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107. One Day Park Strategy: Magic Kingdom · Mom Street USA

0:05
Welcome everybody to Mom St. USA.
0:07
My name is Jackie AKA wishes Mama.
0:09
And on today's episode, we are going to be continuing our
0:13
revisit of our one day park strategies.
0:16
And today we're going to be talking about Magic Kingdom.
0:19
So we figured we would kind of hop here to Disney after we did
0:24
Universal Studios last episode with our good friends Duck and
0:28
Jess. So this episode we figured we'd
0:32
hop into probably the biggest Disney park with the most
0:37
attractions to consider. So today we're going to be
0:40
chatting about what is a good course of action if I am only
0:45
going to be spending one day at Magic Kingdom.
0:48
What is kind of my my plan of attack and what should I do if I
0:52
want to get as much done as I can in only one day?
0:57
So like I said, this is a revisit of this.
0:59
We did this several years ago here on Mom Street, but so much
1:03
has changed in the parks and things are constantly changing
1:06
anyway, So you'll hear us talk about that throughout this the,
1:10
the series, especially at Disney, There's a ton of
1:13
construction at all of the Disney parks right now it feels
1:15
like. So a lot of new is coming.
1:17
A lot of new has popped up since we last covered all of this, so
1:22
we're going to do our best to give you the most accurate
1:24
information for now. And you know what, if in a year
1:27
or so we need to revisit these again, we will definitely do
1:31
that for sure. So let's hop to Magic Kingdom.
1:35
A couple of just general notes about Magic Kingdom is that the
1:40
area in the front of the park that is called Main Street USA
1:44
opens before early entry. So what is early entry?
1:49
Well, we did a whole episode on early entry and rope drop not
1:52
that long ago, but early entry is the time that Disney Resort
1:56
guests get to have a little bit of extra time in the parks.
2:01
So typically 30 minutes before official park open at Magic
2:05
Kingdom is there early entry time.
2:07
Magic Kingdom typically opens at 9:00.
2:10
There are a few days that it opens at 8:00 or that it opens
2:15
at 8:00 instead. So take a look at your My Disney
2:19
Experience app or the Disney World website for those park
2:22
hours. But typically Magic Kingdom
2:24
opens at 9:00, so 830 would be that early entry time for resort
2:29
guests. So you can get there fairly
2:33
early and then get your castle and Main Street photos before
2:38
your rope drop time happens. So again, 75 minutes before park
2:44
open is when that's going to happen.
2:47
Now taking, let's talk about transportation and Magic
2:50
Kingdom, because Magic Kingdom is a little tricky to get to
2:53
just because the parking lot is actually not directly on site
2:57
outside of the gates. It was built that way
3:00
intentionally. Walt wanted it to be a kind of
3:04
magic, more magical approach to the park.
3:06
So he didn't want you just to walk up after you got out of
3:09
your car. So you have to park at the
3:11
Transportation and Ticket Center if you are driving or if you are
3:15
doing any sort of rideshare. So because of that, especially
3:19
if you're on property and have access to Disney buses, those
3:24
buses are the best transportation method to get to
3:28
Magic Kingdom. Now I know the buses can be a
3:31
pain, but they truly are the best because they drop you the
3:35
closest that you can get to the main gate when it comes to
3:38
transportation. Now the only other better option
3:43
to that would be if you are staying on a monorail resort or
3:46
one of the resorts that are close by to Magic Kingdom that
3:50
has bus transportation. Those are great options as well
3:53
because they all drop you very close to that entrance Plaza for
3:57
Magic Kingdom. Again, if you are taking like an
4:00
Uber or a Lyft or rideshare, they will take you to the TTC
4:04
unless it's a minivan that has operated under Lyft.
4:08
Those will actually take you to the same drop off location that
4:11
the bus just take you. And just another general note,
4:15
if you're someone who maybe has been to Disney, but not super
4:18
recently, they actually in the last several months have
4:22
adjusted their early entry process for resort guests.
4:26
So it used to be that they would scan you in kind of on the right
4:30
hand side of the hub and then they would hold you right
4:34
between cosmic rays and the Tomorrowland Speedway as you
4:39
were looking at the teacups kind of in that space right there.
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Well, they have shifted the way that they do their early entry.
4:47
So now they still scan you in at the same location.
4:50
You still get scanned in your party for early entry.
4:53
We'll have to have a ticket or a magic band checked to make sure
4:57
that you are a resort guest. But after that, they actually
5:01
let you go and queue at whatever attraction it is that you're
5:04
trying to ride first. So any of the attractions that
5:07
are open during that early entry time, which would be Fantasyland
5:11
and Tomorrowland minus Tron, you can actually go and stand in
5:16
line to wait to get into the queues for those attractions.
5:19
So they kind of shifted that a little bit away from the old
5:23
system that we have known for years and years.
5:26
I kind of like this better, but it really means that you have to
5:30
get to the park super early because they're going to start
5:33
letting people scan in to go queue up at those rides pretty
5:37
much right at park open. So it's not like something where
5:41
you have to congregate and wait to be scanned in until early
5:44
entry starts. Nope.
5:45
They are pretty much going to let you go to that attraction
5:48
and queue up there. And sometimes those attraction
5:50
queues will even open 1520 thirty minutes before early
5:55
entry starts to let people start to go through the queues.
5:58
You'll especially find that at something like 7 Doors Mine
6:02
Train or Peter Pan at at Magic Kingdom.
6:06
So keep that in mind. You really want to make sure you
6:09
know exactly where you're going and you really want to make sure
6:11
that you get there early. So I know it can be a, a major
6:14
pain to get up super early on vacation, but especially at a
6:19
park like Magic Kingdom, it is super, super important.
6:22
So the way that we're going to set this up today is we're going
6:25
to do kind of two different scenarios for your one day at
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Magic Kingdom. The first scenario that we are
6:31
going to talk about is if you are going to the park and you
6:33
are utilizing lightning lanes. So you have purchased multi pass
6:37
and single passes and you are planning to use those lightning
6:41
lanes for for your day. The second plan of attack that
6:47
we are going to talk about today for Magic Kingdom will be if you
6:50
are not planning to use lightning lanes, what does that
6:54
day look like? How does it differ?
