Magic Kingdom--4/27
Thursday, April 27th:
Oh boy! EMH at Magic Kingdom! We got up at 6am so we could get to the bus stop by 7 am. (Yes, I am evil) We hopped on the bus and again, I was kind of surprised that there weren’t more people on it for the EMH. I guess other people like the idea of getting some sleep on their vacation.
The bus ride was pretty quick and we got to MK in about 15 minutes or so. We went to the gates to wait. At about 7:45, they let us through the gates into the front courtyard (not sure if that’s what you’d call it—but it’s the area before you go under the train station to get to Main Street). Then, they started the welcoming ceremony. I had never seen it before (prior to this trip, I had NEVER been to the parks that early as a guest). It was pretty neat—music, characters, train, etc…Emily really liked it. I think Jacob did too, though he wasn’t paying as much attention to it as I would have expected.
Once 8 am rolled around, we were allowed into the park. We headed straight for Fantasyland so we could get on Dumbo. This was a ride I always swore I’d never go on as I’d always found the line to be prohibitive. But, prior to the trip as I showed Jacob pictures of WDW, he’d always gravitate toward the Dumbo ride, so what was I supposed to do? We were among the first to get there and were in the first group to get to ride. It was fun, actually. Even though we didn’t go up very high—Jake was at the control and was pretty possessive when I tried to show him how to make Dumbo “fly”. Oh, well.
We got off Dumbo and headed over to Peter Pan’s flight. There was about a 2 minute wait. Then, we went to Mickey’s Philharmagic and walked right in to that. We had not seen it before. I loved it. I thought it was really fun and sweet. Jacob and Emily enjoyed it too, of course.
From there, we went to the Pooh ride and again, had about a 2 minute wait. Then we went to It’s a Small World which is (much to my chagrin) one of Emily’s favorite rides.
By the time we’d done all of that, it was only 9 am. I had wanted to see Ariel, but she wasn’t scheduled to be out until 10. I didn’t want to want to waste an hour waiting around for her so we headed to Adventureland.
Jungle Cruise was the ride Jacob had been asking to go on ever since we got to Orlando. I was really excited that we were finally getting to take him on it. The wait time was about 10 minutes. We got on and of course, he liked it a lot. Emily? Not so much. I believe the word she used was “lame”. (This from the person who loves It’s a Small World!).
It was around 9:30 and according to the schedule, the Peter Pan characters would be out in front of POC at 10. Since this is one of Jacob’s favorite movies (I have to “be Tappin’ Hook” almost every night when I come home from work), I did want to make sure we met them. I also wanted to go on POC before it gets Johnny Depperized. I tried to get Jake to go with me but he was not interested. So, I went by myself while they went into the shop. I walked right on—in fact, it was just me and one other person on the boat.
When I got off, Jacob was very excited to show me what they (him and mommy) had bought. “I dot sumpin for you daddy!” he proclaimed. It was a plastic hook and a sword. He also got himself a little sword “like Peter Pan”. He insisted that we have a sword fight right then and there, so we did. He won.
I asked a cast member where we should go to meet Peter Pan—she directed me to a fountain across from POC. We were the first ones in line and we waited for awhile. Then, just before 10, I noticed another line that seemed to be forming just over to the left of the fountain (if you are facing it). I wondered to myself if we were in the wrong place. Peter Pan and Wendy confirmed that indeed, we were, when they came out and went over to the other area. So, we went over to the other line—it really wasn’t bad, there were only a few people in front of us. When it was our turn, Jacob was totally star struck. He didn’t know what to say—he just stared at Peter Pan and Wendy. We took some pictures and video and then said goodbye to Peter Pan and Wendy.
Now, over at the fountain area where we had been waiting, Mr. Smee was there. So, the CM did tell me the right info—I guess it just depends who goes where. There was not much of a line for Smee so we got up to meet him pretty quickly. Smee was a lot of fun—he played peek-a-boo with Jacob and Jacob loved it. A few minutes later, we got back in the Smee line because he was joined by Captain Hook. Jacob kept asking if Captain Hook was going to be mean to him and I told him no, that he was just mean to Peter Pan. Thankfully, Captain Hook was anything but mean to Jacob. In fact, he and Smee pointed to Jacob’s shoes (they light up when he steps down) and stomped their feet to try to make their shoes light up. It was very fun.
After the meet and greet, Jacob and I went to the Tiki Birds (Emily wasn’t interested—can’t really blame her). I think we waited 10 minutes or so. It was ok.
It was going on 11:30 and the park was getting pretty crowded. As we walked through Fantasyland, we noticed that the wait times for Peter Pan and Pooh were 40 minutes long. Feeling vindicated, I said “now, aren’t you glad we got here early?”
We decided to eat lunch back at the hotel. We ate at The Mara at AKL. The food was really good. I had some roasted chicken and Emily had a burger and fries. Then, we went back to the room for some R and R. Emily and Jacob fell asleep while I sat out on the balcony and read a book. Nice!
