What is the best order for thngs?

[DBarber600]

I did It!!!! I changed my 9:05 reservation at the CP to 8:25am. That was the earliest I could get. Will that help get us to Fantasyland before the lines are too long. I hope so .

Be at your reservation early!

Use the search engine and try to find out at what time the Fantasyland rope drop is. Try to be into Fantasyland as close to that time as possible. You can wait inside the castle before Fantasyland even opens.

FYI - the lines for Dumbo and Indy Speedway (the WORST, IMO) seem to take the longest to get through; It's a Small World seems to be the shortest.

Hope that helps!

 

[Lmcinerny]

Be at your reservation early!

Use the search engine and try to find out at what time the Fantasyland rope drop is. Try to be into Fantasyland as close to that time as possible. You can wait inside the castle before Fantasyland even opens.

FYI - the lines for Dumbo and Indy Speedway (the WORST, IMO) seem to take the longest to get through; It's a Small World seems to be the shortest.

Hope that helps!

I think any info should help. This is our earliest breakfast reservation. We also plan to go back for evening EMH. We will have at least two day to see MK. But all the tips help.

 

[PittypatBR]

If you aren't familiar with it, the allears.net site is a great resource for information also. And if you go there and click on the unofficial guide link, you can get an online membership for $6.36 for a year. I love the unofficial guide book and website because they have lots of tips and have information about the best times to hit specific rides as well as plans that will help you make the most of your time. Have a great time, and just relax and enjoy it. When my grandson went at 3, his favorite thing was Disney transportation! He loved everything, from buses to boats to trains, and most of all the monorail. Once after his afternoon break when my DH was too tired to go back to a park, we took the bus to Epcot and rode the monorail to MK and took the resort circuit, and then reversed it.

 

[AllesonWonderland]

Another vote for the Unofficial Guide! We used it on our trip over Spring Break and it helped so much. They also have a website where you can look at crowd calendars as well as the best parks/parks to avoid on each date.

My kids are 6 and 9, so we may have slightly different interests than yours. But we also went to Fantasyland right away. There were plenty of rides we got off and could have gotten right back on. Here's the link to my trip report, you can see the order that we did rides, etc. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1406813

Have fun planning, you'll have a magical time!!

 

[nenner1]

Hi, I am a MK veteran, we go at least once a year. I am hopefully going tomorrow (we had a pet emergency today that might interfere).I have been countless times, so I know that park like the back of my hand. First thing, when you make a plan on how you will "attack", base it on what you like to do. Do you like the parade? The shows? Then you have to plan the rest of your attractions around that. If not, plan to go on rides during the parade. Ride line lulls are evident then, as well as during traditional eating times. Know the park hours, and keep in mind the shortest wait for attractions is the first and last hour of park operation. So here is my $0.02, hope it helps!

