Magic Kingdom can be a tricky park to plan as there are SO many attractions. BUT if you only have one day in this park, with the help of Genie+ and Standby Skipper, you CAN hit all the big hitters and then some! Here is my strategy to maximize your time and get the most out of your day at Magic Kingdom.

Just a heads up! You need to understand how Genie+ works before reading this post! You can find what you need HERE.

First we’ve got to talk about getting ready for your day as you’ll need to be ready to go to book your first Lightning Lanes at 7am EST.

If you are using Standby Skipper, you’ll need to make sure to have everything set up and linked so that you can put your first search request in BEFORE 7am. Learn more about what Standby Skipper is and how it works HERE.

I highly recommend only setting up 1 (maybe 2) searches for that first one so that you have the best chance of getting the ride you really one. You can also increase your chances with harder to get Lightning Lanes by choosing ‘Anytime’ so that on really busy days or days that Genie+ decides to be glitchy, Standby Skipper can be searching the whole day instead of just a few hours.

You need to make sure to put in your search before 7am, I typically get up around 6:30am EST and purchase Genie+ and then set my 1st search so that I’m ready to go at 7am. If you are a night owl and would rather do this at midnight, you can do that too! (yay for sleeping in a bit).

Then at 7am, you can focus on booking your Virtual Queue or Individual Lightning Lanes for TRON, 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, (and most likely Tiana’s Bayou Adventure when that opens this summer 2024). While you do that, Standby Skipper will book your first Genie+ Lightning Lane!

Now let’s head to the park!

Rope Drop

I am a local, so I don’t typically qualify for early park entry, so I’m planning my day around regular rope drop time. That means I’m planning on rope dropping Jungle Cruise in Adventureland first and booking my first Lightning Lane for Peter Pan’s Flight in Fantasyland. If you are doing early park entry, I simply reverse that and do Jungle Cruise as my first Lighting Lane and rope drop Peter Pan’s Flight.

I recommend getting there an hour before park open (or an hour before early entry if you are doing that) so that you can be ahead of the crowds. They typically let guests in the park around that time, so this gives you extra time to grab your morning Starbucks and grab a few Castle pics before getting in line.

Since I did regular rope drop, let’s walk through that. I lined up at the Adventureland bridge and when the park officially opened, Cast Members led us through the land to the attractions. I hopped on Jungle Cruise and by that point, my first Lightning Lane was ready to go!

I headed over to Fantasyland and hopped on Peter Pan’s Flight with minimal wait. Right after, it’s a small world was only a 5 minute wait, so I went ahead and did Standby (or the regular line) for that too.

My boarding group for Tron had then been called, so I needed to head over to Tomorrowland. The Virtual Queues are a bit tricky because you don’t really know when you’ll get called. This can mean you’ll do a bit of backtracking, but in my case it worked out as an advantage.

Tomorrowland

I like to put my Standby Skipper searches in batches so that I have a little control over where I’m going next. For example, when I went to Tomorrowland I only had searches for Tomorrowland attractions so that I could hopefullly stick to that land for a bit before moving to the next.

It’s also a good idea to only worry about the ‘hard to get’ Lightning Lanes first and then doing Standby for those lower wait attractions.

For example, in Tomorrowland, I’m going to focus my Lightning Lanes on Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin as those tend to have higher waits and then do Standby for Monster Inc Laugh Floor and Tomorrowland Speedway.

When putting my Lightning Lane search requests into Standby Skipper after that initial 7am drop, I will usually choose ASAP for all of them pretty much for the rest of the day. This means that Standby Skipper will try to book them within two hours of eligibility again to help avoid a lot of backtracking.

Storybook Circus

After I’ve secured the Lightning Lanes I want for Tomorrowland, I’m going to put in my next batch of searches into Standby Skipper. The way that this reduces time on your phone is that instead of having to jump on the My Disney Experience App after scanning into EVERY ride, I can spend a few seconds putting my searches in for a batch of rides and then I only need to check my phone to see what my return times are once Standby Skipper grabs them for me!

