One Epic Day at MK - has Universal Express spoiled us forever? Tickets are here!!!

[sharona]

Here are our plans for our one day at MK. If you're interested, my full PTR can be found on the Universal forum here: http://www.disboards.com/threads/pr...-fl-keys-universal-and-wdw-4-18-4-27.3384558/

Made our FP+ reservations last night at midnight for our epic 1 day at MK! Managed to get early FP for 7DMT despite only having 30 day access thanks to some strategy posts on the Theme Parks board advising to choose FPs separately instead of together. Checking for 1 person at a time really opened up so many more possibilities. I grabbed a 11:05am-12:05 pm slot for DD and found a 11:10-12:10 slot for me so plenty of overlap there for us to ride together. I was really undecided on whether we wanted our FPs for early afternoon or after dinner. Our other 2 FPs are for BTMRR and Splash. In the end I booked them for early afternoon with the thought that I can always change them to later when we're at the park if the waits are low and we don't want to waste them or if we decide we'd prefer to ride at night. I've been checking same day FP availability at MK for the past week or so around 2pm each day and there have been plenty of BTMRR and Splash evening times open despite the Spring Break crowds. Hopefully that will hold true next month as well.

Here is how our MK plan is shaping up:

• Breakfast at Crystal Palace pre rope drop. I was worried about how DD12 would feel about a character breakfast and $30 pp is a lot so now that I've bought the park tickets and committed to the day, I told her about the ADR to make sure she wanted to do it. She is surprisingly excited to see the characters and is already planning what to wear (the Pooh shirt she got at the Disney store a few weeks ago). What time should we leave RPR to get to MK by 7:45? We're driving and will valet park at the Contemporary.

• We'll ride some stuff at RD before the crowds set in. We'll probably head first to Frontier Land then make our way over to see all the new Fantasyland stuff that wasn't there when we last visited in 2010.

• No lunch after that big breakfast - just snacks since we're planning a very early dinner offsite. One of our favorite snacks is the Cinnamon rolls from Main St. bakery. I've seen pics of the ones from Gaston's and they look just as yummy. That will do me just fine!

• Starting around 11:45 we'll use our FPs for 7DMT, BTMRR, Splash then make our way out of the park (I'd like to be out of there by 2, our Splash FP window starts at 1:20pm so this should work). Stopping at the FP kiosk to grab a 4th FP for that night. Probably BTMRR again as it's fun and different after dark.

• Back to RPR to put our feet up and relax so we can have the energy to stay at MK until midnight! Love the parks at night, especially MK! A refreshing shower and 30-45 minutes of down time usually does it for us.

• We'll have dinner either at RPR or somewhere in Orlando on our way back to MK arriving about 6 (parking again at CR valet)

• When we get back to MK we're going to enjoy some of the attractions we usually rush past like People Mover, Carousel, Monsters Inc. etc. We plan to shop and explore and just soak it all in. No pressure to maximize our # of rides as we'll be getting plenty of that at UOR. We'll either ride some things during the first parade then find a spot for Wishes and watch the 11pm MSEP or catch the 9pm MSEP and use that last hour to ride some things that we missed, depending on where we are at 9 and the crowds.

I like the way this plan has shaped up but we are definitely open to any suggestions or input. So excited to be in MK again and trying not to be too unhappy about the new FP system. Back in the old FP days we would have collected FPs during the morning and been riding all night with no waits! Oh well, change is inevitable and resistance if futile! We're going to embrace a new pace!
Have our recent visits to Universal with Express Pass spoiled us forever? Will the nostalgia factor at MK make us want more WDW? We'll soon find out!