Not New Fantasyland Stuff Happening Around Magic Kingdom

With so much attention being paid to New Fantasyland previews, we’ll take a quick peek at what else is going on around here.  As usual, we’re in the bushes…looking over the Polynesian at sundown.

With few opportunities to see Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes during the Mickey’s Party season, Magic Kingdom is significantly busier when both shows are offered, like tonight.  It’s Wednesday October 10th around 7pm and Main Street is already lined with people on both sides.

Storybook Circus continues to look excellent at night.

I understand why “Storybook” and “Big Top” aren’t lit up, but I’m not sure if it really works.

At least we know we’re not in Toontown anymore.

Time will tell how many children will be urinating at Casey Jr. come December.

The Brass Horn Band lights up, but Pete still isn’t tipping his hat.

A slightly different take on the area.  The best part is the cast member with her back towards us on the right.  Very eerie.

Just to be obnoxious, I may do an entire update with this look.

In the courtyard area outside Pete’s Silly Sideshow and the side-entrance to Big Top Souvenirs, twinkle lights have been added to the tree.

They look great – a terrific touch.

Try to reserve judgement until you have an opportunity to visit.  The Circus is pretty lame on paper, but it’s MAGICal in person.

While we’re back here, we’ll try one of the $5.25 Hot Dogs from one of the carts.

As you may recall, there are a ton of tables back here outside the FASTPASS tent.

Otherwise, this is about what you can expect if you’ve ever had a Disney Dog.  They’re all the same.  The taste is fine and the bun tends to be less crumbly with only ketchup and mustard on top.  I don’t think they’re a great value at $5.25, but it’s a heftier snack than the Mickey Pretzel.  Remember that you can order most of the entrees without the side item (fries, bag of chips, etc.) for $2 less than the menu price.  So a Lunching Pad, Casey’s Corner, or Cosmic Ray’s Dog would be just $1 or $2 more and come with more interesting toppings.  But if you have someone after just a plain ol’ Dog, you can pick one up here quickly.  There shouldn’t be anyone in line.

While we’re in the food vicinity, here’s the Turkey and Cheese Sandwich from Main Street Bakery ($6.99):

The Turkey and Cheese Sandwich as advertised.  It was perfectly decent, but you’d be hard pressed to convince me it’s anything particularly special.  Everything was fresh and it’s a generous helping of turkey, even if it’s a bit “front loaded” to look like it’s more than it is.  The lettuce is cleverly placed over the tomatoes to protect the bread from getting too soggy in the case.

The sandwiches are served dry and your only condiment choices are mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup.  I enjoyed the sandwich, but I’m not sure I would choose it over more interesting items elsewhere.  It’s not much more than “just a sandwich” you could make at home.  That said, it’s relatively inexpensive and filling.  Just keep in mind (again) that you can order most other entrees without their sides for $2 less, which drops them to the same price range as the sandwiches.  I don’t have any qualms about recommending the sandwiches, but the ones at Starring Rolls at Hollywood Studios and Sunshine Seasons at Epcot are going to be more interesting.  Most resorts also serve more interesting options.

And now over to Columbia Harbour House.

Harbour House added the Lobster Roll back in August 2011.  I had tried it at Tomorrowland Terrace and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was expecting the same here, but what i received was a runny mess of mayo and green onion.  Other reviews had been better, so I returned for another shot.

And this one does indeed look better.

Great shot, I know.  As mentioned 73.4 times already, I ordered this one without the chips for $7.99, which is $2 less than the $9.99 price on the menu.  But this time they still gave me the one ounce bag of chips, which certainly isn’t worth $2 as far as I’m concerned.  Don’t worry, I’ll send Disney a check for the two dollars.  Or as we’ll see later, throw it into the water near Ned’s boats.

Like the Tomorrowland Terrace version, this pleased.  For any of you “I’m from Maine that is not a Lobster Roll” folks, that’s probably true.  But if it was, Disney would charge you $75 for it.  This was nice and cold and had a nice Lobster flavor.  The bun is light and fresh and only sort of disintegrates underneath the lobster mass.  It’s filling without the gut bomb feeling that you might get if you down one of Pecos Bill’s burgers.  I enjoyed it.

Just about everything is outstanding at Columbia Harbour House, though I’m not crazy about Disney fish.  The Fried Shrimp Platter is one of my favorite theme park meals.  The Lighthouse Sandwich is a nice change of pace for vegetarians and the grilled salmon and salads are very good too.  And the Clam Chowder and Chili are excellent.  If you’re doing one quick service at Magic Kingdom, I’d take a serious look at the menu here and head upstairs to dine, where it’s considerably quieter than any other quick service at Magic Kingdom.

Starting from the front of the Park on Thursday October 11th at 1pm.  Magic Kingdom comes recommended, despite the morning Extra Magic Hour.  These are just about peak-crowd wait times, so you can see why the recommendation carries over.  Pretty nominal across the board.

But it’s still going to FEEL CROWDED in certain parts of the Park.  This walkway is one of them.  The area outside the entrances to Splash and Big Thunder Mountains is another.  Once Disney builds an additional walkway ahead, hopefully some of that will be alleviated.

Disney has a new Buy More, Buy More offer.

With the reversible tote.

And throw.  The tote is actually one of the more attractive they’ve offered.

If you’ve ever walked past Peter Pan’s Flight in the afternoon, you’d know that the average wait time in the afternoon is around 50 minutes.  35 isn’t bad at all, though we certainly don’t want to wait that long, which is why Pan is usually recommended before 9:30am and/or with FASTPASS.

