Please critique my plans for magic kingdom!

[Disney1stTimer90]

Hello! This is our first time going to disney (as adults) for my husband and I, and we are going with our 3 kids (all girls - ages 7, 4, 2). This is our overall day/schedule, but specifically want help with any feedback on MK. We are staying at polynesian (resort view) room. I included our current dining reservations

Day 1/arrival: dinner at chef mickey's 5:30pm (wanted to try and knock out some characters before we hit the parks)
Day 2: Magic kingdom: lunch OR dinner at BOG (have to cancel 1, or both)
Day 3: Hollywood Studios: fantsmic dining package at 50's prime time
Day 4: Resort/Rest Day: ohana breakfast
Day 5: Animal Kingdom: dinner at Boma at AKL
Day 6: Epcot: Lunch at Arkeshus
Day 7: travel home

Magic Kingdom: I want to rope drop and do early entry, but I'm worrying that I'm trying to squeeze in too much into one day, and it being our first day at the park. Also our youngest/middle won't be able to fit the height requirements for the bigger stuff (like tron, space mountain, 7 DMT) and I also am not a fan of roller coasters effect on my stomach, so I'm not super worried about prioritizing those for our entire family.

EE Rope Drop: Peter Pan's Flight
2nd Rope Drop: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
(then head over to adventureland for hopeful LL slots below)
Ahead LL preferences - really just want these if I'm able to get them all early in the morning, and close together.
(earliest time) Tier 2: Haunted Mansion
Tier 1: Jungle Cruise
Tier 3: Pirate's of the Caribbean

I'd hope to be done with all of these rides, as well as any early morning coffee/snack breaks before 11:00AM which is when we'd head over to Fantasyland. I'd love to take the railroad from adventureland to FL, but if it has a long standby wait, we'd just walk.

11:30 AM - tentative reservation at BOG (how long does this meal usually take?)

1:00 PM - done with BOG (?) - either hit a short standby ride or do some shopping/perusing around
1:30 PM - find a parade spot and wait
2:00 PM - We'd love to be able to see the parade

Between 2:30/2:45 - 7:00PM hoping for LL's on any of these below, but prioritizing Fantasyland including:
Barnstormer
Under the Sea
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor or Tomorrowland speedway

We are also totally okay with getting individual LL's for Tron, 7DMT, and VQ for Tiana's; but again, my husband and oldest or two oldest would be the ones riding those. While I'd love to see Cinderella/Belle/Ariel at MK since we have princess meal at epcot on our last day, I don't want to bank on wasting time in line. Unfortunately CRT is totally booked out for our day in MK.

I know SO much of the above will be dependent on a lot of unknown factors: weather, any rides breaking down, LL's not available ahead of time, what my kids end up liking/hating (if they absolutely lose their sh*t on dark/indoor rides, we'd probably have to skip those!) I'm just generally curious if I'm going totally down the wrong path of prioritizing the items above and instead should focus on fantasyland/tomorrowland for first half of the day, then hope I can fill my LL's for the adventureland attractions for afternoon/evening.

 

[Mouse Tracker]

Looks good to me. Right amount of mix and expectations for a first timer.

As long as you understand LLMP is an added expense, pre booking may help achieve your initial morning goals. Later day availability is unknown (not knowing your trip date). Some of the afternoon rides may not need LL.

I think how your kids handle the first couple of queues will help you know how the day will go. Haunted Mansion is an underground dark queue ( could be intimidating to youngsters).

I'd do BOG as a dinner, middle of the day will eat up time and interrupt "flow".

Anticipate burning time getting through security and tapping in, try to reduce what your bringing in to a minimum.

 

[EACarlson]

1st thing, how early is your flight in on arrival day and where are you coming from? Unless it's someplace with multiple options and you're planning on early, I wouldn't do Chef Mickey on arrival day. Too much stress if things start going wrong. I've had 3 hour layovers turn into overnights due to a missed connection.
Next, when is your trip? This looks mostly fine if it's an off time, really busy times you probably aren't going to get all of them.
I would say almost no chance of getting LL for those three rides in the morning if you're only booking 8 days out.
I don't see any down time built into this. With a 2 and 4 year old, they're going to need it. That 1-2pm is going to be unbearable trying to get two kids that age to stay calm while waiting for the parade.

