Well it's been a great few weeks here at the World, and I must say, I'm very, very impressed with what I'm seeing from the parks on this recent trip. Things seem to be improving, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Honestly, it was crowded last week, but my family and I still managed to do basically everything in every park by 6PM.:shrug:
One main thing I really noticed is how maintenance has really improved head and shoulders. I noticed things off or slightly jerky on rides one day, and the next they were fixed, where as recently it had taken weeks to see improvement.
Magic Kingdom
I'll start off with the park that has caught the majority of my complaints these past few years. I must say, without a doubt the Magic Kingdom is improving. Maintenance is almost spot on, the cast is still great, and even the food tasted better this past week. Now for the updates:
Splash Mountain will NOT be receiving lap bars during the next two months as I've been told. The reason for the lengthy refurb is that all the lifts in the ride will be ripped out an replaced. Expect the lap bars next year. Other than that, Splash looked terrific. Every effect was working perfectly, and the place looked in great shape.
Big Thunder Mountain is still the best mountain out of the four, with Splash following at a close second.
The past round of building touch ups look great, and a lot of MK's colors are really popping now.
Peter Pan's flight is honestly an embarrassment. I can't believe a classic attraction has been basically left to rot. Refurb this attraction now!
Pooh looks great, and is really a terrific dark ride.
Jungle Cruise's digital animation has made show scenes much more dependable, and there are less and less malfunctions. Unfortunately, I've been told not to expect a refurb this year. Or next year. Yup, it's been pushed back to 2012.
Pirates looked and sounded GREAT. I was really impressed.
Mansion is still the best attraction on property, and looked like it had just came up from a refurb.
HoP is a very solid show.
Country Bears looked great, and sounded great as well, except for Buff, Melvin, and Max. They were clicking all over the place.
Didn't waste our time with Stitch.
Buzz is still incredibly fun, even if it's dated and ugly.:lol:
Had a good MILF show for the first time in a looong time.
Now for the TTA. I rode it. I found it to be exactly as enjoyable as before the script was changed. I honestly pay no attention to the spoken words of the ride. It's there for relaxation to me, and it still does that job swimmingly. The only negative is the absence of the star tunnel music in Space makes that portion of the ride kinda creepy.
Space Mountain. *Sigh* The queue looks great, and the games are fun, even though I only played them for a few seconds. The pepper's ghost effects look amazing! It's crazy how faded they had become.
Now the load area ceiling is nice, but I HATED the configuration of sending you into the completely unthemed hallway at the back. Honestly, the refurb was basically all about queue and post show aesthetics, and they completely threw it out the window by sending you through that hallway, where the bare painted walls have already begun to be the victim of vandalism. Also aren't the air gates supposed to be lit up? They look pretty lame without it.
If the ride has been smoothed out, I could barely tell. I still had a heck of a lot of fun on it, but it's really no different than before. The obnoxiously loud lift and no audio doesn't help either.
The post show was nice, until the headache inducing "green screen".
All in all I give the Space Mountain refurb a D+/C-.
I ate at the Crystal Palace and Cinderella's Royal table and had excellent meals at both locations.
Now for a random MK rambling. Fantasyland will be great when it opnes, but MK wil still need more to do. On New Years Eve and December 27th, my family and I had everything in the park done by 8/6PM respectively, and that's without being commandos and running all over the park. If people can do that during the busiest time of the year, I really think more is needed at the flagship park.
Well...thoughts?
Honestly, it was crowded last week, but my family and I still managed to do basically everything in every park by 6PM.:shrug:
One main thing I really noticed is how maintenance has really improved head and shoulders. I noticed things off or slightly jerky on rides one day, and the next they were fixed, where as recently it had taken weeks to see improvement.
Magic Kingdom
I'll start off with the park that has caught the majority of my complaints these past few years. I must say, without a doubt the Magic Kingdom is improving. Maintenance is almost spot on, the cast is still great, and even the food tasted better this past week. Now for the updates:
Splash Mountain will NOT be receiving lap bars during the next two months as I've been told. The reason for the lengthy refurb is that all the lifts in the ride will be ripped out an replaced. Expect the lap bars next year. Other than that, Splash looked terrific. Every effect was working perfectly, and the place looked in great shape.
Big Thunder Mountain is still the best mountain out of the four, with Splash following at a close second.
The past round of building touch ups look great, and a lot of MK's colors are really popping now.
Peter Pan's flight is honestly an embarrassment. I can't believe a classic attraction has been basically left to rot. Refurb this attraction now!
Pooh looks great, and is really a terrific dark ride.
Jungle Cruise's digital animation has made show scenes much more dependable, and there are less and less malfunctions. Unfortunately, I've been told not to expect a refurb this year. Or next year. Yup, it's been pushed back to 2012.
Pirates looked and sounded GREAT. I was really impressed.
Mansion is still the best attraction on property, and looked like it had just came up from a refurb.
HoP is a very solid show.
Country Bears looked great, and sounded great as well, except for Buff, Melvin, and Max. They were clicking all over the place.
Didn't waste our time with Stitch.
Buzz is still incredibly fun, even if it's dated and ugly.:lol:
Had a good MILF show for the first time in a looong time.
Now for the TTA. I rode it. I found it to be exactly as enjoyable as before the script was changed. I honestly pay no attention to the spoken words of the ride. It's there for relaxation to me, and it still does that job swimmingly. The only negative is the absence of the star tunnel music in Space makes that portion of the ride kinda creepy.
Space Mountain. *Sigh* The queue looks great, and the games are fun, even though I only played them for a few seconds. The pepper's ghost effects look amazing! It's crazy how faded they had become.
Now the load area ceiling is nice, but I HATED the configuration of sending you into the completely unthemed hallway at the back. Honestly, the refurb was basically all about queue and post show aesthetics, and they completely threw it out the window by sending you through that hallway, where the bare painted walls have already begun to be the victim of vandalism. Also aren't the air gates supposed to be lit up? They look pretty lame without it.
If the ride has been smoothed out, I could barely tell. I still had a heck of a lot of fun on it, but it's really no different than before. The obnoxiously loud lift and no audio doesn't help either.
The post show was nice, until the headache inducing "green screen".
All in all I give the Space Mountain refurb a D+/C-.
I ate at the Crystal Palace and Cinderella's Royal table and had excellent meals at both locations.
Now for a random MK rambling. Fantasyland will be great when it opnes, but MK wil still need more to do. On New Years Eve and December 27th, my family and I had everything in the park done by 8/6PM respectively, and that's without being commandos and running all over the park. If people can do that during the busiest time of the year, I really think more is needed at the flagship park.
Well...thoughts?
