Magic Kingdom Update: December 2018
We return to Magic Kingdom again for a post-Christmas visit to check on the current status of several projects and random stuff around the park, including Tron Lightcycle Power Run, Liberty Square Riverboat, Aunt Polly’s, our New Year’s Eve (eve) visit to Magic Kingdom, and more.
Let’s start with the current hot topic, and that’s holiday crowds. Every year, I see tons of posts about the crowds between Christmas and New Year’s on social media. These usually showcase high wait times for shock value. “X has a Y minute wait time right now, can you believe it?! How long would you wait for it?” is a common formula, but a pointless exercise.
It’s not pointless for the accounts posting about wait times, as there’s usually a lot of emphatic engagement, but it does surprise me that people continue to be upset at or surprised about this. No one with basic theme park knowledge is going to wait that long for those attractions (which is literally everyone responding to that type of post), yet people still feel the need to chime in with their disgust.
We’ve gone on record before and said we actually enjoy this time of year at Walt Disney World, which is a sharp departure from the conventional wisdom of those who mock anyone being so “foolish” to visit this time of year.
To the contrary, we think it can be a good time to visit if you’re armed with savvy strategy. Taking advantage of those 7 a.m. morning Extra Magic Hours, doing a midday break, and returning for the late night operating hours and entertainment is a ton of fun.
For this Magic Kingdom update, I ignored all of my own (good) advice and headed to the park over the weekend during the middle of the day. It’s been a while since I’ve done this during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, and I was mentally prepared for the absolute worst.
I was pleasantly surprised. My trip began at the Transportation and Ticket Center, after I was done capturing photos for our Epcot Update: December 2018 post. I took the monorail to the TTC, where I was expecting chaos and huge lines. To the contrary, there was a ~5 minute wait for the monorail, and no wait for buses to the Magic Kingdom, which were being offered to keep crowds down (kudos).
I chose the monorail, which ended up not being the greatest idea, as the monorail in front of us had technical problems a couple of times en route to Magic Kingdom. Nevertheless, the delays were relatively short. Once I arrived at Magic Kingdom, there was literally no line at the turnstiles. I didn’t have to go through it, but in looking back at bag check, there were also very short lines there, too. I’ve experienced worse in September.
Inside the park, wait times were high. There’s really no disputing that. Space Mountain was above 2 hours throughout my visit, and other wait times appeared to be as much as double what they’d be on a normal busy day. A couple of queues were spilling out into walkways, so I don’t doubt that waits were high. (I also don’t doubt that anything posting 200+ minutes is inflated.)
What surprised me, and what I haven’t heard many people talking about, was the relative lack of crowds. Walkways were not overly congested, and while it definitely felt busy, there was zero gridlock. Again, I’ve experienced worse in the fall and on normal busy days in Magic Kingdom.
A big part of this is due to crowd control. Magic Kingdom is not known for its crowd control, and we’ve been especially critical of that during hard ticket events and around the Central Plaza in the evenings. However, Magic Kingdom’s crowd control team brought its A-game, and throughout busy areas, there were Cast Members with “Keep Right” signs about every 10 feet. (You all are ‘da real MVPs’.)
Even during the Christmas parade, crowd flow was smooth and not nearly as frustrating as I expected. Although I’m a Walt Disney World fan who likes this time of year, I hate congestion and the feeling of helpless being stuck in a gridlocked crowd. In fact, I almost punted on this update, not wanting to hassle with Magic Kingdom crowds this week.
Yesterday, we again returned to Magic Kingdom for the New Year’s Eve festivities. As we note in our Tips for Surviving New Year’s Eve at Walt Disney World post, the Eve of NYE is always significantly less crowded than December 31, but we were once again surprised by just how not bad things were.
For the 9:45 p.m. showing of Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration, we had a better view than we did at the Christmas Parties we attended (save for the midnight runs), and we had a blast on Main Street taking photos and “enjoying” the pop music. (Well, the photo part is true…it still bugs me that they have DJs blasting questionable music in Magic Kingdom, but that’s another story for another day.)
Not wanting to do dinner in Magic Kingdom, we walked over to the Contemporary Resort for Contempo Cafe, which was delicious, as always. Upon returning, there was no wait for bag check or the turnstiles–literally no one in front of us.
