Our step-by-step touring plans are field-tested for seeing as much as possible with a minimum of time wasted in lines. They're designed to help you avoid crowds and bottlenecks on days of moderate-to-heavy attendance. Understand, however, that that there's more to see in the Magic Kingdom than can be experienced in one day. Since we began covering the Magic Kindgom, four headliner attractions and a new land have been added. Today, even if you could experience every attraction without any wait, it would still be virtually impossible to see all of the park in a single day.

On days of lighter attendance (see our Best Days calendar), our plans will save you time but won't be as critical to successful touring as on busier days.

Choosing the Appropriate Touring Plan
If you have two days (or two mornings) at the Magic Kingdom, our two-day touring plans are by far the most relaxed and efficient. Most two-day plans take advantage of early morning, when lines are short and the park hasn't filled with guests. These plans work well year-round and eliminate much of the extra walking required by the one-day plans. No matter when the park closes, our two-day plans guarantee the most efficient touring and the least time in lines. The plans are perfect for guests who wish to sample both the attractions and the atmosphere of the Magic Kingdom.

If you have only one day but wish to see as much as possible, use the one-day touring plans. They're exhausting, but they pack in the maximum. If you prefer a more relaxed visit, try the late-arrival touring plans. They include the best the park has to offer (in our opinion), eliminating some less impressive attractions.

If your party consists of teens or teens and adults, start with the adult touring plans. Teens and adults almost always rate an attraction within one-half a star on our five-star scale, and the touring plans for both groups would be essentially the same.

If you have children younger than age 8, use the one-day touring plans for parents with small children. They're a compromise, blending the preferences of younger children with those of older siblings and adults. The plans include many children's rides in Fantasyland but omit roller-coaster rides because of height requirements. Or, use the touring plans for adults, and take advantage of switching off, a technique where children accompany adults to the loading area of a ride with age and height requirements but don't board.

The Dumbo-or-Die Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children is a two-day version of the (in)famous single-day plan from the book. It's a more relaxed, but still designed for parents who will withhold no sacrifice for the children. On the Dumbo-or-Die plans, adults generally stand around, sweat, wipe noses, pay for stuff, and watch the children enjoy themselves. It's great.

Our website also offers specific plans for families with children of all different ages, from pre-school through teens. These "Happy Family" touring plans allow the older children to separate (briefly) from the parents to ride roller coasters, before meeting up with the rest of the family again. We've also got touring plans for Disney Cruise guests, folks with just a morning or afternoon to spare, and many other variations. If you don't see a plan that covers your needs, drop us a line and make a suggestion.

Traffic Patterns in the Magic Kingdom
When we research the Magic Kingdom, we study its traffic patterns, asking:

1. Which sections of the park and what attractions do guests visit first?  When visitors are admitted to the lands during summer and holiday periods, traffic to Tomorrowland and Frontierland is heaviest, followed by Fantasyland, Adventureland, Liberty Square, and Mickey’s Toontown Fair.

During the school year, when fewer young people are in the park, early-morning traffic is more evenly distributed but remains heaviest in Tomorrowland, Frontierland, and Fantasyland. Our researchers tested the frequent claim that most people turn right into Tomorrowland and tour the Magic Kingdom in a counterclockwise sequence. We found it to be baseless. As the park fills, visitors head for the top attractions before lines get long. This, more than any other factor, determines morning traffic patterns.

2. How long does it take for the park to fill up? How are the visitors dispersed in the park? A surge of “early birds” arrives before or around opening time but is quickly dispersed throughout the empty park. After the initial wave is absorbed, there’s a lull lasting about an hour after opening. Then the park is inundated for about two hours, peaking between 10 a.m. and noon. Arrivals continue in a steady but diminishing stream until around 2 p.m. The lines we sampled were longest between 1 and 2 p.m., indicating more arrivals than departures into the early afternoon. For touring purposes, most attractions develop long lines between 10 and 11:30 a.m.

From late morning through early afternoon, guests are equally distributed through all of the lands. We found, however, that guests concentrate in Fantasyland, Liberty Square, and Frontierland in late afternoon, with a decrease of visitors in Adventureland and Tomorrowland. Adventureland’s Jungle Cruise and Tomorrowland’s Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain continue to be crowded, but most other attractions in those lands are readily accessible.

3. How do most visitors tour the park? Do first-time visitors tour differently from repeat guests? Many first-time visitors are guided by friends or relatives familiar with the Magic Kingdom . These tours may or may not follow an orderly sequence. First-time visitors without personal guides tend to be more orderly in their touring. Many first-time visitors, however, are drawn to Cinderella Castle upon entering the park and thus begin their rotation from Fantasyland. Repeat visitors usually go directly to their favorite attractions.

4. How does FASTPASS affect crowd distributions?  The effect is subtle and depends somewhat on the time interval between when the FASTPASS is obtained and the FASTPASS return period. For example, guests who receive a FASTPASS for Splash Mountain at 10 a.m. with an 11:05 a.m.–12:05 p.m. return window tend to tour near Splash Mountain during the interim to minimize the inconvenience of backtracking when it’s time to use the pass. However, when the return period is several hours distant, guests don’t feel compelled to stay in the immediate area. In general, you won’t notice much difference in crowd concentrations because of FASTPASS, but empirically speaking, it increases crowds within proximity of the two anchor attractions, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain, throughout the day.

5. How do special events, such as parades and live shows, affect traffic patterns?  Parades pull huge numbers of guests away from attractions and provide a window of opportunity for experiencing the more popular attractions with less of a wait. Castle Forecourt Stage shows also attract crowds but only slightly affect lines.

6. What are the traffic patterns near to and at closing time?  On our sample days, in busy times and off-season at the park, departures outnumbered arrivals beginning in midafternoon. Many visitors left in late afternoon as the dinner hour approached. When the park closed early, guests departed steadily during the two hours before closing, with a huge exodus at closing time. When the park closed late, a huge exodus began immediately after the early-evening parade and fireworks, with a second mass departure after the late parade, continuing until closing. Because Main Street and the transportation services remain open after the other six lands close, crowds leaving at closing mainly affect conditions on Main Street and at the monorail, ferry, and bus boarding areas. In the hour before closing, the other six lands normally are uncrowded.

7. When there are two or more lines, is the shortest wait always in the left line?  We don’t recommend the “left-line strategy” because, with the occasional exception of food lines, it doesn’t hold up. Disney has techniques for both internal and external crowd control that distribute traffic nearly equally. Placing researchers at the same time in each available line, we could discern no consistent pattern of who was served first. Further, researchers entering the same attraction by different lines almost always would exit the attraction within 30 to 90 seconds of each other.

Occasionally guests ignore a second line that has just opened and stay in the established line. As a rule, if you encounter a waiting area with two lines and no barrier to entry for either, and one line is empty or conspicuously shorter than the other, get in the short line.