6:56
Things like that. Now the thing about Magic
6:59
Kingdom is there are probably 5 different really solid itinerary
7:07
choices that you can make to make the most of your day.
7:10
It really depends on who is in your travel party, what
7:14
attractions are important to them, and whether or not this is
7:19
something that you've already like, you've already been to
7:21
Magic Kingdom either on this trip or a previous trip or you
7:24
know, recently within the last couple years.
7:26
So lots of variables when it comes to that, especially if
7:29
you're travelling with kids. Are they young kids?
7:31
Are they older kids? Are they thrill seekers?
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Are they not? So I'm going to go through kind
7:36
of two different options sort of for your morning time.
7:41
That's kind of going to be the biggest differences that you'll
7:44
see in the the varying of your itineraries.
7:47
So I'm going to give you 2 different options that I think
7:50
are both really solid options. Now, as I go through this list,
7:55
I'm going to name the majority of the attractions at Magic
7:57
Kingdom. You may find that on this list,
8:01
there's two or three that you're like, Nope, don't need to do
8:03
that or no, I don't like throw rides, I don't want to do that
8:06
or Nope, we we know we did that on our last trip a couple years
8:09
ago. We don't need to do it again.
8:10
Those types of things. If that's you, great, perfect.
8:13
I'm so glad that you know that and that you have that kind of
8:16
predetermined in your head. So that way you can just skip
8:21
that part of the itinerary that I give you and move on to the
8:24
next part that interests you. So like I said, I'm going to
8:26
list off the majority of the attractions at Magic Kingdom.
8:30
So you can pick and choose kind of from this order that I give
8:34
you, pull out the ones that you want and create your kind of
8:38
personalized itinerary from that.
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Before we hop in, I do just want to mention that I am somebody
8:44
who loves to do this. I love to give specific
8:48
specialized itineraries for our friends that go and visit the
8:53
parks. If I've got family that's going,
8:55
friends, anyone from our mom St. community, I am more than happy
9:00
to help you. So if you're like, I've got this
9:01
crazy big party that I'm traveling to Magic Kingdom with,
9:05
what in the world should I do? Send me a message.
9:07
I am more than happy to help you figure out the best way to kind
9:11
of go about your day. Like I said, this is something
9:14
that I truly like to do. I've done it for as long as I
9:18
can remember, probably for the last 10 years for friends and
9:21
family that are visiting the park.
9:22
So if you need help after you have listened to this episode,
9:26
please send me a message. OK, all of that being said, that
9:30
was kind of a mouthful. Let's talk about what we're
9:33
going to do with our lightning lanes.
9:35
Now, we're not going to talk super in depthly about what
9:38
lightning Lanes are and how they work and all that kind of stuff
9:40
because just not that long ago we did a whole recap on
9:45
lightning Lanes and I went in depth on how to book and where
9:48
on your app to go and all of that good stuff.
9:50
So if you need specific lightning Lane help, refer back
9:53
to that episode. But I am going to just go over
9:57
some general ideas for Lightning Lanes at Magic Kingdom.
10:01
So just some notes you will. If you are on property, which we
10:05
just talked about not that long ago, meaning you're staying at a
10:08
Disney resort or something like Shades of Green or Swan and
10:11
Dolphin, then you can book your lightning lanes seven days
10:16
before your check in date. So if your check in date is on
10:21
the 8th, you can book your lightning lanes starting on the
10:24
1st. So keep that in mind if you are
10:27
off property, you're not staying at a Disney resort.
10:30
Maybe you're staying at somewhere near Disney Springs or
10:33
one of the other local area resorts.
10:35
You will book three days ahead of time from your first park
10:41
day. So it was a little bit different
10:43
in the terminology and kind of the way that you decipher that.
10:46
So keep that in mind. If you're off property, whatever
10:49
day you have selected for your ticket to start is the date that
10:53
you will be is your eligibility date and you'll count 3 days
10:56
before that. So on property is check in day,
11:00
off property is ticket start day.
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So just make sure you have that kind of in your brain to figure
11:05
out when you become eligible. There are two tiers for rides at
11:09
Magic Kingdom 4 Lightning Lane. Tier 1 is Jungle Cruise, Peter
11:13
Pan, Space Mountain, and Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
11:16
We are unsure as to what is going to happen with Big Thunder
11:19
Mountain when it reopens in 2026.
11:22
Previously it was a tier one. Don't know if they're planning
11:26
to put that back on tier one. I would assume they probably
11:29
are. I don't know if that means that
11:31
one of the other rides is going to go to Tier 2.
11:33
That remains to be seen. So we will have to kind of just
11:36
wait and see what Disney does about that.
11:38
We don't even know the date for Big Thunder yet at this point
11:40
that I'm recording this. So we're just going to have to
11:43
kind of wait and see with that. Your Tier 2 rides, there's a
11:46
whole slew of them, but Barnstormer, Dumbo, Haunted
11:48
Mansion, Small World, Mad Tea Party, Magic Carpets of Aladdin,
11:51
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Fill Her, Magic Monsters
11:54
Inc, Laugh Floor, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tomorrowland,
11:56
Speedway, Under the Sea, Journey of The Little Mermaid.
12:00
So those are all your Tier 2 attractions.
12:02
Just a note that when Disney changed to the most recent
12:06
iteration of Lightning Lanes, they took off all of the
12:09
character meet and greets, so no characters on there for that.
12:14
The two single pass options that you have are Tron and Seven
12:18
Dwarfs, so those are both really great options to save a little
12:24
extra in your budget to utilize that as well.
12:27
Now my suggestion because we're talking about if you are using
12:31
lightning lanes for this first section, my suggestion is Tier 1
12:36
to book either Jungle Cruise or Tiana's Bayou Adventure and then
12:41
for Tier 2, so you get one in Tier 1-2 and Tier 2.
