Review my MK and AK Touring Plans

[jenniferahardin87]

Hello We are doing MK on 12/24 and AK on 12/25 - planning on rope dropping both. staying off site

For MK, plan is to uber to and arrive at contempo cafe (with mobile order) at 650 AM, and walk over to get in early.

I paid for the touring plans and they seem to take a lot of the guesswork out, but wondering if any improvements can be made?
for example at MK, should i try Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Thunder Mountain right away?
here are the plans as is:

MK-12/24 - CL 4 - 8am-10pm
817: buzz
828: astro
847: carousel
856: peter pan
908: small world
952: pirates
1037: thunder mountain (30 min wait)
1117: splash mountain (30 min wait)
1206: lunch (pecos bill maybe?_
107: jungle cruise (41 min wait)
158: tiki room
219: magic carpets
244: mine train (60 min wait)
358: space mountain (38 min wait)
451: speedway
504: tea party
516: winnie
540: dumbo
548: barnstormer
603: under the sea
626: philharmagic
701: haunted mansion

AK - 12/25 - CL3 - 7am-7pm
719: Na'vi
732: Avatar (35 min wait)
826: tough to be a bug
852: dinosaur
906: triceratop spin
923 - Everest (28 min wait)
1004: Kali River Rapids
1024: Maharajah
1104-1209: Wildlife express africa station, conservation station, wildlife express rafikis planet
1209: lunch (suggestions?)
1255: gorilla falls
123: safari
205: discovery island trails

thanks so much!

 

[JenBush]

So looking over your plan and are those times listed the time you plan to get on the ride or get off the ride? Are you accounting for ride times as well? I’d say some of these times seem a bit “hopeful”. If I’m reading this right, you are planning only ~10 minutes for Peter Pan on one of the busiest days in MK. That just seems low to me from the wait times I’ve seen lately. I also recommend building in more wiggle room for each ride.

 

[Tom_E_D]

Hello We are doing MK on 12/24 and AK on 12/25 - planning on rope dropping both. staying off site

For MK, plan is to uber to and arrive at contempo cafe (with mobile order) at 650 AM, and walk over to get in early.

I paid for the touring plans and they seem to take a lot of the guesswork out, but wondering if any improvements can be made?
for example at MK, should i try Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Thunder Mountain right away?
here are the plans as is:

MK-12/24 - CL 4 - 8am-10pm
817: buzz
828: astro
847: carousel
856: peter pan
908: small world
952: pirates
1037: thunder mountain (30 min wait)
1117: splash mountain (30 min wait)
1206: lunch (pecos bill maybe?_
107: jungle cruise (41 min wait)
158: tiki room
219: magic carpets
244: mine train (60 min wait)
358: space mountain (38 min wait)
451: speedway
504: tea party
516: winnie
540: dumbo
548: barnstormer
603: under the sea
626: philharmagic
701: haunted mansion

AK - 12/25 - CL3 - 7am-7pm
719: Na'vi
732: Avatar (35 min wait)
826: tough to be a bug
852: dinosaur
906: triceratop spin
923 - Everest (28 min wait)
1004: Kali River Rapids
1024: Maharajah
1104-1209: Wildlife express africa station, conservation station, wildlife express rafikis planet
1209: lunch (suggestions?)
1255: gorilla falls
123: safari
205: discovery island trails

thanks so much!

I assume the listed times and suggested itinerary come from Touring Plans. I'm not going to tell you whether they could be accurate or not.

My big question is why you're only getting on your first ride at MK at 8:17. If you're going to the trouble of getting a rideshare to the Contempo Cafe by 6:50, you should be entering MK and arriving at your first ride much earlier than that. Don't dilly dally over breakfast. If you get into MK ahead of the crowd, your first ride should be one that normally has a long wait later in the day. You ask about doing Mine Train, Peter Pan and Thunder Mountain right away. If you're ahead of the crowd, Mine Train is the most sensible place to start, followed by Pan or something else nearby. I don't know that I'd go all the way over to Thunder Mountain next. It's not nearby, and people who went there first may have already created a long line there. I'd do some nearby Fantasyland ride next after Pan. But even if you are a bit too late to beat the crowd to Mine Train, you could start in Tomorrowland at Space Mountain and likely have that ridden before arriving at Buzz at 8:17. Frankly, if you're going to rely on Touring Plans, you should give it an earlier arrival time (7:30 or so) and see where it directs you. People will be in the parks, and either riding or at least on line for their first ride, before the official opening times.

I don't know how you're getting to AK, so entering the line for Navi at 7:19 may be a realistic start to the day. Depending on how cold it is that day, Kali may be better left until after lunch, although I understand you don't get as wet now as pre-Covid.

Good luck.

 

[jenniferahardin87]

Touring plan doesn’t seem to allow me
To start the day before park opening, or at least I can’t figure out how. So my plan was try to get there early, and do mine train Peter Pan & btmr before their suggested 817 buzz start - then Mark those done and “reopimize” their plan. Thanks for the tip on btmr, I will wait on that one then and do something else in fantasyland if there’s time instead.

 

[jenniferahardin87]

So looking over your plan and are those times listed the time you plan to get on the ride or get off the ride? Are you accounting for ride times as well? I’d say some of these times seem a bit “hopeful”. If I’m reading this right, you are planning only ~10 minutes for Peter Pan on one of the busiest days in MK. That just seems low to me from the wait times I’ve seen lately. I also recommend building in more wiggle room for each ride.

