I could use some experienced liner eyes on my Magic Kingdom plan. We have 3 park days, end of June, and are planning to spend 1 full day at MK, 1 day at HS, and 1 day at AK. We have a day of rest in between each park day. The HS and AK days I was thinking if we ended early and wanted to we could head to MK at night since it is open till 11 while we are there.
Magic Kingdom Plan
7:00 am - grab as early as possible LL for half the party for Jungle Cruise and the other half Splash (fingers crossed using BG1 this works out)
We are staying off site but will try to rope drop and aim to be in the hub around 8:30.
Rope drop Pirates when park opens at 9.
Stand by - Big Thunder (short people do Magic Carpets, Tiki Room or Country Bears while they wait)
Redeem LL’s - half to Jungle Cruise and half to Splash. Get a new LL for Haunted Mansion.
Take an AC / shade break in Tiki Room or Country Bears
Grab an early lunch/snack at Pecos Bill
Get a spot for the 12:00 parade - (near Sleepy Hollow or edge of Liberty Square)
Head to Haunted Mansion LL after parade
Spend afternoon using Genie next closest times in Fantasyland.
Dinner somewhere in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland
End with Buzz, Space Mountain (only a few want to ride) and Monsters Inc Laugh Floor - hopefully we can snag a LL with a time that makes sense for Buzz and Space later in the day.
We aren’t trying to stay and watch the fireworks, so can just leave when we are ready to. We could take a midday break back at our rental house, but the amount of schlepping to get from MK back to TTC then to the car makes it feel like that is not worth it, and besides the 2.5 year old I think the rest of the kids will be fine with AC breaks and snacks to power them through, possibly a nap in Hall of Presidents at some point for everyone ha.
We loved Tom Sawyer Island last trip but I think it’s going to just be way too hot to enjoy this time around. If we did try to squeeze it in when we are in that part of the park we’d have to miss the 12:00 parade or just push the rest of the day back.
We’d like to do 7DMT but will only do it if we can get a $ILL and since are offsite that might be hard.
Sounds pretty solid to me. I wouldn’t mess with the break bc it is such a time suck. If anything you could maybe monorial to a resort for a look around in the AC for a little while. I think it’s smart to start with Adventureland/ Frontierland and then move over to Fantasy land bc you can run through those genie+ much easier that way.
I do think you’ll be able to get an $ILL for 7DMT. This one seems to have availability longer than others. Be ready to pounce right at park open.
I hear you on Tom Sawyer. We wanted to fit it in this time but it’s so stinking hot in May/June during the time that it’s open. We skipped it and stuck in a trip to Casey Jr. Splash Pad instead–that was a hit with DD6.
Wait times, even in the afternoon, for Dumbo are not bad. There’s a nice, cool play area on the way to the ride that you may want to spend a little time in. 3 or 4 pm on a crowd level 6 day and, for us, Dumbo was still a walk-on.
Last time we went Casey’s wasn’t open but that sounds much better than Tom Sawyer Island for this trip, I bet they would love that. Does the Dumbo play area use a pager still or you just play and then get in line for the ride?
+1 on the monorail break - my 2.5 year old passed out on it last May and we rode for a good 45 minutes.
I’d also add Columbia Harbor House as a great quick service but inside a/c option for a meal/extended rest. The tables upstairs are out of the way enough that kids have space to recuperate.
We weren’t given a pager this last time. They basically said “stay as long as you want and then go ride”. We sat down, DD6 climbed and looked around, and then we walked on the ride.
HM LL may have return times earlier than you want in which case you will have to decide to either (a) grab a different LL (maybe PPF?) and try for HM LL 2 hours later or (b) wait it out and refresh until HM LL is showing a time after the parade.
Perhaps if we are running ahead we could head there earlier, but good point, I just started watching these specific times in the past couple of days and it seems like nothing is super reliable!
Yup I just feel like it’s really tricky now to make a good Touring Plan because if you are using Genie+ you have to just assume when all your return times will be otherwise if you don’t put ANY return times in your plan will optimize in a totally different way. I’ve started watching the waits and return times of rides throughout the day though so will definitely keep adding to my TP and evaluating to see if it works.
I’m in this exact situation now, trying to make plans (have three going currently ) and I’m just sort of throwing my hands up as I feel like we’ll follow Genie+ around. So for now, we’re sticking more to side of the park at a time, prioritizing certain rides for G+ and then just hoping for the best. Would love to know if there’s a better way to plan for MK now?
We did a lot of walking from one side of MK to another due to LL availability. MK is small enough that DW and I didn’t find it to be too much of an inconvenience (my kids were in strollers). I would not want to be doing that back and forth in a large park like Epcot or AK.
I’m stuck here too with TPs and G+. My current plans are pretty OK I think and my live at Disney plan is to just update the plans as we get G+ times and finish rides and let it re-optimize once before arrival with whatever G+ times I have and then once around 11 and once more with afternoon G+ times IF we stay at the same park.
Columbia Harbor House is my absolute favorite place to take a break in MK for exactly the reason you mentioned: upstairs tables! It’s quieter, and you can usually find a table next to an outlet so you can plug in your phone while you soak in the AC and drink some water.
) and I’m just sort of throwing my hands up as I feel like we’ll follow Genie+ around. So for now, we’re sticking more to side of the park at a time, prioritizing certain rides for G+ and then just hoping for the best. Would love to know if there’s a better way to plan for MK now?