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Magic Kingdom Strategies for Families, Thrill-Seekers and Trying to Do It All · Ear Scouts Podcast

• Rob: In this episode of the Ear Scouts podcast, we are sharing three different strategies to build your perfect day at the Magic Kingdom. We got a whole lot to cover in this episode, so let's get to it. Hi ho everybody, this is Rob with Ear Scouts coming to you from our makeshift studio here in Celebration, Florida. Also with me here in Celebration is the other half of Ear Scouts, Eric. Hi ho Eric. Erick: Hey ho everyone! Rob: Eric, as always, is going to be keeping up with the chat over on Patreon. If you'd like to join us live as we record each episode and take part in the Patreon exclusive after party, just head on over to patreon.com forward slash your scouts. Also joining us from his home state, the great state of Indiana quiz master Craig Hiho Craig. Craig: I ho everybody and yes, greetings from Indiana where I finally had to turn on my air conditioner yesterday. Rob: ⁓ that's that's a big moment. I feel like in Indiana, like when you go to air conditioning season, that's a that's a big deal. Yeah. Craig: very much. ⁓ we can go back to heating anytime though, but yeah. Rob: I feel like for us here in Orlando, when we have to turn on the heater, we're like, ⁓ wow. The two weeks of winter have begun. We're really excited. ⁓ Also joining us from from a new location this week is Jessica, the host of Jessica scraps over on YouTube. Hi ho, Jessica. Where are you joining us from? Craig: You Jessica: Hi, how everyone, and if you can't tell, if you're watching us on video, I am joining you from the great state of Missouri, go Cardinals. I am wearing my mother's Cardinals ears and my father's jersey. I get to spend a little bit of time with my family this week and ended up extending my stay. So I got to borrow their stuff so we can do the podcast from here. Rob: Very nice. It's good that you had some some ears handy for the show. That worked out well. Jessica: I know, it's great. My mom's Cardinal's ear is specially made, so very exciting. Rob: Can I share something really? I feel like it's kind of embarrassing, but whenever I travel now, I always pack years, even if I'm not going on a Disney vacation, because I just know as soon as I go, Disney is going to announce something insane that I have to do a quick video about. And it happened once. Actually, it happened when I was in Charleston and I was like, really glad I packed those years. So well, Jessica: Yeah, I'm gonna start packing them after this trip. So I'll have them from now on. Rob: So in today's episode, we are completing our series of strategy guides for the four parks at Walt Disney World. And the way we've been doing this, ⁓ we have Jessica present a strategy that's kind of focused on families and groups that involve some little ear scouts in tow. So you've got kids in your group. Jessica is going to give you a lot of pointers that are going to help you build a perfect plan for your group. ⁓ I am going to be focused more on characters and shows, but since it's magic kingdom, I'm also going to include some advice for how to work rides in there because this is the one park where you're probably going to want to do a little bit of everything. ⁓ but Craig as always is going to be focused on thrills and rides. So if your goal is to just pack in all of the thrill rides, especially at magic kingdom, he's going to wrap us up with a strategy that is right for you. But let's go ahead and get started because magic kingdom by far, I think is the most complicated park to plan a day in. In fact, Jessica, I think one of your suggestions is if you can avoid it, don't try to do it all in a day. But that's why we left this park to the very end, because it's the most challenging. Why don't you start us off, Jessica? If you're building a plan for a family, what are your tips and suggestions? Jessica: Right. I think you said one of my very first strategy tips. And here's the thing. Magic Kingdom is one of those parks that if you have littles and if you have families, if there's any way you can do it for two days, I would 100 % do two days. If you have the ability to do two days at Magic Kingdom, you will not regret it. And it's going to kind of go into there's just almost too much to do, particularly for that age group. it's gonna be one really, really long day, or you could have two good days at Magic Kingdom. So my first real suggestion is if it's at all possible, do two days at Magic Kingdom. Give yourselves two days at Magic Kingdom. The second one, and this has not been true for all the parks, even for families, I highly recommend Lightning Lanes. I think this is the park that, ⁓ I know they're not gonna be the thrill rides, Craig, but for the little kids, There's just so many rides and there's so many rides that ⁓ are old school. So that means the cues maybe are not as good as some of the newer rides. So you really don't want to be standing in these lines. You just don't want to be. So you want to have the lightning lanes. Rob: And I got to say, I'm actually working right now on the updated deck for Magic Kingdom. So we do our deck of lightning lanes to kind of rank how difficult they are. And Magic Kingdom is such an outlier. The other parks, it's all thrill rides for the most part, kind of clumped up there at the top. Magic Kingdom is kind of the right right now. Big Thunder's at the top just because, you know, it's Big Thunder and just reopened. But so many of the most difficult rides are things like Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan's flight is always difficult. There's a lot of really ⁓ popular kids rides that are also the most popular Lightning Lane. So it's a unique thing about this park. Jessica: Yeah. The next kind of strategy that I'm going to give, and this is kind of out of the box, but I just want to say it out loud for people. You guys know I talk a lot about strollers. think strollers are the hidden nemesis of families. ⁓ Stroller parking at Magic Kingdom can be chaos. It just can be. ⁓ There are more strollers at Magic Kingdom maybe than the other parks because it is a park for littles. It's a park for families. And there are more times you cannot take your stroller with you. So you have to leave a stroller. There are also more places where you have to leave your stroller outside of Pirates of the Caribbean, but you're actually riding Jungle Cruise or you're actually riding a different ride or you're going to the Tiki Room and you have to leave your stroller very far away. I want to say a couple things about strollers. Number one, cast members may move your stroller. That's part of what you sign up for. There is, ⁓ I'm going to say fire codes. There are codes about egress of the park that are required to have certain amount of depth of lanes for people to walk in. You have to be able to get ECVs through, which means that your stroller may have to be moved to allow the park to function. That is part of the process. The cast members are not being rude. not being, they're not taking you personally, know, holding you personally. It doesn't necessarily mean you parked it somewhere you weren't supposed to. It just means they needed to move it for whatever reason. So when you need your stroller, it may not be exactly where you thought it was. So a couple of things. Put a flag, put a big sticker, put a creative sign, bring something that says, this is my stroller in a big color that you will be able to recognize easily. There are a hundred black double strollers. for every, you know, a hundred of them, for every one that has a colorful sign. So really do something. The second thing I will say is, please do not leave the thing that you need the most in your stroller. Do not leave the baby's milk, the diaper changing, the money, your cell phone, your charger, any of those kinds of things. Don't leave them in the stroller. ⁓ There's some common sense to that, but there's also just If you need it in an emergency, you may not be able to find it. I know when mom and I were there, somebody was complaining, ⁓ somebody took my stroller, somebody took my stroller. Well, actually, no. Their stroller had just been put in a different parking area, and they were upset because they needed those diapers right then. And I understand, I feel for them, but I'm just giving you that piece of advice, that strategy. Also, It's never okay to yell at a cast member. It's never okay to accuse a cast member of taking your stuff. just strollers kind of become this hot button topic in the heat, in the sun, in the rain in Florida. That rain brings up another one. Bring a stroller cover if you are there and you think it might rain or don't leave things you don't want to get wet in your stroller. And the last thing I'll say about strollers is the animals at Magic Kingdom, if you leave uncovered food, will go into your stroller and they will get your uncovered food and they may leave a mess behind. these all things I think people overlook because they're so excited to be at Magic Kingdom and they're thinking, you I'm going to pack my stroller and I'm going to pack everything I might possibly need in a stroller. And it's great. And they forget about all the logistics of I'm going to walk away from that stroller for hours. And just remember that. So I just want to say that. Rob: And I also will just add the animals at Magic Kingdom, they will take food from your baby in the stroller. it's a they're they're pretty aggressive. So be aware of that as well. Continue. Jessica: ⁓ yeah. It is, and I just, I feel like I've seen, it's, we've been going to Magic Kingdom a little bit more lately just because of some of the stuff that's been going on, and I've seen more stroller issues lately than I have in the past, so I just wanted to bring that up because I think it's really important. ⁓ The last kind of big picture strategy that I want to say before I walk into what I think is kind of a good day is Magic Kingdom is magical. It is where the magic happens. It is where you should let your kids be kids. If you have kids that are 16, if you have kids that are six months, Magic Kingdom should be the park that they sit on the grass, that they find the princesses, that they