I’ve been sorting through more photos and videos lately and came across this video of the Living with the Land ride from before Christmas 2019 when it was all decked out in Christmas lights. I really loved the decorations, it was really cute – especially the snowman family. I hope that they will keep up with the holiday tradition in the future.
Were you able to see it last year? Did you enjoy the holiday theming?
Ever been faced with deciding whether or not to ride on certain rides? I think a lot of people are faced with a fear of certain rides, roller coasters come to mind, perhaps the Tower of Terror? Soarin’? I think this is still common among a lot of adults, it’s not just children at all.
I really enjoy trying new rides, but some look too intense – Rockin’ Roller Coaster, Everest…
I’ve had a really bad time on some rides, in particular Kumba at Busch Gardens pretty much ruined my desire to go on any type of coaster at all. My head got bashed from side to side on the safety harness bars. It was horrible.
I made the mistake of going on Primeval Whirl at Animal Kingdom. I was scared, the ride spun so much and I felt like I was being pushed out of the seat while simultaneously being squeezed to death.
A while back we tried Soarin’. I had such anxiety before going on the ride, while on it I felt uncomfortable in the seat, like I was not seated securely enough. While I was glad that I did ride on it, I did not feel like it was something I would like to do again anytime soon.
Since then I’ve went on some “kiddie” rides and enjoyed them, like Aladdin’s Carpets, Flying Dumbo, Goofy’s Barnstormer and even the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train! The Barnstormer is only about a 63 second ride, some parts are a little rough, but I laughed a lot and had a smile when I got off the ride, so that’s good. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is about a 2 minute ride and was pretty smooth, with some G forces around the bends, the ride went fast – slow – fast – slow, and was fun, also was smiling as it pulled into the station.
I have had conversations with others about which types of rides they like or don’t, and it is not uncommon at all for someone to be apprehensive about certain rides. Some friends don’t like heights, some don’t like things that spin in circles, some don’t like fast rides, some don’t like inversions, or drops, or too much movement. For a lot of people it’s not really a fear, per se, of the ride, it’s more about how the ride effects them, like dizziness, nausea, pain or discomfort. It’s okay if you don’t want to ride something, chances are – you aren’t the only one. For instance, Star Tours is just too jerky for my taste.
Luckily, Disney has a variety of rides and shows to suite most anyone’s sensibilities, and if you feel like you might want to get out of your comfort zone you can always ask others about their ride experience. These days you can even watch YouTube videos of most rides – this is a great, safe, way to experience the essence of a ride without any of the negative side effects.
Is there a ride that you just won’t go on? Ever conquered a fear of a certain ride?
I had gotten a reservation for the DVC 25th Anniversary Party back at the beginning of February by calling Member Services. Luckily there was still space available at the time and I didn’t have any trouble. Although there was no fee for this event, space was limited.
Event check-in was simple, a section at the front gate was dedicated the Event entry, where they check your credentials and provide each attendee with a special wrist band. Event programs were provided as well, the program just outlined where the character meet and greets were and where the refreshment stands were set up, the location of the dance party, and which rides would be open. Party was scheduled to start at 9:30. Magic Kingdom officially closed at 9:00 pm to regular theme park guests. DVC attendees and their guests could enter as early as 7:00 pm and enjoy the whole park before the party started. Once the party started, Adventureland and Frontierland would be closed.
Magic Kingdom was crowded during the regular park hours, which is completely normal. We headed over to Adventureland, but stopped to watch the Castle projections for 5 minutes, then kept walking towards Pecos Bill’s. I was interested in trying something off the new menu, but the lines at Pecos Bill’s were really long; 4 registers open, but still at least 8 people deep at each line. No thanks. Decided to go to Columbia Harbor House instead. Got there, a few people blocking the entrance just trying to figure out if they were eating there or not, and asking the cast member at the door if they needed a reservation (internal monologue – “pfft, reservations, what are you talking about?!”). WDW must be confusing for newbies. Evasively walked past so they didn’t get in front of me and got in line. I’m grumpy when I’m hungry.
Ordered a Tuna Sandwich with Broccoli – yay! Was excited not to eat fries. Ordered a Clam Chowder to share, husband ordered the Salmon dinner. Went upstairs and got a table in the front section that overlooks Liberty Square. I had to eat very slowly as I have been dealing with tooth pain. Seemed like everyone around was wearing DVC party wrist bands.
Tuna Sandwich Columbia Harbor House
Salmon, Couscous, and Broccoli
Clam Chowder
Around 9:00 we headed right for The Haunted Mansion, to our surprise the line was already halfway through the graveyard section – this is much longer than we are used to, usually late at night the line is so short. Once we were actually the only two people in the stretching room – that was amazing, I’m going to remember that the rest of my life.We decided to just wait, we got in after 5-6 cycles, seemed like 15-20 minutes. When we left, we headed towards Fantasyland to see what was going on. The lines were long at Peter Pan…
Peter Pan Ride
There were some tables set up near the Carousel with loads of people crowding them, these were the refreshment tables and I couldn’t really get a good look at them.
