When I was at Disney World three years ago, the storm Ian closed the park for my third day. On that day, I was supposed to go to Magical Kingdom, and I had done the three other parks. So this time, it was first on my list.
It seems I still haven’t adjusted timewise, so I woke up at 5, an hour before the alarm would go off. After a shower, I went for some breakfast in the food court. I arrived a few minutes before they started serving, so I tried mobile order in the hope that it would be done right at opening. However, when I hung around the pick-up desk, a staff member asked if I had ordered anything, to which I answered yes and showed my confirmation. Apparently, it didn’t show up on their screen. She got my stuff and added some potato tots as compensation. In the end, it took longer with the mobile order, but it didn’t really matter.
Headed to the bus stop, a really nice feature they have, buses between resorts and the parks. So I don’t have to bring my car and find a spot in the huge parking lot. The driver had us sing Happy Birthday for three people before departure. Fun, yeah, but at 7 o’clock in the morning, I’m not in the mood 😛
As you do in the USA, they have a security checkpoint where my bag was checked. The security officer asked me where I was from, and when I replied Sweden, he said he had a son who had been to Sweden with the Marines.
I was going for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but a whole section was roped off; apparently, they opened at 8 and not with the early entry. So I went for “it’s a small world” instead. No queue, I was alone in my boat, and no one was in the boat behind me either. Probably a lovely route for kids, I will likely have nightmares about the 20-second looping song.
After this tour, it was about ten minutes until eight o’clock, so I decided to go to the “rope” and wait. We were about 20 people hanging there until there was some sort of signal, like an air cannon, and the cast member opened up. We walked, some rather briskly, some a bit slower, towards Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and after about 100 meters, a bunch of cast members formed a line and started to walk towards the attraction, while instructing us not to pass them. I would guess it was to hinder people from running.
A line of cast members “picked” us up and led us towards the attraction. My guess would be to prevent running.
I got on the first boat with two Canadian girls who took the front seats, and a local guy who sat himself in the back. I took the second row. I have no clue who this character is, but it was some nice scenes. There were a couple of drops, the largest 15 meters (50 feet), which surely felt in my stomach. There were a lot of warning signs that you could get wet, and the girls in front got a couple of nice showers; I got mostly hit on the face. Not too bad.
I moved on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Another boat trip in a bunch of caves. Great scenes with some cannons firing and lots of things happening all over. Again, there were warning signs about getting wet at a (this time) small drop in complete darkness. That made me a bit nervous, but it was nothing compared to the previous attraction!
Boats seem to be the thing, so I hopped over to Jingle Cruise. You stepped onto a boat that went through a canal while a hilarious skipper named Garret told us about what we saw. Roughly half of what he said was dad jokes with a wide range of quality. The ride took about ten minutes, so he managed to squeeze quite a lot.
Next up was the Haunted Mansion. We got introduced by going through a couple of rooms with theatrics. Then step into pods like large armchairs so you can only look forward. Combine that with pods rotating 360 degrees, and they can control what you see. And they used it quite a lot. We went forward, backwards, and on the side all the time. I’m more afraid of surprises than creepy environments, so it didn’t really get to me, but it was quite spooky scenes. One girl in the same group as me in the beginning didn’t seem to fancy it, even before we got on board the pods.
The clock had now reached nine, and I was getting a bit hungry since I had breakfast 2 1/2 hours earlier. Found myself a hot dog and then got into the queue for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This was the first time I had to queue, actually. Queuing is quite boring, and the feet suffer, but at least it’s in themed environments, some more spectacular than others. This one had a couple of playthings that kids could focus on while waiting. After about 45 minutes, I reached the carts. I got a bit nervous when they said, stow backpacks at your feet and push down the bar as far as possible. Then I saw the sign that women who are expecting shouldn’t go on the ride. Didn’t help.
I’m not that into rollercoasters, and I would guess a more experienced rider would say this one was fairly kind, but I got some thrills at least. As you can see in the video, I held on for dear life. The little girl in front took it like a champ, hands up and everything.
Another attraction on the “to-do list” was Peter Pan’s Flight. Another queue, this time for about 25 minutes. Had a nice chat with Peter while waiting. This time, you got onto a ship, which then flew over different sets, so you had to look down to see anything. Nice with variation!
My legs and feet were getting sore, so when I passed Country Bear Musical Jamboree and saw it was only five minutes to the next show, I stepped in. Nice to sit down for a bit. A bunch of mechanical bears that sang different songs. Quite funny.
After the bears, I did Pirates of the Caribbean again since there was no queue. I was starting to get hungry again, and since I’m an adult, I should at least eat something at somewhat regular hours. So I found my way to Pinocchio Village Haus, where I ordered myself some pepperoni flatbread (pizza). Got a seat on the upper level, looking over the rest of the restaurant. However, it was quite loud in there, so I put on my anc-headphones and some music to block it out.
I hadn’t managed to connect to the public wifi; it just said no internet access. So I finally took the time to ask Guest Relations if they knew about any outage. My brothers will love this, but she asked if I had an Android phone. Of course, I replied, and after conferring with her colleague, I had to switch off “Randomized MAC-address”. Then it worked right away.
I did Under the Sea – Journey of The Little Mermaid, which didn’t have much of a queue and was pods moving around in themed sets. Long time since I saw that movie.
I didn’t feel for more attractions, and most of them had long wait times anyway, so I walked around for a bit and just took it all in. Maybe took a selfie or two. Found a spot from where I thought I could watch the Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade. However, it was in the sun and I would probably stand there for an hour, so I took out the newly bought tube of sunscreen and applied some on my face, especially the nose.
It was Interesting to see how the staff worked with white ropes, yellow tape, gestures, and their voices to steer people to the right areas and keep the streets open for the parade. They seem to have a lot of manpower; just where I stood at a small intersection, there were four or five people. The floats were pretty cool and quite huge.
When the parade was over, I went to get myself some ice cream and then exited the park via a souvenir shop (things are quite expensive!). Went to the bus station to get on one going to Hollywood Studios. When I entered the new park, it seemed like a few people had issues with the fingerprint scanner. When you enter, you scan your ticket first (phone, card, wristband) and then your index finger. When the queue next to mine got shorter, I switched, just to have the last person in that line have issues. Anyway, I got in after a few minutes.
My primary goal was to go on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. But on the way, I stopped at Star Tours – The Adventures Continue since it didn’t have a queue and basically passed it. It was fun, and more exciting than I remembered. Onwards to the main attraction. The wait time was estimated to be 45 minutes, which turned out to be almost spot on. This ride was just as I remembered it! When you start, it’s a plot in which you are included with cast members as actors. Then you jump into carts that give you a thrill ride. And there’s a drop as well 🙂
I went on to do five rounds of Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. This has a singles rider queue, which four out of five runs didn’t give me any wait time at all. One run had a mother and a little kid as gunners. The kid just watched the screen, and his mother just watched him. So our guns didn’t fire at all. Probably the lowest score I saw 🙂 On another run, I got to tag along with a guy in a wheelchair and his partner. They had a special setup for this situation where you could get closer and had more time before and after to get in and out properly. Normally, as a single rider, you end up as an engineer (the last position to be filled), but now I got to be a pilot, which was a lot harder, but we did alright.
I jumped into Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo for some dinner. Tuna with vegetables, quite spicy actually.
Walked around for a bit. It had now become dark, so the lighting of everything was nice to see.
At 19, I left the park to get a bus back to the resort, roughly 12 hours after I got onto the bus this morning. Even though I have been writing stuff all day, it took some time to write this post.