We are "ride" people. (as opposed to "show" people) We usually let our travels through the park be guided by our fast passes. It is not necessarily the most direct way to do it, you are often traveling from one end of the park to another but it can enable you to experience nearly all of the most popular attractions. You can develop a plan before arrriving at the park , but be flexible with it. You may happen upon rides with little or no wait, and if you do most definetly take advantage!!!
Youu don't HAVE to skip breakfast. We usually arrive at the park around 10-10:30 am. We move straight to Dumbo and find the line is still reasonable (30 mins). Be sure to check the board right past Main Street that shows the ride wait times, we have found it is pretty accurate. The Dumbo line can increase in wait time significantly very quickly so I think it is imperative that if you plan on riding Dumbo, make it your first ride. (Dumbo line rarely subsides, not even during the parade) You might also find the line shorter in the evening but it isn't as fun to ride in the dark. While in line for Dumbo, we always send one person out for Fast Passes. The Winnie the Pooh Ride is always ridiculous and the fast passes "sell out" rather quickly (you can tell how advanced in the FP a particular ride is by looking at the return time...anything late afternoon and evening and you had better grab 'em! They only make a certain number of fast passes available per ride per day, keep that in mind).
Peter Pan we've found is not a FP priority...they are almost always available and by evening the line is usually quite short. We will grap WTP and usually get a mid afternoon return date. You can get another FP after a certain amount of time, even if you haven't used the other ones, so after Dumbo we usually head to Tomorrowland to grab FP to Buzz or Space Mountain. Often a fairly quick return is obtainable on those (an hour or so)....we typically stay and "work" that area of the park...peoplemover, astroorbiter, Buzz & SpM are "must rides". How quickly this gets done depends on how quick the FP return is. On several occasions we found the wait for SpM standby not as bad as they claimed. In fact if it is inside the building at all, definetly GO FOR IT. Even if the line extends just out of the building the wait isnt too awful...if it extends across the plaza, forget it and come back later. Buzz- always use FP, standby line moves slowly and is very long...only did that one time and won't do it again.
hint: restrooms by Buzz (kidof by the gift shop there) are usally not busy. We never ride Indy this early...line is always BAD. (check it as you go by). By the time we finish in TL, it is usually early afternoon 12-1 pm). This is a bad(busy) time to be in fantasyland, so we will walk around the hub and go through Adventure Land. We haven't done Tiki since I was a kid...but that is a show that has scheduled times. Jungle Cruise does have a FP and if you want to go on that might be good to grab depending on your FP time restrictions (if it is time for you to get another yet). You can often find reasonable JC lines during the parade and during dinner time (6-7pm). Aladdin is on the way, you can take it or leave it depending on the line. This one moves faster than Dumbo due to the higher ride capacity, but it rarely has a line of more than 20 minutes. We usually do Aladdin then. (keep in mind if you plan on returning Aladdin usually has no wait in the evening). Restrooms in this area are shared with Liberty Square (entering the other end of the plaza), and are usually quite busy. We then move through to Splash Mountain and grap a FP. We will backtrack then and ride POC, standby. Never encountered a bad line for POC, but if it is out of the queue building into the stroller parking area, expect at least 35 minutes. Usually then move through to Fantasyland. If Haunted Mansion has a good wait, will go on it, but I like to save it for dusk. It just seems eerier or creepier to go in a dusk and come out with it much darker. It adds to the atmosphere. By then it is time to return to WTP in fantasyland. Usually hit Small World about this time too. Alice's Adventures usually doesn't have a really bad wait nor do the teacups (don't go on the teacups right after lunch). By this time, preparations for the parade (which iirc begins at 3pm)are beginning. They rope off the walkway from Liberty Square through Frontierland. You can travel behind the crowds in this area during the parade but it is congested and but it is very difficult. I advise staying out of the LS/FL main drag area until the parade is complete. A good place to be is the back of frontier land by SplM and Thunder Mountain. If FP returns permit, ride there now. You could do Tomorrowland during the parade but many people take that strategy and it isn't much less crowded during the parade than it is at any other time of the day. We do SplM and BTMRR and then ride WDW RR over to toontown during the parade. Do everything in that area, with the only must do attraction in TT being Goofy's Barnstormer. TT restrooms are usually quite busy, even though this is not a central area of the park. During the parade you could also try to do FL- all of the rides there are must do's. It might depend on which area of the park you are caught in when the parade starts. Generally after TT, we work back through Fantasyland and do anything we haven't....Cinderella's Carousel (line is usually manageable except late morning early afternoon and after parade) That is fun to ride at night when the carousel lights are on- very pretty. FL restrooms by the teacups are also pretty well hidden and not too busy. We find if we dont do the mountains during the parade, then usually we do them after, but traffic in that area as well as FL picks up dramatically after the parade. Country Bear Jamboree is somewhere we usually go late afternoon/early evening (5-6pm). This "dinner" time of sorts is another little lull in ride lines, if we have to ride SplM on standby this is often a good time. (Spl mountain is best to first experience during the day but also neat at night... it adds a different atmosphere to the outside portion of the ride. Do it twice if you have time! We also like to do Thunder Mtn twice- during the day is great, but at night with the darkness and lights illuminating the mountain and the prominent fires from TSI, it is fantastic! Frontierland Restrooms are actually inside the SplMountain ride exit area, usually not overpoulated and a quick in & out, but not so easy to get to, as you are traveling against those exiting the ride. Early evening we travel back through FL (check Peter Pan line now) to Indy. Usually still about a 30 min wait, but that is ok cause the line is interesting as you watch the other riders traveling the track and entering and exiting their vehicles. From that poin on, we usually go to SpM again. then depending on park hours and how tired we are, might venture back to FL to do SplM and BTM again. POC usually has no line by now and will hit that one again. Often travel back through AL to the castle where you can get a spot for nihgt parade and fireworks, we don't miss that! (Night parade finds some of the shortest lines all days if you still have rides you want to go on) late park hours means more opportunity for rides with short lines. Miscellaneous tips:
The gift shops on Main Street are terribly busy after the night parade as everyone heading out stops to do shopping. If you are staying at a resort and go take an afternoon break I strongly recommend stopping in the shops and doing shopping then and taking your bags back to the resort at that time.
Fast passes are crucial:
MUST GET FASTPASS:
Winnie the Pooh
Splash Mountain
Thunder Mountain
Buzz Lightyear
(all have the likelihood of "running out" of fastpasses by mid-late afternoon)

SHOULD TRY TO UTILIZE FASTPASS ON:
Space Mountain
Jungle Cruise
Peter Pan

DO NOT OFFER FAST PASS ON:
Dumbo, Alice, Small World, Aladdin, peoplemover, astroorbiter. POC, snow white, Barnstormer, Indy.

