Chapter 33
Classic Attractions Rock
(Originally posted August 24, 2012)
At some point we must have grabbed Jungle Cruise Fastpasses, because it was time to use them!
I love the Jungle Cruise queue. Everything from the soundtrack to the MANY jokes hidden all around provide constant entertainment.
Still, I’m always glad to be on the Fastpass side of the queue. The Fastpass return line was actually pretty long this time, but luckily it moves fast. Before too long, we were boarding our boat.
This time our skipper’s name was Daniel, and he couldn’t have been more different from our previous skipper who we didn’t like as much. Whereas the previous fellow had been more subdued and tongue-in-cheek about some of the humor, Daniel was VERY loud, VERY physical, and VERY committed. It was as though this was the first time he had ever gone through the script. You could tell he was either heavily over-caffeinated, really loved his job, or some of both. Sometimes his delivery went a little over the top, but on the whole he was a great skipper.
After docking, we decided to make a return to the Sunshine Tree Terrace. No, we weren’t ready for yet another snack; Tracy really wanted the souvenir cup they sell there, featuring our new friend, the Orange Bird!
Apparently the cup comes filled with a drink, so we got some Coke.
We were once again left without a specific destination in mind, so we did a little wandering. That was one of my favorite things about this trip—we’ve been to the World enough times now that we cared a lot more about just soaking up the atmosphere rather than riding rides 100% of the time.
We got back to Liberty Square and Tracy stepped in the River of Poo.
This is probably the funniest thing we learned about in Lou’s Audio Guide to Liberty Square. The reason there is the strip of brown pavement that leads through Liberty Square is that in the time period Liberty Square is set in, there was no indoor plumbing. The streets were slanted into the middle so that all the waste people threw into the street would collect there, separate from where people/horses walked. Hence, the River of Poo…
We made our way to The Haunted Mansion next and were glad to see there was practically no line.
Horseless Carriage.
We decided to do the extended interactive queue this time, which was a first for us.
The interactive elements are all fun, and it’s cool that they were able to add several new headstones with new sets of puns. This is also where many of the classic headstones got moved to.
I love The Haunted Mansion. I could ride it upwards of ten times per trip and not get sick of it. We finally were able to notice some of the elements of the storyline during this trip. Unfortunately, we died falling out of the attic. Gotta hate when that happens. But at least we got to meet some happy haunts along the way. Unfortunately, this time through the ride, the new hitchhiking ghosts section at the end of the ride was broken, so we just saw blank mirrors as we rode by. I really like how they enhanced this section of the attraction when it works, but there is something to be said about the fact that in the classic version of the ride there was no chance of it being out of order. After leaving the mansion, we passed the pet cemetery.
We made our way to Fantasyland.
We decided to take a spin (literally) on Prince Charming Regal Carrousel because it’s always fun.
While we were waiting in the short line, I snapped a few pictures of Beast’s Castle over the wall.
Once again, “Cinderella’s horse” (still not a real thing) was taken by the time we got on the carrousel, but I snapped a picture this time.
This time Tracy took a B horse, and I took an A horse.
One of the most astounding facts I’ve learned about an attraction came from a podcast where Lou and Jim Korkis talked about the carrousel—each horse on the carrousel would be worth over $100,000 if they were sold individually making this easily one of the most valuable attractions in all of Disney World. The horses are beautiful.
Even though moving the entire carrousel a few feet to make it centered to the castle is one of the most ridiculous “refurbs” Disney has ever done, it does afford a great view of the castle.
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