magic kingdom for a 9 year old boy-need a tour plan!

[julie1218]

this is our first trip to disney. going may 16-26, kids are ds age 9 1/2 and dd age 7. going to harry potter on may 17. my kids are not really into animals. i think my family will enjoy epcot and hollywood studios the most. my dd is certainly NOT a thrill seeker and my son is kinda "medium" on the thrill seeking/braving scary rides scale. my dd is not into princesses.

i'd really like a no-muss, no-fuss plan, so i thought we'd just head for the least crowded park each day and use touringplans.com guides to that park. unfortunately, those tour plans don't look so great to me. one is for kids ages 2-8 and another for tweens ages 8-12. that doesn't help me. that's a huge age gap. a 2 year old (from the 2-8 tour plan) has little in common with my almost 10 year old, and my 7 year old can't really do what's on the tween touringplan. the pirate/thrill seeker plan doesn't help me much, as my daughter would be scared by those rides. my kids are only 2 years apart. it shouldn't be so difficult to have a tour plan for both of them. i think i want my money back for this book! lol!

to make matters more confusing, the recommended park for our first day is magic kingdom. dhs has emh, and epcot is crowded for some reason. so, off to mk we go on our first disney day! but, when i look at the tourplan for 2-8 year olds for mk, it recommends peter pan and dumbo right off the bat. really? for my almost 10 year old?

so, if i'm taking an almost 10 year old boy to mk, what do you recommend?

 

[Princess Sleepy]

The easiest thing to do is pick the TP that is closest to what you want, then skip the things you don't want to do. For example, skip Dumbo and go right to Peter Pan. If this is your first trip, Peter Pan is a classic that you don't want to miss.

Attractions for those ages should include Philharmagic, Small World, Peter Pan, Tea Cups (if you don't get dizzy), Buzz Lightyear, Pirates of the Carribean, Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, and Haunted Mansion.

If they like roller coasters, throw in Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Things to do if you have time would be Astro-orbiter, Tom Sawyer Island, Hall of Presidents, and Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.

I would think the middle of May wouldn't be super high crowds, so you should be able to use the TP in your own way without encountering too many issues.

Good luck!

 

[cdnmomof2]

Don't forget to take the train that goes around the park. My DS8 really liked that too.

Future world, Monster's Inc comedy show. And the shooting galleries & games near Frontierland.

 

[julie1218]

thank you! this is very helpful info! any more suggestions welcome!

 

[Princess Sleepy]

Don't forget to take the train that goes around the park. My DS8 really liked that too.

Be aware, though, that the train apparently stops for about 10 minutes at the former Toon Town station to take on water, while the riders sit and wait.

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Really, there isn't anything I would avoid or not do with kid's those ages at MK. We have been going to WDW, yearly, since our kids were 2, 3, 4 and 7 and they are now 8, 9 , 10 and 14 and we still do all the attractions - we don't skip anything.

Also, wanted to say that Animal Kingdom is much more than walking around and seeing animals. They have two of the best rides in all of WDW, Expedition Everest and Kilamanjaro Safari and the best show in all of Disney World, which is Festival of the Lion King, so I wouldn't recommend skipping it either.

 

[mommyoftwinz]

There's lots to do in MK for that age however for your son, I'd skip Dumbo, maybe split up and do that and Small World and Many adventures of Pooh with your daughter, but he may like Peter pan. Definitely start in either Tommorrowland or Adventureland. Don't forget the haunted mansion, that's fun too.

 

[iggler]

Really, there isn't anything I would avoid or not do with kid's those ages at MK. We have been going to WDW, yearly, since our kids were 2, 3, 4 and 7 and they are now 8, 9 , 10 and 14 and we still do all the attractions - we don't skip anything.

Also, wanted to say that Animal Kingdom is much more than walking around and seeing animals. They have two of the best rides in all of WDW, Expedition Everest and Kilamanjaro Safari and the best show in all of Disney World, which is Festival of the Lion King, so I wouldn't recommend skipping it either.

Expedition everest. kilamanjaro safari, lion king, Just want to know does it costs extra for any of these three attrations?
Thanks

 

[PrincessTiffany]

Expedition everest. kilamanjaro safari, lion king, Just want to know does it costs extra for any of these three attrations?
Thanks

No, they are not priced separately. They are Animal Kingdom attractions that are included with your price of admission/ticket/park hopper.

 

[mickeyboat]

First of all, even the thrill rides in Disney are pretty tame. I think your son would probably enjoy them. My DD11 loved everything she rode (but Haunted Mansion), and she rode everything including EE and RnRC. DD10 is a chicken on rides, but she tried many. She loved BTMRR and Splash Mountain. She liked Space Mountain. She hated ToT and Dinosaur. She didn't even try EE or RnRC. She favored the dark, slow rides like IASW and Living with the Land.

Second make sure you check out the park maps / ride lists. You can view YouTube videos of the rides and choose which ones your children might like, and which ones you don't think they would.

Then use a park map to create your own touring plan - keeping in mind that if you are at a park at rope drop (when it first opens), you can get a lot more rides done before it starts getting more crowded later in the morning.

Also make sure you take full advantage of Fastpasses. The earlier you start collecting them, the more you can collect and the more rides you can ride without a wait. You will need to make sure you get to HS at rope drop for a TSM FP and to EPCOT for a Soarin' FP.

We went in October and basically just planned which park on which day, ADRs and parades and fireworks. The rest we just rode what we liked. Sometimes we rode more several times in a row because we loved the ride so much and there was little wait. This is our first trip, and I knew we would not be able to do it all, but we made sure to take it easy when we needed to and made sure to take everyone's likes into consideration (which meant riding Living with the Land three times)

I hope you have a great trip!

 

[PrincessTiffany]

First of all, even the thrill rides in Disney are pretty tame. I think your son would probably enjoy them. My DD11 loved everything she rode (but Haunted Mansion), and she rode everything including EE and RnRC. DD10 is a chicken on rides, but she tried many. She loved BTMRR and Splash Mountain. She liked Space Mountain. She hated ToT and Dinosaur. She didn't even try EE or RnRC. She favored the dark, slow rides like IASW and Living with the Land.

Second make sure you check out the park maps / ride lists. You can view YouTube videos of the rides and choose which ones your children might like, and which ones you don't think they would.

Then use a park map to create your own touring plan - keeping in mind that if you are at a park at rope drop (when it first opens), you can get a lot more rides done before it starts getting more crowded later in the morning.

Also make sure you take full advantage of Fastpasses. The earlier you start collecting them, the more you can collect and the more rides you can ride without a wait. You will need to make sure you get to HS at rope drop for a TSM FP and to EPCOT for a Soarin' FP.

We went in October and basically just planned which park on which day, ADRs and parades and fireworks. The rest we just rode what we liked. Sometimes we rode more several times in a row because we loved the ride so much and there was little wait. This is our first trip, and I knew we would not be able to do it all, but we made sure to take it easy when we needed to and made sure to take everyone's likes into consideration (which meant riding Living with the Land three times)

I hope you have a great trip!

OP, I agree with the statment above, the "thrill" rides at WDW are pretty tame compared to other parks and all kids are different, so I wouldn't count any rides out. By the age of 4 my kids could and did pretty much every ride in Disney - even Tower of Terror and loved it. By 6 they could and did ride EVERY ride at WDW.