Shopping: All of the stores carry different merchandise and not everything is available in mutiple shops. Unique shops that have cool stuff not available in other areas of the park: Pirates' Shop (eit of POC), Pooh shop (exit WTP) and the Tomorrowland shop by Buzz. You can get your mouse ears embroidered at the gift shop in Toontown fair.

Food: We usually only grab "bites" to eat around the park. For instant gratification try one of the Turkey Legs in Liberty Square/Frontierland. Also good: Columbia Seafood House (LS), Pirata y Perico (tacos- FL), Cosmic Rays (sandwiches)- TL They got rid of the pizza place in tomorrowland , but you can get pizza in Pinnochio's (FL) Genrally i try to avoid Pinnochio's. Although it offers great seating overlooking IASW loading area, (good luck!) it is always extremely busy. Dessert? Main Street Bakery yum! The mouse ears chocolate covered pretzels are to die for!

Hope that helps !

Have a magical trip!!

 

[Lmcinerny]

nenner1

That was a lot of info. I will have to print it as I will not remember all that. I think we need you as our escort through the park. My kids have never been, and I have not been in at least 10 yrs. This trip is mostly for the kids. I want to do most everything in the park without running from one side to the other all day. We have a 8:25am breakfast reservation at the CP. From there I was going to go straight to Dumbo and fastpass opportunities near by. With a 4 and 6 yr old...should I get the stroller too, or will it slow things down?

 

[DisneyMom14]

Thanks for all the good tips Nenner1

 

[nenner1]

You're all welcome! Any help I can give to other families so they can get the most out of their trips, I will!!

About the stroller, yes it can be difficult at times maneuvering with a stroller, but it really doesn't slow you too much. With a 4 year old, I say definetly get one. This is the first year we didn't get one, and my kids are 6 & 7. They were pretty tired by 5 or 6 pm, and the rest of the evening we heard about it(!)

We did go to the MK on Friday and I have to say it was the busiest I have EVER seen the park. The mid afternoon hours it was extremely difficult to walk due to the sheer volume of bodies and every single ride had a line of at least 45 minutes. it was unbelievable! One of our biggest obstacles was the fast pass spacing. It used to be you could get a new fast pass an hour after you obtained the last one, now it is 2 hours....meaning unless you will be in the park 12 hours you can't get a FP for everything...which altered our plan of attack.

Some updates and clarification on my earlier post:

Peter Pan...If you want to ride it, and if you have younger kids- get the fast pass. I confused PP with Snow White Adventures, PP does have a longer line as it has the flying "boats" with smaller capacity. We actually didnt get on PP this visit since we had to get selective with our Fast Passes only being able to get them every 2 hours. We decided to forgo a FP for PP and found the line never did subside...even at about 10:30 pm it was still 40 min Though I can safely bet the crowds when you go will probably not be as bad as Spring Break (for many) Good Friday. I can say we have never seen lines like that, ever!

We did arrive earlier than most times (9:06 in the parking lot, inside the park at 9:30)...and found Fantasyland with pretty light crowds. Dumbo was 30 minutes, with only half the queue open, though by the time we got off the ride, the wait was 60 minutes with the line full queue and around the ride perimeter. (whew) Here is an aerial of FL from Dumbo taken at 10:06 am.

You can see the crowds are still light (yes, that is very light!). The FP we had gotten were for WTP with an early return (11:55-12:55). Becuase of that we did not follow our "usual" plan and stayed in the Fantasy land/liberty square are until early afternoon.

One thing I can definetly say is that the wait times posted outside the rides were way overstated....a "20 minute" posted wait for Snow White was only 5-8. 30 minute posted for Indy was less than 10. 60 min posted for POC more like 20. Space Mountain had a 120 min posted standby (we did not manage to snag a FP for SpM...they ran out by early afternoon) but thankfully we were off the ride in 59 minutes exactly (we had a bet on it!)

We noticed a huge lull at parade time, SpM wait was only 40 mins (and we were kicking ourselves for not taking advantage of it later!) Here is an aerial of TL taken from the people mover at 2:41 pm, the low crowds evident by the visible cement ground..earlier it was a swath of humanity as far as the eye could see

We did a few things we don't normally do, having extra time due to the extended park hours. We checked out Tom Sawyer Island and the kids loved it, there is an "escape hatch" tunnel that is a lot of fun, plus the barrel log bridge:

Its all walking over there, and a lot of climbing too, so do it early in the day before everyone is so tired!

