Bricker Family Disney World Trip Report — Pt 5

For late February, it was a shockingly busy day in Magic Kingdom. Sarah and I had no real agenda at this point, so we did quite a bit of wandering and also returned to a few favorite attractions.

We did two loops on the Peoplemover (getting off in between–it seems like ‘no re-rides’ is becoming pretty standard as the attraction regularly has a line) as well as Carousel of Progress. With my milk shake coma worn off, I did not fall asleep this time.

Now that the Peoplemover regularly has a line (sometimes over 10 minutes long!), I’m hopeful that Disney will be able to justify some TLC for it soon. There are a few show scenes that could use some work, and additional show scenes in some of the dark space would also be nice…

I think a new narration would also be wonderful. The last one had a ton of character and quotable lines, whereas the newer one is far less memorable. On top of that, parts of it have been chopped out (most recently, the Stitch’s Great Escape segment).

While I’m hopeful this would happen before Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary, a significant refresh by then does not seem unreasonable.

Given its capacity and the lines it now draws, there’s a strong possibility more guests are riding the PeopleMover per day than more “popular” attractions like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Frozen Ever After. The PeopleMover doesn’t need to be on the same level as those attractions, but it should do a better job at making a positive impression.

While we were in the area, we also headed over to Cosmic Ray’s to see the changes there. A sign outside informed guests of the new policy that you could order anything from any bay.

I’m sure this will make guests happy, as this was a common complaint voiced by commenters in our Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe Review.

We were more curious about what was happening with Sonny Eclipse during the restaurant’s expansion. He is one of our favorite aspects of Magic Kingdom, and we’ve spent many a late night in Cosmic Ray’s listening to one of his sets all the way through.

On this particular day, we grabbed cups of water and made ourselves coffee, listening to his loop (“Planetary Boogie” and “Bright Little Star” are two of the greatest theme park songs ever) before heading out.

It’s interesting how popular this restaurant is. First, they enclosed the outdoor seating a couple of years ago, now more seating is being added to the main dining room.

Yet at the same time, Tortuga Tavern and Tomorrowland Terrace are seldom open. I suppose it comes down to a mix of location and menus, but it still seems odd that Disney wouldn’t want to find a way to utilize those locations and spread out guests a bit.

After this, I ran around a bit, holding out some hope for a cool sunset despite there being zero cloud-cover…

This is undoubtedly the most photos I’ve ever posted of the dumb street party thing, and this is either an intentional move as I’m targeting the coveted demo of fans of this thing…

…or because I got I happened to get stuck in the Hub while it was going on.

The sunset was a bust, so we headed back to Tomorrowland, for a dusk spin aboard the PeopleMover…

The upside to the clear sky was that it coupled with the brightness of the full moon made for a really deep and vibrant dusk sky.

We wandered around enjoying this ambiance, and I captured a few photos of the full moon over Magic Kingdom along the way.

Choosing the location for our final viewing of Wishes was difficult. The center of Main Street just past Casey’s Corner is my absolute favorite location, and where I believe the show is meant to be viewed.

However, Main Street was already chaotic before Once Upon a Time.

We didn’t want our final viewing of Wishes to be spent shoulder-to-shoulder with people, and blemished with the irritation of pop-up shoulder kids and above-the-head iPadography.

So, decided to look elsewhere…

To our surprise, shortly before the Once Upon a Time was to begin, the rail directly opposite Crystal Palace was completely open.

This was probably because the clear view from this area was lined with strollers, but it’s easy enough to slide those over.

This was the perfect way to say goodbye to Wishes. There’s a certain magic to seeing the bright light of the fireworks reflecting off of the water, and this location is so peaceful.

I couldn’t help but get a little choked up during the finale. I’ve never been a huge fan of Wishes, but we have so many memories of watching this fireworks show together.

Hearing Jiminy Cricket’s voice before Wishes instantly takes me back to our summer trips during college during which we’d camp out for the “best” SpectroMagic spots, and watch that parade and the fireworks.

For many years, Jiminy was essentially your evening host in Magic Kingdom…

For us and many others, Wishes being retired represents the end of an era in Magic Kingdom. I think its replacement is long overdue, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make me a bit emotional to have it come to an end.

As Disney knows, nostalgia is a powerful drug!

Magic Kingdom was closed at this point, but it was still very early, which meant a ton of people were just lingering around the Hub.

After about 10 minutes, it became obvious the park was not going to clear out anytime soon, so we decided to cut our losses.

Rather than waiting in a long line for the boat or bus, we decided to walk over to the Contemporary and see if there was any availability in California Grill’s Lounge.

We must’ve beaten the rush arriving via the monorail (and arrived just after the fireworks crowd had left), as there was plenty of seating when we arrived, but it filled up shortly after we were seated.

I’ve already written about our experience at the California Grill Lounge in our review of that, so I won’t rehash it here. Suffice to say, that experience really makes us want to revisit California Grill.

Our goal is to do the Deluxe Disney Dining Plan again soon and leverage that to do a bunch of Signature Restaurants and character breakfasts. With our meal finished at California Grill, we headed back to Fort Wilderness, said our goodbyes, and concluded our Walt Disney World vacation.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable trip with my parents. Moving from the Midwest has meant that we don’t see them nearly as much (even though they, ahem, have an open invitation to our guest room in California), so it was nice being able to spend a week with them at Walt Disney World, and especially fun revisiting elements of our family vacations to Walt Disney World from when I was a kid. It was fun seeing different things from their perspective, even though that perspective doesn’t really deviate that much from my own with regard to most things. With that, we’ll wrap up this Walt Disney World trip report. Hope you enjoyed reading it!

Your Thoughts

Are you a fan of the Move It! Shake It! Whatever It! Roaming Noise Festival? If Disney offered a Kickstarter to get rid of it, would you donate? 😉 What do you think about Wishes ending its run? Any thoughts about anything else we discuss in this installment of the trip report? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your questions and thoughts in the comments below!