May 2018 Trip Report – last park day at Magic Kingdom!

Friday

Magic Kingdom

After last night’s kind of late night at Animal Kingdom, we once again slept in a bit and got to the Magic Kingdom right around noon. We had a lunch reservation at the Plaza, a restaurant we really like but hadn’t visited in a while. As we made our way down Main Street U.S.A. we stayed to the right and enjoyed some time in the Confectionary, a place we visit often but usually just for short periods. Here we shopped for treats for loved ones – we usually get requests for Mickey bars. Can you ship a case home? If they offered that they’d make a killing. Anyway, we headed to the Plaza and really enjoyed it – I shot some areas in the Hub while we waited to be seated, then went in. Once again we split a few entrees among us: meatloaf, hamburger, and club sandwich, all were great. I think we did a pretty good job on this trip on not overspending on food, opting rather to split dishes where we could. Not a bad idea if you know you’ll end up with a ton of food you can’t carry around the rest of the day.

We then headed to Tomorrowland – you know how people head into World Showcase and mostly turn left? Well, for whatever reason 99% of the time we turn right at the Hub. I’d rather head straight to Pirates but hey, I almost always make it there eventually. Anyway, we went on the PeopleMover, and afterwards, for the first time ever, went on the AstroOrbiter while the kids went to Carousel of Progress, probably about a 15 minute wait for AstroOrbiter, so by the time we were done, the kids were coming out of the Carousel of Progress. Couldn’t have planned it better.

From there we headed over to it’s a small world to let the kids do that while my wife and I went to Haunted Mansion. No FP for either, and the kids wound up waiting about 10 minutes to ride, while we walked on to Haunted Mansion. No time even to enjoy details in the queue! I don’t mean that to complain but I do enjoy waiting (a bit) in some of the queues because of the theming.

I’d really been looking forward to shooting the Haunted Mansion again. It’s very difficult to shoot because it’s so dark. Getting the right camera settings and focus is very difficult. Autofocus doesn’t work well on most cameras because there’s just too little light, so using Autofocus assist can work, but it’s almost like flash photography (of course, the #1 not-to thing in dark rides) in the sense that it uses a light (in the case of my Nikon an amber light) to bounce off objects and help focus the camera. Since I had this turned off I didn’t even try autofocus. I should have, because I got MAYBE 2-3 shots that may be ok. I’ve been too disappointed in my quick review to even look closely. My manual focus skills are awful. I really have to work on that if I ever want good shots in Haunted Mansion or Peter Pan’s flight. But it was fun to revisit a classic Disney dark ride.

Next we visited Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel, covered by scrims during the refurb. The scrims do a nice job of masking work areas, but it was different seeing the carousel in what seemed a much less aesthetic state. But it was fun riding with my girls.

From there we walked right to Philharmagic, yet again taking advantage of more accurate wait times in the Lines app, as opposed to official wait times posted at the attraction entrance. I spent more time watching our 6 year old marvel at the 3D than the actual show. It really is a great attraction.

We headed over to Hall of Presidents, using that side path along Cinderella Castle to Liberty Square, right into the attraction. We hadn’t been in there in about 9 years I guess, and I really wanted to see the Trump animatronic. I’m not going to get political here, other than to say the animatronic looks hideous in my opinion (so I guess guests are either thrilled or horrified at this). And the mannerisms during the introduction of the other presidents are really odd. Granted, I don’t spend a lot of time studying Trump and his gestures, and maybe he really does those things while supposedly standing still, but I couldn’t help but get the impression Disney Imagineers were trolling him with the animatronic. I mean, the face looks more like Hillary Clinton than him. So kind of funny in a dark way, I guess. One odd thing I also noticed – uniformed security guards in the theater. I’d never noticed that before. After the show, and while the crowd was exiting, I asked one of the guards if they were in the theater to prevent more outbursts. He told me they’d always been in the theater, but now a little more obvious than before. So I think the unsaid response really was they’re in there to respond if something were to occur. Sad, but that’s where we seem to be right now, and that’s all I’ll say on that.

