What LLMP to book for Magic Kingdom?

[monkeypat83]

Struggling to decide what 3 lightning lanes to try and book for our group for Magic Kingdom and my booking window opens Saturday. We are 3 adults, a 5 year old daughter (who is just over 44 inches), a 3 year old son (who is over 40 inches, probably 42 with shoes) and a 16 month old. Most of us are Disneyland pros so that effects what we choose. My 5 year old will ride anything and everything she is tall enough for and my 3 year old is a little more timid in terms of dark but will pretty much ride anything he is tall enough for. We are staying on property so planning to join the rush heading toward Seven Dwarfs Mine Train during early entry and my husband and the baby will just hang with the stroller. Might do rider swap but might not because my husband is content not riding things and just coming along for the time with the kids. I am the only one going on Tron so I will just book that for myself hopefully in the evening.

Thinking we might book our Tier 1 ride as Space Mountain because my daughter wants to ride it and just scanning the rest of party in when we go even though they won't be riding because my son isn't tall enough (and wouldn't like the dark). We don't plan to ride Tiana's because we have done it in Disneyland and not huge fans of it. The other option would be to book Jungle Cruise because everyone could go on it together and then have my daughter and I stand in the Space Mountain line at some point but I feel like the Jungle Cruise line is a better one to stand in than Space Mountain?? Maybe we can snag a Jungle Cruise lightning lane after we use one of ours? How likely is that?

For the tier 2 I was thinking Pirates and Small World because I think everyone would like those. Not planning to do Haunted Mansion and sadly Buzz is closed while we are there otherwise that would be an obvious choice as my kids adore that ride. Are there other Tier 2 I should prioritize instead that tend to run out or get long lines fast? What rides should I try and get after we use our first one. Other than Haunted Mansion my kids will like any of the other tier 2 rides.

Thanks!

 

[sponica]

It's been a while since I've done MK, but I think Peter Pan was historically a coveted FP/lightning lane. It's a slow loader, so it doesn't take much for the standby wait to get long.


I'd also probably do winnie the pooh, but that standby wait isn't terrible as there's things to do while in line.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'd book PP for Tier 1 and try to catch Space Mountain day of. SM seems to have better day of availability than PP.

 

[kylenne]

Thinking we might book our Tier 1 ride as Space Mountain because my daughter wants to ride it and just scanning the rest of party in when we go even though they won't be riding because my son isn't tall enough (and wouldn't like the dark). We don't plan to ride Tiana's because we have done it in Disneyland and not huge fans of it. The other option would be to book Jungle Cruise because everyone could go on it together and then have my daughter and I stand in the Space Mountain line at some point but I feel like the Jungle Cruise line is a better one to stand in than Space Mountain?? Maybe we can snag a Jungle Cruise lightning lane after we use one of ours? How likely is that?

All of those rides can be picked up fairly easily on the same day but IME Pan and Jungle Cruise sell out way faster than Space, and tend to start getting later times much earlier on in the day. Space I can generally book within an hour or two in the morning.

I would actually buck the advice given and prebook Jungle Cruise as Tier 1 in your scenario. If you are at or near front of pack for Mine Train then Pan is very easily doable as your second ride during EE with maybe a 15-20 minute wait at most. That line flies during EE because LL is not available yet and everything is standby. Mine Train tends to start running a few minutes before the start of EE from the last couple of times I've rope dropped MK. Pan is a lot easier to back up than Jungle Cruise too, if you do land a later LL time for it. I would rather lock in the earlier time for Jungle Cruise by prebooking. imo I would only prebook Pan if you know you can't make front of line for Mine Train and you anticipate being further back.

Also, you absolutely do not want to be standing in standby for Jungle Cruise this time of year. Jungle Cruise's queue is entirely outdoors and moves at a snail's pace because of how slow loading the boats are. Meanwhile Space's queue is indoors in the A/C (if you see people in the outdoor switchbacks, walk away and go do something else lol).

