Splash Mountain Could “Literally” Kill You, Rapunzel Rapunzel, Corn Dog, Not Mickeyroni, Recommended with EMH! – Magic Kingdom 11/29/12

We’ll take a short break from what needs to be done to head out to see what’s happening at Magic Kingdom these days.

The weather has been beautiful with highs in the mid to upper 70s.  I haven’t been rained on in weeks.

The Christmas Parade Taping is today (Friday) and tomorrow.

Magic Kingdom is hosting a morning Extra Magic Hour, but it also closes at 7pm for Mickey’s Christmas Party.  Most of the time, Magic Kingdom isn’t recommended when it hosts a morning Extra Magic Hour.  There are a few reasons for this.  One of the biggest is that Thursdays often have longer operating hours and both nighttime spectaculars in addition to the EMH, when other days during the week (particularly Tuesdays and Wednesdays) don’t.  This attracts on-site and off-site visitors alike.  The second is that Disney markets Extra Magic Hours very well and a lot of people staying on-site believe it’s Disney’s way of dictating where they belong each day.  With 75,000+ people having access to Extra Magic Hours on any given day, you can probably guess which Park we want to avoid most of the time.

In September through December, you’re more likely to see Magic Kingdom recommended on a morning Extra Magic Hour day if the Magic Kingdom is also hosting a Halloween or Christmas Party.  The 7pm close and lack of evening entertainment are a huge turnoff to a lot of casual vacationers who equate a longer day with being able to accomplish more.  Of course, the opposite is usually true as those later closes attract so many additional people.  This is 2:25pm so this is about as long as wait times are going to get.  And as you can see, they’re pretty nominal.  And as we walk around, we’ll find that posted waits are even shorter.

Tiki Room is only getting more popular since the refurbishment returned it to “Walt Disney’s.”  I don’t know if you can tell because there’s “literally” nobody waiting, but there were at least two people talking about getting in line.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a pretty good gauge of how “crowded” Magic Kingdom is on any given day.  When crowds are light, the posted wait is going to be 5 or 10 minutes.  15 – 20 minutes means there’s a decent number of people in the Park.  Anything above 20 minutes is pretty busy.  40+ minutes and Magic Kingdom is slammed.

Per usual, there are a lot of people hanging out outside Big Thunder and Splash Mountains.  It’s a small area.  There are a lot of people that decide not to ride and are just hanging out.  They’re two of Magic Kingdom’s most popular attractions.  Etc.  It’s almost always “busy” around here, despite the 30 minute wait at Big Thunder, which is really pretty low.

A 10 minute wait over at Splash.  FASTPASSes for both are just 40 minutes in the future.

Splash is in pretty bad shape at the moment.  To the point where there are actually tarps covering the load/unload area.

The story is that a piece of the building fell and crashed into some of the logs.  Fortunately, no one was hurt.  I have no idea if that’s true, but there’s certainly a reason for those tarps.

If you have the endurance, you can read this 400+ post thread over at WDWMAGIC about it.

Short waits are due to cooler temperatures.  If it was July, the wait would be 90 minutes instead of the three I waited.

Disney controls how wet you get and chances are good that you won’t get very wet when temperatures are sub-75-degrees.

But you never know.  I was in the second row and barely got wet at all.  I would say 19.7 droplets.  The people in the front row did get wetter.

I’m not smart enough to tell you everything that isn’t working on the ride.

But I don’t think it really matters.  99.99% of the people exiting the ride have a smile on their faces.  And if they don’t, it isn’t because the seventh fox you see that moved its mouth in 1987 isn’t at the moment.

The Disney $4.29 Corn Dog.  What presentation!  These are available all over – this one in particular was purchased at Westward Ho.

Okay, that’s a little more epic.  When in doubt, just turn up the “clarity” in Lightroom.  I don’t find the Corn Dogs to be much of a value.  They’re basically State Fair Brand quality and size.  As we’ll see shortly, for not much more than an extra dollar you can come away with an entire Kid’s Meal.

If you have the misfortune of following any of the usual suspects on Twitter, you have undoubtedly heard about the Rapunzel Tower at the Urinate with Rapunzel in New Fantasyland Experience (URINE).

It’s unpopular with the “Oh Disney did something?  It must suck” crowd because it’s tall and you can see it from Liberty Square.

I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure towers are supposed to be tall.

I’m sure Disney would like me to remind you that an Experience can be booked up to 180 days in advance by calling 407-WDW-DINE or your travel agent.  $10 per person cancellation fee.  How Disney can get away without a 1-800 number befuddles the mind.  Want to book Universal?  Yeah, 1-877-801-9720.  Granted, who doesn’t have a $150/month cell phone bill these days, but still.

