MK morning thoughts

[esquire]

I am thinking about our Magic Kingdom day - Tuesday May 30. Travel party is myself, husband, daughter age 11, son age 8. We have been once before, pre magic bands and fast pass plus.

We have fastpasses in the afternoon for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Enchanted Tales With Belle. Our first fast pass is (I believe) 1:55 pm. We have a PPO reservation at Crystal Palace.

I am wondering how to structure our morning. I don't expect to be finished eating by rope drop, and I don't want to feel rushed. That's why we did fastpasses for the afternoon. Our general thought would be to start at the Adventureland side of the park and work our way clockwise. My goal is to do Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Splash, and Haunted Mansion, but I don't know what the best order would be (we probably will not be doing BTMRR). At first we thought we'd go to HM first, but we will be pretty close to Jungle Cruise, so should we start there?

We know Fantasyland is crazy, so we thought trying a more relaxed approach on the other side of the park might be beneficial. Other things we'd like to do on our MK day include meet Tiana/Rapunzel, Philharmagic, Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, Teacups, and Small World. We have done some of the other things and are ok with missing out on them. We are also not huge roller coaster people (my daughter and I did Space Mountain last time and I can live without it).

Thoughts? Where would you head first?

 

[WayTooExcited]

I think I read somewhere once that you should start in Adventureland and work your way around, because, as you said, everyone is either headed to Fantasyland first, or headed to the right side of the park, as is their natural inclination. I think your plan is sound.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I like your plan and it's somewhat fresh in my mind. We rope dropped MK last Saturday morning and headed towards BTMR first. I love that part of the park early, so easy to get around. If I had really put our minds to it, we could have done everything you say in that first hour or so pretty easily.

The only thing I'd maybe suggest is not lingering too long at CP. No need to rush, but don't let it eat too much into the park time either. Ask for the bill early, etc. Not sure what time your ADR is to start with, but I'd get there as early as you can regardless.

 

[Klayfish]

I think your plan seems fine, but I wouldn't be as concerned with trying to avoid Fantasyland in the morning. Like you said, it's typically always busy. It feels even busier because some of the spots are more narrow, such as the walkway where PP and Small World are. However, some of the rides there don't have super long lines, so you wouldn't deal with the hustle and bustle when you're not walking between rides.

To me, there's no real "wrong" way to go, as long as you're not crisscrossing the park over and over.

 

[disneyvoice]

I actually think it works best to do Fantasyland as early as possible (but NOT 7DMT). I always feel like it is swamped after about 10:00. We typically get FP+ for the major headliners for sometime in the later afternoon (things like 7DMT, BTMRR, Splash and Space Mountains) but do all the other Fantasyland attractions (except Philharmagic which we do in the middle of the day) as soon as the park opens and we breeze through the lines even during the busiest times of the year. Then we head to the other popular attractions and decide if the lines are reasonable and do as many of those as possible. During mid day and early evening we then do our FPs and the minor attractions/large capacity seating attractions. But, honestly, there are so many different ways you can successfully tour. I think, in general, as long as you have some kind of plan you will be happy.

 

[biochemgirl]

I am thinking about our Magic Kingdom day - Tuesday May 30. Travel party is myself, husband, daughter age 11, son age 8. We have been once before, pre magic bands and fast pass plus.

We have fastpasses in the afternoon for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Enchanted Tales With Belle. Our first fast pass is (I believe) 1:55 pm. We have a PPO reservation at Crystal Palace.

I am wondering how to structure our morning. I don't expect to be finished eating by rope drop, and I don't want to feel rushed. That's why we did fastpasses for the afternoon. Our general thought would be to start at the Adventureland side of the park and work our way clockwise. My goal is to do Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Splash, and Haunted Mansion, but I don't know what the best order would be (we probably will not be doing BTMRR). At first we thought we'd go to HM first, but we will be pretty close to Jungle Cruise, so should we start there?

We know Fantasyland is crazy, so we thought trying a more relaxed approach on the other side of the park might be beneficial. Other things we'd like to do on our MK day include meet Tiana/Rapunzel, Philharmagic, Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, Teacups, and Small World. We have done some of the other things and are ok with missing out on them. We are also not huge roller coaster people (my daughter and I did Space Mountain last time and I can live without it).

Thoughts? Where would you head first?

It was busy when we visited Spring Break (last week of March) and it seemed like Haunted Mansion didn't build up much of a line until closer to 11am with 9am opening. Also, Pirates always seemed to lag behind as the crowds built. So my plan would be breakfast, Jungle Cruise, Splash, Pirates, Haunted Mansion.

I hope you have a great trip!

 

[bnhonest]

Do your fastpasses earlier. What time is your ADR? Set up your first FP time right when you expect to be coming out of breakfast. The quicker you get to FP #3, the quicker you can schedule FP#4.

If you come out of breakfast at 9:30 and your FP window starts right then, it at least gives you options. If JC is already sitting at 30 minutes or worse, use your FP. But if JC or Pirates is at 10 minutes, then you know you'll have time to do one or two of those before your FP window expires.

 

[lynzi2004]

I would definitely start in Adventureland and work your way around. I think you will find you can do JC, Pirates, Splash, and HM probably by 11am. I would think a 25-30min wait at Small World by 11am and probably the same for Teacups. Those are both easy 4 and 5th FP so either wait the 30 min, or go on to Tomorrowland and do Peoplemover, Carousel of Progress, and maybe come back to Philharmagic right before your FP start at 2pm. After you tap your last FP, go on MDE and look for Teacups or Small World if you haven't done them!

Edit to Add: Looking back over your original post, I see you are wanting to do the Tiana/Rapunzel meet. I don't know what extra FP availability looks like for them, but just know it may be a 45ish+ minute wait by mid-afternoon.

 

[Trap]

start with jc then potc then sm and last hm

 

[esquire]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think we are in good shape for what we want to do. The Tiana/Rapunzel meet is definitely not a "must do" but it would be nice.

Our ADR is at 8:30. I have been unable to get it any earlier, but we are planning to get there as early as we can anyway.

The reason we are prioritizing that side of the park is this: last time, we had two MK days (this time only one) and by the time we got to those attractions, we were zonked. I felt like I didn't really appreciate them in the same way because by then (day 6) I was so overstimulated - especially Pirates and Splash. Last time we were able to use the paper fastpasses to our advantage and did several things in Fantasyland more than once.

 

[MainMom]

We were there last June, party of 4, and I found I was able to easily get FP's for Dumbo, tea cups, Philharmagic, buzz lightyear even Pooh in the evening as 4th and beyond. We rode dumbo so many times I lost count.