what could we have done different to maximize our visit magic kingdom

[hyechica81]

hi so we were just in magic kingdom recently we went on a Wednesday we arrived about an hour after opening.
just me and my husband we started in tomorrow land and ended the night by the jungle book ride. lines were not extremely long for the stuff we went on i think we were in lines that were between 15-30 minutes of wait time.

we did the people mover carousel of progress
then walked over to the train in some area i was unfamiliar with since my last visit to magic kingdom was in the 1990s. it looked like a circus area we got on the train we stayed on till it came back to the circus area we went to aerial's grotto, then stopped at Pinocchio's haus for some lunch after that we did small world, haunted mansion, and then went to our dinner at crystal palace, after dinner we walked to pirates of the caribbean and then got on jungle book at that point the fireworks were going on.

we don't do fast rides so we didn't miss much there but i feel like our day could have been better managed like maybe not have started in tomorrowland. and i know we missed some rides by the time we went back to downtown to look around everyone was mad rush to leave the park so that really didn't happen for us

it was the only park we did on our vacation and we plan on coming back to florida again next winter magic kingdom is on our list again and possibly another park.


what area would you have started in first. would you have done an earlier dinner or a later dinner we had reservations around 5ish?

 

[JIMINYCR]

First we do rope drop to try and skip crowds that quickly build. We always hit up the most popular attractions first to get them done before crowds file in. After those we move around the park going from Adventureland and move clockwise. If you make a list of those things that are important to you and prioritize what are not to be missed and those you want to avoid it will make it clearer of how you want to proceed through your day. The Unofficial guide to WDW has a plan at the back to the guide that can also direct you to save time and be efficient in handling the attractions. Our last trip in October saw wait times also around the 30 min. time. Plan out your day for a lunch and snack times so you have an idea of how to be timely. Some people do prefer to just fly by the seat of their pants with absolutely no planning but that's not how we run.
We always do a reservation for a table service meal around 6:00. That gives us time to see more of the park later and enjoy the fireworks.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

Seems like you got a lot done, most of the standard big rides without the brand new ones like Tron.

If anything, I’d say you could do several of those rides faster at night when everyone else watches the fireworks, but you said your wait times were short, so I wouldn’t overthink it.

 

[Brene Kulat]

hi so we were just in magic kingdom recently we went on a Wednesday we arrived about an hour after opening.
just me and my husband we started in tomorrow land and ended the night by the jungle book ride. lines were not extremely long for the stuff we went on i think we were in lines that were between 15-30 minutes of wait time.

we did the people mover carousel of progress
then walked over to the train in some area i was unfamiliar with since my last visit to magic kingdom was in the 1990s. it looked like a circus area we got on the train we stayed on till it came back to the circus area we went to aerial's grotto, then stopped at Pinocchio's haus for some lunch after that we did small world, haunted mansion, and then went to our dinner at crystal palace, after dinner we walked to pirates of the caribbean and then got on jungle book at that point the fireworks were going on.

we don't do fast rides so we didn't miss much there but i feel like our day could have been better managed like maybe not have started in tomorrowland. and i know we missed some rides by the time we went back to downtown to look around everyone was mad rush to leave the park so that really didn't happen for us

it was the only park we did on our vacation and we plan on coming back to florida again next winter magic kingdom is on our list again and possibly another park.


what area would you have started in first. would you have done an earlier dinner or a later dinner we had reservations around 5ish?

It sounds like you did quite a bit, especially if lines were only 15-30 minutes. I think dinner at 5 is a great time. We usually plan around 4 to break up the day and it usually times it right when it typically starts raining in the summer/fall. When I take my family I always try to figure out what everyone really wants to do and I check out the times and kind of map out an itinerary with backup plans depending on what rides or things are available (like if a ride went down or character lines are too long). For your next trip to maximize your time stay on property to get those extra magic hours and look ahead to see what parks close early.