Inside the park it was obviously a busy night, but there were more Cast Members working PAC than I’ve ever seen, and by a pretty wide margin. There was a palpable energy in the air, both in guests we encountered (we didn’t observe a single meltdown!) and Cast Members. In particular, the PAC Cast Members were in great spirits, and it seems like guests were feeding off of that positivity.
Fantasy in the Sky was spectacular. The show has been enhanced with some of the lighting effects from Happily Ever After, which is a nice touch. I’ve seen Fantasy in the Sky before, but it has been several years, and I forgot just how wow-inducing that show is.
We avoided the mass exodus immediately after Fantasy in the Sky by ducking into Country Bear Jamboree. Leaving Magic Kingdom ~30 minutes after Fantasy in the Sky ended was smooth sailing–we had a 0 minute wait for the monorail.
Anyway, that’s all a very long-winded way of saying “nice job” to the Magic Kingdom Cast Members on handling heavy crowds thus far this week. I know there’s more “bloggability” in fixating on the asinine wait times, but I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the New Year’s week experience thus far (knock on wood).
Posted wait times are (predictably) ridiculous, but I don’t care. As someone who is pretty much unwilling to wait in any line over 30 minutes, it makes no difference to me whether a posted wait is 60 minutes or 6 hours. Crowd flow is far more important, and it has been great during what could be a brutal holiday week.
We still have some construction and other miscellaneous updates, so let’s quickly cover those…
As with Epcot, Christmas merchandise is on sale.
There’s a lot of “party exclusive” Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party stuff for 25% or more off. This will all move to the outlets in the next week or so.
It’s one of those rare weeks that Aunt Polly’s is open in Magic Kingdom.
To my surprise, the entire seating area here was full; it’d be cool if there was enough demand to justify permanently keeping it open.
Tomorrowland Terrace is also open.
Well, not in the above photo…it was just getting ready to open for the day when this was taken.
Post-MVMCP, most of the party-exclusive entertainment runs during daily Magic Kingdom operations.
The amount of money you’re “saving” by not buying party tickets is probably more than offset in higher peak season costs and crowds, though.
The Walt Disney World Railroad has suspended operations.
It’ll be interesting to see how long this lasts. Cast Members are saying 18 months, but there’s a reasonable chance that ‘rumor’ is coming from the internet, which is purely speculation.
Now approaching… the TRON coaster construction site from the PeopleMover.
It’s tough to tell from this photo, but the walkway to Fantasyland and the WDW Railroad tracks have already been torn up.
It’ll be interesting to see how quickly visible work progresses. This has been a construction zone for a while, but without many significant visible changes.
More has changed in Tomorrowland since our last update, but I have a lot of thoughts on this and we need to wrap things up here and head out to the parks today, so I’ll save that for what should be an otherwise less-interesting January report.
If you’re going to be in Walt Disney World for New Year’s Eve, be safe and pack your patience. So long as you have reasonable expectations and don’t get yourself into any 300 minute lines, it’s generally an incredibly fun and memorable experience. And if you see us, say hello! 🙂
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Christmas and New Year’s crowds at Walt Disney World? Are people crazy to go when wait times are so high, or is it worth it for visiting at such an exciting time of year? Thoughts or insights about current construction projects in Magic Kingdom? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We were at WDW 25-28th. It was our first trip. I was prepared for the worst, and we were pleasantly surprised at every park except MK. It was by far the worst even with the PAC and cast members directing traffic. But we still had a good strategy, rope dropped and only stood in line 90 minutes for Big Thunder (that was all for the kids begging lol!). 35 minutes at AK for Flight of Passage. 20 minutes for Soarin and 35 for SDD. I had a plan and we stuck to it. My Disney agent was very discouraging about us going the week of Christmas and it was amazing. We would go back at Christmas for sure!
