Help me Plan my First WDW trip... I think its really happening this time...three's a charm.

[PiratesMansion]

What do you guys think of my Must Do Ride list for MK? Keep in my mind I go to Disneyland 25x a year.

MUST DO

• Carousel of Progress
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Astro Orbiter
• Haunted Mansion
• Space Mountain
• Splash Mountain (if its still open)
• Thunder Mountain
• Jungle Cruise
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• PeopleMover
• Tron (if its open)
• Country Bear Jamboree

WOULD LIKE TO IF I HAVE TIME

• Mickeys Philharmagic
• Pooh
• Peter Pan
• Swiss Family Treehouse
• Walt Disney World Railroad (if its open)
• Tom Sawyer Island
• Hall of Presidents
• It's a Small World

NOT NECESSARY BUT MIGHT HAVE TO THROW THE KIDS A BONE

• Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
• Dumbo
• Mad Tea Party
• Barnstormer
• Magic Carpets

NOT NECESSARY

• Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
• Buzz
• Tommorowland Speedway
• Little Mermaid
• Liberty Square Riverboat
• Enchanted Tiki Room

I think you have a good list.

I definitely think PhilharMagic deserves to be seen in its proper form, and it's one of the few MK attractions that you can pretty much see whenever.

Same for Treehouse (and SO much better than Tarzan!). Tiki Room is almost the same, a bit shorter, but I think the way they subtly scaled it up for MK is interesting. Probably doesn't make it a must-see, but it's easy to do, so...

Definitely keep their Jungle Cruise, I think it's better than DL's. Better staged and with the temple!

Pooh is better at MK, but is significantly harder to ride with a short wait.

Tom Sawyer Island is the same sort of hassle it is at DL, but it's so much better than DL's that I would bump it up, especially since your kids are at the right age (and it's TWO ISLANDS! It's the extra fancy TSI!). The riverboat probably isn't a must-do, but the route is longer and more old-school than DL's is currently, so I think you might appreciate that if time permits.

Try to see Small World. The facade is a letdown, but a case could be made that the MK version does some things better.

You'll want to see Pirates out of morbid curiosity, but it's pretty sad.

Don't feel like you need to ride the railroad for any reason other than transportation. There really isn't much of anything interesting to see, and what little bit there is to see (Splash Mountain passthrough) you could see on Disneyland's railroad. The only real point of interest is that their railroad goes right next to Big Thunder, but otherwise it's a lot of trees and very little else. You're much more removed from the park than you are at Disneyland, so there's much less to see.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Incidentally, there are essentially two tiers of Magic Kingdom attractions. This exists to a degree in California but it is more pronounced in Florida. And basically, it's a tale of attractions WITH Genie+ and WITHOUT Genie+.

Magic Kingdom Attractions that are pretty easy to hit whenever (no Genie), but pay attention to special hours that will have many of these opening late and/or closing early:
-Railroad
-Treehouse
-Tiki Room
-Country Bears
-Tom Sawyer Island
-Riverboat
-Hall of Presidents
-PhilharMagic
-Carousel of Progress
-Peoplemover (expect a 20 minute wait or so for this)
-Monsters Inc Laugh Floor

The rest of the park's waits are like Disneyland on Hard to Ultra Hard Mode.

 

[Californian Elitist]

@mickEblu I know your favorite ride is Pirates, like mine. Nothing will properly prepare you for MK’s version. I knew what to expect going in, and I even smiled for the on-ride photo. I still walked off very disappointed and underwhelmed. Just warning you lol.

I know small world is not on your must-do list, but I was underwhelmed by that one, too, though I did love the lack of Disney characters. That facade and building tho…

 

[mickEblu]

@mickEblu I know your favorite ride is Pirates, like mine. Nothing will properly prepare you for MK’s version. I knew what to expect going in, and I even smiled for the on-ride photo. I still walked off very disappointed and underwhelmed. Just warning you lol.

I know small world is not on your must-do list, but I was underwhelmed by that one, too, though I did love the lack of Disney characters. That facade and building tho…

Lol thank you. I’ve heard POTC East leaves much to be desired but I have to ride it anyway. I’m pretty sure we’ll do IASW. It’s just another classic counterpart that I have to experience for myself. More I think about it the more I’m disappointed that I most likely will not get to ride MKs Splash. I ve had many dreams over the years with alternative universe Splash Mountains I’m them and I’m betting that’s what it would have felt like. With that said I’ve also had quite a few dreams with alternate universe POTCs and HMs

 

[mickEblu]

I would personally swap Astro Orbiter with Hall of Presidents, otherwise your must do list is solid and doable for a day at the MK.

Astro is only even on the list for it’s proper placement unlike DL so that makes sense. I’m pretty sure with 7 day park hoppers and 2 days dedicated to MK I should be able to at least do all my Must Do’s and Would like to Do’s. With that said you never know with the kids or if a ride goes down.

 

[mickEblu]

I think Monsters inc is a better version of turtle talk, your kids can send in jokes and they may tell them. If they like TT they would love laugh floor. Swiss treehouse, hall of Presidents, Phillarmagic and pooh are way better than their DL counterparts

We haven’t done turtle talk in years. If it’s a short wait and/or goes with the flow of the day I could see me doing MILF.

