Recently I headed to Orlando, home of theme parks and conferences. Although most of my days would be spent in a hotel ballroom learning about marketing in higher education, I wanted to make the most of my limited free time. I have been to the Disney theme parks a handful of times, but this time I wanted to be prepared – I wanted to see and do things I’ve never done before.
My planning started by reading a few guides to Disney World including Disney World in a Day by Jake LeuVoy and The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2018 by Bob Sehlinger. At first I thought the latter was just a big advertisement for TouringPlans.com, but then I put it to work.
The Unofficial Guide introduced me to a few new adventures and experiences including an amazing character breakfast at Cape May Café, A Pirate’s Adventure, and a lighted boat parade. All were part of my most recent Disney adventure.
Breakfast at Cape May Cafe (my first Mickey waffle).
According to the Official Guide, TouringPlans.com could map out a plan for you to see and do what you wanted in any theme park maximizing your enjoyment while minimizing your wait times. As I understand it, they have algorithms that estimate wait times based on historic attendance and then tell you when to ride specific rides or see specific shows based on your priorities (less waiting or less walking). Needless to say I was extremely skeptical. In my experience, many of the popular rides have 30-90+ minute waits. So how could this TouringPlans.com claim be possible?
TouringPlans.com offers general plans without a subscription, but if you want to customize your plan you must subscribe for an annual fee, currently about $15 for Walt Disney World. I created my account and started planning. It’s as easy as identifying when you plan to be at the park and what you want to see and do and when and where you want to eat. You even have the option of including Extra Magic Hours and your FastPass+ times.
In full disclosure, I’m not a thrill ride person so I was not waiting in line for roller-coasters, which makes it a bit easier to ride a few more rides. Nonetheless, I was able to check off 15 Magic Kingdom adventures in less than 4 ½ hours!
My adventures started on a holiday Monday evening in Magic Kingdom. I arrived at a little before 6 pm and header straight for Adventure Land to take part in A Pirate’s Adventure ~ Treasures of the Seven Seas. Following my treasure map, I ran around Adventure Land finding icons unleashing new clues. I completed two separate adventures and earned a FastPass for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
Next I tackled the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, which I had never climbed before. There were a few more steps than I imagined, but the view over the Magic Kingdom was well worth it.
Then I hoofed it over to the Hall of Presidents. I wanted to catch the 6:17 show. It had been years since I’ve seen this 23-minute presentation and I was curious to see how Disney was portraying our current President.
By the time the show was over, the park was dark and it was hard to find my way around. I’m a little embarrassed to say I got lost and walked way out of my way to my next ride (according to TouringPlans). After a few wrong turns, I finally arrived at It’s a Small World (another first for me!). This was my first real ride of the night, and low and behold TouringPlans was right, there was virtually no wait at this time of day. I tossed a coin in the water and made a wish like many before me. After the ride, I quickly headed to the Castle to watch the Once Upon a Time show.
When the show was over I quickly walked to Ariel’s Grotto and rode my first clamshell at Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid. Then it was back towards the Castle to catch Mickey’s Philharmagic. At this point I began questioning why I kept walking past the rides I’d go on next, but so far TouringPlans was right and I had almost no wait on any ride. So I stuck to the plan.
Before the night was over, I’d also hit Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan’s Flight, Prince Charming’s Royal Carousel, The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, and one of my favorites, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. To my astonishment, I waited no more than 10 minutes for any ride; several I just walked right on!
The Official Guide recommended trying The Jungle Cruise at night. If you’ve been on this ride you know that it is very campy, filled with many bad jokes. The darkness of night gave the ride a completely different feel and almost made it a little scary. During past trips, I waited in line for almost an hour. This time, I just walked right on.
My night ended with the Boat Parade just outside of Magic Kingdom. This parade was scheduled for about 30 minutes after Magic Kingdom closed. It was unseasonably cold that night so I waited to watch along the lagoon on the side where the Disney buses pick up guests. I would have had a much better view waiting closer to the main entrance to the park or going over to the Grand Floridian. I’ll know better for next time.
After a little over 4 hours in the park and more than 20,000 steps, my longest wait of the night, was waiting for the resort bus to pick me up.
Long story short, TouringPlans.com was well worth it and worked like a charm.
Note: I was not asked by TouringPlans.com to provide a review nor have I received any compensation for a review.
musingsbymissmelissann.com 