My brain is fried and I really need help planning our day at MK (UPDATE: post #26)

[bernina]

I wanted to thank each of you for your input, it truly has helped me figure out what to do and I feel a lot more at ease! I will be hopefully working out the exact details of our plan today (I wish I didn't have to leave for work in 5 minutes!). The only thing I'm nervous about now is hoping the new FP times I want are available as I'm modifying our current selections. Thanks again everyone!

Best of luck and make sure to post your revised plan! It’s fun and helpful to see what others put in place.

 

[piratepride]

My only concern for you is that you may not be able to get those 7 fast passes for Space Mountain after you finish riding Splash Mountain.

 

[GillianP1301]

Here's how I would probably tackle it:

1) Rope Drop - You should be able to get to POC, BTMRR and SM within the fist hour and not need to use any fastpasses. I would do BTMRR first since it is the shortest of those 3 rides and you well be off and in line for SM within minutes. Then double back to POC. I would estimate you'd be done these by about 9:00am

2) I would then head to Haunted Mansion with an early FP (close to 9:00am as you can). It may not necessarily be needed, but you'll have it just in case and there really isn't anything else it would be more useful for later.

3) Then do your other Fantasyland attractions (Small World, Philharmagic). Should be 10:00ish at this point

4) Head to Tomorrowland with a Space Mountain FP (10:00 - 11:00).

5) The rest of your Tomorrowland attractions (CoP, TTA, Monsters Inc) + Buzz with a FP (11:00 - 12:00). Even facturing in a little bit of wait time for each you should still be able to get through all of these by noon and as soon as you've scanned your Buzz FP at 11:00 you can go onto the app and see if there are any other attractions you'd like to add on at that point.

6) Lunch at CHH


The risky part is if you don't get to the park for 8:00am or if the EMH is super busy, then the first step could go off the rails quickly. You could mitigate that by FP SM at 9:00am instead of HM and move the HM down to after your lunch on a same day FP.

 

[laurajetter]

I think you'll be fine heading over there right about 9:00. Whether you do Pirates or BTMRR, neither builds lines THAT fast. Unless they are closed at RD, which has happened to us and is a bummer.

Is there a reason they'd be closed at RD other than refurbishment or a breakdown? If they still hold off on opening certain rides even at the RD at their regular opening time, how can they expect people to plan anything? Sorry, just venting...

Do you know how frequent of an occurrence that is though, that rides still can be closed even at regular RD?

 

[ChristineOH]

Is there a reason they'd be closed at RD other than refurbishment or a breakdown? If they still hold off on opening certain rides even at the RD at their regular opening time, how can they expect people to plan anything? Sorry, just venting...

Do you know how frequent of an occurrence that is though, that rides still can be closed even at regular RD?

They should be open. Sometimes there's a problem getting a ride up and running and they open late. It's not normal or frequent, but it does happen.

 

[laurajetter]

REVISED PLAN! Tell me what you think...

Here is my tentative plan, based mostly on one of the suggested plans by a previous poster, which is the one I think will work best for us:

8am - RD Tomorrowland - Space Mountain, Buzz, Laugh Floor, CoP, TTA (not everyone will necessarily do everything together, and we may not get to all of these, but as 9am approaches we'll head over to the second RD for HM)
9 am - Haunted Mansion
10 am - PoC (FP 9:40-10:40)
11 am - BTMRR (FP 10:45-11:45)
12:10 pm - Splash (FP 12:10-1:10)
12:40 pm - Small World
1:15 pm - PhilharMagic
2:00 - Lunch at Columbia Harbour House (we prefer our lunch to be a bit on the late side)
3:30 - Laugh Floor or Buzz (4th FP?) (and any other Tomorrowland attractions we may have missed in the AM)

Some new questions I have:
1. Is the second RD (to get to HM in Liberty Square) usually right at 9am on the dot or do they sometimes open a little earlier?

2. Can someone tell me what the popularity is for Buzz Lightyear and Laugh Floor? I doubt we'll be able to do all the Tomorrowland items list above in the morning but by around 3:30pm we'll have more time to go back. Thinking of doing one in the morning if the line isn't too long and then getting a 4th FP later for the other one to come back to in the afternoon. Do you think it matters which one should be stand-by in the AM and which should be FP in the afternoon?

