Dad’s Nine By Noon Magic Kingdom Challenge – The Introduction

by Dad
(The Office)

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What is Dad’s Nine By Noon Magic Kingdom Challenge? Good question.

In December 2010, the New York Times had a story that said that “according to Disney research, the average Magic Kingdom visitor has had time for only nine rides – out of more than 40 – because of lengthy waits and crowded walkways and restaurants”. See the full story here.

Big Crowds at the Magic Kingdom

Nine by Noon might be a challenge with these crowds – Photo by Andy Sanchez

Nine rides? Just nine rides? I think we could do nine rides on Christmas Day! (Now that would be a challenge.)

While I agree with a lot of the story, I vehemently disagree with the reason people only complete one fourth of the rides in the park. The story says, guests only complete 9 rides because of the long lines and busy restaurants. Bunk. That’s just crazy talk.

In Dad’s experience, the reason most people only see nine rides at the Magic Kingdom in a day is because of poor or no planning. Yes, lines are long and restaurants are busy (if you arrive at noon, if try to go to Cinderella’s Royal Table without an Advanced Dining Reservation, if you try to ride the Mountains without a FASTPASS) but with a little preparation and thought any family should be able to accomplish more than 9 rides.

So, Dad what’s this Nine By Noon Thing?

When I first read the New York Times story, my immediate reaction was, I can do nine rides at the Magic Kingdom by noon. (I think I actually said breakfast, but that’s pushing it a bit.) Yes, nine by noon! Come on Mrs. Mom, we can do this.

What do you think? Can you do it? Have you ever done the Nine By Noon Challenge? If so, tell us how you did it below in the comments.

 

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Comments for

Jun 25, 2018 Nine by noon
by: Anonymous

MK-
Go left
Case closed

FP the right side

Mine train be brave , ride during the fireworks lowest wait times and so beautiful.

Apr 01, 2018 13 by 12
by: Matt N.

We used a custom touring plan, and it totally paid off. We were able to ride 13 rides before 12. We almost got 14, but our FastPass for Mine Train was at 12:10. It was Easter Weekend (2018), so the lines got busy fast around 11. We ended up doing 22 attractions for the whole day. Here’s the list:
1. Astro Orbiter (8:04)
2. Buzz Lightyear (8:14)
3. Tea Party
4. Barnstormer (8:25)
5. Dumbo (8:32)
6. Little Mermaid (8:39)
7. Jungle Cruise
8. Aladdin (9:13)
9. Pirates of the Caribbean
10. Thunder Mtn. (9:58)
11. Haunted Mansion (10:35)
12. Peter Pan (1st FP 10:56)
Lunch at Pinnochio Village Haus
13. Splash Mountain (2nd FP 11:45)

Jan 15, 2018 nine every time
by: Jason K

Three times now we have completed at least nine rides by combining rope drop with creative Fast pass scheduling around lunch

We always head to the left, towards jungle cruise. Letting the throngs go towards anna & elsa Meet and greet and the seven dwarfs. Never have we had more than twenty people waiting at the second rope with us at adventureland.

We scheduled two fast passes for the am, usually one ending about 11:30, the other starting as close to that as we can. Make reservations at the Plaza for noonish. The third fast pass starts during lunchtime.

We wait til 11:30 to get on FP#1, go straight to FP#2, lunch and FP#3 afterwards. 3 rides and a long sit down lunch in less than two hours.

our top nine:
1. Jungle Cruise
2. Pirates
3. Splash Mtn
4. Thunder Mtn
5. Back to Splash Mtn (my sons fav)
6. Mansion
7. Winnie the Poo
8. FP Seven Dwarfs
9. FP Peter Pan

Jan 15, 2018 Don’t forget rider swap
by: Francisco C

1. Mine train rope drop (8am)
2. Small world
3. Haunted mansion
4. Splash mountain
5. Mine train rider swap
6. Mine train fast pass
7. Mine train rider swap (945am)
8. Peter Pan fast pass
9. Dumbo
10. Barnstormer
11. Winnie the Pooh fast pass
12. Tomorrowland speedway
13. People mover (noon)

This was December 21, 2017

Jan 15, 2018 Go To The LEFT!!
by: Sean

My Stepmom read a book on how to see Disney before we went back in the late ’80s. Of all the things she read about, only one stuck with me.

