We went to Magic Kingdom twice--all day for my daughter's 4th birthday on April 5th, then from early morning to mid-day on April 9th. Here is what my party of 10 encountered:
First, a very bizarre and time-wasting park opening. In short, unlike all other Disney parks, including the two in California, CMs didn't let any guests thru any turnstiles (unless you had a breakfast PS) until official park opening time. Since my crew was staying off-site and not at a WDW resort, we were stuck at the TTC until official opening time, creating a mob scene/mad scramble to get to the park's entrance on the other side of the lake.
This was not fun, but I have an entire rant on another post about this experience, and if you want more info about what happened, go there.
So here's the good about MK: Spectromagic was the best parade we saw (and we saw all of them--my two year old niece calls them "Hoo-raids"). Spectromagic also brought forth the funniest kid quote of our trip as the Small World guys on the first float was passing by, "This is better than the video AND the book!" (referring to the free WDW Vacation Planning Video and a book we have called "Meet Me In The Magic Kingdom.")
Character meal at Crystal Palace was wonderful. Beautiful restaurant. Great character interactions and a wide variety of dishes. My mom-in-law commented that she and my wife (her daughter) totally did not eat the same thing and they were filling their plates quite well--more than once apiece, too.
Character breakfast at Cinderella's Castle was fun. Food was good, not spectacular, but the character interaction (which we saved for our last touring day) was a hoot! We even found out what Prince Charming's first name is--Tristan. For years I was telling my kids it was Biff. He did not know what Snow White's Prince Charming's name was, though (perhaps that's Biff).
Splash Mountain kicks butt over what we have in California. Very much more detailed and it actually tells a coherent story. We rode twice!
My oldest kid liked Jungle Cruise and laid the same claim--better than Disneyland's.
Pooh Bear Ride was a big hit. Nice bouncy part, nice floating effect. And I dug crashing thru Owl's house. This is old school Pooh Bear (back when the Sherman Bros wrote the songs) so it even has the bad puns (and not the sickly sweet PC stuff that they put out nowadays that my kids are hooked on--darned Disney Channel!)
Buzz Lightyear rocked! Most overwhelmingly impressive ride in the park. We rode twice (once each trip to the park).
Aladdin's Magic Carpets is beautiful! And they have it positioned in Adventureland so that when you round the corner at the Tree House, all you see is this spinning jewel. Contrary to a post that kind of ragged on this ride (about a month ago), everyone in my party felt that it fit into Adventureland quite well.
Country Bears was the original show! I swear I haven't seen it in this version since I was a little kid! What joy! Now I know why Grizzlyhall is so passionate about this show. Much better than the Vacation Hoe-down.
CoP and Timekeeper were running on 4/5. CoP ended up with a walk-on full house (meaning there was no line but everyone who got in filled the theater). Timekeeper was about 2/3rds full and seemed to be running every half hour. I had seen CoP before but never seen Timekeeper and was glad to have seen it. Everyone in our party enjoyed both shows and were dismayed by how WDW is treating these two. When we went back on 4/9, the crowds were only slightly thinner, but these two attractions were not operating.
Our feeling is that they should at least operate one of them seasonally--like CoP in Fall and TK in Spring, etc. And they should NOT be removed or replaced. It's so nice to have mellower fare in the frantic noisy Tomorrowland area. And it's nice to be able to walk into the theaters without much wait.
Mixed reviews on the new Tiki Room. I totally loved the new show but Iago happens to be my all-time favorite Disney character. 3 of 6 who had seen the old show liked the old show better. Split vote, overall, but even the purists enjoyed the new version.
Great Italian Sub Sandwiches at the Plaza Pavillion! Highly recommended! Very, very tasty for walk-up food. Wasn't really crowded at 35 minutes prior to Spectromagic, which was surprising because Main Street was packed.
Fast Passes rule! We made it a habit to always have one and ended up getting 10 over the course of our two trips to MK.
Which brings up the bad: The worst lines we encountered were Dumbo (40 minutes at 9:30ish in the AM), Tomorrowland Speedway (30 minutes), and Pirates of the Caribbean (25 mins). Fast Pass blew us past lines on all other attractions that had long lines.
The Snow Globe/Make A Dream Come True Parade was by far the worst in all of WDW. Cute, short, but kind of a time-waster. And by far not as imaginative as the other three 100 Years Parades or Spectromagic.
