Magic Kingdom July 1, 2017 – Patriotism, Refurbishments, Tacos, Country Bears,One Crazy Lady and 11 Fastpasses

On July 1, 2017 Debbie and I arrived around 9:45am to enjoy some time in the Magic Kingdom.   Usually, I would recommend arriving prior to rope drop to do the high demand attractions, but we were able to do all of them using Fastpass+, so it wasn’t really necessary.  Here’s out story of how the Magic Kingdom is dressed for 4th of July, current refurbishments, a country bear pesticide expert, a crazy lady on 7 Dwarfs Mine Train and the 11 Fastpasses we used.  As we entered the Magic Kingdom, we noticed the patriotic bunting was in place for Independence Day, not the version with Will Smith or the version with Liam Hemsworth, but the one starring John Hancock.

City Hall was looking dapper.

Town Square Theater was dressed for the occasion.

The Emporium recently came out from a 2nd paint refurbishment.  Evidently the color was slightly off, but it looks great now.

The Hall of Champions is now wrapped for a paint refurbishment.  The store remains open.  You’ll be seeing lots of these over the next few years as the park readies for its 50th Anniversary.

Am I the only one that sees the big C and thinks of the Cincinnati Reds?  Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks…

Drop by here to get your Mickey Pants Sundae.  Many people call it the “Kitchen Sink,” but the true Kitchen Sink is at Beaches and Cream and it takes a baseball team to consume it.

After a ride on the Main Street Trolley, we looked around Liberty Square a bit in honor of our upcoming holiday.  There are some many great details that guests miss in our haste to get to the next attraction.  Here’s the Liberty Tree.

This is an exact replica of the actual Liberty Bell with no 2 hour line for the photo op.

Debbie booked the wrong Fastpass+ first, so it’s to the stockade for her.

Who rides Splash Mountain at 10:00am?  I guess we do.

Gotta make the best of it, right?  Nah, we were having a blast.  We got the back of the log, so that was a plus for not getting soaked.

Everybody’s got a Laughin’ Place!

Did we pull off the laughing pose?

One of the most iconic songs in all of the theme park world.  We might not have this if people knew more about the actual movie, but Splash Mountain doesn’t need to be “plussed.”

So, we moved on to our 2nd Fastpass of the day with the Jungle Cruise and here’s the world-famous Backside of Water!

A refurbishment should be coming soon for this scene, but reports are saying that it shouldn’t cause a ride closure.  I guess we wait and see.

Roll Tide!

Big sale today!  Visit Disney Springs and purchase a gift card and we’ll give you another gift card.   You can then buy overpriced items with the bonus gift card.  Option 2 is two of his heads for one of yours.  Seems about the same.

It was around 11am, so we decided to eat some tacos at Pecos Bill’s.  I had the Beef Nachos.  I love this meal here.  The beef is tasty and it comes smothered in cheese.  You can then throw MORE shredded cheese on top.  The full fixins bar here is awesome for Counter Service.  I was a little disappointed with this day as there was hardly any meat.

Debbie chose the two tacos meal, but didn’t want chicken, so ordered double beef tacos.  It comes with rice and side salad.  You can also dress these up as you like at the fixins bar.  We talked about how they should have a one taco kids meal here.  The kids meals don’t have any good Mexican style choices.

We had begun the day with a 5:50pm Big Thunder Railroad Fastpass, but I was able to move it up to 11:40am and ride right after lunch.

I then scored a 4th Fastpass for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train.  It was for like 6:40pm, so I worked with the times until I got it to 12:10pm.  That would put us there right after enjoying the air conditioning and silly western songs of the Country Bear Jamboree.

Kudos to whoever brought out the Country Bears for roaming meet and greets in Frontierland!  They add life back into a land that otherwise would be devoid of character experiences.  You’ll see some of the times they pop up on Character Locator.

Shaker was doing a demonstration of bubble blowing and how to apply pesticide to your skin to prevent bug bites.  After getting bitten by yellow flies at Blizzard Beach, I took his advice and demonstration seriously.  It took me several days of treating with After Bite to make those boogers go away.  Thanks for the lesson Shaker!

Wendell was roaming about creating mischief of his own.

On our way to use our 7 Dwarfs Mine Train Fastpass, we saw Cinderella’s Carriage next to the Fantasyland Wall.  Photopass was on hand snapping photos of people in front of, but not inside, of it.

Check out the lady in the front of the car on 7 Dwarfs Mine Train.  She is either celebrating the great Penguins Cup win or she’s had too much happy juice.

Don’t believe me, here’s a second picture from the same ride.  It’s fun, but it’s not THAT fun.  The people in back were like, “We’ll have what she’s having.”

We then scored FP+ for Under the Sea.  It was ready by the time we walked there.

I think this lady is in charge of the Fastpass+ distribution system.  I’ve only ever said nice things about her.

We then got another immediate Fastpass for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.  The Fastpass+ line is filled with beautiful flowers.

I figured the flowers were there to attract bees, which in turn would create hunny for Pooh Bear.  Amazing what details the Imagineering team comes up with.

This is my favorite scene in the ride.  Nothing is as thrilling as flying on a towel while your mom holds the other end.  Maybe we could create a ride around that theme?

Sir Mickey’s is still wrapped up for Christmas.  No sign of the infamous crane though.

Our next Fastpass victory was immediate walk on for Haunted Mansion.  Madame Leota was not floating today.  She looks a bit sad about the situation.

Somebody really needs to clean this attic!  Did you know that each photo shows the lady getting another pearl necklace from each former husband?

We then scored a right now Fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean.  We got our new Photopass download.  I don’t know about you guys, but the Photopass website is a bit of a mess.  I usually just download to my phone, then email them to myself.  The talking skull is supposed to attract your eyes to the photo op, but crazy 7DMT lady wasn’t in the boat.

Here’s the highly controversial scene in Pirates of the Caribbean.  We wants the….chickens!  

Next we scored a Fastpass for Space Mountain, but had a whopping 15 minutes to wait, so Peoplemover was the choice.  It looked like rain and we weren’t sure if we’d get on or not.  They kept starting and stopping the ride.  We did get on and rode with no issues as the dark clouds rolled in.

We then used our Fastpass for the Great Space Nap.

As we were indoors a quick shower passed through.  All it did was make the ground really wet and make the park really muggy, or as a former co-worker from Ireland would say, “Moogy.”  We got another Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear.  People were waiting in line for Space and Buzz for an hour or more while we strolled right on past.  My gun was all over the place and I only scored like 500k.  No 999,999 this time for me.  Oh the pain!

On the way out, Debbie wanted to peruse the confectionery.  We saw some pretty cupcakes, but we’d head home for dinner.

We ended up doing 11 Fastpass rides, Country Bear Jamboree, met Country Bears, ate lunch, had some snacks, looking around some and rode Peoplemover in about 6 hours.  I know, I stink at this.  I only got all the best Fastpasses in the park.  It was hot and we will return another day for more fun.  Monorail station is still under refurb.  I feel nervous riding this after all the issues they have had recently.  Too many times people are getting stuck for long periods of time.  It’s time for new monorails!

Here’s the list of Fastpass rides for those curious:  Splash, Jungle, Thunder, 7DMT, Under the Sea, Winnie the Pooh, Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Space and Buzz.  The 11th was Frozen Ever After in Epcot, but we decided not to use it and Let It Go!

I hope you enjoyed our day and feel free to ask me any questions.  I’ll answer as I can.