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

1st thing, how early is your flight in on arrival day and where are you coming from? Unless it's someplace with multiple options and you're planning on early, I wouldn't do Chef Mickey on arrival day. Too much stress if things start going wrong. I've had 3 hour layovers turn into overnights due to a missed connection.
Next, when is your trip? This looks mostly fine if it's an off time, really busy times you probably aren't going to get all of them.
I would say almost no chance of getting LL for those three rides in the morning if you're only booking 8 days out.
I don't see any down time built into this. With a 2 and 4 year old, they're going to need it. That 1-2pm is going to be unbearable trying to get two kids that age to stay calm while waiting for the parade.

We are going Feb 19th - 25th (I know it is week of President's day break, and the princess run events the following weekend, but there were no alternate dates to fit a trip in for work for me). We have a 2 hour direct flight, are scheduled to land at MCO a little before noon, and our reservation for chef mickey's is at 5:20pm. I think if we have any concerns about not making our meal time, we will just cancel it before our 2 hour cancellation time, right? I thought the girls would like seeing the monorail and passing by MK on our first day to get them excited about park day.

Thank you for the feedback on if it's busy (which it will be!) to fit all these in, I will have some back up priority of rides if we most likely won't get them!

I figure out BOG meal time of 11:30 - 1:00 PM would be our downtime? If we don't keep that reservation our plan is to have that as our slowdown break from 11:30am - 2pm parade. If we don't do BOG we'd find a sit down casual spot.
My 4 y/o won't nap, and my 2 year old is 3 in March and also understand that we may need to be flexible if they're showing signs of frustration, exhaustion, etc. They will both be in a double stroller as much of the day as possible, and I'm sure every parent says this, but they're usually pretty good/patient. (We've done multiple 10+ hr drives to east coast with no tablets in the car). If they are having trouble, we'll divide and conquer and I'll bring them to something else while dad stays with our oldest!

Thank you for the feedback! LMK if you think of anything else I have a travel agent/person but she's not really "critical" of what I'm suggesting, so I don't want it sugarcoated lol.

 

[EACarlson]

It's going to be packed and I would be shocked if you could get any of your first choices for LL in the morning. I don't see BOG as downtime, there is still a lot going on all around you, and I've only been there for Breakfast. Since you're at Poly, I'd go with the three or four hours in the morning, jump on the monorail and head back to the room. While the 4 year old doesn't normally nap, the excitement of the first day at WDW and I'm sure more steps than they are used to will factor into it. How important is the parade to you? Do you want to see the fireworks at night?

Is there another flight that gets you from your originating airport to MCO by 3pm? That would be what I would look for before making the Chef Mickey reservation, but you seem to understand that circumstances may alter that plan and are ok with that. OT, but I hate seeing here people that act like it's the end of the world when they can't make their dinner reservation they booked for two hours after their flight was scheduled to land. Yes they can make it if everything goes right, but if anything goes wrong they are going to miss it.

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

Looks good to me. Right amount of mix and expectations for a first timer.

As long as you understand LLMP is an added expense, pre booking may help achieve your initial morning goals. Later day availability is unknown (not knowing your trip date). Some of the afternoon rides may not need LL.

I think how your kids handle the first couple of queues will help you know how the day will go. Haunted Mansion is an underground dark queue ( could be intimidating to youngsters).

I'd do BOG as a dinner, middle of the day will eat up time and interrupt "flow".

Anticipate burning time getting through security and tapping in, try to reduce what your bringing in to a minimum.

Thank you !! Our other BOG time slot is 7pm, I worry then we'll miss the fireworks? No other times available (right now) for earlier dinner.

And yes I've budgeted in LLMP, as well as single LL passes for all of the parks - we won't use those for each one, but it's on my list.

For EE if it's at 8:30am (9am park opening), I'm hoping to leave on monorail right when it opens (between 7:30-8am), and will adjust depending on when MK opens for us that day.

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

It's going to be packed and I would be shocked if you could get any of your first choices for LL in the morning. I don't see BOG as downtime, there is still a lot going on all around you, and I've only been there for Breakfast. Since you're at Poly, I'd go with the three or four hours in the morning, jump on the monorail and head back to the room. While the 4 year old doesn't normally nap, the excitement of the first day at WDW and I'm sure more steps than they are used to will factor into it. How important is the parade to you? Do you want to see the fireworks at night?