There are two attractions in this land that you can get Lightning Lanes for and luckily these tend to be pretty easy to get. Barnstormer and Dumbo are the eligible rides in this land and then you can do Standby for the Characters at Pete’s Silly Sideshow

Fantasyland

This one is a bit tricky as it’s more spread out and there are quite a few things happening here. I tend to do my Lightning Lanes in this land one by one so that I’m not walking back and forth. This is the order that I would do (again, make sure to do ASAP for the time preference and just know that depending on crowds, you may still have to do a teensy bit of back and forth to utilize both Standby queues and Lightning Lanes)

Meet Ariel in her Grotto
Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid
Enchanted Tales With Belle
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Meet Cinderella & Guest OR Meet Tiana & Guest
Mickey’s Philharmagic
it’s a small world (if you didn’t do it earlier)

Liberty Square

Hopefully around this time you’ll be close to time for Festival of Fantasy! My BIGGEST pro tip is to watch this from Liberty Square of Frontierland so that you can quickly hop on a ride right after before the lines get too long again (most of the other people will still be waiting for the parade in front of the castle and down Main Street)

There is a Lightning Lane available for Festival of Fantasy, but please don’t waste it on this….. you’d still have to wait just as long to get a spot and it’s in front of the castle so the above strategy wouldn’t work.

You should have your search already set for Haunted Mansion, so hopefully you can hop on this before or after the parade! This land also has the Hall of Presidents which is great for a break out the sun. (and you don’t need a Lightning Lane for this!) Before scanning into Haunted Mansion, makes sure to set your Standby Skipper searches for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Frontierland

If you have some time, I definitely recommend checking out Tom Sawyer’s Island to do some exploring, run off some steam, or simply get away from some of the crowds.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad tends to have SUPER varied waits during the day, so if you can grab a Lightning Lane, great! If not, keep your eye out and hop in line if you see the wait time go under 30 minutes. (This definitely can happen later in the evening)

Adventureland

And finishing out in Adventureland, you’ll have Pirates of the Caribbean. The reason I like to end here is because this ride almost ALWAYS has lower waits in the evening! Again, definitely grab that Lightning Lane if you can, but if not, it hopefully shouldn’t have too long of a wait.

I like to wait and grab Magic Carpets of Aladdin AFTER Pirates as this one is usually pretty easy to get and then if I need some down time before or after I can enjoy Enchanted Tiki Room or the Swiss Family Tree House. (and a delicious Dole Whip of course!)

Fireworks

Now this is going to vary GREATLY depending on what you want your view and crowd level to be. If you want the best view, you of course are going to want to be in front of the castle which means finding a spot around 45 minutes or so beforehand. Just be aware this gets pretty crowded, so plan accordingly.

If you just want to see fireworks and don’t care too much about the projections, I recommend watching from behind the castle! There are usually hardly any people and it’s pretty fun because you get a 360 effect with fireworks on the castle and back behind Fantasyland!

If you do it this way, and you time it JUST RIGHT, you can even hop on 7 Dwarfs Mine Train with usually a pretty low wait. You HAVE to get there literally a few seconds after fireworks, so I suggest to start walking right at the end of the grand finale. If you are watching from in front of the castle or elsewhere in the park, this strategy probably won’t work the best for you as it will take awhile to fight the crowds back to this area.

BUT don’t fear! There is still another good time to ride this attraction with lower wait. I call it ‘reverse rope drop’. This simply means that you get in line for an attraction a few minutes before park close (you can get in ride for an attraction up to 1 minute before park close). The benefit to this is that wait times are usually a little inflated than what they actually are AND once the park closes, the Lightning Lane will be gone so the regular Standby Line will move much faster.

The only disclaimer I have to put here is that if for some reason the ride goes down, since the park is closed, you won’t get to ride, so do this at your own risk.

My Biggest Pro Tip

STAY AFTER FIREWORKS! SOOOOOOO many people go home after the fireworks and the park is usually open for several more hours! That means wait times go down and it’s a good time to catch up on anything you missed or ride some favorites again. As locals, our favorite thing to do is go to Magic Kingdom in the evening and hit up Pirates, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, and the Peoplemover with lower waits and no Genie+.

A Few Notes

This is my typical strategy and it’s good to know that there will always be variables based on crowd levels, Lightning Lane availability, ride closures, etc. So definitely use this as a base, but also prioritize the things MOST important to you and don’t feel like you have to squeeze EVERYTHING in one day. Spoiler….. it’s not possible. I live here and go to Magic Kingdom all the time and still have not seen or done it all!

BUT if you focus on those few things that are most important, anything else you get done is just a bonus and you won’t be disappointed! It’s only as fun as you make it, and you are on vacation after all.

Let me know in the comments your Standby Skipper, Genie+, or Strategy Questions! Ready to get started with Standby Skipper? Just click the button below! Don’t forget to let the captain know that Kayla and Mark Alan sent you. (We earn a small commission when you do)

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