Barksy's Barktacular Return Day 6
This is it! Magic Kingdom's 50th birthday!
AKA What if . . . you were thrown into a universe where Disney is awful?
I was all excited when I woke up today. I had dreamed of celebrating my 50th birthday in Magic Kingdom on MK's 50th birthday for the last 10 years, and it was actually going to happen! I didn't really have any plans for the day except for getting two items I still wanted from our first day at MK. (See, my plan saves a lot of money. I only remembered two things out of everything we saw. ;))
I got to the park around 2 pm. On the way in, I heard someone commenting that they were surprised MK was allowing people to park hop to it. Another person replied, "that's because more people are leaving than are coming in." I blissfully blew the comment off as nonsense and headed through the gates for the most magical day ever.
But wait . . . what is going on? Lots of people really were leaving. /shrug Shorter lines for me. I kept going. Main Street was packed, but that didn't really surprise me. It was the 50th. Of course it would be packed. Then I noticed the princesses coming down Main Street. I quickly found a spot to squeeze in and get off a couple clicks of my camera. I was so excited to see Merida on a horse, that at first I didn't notice the throngs of people behind the princess float. It looked like the fireworks show had just gotten out. It really was THAT packed.
No problem, I thought. I'll just head into the shop to avoid some of the crowd and pick up my sweatshirt and Mercy's baby outfit. That was when I noticed there was a line to get into The Emporium. Every door was closed except one lone entrance halfway up Main Street. The line went from that entrance, back down to the barbershop, looped around and went all the way up to Casey's.
Uh, what happened to Disney doing a spectacular job of dispersing the crowds??? Oh wait. Someone thought it would be a great idea to put all of the 50th stuff into one store instead of dispersing it throughout the park. And that's how the fights started. . .
I wasn't dead set on buying any 50th merchandise. The most I had thought about getting was 50th pin. I had been craving some corn dogs, though. I decided to get some food at Casey's and let the line go down. Okay, I know some of you will probably say the next part is my fault, but I honestly forgot about having to mobile order food. The cast member didn't need to be so nasty about it either. I began walking into Casey's, and a cast member at the door asked "What do you think you're doing????" in a very nasty tone. I said "I'm going to get a corn dog." She replied "You HAVE to use mobile ordering," and gave me a rude look. Ok, yes I should have remembered to use mobile ordering. But how do you treat a customer like that? What if I didn't know how to use mobile ordering? I'm sure I'm not the only person who goes into autopilot at Magic Kingdom. Deciding I no longer wanted a corn dog, I looked at the app to see the ride wait times.
Most rides were a 5 minute wait. I got my picture taken in front of the castle and then wandered over to Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a walk on. I pillaged and plundered the gift shop for matching shirts for the night shift workers at work. It was the one that said "The Beatings will continue until morale improves." We're all wearing it to our next staff meeting. We also wore them for Halloween.
I really wasn't feeling the Disney magic, so I decided to go wait in the Emporium line to ensure I got the sweatshirt and baby outfit. Yes, I really wanted them. The line seemed to be moving fairly quickly when I heard a cast member say they were out of merchandise and more could be found at Big Top. No one else seemed to be moving, so I asked the cast member where Big Top was. It is out near the Dumbo ride for those of you who don't know.
I headed there and once again became confused when there wasn't any obvious line. I asked someone (another customer, since no cast members were anywhere to be seen) where the line started. They told me that there wasn't a line. Disney was using a virtual queue to go in, but the virtual queue wasn't working. Great! I remembered someone making a comment on Intercot that all this online stuff wasn't so bad if Disney's tech worked properly. Well, Disney's tech wasn't working properly, and it was really bad. I found a shady spot to sit in and refreshed the app for an hour waiting for the virtual queue to start working. I considered going to ride a ride while watching for the queue to pop, but I didn't. It was a good thing I didn't, because they never put the virtual queue in the app. A cast member walked out with a paper you had to scan with your phone to get in the queue. Of course, masses of people all descended on the paper. (Disney really had safety in mind here.) I wound up being number 667 in the queue.
I had told myself I would finally ride Under The Sea - The Journey of the Little Mermaid this trip, so I went to do that. When the ride was over, I thought I might grab a bite to eat at Gaston's Tavern, but nothing there looked appealing. I wandered through a couple of shops, wondering if I would even make it into Big Top before the park closed or if I should just go home.. I decided to go ask a cast member.
The cast member was very nice and directed me to where other cast members were holding Ipads. I asked them if they thought I would even make it into the store. The cast member who was helping me asked for my last name. I gave it to her. Then she said "Christi?" I said "yes" and suddenly she got a weird look on her face. She turned to the male cast member next to here, and they conversed for a few seconds. She took over the people he was helping, and he came to help me. Turns out, my name had somehow vanished from the queue. Thankfully, the female cast member had seen it before it vanished. The male cast member put me back into the queue for then and let me get in line. It was still a really, really, really long line.
I had initially planned on staying to watch the new fireworks show,and I really wanted a picture in front of the castle with the paddle that said "50th" but it wasn't worth it to me at that point. I was DONE for the day. I had my Maleficent sweatshirt, my baby outfit, two 50th pins, and two 50th bags. I headed out of the park wondering where the Disney I loved had gone.
