April 22, 2014: Magic Kingdom Observations and FastPass+ Fun

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April 22, 2014: Magic Kingdom Observations and FastPass+ Fun

It’s been a while since I’ve taken you guys with me on one of my after work weeknight adventures and I thought we were due for a few magical hours in the Magic Kingdom. Taking a look at the photo below you can tell the crowds certainly haven’t cleared out from Easter yet! I was worried we wouldn’t get the most out of the night because it was so busy. But I managed to snag some great FastPass+ times that I’m excited to tell you about! Unfortunately, if you take a look at the clock in the photo below you’ll see that I was going to be late for my first FastPass+ reservation that expired at 6:45pm. Eek! Let’s hurry!

Luckily, even though I was a solid 10 minutes late for my appointment with the Haunted Mansion they let us through with no issue. I’ve heard you can be up to 15 minutes late for a FastPass+ and 5 minutes early without getting into trouble. I’m glad they let us in because I was able to get this photo of the grave digger. He’s still a little out of focus but this is the closest I’ve gotten to a decent photo of him. He’s sort of my white whale of photography!!

Oh – and these guys wanted to say hello too. They said something about following you home…

After the Haunted Mansion we decided to wonder over to It’s A Small World thinking that it would have a short line. Wow, was I surprised to find the wait at 25 minutes! Just across the street was a 70 minute wait at Peter Pan. Being a TouringPlans gal there’s no way I’m waiting in lines like that! We decided to move right through Fantasyland and onto Tomorrowland where Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover consistently has one of the fastest moving lines in the park. Boy am I going to miss it when it goes down for refurbishment soon. (You can find a full list of refurbishments here.) Anyone remember where you can find the below scene?

When we finished our spin around the highway in the sky we were just in time for our Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin FastPass+. It was right next door so we scanned our magic bands and were on in a flash. I took several pictures while on the ride, but I liked this one the best. It looks like Zurg is reaching out to pinch that target!

When we exited the ride I was totally drawn to the sunset. I love this time of year when I can get to the park after work and still watch the sun sink down behind the castle. There’s just nothing more beautiful! Now since I hadn’t brought a tripod with me there was no way to correctly expose the castle and still catch the bright colors in the sky. I decided to leave the castle a shadow. I thought about photoshopping out the streetlamps, but I think they add depth. What do you think?

After my hubby was able to drag me away from the setting sun we went to see his favorite attraction: Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. They tried something I hadn’t seen before that was really fun! Rather than the two headed monster telling people about different cities (the Eiffel Tower!), they told the story of the original Monsters Inc. with different people in the audience drafted to play the various roles. They picked the cutest little girl to play Boo! Everyone did a great job, and the audience roared with laughter! Needless to say, we generated enough giggle watts for Roz to open the doors!

Next we headed over to the Tomorrowland Speedway. We scanned our magic bands at 8:22pm for our 8:25pm FastPass+ and got the dreaded flashing blue ring. It ends up that our FastPass+ was for 8:35pm. (Oops!) It’s so hard to keep all these times straight now! We killed a few minutes in Mickey Star Traders then headed back to ride with no issue. I think we end up in this shop so often because I’m mesmerized by this light fixture!

It was so dark outside that my Speedway photos weren’t worth sharing. Next we visited The Magic Carpets of Aladdin with absolutely no wait at all! Knowing that the photos had been lame from the Speedway I took video. Sadly, it ended up equally lame and dark! You’ll just have to take my word that The Magic Carpets were extra magical and so much fun to ride! Afterward we decided it wasn’t a visit to Adventureland without a dole whip! Did you know you can get pineapple and orange swirled together? Look closely – it’s the best!

So are you still reading? If so boy do I have a treat for you! After we finished our dole whips it was just 20 minutes until the fireworks so I decided to grab a spot in the Swiss Family Treehouse. Now, this spot has a very obstructed view and the music is not piped in, so it isn’t for everyone. But what it lacks it makes up for with privacy. I almost never have to share this spot. Imagine your own fireworks viewing perch high up in a tree. And if you take a look at the photo below the view isn’t half bad either!

After the fireworks ended we ran over to Pirates of the Caribbean for a quick ride with no wait. The timing was really off on the cannonball explosions after the drop. We caught every single one and I was soaked! At least Captain Jack was looking good!

We could have had our pick of any ride in the park, everything was a walk on wait. I had my sights set on The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh so we set off in that direction. Imagine how bummed I was when they were evacuating the ride as we walked up. We decided to just stroll out of the park rather than backtracking into Fantasyland. We looked in at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train but there wasn’t anything to see. No cars were testing so it was just the same boring mountain it has been. As we crossed the bridge Celebrate the Magic was firing off finale fireworks. It was my very own kiss goodnight!

I’ll spare you the details on the boring trip back to the car. I will say since there was a second parade just 15 minutes later it was an easy trip exiting the park. Does anyone have any questions about our night in the park? I have a question for you. I tend to only show the pretty things and skip construction type updates in the park. Would you guys like to see that? Let me know so I can bring you what you’d like to see! Also, what would you guys like to see next? Any requests? I’d love to hear from you in the comment below. As always thanks for reading!