play in the water. Don't get so hyper-focused on, have to ride these rides, or we have to eat at this time, or we have to do this, and we're gonna be on my phone and I'm gonna go from point to point. Please remember that Magic Kingdom really is the park. It is the park for this age group. It is the park where things happen. And often you watch the kids just looking so excited as the parents are taking their stroller at a thousand miles an hour down Main Street. And the kids really just wanted to take it in, you know, and just see it all. I just, really, my big strategy is let kids be kids at Magic Kingdom. Don't, I said we're gonna use lightning lanes, but don't get so hyper-focused on lightning lanes that you forget that you brought kids with you and they should be able to play in the water and they should be able to run and see Chip and whatever it is. So, go ahead. Craig: And can I add that just to clarify, and we shouldn't have to clarify this, but when she says playing in water, she doesn't mean Tiana's Bayou adventure. She does not mean the fountains. She's talking about, yeah, I do need to say this because I've seen it far too many times. But yeah, she's talking about the splash pad. Jessica: ⁓ don't run. Rob: You Jessica: Splashbowl. I apologize. That is very true. That's very true. I'm talking about playing this flash fad back in Storybook Circus ⁓ or even in the puddles when it rains. That to me is the most joyful thing is watching kids run through Magic Kingdom when it's raining and just being so excited to flash in the puddles. just think there's something about it. So anyway, that's kind of my big picture for the kids. ⁓ I want to talk about a few things and that is there are some key things that happen at Magic Kingdom for this age group. that you need to decide way in advance sometimes if these are important to you. Cinderella's Royal Table, it is a key thing for children and it must be booked 60 days out. And in fact, if you're staying on property, you should pick a later date for Magic Kingdom and try to snag it. I know we've had some success with some of the apps that help you get it, but Cinderella's Royal Table is... iconic and it is hard to get for a reason. ⁓ Rob: just to clarify what Jessica's saying there, ⁓ you stay on property at a qualifying Disney Resort Hotel, ⁓ can book 60 days out ⁓ at yeah. Jessica: Yeah. And then the next one that is also a, in some cases must do is Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We've talked about this a couple of times, but this is where your princesses and your princess can get ⁓ special outfits and special hairdos or dressed up and they can get ⁓ really kind of a good event and become a princess or a prince or a knight or whatever they want to be. And it's just, it's a really exciting kind of become a unique and iconic experience that now because they've closed the Grand Flutian and they've closed Disney Springs is only available at Magic Kingdom. The only way you can do this is at Magic Kingdom. So if this is something that your child in their head thought they were gonna do bibbidi-bobbidi-boutique, you need to be also looking at this 60 days in advance and really making sure you get those reservations. ⁓ The next one is ⁓ first haircuts, Haircuts, the barber shop. ⁓ And I'm going to say that's usually more for the parents than for the kids. But if it matters to you to get your child's haircut for their first time at ⁓ the barbershop, you need to also think about planning that. And these are the things that I didn't talk about at any other park because these are Magic Kingdom only kind of events, guys. ⁓ Now, the one that I do talk about a lot is if Winnie the Pooh is an iconic character for you, Crystal Palace, and not just for the Churro Waffles, but Rob: Hahaha! Jessica: for the actual Winnie the Pooh characters, this is where you can see Eeyore and Piglet. ⁓ If the Winnie the Pooh characters are really important to you, this is something you need to think about getting, and it's something you can only do at Magic Kingdom at Crystal Palace. You can see Tigger and Pooh other places. Sometimes you see Rabbit other places, but if you're really in love with Eeyore and I got a kid that loves Eeyore, this was it. This is the way you see it. Then the other iconic things for the kids are the parades and the fireworks. I think probably more than me, you're gonna talk about the parades and the fireworks, but particularly the parade, the huge Maleficent dragon is for some kids particularly, and I used to say boys, but I think particularly just Maleficent has been, the movies have come out and the dragons are kind of more popular in the lexicon now. That dragon. I'm telling you, it's an amazing, it's an amazing feat to watch that parade. That may be something they're expecting to see. And the fireworks, I love a good fireworks, but the thing about the fireworks for the kids is Tinkerbell flies. And watching Tinkerbell fly for kids, all of us have heard it. And most of you listening to this podcast, probably it's not your first time, your first rodeo, but the kids, when Tinkerbell flies, that sound they make when they see her is just, it's this emotional moment. If any of those things are things that you think your littles would need to do, you need to book your strategy around those things. I'm gonna talk about one specific set of things, but you may need to adjust your strategy accordingly if any of those are really important to you because... Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Those are the makes or breaks. ⁓ I'm telling you, seeing Tinkerbell fly is a make or break for some people, and you need to make sure you plan it. Craig: Mm hmm. Hey, the first first time I saw Tinkerbell fly, I'd just graduated college and I made that same noise. So it doesn't matter if you're a kid. I think I do, too. Jessica: I make that noise every time Tinkerbell flies. I'm pretty sure I make that noise every time Tinkerbell flies. So yeah. Rob: Yeah. Can I share a fun little ⁓ something I learned when we were ⁓ studying up for the Disneyland video where we did a video about the 70th anniversary of Disneyland. So when the park opened, there were no fireworks and there was no Tinkerbell flying. And everybody was like, wait, where's the fireworks? Where's Tinkerbell flying? And Walt Disney was at first, he was just confused. Like, why did everyone think that was happening? But in the television show, Jessica: Hmm. Rob: that was getting people pumped for the opening of Disneyland, kind of their opening graphic had fireworks behind the castle and Tinkerbell flying and around the castle. And in Walt's mind, it was just, you know, it was just an opening title. It wasn't really something that, but people had such expectations. They were going to see that, that it became one of the first things that the Imagineers had to work on adding to the park. So I think it's cool that something that is so iconic ⁓ Almost was like an afterthought. It was like it wasn't it just ⁓ yeah, we do have to have that don't we? Yeah, yeah all these years later. It's still an important moment Jessica: We do, we do. Craig: Yeah. Jessica: So those are the key kind of ⁓ little, ⁓ what calling the little kid must do's that I could think of. ⁓ I'm I've missed something that a little kid, your little kid may be ⁓ a inconto fan and they really want to see Mirabelle. But ⁓ from perspective, those are the big ones that are Magic Kingdom only. What I'm going to do is give you a strategy, assuming you have a princess in your group and that you're... your must do really is the Cinderella's Royal Table and Bibbidi Bobbi Boutique. Because to me, that is the most iconic ⁓ Littles event in Magic Kingdom. To me, that's the one that I hear the most from my friends that have Littles, boys or girls. So what I will say, and I think Eric has talked about this multiple times also on the podcast, but if this is your first time listening to us, ⁓ it is a very good idea to have Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and then pair it with Cinderella's Royal Table right after. Try to pair those two together so that your little princess or prince looks the best for the pictures at Cinderella's Royal Table. Also, please remember, it is hot. ⁓ It is very hot in Florida. And those dresses, although they are beautiful, every woman who's ever been to prom or got married knows those dresses, very beautiful, very uncomfortable. There is no comfortable princess dress. There's just not. I, know, and there's no comfortable princess hairdo. Those hairdos look great, but the amount of hairspray and pins and stuff that they're stuck in there. So you want your child to be beautiful and picture ready and it may not last more than an hour after Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. And that's okay. And it may last, you may have a child that just is, it loves it and sits there and it's great for hours and hours. But if you're one of the people that doesn't have that, I really recommend trying to do your timing of getting Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and Cinderella's Royal Table together. That may mean you do the breakfast, that may mean you do lunch, that may mean you dinner, but whatever you can do to try to get those as close together, that should be your number one reservations you're looking for, your number one plan. Focus on that in your planning is trying to get those two together. And then build your day, the rest of your day around that reservation. ⁓ People that do that tend to have this, a much more magical day for their princesses and princes. But. Now that we've decided we're going to do Cinderella's Royal Table and we're going to do Bibbidi Bobbidibbid and we're going to do those together and we're going to get beautiful pictures and our kids are going to be super happy and we're going to have swords and wands and everything. What are we going do around that time? ⁓ My suggestion is always limit the steps, always limit the steps. And I personally think for kids, the left hand rule is the best rule. ⁓ Go. as early as you can in the morning to get pictures in front of the castle. It may mean if you haven't gotten your Bibbidi-Babbi boutique, you may be not in the outfit yet, but kids are happier