Maybe I should care if you can see the tower from the Haunted Mansion queue?  These same people don’t seem to be bothered by our view of the Contemporary Resort from Splash Mountain a few pictures ago.  Walt wanted you to see that though so it’s okay.

“Imagineer Chris Beatty” looking at it.

A reminder that stroller parking is over there on the right.

It helps unclog the walkway.  Things should be helped even more when the new bathroom area opens as it will connect with Haunted Mansion.

It’s so big. I wonder if it will dwarf everything else that’s back there.

Disney has a few new entertainers out in New Fantasyland.

I’m not sure this is a better idea than simply adding four characters to the Park.  Scrooge McDuck and the nephews would be 10.7x more spectacular.  Or just a toy soldier and reindeer from the Christmas Parade.

Hopefully it won’t put the Pinocchio Village Haus hokey-pokey-ers out of jobs.

Enchanted Tales with Belle continues to see some of the longest afternoon waits.

The only attraction with a longer wait is Journey of the Little Mermaid (55 minutes).

Journey of the Little Mermaid FASTPASSes aren’t connected to the FASTPASS system, just like Dumbo and Mickey.  This means you can pull FASTPASSes for one or more of those along with any other attraction that is connected to the system.  PhilharMagic FASTPASSes continue to print with Dumbo and Winnie the Pooh FASTPASSes come with a bonus FASTPASS for Dumbo.  I collected FASTPASSes for Little Mermaid, then Dumbo, then Barnstormer.  Come 4:30pm, I could basically walk on to four attractions one after the next pretty conveniently.  I have some additional thoughts on touring New Fantasyland here in the forums.

The walkway that connects Storybook Circus and Enchanted Forest is only open when the Park is “busy,” so it was closed today.  Luckily, the walk from New Fantasyland to Storybook Circus is only about three minutes “the long way.”

Bonjour Village Gifts has restocked almost everything.

I was amused by the Be Our Guest Restaurant menu taunting those that can’t get in.

Turns out this may not be a really tall shot glass.  Dual purpose?

New mugs:

The Gaston mugs are larger.

I would guess LeFou’s Brew is selling well.  I’m not sure how many people are interested in a second though.

Which is fine because you can get the same mug filled with the fountain beverage of your choice elsewhere.

I admittedly don’t spend a lot of time in the Journey of the Little Mermaid standby line these days, but posted waits seem to be grossly inflated.

With no one in the extended queue and people walking right into the show building…

Over at Big Top Souvies – tres adorbes.

An apparently see through Barnstormer sleep shirt.  Not necessarily adorable.

The first time I’ve seen Disney baby branded merchandise in the Parks.  CHOO CHOO!

Disney had turned down the water a lot at Casey Jr. Over the summer, you’d be “literally” soaked after standing there for three seconds.

Ordinarily, Fridays are better at the Magic Kingdom when it’s also hosting a Mickey’s Party, but this is more than doable.

I now regret the purchase of my Gaston’s Souvenir Stein over at the Tavern.  Disney is apparently putting random stickers on them and selling them all over, including Sleepy Hollow Refreshments, which “features” a headless horeseman sticker.

Dinner is at Pinocchio Village Haus today.  As always, anyone can orders the Kids Picks.

It’s a pretty decent amount of food for the money (the larger cup is water).

The Macaroni isn’t gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s pretty good, especially if you like the taste of manufactured cheese.

Disney has a ridiculous new “Mickey Checks” program.  It’s unlikely that your child will become obese due to Disney food and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the grilled fish is better for you than a hamburger.  If anything, the calories consumed would be offset by the amount of walking you’re doing.  Of course, that may be less true if you’ve crammed your perfectly-capable-of-walking 15 year olds in a BOB Double Stroller.  Anyway, Disney is going to hold dessert and offer meals that don’t appeal to children.  I would guess the meal I’ve put together would not qualify.

Their cookies are okay – about what you can expect from the prepackaged variety.  Overall, the Kids Picks are a good value and would certainly be a nice snack for an adult.  With two for about $12, you could also double up for the same amount of money as an adult entree and fountain beverage.

A few more short wait times at 4:23pm.

If you see someone claiming Disney World is “crazy crowded” at the moment, you have my permission to laugh.  They probably spent today at Epcot and Saturday at Magic Kingdom.

And at 4:33pm:

On to Epcot quick service.