 

[mickEblu]

Even if you only have a mild interest in US history , hall of the presidents is a must do IMO

Yeah I’m 99% sure I’ll make the the time for it. Just couldn’t quite put it in the same tier as the other Must Dos especially considering the kids. We may have to child Switch that one. Lol

 

[flynnibus]

Yeah I’m 99% sure I’ll make the the time for it. Just couldn’t quite put it in the same tier as the other Must Dos especially considering the kids. We may have to child Switch that one. Lol

Just don’t make the mistake of skipping the American adventure because “we already did hall of presidents…”

American Adventure is the quintessential disney designed presentation of a history topic.

 

[mickEblu]

Just don’t make the mistake of skipping the American adventure because “we already did hall of presidents…”

American Adventure is the quintessential disney designed presentation of a history topic.

Oh no that one is on my Epcot Must Do list! Which is another reason I had Hall of Presidents a little lower down

 

[No Name]

History was my favorite subject in high school, but the Hall of Presidents is uniquely boring. Odds are half of your family falls asleep during it. There’s never a long wait so I’d say it’s still worth checking out. On the other hand, I think Monsters Inc Laugh Floor is quite fun.

Solid list overall. Crossing my fingers Splash is open!

 

[mlayton144]

History was my favorite subject in high school, but the Hall of Presidents is uniquely boring. Odds are half of your family falls asleep during it. There’s never a long wait so I’d say it’s still worth checking out. On the other hand, I think Monsters Inc Laugh Floor is quite fun.

Solid list overall. Crossing my fingers Splash is open!

Would you have preferred the presidents to sing and dance?

 

[No Name]

Would you have preferred the presidents to sing and dance?

Precisely.

 

[mickEblu]

History was my favorite subject in high school, but the Hall of Presidents is uniquely boring. Odds are half of your family falls asleep during it. There’s never a long wait so I’d say it’s still worth checking out. On the other hand, I think Monsters Inc Laugh Floor is quite fun.

Solid list overall. Crossing my fingers Splash is open!

Thank you! I’d say it’s reasonable to assume or hope that they wouldn’t close the ride until AFTER the 50th is over wouldn’t you?

 

[No Name]

Thank you! I’d say it’s reasonable to assume or hope that they wouldn’t close the ride until AFTER the 50th is over wouldn’t you?

I don’t think it’s reasonable to close the ride at all.

But yeah I’d hope they don’t close it until after the 50th.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Oh no that one is on my Epcot Must Do list! Which is another reason I had Hall of Presidents a little lower down

If you only do one of the two, make it American Adventure.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Lol thank you. I’ve heard POTC East leaves much to be desired but I have to ride it anyway. I’m pretty sure we’ll do IASW. It’s just another classic counterpart that I have to experience for myself. More I think about it the more I’m disappointed that I most likely will not get to ride MKs Splash. I ve had many dreams over the years with alternative universe Splash Mountains I’m them and I’m betting that’s what it would have felt like. With that said I’ve also had quite a few dreams with alternate universe POTCs and HMs

IASW facade is very underwhelming compared to DL, but it does have some advantages. The fully flooded rooms, lack of Disney chars, scenes are on both sides the entire ride so no empty walls in parts. It's also shorter at 10 mins.

 

[PiratesMansion]

IASW facade is very underwhelming compared to DL, but it does have some advantages. The fully flooded rooms, lack of Disney chars, scenes are on both sides the entire ride so no empty walls in parts. It's also shorter at 10 mins.

Additionally, as pointed out by the Passport2Dreams blog, the song is a lot less annoying when the only place the English version is used is during the finale, instead of seemingly every other minute in California.

 

[mickEblu]

So what is January like in Orlando/ WDW? Sister threw us a curveball a couple days ago and said she and her fam might not be able to go to WDW in March and may only be able to go in January. After some brief research I can see that crowds will be lower than early March as well as hotel rates. Both good things.

Now for the bad…I understand parks close a little earlier as well. My biggest concern is the weather. Looks like average highs are 72 which is great but average lows are 52. Not terrible but not ideal either. I’d imagine the early mornings and evenings at the parks would be more like high 50s/ low 60s? What do 50s and 60s feel like in Orlando? 60s sound nice and probably feel even warmer in Orlando but 50s doesn’t really sound like ideal vacation weather.

Should I expect anything other than maybe Splash Mountain to and Kali be closed during that time of year? We’d be looking at late January.

 

[flynnibus]

So what is January like in Orlando/ WDW? Sister threw us a curveball a couple days ago and said she and her fam might not be able to go to WDW in March and may only be able to go in January. After some brief research I can see that crowds will be lower than early March as well as hotel rates. Both good things.

Now for the bad…I understand parks close a little earlier as well. My biggest concern is the weather. Looks like average highs are 72 which is great but average lows are 52. Not terrible but not ideal either. I’d imagine the early mornings and evenings at the parks would be more like high 50s/ low 60s? What do 50s and 60s feel like in Orlando? 60s sound nice and probably few even warmer in Orlando but 50s doesn’t really sound like ideal vacation weather.

Should I expect anything other than maybe Splash Mountain to and Kali be closed during that time of year? We’d be looking at late January.

WDW doesn't slow down as much as DLR does in the off season. The marathon event is the biggest thing to avoid in Jan, NYE, and MLK. This kinda of eats up the first 2+ weeks of the month. There are low days in the holes during this period, but around the weekends and leading up to them, crowds will be there.

For weather, to keep it in perspective they still operate one of the water parks all winter They still have the great sun and comfortable even if not very high temps. It's great for avoiding the oppressive humidity but if you are from a warm climate already you'll probably skip much of the pool time. It's still enjoyable weather in Florida.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

I find January very nice! Not too hot, and decent crowds