Need Help Planning A Magical FP+ Strategy for MK

[disneyguy87]

Hi all! I am taking my wife to Disney World in May and it is her first time going! I've been a couple of times, but have yet to see the Fantasyland Expansion so I am quite excited too. I've done A LOT of reading on FP+ strategies and recommendations.

I wanted to pitch my idea for the day and hopefully some of you can help me refine it or tell me if I am on the right or wrong track or just give some suggestions.

I don't want to rush any of the parks especially Magic Kingdom. I want my wife to enjoy it and take it in and not rush from ride to ride. I know she also won't want to stand on line all day (and neither do I!). Of course we expect to stand on lines but I want the day to feel seamless and fun. We are doing MK on the third day of our trip and Epcot on day two (day one is for rest and so we can hit a park when it opens as we won't be to the resort until around 10:30AM)

The Plan
The day we go to MK will have extended magic hours at night (+2 hours). Here's what I had in mind:

MORNING
- Get to MK before open (~8:15 - 8:30) and hang out in Main Street
- Rope drop Jungle Cruise, move on to Pirates then do Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Essentially spend the first two hours in Adventureland and Frontierland without FP)*
- FP 7 Dwarfs Mine Train | ~11 - 11:30

AFTERNOON
- Lunch
- FP Peter Pan's Flight ~12:30 - 1:30**
- FP Space Mountain ~ 1:30 - 2:30
- Checkout Fantasyland and Tomorrowland depending on FastPasses we pick up throughout the day.
- Check out Liberty Square - I want to see Muppets I heard show up around there for a show?
NOTE: Not sure if these times conflict with any parades that may be nice for her to see***

EVENING
- Dinner at Tony's 7PM
- Fireworks
- Haunted Mansion

*The reason I chose to do Jungle Cruise at Rope Drop is I don't want to FP this later and though I like the ride, neither of us will want to wait on this queue.

**Peter Pan's Flight is not one of my favorites by any means but I know if I don't FP it, she won't get to see it as there's no way we'd wait on line for it.

**(If you think we may miss something magical at those FP times please let me know. I wanted to spare our Fast Passes by rope dropping Adventure and Frontier Land and move at a somewhat leisurely pace while moving in order (Adventureland to Frontierland)

It's been 6-8 years since I've been to Disney so if I have my plan all wrong please let me know. I've read a lot of people go straight for Big Thunder Mountain but I feel like we'd be rushing for a ride rather than work our way over there. If you think we should do that then by all means let me know. Thanks!

 

[DWillowBay]

Your wife will be very blessed by your efforts. I know everyone will have opinions about tweeking things, but this looks like a fine plan. Have a great time.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I hope you realize that you can get additional FPs after the first three. We’re easily able to get 10-12 FPs at MK, and we rarely start much before 11 am.

Read up on some of the refresh strategies and you should be able have an enjoyable visit and avoid the long waits.

 

[ElsasFan]

I think overall, your strategy is good and the rides you have picked out are very good uses of FP+. I suggest that you either adjust the times a bit earlier in the day or make sure you are there to ride Space Mountain at the very beginning of the fastpasses window so you can see the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which is usually at 3:00 p.m. it is fantastic; I can’t overstate how well-done it is.

My strategy would be to move the seven dwarfs and Peter Pan fastpasses up; even if you did 10:00-11:00/11-12, you wouldn’t have to hit the first one until close to 11:00, and my experience is that the lines are usually getting longer by then. That being said, we tend to try to maximize the number of things we can do (even though every year we say we’re going to slow down), so that might feel a little more busy than you want your day to be. The upside would be that you could probably also move Space up a little earlier in the day, then start getting more fastpasses after the parade.

Have a great time! We love going in May because the crowds are still lighter than the summer and the Flower and Garden Festival is beautiful!

 

[Spencer Wright]

I always recommend starting at Frontierland and doing the mountains there, and then proceeding to Adventureland. I find Adventureland tends to fill up slightly later then other lands, so you should be able to still do Jungle Cruise without a horrible wait (depending on crowds of course).

I absolutely agree with moving up FP to 10 or 10:30.

This is an excellent strategy!

 

[disneyguy87]

Thank you all for your replies.

I forgot there's an hour window with FP so I will definitely book move all my FastPasses an hour earlier than planned. I do plan on adding FastPasses after my first 3 throughout the day so we can take it easy. We are skipping Splash Mountain because I admittedly hate giant drops (The only two rides I don't do at WDW is Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain). I get butterflies during the tiny drop at Pirates haha but I enjoy that. So we save some time by skipping Splash Mountain.

ElsasFan thank you for telling me about the parade, I will definitely work the schedule to see it! I want to catch moments like that for sure!

 

[snowwhite84]

Looks like a good plan! I would make your first FP for 10am-11am. Still do your two first hours in Adventure land/Frontier land, walk into first FP ride at 11am, followed by second FP ride in the 11am-12 slot, followed by third right at noon for the 12-1pm slot. This way you use up three in just about one hour and can start picking up new fastpasses by noon when you can stop for lunch.

Also have you eaten at Tony’s before? It gets mixed reviews. Would your wife enjoy Be Our Guest?

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

We are doing a similar plan next week. I’ll add, we enjoy Be Our Guest during lunch and it’s right over there by 7DMT. I set my Fastpasses up so align with lunch being in fantasyland. The castle needs to be experienced and even though you have to get a reservation, lunch there is comparable in price to most of the quick service restaurants.

 

[disneyguy87]

@snowwhite84 I was going to do this, but we weren't able to get the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train FP until 1:40 and I was booking as soon as 7AM EST hit! It's a little later than I had hoped but I fared better than I did for Slinky Dog Dash in Hollywood Studios, the earliest available was 5:30 (and that's the first thing we booked)! Luckily, Hollywood Studios doesn't appeal much in terms of rides so that is set to be our easier day, we will probably arrive an hour or two after park open.

@tinkerbelletreasure I also was trying to align my FP with lunch though I'm undecided where we will have it. We are planning two days at MK (one full day and one split with Epcot) and on our second trip to MK (Day 6 of 8) we have reservations at night at Be Our Guest which I got very luckily to find one. On the first night in MK we have a table at Tony's.

I did get lucky with AK getting Flight of Passage and finishing other fastpasses by 1PM.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions of moving things up, it helped with planning and wherever I had control to end them earlier I did. We have 60 days left to go!