llilley

We are going to the Magic Kingdom for a day. Any suggestions on how to get the best bang for your buck (S) ? How to get the kids to ride the rides and feel like we did it all? Thank you

spirobulldog

Get there before the park opens. Know what you want to ride before you go in. If you get them all done, go back and ride again or ride some that you missed.
The parades are awesome, but that is also the time to ride rides, because the lines aren't as long.

Plan it out as much as you can. Have reservations when you want to eat, so you don't have to wait.

llilley

Thank you I never thought about those suggestions. Really helpful.

schmerl

Use the fastpass for as many rides as you can.

bennnie

Go to the back of the park first and ride the rides there and work backwards. Most of the crowd will just do the park from front to back. Also, if you can handle it, ride the big roller coasters early in the morning. Many will wait until their breakfast settles before attempting. None of the MK roller coasters are really jarring or go upside down.

bennnie

or if Dumbo is imporant, go there first. The line will build as the day goes on.

also check out disboards.com for additional tips

nytraveler

How old are the kids. Depending on age you will gof or completely different rides - Dumbo and Small World is little kids - coasters only for the bigger ones.

Pick out what you really want to see and 1) go there first and/or use fastpass if possible. Also if any ride has two separate lines always go for the one to the left - since more people automatically go to the right.

richmond706

Hi we haven't been to DisneyWorld in 5 years but just went to Disneyland last week. One thing we did was the single rider line if the Magic Kingdom has it too. Our kids are teenagers and didn't mind riding by themselves. We got done in 15 minutes on a ride with a 1 hour or more wait and sometimes rode together anyway. There was a rollercoaster only 2 of us wanted to ride so they did single rider line and we only waited about 10 minutes. Look ahead and see if Disney World has that like Disneyland.
Also, I downloaded an app called Mousewait. It gave me a good overview on which rides were 15 minute ones and which ones were 2 hour ones and at which times they were the most crowded. I planned ahead of time which fastpasses to get. My husband would sometimes run and get a fastpass for another ride while we waited in line for the first ride. We got a fastpass first off for a popular ride, then we did all of the less than 20 minute wait rides right at the beginning. We got the second fastpass right away and then ate lunch. If you get an idea of the worst 4 or 5 waits, and plan it out, you can do it. Of course some kiddie rides are popular and don't have fastpasses. And heaven help you if you have to do a princess visit. They take forever.
The Magic Kingdom is a good place to ride quickly near midnight if you can do it. Since it is so kid-centered, after they clear out, the lines get shorter around 11 p.m. We got on some good rides quickly near closing a lot better at Disneyland than Disneyworld.

richmond706

Dang I meant to say we did rides quickly the hour before closing much better at DISNEYWORLD than Disneyland.

spirobulldog

Also, when the park opens go to the left. For some reason, most people automatically head right.

This method and the back of the park method, really only work well for the first hour or so, then everyone is scattered throughout the park by then.

llilley

This is so helpful. Where is a fast place to eat and are the fast passes free?

bennnie

Fast passes are free At the entrance of fast pass rides, there is a group of machines that dispense the fast passes. Usually there is a time clock also that tells you when the pass will be good. If the time works for you, insert your park pass into the machine and it will return a slip of paper with the range of time that the pass is good for. For example, say its noon time and you want to ride Space Mountain but the regular line is 90 minutes. If this is too long, go to the fast pass terminal. It may say that the fast passes currently being issued will not be valid until between 5 and 6 pm. You can chose to wait 90 minutes now or get the fast pass and come back later in the afternoon and have only a 10 or 15 minute wait.

There used to be restrictions on having only one valid fast pass at a time per park ticket but its been 4 years since my last visit to a Disney park so please read up on disboards.com or allearsnet.com for more information.

richmond706

Yes that is right you can only have one pending Fastpass per park at a time. You are allowed to have one at each park though. At Disneyland we got one for Star Tours for 12pm- 1pm then went across to California Adventure before 12 pm and got one for the Tower of Terror for 1pm -2pm while the first one was still pending. It is easy to do that when the parks are so close together but in Orlando it is a bit harder to switch from one park to the other more than once per day.
If you got a Fastpass that is valid 11am-12pm, they let you on anytime AFTER 11am not just that one hour. This was as of last week at Disneyland. Also, you can get your second Fastpass once the first one starts so at 11am you can get a second one in the same park even if you haven't done the first ride yet. We were able to have two fastpass rides in a row because we waited until after both windows had started or passed. It would be unrealistic to get more than 4 or 5 in a day though. A really busy ride might not have a window until 6pm and if it is only 11am that means you're blocked for 7 hours from getting any more Fastpasses. Some rides even run out of Fastpasses by 3pm. That is why I liked Mousewait so much; I found out who ran out of them in the afternoon. Even if it is more info for Disneyland than Disneyworld at this point, almost all of the popular rides are the same and would have similar line waits at each.

richmond706

Their website as well as the park map you get will have a FP symbol on it next to the ride if it has fastpasses. Not all popular rides have them though most do. We took a minute to circle everyone's top 4 priority rides and focused on those first so if we ran out of time later it wouldn't be someone's top pick.
Disneyworld websites have so much info on dining - much more than I could find for Disneyland. www.allears.net is another really helpful website. Some restaurants at Disneyworld get booked weeks ahead. You probably don't want to waste 2 hours eating though if you have only one day there. You could find out the best quick bites on that website and www.Disboards.com like previously mentioned.

llilley

You guys are the greatest!! Which parade is the one to see if you were going to only spend time on one? I understand there are 2 parades and you cannot watch the fireworks unless you are staying at the park.

bennnie

You can see the MK fireworks from the Polynesian hotel. You could plan to have dinner at Ohana during the fireworks, you can see the show fairly well and the music is piped into the restaurant. You don't have to stay at the park or the hotel to eat in the restaurant. Same goes for the restuarant at the top of the Contemporary.