Thanks so much for the advice. I don’t know much, just going off what touring plans provided me, so this is helpful!

 

[Carla1183]

As someone who LOVES touring plans, I can tell you theyre still trying to nail down waits in covid times so don't get your hopes up that it will move this quickly/smoothly.

2 years ago I followed ours to the minute and it was almost perfect. Last week I basically had to consider it a list of things I wanted to do and kept checking things off and optimizing while there based on current line times.

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

These plans don't make sense. I can't imagine why anyone would ride Na'vi before FoP. I also can't think of a good reason to start MK with Buzz.

 

[Tom_E_D]

These plans don't make sense. I can't imagine why anyone would ride Na'vi before FoP. I also can't think of a good reason to start MK with Buzz.

Whether you do Navi or FoP first depends on how long a line has already formed at FoP when you get there. If you arrive ahead of the crowd, FoP is definitely the better choice. However, lots of people arrive at the park's official opening time and get in a long line for FoP without realizing they're already too late. If the FoP line has already gotten long, it's better to skip it and get in a short line elsewhere, and come back to FoP later (when the line may still be long, but the lines elsewhere may all be long too).

Starting MK with Buzz looks off to me too, but again seems to be based on the notion that you're already too late to get in a line for the most-popular attractions, so it's better to get in a short line for a less-popular attraction that'll still see long lines later in the day.

 

[fordpony92]

Would also be good to know who is in your party. That plan seems pretty ambitious especially during the holidays.

 

[jenniferahardin87]

These plans don't make sense. I can't imagine why anyone would ride Na'vi before FoP. I also can't think of a good reason to start MK with Buzz.

any suggestions on how to move things around for AK? start with FOP i am assuming.
for MK,i plan on RD and trying to do mine train and peter pan before going to buzz but was just posting their plans as they gave to me for thoughts/suggestions

thanks

Would also be good to know who is in your party. That plan seems pretty ambitious especially during the holidays.

there are 12 of us - 3 adults and 9 kids aged 6 thru 17. so i guess the consensus is, this itinerary from touring plans won't really work, and back to the drawing board.

 

[Shellyred8]

For MK, I would actually recommend waiting to do mine train until your last ride of the day (just make sure you are in line before the official park closing time, and you will still get to go on the ride, even if it is a 50 minute wait). That line gets long fast. We found it a better use of our time to do the Adventure land and Frontier land rides first and then head over to HM, PP and Pooh. We actually skipped IASW this trip because we didn't want to use up precious morning hours on such a long ride. Then head to Buzz and Space Mountain. Little Mermaid, Tomorrowland Speedway and the Tea Cups almost always had super short wait times in the last two hours of the day.

 

[wiggy500]

Getting 12 people to arrive at breakfast at 6:50 a.m. sounds like a trick, particularly with nine kids. Getting there early will help make the day go smoother, so shoot for that. But go in with realistic expectations for your group.

 

[MainMom]

I’ve done 12 people family trips (13 last summer). Have you done a group trip before? Do you plan on all staying together all day? Has this been discussed with your group? Are they ready to just follow you where you say to go? Does everyone like coasters?
I am the planner and leader in my family group. Everyone trusts me to lead them around and they don’t argue. We stick together. They also know if they are late to the bus we will leave without them. My goal is to get my group on the major attractions first thing before fatigue sets in: Mountains, 7dwavres, HM, Pirates, buzz. I then fill in with rides like dumbo, small world, etc.
I would also skip the breakfast plan. I see that backfiring and people taking longer to eat than anticipated. Schedule a lunch somewhere instead.
I would have the same strategy with AK: major attractions first. I have found trails and 13 people don’t go well together with different interest levels. YMMV.

 

[Mainyo]

Hello We are doing MK on 12/24 and AK on 12/25 - planning on rope dropping both. staying off site

For MK, plan is to uber to and arrive at contempo cafe (with mobile order) at 650 AM, and walk over to get in early.

I paid for the touring plans and they seem to take a lot of the guesswork out, but wondering if any improvements can be made?
for example at MK, should i try Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Thunder Mountain right away?
here are the plans as is:

MK-12/24 - CL 4 - 8am-10pm
817: buzz
828: astro
847: carousel
856: peter pan
908: small world
952: pirates
1037: thunder mountain (30 min wait)
1117: splash mountain (30 min wait)
1206: lunch (pecos bill maybe?_
107: jungle cruise (41 min wait)
158: tiki room
219: magic carpets
244: mine train (60 min wait)
358: space mountain (38 min wait)
451: speedway
504: tea party
516: winnie
540: dumbo
548: barnstormer
603: under the sea
626: philharmagic
701: haunted mansion

AK - 12/25 - CL3 - 7am-7pm
719: Na'vi
732: Avatar (35 min wait)
826: tough to be a bug
852: dinosaur
906: triceratop spin
923 - Everest (28 min wait)
1004: Kali River Rapids
1024: Maharajah
1104-1209: Wildlife express africa station, conservation station, wildlife express rafikis planet
1209: lunch (suggestions?)
1255: gorilla falls
123: safari
205: discovery island trails

thanks so much!

So how did it go? Did you stick with the plan? Was it pretty accurate? Wondering if I should get a plan too for our trip coming up at the end of February.