12:44
For Tier 2, I would look at something like Haunted Mansion
12:48
Pirates or Winnie the Pooh. Those are going to be kind of
12:51
your three best options to choose from.
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You're going to want to book your first ride approximately 60
12:56
to 90 minutes after park open so that you can take advantage of
12:59
the early morning lower crowds. So even on, even if you're
13:04
someone that doesn't have early entry, if you get there still at
13:07
rope drop, you're going to have at least an hour's worth of
13:11
lower crowds, if not closer to 90 minutes, maybe 2 hours on a
13:15
slow day. So you don't want to necessarily
13:18
start your lightning lane super early in the day because you're
13:21
going to be able to get through more standby options that early
13:26
in the morning. Just something else to note as
13:28
you are pre booking these lightning lanes is you really
13:31
want to pay attention to the location in the park that your
13:34
rides are in, what time you have that are available.
13:37
The best advice I have is to book your rides as early as
13:42
possible starting at that 60 to 90 minute window.
13:45
So if the park opens at 9:00, your first lightning lane could
13:49
be 10:00. And ideally now the the app
13:52
won't let you overlap your ride times as much as I wish it
13:56
would, but you can, you can overlap them about 15 minutes.
14:01
So ideally you've got a 10:00, you've got an A 1045, then
14:05
you've got, what would that be an 11:30, you know, for your
14:09
first 3 multi pass rides and then you can fit in your single
14:13
pass rides after that aspect for that.
14:16
Another note, taking times to do things like parades, the stage
14:19
show, cavalcades, those can be inserted anywhere in this plan
14:24
that we're going to talk about. However, keep in mind that that
14:28
will eat up a large portion of your day if you plan to do a lot
14:31
of those and it will minimize the amount of rides that you can
14:34
accomplish. Now, if those shows and
14:38
experiences are high on your priority list, then please, by
14:42
all means do them. I'm not going to necessarily
14:44
talk about things like Country Bears, Tiki Room, the stage
14:49
show, the Adventure Friends Cavalcade.
14:51
Like we're not going to necessarily include those in our
14:54
list for this itinerary because we're just focusing primarily on
14:58
the attractions. But do keep in mind that you can
15:01
fit any of those in depending on where you're at and what time it
15:05
is the Festival of Fantasy Parade, which is typically
15:08
either a two or three PM parade, and the Adventure Friends
15:12
cavalcade, which right now I believe it's like an 11:00-ish
15:16
AM cavalcade currently. Now check your app, they have
15:20
the most up to date times. Both of those will start by
15:23
Tiana's Bayou Adventure and end by the train station and fire
15:27
station down Main Street. Now if you want to see the new
15:30
Starlight nighttime parade at Magic Kingdom, it goes the
15:34
opposite way. It starts by the fire station
15:36
and the train station goes towards the castle and then
15:39
around the corner and friends at Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
15:42
So keep that in mind based on where you're located in the park
15:46
and what time the the experience is starting to kind of plan
15:51
whether or not that's something that's going to fit into your
15:54
your, your itinerary for the day.
15:57
The stage show, which is Mickey's Magical Friendship Fair
16:01
is at the castle. It is a really good way to see
16:06
characters if you don't want to spend a ton of time in lines to
16:10
see those characters. You will see the Fab 5, no Fab
16:16
6, sorry, are in there, Tangled characters, Princess and the
16:21
Frog characters and Frozen characters all in that stage
16:25
show. So if you want to kind of see
16:27
them all and you don't necessarily need the direct
16:30
character interaction with them, that stage show may be a really
16:34
good way to see them. All of those characters are in
16:37
the Festival Fantasy Parade, and most of those are in the new
16:44
Starlight Parade as well. You can see Elsa, you can see
16:47
Tiana and Naveen, you can see Rapunzel and Flynn.
16:52
That parade's fairly new. I'm trying to rack through it in
16:54
my brain. And most of the Fab 6 characters
16:56
are in there, so you'll still be able to see most of those in the
16:59
Starlight Parade as well. So that is a really good use of
17:03
your time if you are someone that wants to see characters,
17:06
doesn't necessarily need the 1 to 1 interaction with them, and
17:11
you're trying to save some time. So you really just have to think
17:14
about what your priority is when it comes to characters and those
17:17
parades and shows to kind of decide whether or not you want
17:21
to include those in your itinerary.
17:23
And again, check your app in the morning, like when you're on
17:27
your way to the park to see what the most up to date show times
17:30
are, because those are pretty standard.
17:35
However, there are certain aspects that may cause those to
17:39
be adjusted, changed throughout the day.
17:42
So just little things to keep in mind.
17:44
With that. All of that being said and done,
17:47
let's jump into what our itinerary is going to look like.
17:50
So with Magic Kingdom, you're going to want to be there at
17:53
least 45 minutes before you can enter the park.
17:59
A couple different courses of action.
18:02
If you are early entry, I highly suggest you rope drop
18:06
Fantasyland. If you are doing just regular
18:09
rope drop entry, you are going to want to head over to
18:13
Frontierland and Adventureland. So again, with early entry, only
18:18
Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are open minus Tron.
18:22
So you have all of Fantasyland and you have of Space Mountain
18:28
and you have Buzz Lightyear. When it reopens after the refurb
18:31
will be another one. The other side of the park,
18:34
Adventureland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, that all doesn't
18:38
even open until park opens. So it's not part of early entry.
18:41
So you don't even need to worry about that if you're planning to
18:43
do early entry. So in Fantasyland, your first
18:47
standby rides are going to be either Peter Pan or 7 Dwarfs.
18:52
I would do Peter Pan if you've booked a single pass for seven
18:56
dwarfs. Now if 7 dwarfs is really high
18:59
on your list and you want to try to ride it twice, you've booked
19:02
a single pass, then go ahead and do it standby first thing in the
19:04
morning to kind of get that first ride in.
19:08
And then your second ride will be with your single pass landing
19:11
lane that you've booked. After that, check the wait time
19:16
for Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
19:17
This ride gets a super long wait because it's because it is
19:21
closest in proximity to 7 Dwarfs Mine Train.
