Magic Kingdom FP+ help needed.

[Melissa<3Disney]

So here's the deal, we have been to the world plenty of times, but I have not been in the FP+ era. I have read thread after thread, and a ton of blogs. I think I pretty much have it down. The only park causing me trouble is Magic Kingdom. How should I plan my fastpasses? There is so much conficting info out there for Magic Kingdom

Here's a quick little synopsis of our family. It will be be me,DH, and our newly turned 2 year old. (First time for him yay!!!) He will be tall enough for Barnstormer, but not any of the other coasters so those aren't super important to us since we've been a lot. We are going January 27-February 3rd. Our first park day is Saturday January 28th at Magic Kingdom. We have a PPO breakfast at Crystal Palace at 8:10am. The plan is to be out in time to hit rides at rope drop. We did this before in 2010 and it worked out great for us.

I figured we would hit Fantasyland first.
Maybe Buzz, TL speedway, and Monsters Inc next
Then onto Adventureland to do Pirates, Jungle Cruise, (Maybe Tiki Room)
Lunch
We will probably head back to the resort (OKW) for an afternoon nap and break. If Mickey's line is short we would like to meet him on the way out for the afternoon.
We hope to take a 2.5 or 3 hour break at the resort and then head back to Magic Kingdom at night for our 6:35 BOG reservation. The park closes at nine. Realistically how much time after our reservation will we have to ride some rides. I was thinking of hitting anything in fantasyland that we didn't get to earlier in the day and maybe Haunted Mansion since my kid loves the spooky stuff. Haha!

I am just so confused on what I should fastpass and when. I don't know realistically how many rides we can get done in Fantasyland post rope drop before moving on to other lands/fastpasses. Fantasyland has never been a focus for us pre toddler, so this is a whole new ball game for us. I would love to hear what strategies worked for you and your family.

Also for reference it says the crowd calendar is anywhere from 4-7/10 depending on which site you look at.

Thanks so much for any responses.

 

[hamilkm]

I wouldn't plan on being finished at BOG til about 8, so that would leave you an hour before park close.

 

[chris1212]

Depending what you want to do in Fantasyland you could easily spend all morning just there. Will your 2 year old be okay in a restaurant so late? I know our kids would have been losing it by then after a long day. We plan our fast passes starting around 11 usually. If there are characters (princesses) that are must sees we get those. Usually SDMT and rider swap it. Depends what rides you really want to ride.

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

I wouldn't plan on being finished at BOG til about 8, so that would leave you an hour before park close.

Okay thank you! I figured it would be a little late. So we will just plan to make it to dinner. Won't plan on anything later than dinner. Thank you so much!

Depending what you want to do in Fantasyland you could easily spend all morning just there. Will your 2 year old be okay in a restaurant so late? I know our kids would have been losing it by then after a long day. We plan our fast passes starting around 11 usually. If there are characters (princesses) that are must sees we get those. Usually SDMT and rider swap it. Depends what rides you really want to ride.

Well we have two days at Magic Kingdom, so we can spread things out if need be. We don't need princesses or any meet and greets besides maybe Mickey and the sideshow folks. So that won't take up too much time. And we usually have dinner around 6 at home so eating at 6:35 won't be too much of a stretch from his normal routine. His bedtime is between 7-8 so it won't be to much longer past his bedtime either. Especially since we are planning time for an afternoon nap at the resort for him. We will probably just play it by ear and really go off his cues. Thanks for the advice.

 

[jvz82]

There are a lot of options, so it really depends on what you want to do and when! I generally like to spend the first couple hours hitting rides before using fast passes. With young children, we like to start over in Adventureland and go on the Jungle cruise (because that dinky little ride gets ridiculously long lines), Magic Carpet ride, tiki room, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, maybe even Tom Sawyer Island because it's fun with toddlers. Then maybe start using some fast passes for Fantasy Land rides. You could use a couple of fast passes before your afternoon break and then use another one when you come back. Alternatively, you could start in Fantasy Land in the morning and use some fast passes somewhere else in the afternoon. It doesn't really matter much! Go through the map of the park and figure out what is close together and map out your route for the day.

 

[kellyarms20]

The first thing that comes to mind, to me, is Peter Pan. Definitely FP+ that one. We rope dropped it due to the long lines I read about and still waited 30 min. Now, we were there Thanksgiving week 2015 - so, super busy - but I don't think I ever saw a standby line less than 90 min during our time at MK for that ride. Not sure how your little guy feels about characters, but I'd consider fast passing some of those as well. Take the phone and update FP+ on the go using the MDE app.

ETA: I guess I do know how your little guy feels about characters after reading your other responses above!
I hope he has a magical first visit!

 

[Melissa<3Disney]

There are a lot of options, so it really depends on what you want to do and when! I generally like to spend the first couple hours hitting rides before using fast passes. With young children, we like to start over in Adventureland and go on the Jungle cruise (because that dinky little ride gets ridiculously long lines), Magic Carpet ride, tiki room, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, maybe even Tom Sawyer Island because it's fun with toddlers. Then maybe start using some fast passes for Fantasy Land rides. You could use a couple of fast passes before your afternoon break and then use another one when you come back. Alternatively, you could start in Fantasy Land in the morning and use some fast passes somewhere else in the afternoon. It doesn't really matter much! Go through the map of the park and figure out what is close together and map out your route for the day.

This is great!! Doing Fantasyland in the morning and fastpassing Adventureland was my original plan so i'm glad to hear that something like that has worked for you guys! I do like the idea of starting in Adventureland too. I may make two plans depending on fastpass availability.

The first thing that comes to mind, to me, is Peter Pan. Definitely FP+ that one. We rope dropped it due to the long lines I read about and still waited 30 min. Now, we were there Thanksgiving week 2015 - so, super busy - but I don't think I ever saw a standby line less than 90 min during our time at MK for that ride. Not sure how your little guy feels about characters, but I'd consider fast passing some of those as well. Take the phone and update FP+ on the go using the MDE app.

ETA: I guess I do know how your little guy feels about characters after reading your other responses above!
I hope he has a magical first visit!

Thank you so, so much!! This is great advice. I originally had planned to fastpass Peter Pan, but then decided not to and just do it first thing post rope drop, but knowing that it was still a long wait we will definitely fastpass this one for sure! I think Thanksgiving or not this one is always really busy, so that just helps reassure my plans. Thanks!