Get to the park before it opens goes along with what you say and feels like a given, but as soon as they drop the rope and let you go…go to the left. The book said most people’s tendency is to go right towards Space Mountain. I’ve been going left ever since. You can ride Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash and Thunder Mountains in the time it takes you to run through the lines and ride the rides. You’re almost halfway to 9 and you’re 30 mins in.

Jan 15, 2018 The Shaws March 2017 Visit
by: Tina

We’re traveling from the UK for the fist time with my 2 children who will be 7 and 3. It’s my first trip back to Disney world in 12 years and my husbands fist ever visit so we’re all very excited

Jan 15, 2018 It’s a sma11 (Disney)world after all!
by: Anne

Loved this challenge ! We went all in for this challenge and started our day by taking advantage of extra magic hours.

We knew we had 2 fast passes before noon. We arrived at the park at 755 and headed to Fantasy Land. We were the first guest on Journey of the Little Mermaid. Then went to Goofy’s Barnstormer which we rode twice but only counted once. Headed to Dumbo and then The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

We had to head towards Frontier Land so we did Small World and Pirates of the Caribbean. We then used our fast pass for Splash Mountain and scooted over to Big Thunder Mountain.

We were under the gun because we had reservations at Be Our Guest at 10:30. Before lunch we had time to sneak in Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Therefore, completing 9 before 10:30.

After lunch we had time for 2 more. We used our fast pass for Peter Pan and then got on the Carousel of Progress. So we completed 11 rides before noon. This was so much fun!!!

Jan 15, 2018 Go early and get it done
by: Alice

We went the last week of Feb, and the crowds were more than we expected them to be. We went to am extra magic hours and went straight to Mine train, 20 minute wait! Then, we got Tomorrowland speedway. From there, we rode Dumbo twice with no wait either time. We then rode It’s a Small World, Mickey’s Philharmagic.

We then had fast passes for Peter Pan and Winnie the pooh. Then we got the Haunted Mansion with a 15 minute wait! We got this all by 1215. I was pretty pleased with that morning!!

Jan 15, 2018 How about 12 by 12?
by: BIll

It was easy. We did it on August 1st 2016. We arrived when the park opened at 8am. Here’s how we did it.
1. 7 Dwarfs – 8:10
2. Pooh – 8:22
3. Peter Pan – 8:36
4. Small World – 8:45
5. Haunted Mansion – 9:10
6. Speedway – 9:40
7. Little Mermaid – 9:50
8. Astro Orbiter – 10:40 (hadn’t planned this one. Tried to FP Space Mtn but is was temp out of service)
9. Monster’s Inc – 10:56
10. Carousel Of progress – 11:15
11. Buzz Lightyear – 11:45 (Fast Pass)
12. Space Mountain – (in line by noon. on the ride about 12:20. used Fast Pass)

By noon the park was miserably crowded so we didn’t get as much done after that even though we stayed until midnight.

Jan 15, 2018 9 and more…
by: Sharon

Last trip we were unable to get Fastpass to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train so we got there before the park opened not far back in line and headed straight to the
1. Mine Train (go to the right side of the Castle} our wait time was less than 20 minutes, then our 1st fast pass to
2. Peter Pan, quick across to small world, then over to
3. the Haunted Mansion, still early, still short wait times and to help more it was low crowd time in Feb. so next Fastpass was for
4. Pirates but didn’t even need it, then over to
5. Splash Mount. (used our ponchos)
6. Big Thunder
7. over to future world for 10 min wait on Buzz Lightyear
8. only short wait to Space Mnt.
9. no wait for Stitch and even
10. went on to see Carousal of Progress.

Then we had lunch right around noon, and hit other attractions.

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