A.J. Posted April 1, 2011 Posted April 1, 2011 PHOTO TRIP REPORT A Rainy Day in the Magic Kingdom Hey everyone! Cha-cha-changes are abound in the Magic Kingdom recently. Refurbishments to facades are all over the place, Exposition Hall is being converted, and the Haunted Mansion is getting a whole new interactive queue area. Since I was not working today, I decided to head into the Magic Kingdom at around 10AM to check everything out! Unfortunately... ...the sky wasn't very happy today. In fact, the sky was downright angry! Aaah! Look at all the RAIN! Yes, my friends, it poured essentially all day today. It didn't particularly matter to me this time around because all the attractions I wanted to get to were indoors anyway! Two, four, six, eight? What do we appreciate? Optimism! I went through the express monorail line, which was not long at all! I was able to pick up the first monorail that arrived after I joined the queue - monorail yellow. Obligatory monorail boarding shot. What truly baffled my mind was the amount of guests actually in the park during this perpetual rainstorm, which actually had started the afternoon the day before. It was like it wasn't even raining outside - people kept on piling in. Hey Walt, how's it going? I was admitted into the park, and away I went. Along the way to my first destination, I snapped a shot of the newly-converted Town Square Theater. I'll be back for you later! -glare- I headed straight for Tomorrowland and Space Mountain. I find it obligatory now to ride Space Mountain as many times as I possibly can when I visit the park as a guest. To me, Magic Kingdom's Space Mountain is one of those rides that never gets old and is just plain fun. Unfortunately, there were various obstacles between me and the great mountain... GET. OUT. OF. MY. WAY. SO. I. DON'T. HAVE. TO. MAKE. EVERY. WORD. A. SEPARATE. SENTENCE. Thankfully, the posted wait time for the stand-by line was only twenty minutes. So, I grabbed a Fastpass for later in the day and headed inside. There was a lot of turbulence in space today! It seemed to be running a lot faster than normal. The first time I rode today, I landed in the front seat of the front car, and I swear I got a fraction of a second's worth of ejector airtime. They just weren't putting the brakes on at all! It was great (except for the occasional lateral G shoulder pain, but that's a given)! After my ride, I exited through the double doors in the video arcade located nearest to the ride exit, and proceeded to re-enter the mountain. The second time around I rode in the very back, and the airtime was great going over the largest drop. I smashed my back when I landed though. That wasn't the worst part, however. If you... ...are easily offended, please turn back now! I was treated extremely poorly coming out of Space Mountain the second time I got off. I walked into the video arcade and turned to exit through the double doors I used before and have been using every time I exit and re-enter the ride. There were several cast members standing there loafing around. I asked them why the double doors were blocked. They didn't give me any reason why and directed me to the doors all the way across the arcade by the registers. I had informed them that I had just used those double doors less than twenty minutes ago coming off of my ride the first time. I told them that I didn't understand why they were blocked, and then one of the cast members pointed to the doors across the way, still gave me no reason why those doors were blocked, and said, "Use the doors across the building, have a great day!", essentially shooing me away. I gave them a bit of a look, and walked away. They laughed at me as I went away. I have never been so insulted in a very long time. All I wanted to do was leave the arcade and go straight back into the ride. They knew I had a raincoat with me, and they still wanted me to walk to the registers so I could see the ponchos they were selling! They actually were forcing guests to walk an extra two hundred feet in the rain so they could sell [censored]ing ponchos! Believe me, as a merchandise cast member on Main Street, I know about selling our ponchos. But, at least in my area, it is absolutely unacceptable to treat a guest like I was treated, and I personally would feel terrible if a guest felt like I treated them poorly. Anyway, I walked around the arcade the long way in the pouring rain and entered the mountain yet again. This time I got seat 4 (second car in the front). I exited the ride, and guess what? Those cast weren't there anymore! Isn't guilt a wonderful thing? I re-entered the ride again and rode in the very front again. Still no