Two Days in Magic Kingdom, Florida

We visited Florida for 2 weeks in October 2024. This was a VERY long anticipated trip and I’d been researching for a number of years in advance. It is easily the place I’ve known the most about without actually having gone there… which is a product of it being so easy to research, via vlogs, blogs, social media and so on. This comes as no surprise, it is the most visited theme park in the World after all. Thank you for coming to read ‘Two Days in Magic Kingdom, Florida’.

The most famous of the 4 Disney Theme Parks, is Magic Kingdom – largely down to its iconic Cinderella Castle at the end of Main Street USA.

There is little point in me trying to cover everything in this blog, as frankly, that would take FOREVER, and it genuinely took me years to soak in all the info that helped me so much on the trip. What I will do is cover my top tips, my essentials for a good couple of days, and our favourite rides (although, honestly, there are NO bad ones in my eyes).

First and foremost…Lightening Lanes….

Having thought long and hard I decided that on balance it was worth the price to get lightening lane multi passes for both the days we went to Magic Kingdom. I also got a single lightening lane for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. With those passes, we managed to get on all the rides and experiences in Magic Kingdom over the two days – I doubt this would have been the case had we not purchased these passes. The only ride that we didn’t have a single lightening lane pass for was TRON (as these were sold out before I had a chance to purchase). But, by keeping an eye on the queue times we managed to get on TRON with a queue time of under 60 minutes.

We paid around $140 for 4 multi-pass lightning lanes for Magic Kingdom each day that we did it. Plus $52 for the single lightening lane for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This sounds like a lot for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train but the whole time we were there the queues were big for it so I’m really pleased we got them.

Arriving at Magic Kingdom, DisneyWorld

On our first morning at Magic Kingdom it was POURING with rain – not the idyllic scene I’d envisaged for all those years. But, honestly, it didn’t matter. It actually kept the crowds away to some extent and the rain didn’t last long. A theory that worked well for us while we were away was to look at the park opening time, factor in the time it takes to get there and add 30 minutes (or an hour for Magic Kingdom).

This worked really well for us and by and large that meant we got to the parks at opening or just before opening. We were staying in a villa off site so we didn’t benefit from the early hours (this didn’t matter in the slightest, espeically with our multi passes). With Magic Kingdom the reason I say add an extra hour is because the Car Park (and Bus Station) are at the Ticketing and Transportation Center. You then need to get either a Monorail or Ferry to the actual park.

We parked up (parking costs $30) and donned our ponchos and boarded the Monorail to the Park. All very easy and straightforward with minimal queueing.

I should add at 7 am that morning, I joined the Virtual Queue for Tianas Bayou and got boarding group 8!!!! This turned out to be called as we were on the Monorail, so we headed there first… how good is that? Not all of our Virtual Queue experiences were as good, but this was a winner. We walked straight on and had a brilliant (but soggy) ride around the Bayou.

What did we ride at Magic Kingdom on our first day?

Over the course of our first day we then rode:

Big Thunder Mountain – walk on straight after Tianas

Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin – Lightening Lane

It’s a Small World – Lightening Lane

Liberty Square Riverboat – 15 minute queue

Peter Pan’s Flight – Lightening Lane

Pirates of the Caribbean – Lightening Lane

Prince Charming Regal Carrousel – 5 minute queue

Space Mountain – Lightening Lane

Tomorrowland Speedway – the girls road this 7 times over the 2 days, sometimes with lightening lanes, sometimes without, it was never a long queue and if it shows as a long wait then don’t ride it – wait until the queue goes down.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover – 5 minute queue

TRON Lightcycle/Run – there is no Virtual Queue for TRON anymore, and the Single Lightening Lanes had sold out by the time I could buy them (you can buy them 7 days in advance as a resort guest, 3 days in advance as an offsite guest). We queued around 60 minutes.

Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid – Lightening Lane

Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress – walk on.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Single Lightening Lane.

And as far as experiences and character meets, we did –

Mickeys PhilharMagic – 3D Movie – Lightening Lane

Meet Ariel at her Grotto – 15 minutes wait

We also saw a bit of the 2pm Parade but were a bit distracted as we’d just received a call from our Airbnb owner to warn us about Hurricane Milton and suggest we moved to a hotel for a couple of nights….so my attention was elsewhere!

As you can see from that list we did ALOT. The lightening lanes obviously helped massively and also it was a wet day which I think kept the crowds lower than usual. Our focus on this first day was to hit as many rides as we could, and then we could come back and sweep up some other things on a second visit if possible.