Next we went to the Swiss Family Treehouse, always good to do, but especially in the late afternoon and evening. The kids really like how it’s so much like the movie. I couldn’t agree more. And then we went on the Jungle Cruise, a true classic.

We had dinner at Columbia Harbor House, using mobile ordering, which I highly recommend if you want to cut in line without really cutting in line. We used it a few times on the trip and it worked really well. Order what you want, pay, and the waits weren’t that bad to pick up food. Now, as this becomes more popular I’m not sure what’ll happen, or what’ll happen during those 9/10 or 10/10 crowd level days, but I’m sure they’ll deal with it.

One other note about Columbia Harbor House – the upstairs seating area is awesome. It’s bigger than you’d expect, nice, clean, almost never crowded, and easy to get a window seat and crowd watch. We shot a timelapse from there while we ate, and hopefully I’ll remember to post it. Not exactly groundbreaking video, but neat to see nonetheless.

So then on to Pirates of the Caribbean, my favorite all time attraction, and another chance at dark ride photography. Also a chance to see the new beach scene, and change to the auction scene.
Let me start by saying I liked the attraction as it was, but now am ok that I’ve seen the changes. At least the water still smells the same. Once again I got a few good shots, but mostly clunkers. Overall, I was disappointed in my dark ride shots on this trip. But I think I know what to try next time, but unfortunately we don’t schedule trips regularly, so it could be a year, or several, before we go again. But I know I’ll be better with a camera the next time, so hopefully I really can get some great shots.

Up to this point we hadn’t gotten Dole Whips, so we headed to Aloha Isle. If you only use mobile ordering in one place, this is probably where to do it. There was a long line, and we blew by everyone else and had our Dole Whips in hand in a couple of minutes. I got great shots of some happy kids having Dole Whips on a hot evening. Great times.

We had to do a couple of classics again, so we headed to Winnie the Pooh, followed by Dumbo. We had split FP after this for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for 3 of us, and Under the Sea for the others. This also worked really well, timing wise, because we all finished up right at the same time. It was our first time on the Mine Train, and we really liked it. Not a terribly fast or stressful ride, especially with the slowdown in the mine, but the queue theming and the theming throughout the ride is excellent. I shot some good GoPro video. We had a ride stoppage right at the Dwarves’ cottage, so I shot the “dancing scene” or whatever you’d call it for a good little while.

It was now after 8pm, and time to head somewhere to watch Happily Ever After. As you’d expect, the Hub was super crowded, so we wound up near the Train Station to watch the show. Not the best spot, but also not super crowded. I setup my camera on the tripod, got dialed in as best I could, and waited about 15 minutes. And then I shot away. I didn’t get professional grade shots, but for me the ones I got were pretty good, and I’m hoping the edits I’ll do later will really bring out the details. And we were positioned for a quick exit once the show was over. So it was back to Animal Kingdom Lodge for our last night there.

As usual when leaving one of the parks for the last time on a trip, I had a feeling of happiness mixed with a bit of melancholy. For those of you who go pretty regularly (and truth be told, so do we since we go on average about every 2 years, but not scheduled every time) maybe you’re not quite as sad since you know you’ll be back in several months, or for sure next year, or whatever. But I always feel like time stands still in the parks – I’m not ready for my kids to grow up and leave, and if anything, I’d turn back the clock if I could. Being at the parks helps me capture that feeling better than any other place than the close by beaches where we’ve vacationed. Don’t get me wrong, every year watching each of our children grow up has been amazing, and I enjoy them now immensely, but I’d give anything to go back to a time when each of them were little. Maybe that’s yet another draw for going on Disney trips – it’s ok for everyone to be a kid. I think we somehow need more of that in everyday life somehow.

According to Apple Watch: Magic Kingdom 16,556 steps 7.3 miles