We returned to the park at around 4 pm. I thought maybe the crowds would be better, but I was oh so wrong. I should have known better—MK was open until 11 pm that night, so of course a lot of people were heading there. We went over to Mickey’s Toon Town Fair and were marveling at how crowded the park was on the way there. We went over to the Hall of Fame to see how the lines were. The one for the princesses was REALLY long—we got into the line for “Hundred Acre Woods Friends”. Good choice. We only waited about 10 minutes and then we went in to meet Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger.
After that, Jake and I gave mommy some shoppin’ time. We got in line for the Barnstormer. It had 20 minutes as the posted wait time, but it was more like 10 or 15. Jacob liked it a lot.
Then, we went over to Donald’s Boat. Here’s me: “Ok, Jacob, you can get your feet wet, but try not to get your shirt and shorts wet.” Yeah, right!!! He got soaked from head to toe. He absolutely LOVED it. Luckily, mommy had anticipated this—she had packed an extra set of clothes, so once we all got back together, I got him changed into dry clothes.
On our way out of MK, we saw Terk from Tarzan. There was a small line and we hopped right in. Tarzan is one of Jacob’s very favorite movies so there was no way we could miss that. I have to say, I like the way the character greetings seem to be more organized. i.e., there is a line so you know when it is your turn. In the past, a character could get pretty mobbed by people and it was hard to get a picture without someone else being in the picture with you. And from a character perspective (many moons ago, I worked in Entertainment at Disney/MGM) it is hard to tell sometimes who is next—visibility can be quite limited. On the flip side, it is fun to roam free as a character and not be confined to a line. You get to animate more and it is more fun sometimes. But I digress…
Now, it was time to go have dinner.
Our “priority seating” was for 5:50 at Whispering Canyon. My plan was to take the boat over to the Lodge. When we went down to the boat launch area, I noticed that the sign said the launch went to Fort Wilderness and listed some others, but I did not see anything that said “Wilderness Lodge”. I went to a CM at the front gate and asked her which launch was for Wilderness Lodge. “Fort Wilderness? Over there.” No, not Fort Wilderness, Wilderness Lodge. “Yes, that one will take you to Fort Wilderness Lodge.” Agggh! Confused and irritated, I told Emily we would just take the darn bus. (I’m pretty sure I said “darn”….might’ve been something else, though.) We waited awhile for the bus, but we did finally get on and got to the Lodge on time.
Whispering Canyon has changed since we’d been there. The tables and set up looked different to me. Also, the a la carte option is new (for us anyway). We both ordered the skillet. The food was delicious. Not exactly as I remembered, but very good, nonetheless. I also thought I remembered that you got a choice of sauces, but our waitress didn’t know what I was talking about. As with Boma, I found the service to be somewhat lacking. Our server was not rude at all, just not as attentive as I would have liked. The bill was $80 which is a pretty expensive dinner for two people. I think for that much money, it’s not out of the question to expect better service. I began to wonder if the Dining Plan’s inclusion of an 18% tip was a detriment—since the servers know they are going to get it anyway, why put forth the extra effort? I hate to think that is the case, but I had to wonder. What I really think, though, is that they overbook the restaurant and the poor servers have more tables to handle than they probably should.
After dinner, we went back to the park—again, via bus. It was about 7:30 and it was still super crowded. People were already sitting on the sidewalks waiting for the Spectro Magic parade—an hour and a half away! I wanted to hit Jungle Cruise again before Spectro Magic started. There was a 40 minute wait and no Fast Passes. Against my normal “won’t wait more than 10 minutes” attitude, Jacob and I got in line. (Emily decided to pass) It was a pretty long wait, but closer to 30 than 40. By the time we got onto the boat, it was dark. We enjoyed it, but I definitely like it better during daylight.
After Jungle Cruise, I thought we could hit the Country Bear Jamboree and then find a good place to watch the parade in Frontierland afterwards. We soon realized that we’d better go ahead and get the space along the parade route pronto as they were filling up fast. It was 8:15 which meant we were gonna have to just sit around for an hour before the parade would get to us. I wasn’t too thrilled about that, but if we wanted a good view, that’s what was going to be necessary. We got a space right at the end of the parade route near Pecos Bill’s.
At around 9:20 or so, the parade reached us. It was as I remembered. Emily claims it’s not the one she saw in 2000 when we went and she didn’t really care for it. She thinks she saw the Main Street Electrical Parade. I’ve been trying to tell her that Spectro replaced MSEP prior to 2000 so she couldn’t have seen it. Am I wrong? Were they running both at some point?
Ok, now it was time for the worst part of the trip—exiting the Magic Kingdom after a parade and prior to a fireworks show. To put it mildly, it sucked. We pretty much decided that in the future, if we could get away with it, we would skip any evening parades and fireworks at the Magic Kingdom. Now, will we hold to that? I don’t know, but I know neither one of us wants to do that again!
Exhausted, we got back to the hotel at around 11. Sleepy time!
Next Up: Disney/MGM Studios and MK