It was also our first time seeing the Philharmagic which is a don't miss for the kids, really enjoyable. Also the new Monsters, Inc. "Laugh Factory" is now open in Tomorrowland, across from Stitch where the Timekeeper used to be. Like a stand up comedy show, it features audience interaction and you can text jokes in from your cell. Have a good quick joke ready to send in, they only pick the three best ones! They also show select audience members on camera, in our experience it was all people from the front three rows (stay to your right when entering the pre-show building (after the queue room) to enter the show room in the front. The kids loved it, and it was quite amusing.

We didn't do as much backtracking as usual, due to the fact that the availability of the fast passes was limited by the 2 hour gaps. We only got Fp's for WTP, BThunder Mt, SplM, and Buzz, JC, and BTM again, in that order. Everything else we rode standby, with the longest wait being 55 minutes for SpM. IASW had unusually long lines all day averaging 30 mins (usually a walk-on no wait ride)...the Pirates queue and stroller area has changed, with the stoller area being to the left side of the ride now and the queue roped off and snaking in the area under the overhang where stroller parking used to be. HM does not offer FP anymore, but we lucked upon only a short wait at dusk, just like I like. The haunted mansion at appears its creepiest:

As the night parade time approached, FL emptied out a bit, and we got on IASW aith only a 15 minute wait, it was at 8:45, which I know since I got a pic of the clock going off:

We headed over to SpM thinking the line would be lighter, but nope. Right after getting off we got to see the fireworks, still easily visible from that part of the park!

ALSO keep your eyes open for this: While in ride for Dumbo (early am) we saw a family with lanyards and a plastic "pass" with little plastic break-off tabs on it. It said it was a "Dream Fast Pass". The little tabs were Fast Passes for each ride that offers it, and could be used at ANY TIME during the day!!!! We asked where they got it cause we would have paid big $$$ for it, and they said that a CM HANDED it to them on the carousel right before they got in the Dumbo line! It appears to be a random thing, only available to the poeple on that ride at that time. When that lady asked to get one for her husband who wasn't on the ride, they said no. We only saw about 10 people with those, so it is obviously not a readily available thing, I guess you have to get lucky. (Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try the carousel at 9:30 am...?)

 

[tink's girls]

If you aren't familiar with it, the allears.net site is a great resource for information also. And if you go there and click on the unofficial guide link, you can get an online membership for $6.36 for a year. I love the unofficial guide book and website because they have lots of tips and have information about the best times to hit specific rides as well as plans that will help you make the most of your time. Have a great time, and just relax and enjoy it. When my grandson went at 3, his favorite thing was Disney transportation! He loved everything, from buses to boats to trains, and most of all the monorail. Once after his afternoon break when my DH was too tired to go back to a park, we took the bus to Epcot and rode the monorail to MK and took the resort circuit, and then reversed it.

I love the website , but didn't know about the online membership and can't seem to find where on the website you can purchase it. Can you please advise? Thanks a bunch

 

[Captn Jack Sparrow]

I would also ensure that the rides you want to save for the EMH will be open. MK has 3 levels of EMH and some nights only the most popular rides are open. so just ask a CM and they will let you know.

 

[jfrosello]

Hello "tink's girls" you have to subscribe to the allears newsletter (1 each week interesting and FREE) so you will will have the code to purchase the Unof.Guide it in the newsletter.
BTW if you're interested in planning and guides subscribing to the Passporter newsletter you have also a discount on the guide (do you know that each year they sold the remaining books edited on the past year with an enormous rebate? ) and theyre giving full access to all their ebooks and planning sheets for 4,95$ 1 month (you download as much as you want but still have to try it to confirm it).
And the last (but not the least) you may subscribe to Tour Guide Mike through the disboard to have a 3$ discount on the normal price (that´s around 19$ for 1 year).
Enjoy your planning

 

[tink's girls]

Thanks so much JFrosello! I actually already get the alllears.net newsletter, so I will go hunt for the code! I also plan to do TGM as well, and maybe I'll throw in Passporter for good measure! I really appreciate the info and can't wait to get started planning our trip!!