and fresher in the morning. They will not want to come back and take those. They will not want to sit still to take those pictures. Or even if they're willing to, their faces may not be as excited as they were. Or they may have played in the splash pad, or they may have ketchup all over them from whatever, or dual whip all over them. Rob: Ha Jessica: So really get the pictures first, get that Magic Kingdom picture, get the memory maker, put it on your wall, you will not regret it. And then go directly to Adventureland. And depending on the age of your child, there's a lot of options, but Magic Carpets of Aladdin, here's the thing, that's a kid's ride for a reason. ⁓ And I know we almost never talk about Magic Carpets of Aladdin, right? camels spit on you, you get to see everything. It's a kid's ride for a reason. ⁓ I would do those rides. ⁓ Then I would just kind of walk the park. I would walk the park around there. Do not miss out on ⁓ the scavenger hunt at Pirates. We've talked about that a few times. For those of you that don't know, ⁓ behind Pirates of the Caribbean, or actually kind of around the corner from Pirates of the Caribbean, is a ⁓ Pirates Adventure scavenger hunt. Rob: You Craig: Ha Jessica: that you can have kids do that allows them to go throughout Adventureland, getting interactive ⁓ clues to a treasure. And it is a lot of fun for kids. They love it. It's interactive. Things spit water there too, we found out. and I found out, because Craig and I did it, because we're big kids at heart. So that's just something that's really exciting to do. So I think Adventureland is a lot of fun. When you move into Frontierland, Rob: Hahaha! Jessica: I do think that Country Bears now, ⁓ because of the refurb and because of the music is now a great for kids. It's a lot of fun. It's good. Tiana's is also ⁓ really good for kids. They love it. They love to get wet. Put your kids in the front row. Put your kids in the front row. Don't put you in the front row. Put your kids in the front row. They love it. It's very exciting. And then I do want to talk just a little bit about, move into Liberty Square and I want to talk about Haunted Mansion. ⁓ Rob: Yeah. Craig: Hehehehehe Jessica: Big, tip for Haunted Mansion, you can skip the stretching room. The stretching room is probably the scariest part for little kids. It gets dark, they're screaming, there's things that happen. And unfortunately, I think I talked about this last time I was on, you there's tons of adults all standing over them, coming into the middle of the room, hovering on top of them. That stretching room can be overwhelming. The ride itself is very kid friendly. So. it's completely okay to ask the cast member if you can bypass the stretching room because of your kids. And I don't think a lot of people know that or know that's an option, but for little kids, that might be a good idea. Now don't just do it. Yeah, it is, it's an option. Yeah, so I just wanted to say that. ⁓ After you do that side of the park, you're now in kind of core kid zone. And so this is the time where I would suggest you try to get your Cinderella's royal table. That is so hard to say 10 times. Rob: Yeah, I had no idea that was an option. It's a great tip. Craig: You Jessica: Cinderella's Royal Table. I'm Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, but ⁓ this is where your Lightning Lane multi pass is going to just kind of be your friend. You've got Winnie the Pooh, you've got Peter Pan, you've got It's a Small World, you've got the Little Mermaid, all of those. You've got Dumbo, you've got Barnstormer, you've got the splash pads that you don't need a Lightning Lane for, but the splash pads and the play area next to Dumbo, all of these things are just crucial. kids things. Depending on your kids abilities, teacups may be a good option. And then the carousel is iconic for a reason. You should ride the carousel with your children. You should also try to pull out the sword and the stone. All of Fantasyland is kind of this iconic playground for kids. ⁓ If you're going to do a full day, you're going to just finish by going around the corner. You've done all of Fantasyland. ⁓ I will say the other thing about Magic Kingdom, it is chock-a-block full of kids' food. You got corn dogs, got corn nuggets, you got hot dogs, you got chicken tenders, you got hamburgers, you got mac and cheese. Almost every restaurant at Magic Kingdom is gonna have a good, every quick service restaurant is gonna have a good option for kids. That is the beauty of bringing kids to Magic Kingdom. If you have a picky eater, or not even a picky eater, just a kid who doesn't necessarily want to have broccoli, It's no judgment, but Magic King is made for that. So you're not going to have to worry about food choices at Magic Kingdom for them, which is also kind of an amazing thing for parents. know I've heard a lot of parents kind of, I don't know what I'm going to feed, I don't know where I'm going to find food. You will not have that problem at Magic Kingdom. So after you've done that, then you're going to go to Tomorrowland. ⁓ Here's the thing. The Speedway that every one of us thinks is the ride that should go if we had to flatten a ride. ⁓ The Speedway is ⁓ kids. Kids don't get to drive cars. This is the only car they can drive. Don't skip out on the Speedway if you have kids, particularly kids that are like 12 and under, let them drive the car. Let them drive the car. It is smelly and it is ⁓ jerky and it is kind of odd if you're an adult, but it is for kids, so much fun, so much fun. Get a Lightning Lane because sometimes it does get ⁓ backed up because there are so many kids that love the Speedway. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yep. Jessica: ⁓ Same thing for Buzz is a big one for kids. If you need an AC break or a nap, Carousel Progress is your friend. PeopleMover, you know how Jessica feels about PeopleMover? And then you would end the night by going around the corner, and then would the night with a starlight and with the ⁓ fireworks. You should find one spot for both. And I don't know the best spot, but I bet somebody else is gonna talk about it. ⁓ And I would find one spot for both. I would bring your corndog nuggets from Casey's and I would sit on the hub grass and let your kids eat corndogs nuggets and have the popcorn and just do the time there. So I would really do the loop at Magic Kingdom with your kids, but I would focus on what I said in the beginning, one of those key priorities and make sure you include those. I think the last thing that I'll say about the littles ⁓ ⁓ look for those opportunities that you just don't have in the parks. Alice in the teacups, ⁓ Cinderella riding the carousel. ⁓ in the mornings, you know, particularly during cool kid summer, Rapunzel and Flynn walking ⁓ in fantasy land next to ⁓ the tangled area. ⁓ You've got all kinds of fun things that happen and Magic Kingdom is full of magic. And I just, I just think that we as adults forget to sit on the ground and look up and see it through their eyes because it's the park that ⁓ kind of started it all. But sit on the ground, eat too many Mickey shaped items and really enjoy your kids. So that's kind of my big picture strategy. I would break it into two days if I could, but if you have to do it all in one day, it's a long day, but it'll be fun. Rob: Yeah. I would recommend if you're on the fence about whether or not you need to add a second day to Magic Kingdom, open up your phone, open up the My Disney Experience app, and just look at the wait times for attractions and scroll through that list at Magic Kingdom. It is like two screens full of stuff to do. And then go do the same thing at, you know, Hollywood Studios or especially right now, Animal Kingdom, Animal Kingdom doesn't even fill the screen. it's, you know, Magic Kingdom is, can be an overwhelming park to try to tackle in one day, especially when you've got little kids who, I mean, how much time realistically are they going to be happy in the Florida heat, you know, especially if they got up early and, you know, You're going to try to make it all the way to fireworks. It's tough to do in one day, I think. I agree with that. ⁓ Jessica: And I think you, parents often underestimate the amount of time that kids want to play in storybook circus. I have, I think that's the other thing is you think, oh, they're going to go on the dumbbell playground and they're going to go to the splash pad for 10 minutes. It could be an hour, an hour of your day, or even an Agrabah at the camel spitting. Kids are just. or Swiss Family Treehouse, I didn't even talk about that. There are things that as an adult take us five, 10 minutes that those kids, it may eat up your day. just Magic Kingdom, man. It's more than just wait times. It's just a long day. Rob: I do think it's funny. There have been many times where I've overheard the parents talking about the fact that it's like, came here to Magic Kingdom and the thing they're most excited about is running through a glorified sprinkler. It's just, but it's true. Kids sometimes have different priorities. Jessica: It is. It's 100 % true. And that's what kids love. Erick: you Rob: So Eric, what are we hearing from our friends on Patreon? Any any tips suggestions for traveling families or questions? Erick: From Wendy, ⁓ if you don't want to spend any additional money at Magic Kingdom, ⁓ is about the boutique. ⁓ slash bring your own princess dress, have Mom and Dad put the little's hair up in a bun, and then ⁓ pixie dusted for free at Cerberus Makies. The ladies that do the pixie dusting there are so sweet and it makes a great video. Rob: Yeah. So if your Sir McKees is right behind the castle and you can just go and ask them at the basically at the register, ⁓ tell them you were hoping to get some pixie dust and they will pixie dust you or your littles or all of the above. Jessica: That's a good point. Rob: 6 a.m. time if you're doing on the app, which I would say is your better bet. But if you're doing on the phone, it's seven. ⁓ But as Jessica was saying, if you're staying at a Disney Resort Hotel, ⁓ you can book 60 days out from your check-in day and you can book for the duration of your hotel stay. ⁓ So if decided to ⁓ make the later in your stay. you're essentially getting first dibs on that reservation because people who aren't staying in resort hotels can't book that far out. ⁓ And anything else before we move on? Erick: I'm going to say that, ⁓ Jessica, you said something very important about like letting your kids be in kids. ⁓ Sometimes feel like parents forget that ⁓ the ⁓ and know you have spent a lot of money. I know you said like ⁓ they entertained more ⁓ about about these fancy sprinkler, Rob Collin, ⁓ but they can get overwhelmed. It's, they are in a new place. They are working a lot. ⁓ there's a lot of noises coming from everywhere. There are like a lot of things to see from everywhere. And like, if you add to that, heat, it just, it can make it unbearable for them. So don't hesitate. Well, again, I know that also that can bring frustration to you as a parent, but take a moment to breathe and let them breathe as well. It is very important that if you push them to do something that they don't want to do, that's going to cause for them to feel more frustrated and not to enjoy that moment. just again, take some pauses, let them rest. ⁓ It's okay not to do everything at once. