Hey -- Very excited to be doing a Magic Kingdom day next February and just finished planning this with my party too and bought our tickets today. It's a good thing my son and I have fun doing planning as it was crazy how much planning we did for one day.
SO WHAT DID WE DO TO PLAN FOR THIS ONE DAY AS WE HADN'T BEEN IN A WHILE:
First I researched how far in advance and what time of day I could make a dinner reservation as we wanted to do a special Birthday celebration meal for my nephew at O'hana for our Magic Kingdom day -- great break at the Polynesian Resort to get some drinks at Trader Sam's and then have dinner at O'hana.
Second, last Friday I got up at 4:10 a.m. CST so at 5:00 a.m. CST I could grab our preferred reservation time of 5:20 p.m. and I got that. Yeah!
Next I subscribed to TouringPlans.com I don't know if we really need this, but given how much we are spending for one day ticket I thought sure. We like the lines app and I like to play with the plans to get an idea of how much we can reasonably squeeze in without being too rushed (like to smell the flowers at the MK). They have nice summaries of everything in one place too. They give you a lot without paying for it too, but I like to support them.
I did some reading on touringplans. This told me what is going on during our day, what is closed, what needs a virtual queue or lightening lane multi pass (Tiana's Bayou). I also read about how the virtual queue works, that you need to do this day of at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. and that Tiana's Bayou virtual queues sell out in about one second typically.
Then, I looked into information about the changes to Lightening Lane for Single and Multi passes so I understood all the rules and when you can try for these. And I read opinions about whether these are worth it or not at the MK, and I decided that they look worth it to us. We are going to try for single lightening lanes for TRON and 7DMT. First though we'll do the lightening land multi pass and see if we can't get Tiana's Bayou.
Next I talked to the other two in my party about favorite rides, what they'd like to do. We all agreed on 40 minutes for lunch at Casey's Corner, Three hours including transportation time for drinks and dinner at Ohana, and that we want to see the evening fireworks but are cool to skip the parade.
Next I started with the Touringplans.com one day touring plan and did additions and subtractions, used optimize a bunch, eliminated some more things that we don't really care about. I then ran the plan by others in my party and upped our time at Tom Sawyer's island (last time for us to go given that this is closing) and eliminated two attractions too to make our core plan a little more relaxing. If we get some lightening lanes and shorter waits that should free up even more time.
We all loved the plan and are really psyched up to go to the park together.
Next we purchased our one day tickets to the MK on our day.
Next two of us linked our Disney accounts together, We eliminated duplicate profiles and changed our My Disney experience accounts to share, etc. to make that happen.
Next two of us decided on our strategy for getting the lightening lanes. This opens up 20 minutes before we leave for the airport. We'll be in Tampa three days before we go to Orlando.
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When I look at this though I say OMG -- this much planning for one day. As planner this is cool, but I can't imagine a non-planner or first time visitor dealing with all of this. This is the reality of traveling to popular places these days with the number of people who travel. Honestly planning our July trip for Glacier National Park was similar.
I miss the good ole days when you could just show up to a theme park or a National Park without any planning. Sure, you wouldn't have to do this planning for a theme park now, but you probably aren't going to have as good a day, might wait in long lines, and might not be able to do everything you want. And for the national parks, you won't be able to get into the park.
We are going to do SeaWorld too on our trip, and that's one park where you can still just show up.
A Disney park day is just way too complicated IMHO with all the rules, etc. - virtual queues, single LLs, multi LLS, etc. We know the rules now and will use them to our advantage to have a great day, but it is crazy how much planning we have done for one theme park day. LOL.
SO WHAT DID WE DO TO PLAN FOR THIS ONE DAY AS WE HADN'T BEEN IN A WHILE:
First I researched how far in advance and what time of day I could make a dinner reservation as we wanted to do a special Birthday celebration meal for my nephew at O'hana for our Magic Kingdom day -- great break at the Polynesian Resort to get some drinks at Trader Sam's and then have dinner at O'hana.
Second, last Friday I got up at 4:10 a.m. CST so at 5:00 a.m. CST I could grab our preferred reservation time of 5:20 p.m. and I got that. Yeah!
Next I subscribed to TouringPlans.com I don't know if we really need this, but given how much we are spending for one day ticket I thought sure. We like the lines app and I like to play with the plans to get an idea of how much we can reasonably squeeze in without being too rushed (like to smell the flowers at the MK). They have nice summaries of everything in one place too. They give you a lot without paying for it too, but I like to support them.
I did some reading on touringplans. This told me what is going on during our day, what is closed, what needs a virtual queue or lightening lane multi pass (Tiana's Bayou). I also read about how the virtual queue works, that you need to do this day of at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. and that Tiana's Bayou virtual queues sell out in about one second typically.
Then, I looked into information about the changes to Lightening Lane for Single and Multi passes so I understood all the rules and when you can try for these. And I read opinions about whether these are worth it or not at the MK, and I decided that they look worth it to us. We are going to try for single lightening lanes for TRON and 7DMT. First though we'll do the lightening land multi pass and see if we can't get Tiana's Bayou.
Next I talked to the other two in my party about favorite rides, what they'd like to do. We all agreed on 40 minutes for lunch at Casey's Corner, Three hours including transportation time for drinks and dinner at Ohana, and that we want to see the evening fireworks but are cool to skip the parade.
Next I started with the Touringplans.com one day touring plan and did additions and subtractions, used optimize a bunch, eliminated some more things that we don't really care about. I then ran the plan by others in my party and upped our time at Tom Sawyer's island (last time for us to go given that this is closing) and eliminated two attractions too to make our core plan a little more relaxing. If we get some lightening lanes and shorter waits that should free up even more time.
We all loved the plan and are really psyched up to go to the park together.
Next we purchased our one day tickets to the MK on our day.
Next two of us linked our Disney accounts together, We eliminated duplicate profiles and changed our My Disney experience accounts to share, etc. to make that happen.
Next two of us decided on our strategy for getting the lightening lanes. This opens up 20 minutes before we leave for the airport. We'll be in Tampa three days before we go to Orlando.
*******************************************************************************************************************************************
When I look at this though I say OMG -- this much planning for one day. As planner this is cool, but I can't imagine a non-planner or first time visitor dealing with all of this. This is the reality of traveling to popular places these days with the number of people who travel. Honestly planning our July trip for Glacier National Park was similar.
I miss the good ole days when you could just show up to a theme park or a National Park without any planning. Sure, you wouldn't have to do this planning for a theme park now, but you probably aren't going to have as good a day, might wait in long lines, and might not be able to do everything you want. And for the national parks, you won't be able to get into the park.
We are going to do SeaWorld too on our trip, and that's one park where you can still just show up.
A Disney park day is just way too complicated IMHO with all the rules, etc. - virtual queues, single LLs, multi LLS, etc. We know the rules now and will use them to our advantage to have a great day, but it is crazy how much planning we have done for one theme park day. LOL.
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