If you are reading this post than you probably already know that having a successful day at Disney World is all about advanced planning. It’s really not as complicated as you may think but I get that it is completely overwhelming when you walk through the front gate into the magic adventure that is Disney's Magic Kingdom!
Recently, my family came down to Orlando for a 4-day vacation. We spent one day at Magic Kingdom. We got there at park opening (8am) and left at noon. In that small time frame, we were able to ride 10 rides. And it was Disney’s famed busiest day of the year, 4th of July! How did we do it? Well, Noland and I have a couple tips that we use every time we go to a park for the day. We’ve been a quite a few times this summer and honestly, I can say I have not waited in a line for more than 15 minutes.
These tips can come in extra handy during the busy times, so check them out. Pin them on Pinterest, share them on Facebook... Do what you have to do to keep them somewhere so that you can refer to them next time you visit Disney's Magic Kingdom!
1. Pre-purchase your tickets to the park. They will mail them to your house.
This may seem like a waste because there may be a shipping cost but pre-purchasing your tickets WILL save you so much time. If you purchase them in advance, they show up at your house and you get to bypass waiting in the long lines with excited kids at the ticket center.
Another positive to purchasing your tickets in advance is that you can schedule your Fastpass+ 30 days before you actually visit the park. Disney’s Fastpass+ lets you pick 3 rides where you basically skip the rest of the line and have, at most, a 5-10 minute wait. Since anyone who has purchased tickets in advance can schedule Fastpass+, it works in your advantage to purchase your tickets at least 30 days in advance so that you can pre-schedule your Fastpass+ for the rides that you really want. Fastpasses DO run out for the really popular rides. Usually, the Fastpasses don’t run out until the day that you visit but sometimes you could miss out on your favorite ride or character meet and greet because others pre-ordered and have booked theirs in advance.
2. Pre-schedule your Fastpass+
As stated earlier, once you purchase your tickets online, you CAN pre-schedule your Fastpass+ up to 30 days in advance! It is pretty awesome! My husband schedules us fastpasses all the time, he loves it. Fastpass+ assures that you will get to enjoy at least 3 attractions the day of your visit. If you manage to complete all 3 of your fastpasses, you CAN add another fast pass by visiting a Fastpass+ kiosk. But, let's focus on pre-booking the fastpasses... it is SO important to pick the attractions that you or your kids really want to do and pre-schedule them as your fastpasses. Fastpass+ allows you to guarantee those 3 attractions.
If you have small children, I would book at least one Fastpass+ for a character meet and greet. Magic Kingdom has a ton of awesome characters and their lines are usually pretty long. If your child wants to meet a lot of characters, I would recommend checking out the other parks. I wrote a post about a secret character meet and greet that can be found at Hollywood Studios with a ton of different characters! Epcot is known to have a ton of characters too. Almost every country at Epcot has a Disney princess!
None the less, you can schedule Fastpass+ for 1 or multiple character meet and greets at Magic Kingdom. My personal opinion is that if your child loves Mickey, then he is the coolest character to meet at Magic Kingdom. Magic Kingdom is the only place where Mickey can talk to you when you meet him...Technology is so crazy. If you have a little girl and she likes Belle from Beauty and the Beast, I would definitely encourage you to book a Fastpass+ for Enchanted Tales with Belle. When you get there and the Disney cast member ask who wants to be the Beast, have your daughter raise her hand! She will get to dance will Belle and it is so sweet. I cried a happy cry when we went to Enchanted Tales with Belle... haha. The little girl who played the Beast was completely starstruck!
Remember that you only get 3 Fastpass+ to start off with. You know your kiddo's interests but here are some other great rides for the younger kids that you can book a Fastpass+ for (because the lines can get long between noon-4pm):
- Buzz Light Year space ranger spin
- Peter Pan's Flight
- Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Haunted Mansion
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Barnstormer
If you have older kids (7+), I would recommend booking your Fastpass+ for 3 of the roller coasters/log flume. They always have long lines. You don't have time for long lines! :
- Splash Mountain
- Big Thunder Mountain
- Seven Dwarves Mine Train
- Space Mountain
3. Make sure to schedule your Fastpass+ for the busiest times (between noon-4pm).
The morning time is not really busy. The wait times are down so I'd recommend saving your Fastpass+ for the busier times. From park opening on, more and more people are coming into the park and by noon, it is pretty crowded. We always save our fastpasses for after lunch. We try to get some big rides done first thing in the morning, check out some shows, etc., eat lunch around noon and then take advantage of our 3 fastpasses during the busy times!
Once your fastpasses are gone, remember that you can go to a kiosk to book one more. When that one is gone, you can stop by the kiosk and book another, and so on. This comes in handy if you will be around for night time or decide to leave and come back for a night time parade or show, you can have an extra Fastpass+ booked before you head to the hotel to take a nap.
4. Pack a lunch.
When we visit Disney, we pack a meal and plan to eat one meal there. As you know, meals can be expensive at Disney. Another fun fact is that they let you bring in your own food. We try to pack our lunch and then we can eat dinner at one of the park restaurants, or vice versa. It keeps us from putting a large dent in our wallet and saves a little bit of money to put towards a Mickey bar or Disney souvenir.
I would also recommend packing the meal the night before. That way, you won't feel stressed out if you happen to wake up late or have to get the rest of the family moving in the morning.
