Mine Train FP not available until 6:45 PM, what to do?

[Straitlover]

I can't book my FPs for 6/21 until this Sunday (staying offsite). Right now on Touring Plans, it is showing that the earliest FP available is 6:45 PM. If I choose that as one of my three (assuming it's still available on Sunday), that means a good part of the day will have to be standby on rides. Also, they have the paid morning hour s thing at MK this day.

One of our party is a first timer, age 11, and this will be our only MK day unless we get a little time on another day to watch the night parade and fireworks. My original plan was to take a break during the day, but unless it's really hot that day, I don't think we should.

So, do I take the late FP for Mine Train, or do we try to rope drop it? I had planned on rope dropping Peter Pan. Think we could RD MT and then PP?

 

[cassie58]

When booked FP for last Dec at 60 days I could only get it at 9:00 at nt., but was glad to get it and not have to worry about running right there at RD. If it's available I would take it, and you can always switch it later. That one and A & E are the ones that are hardest to get usually, so you can get it and see if another time pops up as people change plans and finalize last minute. We were able to do it a second time on another day when one popped up the nt before for 3:30 pm, so it can even happen while you are there!
With the paid event that morning and people with pre park opening BOG brft ADRs going to SDMT, you might either opt for PP at RD, or FP that too, and head at RD to another land, and do BTMRR and Splash, or do SM and Buzz to get a few big ticket rides in before it's more crowded. As for a break, since you only have one day at MK, maybe take breaks around the park and cool off, like eating upstairs at CHH, doing Philharmagic and the People Mover, taking a ride on the Riverboat, and grabbing a Mickey bar or Dole Whip - all good for a Disney 1st timer to experience!

 

[tomatecerise]

Yesterday i Was able to book at 2:25pm for may 31, i Check often!

 

[bluezy]

I would book it so you know you have it. And then just keep checking to see if something earlier opens up. Doing 7DMT with a short wait at rope drop can be done, but it's challenging. You would need to be at MK by about 8:15 at the latest in order to position yourself as close to the rope as possible. And then when they actually start leading people through the park, you would need to be able to stay at the front of the pack. If you're more than about 300 people back, your wait will start to get lengthy and you'll be missing out on shorter lines at other attractions.

My suggestion would be to do rope drop (still arriving as close to 8:15 as possible) and head to Frontierland at first and hit Splash Mountain and BTMRR. Then head over to Pirates and Jungle Cruise followed by Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World (or whatever rides your group wants to do that have less than a 15 minute wait). Plan to eat an early lunch (you might have time for another ride or two before lunch) and schedule your other 2 FPs for maybe Peter Pan and Space Mountain for early afternoon. Then, during the afternoon try to focus on indoor attractions like Hall of Presidents, Mickey's Philharmagic, Carousel of Progress, Peoplemover, etc. Have an early dinner and then use your FP for 7DMT. At that point you can decide if you're finished with MK for the day or you can see what rides still have availability and schedule another FP.

OR....I would try to schedule those first 2 FPs for approximately 11:30-12:30 and 12:30-1:30 with the intention of using the first one close to 12:30 and the 2nd one as soon as possible after that. Then you could head back to your hotel for the afternoon and return to the park in time to use your 7DMT FP (or earlier if you want to have dinner first) and then take advantage of the lower crowds in the evening. If you can stay in the park until closing time, you'll find that the crowds really start to thin out once the nighttime parade and fireworks start.

When we were at MK last June, we used our 3 FPs by 1:15 and scheduled our 4th for ~7:00 so that we could go back to the resort for the afternoon. After returning to the park in the evening and using our 4th FP, we were able to schedule another 6 FPs over the next 2 hours. You can get a lot of rides in during the time that MSEP & Wishes are going on.