I don't have time to transfer all this over here right now. But I posted a video tutorial on youtube and I put it on the themeparks board. I didn't want you to feel short-changed. So here is just the link. I'll come back later and transfer the words over here.
http://www.enchantingbeginnings.com/stand-lines-disney-world/
I'm back to post the words.
How to Not Stand in Lines at Disney World!
If you have followed me at all on this blog or my trip reports on Disboards, you know that I dont much like standing in lines. And in August I like to stand in lines at Disney even less as it is HOT. And waiting in hot lines is a super bummer. Who wants a super bummer on vacation?
There are two strategies that I like.
One: go EARLY in the morning, well before the park opens, then take a break at your resort, and then come back for dinner and shows.
Two: sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and swim in the morning. Then get to the extra magic evening hours park at around 5:00 (dinner already eaten) and stay until it closes.
Both of these strategies work great. What does NOT work is to plan on getting to the park before it opens and actually get there at 10-11:00 a.m. then tour with the crowds through the heat of the day until 5:00. Then eat dinner and give up in frustration. Florida is HOT. I was drenched in sweat by 8:00 am every morning. Certainly it seems wiser to avoid being out in the sunshine in the dead center of the day. Especially since everyone else is there at the same time and lines to climb to over TWO hour waits!
Over the years we have come up with ways to avoid lines as much as possible and the following video will walk you through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onQz6PeEIVY
(Sorry, you can't embed videos in Disboards so you'll have to click. I know that's annoying on iphones.)
Here is my recommended schedule for doing Fantasyland on a morning extra magic hours day in Magic Kingdom. This assumes you are staying onsite (since you have to be onsite to have extra magic hours) and using Disney transportation.
6-7:00- Get up, dressed, eat a light breakfast, walk to the bus stop.
7-8:00- Do all practical things that need doing at the park. Like bag check, guest services, potty breaks, sunblock applying, coffee drinking, morning photos, watch the show.
8:00- Walk to Enchanted Tales with Belle, walk quickly and with authority through the castle and through the Fantasyland gates. Dont stop for ANYTHING. No pictures, no fastpasses. You want to be in the first group.
Send one person to go get Peter Pan fastpasses.
Ride the Little Mermaid
Ride Winnie the Pooh
Ride Its a Small World
Ride the Tea Cups. Send whoever cant ride this to get Dumbo & Goofini fastpasses, in our family, thats me. If your kids want to play in the Dumbo playground, dont get fastpasses for Dumbo. They make you skip the playground.
See Mickeys Philharmagic.
Ride Peter Pan
If it isnt time for you to return to Goofini yet and you want to meet Goofy, Donald, or Daisy do this now. Or watch the clown. Or take a drink and potty break.
Ride Goofini.
Ride Dumbo.
Thats it. You are done with Fantasyland before the crowds with almost no lines at all.
Here is what actually happened for us:
A quick note, when we went both your room keys and park tickets can pull fastpasses (this is currently true as of August 2013, Ill come back here and tell you it is over.) So we were able to get both Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan fastpasses at the same time. This is why my order of rides is different than the above. Also because we knew this, we didnt get our fastpasses between Belle and Ariel. With the new My Disney Experience you can look at fastpass return times on your iphone. We just kept our eye on return times and would run and get them when it fit into our schedule.
When Fastpass+ becomes a reality Peter Pan is the most important ride to have an appointment for. The above schedule would work perfectly, just schedule Peter Pan.
6:00-6:30: Mom and Dad g0t up and get dressed. I went and got coffee and breakfast and brought it back to the room.
6:30-6:50: Kids awakened, got dressed (clothes were laid out the night before so no decisions were being made, just actions), ate breakfast (again, the breakfast was in the room, no options.) I puts on make-up on and then did kids hair. We were switching resorts this morning so I also zipped up the luggage and gave it to the bell hop. But normally it doesnt feel too hectic in our mornings.
6:50-7:00: Walked to the bus stop. Our park bags were already be packed and ready to go from the night before. We just grabbed them and went.
7:00-8:00: We were supposed to wait for the bus but it was there when we go there. So we rode the bus, went through bag check, went to guest services to get our tickets, went through turnstyles, put sunblock on, used the potty, drank our coffee, took cute pictures of our kids, watched the show.
8:00-8:05: Walked to Enchanted Tales with Belle. We walk quickly and with purpose. We did NOT get distracted nor stop to take any pictures. You can always take pictures and explore Main St as you leave at 11:00.
8:05 Enjoyed the show.
8:33- Rode Little Mermaid.
8:53-Got fastpasses for Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan.
9:13- Took a potty break and drank our drinks. We dont tote a lot of drinks with us, but we do bring this first drink into the park with us. Then no one is searching for some place to buy stuff at first thing.
9:20- Rode the Tea Cups. I dont do spinning rides. I went and got Goofini and Dumbo fastpasses.
9:30- Rode Winnie the Pooh.
9:42- Watched Mickeys Philharmagic.
10:10- Rode Peter Pan.
10:26- Potty break,
Rode Dumbo,
Rode Goofini
10:50- Left the parks
As we left the Celebrate parade was coming. We were really hungry, though, and didnt have our dining plan yet so we skipped it and went to check into our resort at the Boardwalk. Then we ate lunch and relaxed. We unpacked, swam, and had a leisurely dinner at Teppan Edo. Did the pick a pearl in Japan at Epcot and in general enjoyed World Showcase in the cooler dark hours.
It was just delightful! And that was just our first day.
A few more notes so you can have success.
To make the first Enchanted Tales on an extra magic hours morning you MUST get there early and position yourself on the left side as close to the entry as possible.
The morning EMH (extra magic hours) is only one hour! Many people who stay onsite get excited when they see there is a perk for them, so they will go to that park that day, even if they dont make the first hour at all. So whatever park has EMH that morning will be the MOST crowded park that day. Because of this I recommend that you either get there like we did, very early, or skip that park altogether. Its just one hour. If you get there at 8:30, youve pretty much missed the advantage of EMH.
The order above may change according to what Fastpass/Fastpass+ return times you have. But it is very important that Peter Pan is your appointment for the morning.
If you are not leaving Magic Kingdom after Fantasyland like we were, I would save Philharmagic until later in the day. Shows are wonderful to have during the heat of the day.
The Haunted Mansion is close to Fantasyland and is easy to do the same morning you do Fantasyland. The wait is usually not too long if you do it any time in the morning.
Because we eat breakfast so early and its really a light breakfast, we are very hungry by 11:00 a.m. This is perfect. The lunch counter service places are open by 11:00 a.m. and there are absolutely no lines. We then can have lunch and start watching shows for the afternoon if we arent ready to leave the park at 11:00 a.m.
If you have 2 days at Magic Kingdom, do the above schedule minus Philharmagic. Then go get Fastpasses for Splash Mountain before you eat lunch (we like Pecos Bills.) Then do Aladdins Carpets and Jungle Cruise if the line isnt too long. Get Big Thunder Fastpasses. Then do Pirates and see the Tiki Birds. Ride Splash and Big Thunder and see Philharmagic on your way out. Then on day two start with Tomorrowland and finish the rest of the park, always doing slow loading rides (like AstroOrbiter) first, collecting fastpasses (like for Buzz and Space Mt.), following by shows (Laugh Floor) and quick loading rides (Peoplemover.) But dont worry, Ill lay that out for you in a different post. Also, I'll do a post on fitting princesses into your schedule.