Not that this is surprising, but I have a huge obsession with Disney and its hard for me to put into words. BUT I have been asked many times how to do Disney in a short amount of time. Now with a real 9-5 job my Disney trips are shorter, but that doesn’t mean they’re less magical!
Below is how I would do a 2 day trip as well as hints on booking.
Day 1:
I would for sure spend a whole day at Magic Kingdom, it’s my favorite park and there is a lot of great things to do! If this is a first trip and you want to do a princess dining I recommend booking as soon as possible. Dining reservations open up 180 days prior to your visit. The options you have are Cinderella’s Royal Table, The Grand Floridian they do a Princess Tea party, where all the Disney princesses will be! Also at the Grand Floridian they have dinner with Cinderella, the evil step sisters, step mother, and prince charming. It’s called 1900 Park fair. All reservations for pretty much ANYTHING Disney can be booked here https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/plan/my-disney-experience/ .
If you want to get the most out of your 1 day at Magic Kingdom I would do the whole park in a circle (counter clockwise), other than the Mine Train. When you get to the magic kingdom if you want to ride the new Snow White ride called the Mine Train and don’t have fast passes I would do this first because the line will get very long very early in the day! I will attach a map of the park with arrows to show you what I like to do when I go. I will also attach a list and rate all the rides (on personal preference), but by all means you do not have to follow it!
Also at magic kingdom are shows and parades:
Castle show: about every hour right in front of the castle Mickey, Minnie and many friends put on a little show that’s about 15 minutes long!
Festival of Fantasy: By far the greatest parade of all time! I’m so in love with it! It’s at 3:00 and the parade route is on the map in a dotted red line. You can probably watch this parade from anywhere and will get a great view. (I only suggest when you sit down be mindful if the sun is right in front of you. A lot of the floats are very tall with characters on top, and with the sun behind them you can’t see.)
Happily Ever After: the firework show where Tinker Bell flies is amazing and I know y’all will love it. I sometimes went to the park right before this started and then left right after it was over just to see the magic!
**For the Happily Ever After Firework show I will put a yellow star on the map where I think y’all should stand. Its always hard because you want to be close to see the magic on the caste, but if you’re too close you can’t see the fireworks that are going on behind the castle.**
Day 2:
You can easily get animal Kingdom and Epcot or Hollywood Studios with one of the others done in one day if you have to! I prefer to throw in Hollywood studios at the end of my day. One of my favorite shows is Fantasmic and I don’t think you want to miss it!
I would start at animal kingdom, they open at 8 and I know that’s early but well worth it. There will be no lines for almost everything. If you’re interested in the Avatar ride (which is really incredible) I recommend going straight to that when you get there. That line, even after being open for a year, is known to have at least a 3 hour wait. If you’re not interested and in a hurry I would head to Asia first ride Mt. Everest (probably can ride it two or three times because it takes a while for it to get a line). I would then head to Africa for the Safari! It’s a 2 month expedition (that feels a lot like 20 minutes) and is always great to do in the morning because all the animals are usually out! After that the lion king show is also in Africa and the first showing is at 10:00! I suggest getting there at 9:30 maybe because I know the show fills pretty quickly and its the first one! If you feel like you have more time after the show and aren’t quite ready to head to Epcot or Hollywood Studios the only other ride I would recommend is Dinosaur in DinoLand! (that’s pretty much all there is to do at Animal Kingdom!)
Off to Epcot! I learned to love Epcot while I was there! The world showcase doesn’t open till 11 so it gives you a good time to play at animal kingdom in the morning!
Rides: Test track, and Soarin’ are by far the greatest rides there! I would also suggest, if you can, get fast passes for both of these because I have seen Soarin’ get up to a 200 minute wait!
Drinking around the world: DEFINITELY don’t start in Mexico, I would start in Canada and work your way around counter clockwise. Places with my favorite drinks: Uk has a really good pub on the left, you can pretty much get anything. France at a little cart on your left they do slushies that are very good! Other than that I don’t really get anything else!
Illuminations: Illuminations is epcot firework show at night! It’s about 15 minutes and happens on the lake in the middle of the world show case! Can view great from any country!!
Okay so Reservations!
Fast passes: Best thing ever! If you go to the link I linked above set up an account and you can link your tickets to the account if you have already purchased them. You can then reserve fast passes through the website for both days. Things to know: Magic kingdom, I would go ahead and make fast passes for: Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, and Mine Train (if its available) if not then I would get Peter Pans Flight because it’s a great one and usually has a long line! When you make a fast pass reservation and choose what three rides you want it will give you 4 options and different times for each! So just pick whatever works best for y’alls schedule that day! Fast passes give you an hour to ride a ride, and wait in a shorter line. Fast passes are able to be booked 60 days out from your travel! Side note: if possible get all your fast passes for the morning. Once you have used your 3 fast passes for the day you can use the my Disney experience app and book additional rides. Also, important to know you can only make fast passes for one park a day. I would do fast passes at Magic Kingdom, and the fast passes at Epcot for your second day!
Dining: Also on the link above with your account you can search any dinning you want! Character or non, and at any hotel or any park! You can put how many will be coming and if you want it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and it will tell you what is available!
Also, as promised here are a list of every ride at the Magic kingdom, what land they are in and ranked by how great they are (***being the highest)
**Astro Orbiter-tomorrowland
Barnstormer-fantasyland
***Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Frontierland
**Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin tomorrowland
Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station-Fantasyland
Cinderella Castle
Country Bear Jamboree-liberty square
*Dumbo the Flying Elephant –fantasyland
Enchanted Tales with Belle-fantasyland
Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade
**Hall of Presidents-liberty square
***Haunted Mansion-liberety square
***It’s a Small World-fantasyland
***Jungle Cruise-adventureland
**Liberty Square Riverboat-liberty square
**Mad Tea Party-fantasyland
*Magic Carpets of Aladdin-adventureland
*Main Street Vehicles
*Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh-fantasyland
*Mickey’s Philarmagic-fantasyland
*Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor-tomorrowland
***Peter Pan’s Flight-fantasyland
***Pirates of the Caribbean-adventureland
*Prince Charming Regal Carrousel-fantasyland
***Space Mountain-Tomorrowland
***Splash Mountain-Frontierland
*Stitch’s Great Escape-Tomorrowland
**Swiss Family Treehouse-adventureland
**Tom Sawyer Island-libertysquare
*Tomorrowland Speedway-tomorrowland
**Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
***Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid-fantasyland