We decided to walk further, we had just ate anyways, and we saw Prince John, Robin Hood, and Friar Tuck! These characters are pretty rare, I have never seen them in the parks before, and we really love that movie, so we got in line. We had to wait about 35 minutes, they had to take a short watering break for about 5 minutes. Overall it wasn’t that bad of a wait, they were really cute. I didn’t get to interact much, just get in place and smile for the camera and done. But, it was fun to watch them. Friar Tuck had been blessing people and making the sign of the cross. Prince John was kissing some hands.
Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, and Prince John
Next, we walked over to the Be Our Guest area, more refreshment tables with no waiting. There were three kinds of potato chips, Baked Lays, Classic Lays, Miss Vickie’s BBQ Kettle Chips, chocolate chip and sugar cookies. Lemonade and Zephyrhills Water to drink. We helped ourselves to some Baked Lays and drinks and sat down. All the while just thinking about how incredibly cool this was to be there, all these people were DVC members (or guest of DVC members), wow. The weather was a little nippy but not too cold that it was causing any discomfort, we had enough layers on to keep warm.
Chips and Cookies
We wanted to keep walking around and see what else was going on. We headed towards Gaston’s and saw an ice cream cart and the cast member was giving out FREE ice cream?! What?! We walked up to see if that was indeed the case, and sure enough, Free Mickey Bars, Mickey Ice Cream Sandwiches, Mango and/or Strawberry bars! Wow. We excitedly asked for two Mickey Bars and then found a nice spot near Ariel’s ride to eat them. Nearby a castmember was giving out DVC 25th Anniversary buttons, so we each got a button, a nice keepsake to add to my button collection.
We then walked towards the Circus area, and saw there were a couple characters, which happened to be Darkwing Duck and Launchpad. Pretty neat, haven’t seen either one of them before in person. We still hadn’t seen the dance party, so we went over to Tomorrowland where the DJ was, and to my surprise I saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy! All of them together, that was cool. I took a little video of them dancing.
DVC Dance Party
Mickey and Minnie
Over towards Buzz Lightyear’s ride, we spotted Beymax! The line wasn’t very long here. He was so cute, especially when he was walking, he was taking such tiny steps, it was adorable.
Beymax
We went back around through the center hub and went back to Haunted Mansion and saw the Cadaver Dans! Didn’t even know about them at all! I have never seen them before. When I got home I did some research and found out they only perform during the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and they roam around, which is probably why we have never seen them before. Definitely worth watching. Was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen at WDW.
We had a little time left before the fireworks at 11:30 pm, so we headed over to the center hub to pick a spot. As you can imagine, although it was still crowded when everyone gathered at the hub, it was a tiny fraction of the amount of people on any given day. We got a really close spot, the closest we’ve ever been! Check out the video of the fireworks here:
After the fireworks there was about 20 minutes left, we headed back to Haunted Mansion, grabbed an ice cream at the nearby cart and wandered around, while we were near the Seven Dwarf Mine Train, I had the urge to get in line, never been on it before! I had to ride solo, since my husband doesn’t like fast rides, plus since neither of us had ridden it, we didn’t know what to expect. So, I would be the one to test it out. With two minutes to midnight, I got in line and in less than 15 minutes got onto the ride. The line queue was really cool, loved the gems. The line queue itself was LONG, REALLY LONG. The ride itself only takes about 2 minutes, and it goes fast – slow – fast – slow. It’s kind of like Big Thunder Mountain, not really scary. I did manage to get video of the ride, but it was so dark you can’t really tell what is going on. It was fun, I got off the ride with a smile on my face. The guy in front of me in the car said that this was his 5th time riding it.
It was an incredible night, my feet are still killing me, we walked a lot, but had a lot of fun. Best part is there will be another party next week, we’re bringing two of our friends, I hope they have a fun time. I’m also curious if the characters will be the same or if they will be different? We’ll see.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.
One of my favorite rides at The Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, FL. It’s quite hard for me to get any decent photos on this ride, plus it’s probably annoying to those you ride with to take photos so I usually only try to get photos when we get our own boat with no other passengers. Anytime I think of Pirates of the Caribbean, I always immediately think of the words “Dead Men Tell No Tales” and especially in that creepy pirate voice!
A classic scene from POTC is the auction, “We wants the Redhead!” is something we actually do say in our house anytime it is even remotely applicable for anything. Anytime I see a redhead, it reminds me of this scene. I’ve got Disney on the brain at all times.
In the beach scene with the skeletons, it is notable to point out that there is a mermaid skeleton in the small rowboat, not visible here, but if you go on the ride be sure to look at the skeleton’s lower half and you will see the tail bones of the mermaid.
Another scene is where they are dunking Carlos into the well, hard to see in the photo.
I would have liked to get a photo of the dog holding the jail keys, also a classic.
Other things of note:
The cool mist with the projections in it!
The skull rock, made from several rocks but can only see if from the front.
The hairy leg – oh so gross!
The scared cat which casts a hidden Mickey shadow behind him – cool!
The pirate in the mud with the piglets – aww so cute!
I highly recommend getting Fast Passes. One night we still ended up waiting about 30 minutes in the Fast Pass line – I saw them funneling people from the regular queue into the Fast Pass line when “no one” was looking. That sucked, but it might be what they are doing to keep the regular line shorter. Not sure if they do this often.