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Welcome back to another edition of ParkSpotting!
Today we take a quick stroll thru the kingdoms of all kingdoms, the Magic Kingdom. It has been a while since I have been in this park, since Christmas actually, and it was nice to see spring in the air and in the flowers.
Walking under the train station into Main Street is supposed to feel like entering a stage or a movie theater and with all these wonderful Disney posters adorning the walls it’s easy to feel that. The Wishes poster is a new addition to the collection and it is splendid and even features a pair of Oswald ears.
Atop the train station Mary Poppins was holding court and even showed off her umbrella, Polly, to these two delightful guests. The train station is the perfect spot to find a surprise character or two.
With the holiday season over, all the parks are in construction and rehab mode, which you can obviously spot as you enter Magic Kingdom with a big crane next to Cinderella Castle to remove the Christmas lights. This season is still a great time to come to the parks both for it’s beautiful weather and less crowds, despite the visual intrusions.
From Main Street I wandered back to New Fantasyland to check out our new little coaster. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train continues to be the Magic Kingdom’s most popular ride with a long standby queue and FastPass+ disappearing fast. I may not think that the ride is worth a 90-minute wait, but it is definitely a ‘don’t miss’ attraction.
Less-than-impressive sisters and mother were playing around with guests at New Fantasyland. If you can, make sure to meet up with Lady Tremaine and the ugly stepsisters because they are always hilarious.
The new interactive queue at Peter Pan’s Flight is practically finished, so I jumped into the standby line even though it was a 60-minute wait. To see the new queue you unfortunately can’t use FastPass+, so try and get in the standby line during the parade, fireworks or early morning for a shorter wait.
The interactive queue is incredibly well done and will entertain you while waiting in line. Both adults and kids enjoy seeing Tinker Bell fly around and playing with Peter Pan’s shadow.
To see more photos and video from the new queue, click here.
Cinderella’s Royal Table is currently undergoing refurbishment too and will be back open March 7th. Cast members were stationed at the castle informing confused guests that they could instead dine at the other Magic Kingdom castle, the Beast’s castle. With the Be Our Guest restaurant usually fully booked, it was a nice surprise that they could get guests in on such a quick notice.
The interactive game “Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom” has been around in the park for a long while, but a lot of people still seem to enjoy playing it.
Walking over to Liberty Square, I ran into Tiana and Naveen. These two are always an enjoyable character experience and so on point!
Over in Adventureland, some refurbishment was also going on next to Aloha Isle. The Dole Whip treat is still one of the most popular ones in the park and an extension of the small little stand would be much needed.
In Adventureland the new Island Supply by Sunglass Hut is now open. Selling designer sunglasses in Adventureland does feel like an odd fit and I can’t say that I saw many shoppers snagging glasses in there, but it does look nice and airy.
A new mural has showed up on the exterior of the Tiki Room making the building look more bright and colorful.
The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is rumored to go down for a lengthy refurbishment later this summer and as one of my favorite rides I try to make sure to get at least one ride in every time I visit Magic Kingdom. As one of the park’s oldest rides though, I’m happy to hear it may get a little bit of much needed refresh.
Back at the hub I checked out the new Move It, Shake It, Dance and Play It Street Party that now incorporates the audience to vote for a favorite song. With a new song and fewer characters, this new version of the Street Party has received some complaints from fans, but it doesn’t seem like it has discouraged the average guest from enjoying it as the party was super crowded this day.
The trend of really snazzy popcorn buckets continues with this Seven Dwarfs Mine Train popcorn bucket that both swings and rolls. I really hope they continue doing new versions of the popcorn buckets, as they are a very fun collectible.
As the sun started to set it was time to head home and I took a last picture of the gorgeous train station. I hope you enjoyed my quick little trip around Magic Kingdom and come back next week for even more trips thru the park in another edition of ParkSpotting.
