Magic Kingdom - Park Strategy

 

 

We’re going to be looking at park strategies for all four of the parks at Walt Disney World.  My previous strategy guides assumed that you wouldn't be staying on property or purchasing Lightning Lane Multipass (LLMP) or Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).  But so much of the best strategies involve these options, so instead I'm going to talk about what the best option is for each particular park.  Since Early Entry is available to all on property guests, this also changes traditional rope drop strategy. We'll also talk about what you can do if these options aren't available to you.  Today we’ll be discussing Magic Kingdom. (Updated July 25, 2024).

 

Magic Kingdom attractions:

Highest wait times – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan’s Flight, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Moderate wait times – Pirates Of The Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, it’s a small world, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh, Tomorrowland Speedway, The Barnstormer,  Under The Sea: Journey Of The Little Mermaid, Enchanted Tales With Belle, pretty much any meet and greet

Lowest wait times –  Mickey's Philharmagic, Dumbo The Flying Elephant, Prince Charming Regal Carrousel, Swiss Family Treehouse, The Magic Carpets Of Aladdin, Tom Sawyer Island, Liberty Square Riverboat, Country Bear Musical Jamboree, The Hall Of Presidents, Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, Walt Disney’s Carousel Of Progress, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

N/A - Tron Lightcycle Run (more on this below)

Best Strategy - Lightning Lane Multipass

Alternate Strategy - Extended Evening Hours

 

In some ways, Magic Kingdom is the easiest park to strategize around and in some ways it’s the hardest.  There are easily more attractions at this park then at any of the others, probably combined.  That leads to a more spread out crowd throughout the day, with more moderate wait times as opposed to some really busy attractions and some empty ones.  Our recommendation is to spend two days in Magic Kingdom.  If you choose not to (or are unable to do so for any reason), our STRONG recommendation is to purchase LLMP.  I would recommend it even over a two day visit, as it allows your trip to be much more relaxed.  More than any other park, the experience of being there is worth a great deal at the most visited theme park in the world.

 

Epcot - Park Strategy

 

 

 

We’re going to be looking at park strategies for all four of the parks at Walt Disney World.  My previous strategy guides assumed that you wouldn't be staying on property or purchasing Lightning Lane Multipass (LLMP) or Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).  But so much of the best strategies involve these options, so instead I'm going to talk about what the best option is for each particular park.  Since Early Entry is available to all on property guests, this also changes traditional rope drop strategy. We'll also talk about what you can do if these options aren't available to you.  Today we’ll be discussing Epcot. (Updated July 25, 2024).

 

Epcot attractions:

Highest wait times – Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After

Moderate wait times – Soarin' Around The World, Spaceship Earth, Mission: Space, Meet Beloved Disney Pals at Mickey & Friends, Meet Elsa and Anna at Royal Sommerhaus

Lowest wait times – Journey Into Imagination With Figment, Living With The Land, The Seas With Nemo and Friends, Turtle Talk With Crush, Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros

N/A - Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (see below for more on this one specifically)

Best Strategy: Early Entry with Extended Evening Hours if possible

Alternate Strategy: LLMP (and Early Entry)

 

A couple of notes on the above – first, I’m not including any of the shows (The American Adventure, Awesome Planet, etc) as those generally have set schedules (which you can find at the park or on Disney’s official website) and mostly have little to no wait (essentially the amount of time that the show takes is how long you’ll wait if you just missed it).  Second, wait times are relative, not absolute. This means that the lowest wait times at the busiest time of year will probably still feel quite busy, while the highest wait times on the slowest day of the year won’t seem so bad. Context matters.  

 

Disney's Hollywood Studios - Park Strategy

 

 

 

We’re going to be looking at park strategies for all four of the parks at Walt Disney World.  My previous strategy guides assumed that you wouldn't be staying on property or purchasing Lightning Lane Multipass (LLMP) or Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).  But so much of the best strategies involve these options, so instead I'm going to talk about what the best option is for each particular park.  Since Early Entry is available to all on property guests, this also changes traditional rope drop strategy. We'll also talk about what you can do if these options aren't available to you.  Today we’ll be discussing Hollywood Studios. (Updated July 25, 2024).

 

Hollywood Studios attractions:

Highest wait times - Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

Moderate wait times – Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock N Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, Toy Story Mania, Alien Swirling Saucers, Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams, Star Wars Launch Bay Meet Chewbacca

Lowest wait times – Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, Muppet*Vision 3D, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, Meet Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight

Best Strategy: LLMP, combined with Early Entry

Alternate Strategy - LLMP as well as LLSP for Rise of the Resistance.  

