I'll go over all the good parts first.
This was to be the first of two "day trips" to Magic Kingdom. I live in the Ft Lauderdale area, so leaving the house around six in the morning gets you to the front gate a little past nine. As we all know, most things in life don't go as planned, and we (my wife and four-year-old daughter) wound up leaving the house at seven, and reached Main Street at almost ten-thirty. Finding out the park closes at six was kind of a bummer. OK, we have less than eight hours in the park, let's just hit all the best rides. And that's what we did. We skipped the tea cup ride, Pooh, Snow White, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Indy Speedway, PotC, CoP, the parade and all the shows -- not that some of those attractions aren't great, they're just not "thrillers". We also didn't spend a lot of time in Toon Town. We rode the Barnstormer (10 min. wait) then got outta there. The crowds were really up around 200% more than what we experienced in early September, so fast passes really came in handy. Wait times for all three mountains were between 25-50 minutes all day, but we never waited more than a few minutes with our passes. We did Splash once, BTMR thrice but regretably didn't get a chance to go on SpaM. We did Philharmagic only once, which I enjoy more and more every time I see -- and smell -- it. We rode the train all the way around, starting at Frontierland station. Fact: a round trip on the train takes the same amount of time needed to finish a Minute Made Lemonade frozen desert. Yum. We also hit a few attractions we've never been on before, believe it or not. Tom Sawyer Island was reopened, so we went there for the first time, and we also did Jungle Cruise for the first time. The jokes were even cheesier than I thought. Our skipper (Crystal) admitted to that but seemed to genuinely enjoy her job anyway. By the way, I was amazed that she steered the boat through the entire course with her back to the bow. I wonder, how many times does one has to navigate that river to be able to do that? The best part of the day was the weather, definitely. The temp didn't go above the low eighties, and not a cloud in the sky. The castle spires glittered and the entire park was spotless. Well, almost. An empty soda bottle was bobbing in the water on our raft ride to Tom Sawyer island, which really annoyed me. Why do people do that? Anyway, there were the usual closings: small world and Aladdin. Stitch isn't ready of course, and the lagoon is still under construction. Anyone know what they're building in there?
Now for the bad.
There were three technical "glitches" in our day -- four, if you count the construction on the southbound Turnpike on the way home, but that wasn't Disney's fault. The first problem was on the monorail on the way in. Our train stopped a couple hundred yards from the Contemporary, and sat there for about 10 minutes. Explanation: one of the trains ahead was having problems and had to be removed from the rail. The second glitch was on Buzz, which suffered from a mechanical problem at the end of the load area, causing the entire ride to stop. The ride stopped twice while we were in there. The first delay lasted about ten minutes, right at the end of the cue before loading; the second delay lasted another ten minutes, and happened just as we got through the tunnel with the space battle animation sequence. The most annoying part of this delay was that our guns were reset, which deleted my score. Argh! So I ended Buzz with about 1900 points. Embarrassing. The third technical glitch was on BTMR during our third ride at the start of the third lift. Our train just stopped, with the first two cars already engaged on the lift, then all the lights in the tunnel came on. After about five or six minutes, two CMs came down the stairs of the lift tunnel on the train's left side. One of them was obviously more experienced in such matters, and explained in an apologetic yet authoritative tone that she was going to have to evacuate the train. So starting at the front car, she disengaged the safety bar and helped each guest out, as it was a four or five foot drop to the ground. The engine car was at a sharp angle, and unfortunately one of the guests in the front row of the first car banged her head on its roof as she stood up. Ouch. Once we were all out, our CM and rescuer suddenly became very serious as she announced that she had to take us under the mountain, and that we should put our cameras and video equipment away or it would all be summarily confiscated. I thought she would lead us up the steps, but instead took us through a concealed door at the base of the tunnel. Once inside, we took some stairs down to about the equivalent of one storey below where we were, then commenced our walk back to the load area. I really don't know if I should describe what I saw, so I won't. But I kept telling my daughter, this is a once in a lifetime, babe, a once in a lifetime. It wasn't anything breathtaking, but definitely more fun than riding the remaining short length of track that was ahead of us before we stopped, I can tell ya that. Most of our walk was literally underneath the mountain, where most guests don't see, but eventually we found ourselves walking along the track, but with the lights on it was hard to tell which part. Only when I could see the load area ahead did I realize we were walking along the very start of the ride. Pretty cool. When we got to the load area, everyone else had been evacuated or turned away, and, except for a pair of maintenance workers, the place was deserted. I thanked our CM as we walked out into the sunshine. Anyway, since that happened at about 5:45, we figured we should head for the exit. The walk through the park on the way out was interesting, as the crew hung decorations for the park's extended hours for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.
That's it. Sorry, but no pictures. We'll definitely take some for the final day we have left on our four-day passes, which will be early next month.
