In this post we recap a morning visit to Magic Kingdom with an evening at Hollywood Studios for our favorite seasonal offering—Sunset Seasons Greetings. You can find other trip / visit reports here.
About This Day & Related Posts
This was a family day at the parks, with the sole goal of having a nice relaxing day at Magic Kingdom together. We decided against Genie+ and individual Lightning Lanes. We didn’t have Early Theme Park Entry, which meant (at best) we’d be rope dropping Frontierland or Adventureland.
We also weren’t utilizing rider swap, which would have allowed us to efficiently ride things with height requirements while swapping who watched Zoe. I’ve heard parents go both ways on this—some like rider swap to get on more adult rides, some prefer the family time. We typically use rider swap, but it comes at the expense of some time together, and there’s plenty to do at Magic Kingdom without it.
With all that in mind, I’d call this sort of a “B” day at Magic Kingdom. If you had two days, you’d do one more aggressively—using things like Lightning Lanes and rider swap—and one more leisurely, where you check a few major boxes but mostly just take what the park gives you. Today is that second day.
Is today my ideal “B” day? No. For one, even a “B” day should involve accomplishing a few major attractions at rope drop, whereas we wound up with a relatively minor lineup. But still, I like that today was leisurely, enjoyable family time (a pretty big departure from *waves hands at all other 400+ posts on this site*).
For a more thorough look at how you built a single day at the park, visit our Magic Kingdom One Day Itinerary. To read more about the offerings, visit the Magic Kingdom Rides & Entertainment Guide.
Pre-Arrival
Without Genie+ or any individual Lightning Lanes, there was nothing to be done before our trip. Had we wanted to purchase Genie+, we would have done that before 7AM and made our very first selection—Peter Pan’s Flight—at 7AM.
Since we weren’t guests of a Disney (or select partner) hotel, we couldn’t purchase individual Lightning Lanes until the park opened at 9AM, and we opted not to do that anyways.
Unrelated, we’d actually already grabbed Starbucks from an off-site cafe this morning, which made me realize that people who drive might want to consider this option. The lines at the in-park Starbucks can be pretty brutal (and the lines for other coffee options can be pretty bad too), so we were happy to already have coffee in hand starting the day.
Getting to Magic Kingdom
We were driving from the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek. The hotel has a shuttle, but since non-Disney transportation drops off at TTC (and since we were running behind the shuttle schedule anyways), we decided to drive. As annual passholders, we don’t pay for parking at the parks.
Unfortunately we settled on a plan for the day a tad late, leaving the hotel at 8:17AM. We were parked at 8:33AM, through security and on a Ferryboat at about 8:46AM. The Ferryboat was using the new upper-deck ramp to unload (so now guests can load/unload both decks at once), though overall it can still be a slow process.
We were inside the park gates at 8:58AM, just after rope drop begins around 8:57AM. The welcome show (“Let the Magic Begin”) is at 8:55AM, so we missed that (the fireworks at the end scare Zoe most of the time, anyway).
Typically we want to be in the park absolutely no later than 15 minutes before opening, but 30 minutes is preferred so that if crowds are high we can secure a spot near the front of rope drop.
Rope Drop (But Not Really) at Magic Kingdom
If you’re doing a more serious day, you’ll arrive earlier (even without Early Entry) and (hopefully) follow one of our Magic Kingdom rope drop strategies.
Since we were late, by the time we got to Jungle Cruise there was a huge crowd (still filling the queue, though), and a posted wait of 45 minutes. We opted not to ride, basically conceding that we wouldn’t make it on today since it was unlikely we’d want to put Zoe through a long wait later in the day (and again, no Genie+).
We likely could still have gotten good waits for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad then Splash Mountain if we wanted to rider swap. That is the preferred route for our Frontierland rope drop. Without rider swap, we opted for an even easier approach:
9:07AM Pirates of the Caribbean (posted 5, walk on)
9:23AM Magic Carpets of Aladdin (posted 5, walk on)
9:41AM Haunted Mansion (posted 25, actual 12)
People like to ask if I think posted waits are “inflated” to motivate people to buy Genie+. Honestly, I don’t. I think predicting wait times is hard, even for Disney. I also wind up in a decent number of waits that are significantly underestimated by Disney.
I wind up in many more that are overestimated, but there’s good reason for that. At 9:29AM today, I knew that the only way the wait for Haunted Mansion was actually 25 minutes was if the park was much more crowded than I expected. I tour this side of the park in mornings regularly, and I know what to expect. I expected less than 25, and I was right.
You’re going to see that bias a lot from people who do this for a living—they get in lines that are shorter than the posted waits—even if they don’t all realize it. By contrast, we try to avoid getting in lines when we suspect they’ll be longer than posted waits.
On a separate note, at 16 months, Zoe is at an age where rides are sometimes a little scary (prior to this, Zoe had no idea what was going on in most any situation, anyway). The start of Pirates of the Caribbean can be a bit tough, and a lot of Haunted Mansion requires us to talk though it.
Still remaining over on this side of the park for Zoe are Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan’s Flight, and “it’s a small world.” The first two had waits over an hour, the third was closed. So we decided to beat the crowds heading to the “minor” Fantasyland rides:
10:06AM Prince Charming Regal Carrousel (posted 15, actual 10)
10:23AM Under the Sea (posted 15, actual 9)
10:38AM Mad Tea Party (posted 10, actual 7)
The logical next step is Dumbo, which had only a 15 minute posted wait. Unfortunately, if Zoe sees the Dumbo play area then we have to spend at least 15 minutes there, which we didn’t really want to do (it’s a fun spot for kids, though).
I’d booked us an 11:30AM lunch at Tony’s, so we skipped Dumbo and headed to PeopleMover, riding at 10:50AM (posted 10, actual 5).
