So how different is it now, really?

[DrHfuhruhurr]

In June, we're returning to WDW for the first time in over five years. I'm curious how much the present crowd levels (and FP+ changes, I guess) have affected older touring plans (i.e., circa 2007 or earlier).

I've been to WDW somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 times, and I have always, always, ALWAYS hit Magic Kingdom at rope drop and headed straight to Fantasyland. There has never been an occasion where we didn't knock out everything in that area in ~an hour (by "everything," I guess I mean: Peter Pan, Snow White (gone now), Mr. Toad/Pooh, Small World and Dumbo. In every case, it was always a walk straight onto the ride (except maybe Dumbo, where we might have to wait 10 minutes or so). After the Fantasyland Blitz, we would usually move around to Haunted Mansion and go from there.

Is this still possible? I don't mind switching things around and heading another direction in the morning, but it will feel odd. It's always been great to be done with Fantasyland in short order after the park opens.

 

[tink20]

In June, we're returning to WDW for the first time in over five years. I'm curious how much the present crowd levels (and FP+ changes, I guess) have affected older touring plans (i.e., circa 2007 or earlier).

I've been to WDW somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 times, and I have always, always, ALWAYS hit Magic Kingdom at rope drop and headed straight to Fantasyland. There has never been an occasion where we didn't knock out everything in that area in ~an hour (by "everything," I guess I mean: Peter Pan, Snow White (gone now), Mr. Toad/Pooh, Small World and Dumbo. In every case, it was always a walk straight onto the ride (except maybe Dumbo, where we might have to wait 10 minutes or so). After the Fantasyland Blitz, we would usually move around to Haunted Mansion and go from there.

Is this still possible? I don't mind switching things around and heading another direction in the morning, but it will feel odd. It's always been great to be done with Fantasyland in short order after the park opens.

From what I have been reading on here (so not personal experience) Fantasyland is kind of crazy at RD due to A & E Meet and greet. Also, the new ride 7DMT (I would FP this if possible) will be open. Others suggest going to Splash, BTM or Space Mt at RD. (anywhere but FL) I would FP Peter Pan too. Just have a plan. Good luck and have fun!

How many days will you have at MK?

 

[Leveretttltl]

Wait times for Pooh and Peter Pan are consitent to what they were before. At rope drop people are headed for Enchanted Tales with Belle and the Anna and Elsa meet and greet if they are headed to Fantasyland.

 

[DrHfuhruhurr]

From what I have been reading on here (so not personal experience) Fantasyland is kind of crazy at RD due to A & E Meet and greet. Also, the new ride 7DMT (I would FP this if possible) will be open. Others suggest going to Splash, BTM or Space Mt at RD. (anywhere but FL) I would FP Peter Pan too. Just have a plan. Good luck and have fun!

How many days will you have at MK?

We'll have a day and a half, roughly, at MK. We're popping into the park on our arrival day, probably around 5pm and then stay until close. I'm hoping that we can get a lot done that evening. We have 3 FP+ booked, and my past experience with MK was that rides like PotC had minimal waits once the park got dark. That may have changed by now, though.

Then, our last day in Florida will be at MK, too. Rope drop, stay until mid-afternoon, then break and come back around 6 or 7, stay until EMH is over (2am, I think?).

I guess what I'm hoping is that the crowds are sucked up by A&E and, maybe, the Mine Train. We do plan to FP+ the mine train, if they're released before we go. We're arriving on June 4, so I'm not convinced the Mine Train will even be open.

 

[JennyDrake]

Yes, it is still possible and it is what I do (and I don't have kids). Yes, there is a rush to A&E, but overall FE and FLE is not terribly affected (though mine train may affect this). Overall, expect thicker crowds than what you've experienced in the past, especially at MK and AK--and the new FP+ fiasco has standby waits much longer than even last December.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

We went at the beginning of April (before A&E ... ) and we were pretty much able to tour at rope drop in the same way as in the past. We toured in this order: Peter Pan, Small World, Tea Cups (Pooh had a delayed opening for some reason), Dumbo, Barnstormer, Little Mermaid and then Pooh. I think it took us a little over an hour for all of that.

The most notable Fantasyland differences were: 1) Dumbo had a very short wait (maybe 1 cycle), Small World had about a 5 minute wait (Posted as 10 minutes), and Barnstormer had about a 5-10 minute wait. So, while there were some waits that were non-existent in the past at rope drop (Small World, Barnstormer) ... it really didn't affect us too much. We did Pirates after Fantasyland b/c I had been reading that those lines got long earlier in the day ... but we only had about a 5-10 minute wait - same for Haunted Mansion. It did take us a solid 1/2 hour in line to ride the Jungle Cruise in the evening though (around 8:00pm).

We used our Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain, Splash & Space. We left the park around 2:00pm (after our Thunder Mt & Splash fastpasses) and then returned around 6:00pm. We did standby for Buzz (around 20-25 minutes), walked on People Mover and then had about 15 minutes to kill until our Space FP's became active at 6:50pm. After Space, we were able to get on Indy Speedway without too much of a wait (maybe 25 minutes from start to finish... they had all lanes open). After the Speedway, we went over to Philharmagic where we just had to wait for the current show to get over before we were seated. Then it was around 8:00pm, so we went on over to the Jungle Cruise where we had the longest wait of the trip.

I don't know. It was fine. We didn't get our multiple rides on Splash or anything, but we only had one day and pretty much got to do everything on our list without having to stress about collecting FP's as we did in the past ... it was different, but not necessarily bad. I'm not sure what will happen with the Mine Train opens ... I guess we will have to make sure we have at least 2 days to devote to the MK.