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Yeah, 100%. And, you know, that's one of those things, the first time I came to Disney World as an adult, I was surprised by how many, you know, kids were seemed unhappy at that moment. You know, we're just like crying. It was later in the day. And, you know, it's it can be overwhelming. So definitely let your kids be kids. Let them take a break. Maybe go back to your hotel for a break if you can. And that'll make a big difference in their day. ⁓ So for my strategy, I'm coming at this to try to create a balanced day of shows, characters, rides, and I'm going to start much like Jessica did with what I think is probably the most important thing to build your day around. And that is ⁓ happily ever after, which is the fireworks show ⁓ starlight, which is the nighttime parade and ⁓ the festival of fantasy parade, which is the daytime parade. And the reason I think you need to start though with those three things that the two parades and the fireworks show number one, those are the most limited. If you don't do those at the exact moment that they happen, they're gone. They're not going to happen. You know, parades sometimes happen twice in a day, but not always. And even if they're scheduled to happen twice in a day, It's Orlando and it rains. so instead of seeing the Festival of Fantasy Parade, you might see the Rainy Day Parade, which while it's adorable and cute, is definitely not a very good substitute for the Festival of Fantasy Parade. So ⁓ I do think it's really important that you start if those things are important to you. know, obviously, you know your group, you know, if you've never seen these things before, though, they're pretty spectacular. And they're one of the biggest appeals I think of Magic Kingdom is that you have these amazing shows. So I would start by picking the times that you want to see those shows. ⁓ As I said, there might be one parade in the day that you're there. There might be two. These times change frequently and sometimes they change pretty dramatically depending on the time of year that you're ⁓ Fireworks, for example, might happen right at park close, which is what's happening tonight. As we're recording this episode, the park closes at 10 PM. Happily ever after is at 10 PM. Other times of the year, you're going to have usually an hour or two after fireworks have gone off before the park is going to close. But I bring this up because you need to kind of look at what the times for these things are in advance and then check them again right before your visit. Ideally on the week of your visit because Disney is notorious for changing up the hours of the parks. They don't usually change the show times of shows once they publish them, but it's happened. I mean, it's not outside of the bounds that it could happen. So check those things ⁓ with fireworks. My biggest tip is if they do happen to happen ⁓ more than an hour or so before park close, You definitely want to plan to do something immediately after fireworks. A lot of people make this mistake. They just think, okay, fireworks. That's it. I'm done. We're going to leave at that moment. And what happens if you do that? You're going to be waiting with everybody else who decided to leave at that moment. And you're be waiting to get on the bus or the monorail or the ferry or whatever means of transportation you're using to leave Magic Kingdom. You're going to be waiting in a massive crowd of people. when you could be staying in the park and waiting for one more ride that would be a lot more fun than the bus to your resort. So when you're done with that ride, the weight is going to be a lot less most likely. So that's one little tip about fireworks. The other thing in terms of fireworks, people ask a lot is when should I line up for my space? When should I stick out a spot for the fireworks? And You're going to need to know this as part of your plan because you need to know what time you need to plan to get to that spot. I would say for me, the best spot for fireworks is in the hub, which is right in front of Cinderella Castle. Ideally, as close to center as possible, ideally without any trees blocking your view. And I would say at least as far back from the castle as that Walt and Mickey partner statue. If you're there or further back, you're going to see things with the proper perspective and you're going to be close enough that you're going to be able to see all the amazing projections and you're going to get a good look at Tinkerbell as she flies, which we were talking about earlier. So that's kind of the most premium spot is somewhere in there. The problem is everyone knows that's the most premium spot. So if you're there on a really busy day, you need to stake out that spot an hour and a half to two hours probably before the fireworks. Now, if you're like me and you're like, ⁓ my gosh, I don't want to spend two hours waiting for a spot for fireworks. I have good news for you. And that is that you could either one, come on a less busy day, plan that, or two, you could go watch them from my favorite spot, especially if I don't want to stake out a spot, Main Street USA. go about halfway down Main Street, you'll see there's that little street that cuts off ⁓ to, if you're facing the castle, it cuts off to the right. Right around that spot is the perfect place to watch the fireworks because you're gonna get the full effect of the fireworks. You're also gonna get the full effect of the projections that come down Main Street. A lot of people who are watching closer don't even realize that stuff is happening behind them on Main Street. So you kind of get a bonus for watching from there. But the best bonus, if you're there on a not so busy day, like a moderate day, you can walk up, I'm telling you, minutes before the fireworks begin and you can get that spot. If you're there on a moderately busy, too busy day, you can still get that spot. Usually in about 20 minutes, I would say 20 to 30 minutes before fireworks. So. Those are what I would say depending on your tolerance for waiting around ⁓ and how close you want to be. Those are probably your best options for that. In terms of parades, ⁓ as a general rule, your second parade the day, if there are two, is gonna be easier to get ⁓ a good spot for. ⁓ Most people up for that first and so ⁓ you have to start staking your spot lot earlier. Here's the reason, though, that you might still want to do that first parade, afternoon rain. It's a real thing. I mean it happens. It's something about the afternoons in Orlando We get thunderstorms moving in even if they don't show up in the forecast They just kind of come out of nowhere here So the later you get into the afternoon the higher chances that your parade is gonna get rained out So that's one even if it gets rained out in the more in that first one That means you still have another one to potentially see it ⁓ Having said that noon the Sun is pretty high in the sky There's not going to be much in the way of shade, so you definitely want to bring some sun protection. ⁓ If you really want shade, I would say your better bet is to try to wait for the later parade ⁓ when the buildings are casting some more shadows and giving you more shade. The best places for shade are in the town square area, which is up there at the entrance of the park. We're like City Hall and Town Square Theater are or Frontierland. On one side of Frontierland, there are basically awnings and porches where you can grab a spot that is somewhat shaded usually for the parade. And that's also where the parades start. So you'll be the first to see the parade, whereas those folks in Town Square where the parade ends have to wait the longest. But in terms of ⁓ how much time you need to spend waiting on your spot, I would say If it's a really busy day, start checking it out around 45 minutes before the parade begins just to see you might look and there's almost no one camping out at that point. And then you're probably good to do a little something and then come back, but check because on the busiest days, especially for that first parade, people will start lining up surprisingly early, less so for the second one, but it still does happen. ⁓ Really though, with the parades, ⁓ it's harder to judge how much time you need. That's why I say just kind of scope it out and be a little bit flexible with your plans during that period. And that's really the key. I think, Jessica mentioned this, flexibility, being open to opportunities that arise around you. ⁓ That's the key to having a successful magic kingdom day because stuff happens all the time in the magic kingdom things that you weren't expecting that you didn't even think were going to be a thing. Like maybe you didn't realize there was going to be a second parade coming through at that time that you're trying to pass by from frontier land into adventure land. Guess what? You can't, you can't get through until the parade passes. So there's all kinds of little roadblocks and things that happen and the secret. ⁓ to having fun in the Magic Kingdom is to just roll with it and and be open to new