I couldn’t agree more about the crowds and MK cast member organization, Tom! We were in MK on Friday and Epcot Saturday. We didn’t find the crowds to be much, if any, worse than when we were here in June! We didn’t wait more than 30 minutes for any rides, thanks to some strategy and luck. In fact, each wait was slightly to moderately shorter than the posted wait time. We also did everything we wanted to do, which was A LOT. As a family of 6, our list of activities gets long! We came from the contemporary and had no wait at security and went through the turnstiles right at 8 without any delay! We saw Mickey within the first 5 minutes of arriving, got into space mountain in half an hour, and got through Tomorrowland attractions by 10:30. The rest of the day followed similarly. Epcot also was crowded but manageable with slightly longer waits than I’ve seen before (30
Minutes for the three caballeros, for example). But we managed to hit all the kid cot stops and get some character time in. The only thing we skipped was test track as that wait was long all day, but if we hadn’t been there 6 months ago we would’ve hopped in line when it got close to the 1 hour wait, which is close to what we waited in June! I was impressed with how well prepared WDW was for the crowds and thought it was managed perfectly!
We were there December 15-22 and had a fabulous time. It was cold most of the week, but I had looked at the weather ahead of time and we brought our Colorado gear and were glad to have it. On the 20th when it POURED, we stayed in bed for the morning, but ventured out to a near empty park for the afternoon/evening. That was when our slinky dog fast pass was and we did ride it in the rain. I can say I rode the ride, but not that I enjoyed it. The rain hitting my eyes hurt so bad that I had to keep them closed almost the whole time. We did each park at least 2 days and just took things easy. I am not willing to brave actual Christmas week. We had a couple of long lost family members unexpectedly join us for a day and they had no plan and no real idea of what or HOW to do Disney World. We helped them the best we could, but seeing their experience made me realize how very important a plan is to making the experience enjoyable and not frustrating. The longest line we waited in all week was 25 minutes for Toy Story Midway Mania. We did every single ride and show at all 4 parks (some many times) except the Voyage of the Little Mermaid because the time didn’t work for it.
The MVMCP we attended was sold out, but it was a nice night and we still really enjoyed it. We did the special event at Tony’s Town Square which I know a lot of people think is a waste of money, but we thought it was perfect for us. We were able to eat some amazing dinner, grab some drinks, head back out to enjoy the party, come back for yummy desserts, grab some more drinks, watch the parade comfortably sitting on a bench on Main Street, eat some more food, have some more drinks, etc.
Just back yesterday from 10 wonderful days at Disney World. My husband and I (ages 68 and 63) flew all night from California. Our flight arrived at 5:30 am on Thursday, 12/20 and we were at Animal Kingdom before it opened. This was the day it POURED ALL DAY. We had our FROGG TOGGS suits in our backpacks- THANKS TOM!!!- pulled them on and headed to FOP. We had a fun DRY day thanks to the Toggs. We also were at the Magic Kingdom on 12/23. One of our daughters flew nearly 5,000 miles on 12/21 and 12/22 to spend the holidays with us. She arrived with a badly swollen knee that she had injured two days before her flight. The 12 hours spent on the plane only added to her misery. Our solution was to rent a wheelchair as soon as we arrived at The Magic Kingdom. The staff on EVERY ride could not have been nicer or more accommodating. After two days, she managed with just the knee brace that we ordered and had delivered to our hotel from Turner Drugs. Because we had fast passes and a great plan, which included arriving at the parks every morning for extra magic hours or rope drop during regular hours, we were able to ride everything including FOP twice. We rode as many rides as we could before 10am, which is when the parks started to get crowded, and then used our fast passes after that to ride our favorites again. Had a couple of rides “crash” so we received fast passes that we could use later or on other rides. Because we didn’t try to ride on anything after 11am (by 11 we had been in the parks and riding for 3 or 4 hours) UNLESS we had fast passes, waits for rides without passes were never more than about 30 minutes and usually less. Exceptions were Nemo at EPCOT and Jungle Cruise, which were way longer than posted times-I don’t know what happened there. Sometimes we went back to our hotel mid afternoon, other times we stayed in the parks. Watched Illuminations from an outside table at Rose and Crown. Viewed the castle and the Frozen Holiday Wish light show in the Magic Kingdom while drinking never ending milkshakes at the Plaza Restaurant. Parks were bustling, but we never felt overwhelmed or gridlocked, and we had a blast! The secret is having a really good touring plan, pre-booking fast passes, and most important, GETTING TO THE PARKS EARLY!!!!
And remember, “If you can’t get out of it, get into it”!
Here’s to a magical 2019!
This is the second time we have done Disney World during Christmas week. Both have been good and I’ve never waited in those multi hour lines thanks to this site and others.
