If you’re looking to get on as many rides as possible during a day at Magic Kingdom, you’ll want to know this FREE trick.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Of course, if you want to get on as many rides as possible, the simplest solution is to add on Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Single Pass, or Premier Pass to your park tickets. However, Lightning Lane is NOT a free skip-the-line service, and those prices add up fast (some faster than others — looking at you, Premier Pass). While you may be resigned to limiting yourself to just a handful of Magic Kingdom rides per day, it’s important to understand one major truth: getting on Magic Kingdom rides in a reasonable amount of time doesn’t require a ton of extra money spent or a boatload of luck — it requires fantastic time management.

Magic Kingdom is quite literally the most visited theme park in the world, so banking on the park being empty is more than risky, to say the least. While it does happen on occasion, most of the time, you’re going to experience hefty crowds with some heavy wait times. If you don’t want to pony up for Lightning Lanes, the best thing you can do is manage your time to hit the rides you want to hit during points in the day when Disney World’s guests are focusing their attention elsewhere.

Magic Kingdom

Let’s start with the easiest win of all: rope drop. That first hour in the park is going to provide you with, perhaps, the lowest wait times of the day. Wait times are wildly low because crowds haven’t fully filtered in yet. Attractions that routinely hit an hour-plus by mid-morning can be walk-ons if you’re there right when the park opens.

TRON Lightcycle / Run

This is when you knock out big-name rides efficiently or get in tons of rides while everyone lines up for the E-Ticket attractions like TRON Lightcycle/Run or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. In fact, if you’re not about the coaster lifestyle, using rope drop is a great way to knock out most of your itinerary before breakfast services even end. While folks are either sleeping in or getting their morning helpings of thrill rides, you can already check a handful of rides off your to-do list.

Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom

If you’re staying at a Disney hotel, you’ve got an even bigger advantage with Early Theme Park Entry, which lets you into the parks 30 minutes early. The same tips apply here. Yes, you’ll get maybe the best wait time for rides like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but even though I said it might be a walk-on, those chances are still low, and it’s more than likely that the queue will eat up all of your Early Entry time. Instead, the real power move is heading into Fantasyland and chaining together multiple rides back-to-back, all with minimal waits. As I previously mentioned, it’s easy to come out of Early Entry having completed four or five attractions instead of just one.

Fantasyland

And then there’s my personal favorite timing hack: riding during parades and fireworks. When Festival of Fantasy rolls through or Happily Ever After lights up the sky or Disney Starlight dazzles onlookers, huge portions of the crowd are locked in place. That’s your cue to ride your heart out.

Firework Crowds

Attractions like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, and Haunted Mansion often see wait times drop dramatically during these windows. Fireworks especially are prime time, since you’re trading a show you can see another night for short lines you cannot get any other way. If you prioritize short wait times over spectacles, then you need to be looking at the My Disney Experience app for wait times and plan your attack to coincide with when people will be stationing along Main Street, U.S.A., for these shows.

Crowds gathered for the parade

The common thread is to do what most guests aren’t doing. Ride while they’re watching shows, enter Magic Kingdom when everyone else is sleeping, and stack smaller rides while others are waiting for one big one. Magic Kingdom rewards guests who play the clock. Once you do that, you’ll be surprised to learn how much more you can fit into a single day.

What are other tips you’d add to this list? Let us know in the comments, and continue to follow us here at DFB for all sorts of tips on ways to win Disney World!

8 Rides to AVOID During Rope Drop at Magic Kingdom

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How do you beat the crowds and maximize wait times in Magic Kingdom? Let us know in the comments!