If you’re thinking about visiting Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in a day, that’s one plan you may want to reconsider. The Magic Kingdom park at Disney World features more than 20 rides, plus additional attractions and shows. And then there are the snacks on every Disney fan’s must-do list as well as all of the little surprise experiences that make a trip to the Magic Kingdom so special. Fitting everything into a day at Magic Kingdom requires a herculean effort and great stamina to say the least.
However, if you’re up to the challenge, here are 8 tips, plus some itinerary advice, for making the most of your one-day visit to the Magic Kingdom.
Tip #1: Make a List of Your Must-Dos
Since you aren’t likely to see everything that Magic Kingdom has to offer in a single day, a little advanced planning can help. Take time to make a list of your must-do experiences. Then prioritize those early in the day. By hitting the attractions that hold the most value to you first, you reduce the risk of running out of time in the day before you reach them all.
Visiting Magic Kingdom in a day also requires a little advanced knowledge. Be sure to know what time shows and parades begin, so you don’t miss them. If you’re only spending a day at Magic Kingdom, you may never have another chance to see these one of a kind events.
Tip #2: Stay at a Disney Resort
We always recommend that visitors to Disney World stay at a Disney resort on property. The perks far outweigh any cost concerns, and a vacation at a value resort can even beat the prices charged by offsite chains.
One of the biggest perks for anyone attempting to do Magic Kingdom in a day is access to the Early Theme Park Entry program also referred to as Disney World Extended Hours (more on this later). By staying at a Disney Resort, you can also take advantage of Disney’s complimentary transportation system to travel to the parks.
When using Disney’s transportation system, you’ll be brought from your resort directly to the gates of the Magic Kingdom. When you stay offsite, your hotel may offer a shuttle, but you’ll be dropped off at the Transportation and Ticket Center. From here, you’ll need to hop on the monorail or Disney Ferry to make your way to the Magic Kingdom. These extra steps will add a lot of travel time and eat into your day at Magic Kingdom.
Tip #3: Plan to Arrive Early to Spend a Day at Magic Kingdom
Arriving early is probably the best tip for doing Magic Kingdom in a day, and by early, we mean an hour before park opening. It’s a strategy known as “rope dropping” in Disney circles. You can find out more about this popular take on Disney touring by reading our rope drop blog, but the most important thing to know is when to arrive.
If you’re attending Early Theme Park Entry, plan to arrive at least 45 minutes before the early start. If you do stay offsite and don’t have Early Entry privileges, don’t forgo the early arrival. By getting there an hour before park opening, you can be one of the first guests to enter the park, and experience many rides with little wait.
Tip #4: Know Where to Find a Map:
To experience Magic Kingdom in a single day, you’ll need to move fast and be efficient. That means understanding where you’re going and how to get there.
If you don’t intimately know your way around the Magic Kingdom, you’ll rely heavily on a map, so getting your hands on one first thing is key. Fortunately, Disney makes this easy.
Paper maps are located at entry points and throughout the park. An even better tool can be found on your phone. Just make sure you’ve downloaded the My Disney Experience app before you arrive. Then navigate to the location icon at the bottom. You’ll find a map here with current wait times for all attractions.
Tip #5: Know the Most Popular Rides and When to Ride Them
Some rides at the Magic Kingdom are more popular than others. As people rush to enjoy these attractions, lines grow, meaning you could spend a lot of your time waiting to experience some of the more popular Magic Kingdom rides.
Fortunately, wait times do ebb and flow, with lines shorter during the early morning, during parades and fireworks shows and right before closing. We recommend reading our article on the top rides at Disney World for more detailed information, but we’re also including a list below of rides that stack up the longest wait times, with some general tips on the best times to experience each.
7 Dwarfs Mine Train
- Within first hour and a half of park opening
- Within 1 hour of park closing
- During fireworks shows held at special ticketed events
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Within first half hour of park opening
- Within 2 hours of park closing
Haunted Mansion
- Within the First hour of park opening
- During the 3 hours before park closing
Jungle Cruise
- Within firsthour of park opening
- Within 2 hours of park closing
Peter Pan’s Flight
- Within the first hour of park opening
- During the 2 hours before park closing
Pirates of the Caribbean
- Within the first 2 hours after park opening
- Within 3 hours of park closing
Space Mountain
- Within the first hour of park opening
- During the 2 hours before park closing
Tron Lightcycle Run
- Currently operating with a virtual queue. Be sure to get your place in line using the My Disney Experience app. Virtual queues open at 7:00 am and close as soon as positions are full. The virtual queue may open again at 1:00 pm, if there are possible open slots available for the day.
Also, keep in mind that outdoor attractions, such as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, will close in the event of heavy rain. You might want to have an alternative time in mind to experience this attraction if the forecast calls for storms.
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Tip #6: Budget for Genie+
To experience Magic Kingdom in a day, you need to spend as little time as possible in line. This is where Genie+ can really come in handy.
You can find a more information in our complete guide to Genie+, but this is the gist of it. By purchasing this service on a daily basis, you’re able to skip the regular queue on most attractions in favor of a short Lightning Lane queue. Guests can book one Lightning Lane reservation at a time, and make new reservations throughout the day.
In each park, there is also at least one ride that requires an Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) purchase. By paying the specified fee for the day, you can prebook a time to enter the Lightning Lane and ride the ride.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is an excellent example where ILL can really save you time. Wait times for this attraction regularly reach 60 to 90 minutes. That means you’ll spend an hour or more of your day in line just to ride. If you intend to spend only one day at Magic Kingdom, you probably don’t have this kind of flexibility.
Purchasing an Individual Lightning Lane entry reduces your wait to 5 or 10 minutes, making your day at Magic Kingdom more manageable.
