TheSouthernBelle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2017
- Messages
- 3,093
OK- let me preface this with we planned this trip on Thursday, 3/8 so we didn't have much lead time. We're a family of 4, me, DH, DD 11 and DD 9.
To date that is the quickest planned day trip to WDW ever for us. We have never (since my adult Disney planning) been to MK on a Saturday so I was expecting high crowds but wasn't 100% sure what they'd be like. On Thursday when we booked the trip we were able to secure FP+ starting midday around 2:30pm (we weren't sure of our exact arrival time and didn't want to chance booking FP+ too early. We were able to get Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Speedway (for two of us) and Space Mountain (for the other 2). Park hours on this day were 8am-midnight, no EMH.
Few takeaways from this Saturday visit-
Arrived MK at 11am- security and the gate was pretty empty however that was not indicative of the park crowds. We came in on the bus from AKL and it was a normal bus ride, approx. 20 min door to door.
Once inside it was pretty high crowd levels, not the highest crowds I've ever seen in a park but the most I've seen inside MK. I know it's a weekend, should have expected it.
Some of the not so great stuff......
The people mover consistently had a 30 min wait--yes you read that right, the PM had a wait. WHAT!?!? But I will say that the CMs running the PM did not do a good job filling the cars and our car had only us on it, why? So odd, so maybe that caused the waits.
We mobile ordered from Pinocchio Village Haus and it took about 20 min for our order to be prepared. It was about 1:30pm when we ate lunch so not peak time but it was pretty crazy. We were lucky and scored a table right next to IASW so we were happy!
We tried to modify some of our FP+ on the fly which we usually do without issue and there were no FP+ to be had by around 2pm unless you wanted to FP+ barnstormer at 10pm or Dumbo.
The park wifi was spotty and that kind of stunk as I've never had issues with my wifi at WDW before. Not the end of the world but ate into my data plan
Our FP+ for BTMR was an open ended FP since it went down at 8pm so we did Buzz instead. But what stunk is we didn't know it went down till we walked over to it since the wifi wasn't working, I wasn't getting my mail.
Weather was perfect, it had been chilly the few days prior to our trip but it was high 70s when we arrived and 60s into the evening, we wore jeans and light jackets and were very comfortable.
Our Pixie Dust moments @ MK
It started raining during HEA which cleared out lines in itself but really cleared them out with the rain, Peter Pan read a 75 min wait at 8pm and we timed it when we got in line, was 25 min. YAY! We LOVE PP and usually hit it at RD so that wasn't an option this trip, glad it worked out.
We also tested out the Minnie van after we went back to AKL for a "quick" break. We rode it back to MK from AKL, loved our driver Shelby. She was so sweet and what's super cute is they theme the music from the resort you are staying at all the way to MK. The Chevy Traverse is very room and they even provide phone chargers. Shelby was made to be a WDW CM.
For a quick day trip planned two days out during a high crowd day, I think the mantra is don't have crazy expectations of riding every ride and be patient.
To date that is the quickest planned day trip to WDW ever for us. We have never (since my adult Disney planning) been to MK on a Saturday so I was expecting high crowds but wasn't 100% sure what they'd be like. On Thursday when we booked the trip we were able to secure FP+ starting midday around 2:30pm (we weren't sure of our exact arrival time and didn't want to chance booking FP+ too early. We were able to get Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain, Speedway (for two of us) and Space Mountain (for the other 2). Park hours on this day were 8am-midnight, no EMH.
Few takeaways from this Saturday visit-
Arrived MK at 11am- security and the gate was pretty empty however that was not indicative of the park crowds. We came in on the bus from AKL and it was a normal bus ride, approx. 20 min door to door.
Once inside it was pretty high crowd levels, not the highest crowds I've ever seen in a park but the most I've seen inside MK. I know it's a weekend, should have expected it.
Some of the not so great stuff......
The people mover consistently had a 30 min wait--yes you read that right, the PM had a wait. WHAT!?!? But I will say that the CMs running the PM did not do a good job filling the cars and our car had only us on it, why? So odd, so maybe that caused the waits.
We mobile ordered from Pinocchio Village Haus and it took about 20 min for our order to be prepared. It was about 1:30pm when we ate lunch so not peak time but it was pretty crazy. We were lucky and scored a table right next to IASW so we were happy!
We tried to modify some of our FP+ on the fly which we usually do without issue and there were no FP+ to be had by around 2pm unless you wanted to FP+ barnstormer at 10pm or Dumbo.
The park wifi was spotty and that kind of stunk as I've never had issues with my wifi at WDW before. Not the end of the world but ate into my data plan
Our FP+ for BTMR was an open ended FP since it went down at 8pm so we did Buzz instead. But what stunk is we didn't know it went down till we walked over to it since the wifi wasn't working, I wasn't getting my mail.
Weather was perfect, it had been chilly the few days prior to our trip but it was high 70s when we arrived and 60s into the evening, we wore jeans and light jackets and were very comfortable.
Our Pixie Dust moments @ MK
It started raining during HEA which cleared out lines in itself but really cleared them out with the rain, Peter Pan read a 75 min wait at 8pm and we timed it when we got in line, was 25 min. YAY! We LOVE PP and usually hit it at RD so that wasn't an option this trip, glad it worked out.
We also tested out the Minnie van after we went back to AKL for a "quick" break. We rode it back to MK from AKL, loved our driver Shelby. She was so sweet and what's super cute is they theme the music from the resort you are staying at all the way to MK. The Chevy Traverse is very room and they even provide phone chargers. Shelby was made to be a WDW CM.
For a quick day trip planned two days out during a high crowd day, I think the mantra is don't have crazy expectations of riding every ride and be patient.
.