This was just our second day in the US, so we were still jetlagged and very tired by around 5pm. So after our Single Lightening Lane on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train we headed home. We considered it an extremely successful day and had a really brilliant time.

What did we ride on Day 2 in Magic Kingdom?

So our second day in Magic Kingdom came exactly a week after our first visit and was much nicer weather….and MUCH busier. This was for two reasons. 1) it was a Sunday and 2) it was a NON Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party Day so it’s one of the rare days in the Halloween period where you can see the evening fireworks. So it attracts crowds.

We knew this and were prepared for it to some extent – we got multi-pass lightening lanes and as we’d done so much on our first visit we just planned to see what had decent wait times and availability and go from there. I think it’s crucial to not get caught up in just doing it all, you have to enjoy yourself to!

We got the ferry this time and it’s a lovely way to arrive at the Park, especially as we arrived a bit later in the day so the ferry was peaceful.

Over the course of the day we rode on:

The Barnstormer – Lightening Lane

Dumbo the Flying Elephant – Lightening Lane

Astro Orbiter – 15 minute queue

Walt Disney World RailRoad – 10 minute queue

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – Lightening Lane

On our second day at Magic Kingdom we experience or met these characters –

Country Bear Musical Jamboree Show – 5 minute wait

Meet Princess Tiana and a Visiting Princess at Princess Fairytale Hall – we met Tiana and Repunzal. We waited about 25 minutes.

What about the 2pm Parade?

We arrived at 2pm and stood right by the Main Street USA RailRoad Station and I think it was an excellent spot. The parade arrived to this spot at about 2.20pm and was brilliant, and so so magical.

And the FireWorks?

We made a bit of a rookie error with the fireworks, we wanted to be close to Tron to ride it straight after the Fireworks display but didn’t get to a good spot early enough. This meant we couldnt see the projections on the castle at all. However we could see the fireworks and saw Tinker Bell fly off at the end. It turns out EVERYONE wants to ride TRON after the fireworks and the queue time shot up (despite getting there quickly) so we didn’t ride it again.

On the plus side we weren’t in the thick of the crowds watching the fireworks and could then fit in a couple more rides before we left.

What did we eat at Magic Kingdom?

As far as food was concerned we went to Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch on our first visit. We utilised mobile ordering which is brilliant and really speeds up the process. I ordered our food while we were in the queue for the Carousel and as we got off, clicked that we’d arrived and to start preparing it. By the time we got to the Restaurant (which was next to the Carousel) our food was done. We used Mobile ordering repeatedly on our trip and it paid off everytime, its so much easier.

We got 2 Gourmet Cheese Flatbreads for $12.79 each (these were basically cheese pizzas), a Ceasar Salad side for $4.29 and some (delicious) breadsticks for $6.99. This came to $36.86 and was easily enough for lunch.

On our second visit to Magic Kingdom we ate at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe. Dave and our oldest had the Patty Melt (Plant Based) with Fries for $13.49 each, our youngest had Macaroni Cheese which came with Fries and a Mandarin for $6.99. I didn’t have anything as I’d just had a frozen banana (IYKYK) on a whim while watching the children on a ride. So food for the 3 of them came to $33.97.

My top tips for Magic Kingdom in the rain

It’s fair to say after that first day in a very soggy Magic Kingdom I have a few tips for making it more manageable!

• Ponchos! We had cheap disposable ponchos (which were fine to use multiple times but more prone to tears than other more expensive ones). We also had a nicer one from Alton Towers here in the UK which our 7 year old wore as she was tripping up on the other ponchos and found them uncomfortable. If you have any children who might not get on well with the cheap type, invest in something a bit more comfortable.

• The Weather Channel App – we used this alot during our stay. We were there for Hurricane Milton so thats a big reason why we found it so handy, but also its got an excellent radar that shows when rain is going to arrive and pass. We found it very accurate. This helped me plot when to get lightening lanes for inside rides.

• Take something to put wet ponchos in when you take them off – a plastic bag or zip lock bag will do the trick. Otherwise you’ll get everything else in your bag soaked.

• Wear rain suitable shoes! Dave and the girls wore trainers and I wore walking sandals (and my feet didn’t get even the tiniest bit wet!)

• We had cooling towels for the heat but I also found them really useful for wiping hands and faces in the rain. So they came with us come rain or shine.

• We didn’t actually use our umbrellas but if you take them hold them out in front of you when you go through security to avoid setting the machine off. You’ll see plenty of others doing the same.

I hope this blog has helped with some of your planning. Thank you for reading ‘Two days in Magic Kingdom, Florida’. For theme parks closer to home check out my post on Alton Towers and Legoland here.