1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary

Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World has a lot of rides and attractions. This post will help you plan an awesome 1 day Magic Kingdom itinerary.

It is easy to feel a bit overwhelmed when planning a day at Magic Kingdom but if you do a bit of planning beforehand you can have a stress free visit.

I have been visiting Magic Kingdom with my family of five since my 3 kids were all under 5. Now they are teens and we still follow the same basic itinerary, tweaked a bit for interests and new attractions.

In this post I hope to help you get started on how to plan the best Magic Kingdom itinerary that works for your family trip to Disney World.

Planning Your Day at Magic Kingdom (Before You Arrive)

Before you arrive be sure to purchase tickets, purchase Lightning Lane if you choose to, and take a look at dining reservations and show times you may want to plan your day around.

Lightning Lane is Disney World’s paid line skipping reservation system. I would recommend it for Magic Kingdom because there are so many rides and attractions. Skipping lines will save you time and allow you to get more done.

Even with Lightning Lane I recommend arriving at rope drop and doing the most popular attractions first. This will make the pacing of your day after lunch a lot easier.

What to Know

You will want to arrive at Magic Kingdom 30-40 minutes before official park opening or early entry if you are staying on-site.

The most popular rides at rope drop at Magic Kingdom are Tron: Lightcycle/Run, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and Peter Pan’s Flight. This is where most of the guests will start their day. Guests will be directed by cast members to each of these attractions.

Currently there are 22 rides at Magic Kingdom. I am not including shows or character meet and greets, which also have wait times and you may want to prioritize depending on what you want to include in your day.

Plan on riding your top priority popular rides during early entry and the first hour the park is open. For our itinerary below we did purchase Lighting Lane ahead of our visit.

The Lightning Lane rule states that you can hold 3 reservations at any given time. When you book you may want to consider booking a “burner”. For us it was Buzz Lightyear at 9:00am.

Buzz Lightyear does not usually need a Lighting Lane at 9:00am in the morning but by doing this we can book a more popular attraction as soon as we scan in. This frees up a pass to book a Tier one ride.

I will be publishing more details on the best way to use Lightning Lane very soon. Stay tuned!

1 Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary

Let’s get into the details on how we planned our itinerary for one day at Magic Kingdom.

7:00am-7:15am: Catch bus from resort to Magic Kingdom. Pick a time the night before that you want to leave by. Pack your park bag and get ready at night to have less stress as you get out the door.

7:30am -7:45am: Arrive at Magic Kingdom.  Go through bag check/security. We typically eat a small breakfast while we wait to get into the parks or when we get to Main Street. This is usually granola bars or dry cereal.

8:20am-8:30am: Line up at the entrance to the area you will start your day at. We started at Fantasyland. Look at the map and go to the entrance of the land you would like to start at.

9:00am: Park Opens!! This is the order we did all the rides including meals. By arriving early we were able to get 7 attraction done before lunch. This was on a moderate crowd level day.

1. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
2. Tron
3. Buzz Lightyear (Lightning Lane) -> Secured Big Thunder Mountain for 11:10am-12:10pm
4. Space Mountain
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. Haunted Mansion -> Secured Peter Pan’s Flight for 7:20pm-8:20pm
7. Big Thunder -> Secured “it’s a small world” for 11:45am-12:45am
8. Lunch: Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe
9. “it’s a small world” -> Secured Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid 12:55pm-1:55pm
10. Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid -> Secured Monsters Inc Laugh Floor 1:20pm-2:20pm
11. Monsters Inc Laugh Floor -> Secured Barnstormer for 1:50pm-2:50pm
12. Popcorn Snack at the Confectionary
13. Barnstormer -> Secured Space Mountain 6:40pm-7:40pm
14. Carousel of Progress
15. Hall of Presidents
16. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure -> Secured Pirates of the Caribbean 7:45pm-8:45pm
17. Country Bears Jamboree
18. Dinner: Columbia Harbour House
19. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
20. Peter Pan’s Flight
21. Pirates of the Caribbean

With this Magic Kingdom itinerary we were able to experience the most popular Magic Kingdom attractions. We spent most of our time experiencing rides and didn’t do as many characters.

We did miss some popular attractions like Jungle Cruise and Dumbo. My kids are teens and we decided to skip Dumbo this trip because we were short on time.

Jungle Cruise wait times were very long the day of our visit and the Lightning Lanes were gone by the time we had room to book one. If this is on your list be sure to book it ahead of time or as soon as you can at the park. It is popular.

Final Thoughts

Magic Kingdom is a park that I prefer to have 2 days to visit. It has so many rides and attractions that I love and 2 days allows for a more relaxed pace.

If you are only working with 1 day you can still have an incredible day at the park. My biggest suggestion is to make a list of the top 3 things everyone in your group wants to do and then plan your day around those things.

Once you do those everything else will be a bonus. It is easy to get overwhelmed at the Magic Kingdom. It is the most visited theme park in the world, it is busy, and there is so much to do.

I will make a plan for the day but I am also realistic and allow for surprises. Being flexible will ensure you have a great day at the park.

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