*One thing I wanted to update on from our last post: we said that the location we found by the Tree of Life wasn’t a good spot to watch the Awakenings because at that time they were only being projected on the front, though we’ve since read online that they are now projecting around the entire tree! We are going to test it out on our upcoming trip.
As I write this, we are in full Disney trip preparation mode! We have a notepad on the counter where we keep adding things we need to do and items we need to pack. Scott is working on our art project to decorate our room window, and he assigned me the task of trying to finish this trip report before we leave!
Friday, March 17th: Our Last Park Day!
Here we are, our last park day of our Spring Break trip! The park had EMH starting at 7am this day!!! We are troopers, but we just didn’t need to get to the park that early, knowing that we wanted to stay until late that night!
Our spreadsheet for the day looked like this:
Speaking of EMH, as I was just writing this, I went to check out the park hours for our upcoming trip. I was a little surprised to see that all of the parks are closing at 10pm or earlier our whole trip. When we worked at MK in 2013, the park stayed open until 11pm basically every night. I know that the hours after 10pm probably weren’t big hours for profit, so I’m sure that plays into it. Also, there wasn’t much desirable food available by that time anyway, which could get frustrating. I wonder if park hours still get extended as often as they used to when we worked there? The good news about the park hours is that they extended the Pandora only EMH at Animal Kingdom! It was only running through July 4th, but now there will be EMH from 10pm-12am in Pandora every night until August 19th. Wild!
So we had a relaxing morning and got to the bus around 8:30, and to the park at 9.
One of the things that we wanted to do this trip, but didn’t do on our first MK day was to watch the new Muppets show in Liberty Square. There are two different shows. We headed to the area right away so we waited around for a while for the 9:30 show, which was the one about the Declaration of Independence. The host of the show was in the area for some time prior to the show, and he was walking around talking to people, telling them when it was starting etc. We sat on a rock wall behind the area, because there was a stripe of sunlight that I was standing in to stay warm!
This was a really fun show. I definitely recommend it! There was a lot to see. Basically, if you enjoy the Muppets at all, this is a must do!
Next up, we headed to use our first Fastpass for the day, Seven Dwarves Mine Train, at 10:10. The mine scene is just so great; it makes me so happy!
I needed some breakfast; you know something healthy to really set a good tone for the day.
So I had some fresh fruit and yogurt, Disney Style.
A Dole Whip is honestly one of my favorite Disney breakfasts, and it’s a great time to get it, because the line is non-existent. It’s still weird going to the new Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip, though I think the change was much needed.
Can someone please tell Alli that a Dole Whip for breakfast is weird?
We headed to Tomorrowland next, and took a spin on the Peoplemover while we waited for our Space Mountain Fastpass time. I hope the moving walkway is fixed on our upcoming trip, it just looks so sad without it moving!
We used our Space Mountain Fastpass next, at around 11:10. Scott pointed out this cool sign to me at the beginning of the queue.
MK-1 : Magic Kingdom. The first Space Mountain
TL Space Station 77 : Disneyland Space Mountain opened in 77
Discovery Landing Station-Paris : Obviously DL Paris, where they have Discoveryland instead of Tomorrowland
Ashita Base-Tokyo: "ashita" means "tomorrow" in Japanese.
HK Spaceport E-TKT: Hong Kong, and a nod to the old E-Tickets
I don’t think Scott had ever gotten anything to eat that morning, so our next stop was Casey’s Corner.
Do I need to tell you that we got corn dog nuggets and fries, or had you already guessed that? We split one order because we had plans for lunch. By the way, for what I think was the first time on this trip, Scott didn’t photograph this food. Wow…way to drop the ball…how will our readers possibly know what our corn dog nuggets and fries look like now?!
I didn't take a picture because I was so saddened by the lack of plastic cheese. The cheese MADE this meal, and without it, I was left unsatisfied. So no picture for you, corn dog nuggies.
By the way, we ended up taking our food over to the seats in front of the Plaza to eat. On our next trip we want to eat at the Plaza, we never have! After we were done eating, the Trolley show was happening right in that area.
We went to use our next Fastpass for Big Thunder at 12:20.
