I’m from MA and have always wanted to fly down solo for the day for the sake of adventure, but cost-wise it’s never worked out finding same day flights that left early enough going down and late enough coming back. Until now! Now that I’m an AP again (round of applause please), I started poking around on Google Flights and found a cheap flight for a Tues mid-April from Manchester, NH that has me landing at MCO at 8:20am and flying out of MCO at 9p so I jumped on it.
I’ll be ubering directly to TTC with just a park bag, hopefully entering by 10am.
Will plan to leave the park by 6p and uber back to MCO, likely from CR. So that gives me about 8 hours in the park.
It’s a CL 5 day and I plan on VQ for Tron, buying G+ and an ILL for 7DMT if available at park open. I would prefer to be able to do ILL for Tron as well, due the the unknown return time of VQ and longer waits, but I’m pretty sure those are gone by park open for guests not at a Disney hotel. Unfortunately, I’ll be on the plane at 7a without wi-fi, hoping I can find a friend or family member to book at 7 for me.
Now that I’m sitting down to figure out my day, I’m struggling to come up with a plan of attack to maximize the time I have in the park. I’m a pro when it comes to planning a whole day, RD to close, but this strategy is completely new to me.
This is my ‘to-do’ list, in order of what’s most important to least:
Tron
Space Mtn
Thunder Mtn
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Buzz Lightyear
7DMT (ILL)
Peter Pan
Under the Sea
Winnie the Pooh
It’s a Small World
Tiki Room
PhilharMagic
Carousel of Progress
PeopleMover
Festival of Fantasy Parade (which I am fine to view walking by, have no intention of waiting for it or standing in one place to watch. Definitely not a ‘must-do’).
I know it’s a long list for only 8 hours and I know I will likely not accomplish everything on the list, but that’s OK because I have other trips planned this year, both before and after April.
Do you think the 7a VQ is OK to do, hoping I don’t get BG1 or, if I do, I’ll get to the park in time? If doing the 1p VQ, what do the return times look like? I would hate to wait until 1 and then not have my BG called before I leave.
What time would you book the ILL for? My first thought was trying to get it at the end of my day and then spend the day doing my best to churn through LLs. Then I thought maybe first thing would be better. Or maybe there’s an even better way to think about it?
And then what should I plan for as my first LL? Peter Pan is my first instinct. Even though it’s lower on my list, I think if I wait, I’ll likely be out of luck.
What order would you plan to book the rest of the LLs?
My brain is about to explode. Give me ALL your liner advice, knowledge, wisdom, and experience if you’d be so kind. TIA!!!
I always like to make a touring plan, optimize— move things for not crossing the park a million times. Evaluate, Then I’ll look at longest predicted waits to get my lightening lanes for. Then can also help with what time to do ILL.
This part. A TP will make your decisions a lot easier with its predicted wait time feature. As far as the ILLs, you could always refresh for a later time, or have the person trying for you do so. The hardest rides will be in Fantasyland, next to Jungle Cruise which tends to have long waits.
I would try it. If you miss it, try again at 1:00. If Tron is a must do, then buy the ILL. But you have an AP now so you can always come back and ride Tron later for free.
Remember that LLs have 119 after the expiration that they will still turn green. PP is the only wild card on that one.
For the Tron you have the original hour plus 59 minutes.
You should be in the park by 10:00. I’m assuming the park opens at 9:00??
I’d book Jungle Cruise right at 7AM and hope its as close to park open as possible. Assuming you get JC for 9-10:00, you can book your next LL at 10:01.
Book Big Thunder next at 10:00. You should be able to ride Pirates standby and your Big Thunder should be shortly after 10:00/10:30.
As soon as you tap in to Big Thunder, book Haunted Mansion.
Basically book the ride you want with the soonest return times so you can book quicker and more frequently. I did this in May on a Saturday with a flight that landed at 9:30AM and again on a Wednesday, December 13 where we flew in that morning as well.
In December I was in MK by 9:20. I had booked a 9:40 LL for JC at 7AM.
We rode Pirates and Big Thunder standby, tapped in late for JC and booked LL at 10:45 for Haunted Mansion
We ate then rode HM and booked Buzz for 11;30.
Did COP, rode Buzz, booked Space Mt for 1:35 then went to the Contemporary to eat
At 1:30 (next booking time) booked a 1:50 Small World.
Came back from Contempo, rode Small World around 1:50 and booked PP, rode Space late.
We were able to book Under the Sea and Pooh later as well.
We did People Mover twice that day–one before our 5:30 dinner and again right after fireworks ended at 8:30. We hit COP one more time after People Mover.