A quick note on the above - even moderate wait times at this park can be a burden.  For June 2024, the top SIX rides here all averaged over 48 minutes during the day.  That's a lot to work around. Slinky Dog Dash appears to have taken the top wait time spot from Rise, and there could be some fluctuations among the other rides.  The names may move around, but the result is the same - the top rides are a lot to deal with.

Hollywood Studios is one of the hardest parks to strategize for.  In large part, this is due to the attraction lineup being very top heavy.  There are a lot of newer and very in demand attractions at this park, and currently not a lot of crowd eater type shows and attractions to disperse everyone.  Thankfully, character meet and greets are back, as well as Beauty & The Best: Live On Stage, the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and For The First Time In Forever: A Frozen Sing-a-long. These things should at least help spread the crowds out so that they’re not waiting for one of the five or six big attractions at the park.

 

Disney's Animal Kingdom - Park Strategy

 

 

 

We’re going to be looking at park strategies for all four of the parks at Walt Disney World.  My previous strategy guides assumed that you wouldn't be staying on property or purchasing Lightning Lane Multipass (LLMP) or Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).  But so much of the best strategies involve these options, so instead I'm going to talk about what the best option is for each particular park.  Since Early Entry is available to all on property guests, this also changes traditional rope drop strategy. We'll also talk about what you can do if these options aren't available to you.  Today we’ll be discussing Disney’s Animal Kingdom (DAK). (Updated July 25, 2024)

 

Animal Kingdom attractions:

Highest wait times – Avatar Flight of Passage, Na’vi River Journey

Moderate wait times – Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest, Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost, Kali River Rapids

Lowest wait times – DINOSAUR, TriceraTop Spin, It’s Tough To Be A Bug

Best strategy: Early Entry

Alternate strategy: Arrive late afternoon (maybe park hopping)

 

I’m leaving out any of the animal trails around the park, which are self guided walks around certain areas.  Similarly, I’m also leaving out Rafiki’s Planet Watch, which is an “edutainment” section devoted to animal care and conservation.  Finally, I’m ignoring the shows that have performances at set times (Festival Of The Lion King, Feathered Friends In Flight and soon the returning Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond).  If you arrive a little before show time, you should have no issues getting in to see a particular performance.  It’s Tough To Be A Bug, while a show, is listed on the official and unofficial wait time apps and the performances run one after the other; that line can back up on busy days but is usually one of the lowest at the park. That will be included here.

 

Country Bear Musical Jamboree Full Show

Picture courtesy of Disney

 

Walt Disney World's new/renovated show in Frontierland, Country Bear Musical Jamboree officially opens on July 17.  This is, of course, not to be confused with the Country Bear Jamboree, which is what this attraction is replacing.  It appears that media were allowed to watch and record the show to put up on their YouTube channels this week, as there are a bunch of videos circulating (we watched this one, though any will do). 

With the names of the shows being so similar, and with the bears themselves sticking around, just how much has changed?  In one way, not much, but in another one, quite a bit.  We'll talk about that here and see how this new show stacks up to the original (or at the least the most recent version of the original; even that had some changes over the years).

New Lightning Lane Process - Winners and Losers

 

As discussed yesterday, Disney dropped a bombshell as it relates to their Lightning Lane procedure at Walt Disney World.  We're not going to rehash all of that post, but I encourage you to read it so you have some background on the new line skipping service.  It has a lot of similarities to the former FastPass+ (FP+) system that was in effect until the pandemic, and was eventually replaced by Genie+.

There is only so much capacity that each park has, and the number of guests each day are all competing for that capacity.  Any kind of "beat the crowds" service offered by Disney creates a system where some guests benefit more than others.  That's just the nature of these things.  Disney is constantly trying to find the best way to maximize guest spending while also minimizing bad press and publicity.  The Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) and Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP) are the latest in a long line of these.

Breaking: Pre-Arrival Lightning Lane Booking Coming Soon

 

Disney has once again overhauled their "beat the line" system.  In a throwback to the old FastPass+ days, Lightning Lanes will be available to book in advance at Walt Disney World starting on July 24.  As we're still absorbing this news and all the implications, you can take a look at the official announcement here and then we'll dive into what this means for your future trips.  This is a big one.

On a technical note, this announcement signifies the end of Genie+, or at least the name.  I understand why Disney wanted to get away from the name "Fast Pass", as that was a free service and Genie+ was paid.  But they took years of goodwill associated with that name and flushed it. On the other hand, Genie+ was mostly derided, so there's no great loss there.  Instead, the service will now just be known as "Lightning Lane", a term they were already using in conjunction with Genie+