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AgentC
07-12-2012, 01:09 AM
I was at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday with my friend and her two children (5 & 10) and my two (4 & 6) and visited the new Dumbo interactive queue. I forgot to take pictures of the outside , so I will do my best to describe the set up.

If you are standing in front of the attraction, the Dumbo that opened first is on the left. The second Dumbo is on the right. The tent is between them with a large open area in front of it after you pass through the archway. Stroller parking is in front on the second Dumbo. Overall it is a very attractive setup.

I expected you would enter through the tent but there are actually 2 queues. The queue to the first Dumbo is now the Fast Pass Entrance. We did not have fast passes so I did not use that entrance. I assume it goes straight to the loading area like it did previously.

There is a second queue on the right hand side. This is the standby queue. This queue does not go straight to the loading area; it goes inside the tent.

The day we visited there was only a 10 minute wait posted at noon or a Saturday. I am not sure if it was so short because of both Dumbos running or some other reason. Because the line was so short, there was not really any need to get the beeper. The process may work different when it is busier, but this is how it worked for us.

We entered the queue and proceeded to the tent. Inside the tent the queue continues but it leads you first to a podium with a cast member. The cast member asked us if we wanted to go to the ride or if we wanted to play first. Based on the indoor set up, it does appear that you could choose to wait in line rather than go to the play area.

Since we were all very hot and I also wanted to check out the interactive area, we choose to play first. I was given a beeper by the cast member. She told me to return to the podium with my party when we where ready to ride and we would be placed on the first available ride.

AgentC
07-12-2012, 01:23 AM
I know there has been a lot of criticism of the play area. Everyone in our party enjoyed it. The inside is well themed. There was plenty of seating for the adults and let's be honest , air conditioning when it is 97 out is always a plus. There was plenty for all the children to do. There is a small area in the middle suited to children under 3. The rest of the area has climbing and jumping activities. My son (6) raved about the cannon that he was "blown" out of. In fact he wanted to come back to Dumbo for both the ride and the play area.
Below is a picture of the center ring for young children as well as the cannon.

After about 15 minutes, we decide to ride and told the children it was time to go. Although they liked the play area, they wanted to ride and we had no problem getting them to ride.

I brought the pager to the podium. (Forgot to mention the pager is exactly the same as the restaurant pagers and I assume if it was busy would work just like them.) The cast member checked to see which Dumbo had the best availability and out us in the queue to the second Dumbo.

Once outside the queue worked just like before. You proceeded to a cast member who hands you a light piece of plastic that reminds me of a paint chip. You are then moved to the holding area and then onto the ride. The chip is collected by a cast member once you are in your Dumbo.

Our Dumbo ran perfectly. All the units were working and no one in or party had problems making their Dumbo go up or down.

Overall I think, Disney had done a nice job with the area. It does not appear the interactive part will be mandatory. It is interesting enough to keep kids occupied but not so exciting that they will never want to leave.

VWL Mom
07-12-2012, 06:11 AM
Thanks Cindy, sounds like your son had a "blast".

Was there anything that interested the 10 year old or is the play area strictly geared to the younger ones?

There was a 5-10 minute wait when we were there too. I think it may be because of the walls still being up, people may not know it's up and running yet. Unless your coming from the Tomorrowland side, the entrance really isn't marked.

AgentC
07-12-2012, 07:18 AM
Thanks Cindy, sounds like your son had a "blast".

Was there anything that interested the 10 year old or is the play area strictly geared to the younger ones?

There was a 5-10 minute wait when we were there too. I think it may be because of the walls still being up, people may not know it's up and running yet. Unless your coming from the Tomorrowland side, the entrance really isn't marked.

You can't really tell in the picture but there is a climbing area on each end. Once they get to the top, there are obstacles you can climb, things to hang on and things to bounce on. The 10 year enjoyed that section. She did not pay attention to most of the play areas on the first level. They seem geared to younger kids.

You might be right about the walls. It could be a combination of that and the inside queue. When we were there in May, there was only one queue with about a 20-25 minute wait. You could see people waiting in line since the line started near the path. The day we were there the entrance was very quiet.

Wolf
07-12-2012, 09:29 AM
That looks and sounds adorable!!! I can't wait to ride it in October, I'll be the 25 year old giggling my face off :party:

PlutoPlanet
07-12-2012, 11:42 AM
Thanks for the report. We'll be there later this summer.

We LOVE Disney
07-12-2012, 12:27 PM
We were there about a week ago. While we waited in line, both Dumbo's were up and running but both of them had 3-5 empty seats each. We couldn't figure out why. So, we entered the tent area and they led us to the play area. We asked if we could just go right to the ride as opposed to playing (there were 9 of us and only 3 could play and one of them was 12 which is the maximum age to play in that area) and the CM said "No, this is part of the line. You have to go and wait until your beeper goes off" We were a little shocked and wondered if that was maybe why there were so many empty Dumbo seats: because they were making people "play". We didn't have to wait too long (maybe 10 minutes) but it was still annoying!

We LOVE Disney
07-12-2012, 12:32 PM
One other thing..........

We thought it would have been a great idea if they had a Dumbo seat inside the play area for photo ops. The only Dumbo we saw was just a decoration type thing located near the ceiling.