Tip #7: Decide Where You Will Eat Ahead of Time
If you wait until you’re hungry to decide where you will dine, you could spend a lot of precious time scrolling through the app and looking for the right restaurant. Then you’ll need to find its location within the park, and in the case of table service restaurants, hope they have availability to seat you.
However, when you have a plan in place, you can prepare to be near the restaurant when it’s time to eat. And if you want to dine at a table service location, you can even make an advanced dining reservation, ensuring that a table will be available when you arrive.
Tip #8: Mobile Ordering Makes it Easier to Do Magic Kingdom in a Day
The My Disney Experience app offers a number of useful functionalities for managing your day at Magic Kingdom. One of its most useful tools is mobile ordering.
With mobile ordering, you and members of your travel party, can place your order at a quick-servicing restaurant while you wait in line for an attraction, watch a parade or even stroll through the park. When you’re ready to dine, simply re-enter the app and let the restaurant know you’ve arrived.
We usually tap in a minute or two before arrival to say we’ve arrived. We have food allergies in our party, so preparing our meals usually takes longer. By saying we’ve arrived a little before we actually do, we can cut down on that wait quite a bit.
However, if you don’t have food allergies and are odering right from the menu with no changes or substitutions, feel free to tap the arrival link as you walk up to the restaurant. Your food should be ready momentarily. When it is, you’ll get a push notification or text from the app.
Why It’s So Hard to Do Magic Kingdom in a Day
There are many reasons why it’s difficult to do Magic Kingdom in a day. Even as veteran Disney World travelers, we still allot 2 days to experience this park.
One reason is the number of things there are to do, and this includes experiences outside of rides, such as character meet and greets as well shopping and snacking. A one-day visit tends to be ride-focused. As you rush from one attraction to another, it’s easy to miss many of the elements that make the Magic Kingdom so special, including detailed theming elements, hidden Mickeys, parades and shows.
Size is another reason why Magic Kingdom is difficult to experience in a single day. While not as expansive in ground covered as EPCOT, you’ll definitely log your steps going from ride to ride.
Walking at a moderate pace from Space Mountain in Tomorrowland to the Big Thunder Mountain in Frontierland can take you 10 minutes according to Google Maps, and that’s without crowd calculations thrown in. If you’re visiting when there are a lot of people in the park, you can expect it to take longer to get from place to place.
In general, crowd conditions will play a big role in how much you can get done when visiting Magic Kingdom for a day. Larger crowds mean longer lines for rides and higher waits for food at restaurants. All of this adds minutes to your day and reduces how much you can actually see and do.
Sample Itineraries for Doing Magic Kingdom in a Day
If you are taking a short trip to Disney World, or only plan to spend a day in Magic Kingdom, you’ll need an itinerary to keep you on schedule. These sample itineraries below will help you experience the most the Magic Kingdom has to offer, while limiting your trip to a single day.
Magic Kingdom Itineraries for families with children 5 and under (under 38” in height)
1. Peter Pan’s Flight
2. Mad Tea Party
3. Tomorrowland Speedway – Minimum Height: 32 in
4. Astro Orbiter
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. The Haunted Mansion
7. “it’s a small world”
8. LUNCH Pinocchio Village Haus 11:30 am
9. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
10. Enchanted Tales with Belle
11. Mickey’s PhilharMagic
12. Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
13. DINNER The Crystal Palace 5:30pm
14. Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room
15. Swiss Family Treehouse
16. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger
17. Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
18. Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
19. Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
20. The Barnstormer – Minimum Height: 35 in
21. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
22. Jungle Cruise
23. Happily Ever After Nighttime Fireworks show
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater
Magic Kingdom Itineraries for families with children over 38” in height
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Astro Orbiter
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Mad Tea Party
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
- DINNER: The Crystal Palace 12:30 pm
- Swiss Family Treehouse
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- The Haunted Mansion
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Jungle Cruise
- DINNER: Pinocchio Village Haus
- It’s a Small World
- Cinderella’s Carousel
- Happily Ever After Nighttime Fireworks Show
Magic Kingdom Itineraries for Adults or Families with Teens with Early Theme Park Entry (Regular park hours 8:30 am – 9:00 pm
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- The Haunted Mansion
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- DINNER: Jungle Navigation Co. Ltd. Skipper Canteen 11:45am for 60 minutes
- Swiss Family Treehouse
- TRON Lightcycle / Run – If you have joined a virtual queue, move to this ride when your boarding group is called
- Liberty Square Riverboat
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
- Space Mountain
- Mad Tea Party
- Liberty Square Riverboat
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- DINNER: Columbia Harbour House 6:30 pm
- Jungle Cruise
- Happily Ever After Nighttime Fireworks Show
Sample itineraries do not utilize Genie+. You will fit more into your day if you do take advantage of the Lighting Lane.
Wrapping up Your Day in Magic Kingdom
As the last of the fireworks fall from the sky, it’s time to say goodbye to your day at Magic Kingdom. Before you leave, be sure to stop by a PhotoPass photographer to get a picture of your group in front of the castle. Photographs are included with the Disney Memory Maker Package, or can be purchased individually. You may also ask photographers to take a picture with your camera or phone.
You may also want to stop at one of the shops along Main Street to grab a souvenier of your special day. Shops will stay open as guest depart the park, and taking some time to shop allows lines for Disney World transportation to clear a bit before you head out. If you linger long enough, you may even be able to see the Kiss Goodnight.
This magical celebration begins as Cinderella Castle goes dark and then begins twinkling with thousands of sparkling lights. A special goodnight message also accompanies the visual spectacle and signals to guests that their day in Magic Kingdom has come to an end.
If you do get to witness this special finale, you’ll want to move quickly toward the exits. Disney World resort transportation will cease operations around 1 hour past park closing, and this is your signal that time is running short.
