Sunday, October 13, 2024

Sat 21 10 Ohana Breakfast at the Polynesian Hotel and Magic Kingdom

We took a 5 min rideshare to Ohana breakfast at Polynesian hotel, we went early for the shops which were average. The Polynesian was beautiful, very reminiscent of Aulani, but with a strong scent which made me feel a bit headachey.

Checked in for Ohana, the cast member was very disinterested, which felt crap at that price point. We have done many character dining experiences and they are usually a highlight, but I really didn’t get that here. The characters just stroll down the middle of the tables, not around to each individual, so one kid is sat down in every photo and the other has the sat down child in front of every photo. The character didn’t really interact with parents, also weird, have had some hilarious interactions at other character dining. On top of that, the lighting is awful, so the pictures aren’t very nice. It just feels poorly thought out, and I did feel like it was a waste of money. It was cool to meet Lilo though, we hadn’t met her before. Just not worth it for us. 

From here we got the monorail to Magic Kingdom, this was excellent, and easy. But on entry to the park they were acting really cagey about letting my husband in, they said they were calling the manager over because there was something wrong with his ticket. I go into full anxiety mode, it made no sense. They shooed me and the kids away, it was very stressful. It looked like they were talking about his tattoos, eventually they let him through, it was because inside of his bicep has Mickey Mouse drinking and smoking, so he had to put a bandaid on it. This is wild to me, as we have been in every park in the world with this tattoo, and have photos in the parks with Mickey of him pointing to the tattoo. There is also 1929 footage of Mickey drinking. Anyway, he covered it up, he wasn’t asked to cover it up at any other point in the trip, the dude is covered in tattoos, I can’t even believe that the cast member spotted it. The way that they went about it was very stressful, but they gotta do what they gotta do 🤷🏻‍♀️ I felt like letting people in in MAGA hats and tshirts was probably less appropriate than a debaucherous Mickey tattoo… It absolutely detracted from our entry experience, I was so anxious and found it hard to settle into the magic. This is the first Disney Castle in the world that I didn’t have a little cry when I saw it, I too wound up.

Firstly, I will say that Magic Kingdom is my favourite WDW park (unexpectedly), yet every attraction feels shorter and lacklustre than other parks, missing parts that we enjoy, worst pirates ever missing half the ride! Not a great big thunder, but Seven Dwarves Mine Train made up for that. We LOVED Country Bears Jamboree, ran into a bear outside, then realised that the bears are always roaming around out the front. Haunted Mansion was fine, Small World was the worst we have ridden. We ate at Pinocchio’s, they had a vegan pizza, nothing else there was very tasty. At 1pm we tried for a virtual queue for Tiana’s Bayou and got it, we LOVED it!!! Peter Pan was very sweet. Seven Dwarves Mine Train was lots of fun, but short. Loved Little Mermaid which is always nostalgic, disgusting meal at Cosmic Rays and finished on Buzz Lightyear.

Magic Kingdom Rides and Attractions and our thoughts overall 

PEOPLE MOVER (interesting ride) 

Adventureland Enchanted Tiki Room (fine, same as the others) 

The Magic Carpets of Aladdin 

Pirates of the Caribbean (missing half the ride) 

Swiss Family Treehouse 

Fantasyland 

The Barnstormer 

Dumbo the Flying Elephant 

Enchanted Tales with Belle 

"it's a small world" (terrible, no Easter eggs) 

Mad Tea Party (did the Halloween overlay at Mickey’s not so scary party, cool) 

Mickey's PhilharMagic 

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (terrible, they are all terrible except Tokyo) 

Peter Pan's Flight (sweet, same as the others) 

Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel Princess Fairytale Hall (nice to meet some princesses) 

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (loved it) 

Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid (always LOVE IT) 

Frontierland Big Thunder Mountain (worst of them all) 

Country Bear Jamboree (loved it, favourite in the world) 

Tom Sawyer Island 

Tianas Bayou (LOVE! We went on this 7 times over the course of our trip) 

Liberty Square 

The Hall of Presidents 

Haunted Mansion (always love it) 

Liberty Square Riverboat 

Main Street USA 

Tomorrowland 

Astro Orbiter 

Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters (fine, same as the others, tips below) 

Carousel of Progress 

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor (not for us) 

Space Mountain 

Tomorrowland 

Speedway (fine, same as the others) 

TRON Lightcycle Power Run (LOVE IT, same as the other one)

Buzz light year astroblasters 

TIP where to hit for high scores! Don’t read if you don’t want spoilers:

Room 1 big robot aim for the target on the inside of its arms Claw above you in transition to next room keep shooting until in second room Room 2 top of the volcano Room 3 zurgs ship there is a 25,000 target at the bottom Transition try to hit the body of the spaceship flying around Need 999,999,999 get a sticker

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