It’s funny how some people just DON’T understand how things work. Maybe it was everyone in the line’s first time using a Fastpass at Disney. I ALWAYS try to assume that when people are being frustrating. Like, hey, I am very lucky to have been in Disney parks hundreds of times, for many people this may be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Honestly, it’s probably weirder/more rare that I do understand how all of these things are operated. I always try my hardest to be very patient and helpful with people who are struggling to understand something. But what I can’t wrap my head around is when people don’t understand how things work, yet feel the need to comment or be rude about it. Due to human error, etc. YES the Fastpass line will get backed up at the touchpoints a lot, that’s just not a big deal to me, it’s a part of life. I don’t see how an adult can’t piece that together when they’re looking at a standby line versus Fastpass line. The standby line requires NO interaction at all to enter, the Fastpass line does. Knowing that, of course the standby line is going to appear emptier when you first walk up. It’s like checking in for a dining reservation at any restaurant in America, they always find you in the system first and verify your reservation, just like they’re doing when you approach the Fastpass queue (if they didn’t do this, it would be total mayhem). The other thing people do not understand is that the Fastpass queue and the standby queue are not exactly the same length in physical square footage. I realize this should be common sense and everyone reading and posting on the Disboards understands this fact, so I don’t need to explain it to you. But when we were trying to enter the Fastpass queue for BTMRR, we were just surrounded by so many people making snide comments like “ugh, is this the FASTPASS line?! The standby line is so much shorter, we should’ve just done that!” Every time I hear that I really want to say, “Ok bye, have fun with that!” Or, “Hand me $20. If you beat me out of the exit of this ride, you can have it back!”
I think I just get so annoyed by those comments because of how often you have to deal with it while working at the Jungle Cruise, where admittedly the Fastpass line does often get backed up (it’s not an omnimover aka continuously loading ride, only one boat can load at a time, expectations should be managed accordingly). When our Fastpass line got backed up out of the entrance, many guests would get so incredibly agitated so quickly. Even though, if you look just under the awning, you can SEE straight through to where the boats are loading, and if you just pay a little attention, you can see that the standby queue zig-zags through an additional large room. Often times, the back up in the Fastpass queue was caused by the extra time it takes to load the ADA boat, which has an entire lift system, so that EVERY guest is able to experience the attraction, but the process takes a few minutes, which means the entire loading process stands still for that time. But hey…the more you know!
ANYWAY…back to BTMRR, we thoroughly enjoyed our wild ride through the wilderness! It’s funny that a lot of people ask for the front on this coaster since the front cars are a lot slower than the back ones!
I really get bummed when we're placed towards the front, which I know a lot of people actually prefer. But on BTMRR, the front car is basically all the way at the bottom of the hills by the time the back car reaches the top and the coaster actually starts to speed up.
Next up, we were headed to a special lunch! We wanted to check out Geyser Point at the Wilderness Lodge, which had just opened a few days before our trip. We took the boat to the Wilderness Lodge from the Magic Kingdom.
There weren’t any tables under the covered main pavilion of the restaurant, so we took one of the tables lined up right next to the water. They were nice and sunny, which was important with the cool temperature, so we were happy with that.
We each got a beer, which came in these cute plastic pint glasses, which I had never seen before! I know I got the Schofferhoffer Hefeweizen Grapefruit Beer, which came in a 16oz can, but I’m not sure what Scott chose.
This location is interesting because it’s a mixture of a counter service and a lounge. You can go through a typical counter service line and they’ll give you a number and bring out your food later, or you can order through a waiter at your table. That’s what we did. There are two menus, one for the lounge food (a bit more adventurous and restaurant style) and one for the counter service offerings.
We got the Cheesy Barbecue Brisket ($11), which is served with housemade chips to eat with the brisket. This was delicious!!!
We also got a Lump Crab Cake Sandwich with waffle fries ($13.99).
The food here was unique and tasted great, and they also have several special drinks. This would be a great place to visit on an arrival or non-park day. For us, it also made for a very relaxing midday break.
We walked around the area to check out everything that had been redone, and then we headed inside the lobby, which was as beautiful as ever! The merchandise here is so cute!
Then we went back to the boat to head back to the Magic Kingdom to finish off our last day!
I will hold off there for now, and hopefully finish the rest of the day tomorrow or Thursday! I hope you are all having a relaxing July 4th holiday! Thanks for reading and I hope that our words and pictures brought you some Disney magic, wherever you’re reading from!
Can't tell you how many times I've been on this ride and failed to notice that... I'm the least competitive person in the world though, so that's likely why I have failed to be observant of this little detail... 