19:25
So any family that's got kiddos that are not tall enough for
19:29
seven dwarves or don't want to ride 7 dwarves, they go directly
19:32
across the way to Winnie the Pooh.
19:34
So check that one. If it's got a lower wait time,
19:38
go ahead and get in line. If that line is not all the way
19:43
through the garden, thumbs up. You're good to go when it comes
19:46
to Winnie the Pooh. And you can see that kind of
19:48
from the front gate, which is which is helpful.
19:50
If you are like by the Little Beehive interactive area, go
19:55
ahead and wait. You're looking at maybe 2025 at
19:57
the very most, but likely less than that because you don't have
20:02
Lightning Lane slowing down those lines this early in the
20:04
morning. After that, you can kind of make
20:07
your rounds. You can hit Under the Sea with
20:09
Little Mermaid and you can hit Small World and that will kind
20:12
of round out the majority of your Fantasyland attractions.
20:15
Now you just really have to plan initially for Peter Pan and
20:19
Seven Dwarfs. If you do Peter Pan first, I
20:22
would then still do the same thing where you're going to head
20:25
from Peter Pan. Don't do Small World yet.
20:27
Head back over towards Winnie the Pooh to.
20:29
Check Winnie the Pooh if it's too long or you can see on your
20:33
app that it's too long swing around then you can do Little
20:37
Mermaid and then over to small world.
20:39
But either way, the majority of your early entry time for our
20:44
Disney Resort guest is is best spent in Fantasyland because you
20:48
can knock out a lot of those rides very quickly during that
20:51
early entry time. Now, if you are someone that is
20:55
not doing early entry and you are going just at park open,
20:59
your best bet is going to be heading over to the
21:02
Adventureland side of the park because the early entry guests
21:06
have not been over there because it's not open during early
21:09
entry. So if you are going
21:12
Adventureland side, your options for rope drop are going to be
21:17
Jungle Cruise. If that's high on your list and
21:19
you didn't book a lightning lane for it, you're definitely going
21:22
to want to rope drop. That Big Thunder Mountain when
21:25
it reopens in 2026 is a great option for rope drop over there
21:28
as well as Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
21:30
So those would be my top three that I would kind of choose
21:33
between priority wise. Again, some of these you may
21:36
book on your with your lightning lanes.
21:40
Like I said earlier, I really suggest Jungle Cruise as one
21:44
because that ride is really popular regardless of what time
21:48
of year. It's really popular with the
21:49
holiday overlay right now as I'm recording this, but it's really
21:53
popular no matter what and it is a hard lightning lane to get
21:56
later in the day. We don't know what Big Thunder
21:59
Mountains going to look like with the new refurb and how
22:03
popular it may or may not be. It's a very high capacity ride,
22:06
so it typically doesn't get a super long line in the morning,
22:09
but that remains to be seen. When it reopens, I imagine there
22:12
will will be kind of a big surge of people that want to go there
22:15
first just to revisit Big Thunder Mountain since it's been
22:19
so long since we've all been able to ride it.
22:21
And the same thing with Tiana's Bayou Adventure.
22:24
It doesn't necessarily get a super long line in the morning.
22:27
You do have to be careful because it doesn't always like
22:29
to open first thing in the morning.
22:31
So be sure you have a place that you're going to pivot to.
22:35
If Tiana's Bayou Adventure does not open, make sure you know
22:39
what your secondary choice is when it comes to that.
22:42
So those would be my suggestions and then after those for other
22:46
standby options, you can do Haunted Mansion and Pirates of
22:49
the Caribbean. Both of those over on that side
22:51
of the park should be fairly low weights for you to be able to
22:55
kind of get all of that done during your first hour ish of
23:00
the park being open, depending on weights.
23:02
Now, if you happen to be there on a morning where weights don't
23:06
look too terrible once you've gotten through Fantasyland, if
23:11
you're an early entry person, then head over to Adventureland
23:14
and follow through the rest of that plan that I just gave.
23:17
Because chances are you may still be able to hit three or
23:21
four of those rides before your first Lightning lane time even
23:25
starts. That means that you're going to
23:27
get those bonus rides on your Lightning lanes or you're going
23:31
to have less stress trying to get some of those times on your
23:34
Lightning Lanes later in the day.
23:37
So it just really depends on how busy the park is.
23:40
Pull up your My Disney Experience app, make sure you've
23:43
got those wait times loaded and you're keeping an eye on them in
23:46
the mornings. Like first thing, oftentimes
23:49
those wait times on My Disney Experience will be a little bit
23:53
inflated. So if you see something like a
23:56
30 and you're like, maybe go ahead and get in line and see
24:00
how it's moving. If it's moving continuously and
24:03
you don't feel like you're just like at a standstill, chances
24:05
are it's probably less than a 30 for the majority of these
24:08
attractions. It really just depends.
24:10
It's hard to predict sometimes, but that's kind of my suggestion
24:14
with with that over overall, before I hop over to what you're
24:19
going to want to do next after that, let's talk about Tron.
24:22
So I do highly, highly suggest that you book Tron for a single
24:28
pass lightning lane, especially if you're planning to use
24:30
lightning lanes. It is a fabulous use of your
24:33
budget for that. I do not suggest doing that at
24:38
rope drop one because it doesn't open for early entry like the
24:41
rest of that line does. However, you will have resort
24:45
guests that go and stand in line for the line to open at park
24:50
open. So that is a really tricky one
24:53
to rope drop. So I really unfortunately don't
24:55
suggest you do it. If you want to do it twice and
25:00
you've booked a single pass for it already, but you want to be
25:03
able to do it, stand by. My biggest suggestion is to go
25:07
like lunchtime around 121230. If you see that weight drop to
25:14
around 3035 minutes, go ahead and get in line.
25:18
My rule of thumb for that one is if the line is not outside of
25:25
the main archway, that's like up all the way on the platform.
25:29
If it's inside those, those switchbacks that are not outside
25:33
of that kind of archway, you're probably good to go to go ahead
25:37
and wait in that standby line. You're looking at 35 ish minutes
25:42
from there. When it comes to Tron, typically
25:44
now things can happen, you know, they can have loading issues,
25:49
cars can have it. You never know, right?