3. We will be eating a late lunch at Columbia Harbour House at about 2pm. I'm assuming we'll be done by 2:45 and then we'll be heading back to Tomorrowland. This seems like horrible timing though since the 3pm parade will be imminent. Can someone recommend the best route for us to take to walk back? I know it can't be totally avoided, but I don't want to randomly pick a route we think will work and find out it's completely blocked. We've never been parade fans and I'm completely unfamiliar with the general route it takes, what areas might be blocked off and how to negotiate walking around/through it to get to the other side. Any help with this is greatly appreciated!

 

[ChristineOH]

You have a lot of "dead" time in your schedule. You've allowed for an hour to do PoC, when it will probably be around 30 minutes. And an hour for BTMRR when it will likely be 20 minutes. Splash on the other hand usually takes around 40 minutes in the FP line.

I'd move iasw to after HM. The line can be long later, though you could get it as a 4th. Following your current plan, we would fit lunch in at CHH after BTMRR. We are always hungry early if we have done a rope drop, especially an early one.

If really do not want to eat lunch early, I would do your FP differently.

9:00 HM
9:30 iasw
10:00 PoC FP+(make this near the end of the window if you can, like 9:15 to 10:15)
10:30 Splash FP+ (try for 10:15 to 11:15)
11:15 BTMRR FP+ (try for 11:15 to 12:15)
11:45 Philharmagic
If you're really not ready for lunch you can see what you can get for a 4th... say Jungle Cruise... or head over to TSI or do Hall of Presidents.

ETA: Even if you have to stretch out the transportation time because of the ECVs, you still should be done with what you have planned well before 2:00.

 

[laurajetter]

You have a lot of "dead" time in your schedule. You've allowed for an hour to do PoC, when it will probably be around 30 minutes. And an hour for BTMRR when it will likely be 20 minutes. Splash on the other hand usually takes around 40 minutes in the FP line.

I'd move iasw to after HM. The line can be long later, though you could get it as a 4th. Following your current plan, we would fit lunch in at CHH after BTMRR. We are always hungry early if we have done a rope drop, especially an early one.

If really do not want to eat lunch early, I would do your FP differently.

9:00 HM
9:30 iasw
10:00 PoC FP+(make this near the end of the window if you can, like 9:15 to 10:15)
10:30 Splash FP+ (try for 10:15 to 11:15)
11:15 BTMRR FP+ (try for 11:15 to 12:15)
11:45 Philharmagic
If you're really not ready for lunch you can see what you can get for a 4th... say Jungle Cruise... or head over to TSI or do Hall of Presidents.

ETA: Even if you have to stretch out the transportation time because of the ECVs, you still should be done with what you have planned well before 2:00.

Wow, thanks for reviewing this for me, it's really helpful! I know I probably have too much cushion time; when figuring it out I guess it was a mixture of not being familiar with how long the waits would be in late June even with the FPs and I wanted to err on the side of caution, plus our group gets around a bit slowly with the older folk in the ECVs, probably a lot of bathroom breaks, other members get distracted by merchandise stores and souvenir shops, etc. Overall I'm trying to avoid it feeling like I'm constantly on everyone's tail to keep moving, but I do appreciate you telling me you think there is too much dead space... I really don't want that either so I might reconsider.

The late lunch isn't set in stone either, I had been thinking it would be a way to avoid the lunch rush and be less crowded at the restaurant, but you made a good point that we will most likely be hungry earlier in the day. Plus, if we eat earlier then it will avoid the issue of us getting stuck in the parade crowd.

Thanks again! Now I'm off to tweak it a bit...

 

[ChristineOH]

The late lunch isn't set in stone either, I had been thinking it would be a way to avoid the lunch rush and be less crowded at the restaurant, but you made a good point that we will most likely be hungry earlier in the day. Plus, if we eat earlier then it will avoid the issue of us getting stuck in the parade crowd.

Thanks again! Now I'm off to tweak it a bit...

You could leave it as is, and if you're running ahead of schedule, eat after BTMRR, before Splash. And if you're not, eat later. That way you can keep the same plan, but still be flexible. There's a way to work with it either way.

I know all about shopping and bathrooms sidetracking people!

 

[Asherry25]

I would not use one of my first 3 FP on POTC...I can’t think of a time in the last 5 summers where I have not been able to get that ride (or IASW) as a 4th (or subsequent) FP within 20 minutes of the current time.