the neck and overall view!

Are you only going to mk? Or just dont need help on other touring plans? (The other parks are easier because theres less)

where are you staying btw?

Aldo. Idk if youve booked FP yet but i just pick whatever option has them in the order i want and then i go through and move the time from the first to third! Always works out for what i want... consider these for your subsequent FP to book after your first 3 at the kiosks: space ranger spin, astro orbitor or something youd like to do again or that had way to high of a wait.... also, in the morning do whatever is pretty much walk on (pirates or cruise) NEVER wait on your first ride at park openeing more then five minutes. ..

also (i know this is a lot) but if you dont have anything to do in line i suggest downloading Ellen's game Heads Up (it now has a picture only version for kids who cant read).... my husband and i play and it makes an hour seem like 20 minutes and 20 minutes seem like 2... weve also made friends SOME WHO DONT EVEN SPEAK ENGLISH WELL by group playing this game. Just an idea

 

[pooch]

Sorry but your plan would scare the crap out of me!!! Too busy, too structured, too many places it can fall apart. Pick a couple of attractions per land & take your time. Heck my kids spent 2 1/2 HOURS on Tom Sawyer island & had to be forced bodily back on the raft.

 

[pinkgirlmommy]

We are staying at CBR. This most likely the only time we will ever be able to go due to finances and that is why i want to do everything! It's hard to know priorities because we really don't know anything yet about anything! I am open to skipping and moving things but if we don't have a basic plan we will miss out on some things! Like character experiences- if we are doing character meals maybe we can skip them in the parks? We want to meet all the princesses but it looks like that takes a lot of time so maybe we do FP for Tinkerbell? Where can we meet Cinderella since CRT is closed and we aren't doing Citricos? I will work on day 2 of MK next and then on to other parks! We are doing Akershus so will we meet all the princesses there? Will we meet Belle at BOG?

 

[pooch]

All the more reason you should sit down and decide what you REALLY want to do. Then make a plan for seeing those and just go with "whatever else time allows". So you don't waste time on something your kids won't care about and end up missing something they would. There are plenty of sites to look at the attractions. Have your kids pick their top 5 musts, then maybe another 5 that they'd like to do and go from there

 

[nat8199]

Okay so we are going to CP pre-park opening on Day 2 and BOG dinner day 2, so day 1 is open! Here is my revised day 1 plan if we can get our FP+ to work out. I plan to skip things as needed and add in a break but this is a rough plan:
Any comments/suggestions? I was looking at Easy WDW but decided to go by land instead! Suggestions for lunch, dinner, places to watch parades/shows? The times are what come up on Touring Plans when I put in this itinerary so I don't know how accurate they are?


1) Jungle Cruise
9:10am

2) Pirates of the Caribbean
9:28am

3) The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
9:46am

4) Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room
9:59am

5) Swiss Family Treehouse
10:23am

6) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
10:46am FP+ 10-11

7) Splash Mountain
11:12am FP+ 11-12

8) Tom Sawyer Island
11:38am

9) Country Bear Jamboree
12:18pm

10) Dream Along With Mickey
1:00pm

11) Space Mountain
1:40pm FP+ 1-2

12) Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe or lunch somewhere??
2:15pm for 30 minutes

13) Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
2:51pm- Where should we watch this?

14) Meet Tinker Bell at Town Square Theater
3:35pm- Not sure where to fit this in and maybe get a FP+?


15) Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
4:18pm

16) Astro Orbiter
5:02pm

17) Tomorrowland Speedway
5:29pm

18) Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress
6:01pm

19) Tomorrowland
Transit Authority PeopleMover
6:24pm

20) Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
6:48pm

21) Tomorrowland Terrace Restaurant or Dinner somewhere??
for 30 minutes
7:50pm

22) Main Street Electrical Parade
8:45pm

23) Celebrate the Magic
9:30pm

24) Wishes Nighttime Spectacular
9:57pm

I think this looks great. I personally like having a plan like this, especially with young kids. I think that as long as you go into it knowing that things will be missed, then you will be ok.

On our last trip we had to scrap an entire day of plans to take my kids back to AK for a second un-planned day simply because they loved it so much. We spent two mornings in a row at affection station because it made them happy. We never even got to see Nemo, the land, or most of the other Epcot attraction I know my kids would have loved.

As long as you are willing to toss the plans when something better come up, detailed plans are AWESOME for the rest of the time when you are going to need them.

 

[Kay2397]

So glad you changed your CP reservation time! It's a great way to start your day. When you are seated you can kindly ask your waitress for the bill early so once you have seenall the characters and eaten, you don't have to wait