more magic. less wait.
I’m later than normal getting this out, but Liesle and I stopped into the Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours on Friday, February 5th, mostly to take in some sunshine and so that Liesle could experience the new Skipper Canteen Restaurant. I had been there before myself with Josh from easyWDW, but thought it was time for a more serious — if brief — food review than what I had done previously, even though we’ll just be trying a few items from the menu this trip.
Just a quick update today… I finally got around to eating at the new Skipper Canteen Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom last week. I found the food and the service good.
I will, however, confess that the attempts at “skipper humor” by the staff sometimes left me feeling a bit awkward in the small-audience setting of guests sitting at a single table. (Somehow you can just cringe at the skipper’s jokes when you’re in the larger setting of the Jungle Cruise ride itself. But when your waiter is looking right at you expecting a reaction to his corny joke, you sort of feel obligated to laugh, even if you’re still just cringing inside.)
At any rate, I was able to share lunch with Josh at easyWDW, and I’m sure he’ll be posting much better pictures than my lame cell phone pictures below, along with a more full review.
However, in the spirit of the Jungle Cruise from which the restaurant’s theme is taken, I WANT TO POINT OUT A FEW OF MY FAVORITE DISHES:
This one.
Here’s another.
And this.
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Now… PLEASE GET OFF MY BLOG.
I had enough fun earlier this week using Periscope briefly to live-stream a ride on Expedition Everest, that I thought I’d next try something a little more ambitious.
So, in that spirit, I’ve created a Magic Kingdom RideMax plan for Tuesday, January 19th, that should allow me to visit fifteen attractions by 2:00pm. More significantly, I plan to live stream the entire visit on Periscope. I’ll have my extra phone batteries (and leg muscles) ready to go bright and early Tuesday morning for park opening.
What is it that appeals to me about Periscope for this? Three things, really.
First, Periscope will allow me to show off this RideMax plan in a real-time setting. And since it’s a *live* video, you know that what you see is what you get.
Second, I expect to keep broadcasting even as I’m walking from one attraction to the next, and while I’m standing in line. And although if everything works out the lines should be fairly short, if anyone viewing the broadcast has questions you’d like to ask over Periscope during this lull between rides, I’ll try and answer what I can as I’m moving about the park.
Finally, I’d like to be able to share some of my favorite tips for visiting some of the attractions, and live video seems ideal for doing this.
If you want to join in but don’t want to spend all day watching for your favorite attraction, here is the plan I intend to follow, and yes, I already have those FP+ reservations lined up:
As you can see, the day begins with what might be the ultimate rope-drop challenge in all of Disney’s theme parks, visiting the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I’ll try to show you how I navigate the crowds for this to (hopefully) end up near the front of the line. That 10-minute estimate may look optimistic, but it all depends on how you make your way into the park, and hopefully the live-feed video can allow me to show that.
Looking at this plan you may be wondering if I plan to take a lunch break, and the answer is yes, sort of. I guess I’m cheating a bit by virtue of the fact that, based on the current weather forecast, I expect Tuesday to very cold, and that 31-minute estimated wait for Splash Mountain will instead be closer to 5 minutes. This should give me time for a lunch break somewhere in that timeline, probably right after Pirates.
I also decided I wouldn’t attempt to broadcast a ride on Space Mountain, as there wouldn’t be too much to see in the dark, so it’s omitted from the plan. In addition, Buzz Lightyear is scheduled to be closed for refurbishment, so that doesn’t leave us with much to see in Tomorrowland. Then again, I do have to admit that simultaneously driving and filming the Tomorrowland Speedway should be… interesting.
At any rate, if you want to join in the fun, be sure to follow me on Periscope. I’m new to “scoping” and don’t have a huge following there; this should make it easier to answer your questions as we hit those 15 rides.
I expect that the Magic Kingdom will open at roughly 8:45am, and I’ll start the scope just prior to that time.
I hope to see you on Tuesday!
Here’s a raw Hyperlapse from this morning’s park opening at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, where I made my way from the park entrance to the first in line for 7DMT.
The video has no sound at this point — I’ll likely be adding some verbal “tips” and moving this to the RideMax subscribers area in the next few days, but in the meantime, I thought this would be fun to share.
Warning: This is running at about 8x normal speed, and with all of the camera movement it might make you dizzy watching it. Also, just to clarify, this shows the *walk* from the entrance to the 7DMT boarding area, not the ride itself.
Enjoy!
First in Line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: Hyperlapse Video from Park Entrance to Ride from RideMax LLC on Vimeo.
Just a quick update today. It’s always fun hearing from RideMax customers who found the software helpful. Knowing that we’ve helped folks more fully enjoy their experience in Disney’s theme parks is one of the things that keeps me going.
In that spirit, I appreciated this recent note from Jason, from Salem, Ohio, who used RideMax to plan a trip to Walt Disney World trip with his young daughter.
The software was worth double the cost, easy. I planned a spur-of-the-moment trip to Disney World for my daughter’s sixth birthday. We are a spontaneous family like that, but I’d been there twice before and in order to make sure my daughter got to ride everything I thought she’d like, I knew I needed a plan. RideMax to the rescue.We went to Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot, each for a day. I crammed as much as I could into those days, including being at Magic Kingdom early (we got up at 6, at park by 8:30) and stayed until 11pm. Out of 3 days we missed only 2 rides on our list, but it was mainly due to my poor planning – I didn’t expect the line for Anna and Elsa to be 2 hours.Even though Epcot was on a Sunday, I picked the Friday before because the hours and extended hours closely matched. It was pretty darn accurate.We had a blast all three days and I know we got double the rides in with RideMax.