That left us about 30 minutes for a diaper change (the Baby Care Center was on its last days in Tomorrowland as, as of this post, has been relocated back to near Crystal Palace), and for Zoe to walk around Emporium.
Miscellaneous parenting note. We had a series of visits to the parks where Zoe would scream at the end of every ride or when leaving a store or toy behind. We seem to mostly be over this, partly because we now encourage Zoe to wave “bye bye” when it’s time to move on. (Zoe’s also a lot more used to stores and theme parks now than six months ago.)
Lunch at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant
11:30AM is the first seating at Tony’s, and we had all our food by 11:45AM and were done around 12:15PM. Zoe has gotten a lot better at eating solids without our help (besides cutting them into smaller pieces). We generally prefer quick service at the parks, but 1. table service is better with Zoe for a few reasons and 2. Emily and Zoe ate at Cosmic Ray’s—Zoe’s favorite quick service at Magic Kingdom because of Sonny Eclipse—yesterday.
I’ve written before that Tony’s is exactly what you expect if you’ve ever eaten at a typical chain or chain-like Italian restaurant in the US. Whether that’s good or bad just depends on what you expect and what you want.
We like the ravioli and the spaghetti with Impossible meatballs. Zoe likes the mac & cheese, green beans, and grapes. Altogether, that’s enough for us non-foodies to enjoy a meal there.
A Visit to Grand Floridian
Zoe is down to one nap a day, so after lunch it was time for that. We don’t use a stroller, which makes nap time the most difficult part of the day for us. If Zoe is really tired, the nap can be two hours. That’s a long time for one of us to carry Zoe, and a longer time than is recommended Zoe be in a carrier at once.
We haven’t quite decided what we’re going to do as Zoe grows and a lengthy midday nap in the carrier becomes unfeasible. We’re considering a stroller just for napping.
If you use a stroller, this might be an okay time for rider swap. But since naps tend to occur during peak wait times for the day, it’s probably a better time for parents to use Lightning Lanes, alternating who watches the stroller.
We took a different option, walking to Grand Floridian to check out their Christmas Tree and Gingerbread House. Leaving the park at 12:29PM we were at Grand Floridian’s lobby by 12:45PM.
The Gingerbread House sells a variety of cookies and treats. Emily got a chocolate-dipped gingerbread mickey cookie for $9.50. We made the walk back, and Zoe woke up as we got back to Magic Kingdom at about 1:35PM.
Early Afternoon at Magic Kingdom
Noon to 4PM-ish is peak wait time at Magic Kingdom. It’s a stressful time, but the stress is alleviated a bit by knowing there’s usually no right or wrong answers. You just sorta do what you gotta do.
When you’ve got a good plan for getting on all the rides you’d like, this is the time to do non-ride things. Particularly in the summer, you’ll want to keep out of the heat. We didn’t have any must-do rides today, so we opted for some non-rides:
1:49PM Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
2:05PM Country Bear Jamboree
2:30PM Liberty Square Riverboat (Zoe’s first awake ride on it!)
3:25PM Swiss Family Treehouse
With no great ride options left, we decided to hop over to Hollywood Studios. It was a beautiful day, Zoe was doing well, and we absolutely love the holidays at Hollywood Studios.
Evening at Hollywood Studios
Park hopping to/from Magic Kingdom with a car is an ordeal because of the remote parking at Transportation and Ticket Center. We were in no rush, but if you’re trying to build your most efficient day you’ll be slowed by having a car in this situation (not that the buses are a panacea, though).
We left Magic Kingdom around 3:43PM, got to TTC (by monorail) at 3:58PM, to the car at 4:07PM, and inside Hollywood Studios at 4:33PM.
In my recent update to our Disney park rankings, I mentioned that I just keep winding up at Hollywood Studios. Sometimes it’s the great rides, but then there’s days like today where we had no rides planned. The park just always offers something.
We were in time for the 4:55PM Disney Junior Play & Dance. The show itself is only ten minutes long, but if you’re early you can enter and the DJ is already doing a little bit to get the crowd energized. Zoe’s still not quite the right age for this (or at least not yet the right demeanor) and prefers to sit and stare during the show, only busting out a few dance moves once everyone else has left the building.
The only thing on our to-do list was Sunset Seasons Greetings, which we expected to start just after the 6:30PM Beacon of Magic. With just over an hour to pass, we swung by Baseline Tap House (pronounced “bass-uh-leen” by the professionals) and walked the park.
Hollywood Studios is beautiful at dusk. The lights on Toy Story Land come on. The Lightsabers come out in Galaxy’s Edge. The Christmas tree is lit and Echo Lake is stunning. I was too busy taking in these views to take pictures, but just trust me.
At 6PM we grabbed a mobile order at Catalina Eddie’s—a holiday tradition for us (not a joke). This was Zoe’s first time at Catalina Eddie’s, which has the same pizza as PizzeRizzo but without the fancy ballroom. Or as we explained to Zoe, PizzeRizzo is more Grand Floridian and we’re more Pop Century.
Seriously though, Catalina Eddie’s is a holiday tradition because it puts us right next to Sunset Boulevard. At 6:30PM we watched the Beacon of Magic on the Tower of Terror, which was immediately followed by Sunset Seasons Greetings, our favorite Disney World holiday tradition.
Sunset Seasons Greetings is a projection show on the Tower of Terror. It lasts about ten minutes. I don’t know the exact schedule, but it plays continually after sunset, I believe at the top and bottom of the hour after Beacon of Magic. It’s funny, years ago we constantly joked about how overrated projections were, and now we love them.
This was a late night for Zoe, but getting to share this holiday tradition was worth it. Overall, this was one of the best—and most relaxing—long days at the park we’ve ever had. 10/10 would recommend.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
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