opportunities experiences and as Jessica put it magic because there's magic everywhere in the Magic Kingdom So step one for planning a perfect and balanced day at Magic Kingdom is to go ahead and plan out when you're going to see the parades and the fireworks, if that's something that's important to you. The second thing I would recommend doing is deciding when you're going to have character meet and greets because ⁓ there are a lot of characters at Magic Kingdom ⁓ and characters, unfortunately, are not available through lightning lane. So even if you decide to purchase lightning lane for your rides, which I recommend in Magic Kingdom, because there's so many of them, it's not going to help you with characters. So with characters, you really do need to be a little bit more strategic about when you decide to get in that line. And that's why I would say start thinking about that second after you plan out where you want your fireworks and parades. ⁓ The character locations that are probably the biggest draws in Magic Kingdom, right as you enter the park, look to your right, there's the Town Square Theater. That's where Mickey ⁓ has his meet and greet. One of the most popular meet and greets in the park. And ideally, the good news is the best time to do that one is right when you walk in. If you rope drop Mickey, it's going to be one of the shortest waits of the day. And it's right there as you're coming into the park. So it's easy peasy, especially if you got a large group that you're trying to wrangle. You don't have to like get everyone halfway across the park to do your first thing. You can do it right there. Some other really popular characters that you might want to consider. If you've got really big fans of princesses in your group, Princess Fairy Tale Hall is basically right behind the castle. So you can usually, if there's not a show going on, you can usually walk through the castle. So that's also relatively easy to get first thing in the day. ⁓ If you're a fan of the other ⁓ Fab Five characters back in Storybook Circus, which that's going to be a hike from the front, but in Storybook Circus, you're going to see Donald and Daisy and mini and goofy typically. They're usually at Pete's silly sideshow, but right now Pete is revamping his silly sideshow. He's doing a refurbishment. So I think they're just kind of out in a storybook circus now. think they're maybe they're in that covered area at the back, but. ⁓ Craig: Yeah, I saw them like right outside the entrance the other day. There was Minnie and Goofy when I was there a few weeks ago. They just came out and stood there and the line formed. Rob: Yeah. There you go. So yeah, but they're generally going to be in storybook circus. ⁓ Some other popular ones are ⁓ the Mirabelle meet and greet is kind of if you go around the castle on the right hand side, if you're facing the castle, you'll run into the Mirabelle meet and greet on your way into fantasy land. ⁓ And there's also some, smaller meet and greets that happen. ⁓ One that I think of is ⁓ Jasmine and Aladdin you'll sometimes see in Adventureland. You'll see the stepsisters that are kind of more of a roaming characters So ⁓ lots of character opportunities. But if you're planning to get in line for one of those characters, ideally you only got a few opportunities where the lines are going to be pretty reliably short. ⁓ One. is gonna be right when the park opens. So a lot of people are focused on rides. That's where they go first. They walk right past the characters. That's a great time to get characters done. ⁓ The second opportunity is sometimes during parades, especially for Mickey. ⁓ So many people are lining up for the parade. They're not going in to meet Mickey. And so that one can bring that, that can bring that line down significantly. Parades kind of, bring the lines down everywhere to some extent in the park. So that's a good opportunity for you. And then the other time that I recommend, especially for the characters that are geared towards the littles, which most of them are, is to do them toward the end of their day. So you can look in the app, just go to the map screen where you normally look at wait times. And up at the top, instead of choosing wait times, you're going to choose characters. and it'll show you a whole list. You can see them on the map or you can tap on show list and see all of them listed out, but it's also going to show you the times. Here's the catch with this though. Unlike with rides where you can get in line for a ride right before the park is going to close and you're able to stay in that line as long as it takes to ride that ride, characters do not work that way. So they will cut off the character line once they've reached the length that they think it's going to be to kind of keep them from running over. So I do think it's a good idea to come later for characters. Just don't come too late. You want to make sure that you're getting there in enough time that you'll be able to make it through the line before they stop meeting. As Jessica mentioned, there are some opportunities for ⁓ character dining at Magic Kingdom. If you don't want to deal with lines, but you want your kid to have the opportunity to meet characters, you can eat at the ⁓ Cinderella's Royal Table, and you'll meet ⁓ Cinderella and of the visiting princesses. I think Cinderella, you take a photo with Cinderella at the beginning. I actually haven't done Cinderella's Royal Table. so you have a you do have a traditional meet and greet moment and get your photo taken with Cinderella. But the other princesses will come to your table and have a more extended interaction ⁓ table side. And then over at Crystal Palace, it's the ⁓ gang from the 100 Acre Wood, as Jessica mentioned, and they all of come to your table table side. It's a great If you don't want to deal with lines or maybe you have kids who just can't tolerate the really super long lines, that's a guaranteed we're going to get to meet some characters and we don't have to worry too much about the lines. ⁓ Now, going back to our plan. So we started with fireworks and the parades and then we added characters into our plan. We decided what characters are most important to us and when we're going to try to visit those. And then the last thing I recommend doing is picking a point in the park where you want to start your day. So if you maybe met Mickey, then obviously you're starting your day right there at the front of the park in town square. And the world is your oyster. You can go in any direction you want and start anywhere. But if you maybe decided that it was most important to you to start with the princesses and so you're already there in fantasy land, I recommend. don't do crisscrossing. mean, especially if you're trying to do everything in one day, you're not only are you wasting energy and steps and, and you're also just, you're burning up time and you have a limited amount of time to do a whole lot of things that are to do in magic kingdom. So look at the things that are important to you. Start where you're going to naturally start with whatever your first agenda item is. And then either go. clockwise from that location or counterclockwise from location because it's basically a big loop and You want to try to build your day around going around that loop? You don't want to have ⁓ itinerary items if you can avoid it that takes you across the park and then back to the other side of the park Now this is easier said than done when you're doing something like lightning lane Which I do recommend using lightning lane if you're trying to do all this stuff, but the good news is The the new lightning lane system versus the old genie plus system. It is much easier to kind of plan out your day more. You have three slots as opposed to one and so you can kind of schedule things that make a little bit more sense with your plan and and you know if maybe the only time that you can get something is later in the day, you can just hold it in that slot to later in the day and build your day around that. You don't have to, you know. crisscross the park to do it and come back is what I'm saying. But if you're not familiar with using Lightning Lane, I strongly suggest check out some of our videos. We have a new Lightning Lane guide for 2026 that'll give you all the information you'll need to know to make the most of Lightning Lane. ⁓ But the rides, essentially, I would recommend use Lightning Lane as much as you can because especially on busy days, some of the lines at Magic Kingdom for key attractions, gets massive. Tron that one is a single pass lightning lane so you can buy just that one attraction if you wanted to ⁓ Peter Pan's ⁓ is a big one right now ⁓ Big Thunder and Buzz Lightyear Space Rangers spin because those rides were just refreshed the lines are huge for those attractions you can get all of those with multi pass so strongly consider that the last thing I will say The other shows that are there at Magic Kingdom, the great thing about those shows, they're almost all, I think they actually are all ⁓ animatronics based shows, which means that they just run repeatedly throughout the day. You don't need to plan your day around seeing those shows. You can just see those shows as you come to them. And it's never going to be longer than the wait for the next show to start. You know, however long the length of the show is basically. So don't worry so much about the shows other than the fireworks and the parades because you can just kind of Take those in in stride as you go around the Craig: one thing I'd want to add and ⁓ goes towards Jessica's itinerary and it also is a show and a meet and greet and that's Enchanted Tales with Belle. ⁓ Another one that you can kill two birds with one stone with that one. ⁓ ⁓ yeah, it's a lot of fun if you've never done it. For me it was one and done, but you know, I'm sure the kids love it. Jessica: Good one. Rob: Yeah, I think if you've got a kid who's a huge fan of Belle, that's going to be top of your list, I think. It's a really cool attraction, too. You should definitely do it at least once, I think. sum it up, though, your first step, ⁓ map out when want to do fireworks ⁓ and when you to do ⁓ the parades. ⁓ you're going layer in characters, decide when you want to do those. third after you do that, decide where is the right starting point and which direction you want to move around the park. And then you're going to just try to book your lightning lanes or make your other plans to fit into that flow of your day. We're actually planning to update our lightning lane guide for Magic Kingdom this weekend. We're filming this before Memorial Day weekend. That's this coming weekend. And we love to do these videos when it's a crazy holiday weekend so we can show you Worst-case scenario. This is about as bad as it gets Let's see how how much we're able to get done in a day like this and so ⁓ if you haven't already subscribed to the main channel over on YouTube go do that because those videos are coming really soon and ⁓ We're also gonna try to do a video if we have time this weekend where we don't use lightning lane, so ⁓ that's one we haven't done in a while, but It is possible to do a surprising amount in Magic Kingdom even without Lightning Lane if you have the right strategy and tips. keep your eyes peeled for that video. It'll be coming out soon. ⁓ Eric, do we have any more tips, questions, suggestions from Patreon? Erick: said, my ⁓ ⁓ totally told me she was waiting in line for photos. didn't mind the ⁓ while she was eating. ⁓ She flat out said, nope, ⁓ let's ride. So I highly some character dining. We went so many going forward. We only pick one. Rob: Ha ha ha ha ha. Erick: But we really saw all the main characters. