2020 Unofficial Guide Touring Plans Drafts

Walt Disney World Touring Plans
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I’m working on touring plans for the 2020 Unofficial Guide. If anyone wants to follow along, I’ll post links to the plans here, along with the ideas behind them.

Magic Kingdom
One-Day Touring Plan for Adults - We’ve added these attractions:

  • Mickey Mouse meet & greet (4.4 star rating by adults, much above average)
  • Festival of Fantasy Parade (4.4 stars, above average)

We’ve dropped these attractions:

  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (3.64 stars rating by adults, much below average)
  • Under the Sea (3.82 stars, much below average)
  • Liberty Belle Riverboat (3.5 stars, much below average)
  • Swiss Family Treehouse (3.3 stars, much below average)

The plan assumes advance FPs for 7DMT, BTMRR, and Space, and day-of FPs for Mansion. It also suggests looking for day-of FPs for Mickey and IASW, and notes the Pirate’s Adventure trick for Pirates FPs. According to our data, those day-of FPs should generally be available starting at noon.

Authors’ Selective One-Day Touring Plan for Adults - Similar to the standard one-day plan for adults. It omits it’s a small world and Mickey’s PhilharMagic in favor of more time for dinner. That should provide enough extra time to eat at one of the Magic Kingdom resort restaurants, and still make it back to the park for fireworks. It also works well for days when the park closes early for special events.

One-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children
We note that the average day at the Magic Kingdom is about 100 minutes shorter now than in 2015. If we want to allow for a decent mid-day break, we have to remove some attractions.

We’ve added these attractions:

  • Princess Fairytale Hall meet-and-greet (4.8 stars rating by pre-schoolers, 4.5 for grade school)

We’ve removed these attractions:

  • Jungle Cruise (3.8 and 3.9 stars, below average)
  • Swiss Family Treehouse (3.6 and 3.5 stars, much below average)
  • Tom Sawyer Island (4.2 and 4.2, average, but takes a long time)
  • Country Bear Jamboree (4.0 and 3.6 stars, average and below average)

Two Day Touring Plan for Adults - Day One and Day Two
Not many changes here. We’ve added live performances on Main Street, U.S.A. on Day Two, based on their popularity with adults.

Dumbo-or-Die-in-a-Day Plan for Parents with Small Children
The only thing in Adventureland or Frontierland that made this plan is Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

Epcot
One-Day Touring Plan for Adults (with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure open)

Attractions added, either because they’re new or because of high ratings from adults:

  • Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
  • Awesome Planet film
  • British Revolution in U.K.
  • Serveur Amusant in France
  • Voices of Liberty in U.S.
  • Extra time to tour Japan
  • Sergio the juggler in Italy
  • Meet Anna and Elsa at Royal Sommerhus

Attractions removed because of low ratings:

  • Journey Into Imagination with Figment
  • Gran Fiesta Tour
  • Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure
  • Reflections of China film
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I agree with adding the parade, but I’m not so sure about the M&G. I’m wondering if adults in general would really want to meet Mickey over doing some other activity. Granted it is highly rated, but I’m wondering if there is some selection bias going on here, where adults who did it (and consequently answered the survey) were from a smaller segment of the overall population who want to do M&Gs and therefore rate it more highly than the general population would.

ETA: As a parent, I would rate it more highly, based on the enjoyment I would get from seeing my child interact with Mickey. However, as an adult touring without kids, not so much interest in meeting Mickey and I would therefore rate it lower. So I think that the adult ratings may vary based on the situation.

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That’s what I thought. Around 1/3rd of our survey respondents were adults-only groups, and it’s still popular.

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Interesting. However, I’m still thinking that these people wanted to meet Mickey in the first place, and therefore rated it highly. You know, crazy people not representative of the rest of the world, like Liners. :wink:

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I get what you’re saying. The same thing is true about self-selection and thrill rides.

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I hate to get super gendered, but my son LOVED the Jungle cruise and I will be back this fall with 2 boys and will definitely do the jungle cruise but will be skipping Fairytale Hall. Now if there was a Moana meet & greet, that would be a totally different “princess” story!

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Yes, many adults in general really want to meet Mickey.

I get in line by myself for characters every time I go.

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I’m a Liner. Been using the UG for over 20 years. And I meet the characters EVERY time I go even when I go 3x a year. We do exist.

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I am with melcort10 on this one as well! Jungle Cruise is a big thing for so many families. The whole “backside of water” is legendary! So many families have boys that will probably not be as interested in the Princess Hall. Some might and it is important to recognize it, but I have read so many blogs and posts where parents who do EMM at MK forgo the Princess Hall because their sons never want to do it. Jungle Cruise seems to really appeal to all ages and gender.

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My first thoughts on reading the original post about the family plan was Wow! And not a good one either.

When my boys were little, Jungle Cruise, the Treehouse and TSI were my kid’s favourites!

And as a parent, TSI was a godsend, to give them time to run around and get away from the mania of MK.

To add, the only theme park they’d ever been to was Legoland (Windsor). Maybe there’s room for an alternative MK plan for 5-12 year olds who won’t ride the coasters.

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Picking this list is like picking favorite children! I was shocked that there are no teacups! Every Disneyworld ad out there has some picture of the teacups.

But realistically there is only so much room in the plan. :frowning_face: Especially with the “young children.” I’m doing two whole days this fall with my kids and I’m very much struggling to fit in TSI.

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TSI is fab but it just takes so long!!

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All age groups except seniors rate Jungle Cruise as below average. This might be one of those attractions that’s different for Disney fans.

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We haven’t done it for years, it actually makes me cringe with embarrassment.

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Obviously getting a 7D fast pass ahead of time is ideal, but I wonder how many of the people using a pre-made adults 1 day touring plan for MK will be making fast passes far enough in advance to get a morning 7D FP. It looks like right now you’d have to book FP at least 60+2 to get a morning time.

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It’s a good point. In the book, we give contingency instructions if it’s not possible to get 7DMT FPs.

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This ride is a punch line between me and my DW. I thought it was average, but my wife hated it and felt the line was awful. If i want to get “the look” at MK all I have to say is now would be a great time to do the Jungle Cruise!

TP’s are just good starts. All tastes are different, sub in and out items that you feel will appeal to your family or group.

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What am I missing with the one-day plan for adults. There are two 9:00am FPs?

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I was going to point that out too - @len there’s a fastpass for Peter Pan though you say:

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It is on the author’s selective plan too.