25:51
But generally speaking, that's kind of my rule of thumb when it
25:54
comes to Tron. The other time you can check is
25:58
in the evening. Now that we've got the new
25:59
Starlight Parade. It pulls a good crowd away from
26:03
the, the, the rides of the evening because you've got the
26:07
parade directly into the fireworks.
26:08
If you're someone that is either planning to stay for the second
26:12
parade, because there are two nighttime parades right now.
26:15
If you're someone that's planning to day for the second
26:17
parade, maybe the first parade and the fireworks would be a
26:22
good time to go to to hit Tron and then that way you'll be done
26:25
with it by the time the second parade is getting ready to
26:27
start. So those are my suggestions for
26:29
standby. Again, I'll reiterate this later
26:32
when we talk about not using lightning Lanes, but I would
26:35
definitely book a single pass for that and then use those tips
26:39
to get you a second ride if you really want to do that twice,
26:43
one time through standby. So all of that being said, after
26:47
you've kind of whisked your way through one of those two plans,
26:52
either Fantasyland or Adventureland, then you're going
26:55
to want to start just utilizing your lightning lane.
26:57
So you're going to use your first lightning lane.
26:59
As soon as everybody taps in for that first lightning lane,
27:02
you're going to be able to book a secondary lightning lane.
27:06
You can always hold 3 at any given time when it comes to
27:10
multi pass. So if you're using multi pass
27:13
and you've got A7 dwarves and a Tron booked, you're going to see
27:16
5 lightning lanes on your plan for the day, which is a great
27:20
way to set up your day. If you are someone that is only
27:23
planning on one day at Magic Kingdom, that is the best course
27:26
of action when it comes to that. But if you didn't get some of
27:30
those, then that list becomes the order that you attempt to
27:35
book next. So things like Winnie the Pooh,
27:39
things like Big Thunder Mountain, whenever it reopens,
27:41
things like Haunted Mansion, Tiana's Bio Adventure, those
27:44
rides. If for some reason you weren't
27:45
able to get those done during that first 60 to 90 minutes of
27:49
the park being open, that becomes your priority list for
27:52
booking your Lightning Lanes. As far as lightning lanes go,
27:56
you just want to book them as early as possible, as close
28:00
together as possible. And if they don't give you a
28:03
time that you want, let's say you you use your first lightning
28:06
lane, you try to book a Winnie the Pooh, it gives you a six PM.
28:09
Don't give up. Keep modifying, keep refreshing
28:12
that app as you're waiting in line and something new should
28:15
pop up to give you a better time.
28:17
You've just got to be patient and really diligent about it.
28:20
So that way you'll be able to utilize that.
28:23
Now that will take up the majority of your morning, right?
28:26
Everything that you're doing during that early entry time,
28:29
everything that you're doing right after, and your first
28:31
several lightning lanes will take you all the way up to
28:34
lunchtime. If you are planning a quick
28:37
lunch, which I do suggest, if you've only got one day at Magic
28:40
Kingdom, there are tons of different places that you can
28:43
mobile order from. Mobile ordering will save you a
28:46
ton of time when it comes to those lunch spots.
28:50
I do suggest trying to do lunch a little bit earlier. 11/11/30
28:54
is great. When you get closer to noon,
28:57
those those places get a lot busier.
29:00
It gets a lot more hectic and crazy in there.
29:02
But Casey's Corner, Columbia Harbor House, Friars Nick,
29:05
Pinocchio, Village House, all of those are really great options
29:08
for mobile ordering. So do that kind of after you
29:12
have run through your first set of standby lines and gotten
29:17
through your first maybe 2 to 3 lightning lanes close to
29:21
11/11/30 would be my suggestion for that.
29:24
So after lunch, you're really going to be looking at the wait
29:29
times and kind of living on your app for what has a low weight or
29:34
what times are available for your next lightning lanes.
29:38
So I'm going to kind of run down to the next kind of general list
29:41
of attractions. Some of these you may be able to
29:44
do just stand by if they've got a 15 or 20 minute wait.
29:48
Some of these you may go, oh, that's got a time for a
29:51
lightning lane coming up in 20 minutes from now.
29:53
That's perfect timing for us to get over there.
29:55
Let's go ahead and book that. It really just depends on the
29:59
crowd for the day and what lightning lanes you've already
30:03
been able to get through at this point in your day.
30:05
You you kind of have to hop around between in the app and
30:09
the lightning lane to like the tip board part of the app and
30:12
the map part of the app that will show you the wait times.
30:16
The other thing that you can do is kind of think about these in
30:19
clusters. So something like the first two
30:22
on this list are Barnstormer and Dumbo.
30:25
Barnstormer might need a Lightning Lane in the afternoon
30:28
because of a lot of little kids. Once you get through all of the
30:31
bigger rides, a lot of little kids still want to do
30:34
Barnstormer so it can get like a 40 minute wait.
30:36
Dumbo, because it's got a higher capacity with the double sides,
30:40
typically has closer to like a 25 minute wait.
30:43
So maybe you book Barnstormer on Lightning Lane, maybe it's 20
30:47
minutes from now, and maybe you go and ride Dumbo in the
30:50
meantime. So you can kind of cluster some
30:52
of these together to make it make sense with like
30:56
geographically where you're going in the park.
30:58
So again, things like Barnstormer, Dumbo and even Mad
31:02
Tea Party can be thrown in that kind of little group.
31:05
And then Magic Carpets of Aladdin is kind of off on its
31:09
own little island over back towards Jungle Cruise.
31:12
You maybe are able to hit that while you're over on that side
31:15
of the park to kind of get that Adventureland side done.
31:20
When it comes to between Lightning Lanes for Jungle
31:22
Cruise and Pirates and doing standby for magic carpets,
31:26
depends on your timing and things like that.