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: That's a good point. mean, some kids just don't want to stand in those lines and I don't blame them. And if you can do one or two key character dinners, and we had a whole podcast about character dining, so you should go back in and listen to that if you haven't. But if you can do one or two character dinnings ⁓ and knock out those signatures, you will save yourself a lot of time. Erick: and also I probably misheard this rap but like you were talking about the stepsisters that they were like just roaming characters Rob: Aren't they roaming? They're not roaming in Erick: They roam, yes they roam, but also they have the meats and grits. So there is a line for that. So the ones that you are going to be able to see that they are roaming in Magic Kingdom, again, the step sisters would roam like in the morning usually, ⁓ but then will have a line ⁓ later in day. ⁓ Usually that's behind the castle in the archway, ⁓ but the that do roam in the morning ⁓ are going be Peter Pan and Wendy. Rob: Thank you, Eric. Anything else going on from Patreon? Erick: we do a question in the Q ⁓ &A, this from Jules. Is there any rhyme ⁓ or reason ⁓ to schedule of Houdan or the Cabal Gate? Jessica: The cavalcade does have a schedule and ⁓ it actually has set times. I don't want to tell you the times today because it could be different, the cavalcade is listed in the My Disney Experience app for Magic Kingdom on the day that you get there. You can see what time the cavalcade is happening. What you can't always do is see it in the five-day map that they put out before you show up. Rob: Hmm. Jessica: So the cavalcade will have a rhyme or reason to the time and it's typically a couple times, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. The hoedown in front of, and we haven't talked about that, in front of country bears, I don't personally know if there's a rhyme or reason to that one. Does anyone know? Rob: Is there a schedule for the hoedown that you know of Eric? Erick: I... it always happened at one time but I... I... honestly I don't know the time. I better go to that land. Rob: Okay, yeah. Erick: But it does happen later in the day. Rob: You know, I would say check with the cast members and if you're there in Frontierland the cast members, know who are out, you know in in in Greeting guests in the streets. They probably will know or they can check their notes and see when the next Show will be of the hoedown Craig you gonna be sharing the tips that I think a lot of our listeners have been waiting for we have a lot of thrill seekers and ride enthusiasts who watch your Scouts So what are your best tips if your goal is to do rides rides rides and especially the thrill rides? ⁓ What should people know is they plan their Magic Kingdom day? Craig: All right, well, yes, I'm going to go ahead and start with I have a list of rides that I classified as thrill rides and I'll go through that real quick. I've got Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tiana's Bayou Adventure. I'm putting in Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, if you call it a thrill ride, but I just can't imagine a trip to the Magic Kingdom without those two attractions. We've got Seven Doors Mine Train, Tron, Space Mountain, and going to put Buzz Lightyear and even Barnstormer in there as well. So ⁓ my first tip, use early entry if it's available. A half hour is going to save you more time than you can even imagine. However, if you're not staying on property at a qualifying resort, the Magic Kingdom is still one of the best places to start your day early. And the reason is because only two lands are open for early entry for those guests, and that's Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. And even Tron isn't open for early entry. if you have early entry, you can line up in Adventureland just past the Crystal Palace ⁓ or by the to Liberty Square off the hub. ⁓ And you're still to be ahead of all those other people who are doing rides in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland while you tackle the west side of the park, which ⁓ I consider to the best part of the park. ⁓ And another tip, of course, is to use Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass. Now, I'm going to give you a plan where you don't spend any money on Lightning Lanes, but also give you tips on how to use Multi Pass and Single Pass at the Magic Kingdom, because it truly is a good deal, especially Multi Pass, considering how many rides are on that list. ⁓ So ⁓ another tip is just to keep an eye on the ride times through the My Disney Experience app. ⁓ You can do it on the map that pops up. That's an easy way to like, if you know, if you're familiar with where other attractions are, you can easily like go through or just go to the list. And if you're using lightning lanes, that will tell you also like when the next lightning lane you can take advantage of it will be. ⁓ Now, sometimes you will see an uncharacteristically low wait time on a ride that you might want to take advantage of. And this can occur like when a ride goes down and then when it comes back up ⁓ because the line was going to be pretty short. However, this uncharacteristically posted low wait time can skyrocket very quickly. So if you're on the other side of the park, so you're in Tomorrowland and you see a big thunder only has a 10 minute wait at four o'clock in the afternoon, you can bet it's gonna be a lot longer by the time you actually get to the ride. So just make sure if you are gonna try to take advantage of that, that you're very close to that ride that has a uncharacteristically low wait time. So now for my perfect day, ⁓ You're going to be saving a lot of money by staying off site and you're not purchasing lightning lanes. So use that money to buy a piece of merchandise you had your eyes on. Or one of my favorite things to do at Disney World is eat. think our regular listeners know that. ⁓ You have a nice lunch at one of the monorail resorts. ⁓ I would suggest the lounge at Steakhouse 71 at the Contemporary, Wailulu Grill at the Polynesian, Geyser Point at Wilderness Lodge. ⁓ If you want to take a really nice boat ride in the middle of your day. And if you can't get in one those, all the quick service restaurants on all those Magic Kingdom resorts, I can highly recommend. They're all very good. ⁓ So you're going to start your day. You still need to get up pretty early if you're not doing early entry and hit the turnstiles. ⁓ I've gotten there just a half an hour before park opening, and I was able to get very close to the rope at Adventureland, which is where you really want to be. ⁓ You may want to You might plan a little more time depending on, know, because Big Thunder is still pretty ⁓ extra popular, but usually half hours should be just fine. ⁓ So when a rope drop happens at Adventureland, you're going to walk quickly with purpose. Do not run. You want to go through Adventureland and bear right. You want to stay to the right. So when you get to the flying carpets of Aladdin, take a right and there's a breezeway right there that will take you from Adventureland to Frontierland. Not a lot of people know about it. ⁓ It's definitely a shortcut that will give you the most advantage to get all the way back to where Big Thunder is. And you're also going to be ahead of all those other people who went left and went around the other way towards Pirates of the Caribbean. So that's going to be a lot longer than going through that breezeway. Now, it's one of my favorite shortcuts, but it's also a horrible bottleneck, especially in the middle of the day, because there's not a lot of room. They got a lot of strollers there, but Like the actual path to go through is pretty light. So if there's people coming from both directions and there's always two people walking side by side that don't realize what's going on and block the one, then they decide to have a conversation in the middle of that walkway. But, ⁓ it does happen. But if you're there earlier in the day, ⁓ it's going to be going in one direction. So just keep swimming. You'll be fine. So your goal is to hit big thunder mountain first because lines are, are long and they're going to stay long for the foreseeable future. So get there early, get on, get off. Once you get off Big Thunder Mountain, you're just gonna ride next door to Tiana's Bayou Adventure, which still should have a relatively short wait that early in the morning. ⁓ So now you're gonna go ahead and cross the park. I know we talk about not crisscrossing, but if you're a ride enthusiast, know you'd rather be walking across the park to avoid a long line. So. You're going to go to Tomorrowland and you're going to go ahead and jump in line for Tron. This will probably be your longest wait of