 

[italianfamilia]

per nener1 "ALSO keep your eyes open for this: While in ride for Dumbo (early am) we saw a family with lanyards and a plastic "pass" with little plastic break-off tabs on it. It said it was a "Dream Fast Pass". The little tabs were Fast Passes for each ride that offers it, and could be used at ANY TIME during the day!!!! We asked where they got it cause we would have paid big $$$ for it, and they said that a CM HANDED it to them on the carousel right before they got in the Dumbo line! It appears to be a random thing, only available to the poeple on that ride at that time. When that lady asked to get one for her husband who wasn't on the ride, they said no. We only saw about 10 people with those, so it is obviously not a readily available thing, I guess you have to get lucky. (Maybe it wouldn't hurt to try the carousel at 9:30 am...?"


That was probably one of the "million wishes" things. They are supposed to be handing out those dream fast passes all during this year. Just cross your fingers for one basically. I have printed off your information to help me. I have never been to WDW and taking 4 kids on my own. I am planning on hitting the FL first day, going to the back and working our way forward, and just going from one to the next ride, not really going out of sequence. I'm not too keen on the idea of sending one of my kids off to get a FP when I'm the only parent around and afraid that the teens might get lost. Can we just pick them up when we walk past a ride that has one? or is it a line to wait for a FP? Anymore tips would be great! You should write your own travel book on WDW!

 

[nenner1]

Hi Italianfamilia!

If you have more than one day at MK, then you should be fine following your plan to do everything in sequence as you travel through the park. My tips are more geared towards accomplishing the most in a short time. Even though I have been there countless times and have done everything, it seems each time we go , we find ourselves running around like chickens with our heads cut off so that we can do as much as possible in the single day we have! Don't know why that is, guess I'm just obsessed!!

As far as fast passes go, there is not a wait to pick them up. There are little terminals stationed at each ride that offers them. You go up to the terminal and insert each KTTW or each admission ticket into the terminal and it spits out a fast pass for each ticket. (Sometimes you have to wait behind a couple of families but never a big line or anything like that). The FP ticket that prints out shows your return time to come back to the ride. It is a window of one hour. For instance you may walk up and obtain a FP to Peter Pan at 10:00 am, and it may have a return time of 12:55-1:55. That's the problem with the FP's ...by the time you have to return to that specific ride, you may be in another part of the park entirely. So that's where the backtracking comes in. It's pretty much inevitable if you use fast passes at all that you will find yourself traveling around, at least a little bit.

Definetly don't separate your party if you aren't comfortable with it. Last time, my husband ran off ahead of us to grab FP's to SPLM. (He did that because the park was so packed and it was difficult to even travel along the pathways as a group, he felt he could dodge folks and get there and back to us before we could even move far.) Problem was, once we separated, he assumed he would just pass me on the way back...except he went over one "bridge" in Frontierland and I went over the other so it took about 15 minutes of both of us walking back & forth between FL and AL to find each other! Oops!!

Also when planning, keep in mind what's going on at the time you will be there. Summer? LOTS of KIDS, More Floridians. Spring? SPRING BREAK, so LOTS of teens & college kids. Fall & WInter?: Lots of tourists/first timers at WDW. Be aware of special events that may be happening. (grad night, etc.) The demographics in the park can affect the wait for attractions and how qucikly the fast passes are distributed. For instance in my first post I said the FP's for WTP go very fast. But when we went during Spring Break last month, we found the FP's for the kiddie rides were going much slower than the fp's for the thrill rides, SPM, SPLM, and BTMRR. I don't know when you are making your trip, but the worst of "busy season" is over. There is a marked difference in attendance during the spring. IMO, late fall or winter is the best time to go simply because the crowds are down a bit and the waether usually nice. The summer is brutal heat & humidity, plus frequent afternoon thunderstorms.

Hope that helps you! Have a fantastic trip!!

If you have any other questions please let me know!

 

[italianfamilia]

Thanks so much. I think we will get the FP for the most popular, Splash Mountain, that sort of thing. We are there for four days, opening to closing, and going june 4 to June 7. I can handle the crowds at Disneyland, but have no idea what to expect here. I hope you don't mind that I've printed your posts for my information...they are some great ideas and will help me a bit more on direction. I did read it's pretty humid there that week so hopefully it won't slow us down. We've never used FP's before so hoping that it makes the trip run more smoothly. I am not planning on doing everything, but want to hit the ones that the kids really want. Thanks again! I can't wait!

 

[Gomez Gang]

hi there! we will be there the same week, may 19-27 at OKW!
If your girls want to ride Dumbo, I suggest you make the park opening and hit that and then go to your breakfast. Dumbo is usually one of the longest lines--probably for nostalgia reasons.
Peter Pan's flight is another long liner. Keep it in mind.

or........skip breakfast and finish fantasy land about the same time you would finish breakfast!

have a ball--see ya real soon!