I always forget how infuriated I end up getting after riding Pirates at MK. About 1/3 of the scenes from its counterpart at Disneyland seem to be missing. Gotta have the skeleton sitting on the huge pile of gold, dammit! And the shootout at the end is supposed to be over our heads!
Small World seems kind of lame in comparision to Anaheim's, too. I don't recall noticing the exterior walls as much as I do in Orlando's. And the lighting for some displays in MK's seemed non-existent. Also flying carpets in the Asia section weren't operating. I think this ride needs some rehab.
We pretty much hit everything but Hall of Presidents, Snow White, and Space Mountain. If I failed to mention an attraction or show, that's probably because it was delivered no better nor worse than expected.
My advice and wisdom gained from this trip: get Fast Passes whenever you can. If you end up confused about when you can get your next one, ask the CM stationed at the machines. We ended up with one attained at 12:55 for Splash Mtn that was four hours away (at 3:55pm) and got our next Fast Pass at 1:55 for Jungle Cruise. And we got to ride Jungle Cruise before we rode Splash! And a CM helped me figure this out. So ask them if you're confused.
Advice and wisdom gained #2: if you want to get into MK as early as possible, do a character breakfast at MK or at the MK monorial adjacent resorts. These were the only guests who were allowed on monorials prior to official opening time. Our Cinderella Breakfast saved quite a few anxiety brain cells since it got us into the park at 8:00am rather than 9:25am.
Advice #3: if you have a kid celebrating a b-day, go to City Hall on Main Street. Ask the first CM you meet at City Hall if you can get a special b-day badge. My kid not only got a badge, but got a special phone call from Goofy. Then at lunch at the Crystal Palace, she got a cupcake with a birthday candle on it, had characters at her table to sing "Happy Birthday", and an autographed birthday card from Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. I was told that other sit-down restaurants in WDW will do a similarish celebration and card. But again for all this, we made the requests as we went, and the CMs were more than happy to accomodate. Just be sure to let them know about the special someone.
Last cute quote came from my very tired nephew as he was shuffling off to bed after our first day of touring MK, "when can we go again?" Needless to say, he was happy that we went back for another day.
First, a very bizarre and time-wasting park opening. In short, unlike all other Disney parks, including the two in California, CMs didn't let any guests thru any turnstiles (unless you had a breakfast PS) until official park opening time. Since my crew was staying off-site and not at a WDW resort, we were stuck at the TTC until official opening time, creating a mob scene/mad scramble to get to the park's entrance on the other side of the lake.
This was not fun, but I have an entire rant on another post about this experience, and if you want more info about what happened, go there.
So here's the good about MK: Spectromagic was the best parade we saw (and we saw all of them--my two year old niece calls them "Hoo-raids"). Spectromagic also brought forth the funniest kid quote of our trip as the Small World guys on the first float was passing by, "This is better than the video AND the book!" (referring to the free WDW Vacation Planning Video and a book we have called "Meet Me In The Magic Kingdom.")
Character meal at Crystal Palace was wonderful. Beautiful restaurant. Great character interactions and a wide variety of dishes. My mom-in-law commented that she and my wife (her daughter) totally did not eat the same thing and they were filling their plates quite well--more than once apiece, too.
Character breakfast at Cinderella's Castle was fun. Food was good, not spectacular, but the character interaction (which we saved for our last touring day) was a hoot! We even found out what Prince Charming's first name is--Tristan. For years I was telling my kids it was Biff. He did not know what Snow White's Prince Charming's name was, though (perhaps that's Biff).
Splash Mountain kicks butt over what we have in California. Very much more detailed and it actually tells a coherent story. We rode twice!
My oldest kid liked Jungle Cruise and laid the same claim--better than Disneyland's.
Pooh Bear Ride was a big hit. Nice bouncy part, nice floating effect. And I dug crashing thru Owl's house. This is old school Pooh Bear (back when the Sherman Bros wrote the songs) so it even has the bad puns (and not the sickly sweet PC stuff that they put out nowadays that my kids are hooked on--darned Disney Channel!)
Buzz Lightyear rocked! Most overwhelmingly impressive ride in the park. We rode twice (once each trip to the park).