the day, but it's only going to get longer as the day goes on. So if you get to Tron after you finish Big Thunder and Tiana and you see a prohibitively long wait, consider coming back during one of the parades because it's going to be shorter. But in our scenario, Tron is still under an hour wait and we're just going to go ahead and suck it up and jump right in. So after Tron, Space Mountain is right there. You know, it should have a relatively short wait still on that. ⁓ And same with Buzz Lightyear, go ahead and knock those two off. The next on your list is going to be Seven Dwarves Mine Train. And ⁓ hopefully that will have to have a too long of a wait now. It's pretty steady throughout the day, around 45 minutes that I've noticed. And then after that, go ahead and finish off your list. You can do Barnstormer and Storybook Circus and do the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of Caribbean. And at this time, you've finished your list. So you can watch wait times, you can ride something else again if you wanted to, or ride something new, see a show, watch the parade, or even park hop. But that's how I would handle the list of thrill rides. Now, if you are like me... Rob: So that's interesting. you would start in Frontierland. And really, especially right now, because Big Thunder is so new, that's going to be such a... I mean, that's your best bang for your buck, I agree. But then you would come across to Tron, then that's... I think you're probably right. That probably is the best time. It's just... I think that's interesting that when you're doing this strategy, this is the one time where you're like, nope, we're going to crisscross. We are going to crisscross the park to take advantage of that. Yeah. Craig: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Yeah, I mean, and just the basis of my strategy is just to spend less time in line and get things done quickly so you can do all the other things you want to do or do a throw right over again. ⁓ Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: My favorite thing about this whole strategy is that Barnstormer is a thrill ride. That's my favorite thing about this whole strategy. I just, when you said that, I was like, hmm, but I guess it is. It is a roller coaster. It's true. I love it. I love that you included it and I love that it's in the thrill ride list. So. Craig: I'm just like, well, I made my list. Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Rob: Hahaha! It's a roller coaster. It's a roller coaster. Yeah. Craig: Absolutely. so now if you're like me and you can't consider a trip to the Magic Kingdom without doing It's a Small World, The People Mover, Dumbo, Little Mermaid, ⁓ I would highly recommend getting Lightning Lane Multipass. ⁓ I'd still follow the same morning strategy of hitting Big Thunder and Tiana first thing. ⁓ Then you can use your tier one selection for Space Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, or Jungle Cruise, ⁓ one is your favorite. ⁓ then scoring Lightning Lanes for the other rides, ⁓ isn't too difficult, with the exception of many adventures in Winnie-the-Pooh for some weird reason, it's hard to get. And so if it is within your budget, I do suggest getting Lightning Lane Single Pass, Fortron, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. And finally, if you do have early entry, you're to want to knock out Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and maybe one other fantasy land ride, like Peter Pan. I guess Peter Pan would be the only one I would really suggest doing that early in the morning to avoid lines because that one is also prohibitively long if you don't have a lightning lane for it. ⁓ Rob: Yeah, Peter Pan is tough because all the early entry folks can get in that queue. You know, I find the only time you can really reliably get a short wait without Lightning Lane and Peter Pan is usually in the evening when the target demographic has gone to bed. I feel like that's the only, but yeah, if you're not gonna do it at night, it's hard to find sometimes a good wait time outside of early entry. Craig: Mm-hmm. Right. Jessica: remind me that if you do Lightning Lane for Peter Pan, you miss ⁓ the fun part of the queue, right? Yeah, that's one that's just an oddity. Well, I mean, or the not fun, whatever your perspective is on that, but ⁓ you don't get to see Tinkerbell in the as much, right? And so I think that's an interesting dilemma. Rob: You do. ⁓ Well, you know, this is Craig: Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah, very good point. ⁓ So I get I just wouldn't do it's a small world. That's like a ⁓ long ride. It's going to eat up all that early entry time. So stay away from that. You can always get on that later with very little weight. ⁓ So after you're done with Peter Pan or whichever seven doors, whatever fantasy land dark ride you decided to ⁓ enjoy during early entry, then you can line up near Peter Pan in the tangled bathroom. which will take you right into Liberty Square near Haunted Mansion. ⁓ So the group that started in Adventureland that I mentioned first that we were in might still beat you to Big Thunder Mountain, but it's still gonna be close. So ⁓ if you are coming from Fantasyland, you wanna bear right. You wanna kinda hug where the rivers of America used to be and there's a boardwalk that way. And it's always a lot faster to get to speed through that throughout the day. I mean, that's just a general... ⁓ great way to get from Liberty Square up to Big Thunder and Tiana. Rob: Yeah, I think the benefit to entering the main area, the rest of the park from early entry is there's just not many people doing that. You if you want to rope drop from in fantasy land, if you do it from adventure land, like you were saying before, it's going to be a massive crowd of people coming in. Whereas if you do it during ⁓ early entry from fantasy land. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Most people are riding rides. know, not a lot of people are lining up on that rope line there for rope drops. So even though technically you might have some more steps, you can maybe make those steps a little bit faster. Obviously not running, walking with purpose, but you're not going to have a crowd kind of slowing you down in front of you. So. Craig: Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Now getting through that I just experienced this ⁓ when I was there in March or April, I'm sorry. ⁓ And yeah, if you aren't really close to that line, because it's basically you're going under a bridge kind of deal. And it's a fairly narrow thing. So that crowd of people behind you is like really wide. And then they all have to like kind of converge to go through this narrow entrance. So ⁓ again, try to get there. early enough that you're close to that rope that they have set up. Rob: So you came in from early entry, you came into Liberty Square from Fantasyland, and there were a lot of people doing it. Craig: Right. then I was going to, oh yeah. And then there was, you know, I was going to Tiana and I, but again, all the other people were ahead of me, but it was close. You know, it wasn't like we were the first people. We didn't make it there before the Adventureland people. But again, it was still that close. I mean, it was still a walk on at Tiana first thing in the morning. So after a rope drop. Rob: Great. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much for giving us the skinny on doing the thrill rides. Eric, what questions or suggestions or comments do we have from our friends on Patreon? Erick: From Jessica P. Any insight into when, generally speaking, the tangled bathrooms are going to reopen? Rob: ⁓ I don't think, you know, they always give you a timeline for refurbishment, for rides and shows. Sadly, I don't think they do that for bathrooms. But detangled bathrooms is an attraction in and of itself, so they should. I would say soon. I don't know. They finished one already, didn't they, Eric? Have they reopened one side? Erick: I have not seen them open yet Rob: No, okay. Yeah, so I would hope soon. But no, don't have an answer on that, sadly. Erick: from Britney. Is there another ride at any of the parks that you would compare Tron to in terms of thrill or motion sickness rating? Craig: I would say Guardians of the Galaxy would be on the top of that list. Mission Space Orange. Erick: Mm-hmm. Jessica: a different of motion sick and I think this is the key about Tron ⁓ I am the motions out all this group. I'm probably the most motion sickness, right? I mean like I can't ride Guardians of the Galaxy ⁓ without getting sick ⁓ I ride Tron all So it is a smooth straight. It doesn't go upside down. It doesn't have a lot of curves it doesn't spin and it doesn't go upside down. So to me, it is somewhere between Guardians of the Galaxy and the excitement, the thrill level, but from emotion sickness. To me, it's a totally different kind of motion sickness. So if you can do the straight coasters of maybe Space Mountain, but Big Thunder, Space Mountain, the straight coasters, because it also doesn't go backwards. So Everest gets me because Everest goes backwards, right? So it doesn't go backwards and Guardians goes backwards. It doesn't spin. It doesn't go backwards. It doesn't go upside down. From a motion sickness perspective, it's the only roller coaster at Rob: Chardians goes backwards. Jessica: The only big ride, ticket ride that I can really do consistently at the parks. Rob: I would compare it for me the first time I wrote it my I said this is kind of like test track on a motorcycle because you've got one good you've got one good fast spin which is when you come out you know and you can see that when you're waiting in line for the attraction you see the you see the trains go up over your head that's the big fast Jessica: ⁓ that's a good one, yeah. Rob: moment that I liken to the end of test track. The rest of it, it puts on the brakes. It really does. I mean, once you get inside, that was actually my initial gripe with the ride was you really only have that one thrill and the rest is kind of like breaking and banking and much like on test track where you kind of have those moments where like the the the Mack truck is coming your way and you have to kind of get out of the way