So this year we didn MK on Dec 23, HS on Dec 24, and AK and Epcot on Christmas Day. We spent all day in the parks for 3 days.
On the 23rd, we rope dropped MK. EMH started at 7:00. We arrived at the TCC at 6:20 and walked on the first ferry to the park. We were two out of the 8 people on that ferry. The monorail wasn’t operating until after park opening that day after a series of holds at different places the park we were walked by CMs to the mine train. 10 minutes after EMH started we were off the mine train. We knocked out the entirety of Fantasyland by 9:00(should have been 8:30) and the our first lap of the entire park(sans jingle cruise) by 11:00. It helped we had FastPasses for Space Mountain and Big Thunder. The entire day our longest wait was in the morning at the Little Mermaid ride. It said 30 minutes but took a hour. It all worked out and we rode most rides 2-3 times that day. Overall crowd control we excellent in terms of keeping everyone moving. To end the 14 hr day we were lucky enough to snag reservations for Be Our Guest two days before.
The next day we rope dropped Hollywood Studios. This didn’t work out so well on this day because of the Early Morning Magic ticketed event. They also didn’t do a very good job of crowd control that morning and we didn’t get to the front. Before park opening Slinky was at a 30 minute wait. We ended up off Slinky by 9:00(hr wait) others weren’t so lucky as for those at the end of the line(we were in the middle) waited nearly two hours. They need to work on Crowd control in Toy Story Land. It’s hard because it’s so narrow but it got absolutely packed and hard to move. Overall Slinky was the longest wait. Both times we waited an hour. We ultimately did the three toy story rides twice and the other rides once. We could have done the others twice but we had 5:00 reservations for the Brown Derby and then Fantasmic. Overall this was the busiest day for us in terms of crowds(because was avoided MK on Christmas Day).
On Christmas day we top dropped Flight of the Passage since we didn’t have a FastPass. Through a little bit of luck were on the first ride that day. We were off flight of the passage and on the river journey at official park opening. We then rode Everest three times before completing the rest of the park by 10:30, saw the UP Bird Show st 11:00 and then hopped over to Epcot for lunch and then did most of the rides there with minimal wait.
Overall we have enjoyed both times during Christmas’s. Next year we are doing 8 days at Christmas so we don’t have to cram everything in all at once. Our plan for next year is the rope drop and leave the parks by 11 then come back around 5 and stay until close.
Sheesh Tom, is this like your sixth cross-country trip since early October? You need to research and write up a post about monthly rentals in Orlando from October – December. I love me some DTB like everyone else, but I hope all of the travel you endure isn’t simply for construction updates. That pile of dirt near the speedway is slow going! ; ) With that, I’ll take your take on Sebastian’s myself, but that’s just me.
Just got back from spending Christmas (24-27th) at the parks. I found MK to be a little overwhelming on the 26th, but thanks to Fast Passes and extra magic hours we basically rode every ride (except Flight of Passage) at AK and Epcot without ever waiting longer than an hour. Disney did such a great job with fully staffing every restaurant/food stand and keeping the crowds moving. I was really impressed. Even the lines for MK rides were not too terrible, but they feel much longer because the other parks do a better job of entertaining you in line.
We stayed at the Coronado Springs resort from 12/15 through 12/21 and attended MVMCP.
The Springs was fantastic! Our party of 7 loved the resort without reservation and can honestly say the construction of the hotel and restaurant did NOT impact our stay at all…we would have no reservation about staying there in the future…
The Christmas Tree Trail at Disney Springs was cute and well done; but, the crowds were very heavy and people taking pictures of friends and family in front of the trees slowed the process considerably but it was understandable that people would want to take those pictures, so, no harm – no foul.
Our night at the Christmas Party was fantastic…the parade was awesome and everyone liked the wooden soldiers the best…pricey, but we were glad we did it at least once. Would have to be a few years before we did it again, though…”free” drinks and desserts throughout the park were very good…wait times for rides really weren’t too bad…
All in all, a great trip but as we got to see the Flight of Passage (awesome; just need about 60 more seconds of flight; and, updated Soarin’ very good also. It could also use another 60 seconds to make it an outstanding attraction.)
