Evaluate my 1 crazy day in Magic Kingdom

Parade isn’t in Adventureland. But, you can see some if it if you were to take the short walk to Frontierland which is where it starts: my fav spot to watch the parade with defiantly more breathing room than the hub or Main St (avoid these area until 3:30-3:45ish). Check a map for the parade route. FYI: If you haven’t seen the parade, it’s well worth the time. Don’t miss the dragon at the end.

1 Like

I agree with @Sam2071 on the parade. It was of one of my kids’ favorite experiences at MK.

If you are looking to avoid the parade, you could stay in Adventureland, or make sure you are on the Liberty Riverboat side of the street as the parade is starting…it will pass by there around 3:10ish…

This way, you may be able to catch some of the parade (or all of it!), and when you are ready, you can navigate thru the curbside crowds, and back into Fantasyland, to continue with your plan to hit IASW. If you are too deep in Adventureland, or on the “wrong” side of the street, it will be awhile before you can head back to Fantasyland, as the parade blocks your route.

I agree, though, with other liners, that the parade is a highlight. My kids loved it so much when we watched it early in our trip this October, we made time to watch it again from the hub on another day…absolutely stunning. And, we try to use our time well, so as my DH knew I would take a million (exaggeration) photos, he went off to line up for Merida’s next set so our DDs wouldn’t have a long wait. Awesome !!

my few thoughts:
-make sure your kids are well rested for the day
-my mistake when setting our TP’s to start at park opening, is that the time of the 1st attraction (in your case PP at 8:11am) counts on you being at the FRONT OF THE RD PACK… we never were, so it threw off the plan and we had to drop things that first hour
-for some reason in my head, I pictured that being at RD was some sort of secret amongst guests…it isn’t. I don’t think I have ever seen such a hoard of people ascending onto the entrance of MK on a crowd level 6 day at 9am. yes, they do disperse once in the park, but it is craziness getting in.
-riding splash early in the morning is great to avoid the wait that builds throughout the day, but keep in mind that some people do get pretty wet depending on where you are in the boat, so if the weather is cool, you may not want to do that in the morning.
-instead of going into the tiki room at 2:30, grab a spot to watch the parade in frontierland at that time. this is what we did. kids by that point needed to sit and chill. husband sat with them (starting around 2:15, we parked our stroller in front of the candy shop in FL, they shopped, and I ran to the fpp kiosk to add our 4th fp that we would use after the parade), it was good down time. and the parade is awesome b/c they get to see so many characters, just a thought.
I think your fp times look good. I think that scheduling a fpp for HM might be unnecessary though b/c that seems to be on that is fairly available for adding as an additional. maybe do a fpp for BTMR in the morning instead. if the line isn’t too long, you can ride twice, once thru standby and then use your fpp for a 2nd ride. that’s one thing that was so tough with little ones. we would ride something, they’d get off and scream “again!”…no, not again, cuz the line is too long!

1 Like

I agree with @DarthDopey in changing your walking speed to relaxed. Little people need the time. They might be speedy guys, but MK is overwhelming and distracting for littles…biggies too!

Also, potty breaks and snacks? You have 7.5 between meals on your plan with no break. Maybe carry snacks and water then? Plan on pickingup something while watching parade? WDW takes a lot out of you and fuel is essential.

1 Like

I also planned a crazy MK day with kids. The first few hours went as planned but around 11 or so things really started to slow down. It takes a while to run over (oops I mean around :wink: all the people with strollers.

I made a mistake in my earlier planning, thinking that the boat dock to TSI was near the Haunted Mansion when it is actually across from BTMR. So, to reduce walking, I reorganized my plan a bit. I also reserved my first three FPs right at midnight when the 60 day window opened. Even then, I couldn’t snag 7DMT for exactly 9am, but I got 9:15 so close enough. So here’s my schedule:

7:30 am: Arrive at entrance
8:00 am: Race to 7DMT. If line is short, hop on, or if more than a few minutes wait move on to Peter Pan.
*- Next ride Peter Pan

  • Next ride Speedway
  • Pics near Cinderella Castle time permitting*
    9:10 am: 7DMT (First FP+ for 9:15)
    9:27 am: Haunted Mansion
    10:00am: BTMR
    10:22am: Splash Mountain (Second FP+ for 10:15)
    10:49am: POTC
    11:24am: Jungle Cruise (Third FP+ for 11:15), grab a fourth FP for POTC
    11:50am: Grab lunch items at a grab 'n go near Frontierland (where?) and take raft to TSI.
    1:10 pm: Swiss Family Treehouse
    1:30 pm: Pirates League
    2:30 pm: POTC (Fourth FP+ for 2:15), grab a fifth FP for Buzz Lightyear
    3:00 pm: Be somewhere north of Parade route, watch start of parade near Frontierland

*After the parade starts, the afternoon is open until dinner reservation at LTT @ 6:30. Try to hit the following rides, line permitting:

  • Small World
  • Philharmagic
  • Tiki Room
  • Buzz Lightyear (Fifth PF+)*
1 Like

I think your plan looks pretty good overall. The one thing that really sticks out to me is that you are missing most of the Fantasyland rides like Dumbo, Pooh, Barnstormer, Under the Sea, etc. I may be missing something but I didn’t see any of those things in your plan.

I have a daughter so I could be just bias by her interests, but in both of our trips (age 4 in Oct 2012 and age 6 in June 2014) some of her favorite rides were the ones I listed above. She especially enjoyed the play area at Dumbo:) We have not done TSI or Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse on either of these trips due to both time constraints, fatigue (as both of those attractions require a lot if walking), and preference of our daughter to ride more rides. You know your boys, so these things may appeal more to them. But I do think you are missing out by skipping a lot of Fantasyland.

Also, just another thought… If you secured FPP for 7DMT I would skip checking out the line and just head straight to Fantasyland to do those attractions which you could easily get in PP, Pooh, Barnstormer, UTS, and Dumbo between 8 and 9:15. We accomplished that much on a crowd level 8 in the heat of the summer this past June. I think you will potentially waste precious touring time heading to 7dmt with the other masses just to see if the line is short enough to ride. Just my two cents:)

1 Like

That’s a good point against racing straight to 7DMT. I was thinking we would have to walk past 7DMT to get to PP, but will rope drop allow us to walk straight through the castle on our way to PP? If so, then you’re right - it’s too much backtracking and I’m better off just riding 7DMT once in the morning and maybe again in the evening if I get another FP.

We might have time to ride Pooh. Under the Sea is closed for refurbishment. No interest in the basic spinny “carnival” rides like Dumbo or Teacups.

No interest in teacups??? :wink: my ds5 loves them… Me, not so much! It might surprise you what your boys love/ don’t love…

1 Like

@mirak yes you walk through the castle which does lead you to the line entrance for 7dmt. However to get to the end of the line, there are typically about 20-30 people who are lined up to the left of the entrance as the ride opens which then you have to pass them to get to the end of the standby line. Best way to get to the end of the line is to bear right at the castle, past cosmic rays, to the left of the teacups and into the line. But you won’t be able to see the wait time until you get to the entrance to the line. Make sense? If you aren’t at the very front of the pack at RD, you may end up waiting even 15-30 minutes or more. It is better than riding standby at other times, but still wasting touring time if you end up having FPP later.

Re: Parade viewing. If your kids don’t want to be right up close, we watched from the rocking chairs on Tom Sawyer’s Island once (3 years ago now, but I assume route is the same) and it was lovely and relaxing. Kids might freak out at being so far away… or they might be happy to watch from a distance, away from the crowd, with a snack in the shade.