Yesterday I spent more hours at the Disney parks than I think I've ever done before: 15. Between the hours of 9:00AM and 12 midnight, my friend and I celebrated her birthday by going park hopping for the day. All four parks.
We first started with Animal Kingdom:
- I don't know if AK is ALWAYS crowded at opening, but it was packed when we walked in:
- All the animals were out and active. Probably because it was early and a ghost of rain was in the air.
- There were a few constuction walls up in Africa. I think they were all connected. In the queue for Kilimanjaro Safaris there was a lengthy wall up starting right after the bridge over the path the ride jeeps take extending quite a ways down. Other walls were up at the entrance to the Pangani Forest exploration trail, right before the Colobus monkeys.
- Over at the Conservation Station, surgery was being done on a snake.
- This is a picture of where the mermaid puppet show used to be, I think. I'm not sure, but they were construction walls nonetheless. This was by the area that shows videos of of conservation efforst in a secluded "room."
- I saw Everest for the first time up close and it is looking amazing. Here are the cliché Everest photos. (I had to stand on a rock for the second one.)
- I went into Dino-rama for the first time in my life. I didn't think it was so bad. It was a little busy and I didn't know where to look at times, but it wasn't bad.
- Dinosaur was running smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it is supposed to.
Then it was off to Magic Kingdom:
- We decided to take the Resort monorail and skip the crowd taking the Express. When we got to the station, the blue train was stopped, had all its doors open and about 5 or 6 Cast Members walking around it. On of them had some sort of panel opened on the opposite side of one of the cars. After a few minutes, all the doors closed and it set off for the Polynesian without any passengers.
- Crowds weren't any lighter at MK. We hardly rode any rides that we wanted to becasue we wanted to conserve time for other, more desirable rides at Epcot and MGM.
- I had a Dole Whip for the first time in my life. Despite my hate for pineapples, it was very good.
- Pirates had a very long line. I don't think I had ever seen it go out the main doors and into the little promenade area before. The wait time was about 20 minutes. I tried to confirm the Say-Hi-To-George-The-Ghost-After-The-Drop-And-Have-The-Ride-Stop-Before-The-Village rumor, but I wasn't successful.
- Lines to get food were snaking their way all over the place, making it hard to get through Frontierland.
- it's a small world had a crazy long line that stretched out almost to the old Skyway station and then curled around through the middle of the Fantasyland path. At some poits it wouldn't move, I think because people were admiring the new facade. A good thing or a bad thing?
- One little boy in line that was about 10 or 11 was being very annoying and yelling at his parents about how long the line was and how the mother said "it was supposed to not be busy today." everyone else in line just tried to ignore him, though it was hard.
- Don Quixote is still missing:
- And it was hard to get anywhere in Fantasyland:
- Push made an appearance outside of Mickey's Star Traders. It was weird becasue you could clearly see the Cast Member that was controlling him. I don't know if he did that on purpose, but it didn't look like he was trying to conceal the fast that he was talking into a microphone in his hand.
- As if Spaceship Earth wasn't enough, there is a screen on the TTA telling people to stay in their seats and showing footage of people somewhere on the ride. Unless it isn't new and I just haven't noticed it the past times I've been on it.
- We were all happy about SPINNING planets, but yesterday, only one was spinning. The blue and rainbow colored planets were motionless yesterday:
- The Carousel of Progress was running very well. The only glitch we had was after a baby started crying in the 40's and decided to take him/her outside. when the carousel was supposed to go to the next scene, it didn't. A CM cam over the sound system saying that there was a technical difficulty and we started to move just as "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" was ending. Coincidence? I'm not sure.
More to come. Epcot, MGM, the back to the Magic Kingdom!
We first started with Animal Kingdom:
- I don't know if AK is ALWAYS crowded at opening, but it was packed when we walked in:
- All the animals were out and active. Probably because it was early and a ghost of rain was in the air.
- There were a few constuction walls up in Africa. I think they were all connected. In the queue for Kilimanjaro Safaris there was a lengthy wall up starting right after the bridge over the path the ride jeeps take extending quite a ways down. Other walls were up at the entrance to the Pangani Forest exploration trail, right before the Colobus monkeys.
- Over at the Conservation Station, surgery was being done on a snake.
- This is a picture of where the mermaid puppet show used to be, I think. I'm not sure, but they were construction walls nonetheless. This was by the area that shows videos of of conservation efforst in a secluded "room."
- I saw Everest for the first time up close and it is looking amazing. Here are the cliché Everest photos. (I had to stand on a rock for the second one.)
- I went into Dino-rama for the first time in my life. I didn't think it was so bad. It was a little busy and I didn't know where to look at times, but it wasn't bad.
- Dinosaur was running smoothly. Well, as smoothly as it is supposed to.
Then it was off to Magic Kingdom:
- We decided to take the Resort monorail and skip the crowd taking the Express. When we got to the station, the blue train was stopped, had all its doors open and about 5 or 6 Cast Members walking around it. On of them had some sort of panel opened on the opposite side of one of the cars. After a few minutes, all the doors closed and it set off for the Polynesian without any passengers.
- Crowds weren't any lighter at MK. We hardly rode any rides that we wanted to becasue we wanted to conserve time for other, more desirable rides at Epcot and MGM.
- I had a Dole Whip for the first time in my life. Despite my hate for pineapples, it was very good.
- Pirates had a very long line. I don't think I had ever seen it go out the main doors and into the little promenade area before. The wait time was about 20 minutes. I tried to confirm the Say-Hi-To-George-The-Ghost-After-The-Drop-And-Have-The-Ride-Stop-Before-The-Village rumor, but I wasn't successful.
- Lines to get food were snaking their way all over the place, making it hard to get through Frontierland.
- it's a small world had a crazy long line that stretched out almost to the old Skyway station and then curled around through the middle of the Fantasyland path. At some poits it wouldn't move, I think because people were admiring the new facade. A good thing or a bad thing?
- One little boy in line that was about 10 or 11 was being very annoying and yelling at his parents about how long the line was and how the mother said "it was supposed to not be busy today." everyone else in line just tried to ignore him, though it was hard.
- Don Quixote is still missing:
- And it was hard to get anywhere in Fantasyland:
- Push made an appearance outside of Mickey's Star Traders. It was weird becasue you could clearly see the Cast Member that was controlling him. I don't know if he did that on purpose, but it didn't look like he was trying to conceal the fast that he was talking into a microphone in his hand.
- As if Spaceship Earth wasn't enough, there is a screen on the TTA telling people to stay in their seats and showing footage of people somewhere on the ride. Unless it isn't new and I just haven't noticed it the past times I've been on it.
- We were all happy about SPINNING planets, but yesterday, only one was spinning. The blue and rainbow colored planets were motionless yesterday:
- The Carousel of Progress was running very well. The only glitch we had was after a baby started crying in the 40's and decided to take him/her outside. when the carousel was supposed to go to the next scene, it didn't. A CM cam over the sound system saying that there was a technical difficulty and we started to move just as "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" was ending. Coincidence? I'm not sure.
More to come. Epcot, MGM, the back to the Magic Kingdom!