Biggest disappointment was Frozen…we waited 75 minutes for a ride lasting maybe, and I mean, maybe, a minute that was very underwhelming in presentation…unless your really, really want to see this attraction, just skip it. Certainly do NOT waste a FastPass on it…hot chocolate at the kiosk we visited in EPCOT was outrageously good – almost wiped out the bad taste that Frozen had left in our mouths…
Slinky Dog in Toyland was very neat and our 7 year old grandson declared it the best ride in WDW; and, that’s AFTER doing the Yeti coaster in AK…as usual, the Rock N’Roller coaster was the highlight of HS and we fervently wish this coaster is NEVER eliminated; an update would be OK, but, not really needed, in our collective opinion…
Loved AK, too, especially the Flight of Passage and the wonderful food at the restaurant (its name escapes me at the moment), but the combo beef and chicken bowl was great, as was the sangria.
Sorry for the long version, but, we had such a great time that we are still coming down from the experience…we’ve been to all major “specials” – Halloween Party, Food and Wine, etc. and just the International Flower Show is left…we plan on doing that in 2 years…
Note for Newbies and those who haven’t been to the WDW recently – these blogs are immensely useful in planning your trip and taking advantage of tips you won’t see anywhere else.
Your post is very thoughtful and insightful, but I think it should be noted that Frozen Ever After’s runtime definitely isn’t “maybe, a minute.” Not even close. It’s clocks in right about five minutes (https://touringplans.com/epcot/attractions/frozen-ever-after). I would hate for someone to avoid the ride because of confusion about that.
Concede it’s probably closer to 5 minutes, but, still not worth the time or use of a FastPass…don’t say you weren’t warned…
Many people would disagree, including my family. But that’s ok, we are all entitled to our opinion and what we think makes WDW great (or not so great, lol). But it’s a factual inaccuracy by a country mile to say Frozen Ever After is a minute long. People who are curious can check out the dozens of YouTube ride videos to see the run time. Just don’t watch too long and spoil it!
Went to FL to visit family for Christmas and spent all day on the 26th resort and DS hopping. Started with breakfast at the Contemporary and finished with fireworks from the TTC boat launch. The only place that was terrible for crowds was DS! Even the Monorails and boats around the MK resorts seemed quiet.
My eyes were in “Bricker Scanning Mode” but to no avail…no sightings! Maybe next trip.
I’m embarrassed to reveal both my ignorance and poor puzzle-solving skills, but I’ve been scratching my head trying to figure out the acronym and I haven’t been able to: what are “PAC” cast members?
No shame in that. Had to google it myself! PAC – Parade Audience Control
Happy New Year!!!
We were in Disneyland yesterday and had the same experience – crowds were not nearly as bad as I had anticipated and we got a ton done. I think we rode all but 4-5 rides in the whole park!
I have a friend who is one of the curators for the parks. She told me the downtime for the railroad would be at least 18 months (maybe closer to 2 years) based on the request they got for a budget for building a gallery to display train ephemera at the Main Street station for the duration.
We are going to be there tonight! Would be so cool to see you. We have fast passes this evening so we will do those and then enjoy the atmosphere. This is our last of the four parks this trip. I hope your experience the last few day holds true for tonight as well. Happy New Year!
We spent the week of Christmas 2018 at Disney World and I was expecting the worst. However, we were pleasantly surprised! We got to ride almost everything we wanted to, except for Toy Story Mania which we didn’t fast pass. The longest we waited was 85 minutes for Soarin. We rope dropped Flight of the Passage and had just a 60 minute wait. Magic Kingdom at night was everything I hoped it would be. It was crowded, but not so crowded that we could not enjoy our time. I’m very glad we went.
We were just there, 12/22-12/28. The crowds were heavy buy we did everything we wanted utilizing fast pass or rope drop. I really feel sorry for the people who don’t have a plan or don’t know what to expect. We heard one family at 6pm in Hollywood Studios say all the lines are really long, we will have to get fast passes. People do your homework.
Hi. I’m just a little confused about something. I am from Australia but we are spending Christmas and New Years at Disneyworld and staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. I am currently in bed sick while my family is at the parks and it is only 11:18am on New Year’s Eve. How are you writing about attending Magic Kingdom in the night of New Year’s Eve when it isn’t even midday?