sign of those cast. I was able to obtain an exclusive, super-magical, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN shot of Space Mountain... Star tunnel PEE-OH-VEE! I re-entered the ride for a fifth time and rode in seat 2 (front car in the middle). Maybe I scared those cast away? By this time, I had accumulated three Fastpasses, so I was all set to ride again later in the day. I decided to make my way back to Main Street, because I wanted to check out Town Square Theater and also file a complaint at City Hall about those cast. Hiya, pal! Welcome to Town Square Theater! In case you've been living under a rock, Town Square Theater has replaced Exposition Hall as the main static attraction on Main Street. Parts of the "Milestones of Animation" show have been incorporated into "One Man's Dream" at Disney's Hollywood Studios. It's also the newest location where you can meet up with Mickey (and occasionally Minnie) Mouse. It also was soft-opened today! It already has a ten-minute wait? WTF? Presenting - Backstage Magic with Mickey Mouse! The lobby is once again very open, as it was when Milestones of Animation was running. Located to the left of the main entrance is the entrance to Tony's Town Square Restaurant. Located to the right is the Magic Kingdom Photopass development center, as well as a design-your-own gift card center. Pick your poison... Along with magic-man Mickey, the princesses also have a temporary home in the Town Square Theater until the Fantasyland expansion is finished. The wait time board is -conveniently- located inside the theater as well. Upon entering the "theater", you are greeted with a massive overflow queue - Seriously, this thing is outrageously large in person. Granted, the room does house both Mickey's and the princesses' overflow queues, but it is still massive nonetheless. But it was cool today, because barely anyone knew it was open! We'll see what happens tomorrow on grand opening day. I'm calling at least a 75 minute wait for the princesses and at least a 120 minute wait for Mickey by 8PM tomorrow night. There are, however, some small sources of entertainment in the overflow queue. These paintings. But, they aren't really paintings - they're screens. Mickey performs a magic trick right before your eyes! The screens keep the "static" image (see the first painting photo) up for a very long time, and then play the animation of the magic trick. In my opinion, it's ingenious, and the screens look just like the actual paintings that don't have animations. To a little kid, it's a magically moving painting, and that's what matters in the long run. After moving through the overflow and several hallways, you approach an exit door. A cast member walks you and several others in, and you're in a hallway with four "rehearsal" rooms. The cast member then proceeds to guide your group to one of the rooms, and Mickey is waiting inside along with a Photopass photographer. They did not permit me to take photos in that area. I'm not sure how this is going to work. First of all, there's all this buildup to Mickey being a really cool magician giving shows during his rehearsals. Then, when you walk in, he's in his normal black tuxedo, red pants, and gold bow tie. This may just be because the attraction is in its soft-open phase, but if this is the way they're going to keep the attraction, it's not okay in my opinion. It's like promising a child a cherry lollipop and giving them a strawberry one - it's still red, but it tastes a little different. After the meet-and-greet, you are dumped into the obligatory merchandise location - Curtain Call Collectibles. It's designed to be sort of a store where you can buy things portrayed as "stage props" and "costumes". I'll let the photos and captions speak for themselves for a bit. Dresses for little girls to wear to little fancy dress balls... Princesses being massacred with a buzz saw... Mickey Mice sitting on the "Saw of Destiny"... More Mickey Mice in the "Tank of Terror". I thought people LIKED Mickey Mouse! I think the store is very impressively themed, but the merchandise is extremely random (not pictured: Donald Ducks in a sword basket! WTF?). It would be so much better if they sold top hats or fake magic wands, but everything found there can be found 300 feet away in the Emporium. On my way out, I was able to sneak a shot of the hallways without anyone noticing. Not a very good shot though. Sorry! And if dumping you in a merchandise location wasn't enough, guess where you get re-dumped into? The Photopass center! Hooray for captive marketing! [/sarcasm] All in all, I think this is a great idea (because, there are lots of guests who could care less about the attractions and ONLY want to see Mickey Mouse), but it seems a bit half-baked. Time will tell. I'll certainly find out what happens tomorrow. To close the Town Square Theater portion of the update, here's some parting shots - Tony's Town Square Entrance... ...and a fake fireplace playing a subtitled version of Lady and the Tramp. After exploring Town Square Theater, I got bored. So, I headed toward Frontierland. I was smart for once, and took a look at the Information board located across from the wall of pins in the center circle. Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain were both down due to the weather. Sadface. Haunted Mansion was open though! Meh, why not? AND...the new queue was also soft-opened! Stupid rain got on my lens. Let's have a look! Once again, letting the photos and captions talk. Stop lookin' at me with that fancy camera thingy... Dead. More dead. Dead with extra interior room. Dead THROUGH THE FENCE! Dead with a touch of rhyming. AAAAAHHH! Books moving by themselves! Dea...ehh...ahh...CHOO! Dead all the way up the hill. Dead Fred with a rock on his head. Undead. Opinion time once again! While the new queue extension is very well done (much like Town Square theater), I think it's sort of over-rated. The only "interactive" part of the queue is the moving book wall, and several spots that have Dora The Explorer-style pauses between spiels to people can respond. It's still pretty good though. IN OTHER NEWS... The Adventureland bridge is completely open. The Confectionery facade is still being worked on. As is the Tony's Town Square Restaurant facade. On my way out of the park, I caught the 3:00 parade... The Rainy Day Cavalcade puts me in a good mood every rainy day! Then I met with my roommate and we used two of my Space Mountain Fastpasses to get one more ride in before I left. That brings me up to a total of FORTY rides on the two tracks combined since I started my college program on January 12. Now, to close the trip report... ...with an obligatory castle closing shot! Thanks for viewing!
Midgetman82 Posted April 1, 2011 Posted April 1, 2011 Very interesting TR. It's nice to see a park that doesn't ignore the rain by putting on a parade featuring it! That made me laugh! My family is into the "hit the big rides and leave" sort of thing. On a day like this, I can see tourists doing just that; which is probably why the wait time for that Backstage Mickey show was low.
QueerRudie Posted April 1, 2011 Posted April 1, 2011 A.J. I'm stealing that POV from StarPort 75 right now- That has to be one of the -sexiest- shots I've ever seen of StarPort 75 done in POV... I'm still breathing hard from it. R."Yes, even at this age I still get hot for StarPort 75" D.
A.J. Posted April 1, 2011 Author Posted April 1, 2011 ...which is probably why the wait time for that Backstage Mickey show was low. The reason behind the low queue was that the show technically hasn't even had its grand opening yet. I came in for soft-opening.
BarryH Posted April 1, 2011 Posted April 1, 2011 I thought the best rainy day Disney park was Epcot. Since most of the stuff is indoors, all you need to do is run from pavilion to pavilion. Magic Kingdom is pretty outstanding in the rain. I would have liked to have seen the Rainy Day Character Cavalcade.
A.J. Posted April 1, 2011 Author Posted April 1, 2011 I thought the best rainy day Disney park was Epcot. Since most of the stuff is indoors, all you need to do is run from pavilion to pavilion. Magic Kingdom is pretty outstanding in the rain. I would have liked to have seen the Rainy Day Character Cavalcade. Any of the WDW parks with indoor attractions are great in the rain, especially if attendance is low. The Rainy Day Cavalcade is definitely a picker-upper. The music played during the parade is an extremely upbeat swing tune. Basically, all the characters normally on floats during the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade (Mickey, Aladdin, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Ariel, etc) take refuge in the Main Street vehicles. The walking characters (Chip, Dale, Jafar, Hook, etc excluding the ugly stepsisters/stepmother) still walk in the rain. The performers dress in raincoats and galoshes to cover their normal outfits, and carry umbrellas. There's no dancing involved, just everyone strolls down the parade route waving and having a good time.
Snowboard246 Posted April 1, 2011 Posted April 1, 2011 Looks like the perfect day to go if you are a local . I was just up the road at UCF and it was pouring like no one's business, stayed inside pretty much the whole day.
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