This was to be the first of two "day trips" to Magic Kingdom. I live in the Ft Lauderdale area, so leaving the house around six in the morning gets you to the front gate a little past nine. As we all know, most things in life don't go as planned, and we (my wife and four-year-old daughter) wound up leaving the house at seven, and reached Main Street at almost ten-thirty. Finding out the park closes at six was kind of a bummer. OK, we have less than eight hours in the park, let's just hit all the best rides. And that's what we did. We skipped the tea cup ride, Pooh, Snow White, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Indy Speedway, PotC, CoP, the parade and all the shows -- not that some of those attractions aren't great, they're just not "thrillers". We also didn't spend a lot of time in Toon Town. We rode the Barnstormer (10 min. wait) then got outta there. The crowds were really up around 200% more than what we experienced in early September, so fast passes really came in handy. Wait times for all three mountains were between 25-50 minutes all day, but we never waited more than a few minutes with our passes. We did Splash once, BTMR thrice but regretably didn't get a chance to go on SpaM. We did Philharmagic only once, which I enjoy more and more every time I see -- and smell -- it. We rode the train all the way around, starting at Frontierland station. Fact: a round trip on the train takes the same amount of time needed to finish a Minute Made Lemonade frozen desert. Yum. We also hit a few attractions we've never been on before, believe it or not. Tom Sawyer Island was reopened, so we went there for the first time, and we also did Jungle Cruise for the first time. The jokes were even cheesier than I thought. Our skipper (Crystal) admitted to that but seemed to genuinely enjoy her job anyway. By the way, I was amazed that she steered the boat through the entire course with her back to the bow. I wonder, how many times does one has to navigate that river to be able to do that? The best part of the day was the weather, definitely. The temp didn't go above the low eighties, and not a cloud in the sky. The castle spires glittered and the entire park was spotless. Well, almost. An empty soda bottle was bobbing in the water on our raft ride to Tom Sawyer island, which really annoyed me. Why do people do that? Anyway, there were the usual closings: small world and Aladdin. Stitch isn't ready of course, and the lagoon is still under construction. Anyone know what they're building in there?
Now for the bad.
There were three technical "glitches" in our day -- four, if you count the construction on the southbound Turnpike on the way home, but that wasn't Disney's fault. The first problem was on the monorail on the way in. Our train stopped a couple hundred yards from the Contemporary, and sat there for about 10 minutes. Explanation: one of the trains ahead was having problems and had to be removed from the rail. The second glitch was on Buzz, which suffered from a mechanical problem at the end of the load area, causing the entire ride to stop. The ride stopped twice while we were in there. The first delay lasted about ten minutes, right at the end of the cue before loading; the second delay lasted another ten minutes, and happened just as we got through the tunnel with the space battle animation sequence. The most annoying part of this delay was that our guns were reset, which deleted my score. Argh! So I ended Buzz with about 1900 points. Embarrassing. The third technical glitch was on BTMR during our third ride at the start of the third lift. Our train just stopped, with the first two cars already engaged on the lift, then all the lights in the tunnel came on. After about five or six minutes, two CMs came down the stairs of the lift tunnel on the train's left side. One of them was obviously more experienced in such matters, and explained in an apologetic yet authoritative tone that she was going to have to evacuate the train. So starting at the front car, she disengaged the safety bar and helped each guest out, as it was a four or five foot drop to the ground. The engine car was at a sharp angle, and unfortunately one of the guests in the front row of the first car banged her head on its roof as she stood up. Ouch. Once we were all out, our CM and rescuer suddenly became very serious as she announced that she had to take us under the mountain, and that we should put our cameras and video equipment away or it would all be summarily confiscated. I thought she would lead us up the steps, but instead took us through a concealed door at the base of the tunnel. Once inside, we took some stairs down to about the equivalent of one storey below where we were, then commenced our walk back to the load area. I really don't know if I should describe what I saw, so I won't. But I kept telling my daughter, this is a once in a lifetime, babe, a once in a lifetime. It wasn't anything breathtaking, but definitely more fun than riding the remaining short length of track that was ahead of us before we stopped, I can tell ya that. Most of our walk was literally underneath the mountain, where most guests don't see, but eventually we found ourselves walking along the track, but with the lights on it was hard to tell which part. Only when I could see the load area ahead did I realize we were walking along the very start of the ride. Pretty cool. When we got to the load area, everyone else had been evacuated or turned away, and, except for a pair of maintenance workers, the place was deserted. I thanked our CM as we walked out into the sunshine. Anyway, since that happened at about 5:45, we figured we should head for the exit. The walk through the park on the way out was interesting, as the crew hung decorations for the park's extended hours for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.
That's it. Sorry, but no pictures. We'll definitely take some for the final day we have left on our four-day passes, which will be early next month.
I do genuinely LOVE my job. I am soooo glad it shows. It has been my dream for as long as I remember to be a Jungle Skipper. I started in the begining of June and worked all summer, and last week when you were there I was just there on vacation as well, but worked a few days at the Jungle. I hope you guys had a good time anyway! Come back and maybe we can teach you how we "steer" the boat. 
