theme park touring plans

[Jedi Knight]

I'm planning on arriving at each park at opening and want to try to go on all the more popular rides before the lines get too long.

In what order do you go on rides/attractions when arriving at the park?

Does anyone care to share their strategies? Or have any websites that provide a strategy?

Thanks!!!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Our "touring plan" has always been really simple. Start early! It is amazing how much you can accomplish in the first hour or two that the park is open.

We have the "must-do" list, and start working through it .. grabbing a Fast Pass for one attraction, then riding a couple, back for the FP and then the cycle repeats.

Anything after the "must-do" list is bonus, and we usually have lots of time in the afternoon to do the less popular attractions which have shorter lines.

[Janmac]

We also start early - plan to be at the parks at least 20 minutes before published opening time. On our April trip, the parks were opening early, so we might bump that to 30 minutes early.

With many trips to the World, we have particular attractions that we favor, and others that we pass by. We head directly to our favorites and get them out of the way before the lines get long. We might do a couple of mornings at a park to get our must do attractions in rather than all day. I saw on another thread that there seems to be a switch at about 11:20 when the parks get BUSY! That's about the time we're heading to our resort.

Depending on what time of year, we might not do Fast Pass at all. Depends a lot on when the return time is. We also say, we'll catch that next time, if the attraction is not working out this trip, or if it's closed for some reason.

MK - first morning Adventureland - Aladdin's Magic Carpet (traditional first ride for several trips), Pirates, whichever Mtn is open in Frontierland and Haunted Mansion. Some trips we've done Jungle Cruise, Tiki Birds, Country Bears, depending on how we're feeling.

Second morning, depending on ages in our group, Dumbo, the Carrousel, Peter Pan (which we might FP), Mickey's Philharmagic (good while you're waiting for your PP FP), try to pull the Sword in the Stone (also a photo op to show how much the kids are growing), Winnie the Pooh, the Tea Cups and then Buzz in Tomorrowland and possibly Carousel of Progress.

The new Fantasyland is going to be interesting.

DHS - Toy Story, followed by Tower of Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, and then multiple Star Tours, if possible. We finsih up by walking through the Indiana Jones shop. :D

AK - Kilimanjar Safaris with FP for Expedition Everest while we do Maharajah Jungle Trek or similar. If we have a second morning at AK we would probably do the train out to the Conservation Station first thing, with the Pangani Forest trail while we're waiting for the train.

We fill in with stuff in Dino land (or whatever it's called).

Epcot - we do this park pretty much every evening. Usually most of the Future World attractions are walk on, with the exception of Soarin'. Sometimes Soarin' has less than a 30 minute wait after 8:30 pm. If we were opening Epcot, we'd head to Soarin' first thing.

We probably spend almost as much time in restaurants both in the parks and at various resorts. :blush:

Enjoy!

Jan

[bruin1344]

Get to the parks when they open and head first to popular attractions with long waits or get fast passes. These attractions are:
MK - Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, and Peter Pan.
Epcot - Soarin, Test Track
DHS - Rockin Rollercoaster, Toy Story, and Tower of Terror
AK - Expedition Everest, Safari

After finishing the long wait attractions, then do other popular rides where wait times are not usually long like Pirates or Haunted Mansion.

If you arrive later in the day, go on the popular rides with long waits during the parades or firework shows.

Avoid any parks that have extra magic hours in the morning if you do not plan to utilize the extra magic hours. Also, except for MK, avoid any parks that have extra magic hour evenings. Its too crowded.