Day 5 marked our last full day in Florida and our last day to visit a Disney park. We were all awake and up at a decent time, ready to conquer the day. Rich, Grammy and the girls picked up a bunch of meals at Gasparilla Island Grill so we could eat a somewhat quick breakfast in our rooms again. I went with the bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant (the kid-size version) and it was quite tasty.
Magic Kingdom opened at 9:00 and we managed to make it to the gates right after 9:00, where we were greeted with lines. Very long lines. Sigh. So I'm pretty much convinced that they were experiencing technical issues that morning, especially at our Magic Band reader. Half of the kids who went through ahead of us had a problem, which needed to be resolved by someone other than the cast member working the kiosk. And it didn't pick up the finger scan for two of my three either.
Because Emily and Rich had missed out on the Mine Train roller coaster the day before, that was to be our first stop. Even if they hadn't missed out, that probably would have been our first choice to start the day. Tip: If you don't have a FastPass for this ride, try to get in line right when the park opens. This is one of the most popular rides in Magic Kingdom and consistently has long wait times, which become longer as the day goes on.
While we were stuck in line to enter the park, I watched the wait time for Mine Train go from 30 minutes to 40 minutes. We reached the stand-by line around 9:15 (so I guess really the lines to get in weren't that long) and the posted wait time was 45 minutes. A cast member organizing the line announced that the wait could be anywhere between 35 to 50 minutes. Our first FastPasses for the day were for Peter Pan's flight and needed be used by 10:35. Even if the wait time for Mine Train ended up being an hour, we would still have time to make it to Peter Pan's flight before the FastPass window closed.
Unless the ride experiences some sort of problem.
So, yes, that's exactly what happened. The ride would stop and then start up again. And then stop. And then run without any riders. And then stop. And then run with riders. When a ride has problems like this, the stand-by line becomes increasingly slower as cast members push through all the FastPass riders. After waiting in line for an hour and not even getting close to reaching the ride (we were still in line outside), we left. I have to say that while I understand safety issues and concerns are a priority, over our two days at Magic Kingdom, there were several rides (Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, and Small World just to name a few) which were "temporarily closed" many, many times throughout the day. If Disney continues to increase the cost of park tickets, they may want to invest in a better maintenance program.
Patiently waiting in line. So much easier now with older kids.
Needless to say, I was annoyed that we had basically wasted an hour waiting in line for nothing. If we hadn't have left the line when we did, we would have missed the window for our Peter Pan's flight FastPasses. After Peter Pan, we rode Small World (it didn't break down this time) and then we walked over to Frontierland and rode Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (FastPass.) We had a little bit of time to kill before we could use our FastPasses for Pirates of the Caribbean so we found seats in the shade and looked at menus online while discussing lunch plans.
After we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, we headed over to First Aid so Anna and I could take care of her cathing needs. Rich, Grammy and the girls found a table at Casey's and ordered lunch. I was craving chili cheese fries and these did not disappoint. (Sorry, no food photos. Actually, I feel like I really slacked off on taking photos this trip.)
Rich suggested riding the PeopleMover after we had eaten and we were all in agreement. Unfortunately, Magic Kingdom was not experiencing the lower crowds we had seen the day before. There was actually a line (the cast member was telling guests a wait time of 10 minutes) for the PeopleMover and if you've visited Magic Kingdom before, you know that only during heavy crowds will there ever be a line for this attraction.
We felt pretty happy with all that we had done that morning so we returned to the Grand Floridian for an early afternoon swim break.
Up next: Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table
1 comment:
I can't think of a trip where Seven Dwarfs didn't have maintenance issues since it opened! It's a bit frustrating considering it's a new ride!
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