Regardless though, it's important to book LLs for your entire group. You can always go back in and cancel for individual people if they aren't riding something, I do this all the time on trips with my partner because she can't do most thrill rides for health reasons. I book for us both and then cancel hers. You do not want to waste time faffing about trying to deselect individual people from your group when you're trying to book the LL, because you'll almost certainly end up missing out on it.

Don't waste a Tier 2 on small world unless you intend on using it as a burner, which wouldn't actually be the worst plan since you'd already be in Fantasyland and are virtually guaranteed to get a 9a return time for it. But personally I would prioritize either Pooh or Pirates for the other slot. Pooh more so than Pirates as it can get surprisingly high waits whereas Pirates is more spikey and tends to drop fairly low at times.

tl;dr: Prebook Jungle Cruise, small world, and one of either Pooh or Pirates, whichever you can get earlier. Rope drop Mine Train, then Pan, then tap into small world across the way hopefully at 8:55, then book Space as your next LL.

 

[monkeypat83]

All of those rides can be picked up fairly easily on the same day but IME Pan and Jungle Cruise sell out way faster than Space, and tend to start getting later times much earlier on in the day. Space I can generally book within an hour or two in the morning.

I would actually buck the advice given and prebook Jungle Cruise as Tier 1 in your scenario. If you are at or near front of pack for Mine Train then Pan is very easily doable as your second ride during EE with maybe a 15-20 minute wait at most. That line flies during EE because LL is not available yet and everything is standby. Mine Train tends to start running a few minutes before the start of EE from the last couple of times I've rope dropped MK. Pan is a lot easier to back up than Jungle Cruise too, if you do land a later LL time for it. I would rather lock in the earlier time for Jungle Cruise by prebooking. imo I would only prebook Pan if you know you can't make front of line for Mine Train and you anticipate being further back.

Also, you absolutely do not want to be standing in standby for Jungle Cruise this time of year. Jungle Cruise's queue is entirely outdoors and moves at a snail's pace because of how slow loading the boats are. Meanwhile Space's queue is indoors in the A/C (if you see people in the outdoor switchbacks, walk away and go do something else lol).

Regardless though, it's important to book LLs for your entire group. You can always go back in and cancel for individual people if they aren't riding something, I do this all the time on trips with my partner because she can't do most thrill rides for health reasons. I book for us both and then cancel hers. You do not want to waste time faffing about trying to deselect individual people from your group when you're trying to book the LL, because you'll almost certainly end up missing out on it.

Don't waste a Tier 2 on small world unless you intend on using it as a burner, which wouldn't actually be the worst plan since you'd already be in Fantasyland and are virtually guaranteed to get a 9a return time for it. But personally I would prioritize either Pooh or Pirates for the other slot. Pooh more so than Pirates as it can get surprisingly high waits whereas Pirates is more spikey and tends to drop fairly low at times.

tl;dr: Prebook Jungle Cruise, small world, and one of either Pooh or Pirates, whichever you can get earlier. Rope drop Mine Train, then Pan, then tap into small world across the way hopefully at 8:55, then book Space as your next LL.

Thank you. Yeah forgot to say we don't really care about Peter Pan unless it is a walk on or under maybe 10 minutes. I think maybe we will try to pre-book Jungle Cruise instead of Space Mountain. We will definitely be booking for everyone and then just cancelling them or scanning everyone in even if they don't use them. If we do get Space Mountain and my daughter likes the ride we might even just go twice in a row using the other LL that my son and husband won't use.

 

[monkeypat83]

forgot to say we don't really care about Peter Pan and only plan to ride if we happen to walk by and it has a very short line. We ride it once every few years at Disneyland and then remember why it is nice but not worth the line when there are so many other things we like better

I'd book PP for Tier 1 and try to catch Space Mountain day of. SM seems to have better day of availability than

 

[gottalovepluto]

forgot to say we don't really care about Peter Pan and only plan to ride if we happen to walk by and it has a very short line. We ride it once every few years at Disneyland and then remember why it is nice but not worth the line when there are so many other things we like better

Oh, def don't bother then. ...Disneyland's is better

But if you enjoy HM do consider a LL or doing it early in the morning for it for yourself, it's a bit different than Disneyland's