5. Download the Disney app and use it throughout the day.
The Disney app has all sort of helpful tips. Once you pre-purchase your tickets, if it is 30 days or less in advance, you can actually pre-schedule your Fastpass+ online or on the Disney app before you even have your tickets in-hand. While at the park, the Disney app allows you to check wait times and gives important info like parade times, character meet and greet times, etc. It is useful and can be extremely helpful when you are leaving Splash Mountain (which is on the far west side of the park) and need to decide which ride to head towards next.
6. Go the bathroom before you leave your resort.
This one is easy. Try your best and encourage your kids and other family members to hit the bathroom before you head to the park in the morning!
After you park at Magic Kingdom and walk or take the tram to the Ticket Center, there are bathrooms on the East end of the ticket center. From the Ticket Center, you have to take the ferry boat or monorail to the park. Once you enter Magic Kingdom, there are bathrooms past the train station and to the left (West end) before you head down Main Street. But, if you manage to go to the bathroom before leaving, it could save you a little bit of time!
Make sure to check out my favorite bathrooms in Fantasyland to the left of the It's a Small World ride. They are Tangled themed and for a split second, you feel like you stepped into the movie!
7. Arrive at park opening.
This one is the MOST IMPORTANT on this list! Do it. Wake up early on your vacation because it is absolutely worth it! Check park opening of the day you plan to go. Sometimes it varies, and Disney resort go-ers are sometimes allowed in earlier than everyone else for Extra Magic Hours!
If the park opens at 8, leave your resort at 7:15am. Once you park at Magic Kingdom, you will walk or take a tram to the ticket center. If you already have your tickets in-hand, which you should because you pre-purchased them... you will then take the monorail or ferry boat to the Magic Kingdom park. Sometimes the ferry/monorail can get backed up so that's part of the reason it is important to get there early! Once you get off the monorail or ferry boat, you will have to go through a bag check line. After this is done, you will then scan your park tickets and your fingerprint to get into the park.
If you make it by 7:50am (if the park opens at 8am/8:50am if the park opens at 9am) then you will get to see the Welcome Show in front of the Train Station. It always features some fun Main Street characters and Disney characters. It's cute and I'll be so proud that you made it early.
After the Welcome Show, you can stroll down Main Street and head towards Tomorrowland on the East end of the park. It is always super slow in the morning with 5 minute wait times on Space Mountain and the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin! If you get to ride them first thing, then there is no reason to waste a Fastpass+ on them... or you can ride them multiple times if you have already scheduled your Fastpass+ for one of them later in the day! When we went on 4th of July, we rode Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin first thing in the morning. We definitely could have gone on them multiple times in a row but decided to get in as many other rides as possible since the wait times were so low.
I promise you that getting there early will keep you from waiting. Wait times are almost non-existent first thing in the morning. I would recommend not running toward the Seven Dwarves Mine Train or Meet and Greet with Anna & Elsa from Frozen. Those are the two attractions that always have a 90+ minute wait within the first 5 minutes of park opening. I've even asked Disney workers and they agree that it is crazy how many people run back to get in line for those 2 attractions. If those are 2 attractions that you really want to see while at Disney's Magic Kingdom, I'd recommend booking a Fastpass+ for them or you will be wasting your precious time waiting, waiting, waiting in line.
8. Save the rides that never really have a wait for the busy times.
When the park starts to get busy, you can use your fastpasses but there will only be 3 so you will eventually have to find something else to do. Here are the rides and shows that you do NOT need a Fastpass+ for... they almost always have short wait times and if you see one of them with a long wait line, then give it about 30 minutes and it will probably go down:
- Shows: Mickey's Philhar Magic, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
- People Mover
- Carousel of Progress
- Mad Tea Party
- It's a Small World
- Aladdin's Magic Carpets
- Prince Charming's Regal Carousel
- Dumbo: The Flying Elephant (I wouldn't book a Fastpass+ for this one because there is a play area while you wait in line. It is great for the little ones to get out some much needed energy)
Also, you can always check the Disney app for approximate wait times, which will help you know which ride to head toward next. Finally, there are a few things to do around Disney's Magic Kingdom that you could not book a Fastpass+ for anyways. These are good to check out when all the wait times are over 30 minutes:
- Tiki Tiki Room
- Swiss Family Robinson Tree house
- Country Bears Jamboree
- Take a boat ride and explore Tom Sawyer Island
- Take a ride on Liberty Square Riverboat
- Get a yummy Disney snack like dole whip at the Pineapple Promenade in Adventure land.
- Stroll up and down Main Street to check out all the Disney shops and goodies!
- Walk through Cinderella's castle!
- Catch a parade or Dream along with Mickey show in front of the castle!
- Go play Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom (found at the front of the park).
Here are some pictures from our last visit at Magic Kingdom:
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Noland Jr. loving the Mad Tea Party[/caption]
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Move it! Shake it! Celebrate it! Street parade is always fun to watch![/caption]
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Donald Duck is one of Noland Jr's favorite characters![/caption]
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This is my favorite picture of Cinderella's beautiful castle! Make sure to check up close for all the details![/caption]
With these 8 tips listed above, you should not wait in line for very long, and you will save a lot of time! If a line has a 30 minute or more wait, please don't get in it! Check your Disney app and move on to another ride. Remember that the wait times are always changing and there is always a chance the line will be shorter later on. If you have any questions about planning your Walt Disney World trip, feel free to leave me a comment and I'll try my best to answer and help any way that I can. I'm trying to start posting some Disney tips on here from time to time. Let me know what you think! If you like this post, please share with your friends, family, and anyone you know planning a trip to Walt Disney World!-Jen