quickly. There's little things like that, but Erick: Thank Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: The only fast moment really is that one that you see ⁓ when they're coming out of the gate. Craig: Yeah, and one thing I will say, so I have written Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy with ⁓ twins, a friend of mine from college and her sister. Hi, Liz and hi, Mary. ⁓ But one didn't do well on Guardians and the other did not do well on Tron. So you're just going to have to I think you should always just try it and decide for yourself. Rob: Interesting. Erick: soon. Rob: Yeah. Craig: But then again, I don't have motion sickness, so. Rob: Try the motion sickness bands too. I've never had a problem with motion sickness at Disney World, but I had huge problems with motion sickness at Universal, especially on their simulator rides. I don't know if it's placebo effect, but I got those. They're just these wrist bands that hit your acupressure points in your wrist. I don't know. It actually made me much more able to tolerate the simulator rides at Universal. So it's worth a try. Well, now is time for our question of the week. ⁓ Jessica, think you actually found two questions that were kind of similar to one another. So we've of we've we've smushed them together into one question. What is our question of the week? Jessica: We did, and it's actually like we've got superheroes that are both thinking the same thing. We have Inferno Rain and Pamela Frost. So we've got Fire and Ice Man, Fire and Ice. So both of them on YouTube asked a similar question. the gist of their question is, if you have annual passes, but you are staying at a resort or qualifying hotel, when can you book your lightning lanes? That's the gist of their question, because it is different for annual pass people. than standard booking people or people with standard tickets. So I'm going to turn this all over to Rob and let him give you the full and detailed correct answer to that. Rob: Well, the full and detailed correct answer is that you always get whatever is your better benefit. So if you're getting a better benefit by staying at a Walt Disney Resort Hotel, that is the benefit that you're going to get. They're not going to strip away your benefit because you're using an annual pass. In fact, you get some other benefits with your annual pass ⁓ when you're staying at a resort hotel that I'll talk about. So first you get that early booking benefit for Lightning Lanes. And we talked earlier about ⁓ benefit for reserving restaurants, dining, bibbidi-bobbidi boutique. So all of those things you can do earlier, it's gonna based on your check-in day and you'll be able to book for the duration of your stay. The other really big benefit, if you're an annual pass holder, especially if you're gonna be coming multiple times during the year and you wanna secure dates that you know are gonna sell out, you have a limit of five park pass reservations as an annual pass holder. And especially when you get close to the holidays, I know for me, I like to book New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day. There's certain days that you just wanna have those booked. as early as you can so they don't run out of reservations. But here's the thing, if you stay at a Disney Resort Hotel, when you make your park pass reservations, there's an option there. There's a button for hotel guests with an annual pass. When you use that, it does not count against your limit of five ⁓ park pass reservations. So you get multiple benefits to using your annual pass. as a hotel guest that you don't get normally with your annual pass. The last thing I'll throw in, a lot of people don't realize this. In fact, I didn't even realize this until ⁓ someone thankfully pointed out to me in the comments on one of our videos, you can get the dining plan with an annual pass staying at a resort hotel. The reason I think you could was when you tried to add the dining plan to the website, ⁓ it would only let you do it you ⁓ built a package, which means park tickets the hotel stay. But if you call, ⁓ they will apply your annual pass ⁓ the park ticket to your stay turn it into what Disney calls a package. and then you can add the dining plan to it. So any of the benefits that you get staying in a resort, you will also get them as an annual pass holder. All right. With that, it is time to move on to our final segment, which we like to call Happy Thoughts. I'd to share one little happy thing that happened to us this week or something in the news about Disney, because we just like to end on a positive note. So Jessica, why don't you start us off? What is your happy thought this week? Jessica: So I'm gonna do a little, take a little liberty and say I'm gonna have a little bit of two. The first happy thought is obviously that I've gotten to spend some time with my parents and it's been a lot of fun. And so I really appreciate them letting me be here and taking this two hours to record while they're downstairs listening in and eating dinner without me. So ⁓ thank you, mom and dad, if you're listening. But the happy thought, I was not with y'all last week because John and I had taken a mini vacation to the Cape. Um, and, uh, we went to the Sandwich Massachusetts Glass Museum and I, I immediately texted Craig and Rob and Eric and I said, this is going to be my happy thought because this is Disney level entertainment in a $15 museum in the middle of Massachusetts. Um, this museum, it is so well done. If you're ever on the Cape and you get to Sandwich Massachusetts, um, I highly recommend it. There were rooms with animatronics. There were rooms where you would walk and it would set off a motion detector and all of a sudden drawers would open and lights would come on. It had stories with hidden pictures. And then they had an actual glass blower set up and doing live glass blowing demonstrations with answering questions. So it was the cast member, cast member interactions. It was the animatronics. was the, the audio. was just this kind of amazing. I really was like a Disney quality experience in a $15 little bitty glass museum in Massachusetts. And it was, was a lot of fun. And I just, when I give them a shout out, they did an amazing, amazing work. And I know I seem to be doing this a lot, but I'll say a lot of it goes to charity. So it supports a lot of people there. Sandwich Massachusetts is known for their glass. It's actually some, some of the press glass that's still out in the United States started there. So. really, really cool. And that was my happy thought because that was it was an amazing go there. It was fun. Rob: Very cool. I'm adding that to my to my list of things I need to do. Craig, what is your happy thought this week? Craig: Well, considering this won't be, yeah, this will be a week from Tuesday, Thursday. So my happy thought is, my boyfriend is a teacher and my happy thought is just in a couple days he's gonna be done with school and it's gonna be summer vacation. I haven't been excited about summer vacation in probably 40 some years. So, and we don't live together, we don't get to see each other nearly, we live like an hour away from each other. So summertime we actually like it's too. Rob: Ha Craig: spend more time together. So I think the timing is right for that on the release date on this podcast, but that's going to be my happy thought. Rob: So are you guys going to be coming back to Disney World at some point during this summer vacation? Craig: ⁓ yes. ⁓ End of June. Well, he's he's a speech coach and they have a national competition ⁓ in June, like the third week of June. So unfortunately, June, he's spending a lot of time coaching the kids that qualified for nationals and doing nationals. So the day two days after nationals, we're heading to Disney. Rob: Nice. Awesome. Well, Eric, what is your happy thought this week? Erick: We had the opportunity to ride the new Muppets, the new Rock'n Roller Coaster Muppet Edition and honestly, I can tell you like the preview, you guys are going to love it and the ride is better than ever. it's, I hope like, I hope everyone have a chance to enjoy it soon. And I can't wait to hear your thoughts about it. Rob: It's really cool. Everything about it is upgraded. I will say ⁓ it's not changed significantly. The ride itself has not changed significantly from the experience. It's still the exact same coaster. In fact, most of the scenic elements are essentially rethemed ⁓ existing elements. So it'll feel just like the Rock and Roller Coaster that you know and love, but with some fresh and jokes and I agree it's really cute they did a really great job and my happy thought this week is actually the other ⁓ preview that we got to do for Soarin across America which is the new version of Soarin ⁓ I think by the time this podcast comes out it will be the current version of Soarin so it'll be what you experience let me tell you I had read, I was trying to avoid spoilers, but the one thing I kept seeing again and again was people saying, it's so good. Like I hope, I hope they keep it for a long time. I hope they bring it back every year. And as soon as I really within the first seconds of this ride, you're going to be like, wow, that, that is a great, from beginning to end, it's an upgrade. It's a really great. version of Soren. So this is the third iteration of Soren. There's Soren over California, Soren across the world, Soren around the world rather, and now Soren across America. And I feel like with each iteration, Imagineering is learning how to make this attraction more fun and more interactive and more because with this one, they do a lot more swooping close to the ground. So you definitely have that feeling. You have more of a feeling of motion. And they do lots of banking to the right and the left, which that attraction does. But I don't think they ever really utilize that as heavily as they have with this new version. So really beautiful imagery, really fun ride mechanics, and just an all around great upgrade for Soarin'. Well, we will be back in two weeks. We're taking the next weekend off for Memorial Day. We hope you all have an amazing Memorial Day holiday. We'll see you again in a couple of weeks. Until then, don't forget to think happy thoughts, everybody.