Is there another flight that gets you from your originating airport to MCO by 3pm? That would be what I would look for before making the Chef Mickey reservation, but you seem to understand that circumstances may alter that plan and are ok with that. OT, but I hate seeing here people that act like it's the end of the world when they can't make their dinner reservation they booked for two hours after their flight was scheduled to land. Yes they can make it if everything goes right, but if anything goes wrong they are going to miss it.

we land in Orlando at 12pm/Noon ! So i think we'll have plenty of time as long as our flight isn't delayed.

NBD if we miss parade; if weather is reasonable, kids are handling everything ok, then we'll go, if not, we will skip. Similar with fireworks, I know my kids would prefer fireworks over parade but if we're having major issues then we'll adjust. And poly huge advantage is being able to take a break if we need to, so if we feel like we do, we will - but I'm not banking on it unless it's unbearably hot, and they say they prefer it.

HS being the next day, with not as much on our wish list will hopefully be a 'slower' day for us.

 

[Miffy]

Just to comment on these picks for LLs:
Barnstormer
Under the Sea
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor or Tomorrowland speedway

One never needs an LL for PhilharMagic and hardly ever for Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.

Barnstormer and Under the Sea are often walk-ons, but not always. However the wait for Barnstormer is never long, since the ride itself lasts maybe a minute, at most.

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

Just to comment on these picks for LLs:
Barnstormer
Under the Sea
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Buzz Lightyear's Ranger Spin
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor or Tomorrowland speedway

One never needs an LL for PhilharMagic and hardly ever for Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor.

Barnstormer and Under the Sea are often walk-ons, but not always. However the wait for Barnstormer is never long, since the ride itself lasts maybe a minute, at most.

Thanks so much!

 

[Mouse Tracker]

NBD if we miss parade; if weather is reasonable, kids are handling everything ok, then we'll go, if not, we will skip. Similar with fireworks, I know my kids would prefer fireworks over parade but if we're having major issues then we'll adjust. And poly huge advantage is being able to take a break if we need to, so if we feel like we do, we will - but I'm not banking on it unless it's unbearably hot, and they say they prefer it.

Agree with Poly advantage, fireworks from there is an option too.

I like your style, you have done well.

 

[AleaDaisy]

Magic Kingdom: I want to rope drop and do early entry, but I'm worrying that I'm trying to squeeze in too much into one day, and it being our first day at the park. Also our youngest/middle won't be able to fit the height requirements for the bigger stuff (like tron, space mountain, 7 DMT) and I also am not a fan of roller coasters effect on my stomach, so I'm not super worried about prioritizing those for our entire family.

Early Entry: Wanted to reply specifically to this part. I like your plan here. My family is really similar--few coasters, kiddo not a huge fan of anything scary. Day 1 actually is when I 100% WOULD recommend doing the early entry bit because your kids will likely be so beyond excited for everything. By Day 3, I had a little more trouble dragging people out of bed!

On our last trip in May, we did EE Peter Pan (don't be afraid of the line in Fantasyland. It's a mob, but almost everyone is going to 7DMT), probably about a 15 minute wait in the line. I'm checking time stamps, and I see we were in line for Winnie the Pooh by 8:56am. Both those rides have super fun queues for kids (bring hand sanitizer though!) so I didn't want to waste a line skip if I could knock them out early. We stayed in Fantasyland (did Under the Sea, Dumbo, Carousel, and Teacups), finishing up around noon with a snack in there. Admittedly, that was a low crowd time in May. But knocking out Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh was key -- those get a bit longer.

Parade: I think the parade is actually at 3pm, not 2pm. I could be 100% wrong on this but we're going the first week of Feb and I just checked. Parade times through the end of January are loaded and they are at 3pm. I believe it's only 2pm during party season (August to Dec). Either way -- we'll both want to check that as we get closer to our trips!

Have fun planning!

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

Early Entry: Wanted to reply specifically to this part. I like your plan here. My family is really similar--few coasters, kiddo not a huge fan of anything scary. Day 1 actually is when I 100% WOULD recommend doing the early entry bit because your kids will likely be so beyond excited for everything. By Day 3, I had a little more trouble dragging people out of bed!