31:29
Fill Her Magic Monsters Inc, Laugh floor and the Tomorrowland
31:32
Speedway, again, you just really have to kind of think about some
31:37
of those. You will not absolutely not need
31:40
to book with a lightning lane. Something like Fill Her Magic
31:43
very rarely gets more than a 1520 minute wait because it is
31:46
such a high capacity theater. So you really just have to look
31:49
at where am I at in the park trying to avoid going cross all
31:55
the way from side to side and kind of thinking about it that
31:58
way. After that, those kind of that I
32:01
listed, you've got just a handful left on the railroad
32:05
right now because of construction and for the
32:07
foreseeable future, probably several years, the train is not
32:12
the railroad is not running the full loop around Magic Kingdom.
32:15
It is just a shuttle train, the Main Street station and the
32:20
Fantasyland station, which is like near Storybook Circus right
32:24
by Barnstormer that we were just talking about.
32:26
So you may want to do that. The other two attractions that
32:30
you have left would be Astro Orbiter and Buzz Lightyear Space
32:36
Ranger Spin. When that reopens after its
32:38
refurb, those two are a little trickier and you may have to
32:43
just keep an eye on them throughout the day and just try
32:46
to find a time where they've got a lower weight.
32:50
Buzz will be available on Lightning Lane.
32:52
Astro Orbiter does not have a Lightning Lane option.
32:54
So it's a really tricky one to kind of time, right, But you
32:58
hopefully will be able to find where it's maybe a 20 or 25, and
33:02
that's not terrible for that. After that you can think about
33:05
things like the Carousel People Mover and then that's where
33:09
those shows come in. Country Bears Hollow,
33:11
Presidents, Carousel of Progress and Chana Tiki Room.
33:14
All of those are great filler options.
33:16
If you're like waiting on a lightning lane time to become
33:18
eligible and you're nearby. Those are great filler rides if
33:23
you've got the availability in your schedule.
33:25
The other thing to think about is those character meet and
33:28
greets. Again, we talked earlier about
33:29
the fact that there are no lightning lanes, unfortunately
33:32
for the character meet and greets.
33:34
So you're really just going to have to gauge whether or not
33:36
that's something you're interested in.
33:37
You know, there are some that are stationary, like the
33:41
princesses that meet in Fantasyland are always located
33:44
there. You've got some that are more
33:45
roaming characters. You've got, you know, various
33:49
different options when it comes to that.
33:50
So just take a look and see what really interests your group.
33:53
Maybe pick one or two and figure out where it makes sense
33:56
geographically for them to be fit into your itinerary with the
34:01
understanding that chances are good it's going to be a 30
34:04
minute wait for a lot of those characters.
34:06
So after you've kind of filled your afternoon with some of
34:09
those rides that I just kind of threw at you rapid fire there,
34:14
you're going to want a mobile order dinner.
34:15
Again, the same list that we talked about earlier as far as
34:19
locations and where to go. And then the evening is really
34:22
just your clean up time. We talked about this at
34:24
Universal Studios with Duck and Jess last episode as well, that
34:28
that evening is really just your clean up time.
34:30
Chances are maybe you're just like, Nope, you know, we've done
34:34
everything we wanted to do for the day.
34:35
We're just going to relax. We're going to have a nice
34:38
relaxing dinner, we're going to watch the parade and the
34:42
fireworks and just enjoy our evening in the parks.
34:46
That is an amazing way to spend the end of your day after you've
34:48
been running around like crazy and Magic Kingdom all day.
34:51
Or maybe you took a longer lunch and so now you're going to want
34:55
to try and hit something like Tron or you're going to want to
34:58
go back and try to hit something like 7 dwarves again or Tiana's
35:01
Bayou Adventure or Big Thunder Mountain whenever it reopens.
35:04
You know those those evening hours are also a good time to
35:07
get some of those more E ticket attraction, those big throw
35:10
rides. If you can get an additional
35:12
ride on those, that's the best time to do it.
35:16
I think that kind of gives you most of the attractions, kind of
35:21
something to think about when it comes to planning your day with
35:24
light lightning lanes. Again, I didn't give you a
35:27
specific plan because it really just determines.
35:30
It's really just determined by the day that you go and what the
35:34
availability looks like for those lightning lanes.
35:36
Are you willing to sit and refresh?
35:39
Because if you know me, you know, I'm really good at getting
35:42
lightning lanes. That's because I have the
35:44
patience to sit and refresh my app and be ready to jump on a
35:47
time whenever it pops up. So it really just depends on how
35:50
much you want to be on your phone, how much you want to do
35:53
that refreshing of those lightning lanes and what the
35:57
availability just looks like. You know, it varies so much
36:00
day-to-day, there's no way to predict what times are going to
36:03
pop up for you whenever you go to book your additional
36:06
lightning lanes. But just remember you can book
36:09
every ride once on multi pass, the ones that are eligible for
36:12
multi pass. And you can always hold 3 multi
36:16
pass lightning lanes at one time.
36:18
So if any point in time you hop on your app and you're like, oh,
36:21
I've only got one or two booked, hop onto that tip board to see
36:24
what else is available. Go ahead and book it.
36:26
You can always try and modify it later.
36:28
So those are my biggest suggestions when it comes to
36:31
lightning Lanes at any park, but specifically Magic Kingdom,
36:34
because that's what we're talking about right now.
36:36
Now let's talk about a game plan if we are not using Lightning
36:41
Lanes and what that will look like.
36:43
Now with Magic Kingdom. If you are someone that wants to
36:48
get in as many rides as humanly possible at Magic Kingdom,
36:54
chances are you're not going to have a ton of time to do shows,
36:58
characters, parades, fireworks. So you really have to decide
37:02
your priority list. This is extra hard now that
37:06
we've got that new Starlight parade in the Evening Times.
37:09
That kind of makes the evening a little bit harder.
37:12
Previously when it was just happily ever after, if you had
37:15
seen it or you weren't a firework person or you didn't
37:18
care to see it from the front of the castle, it was much easier
37:21
to maneuver around and not have to worry about that.
37:25
Now that Starlight is a thing, a lot more people are not riding
37:30
rides in the evening time, which is great if that is something
37:34
that you are wanting to do as well.