In America we call the day before an Eve , Eve Eve . So yesterday was New Years Eve Eve which means the day before New Years Eve night which was last night and Disney did the first New Year firework show last night on Eve Eve and will do it again tonight on New Years Eve. Hope you’ll get to enjoy it tonight !
Or for the religious you can always call it New years Adam – after all everyone knows Adam came before Eve….
On a more related note – spent the 20th-24th in the parks, and while crowded they certainly weren’t overwhelming. especially the mickey party on the 20th – despite drizzle (or maybe because of it) the crowds were very manageable.
We went to Magic Kingdom on Sunday, December 23rd just for the day. I chose the supposed off day of that time period. We stayed on property to take advantage of early entry. I have a bad leg . Trams in parking lot don’t operate during early entry. We drove because we were at the Hilton property that uses their own buses to transport people to the transportation center. We were in the park by 7:20 and went straight to mermaid ride. It broke down . They gave us an extra fast past. We didn’t get on a ride until 9 am. Top that one! Unbelievable. And the last thing to happen to us before stepping on the ride was that they stopped us to put fast pass people in front of us. . I blew. It was probably my last shot with the fam at the park. It is just unbearable when you spend extra money to stay on property, do everything in your power to get some rides in before the total chaos and still get screwed because Disney won’t implement restrictions so that everyone can enjoy themselves. I brought a little golf seat with me that was a life saver and still had to eventually leave due to the soreness of the leg after all the standing and waiting even though we maximized our fast passes and used many of your tips …….. I stood and felt guilty for all the kids and families who are struggling to put food on their table or buy presents and I’m stuck waiting in ridiculous lines because Disney doesn’t want to put limits to maximize their $$. Shame on all of us I guess . And they made me put the golf seat away for the parade. (I understand they didn’t want me to get hurt via someone else knocking me) but I put myself next to trash can where I wouldn’t block anyone if sitting on it and wouldn’t be knocked by potentially 3 others around me. I can walk, I just can’t stamd for a great deal of time and I can’t walk all at once for double digit miles. (Broke leg 3 1/2 years ago in bicycle accident). Wanted to provide a fun option for my family this Christmas after dealing with leg past couple years. Merry Christmas/Happy New Year.
First of all, sorry all of that happened to you but you went during what is probably the busiest time at Walt Disney World (week of Christmas leading up to New Year’s Day). There really isn’t a “down” day to be at the Magic Kingdom honestly. It’s going to be busy. If I understand you correctly, you were in the standby line for a ride and they stopped you right before you were getting on to let the fastpass line in front of you? Well, that is pretty standard practice. That’s what a fastpass will do for you; helps you bypass the line. I may not be understanding what you are saying but not exactly sure what upset you about this. I don’t understand really what restrictions you are wanting Disney to implement? If you go during a super busy time, this is to be expected. The Hilton is super nice and I’m sure it’s a Disney Good Neighbor Hotel but it’s not Disney owned and not quite the same as “staying on site” in my opinion. Maybe next time you might want to consider a scooter for the parks? I know people with leg injuries and knee injuries who have used them and they were a life saver. Sorry you didn’t have a magical time but maybe if you go back you should plan during a less busy time of year.
First of all, sorry all of that happened to you but you went during what is probably the busiest time at Walt Disney World (week of Christmas leading up to New Year’s Day). There really isn’t a “down” day to be at the Magic Kingdom honestly. It’s going to be busy. If I understand you correctly, you were in the standby line for a ride and they stopped you right before you were getting on to let the fastpass line in front of you? Well, that is pretty standard practice. That’s what a fastpass will do for you; helps you bypass the line. I may not be understanding what you are saying but not exactly sure what upset you about this. I don’t understand really what restrictions you are wanting Disney to implement? If you go during a super busy time, this is to be expected. The Hilton is super nice and I’m sure it’s a Disney Good Neighbor Hotel but it’s not Disney owned and not quite the same as “staying on site” in my opinion. When you stay onsite at one of Disney’s resorts, they will drop you off near the entrance of the Magic Kingdom so you get to bypass going throught the Ticket and Transportation Center. Also, maybe next time you might want to consider a scooter for the parks? I know people with leg injuries and knee injuries who have used them and they were a life saver. Sorry you didn’t have a magical time but maybe if you go back you should plan during a less busy time of year.