On our last trip in May, we did EE Peter Pan (don't be afraid of the line in Fantasyland. It's a mob, but almost everyone is going to 7DMT), probably about a 15 minute wait in the line. I'm checking time stamps, and I see we were in line for Winnie the Pooh by 8:56am. Both those rides have super fun queues for kids (bring hand sanitizer though!) so I didn't want to waste a line skip if I could knock them out early. We stayed in Fantasyland (did Under the Sea, Dumbo, Carousel, and Teacups), finishing up around noon with a snack in there. Admittedly, that was a low crowd time in May. But knocking out Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh was key -- those get a bit longer.

Parade: I think the parade is actually at 3pm, not 2pm. I could be 100% wrong on this but we're going the first week of Feb and I just checked. Parade times through the end of January are loaded and they are at 3pm. I believe it's only 2pm during party season (August to Dec). Either way -- we'll both want to check that as we get closer to our trips!

Have fun planning!

Yes! Since we're doing HS the next day, we're less likely to need to rope drop that one, as there just simply isn't enough rides for us to want to go on (really only care about toy story and the pixar characters, as well as beauty and the beast and frozen shows). We'll still try to go earlyish, but not going to overdo it. Then we have a rest day, and animal kingdom will be an earlier day too but it'll end sooner. Epcot being our last day would be an early one too, but our flight out on our last day is at a decent time as well.

Yes thanks about the parade! I keep checking the app but didn't realize I could go ahead and see times then which may change? maybe not - i'm not sure !

have you ever done the fireworks dessert packages?

 

[AleaDaisy]

have you ever done the fireworks dessert packages?

We did! We did a fireworks pre-party last trip and are doing another this trip. It's one big expense but, for us, worth it. We have family members who struggle with crowds, so the fireworks party helps with that.

I've heard various folks say it's not worth it, but..... if you drink alcohol, you get free wine or beer. And if you're my kid, you get to eat your body weight in desserts.

In terms of the pre versus post versus seat/sweets parties, we've done the pre both times because my kid doesn't stay up late well. And the seats and sweets view wasn't as appealing to me. For the 9pm fireworks in May, I believe we checked in around 7:15pm, ate ridiculous amounts of sugar for an hour fifteen, then headed to the garden, around 8:30pm. But for Feb, not sure if fireworks are going to be 8pm or 9pm, so move everything up an hour if it's an 8pm show.

That is a really long day, though, especially for the younger kids. If you end up watching from the Poly, that's still absolutely going to be wonderful.

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

We did! We did a fireworks pre-party last trip and are doing another this trip. It's one big expense but, for us, worth it. We have family members who struggle with crowds, so the fireworks party helps with that.

I've heard various folks say it's not worth it, but..... if you drink alcohol, you get free wine or beer. And if you're my kid, you get to eat your body weight in desserts.

In terms of the pre versus post versus seat/sweets parties, we've done the pre both times because my kid doesn't stay up late well. And the seats and sweets view wasn't as appealing to me. For the 9pm fireworks in May, I believe we checked in around 7:15pm, ate ridiculous amounts of sugar for an hour fifteen, then headed to the garden, around 8:30pm. But for Feb, not sure if fireworks are going to be 8pm or 9pm, so move everything up an hour if it's an 8pm show.

That is a really long day, though, especially for the younger kids. If you end up watching from the Poly, that's still absolutely going to be wonderful.

Thank you ! Yeah i'm so torn lol the pre-party that is available says 6:30pm start time, and then post-party is 7pm. I like the idea of doing post party where we can grab a mobile order nearby at Casey's or somewhere else, park it on the lawn and wait. Then go have some sweets/a drink while the chaos of the park of people leaving? Right now the calendar online says fireworks are at 8pm but not sure how reliable that is.

I'd also have to really pick between a dessert party and then lunch at be our guest; we could potentially do both, but it's a lot of $ for one day. Also my husband will eat a ton but only for one meal, so if we did QS or casual dining during the day, then he'd have some room for sweets at the end.

 

[erinch]

I used a paid dining ressie finder, and several CRTs came up on the day I wanted. I wouldn’t give up on CRT. If you got that, then you could do something else at Epcot.

 

[HeiHei2018]

I would recommend knocking out all your must do’s early in the day in case you need to bail early with one or more of the kids. On our last trip, DD and I were killing time before fireworks and waited to meet Rapunzel. Children were sobbing from exhaustion in the line at 8:45.