37:36
So just keep that in mind as we go through.
37:38
You're not going to hear me talk about a lot of shows, parades,
37:41
fireworks in this specific itinerary because there is so
37:44
much to do at Magic Kingdom. Now the morning, if you're not
37:48
using Lightning Lanes, the morning is going to seem fairly
37:52
similar to what we just talked about.
37:55
You are going to, if you are an early entry resort guest, you're
37:59
going to head to Fantasyland. If you are a regular guest off
38:03
property, you're going to head to the Frontierland
38:05
Adventureland side. Again, Fantasyland.
38:08
You're looking at Peter Pan or 7 dwarves as your first ride that
38:11
you're going to queue up for. After that you're going to look
38:13
at things like the opposite of that, right?
38:15
If you did 7 dwarves, check the Peter Pan line or vice versa.
38:19
Many adventures of Winnie the Pooh being your next ride in
38:23
that specific area. For the Adventureland Frontier
38:26
Land side, Jungle Cruise would be my first option.
38:30
Big Thunder Mountain is a good one once it reopens, Tiana's
38:33
Bayou Adventure and then Haunted Mansion and Pirates.
38:35
So those lists for your morning pretty much don't change whether
38:40
you're using lightning lanes or not.
38:42
It's really that is just the best course of action no matter
38:46
who you are visiting the parks in the morning.
38:48
In my personal opinion. Again, once you have hit one,
38:53
like if you're a Fantasyland rope dropper because you've got
38:56
early entry but you want to hit some of those Adventureland
38:59
rides, do your top 2IN Fantasyland and then head over
39:03
to Adventureland to catch the rope drop over there.
39:06
But I would say 2 rides in Fantasyland, maybe three if it's
39:09
a really slow morning, and then hop over to the Adventureland
39:12
side to rope drop over there as well.
39:17
The thing that is really hard when you're not using Lightning
39:20
Lanes are those two single pass rides.
39:23
And you'll hear me talk about those single pass rides at every
39:25
other park too during Lightning Lane itineraries and no
39:29
Lightning Lane itineraries. Those single pass attractions
39:33
are the biggest, the biggest time consumption that you're
39:36
going to have at these parks when you're visiting.
39:39
So Tron is a really, really tough one to get on just because
39:45
it doesn't open with early entry, even though it's in
39:48
Tomorrowland. All those things we talked about
39:49
earlier. I highly, highly suggest that if
39:55
you're able to budget even just a tiny amount for Magic Kingdom,
40:00
a little bit of extra. Do the single pass for Tron.
40:04
You don't necessarily need to for seven doors because you can
40:06
rope drop that. As long as you get there early.
40:09
You'll be on and off there fairly quickly if you're able to
40:12
get up and get going in the morning.
40:14
Tron is so hard to get on without spending 30 to 60
40:19
minutes or more in line. So I highly suggest if you're
40:23
able to find those few extra dollars per person to do your
40:26
Tron single pass. Otherwise, again, you can try to
40:30
rope drop it, but chances are there's going to be a long line
40:34
there and you're going to spend an hour at least probably in the
40:38
morning to devote to Tron, which means then you're going to be
40:40
skipping out on 7 Dwarves, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, you know, So
40:46
you really just have to decide now if Tron is your absolute top
40:51
priority, then go ahead and rope drop it.
40:54
But you just have to understand that it's a give and take
40:57
situation when you're not using those lightning lanes at Magic
40:59
Kingdom. So again, lunchtime or parade
41:03
time, evening time, you just really have to keep an eye on
41:06
what those wait times are doing. And again, look, go and look at
41:11
the physical line. I know it's annoying to walk all
41:13
the way up there, but if that standby line is underneath and
41:18
not outside of the main entry at the very top of that platform,
41:23
you're looking around 35 minutes.
41:26
So that can be a really good gauge.
41:28
If that line starts to come out and down the walkway, come back
41:31
another time. It's not worth it at that
41:33
moment. Come back another time to to try
41:36
again. Your morning is going to be
41:38
spent Fantasyland, Adventureland, or vice versa
41:41
trying to get as many of those rides done as possible.
41:44
So let's say you are an early entry guest.
41:47
If it were me, I would do 7 dwarves, Winnie the Pooh, then I
41:52
would do, I don't need to do Peter Pan, I don't need to do
41:55
Jungle Cruise. Personal opinion.
41:58
So I would do 7 dwarves, many ventures of Winnie the Pooh.
42:00
I would do Mermaid and Small World and that would knock out
42:03
most of Fantasyland for us. Then I'd head over to Tiana's
42:07
Well Haunted Mansion, Tianas and Pirates and that would be the
42:10
most of my morning before lunchtime.
42:13
Again, mobile ordering for lunch can save you a ton of time and a
42:16
headache of having to wait in line and figure all that out.
42:20
So the same places that we talked about for lunch, places
42:23
like Caseys Corner, Cosmic Rays at Columbia Harbor House, Friars
42:28
Nook and Pinocchio Village House are all decent options.
42:30
Again, theme park food, you know how it is.
42:34
I really like the new menu over at Pecos Bill as well, which I
42:39
don't think I mentioned that earlier.
42:40
It wasn't initially on my list when I started this.
42:43
Now your afternoon is going to be almost identical to what you
42:47
did or what we just talked about with Lightning lanes, only
42:50
you're not going to be looking lightning lanes.
42:52
So you really are going to have to live on that app.
42:54
You're going to have to see what those wait times look like and
42:57
how can I cluster rides close together so I'm not having to go
43:01
all the way across the park to get to those short wait times.
43:04
So clustering together Mad Tea Party, Dumbo and Barnstormer,
43:09
most of those three attractions. Again, I said earlier,
43:12
Barnstormer sometimes gets a long line, it just really
43:15
depends on the day. Doing things like Fill Her,
43:18
Magic Monsters, Inc, Laugh Floor may or may not be on your list.
43:22
They're more shows and not rides.
43:25
So it just depends on your personal preference.