We’ll pop onto “it’s a small world.”

Diners at Pinocchio Village Haus looking over the loading area.

“Welcome to the happiest cruise that ever sailed.”  Clearly they have not been on a booze cruise out of Fort Lauderdale.

I am crestfallen to report that THIS OOMPAH BAND MEMBER IS ONLY RINGING ONE OF HIS BELLS!  SHUT IT DOWN!

Everything is so stereotyped in here.  Western River Expedition would have been such a disaster.  The Chinese are the only ones that don’t have “real” eyes as far as I remember.  Just two arches painted on their faces.

This hippo has a lazy eye.  It would be nice if Disney would call a veterinarian or transport him over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch for an eye exam.  Glasses may be in order.

No clue.

Okay, guitar playing cacti are something I can get behind.

Haters? Gonna hate.

One Kalua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise please.  Oh, wrong Park?

I seem to remember a request for koala pictures, so here are a few:

They are awfully cute!

Clowns…in hot air balloons…

No stereotypes here.

Speaking of balloons, Felix Baumgartner was nice enough to send in this photo during his 24 mile descent from the edge of space.  It shows construction ramping up at the Urinate w/ Rapunzel in NewFantasyland Experienece (Trademark).  The acronym is URINE.  They are Rapunzel-themed bathrooms if the correlation isn’t clear.

Short waits at the biggies.  It’s around 2:40pm with FASTPASS out to 3:20pm.

Over at Splash, which will be down for refurbishment from January 2 – March 19.

With no wait at Pirates, we might as well jump on.

No additional queue modifications that I noticed.

And no mermaids yet.  Word is that new effects have been installed but not turned on.  And the mermaids may or may not pop up sometime in the near future.  If that helps.

Don’t mind if I do.

Price is of no consequence.

Shot at ISO 51,200 if you can believe that.

I think I’d take my chances with a pit of snakes over a pit of pigs.

Just another day in my life.

I had ignored requests for Pirates of the Caribbean merchandise pictures because there’s so much of it and it’s always busy because the ride’s exit pours into the shop.  But here’s roughly 54.3% of the merchandise:

At anyone accusing me of taking pictures of “belly shirts,” you’re more than welcome to go into business against me and get on your hands and knees to take pictures of t-shirts.  I do occasionally, but I’m getting old.

Unfortunately the picture of the toys was blurry.  Speaking of ride exits, Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid doesn’t send you through a gift shop.  Mind blown?

Aladdin’s Magical Carpets will be down for refurbishment from October 18th through October 25th.  The ride is operating now, but walls are already up.

Shrunken Ned’s Junior Jungle Boats have been permanently removed.  You can still throw $2 into the water and the experience will basically be the same as they were rarely working properly.

A few possibly new shirts:

And some more Frankenweenie stuff, probably just here through Halloween:

Unless they ordered exactly 15 of each, look for it at the outlets.

Disney inquired as to whether I wanted to complete a “short survey.”  Pro tip: they are rarely short.  This one centered on what I had to eat.  They wanted to know if I thought there was a good selection of healthy items and my experience at any quick services/restaurants I ate at.  I wish they had asked about the Pork Glop Platter or Angus Pizza Burger, but I only had the Lobster Roll that day.

They were also interested in my Internet access, presumably for FASTPASS+ purposes.

Speaking of FASTPASS+, this odd structure has popped up at the turnstiles.

Not sure what it means.  RFID hasn’t been going so well at the resorts with cards that often don’t work and can’t be reprogrammed without the guest picking up a new card.

Across the water at Grand Floridian Vacation Club construction, which seems to be at a standstill.  Every time I’ve gone by over the last few days, no one’s been working.

People complain about the Sorcerer’s Hat over at Hollywood Studios, but what about this Carousel.  I am totes getting photobombed right now!

I pushed the carousel to the side.  Like a good Disney blogger, I am constantly pushing people out of the way so that no one is ever in the pics.

You silly silly castle.  You will never live up to the expectations of Beast’s Castle!  Stop trying you oversized glut!

I really can’t overemphasize how bananas Main Street is before the Parade when it’s offered on limited nights.  This is the scene about 15 minutes before the Parade steps off.  You don’t want to be trying to exit at this time.  It’s easier if you walk through Tomorrowland via Tomorrowland Terrace and then head through the shops.  Or from the other side, walking through Adventureland and then over past Crystal Palace and into Casey’s Corner through the shops is also viable.  But there are so many people around that it’s pretty uncomfortable.

Oh, I almost forgot bad quality pictures of Little Mermaid merchandise available at Sir Mickey’s:

Dinglehopper………brush.  I wanted a giant fork!

$14.95.

And Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom shirts.  Between these and Oswald Ears……

Belle no longer greets guests at Town Square Theater – she has been replaced by Aurora on a permanent basis, now that the Belles do the Enchanted Tales Thing.  Snow White moves into the spot previously occupied by Aurora in between City Hall and Chamber of Commerce on the left side of Main Street.

And we’ll finish things off with an in-depth review of the French Vanilla Iced Coffee ($3.99) from Sleepy Hollow Refreshments.  For four bucks, I thought this was a pretty sad size.  12 ounces?  I was thirsty, so I drank it in “literally” 30 seconds.  It tasted pretty good though.  It’s not much of a value at four dollars, but it’s cold and tastes like a vanilla iced coffee.

It’s crowd calendar update time.  I’m headed to a Lasseter Family wine seminar on Tuesday along with mini-golf at Universal.  Wednesday is an Italy Regional Lunch.  Tough life.