DD was 4 or 5 on our first trip and also in the no nap era. I carried her out of the park literally screaming at 6:45 pm when she hit the wall. She was a trooper until then but just hit the limit of exhaustion. (She also was typically good on long drives, but Disney is a different set of stimuli.) Back then, we could see glimmers of the HS fireworks from the All Stars balconies, and she thought that fireworks view was amazing (wearing her Elsa nightgown). So fireworks from Poly in PJs may be the most amazing memory (and keep you all sane for the rest of the week).

It sounds like you are ready to be flexible, so I am sure you will have fun in whatever path you land in!

 

[Goofygirl514]

I have kids all around the same ages and we did President’s Day Weekend previously and had a blast. None of them like big coasters so we were able to knock out a lot of the non height restricted rides in the morning with little waits. Everything else I was able to get through Lightning Lane. My youngest doesn’t do well in lines so we never did any waits more than 20 min.

Just personal opinion but we’ve done BOG for lunch and dinner and I prefer it for dinner much more. The meal is kind of heavy and the lightning is dim so we all walked out of there ready for a nap when we did it for lunch.

 

[lentesta]

Hello! This is our first time going to disney (as adults) for my husband and I, and we are going with our 3 kids (all girls - ages 7, 4, 2). This is our overall day/schedule, but specifically want help with any feedback on MK. We are staying at polynesian (resort view) room. I included our current dining reservations

Day 1/arrival: dinner at chef mickey's 5:30pm (wanted to try and knock out some characters before we hit the parks)
Day 2: Magic kingdom: lunch OR dinner at BOG (have to cancel 1, or both)
Day 3: Hollywood Studios: fantsmic dining package at 50's prime time
Day 4: Resort/Rest Day: ohana breakfast
Day 5: Animal Kingdom: dinner at Boma at AKL
Day 6: Epcot: Lunch at Arkeshus
Day 7: travel home

Magic Kingdom: I want to rope drop and do early entry, but I'm worrying that I'm trying to squeeze in too much into one day, and it being our first day at the park. Also our youngest/middle won't be able to fit the height requirements for the bigger stuff (like tron, space mountain, 7 DMT) and I also am not a fan of roller coasters effect on my stomach, so I'm not super worried about prioritizing those for our entire family.

EE Rope Drop: Peter Pan's Flight
2nd Rope Drop: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
(then head over to adventureland for hopeful LL slots below)
Ahead LL preferences - really just want these if I'm able to get them all early in the morning, and close together.
(earliest time) Tier 2: Haunted Mansion
Tier 1: Jungle Cruise
Tier 3: Pirate's of the Caribbean

This looks like a solid plan.

I looked back at when we tested different MK opening strategies to see if Small World might be a good second choice. But it looks like it had moderate waits into late morning. But if you happen to finish Pan & Pooh with ~15 minutes to spare before park open, it might be a good third choice just to avoid the walk.

Last month, and prior to Big Thunder's closure, we observed a fairly sizeable rope-drop crowd for Jungle Cruise of around 280 people. Pirates was much fewer people at rope drop. We counted a lull in guest arrivals at Jungle Cruise starting around 10:45 am, so that might be an option.

Good luck!

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

This looks like a solid plan.

I looked back at when we tested different MK opening strategies to see if Small World might be a good second choice. But it looks like it had moderate waits into late morning. But if you happen to finish Pan & Pooh with ~15 minutes to spare before park open, it might be a good third choice just to avoid the walk.

Last month, and prior to Big Thunder's closure, we observed a fairly sizeable rope-drop crowd for Jungle Cruise of around 280 people. Pirates was much fewer people at rope drop. We counted a lull in guest arrivals at Jungle Cruise starting around 10:45 am, so that might be an option.

Good luck!

This is super helpful, thank you! And yes if we have time we'd jump over to small world too. I'm hopeful that if we get JC on our LLs in the first half of the day, that would be good enough for me. I know Pirates and HM are super popular, but i'm wary as to how much my kids would like it, compared to all of the other rides in fantasyland/tmrwland

 

[Disney1stTimer90]

I used a paid dining ressie finder, and several CRTs came up on the day I wanted. I wouldn’t give up on CRT. If you got that, then you could do something else at Epcot.

our disney travel agent/guide said she'd let us know if anything gets canceled that day, do you think we should also add the '************' reservation system? It says it's $12 to add an alert, which I'd pay, but not if it's the same thing our agent has.