Aladdin's Magic Carpets is beautiful! And they have it positioned in Adventureland so that when you round the corner at the Tree House, all you see is this spinning jewel. Contrary to a post that kind of ragged on this ride (about a month ago), everyone in my party felt that it fit into Adventureland quite well.
Country Bears was the original show! I swear I haven't seen it in this version since I was a little kid! What joy! Now I know why Grizzlyhall is so passionate about this show. Much better than the Vacation Hoe-down.
CoP and Timekeeper were running on 4/5. CoP ended up with a walk-on full house (meaning there was no line but everyone who got in filled the theater). Timekeeper was about 2/3rds full and seemed to be running every half hour. I had seen CoP before but never seen Timekeeper and was glad to have seen it. Everyone in our party enjoyed both shows and were dismayed by how WDW is treating these two. When we went back on 4/9, the crowds were only slightly thinner, but these two attractions were not operating.
Our feeling is that they should at least operate one of them seasonally--like CoP in Fall and TK in Spring, etc. And they should NOT be removed or replaced. It's so nice to have mellower fare in the frantic noisy Tomorrowland area. And it's nice to be able to walk into the theaters without much wait.
Mixed reviews on the new Tiki Room. I totally loved the new show but Iago happens to be my all-time favorite Disney character. 3 of 6 who had seen the old show liked the old show better. Split vote, overall, but even the purists enjoyed the new version.
Great Italian Sub Sandwiches at the Plaza Pavillion! Highly recommended! Very, very tasty for walk-up food. Wasn't really crowded at 35 minutes prior to Spectromagic, which was surprising because Main Street was packed.
Fast Passes rule! We made it a habit to always have one and ended up getting 10 over the course of our two trips to MK.
Which brings up the bad: The worst lines we encountered were Dumbo (40 minutes at 9:30ish in the AM), Tomorrowland Speedway (30 minutes), and Pirates of the Caribbean (25 mins). Fast Pass blew us past lines on all other attractions that had long lines.
The Snow Globe/Make A Dream Come True Parade was by far the worst in all of WDW. Cute, short, but kind of a time-waster. And by far not as imaginative as the other three 100 Years Parades or Spectromagic.
I always forget how infuriated I end up getting after riding Pirates at MK. About 1/3 of the scenes from its counterpart at Disneyland seem to be missing. Gotta have the skeleton sitting on the huge pile of gold, dammit! And the shootout at the end is supposed to be over our heads!
Small World seems kind of lame in comparision to Anaheim's, too. I don't recall noticing the exterior walls as much as I do in Orlando's. And the lighting for some displays in MK's seemed non-existent. Also flying carpets in the Asia section weren't operating. I think this ride needs some rehab.
We pretty much hit everything but Hall of Presidents, Snow White, and Space Mountain. If I failed to mention an attraction or show, that's probably because it was delivered no better nor worse than expected.
My advice and wisdom gained from this trip: get Fast Passes whenever you can. If you end up confused about when you can get your next one, ask the CM stationed at the machines. We ended up with one attained at 12:55 for Splash Mtn that was four hours away (at 3:55pm) and got our next Fast Pass at 1:55 for Jungle Cruise. And we got to ride Jungle Cruise before we rode Splash! And a CM helped me figure this out. So ask them if you're confused.
Advice and wisdom gained #2: if you want to get into MK as early as possible, do a character breakfast at MK or at the MK monorial adjacent resorts. These were the only guests who were allowed on monorials prior to official opening time. Our Cinderella Breakfast saved quite a few anxiety brain cells since it got us into the park at 8:00am rather than 9:25am.
Advice #3: if you have a kid celebrating a b-day, go to City Hall on Main Street. Ask the first CM you meet at City Hall if you can get a special b-day badge. My kid not only got a badge, but got a special phone call from Goofy. Then at lunch at the Crystal Palace, she got a cupcake with a birthday candle on it, had characters at her table to sing "Happy Birthday", and an autographed birthday card from Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore. I was told that other sit-down restaurants in WDW will do a similarish celebration and card. But again for all this, we made the requests as we went, and the CMs were more than happy to accomodate. Just be sure to let them know about the special someone.
Last cute quote came from my very tired nephew as he was shuffling off to bed after our first day of touring MK, "when can we go again?" Needless to say, he was happy that we went back for another day.