43:28
Magic Carpets of Aladdin is a good one to kind of throw in
43:32
when you're over on that side of the park again.
43:34
Same with Tomorrowland Speedway when you're near kind of Mad Tea
43:37
Party, that could go up with that group as well.
43:39
So really just kind of geographically making your
43:42
secondary list based on what you know you're going to want to do
43:46
after you run through that morning list.
43:49
So ultimately the afternoon is going to be almost identical
43:54
other than you're going to be using Lightning lanes for some,
43:57
whereas you're going to be doing all stand by.
43:59
Obviously if you're not doing lightning lanes.
44:00
But those rides that you're really doing in the afternoon
44:03
are pretty identical across the the board.
44:05
Again, things like the train character meet and greets, those
44:09
shows like Country Bears, Tiki Room.
44:11
You may not have time for those when it comes to not using
44:14
Lightning Lanes because your time is going to be more spent
44:18
waiting in those queue lines for the attractions that you want to
44:20
do. So you've really got to make
44:22
that priority list of this this afternoon.
44:25
You really have to know, OK, these are our top three rides.
44:28
We really want to try to get in this afternoon so you can make
44:31
those a priority and then go from there.
44:34
You'll probably be able to get in four to five rides before
44:37
dinner time. Again, mobile ordering is a
44:39
huge, huge benefit when it comes to Magic Kingdom, especially
44:44
because those quick service restaurants can be very
44:48
overwhelming. Again, trying to eat when it's
44:51
not prime meal time, so maybe your dinner is closer to four or
44:58
closer to seven, you know, and not kind of in that 5-6 O clock
45:01
rush hour with your lunch closer to 11, closer to 1, you know,
45:06
depending on what you're able to do or if you want to grab a
45:09
snack along the way. Tons of options when it comes to
45:12
that as well. And then in the evenings, again,
45:14
any other rides that you missed or second rides of attractions
45:20
that wait times have come down. Now that it's winding down to
45:23
the evening, take a look at what time the Starlight Parade and
45:27
Happily Ever After are running right now.
45:29
It's been typically that Starlight is 8 and 10 and
45:35
Happily Ever After is at 9. But changes your based on the
45:39
time of year based on when the sun's going down, right?
45:41
Because all of those have to happen after it has, you know,
45:46
started to get dark at Magic Kingdom.
45:48
So take those things into consideration whenever you're
45:50
looking at your list of your evening rides.
45:54
Because if you're not planning to do any of those, any of the
45:57
either of the parades or the fireworks, you're going to have
46:00
a lot more time to work with in the evening.
46:02
If you're planning to do the fireworks or the parade, highly
46:05
suggest the second parade because it will be far less
46:08
busy, a lot easier to kind of walk up within the last, you
46:12
know, 10-15 minutes before the parade starts to find a decent
46:16
spot. That first parade is always
46:19
really, really packed because families with the youngest kids
46:23
in the park are wanting to do the parade and get out or do the
46:27
parade, the fireworks and get out, right?
46:28
Because it becomes very, very late for those little little.
46:31
So keep that in mind. Go back to the rides that you
46:35
were rope dropping to see whether or not those are going
46:37
to be rides that you want a secondary chance at getting in
46:41
line for. Because even things like 7
46:44
dwarves during a happily ever after, after that wait time does
46:46
tend to drop. And the other thing that you
46:48
have to consider is that during that time, a lot of lightning
46:51
lanes are not being utilized. So the standby line does go by
46:54
quicker. That's not something we've
46:56
necessarily talked about yet, but that is something to
46:58
consider. With your earlier and later
47:01
standby times, you don't have as many lightning lanes overlapping
47:05
that are going to slow down your standby line.
47:08
So just something else to consider when it comes to your
47:10
evening time at Magic Kingdom is whether or not the rides that
47:13
you want to get on are going to be a ride that has a high
47:18
capacity, has a high amount of lightning lanes.
47:21
It may still be coming through. All those types of things are
47:24
things to consider, but generally speaking, that is kind
47:28
of my suggestion, a little fast and furious to get you through
47:32
Magic Kingdom. Hopefully that is helpful to
47:35
you. Again, if you are someone that's
47:37
like, OK, Yep, I hear you. That all makes sense.
47:40
But I've got a group of 10 and we're going to Magic Kingdom for
47:43
a day and we've got kids that are 5612 and 14.
47:47
What do I do? Send me a message.
47:50
I am happy to help you guys with that.
47:52
I want you guys to have a successful trip.
47:55
I want you guys to feel like you can accomplish everything you
47:58
want to accomplish on your Magic Kingdom or any other park day,
48:01
right. This is part of our one Day park
48:05
strategy series that we are in the middle of right now on Mom
48:08
St. hitting all three of the Universal parks and all four
48:12
Disney parks. So stay tuned for the other
48:15
parks coming up. We are going to be headed to
48:19
Animal Kingdom next and then we are going to hop back to
48:23
Universal to do Islands of Adventure after that.
48:27
So we've got some more parks coming your way with this
48:31
series. Again, as always, if you've got
48:34
suggestions or comments or questions, things that you need
48:37
help with when it comes to planning your trip, please reach
48:40
out to us. We are Mom St. usa@gmail.com.
48:44
You can find us at Mom St. USA on several different social
48:47
media platforms. And if you haven't checked out
48:50
our new, still somewhat new Patreon account, we do post a
48:54
lot of content over there and we will be posting over there some
48:58
graphics with these one day itineraries kind of laid out for
49:03
you guys to be able to pick and choose from once we kind of wrap
49:07
this series. So that is coming your way and
49:10
it will be posted on our Patreon account.
49:12
So if you are someone that needs that visual, head over there
49:16
here in the next coming weeks. And we will have, I'll try to
49:19
get those first couple done here and maybe we'll post them in two
49:22
groups for you guys to have access to over on the Patreon
49:26
account. So that is coming very soon with
49:29
this, but for this episode, thank you all so much for
49:33
joining me for Mom St. USA and I look forward to seeing
49:37
you on the next episode. Bye everyone.