After a great experience last year we decided to return to the Magic Kingdom on July 3 this year. But something changed this year. Perhaps in 2016 we were still haunted by the memories of the Celebration fireworks. Or perhaps in 2017 too many people attended. Regardless of what the difference was, we did have a good time... but there were some challenges.
First challenge was with getting a viewing spot in sight of the castle. Disney was trying to push people out to the extremities of the park to view the show, but if you are in the Magic Kingdom, you want to see the fireworks blasting all around the castle.
We arrived to the castle area 45 minutes before the show started and it was packed shoulder to shoulder with people. The only spot we could find was near Tomorrow Land with a tree blocking our view of the castle.
The cast members were annoying in four different situations. In the first situation, once we found our spot, one cast member kept telling everyone (including a small group feeding babies) they need to all stand up and move forward - squishing uncomfortably into the people around them. After the fourth time? I think we have all squished about as much as we are going to.
The fireworks started and were spectacular. You can see the entire fireworks show below:
When the fireworks end, everyone exits. Last year worked perfectly because a door opened behind us allowing us to exit behind the Main Street buildings. This year was different. To help deal with the crowds, the Magic Kingdom stays open for several hours after the fireworks so that people can ride rides instead of stand in exit lines. They also try to deal with overcrowding buses by offering Extra Magic Hours to those staying in a Disney Resort - allowing them to ride rides until 1am! We decided not to fight the exit crowds but to, instead, ride some rides.
When the fireworks end, cast member's job is to empty the overcrowded area in front of the castle by directing people to the extremities of the park where special exists have been set up. Because we were standing near Tomorrow Land, they wanted our section to exit into Tomorrow Land, but we wanted to go to Fantasy Land. This is were the second poor cast interaction happened. When we headed toward the Fantasy Land bridge, we were stopped and told the Fantasy Land Bridge was closed. That was obviously not true because there was a flood of people crossing that bridge.
That lead to the third poor interaction. As we went to the bridge, there were two cast members that demanded we walk around them. In retrospect, maybe they were blocking puke on the sidewalk or something, I don't know. Linda was very annoyed at this point and yelled at one of them.
The fourth interaction was later. At dinner we had ate at Cosmic Ray's because we couldn't find anywhere else that sold a basic hamburger and fries. When we paid we were told "Your annual pass discount works everywhere except Cosmic Ray's". We weren't very happy about that. To make is worse, once we found a table (those tables are made for two people, not four - what were they thinking?) we learned the restrooms were closed at Cosmic Ray's - further frustration. And I know, "How could you be frustrated at the Greatest Place On Earth?" Well... it happens. So now fast forward to the end of the night and we hit the restrooms at the Terrance as we were leaving Tomorrow Land. A cast member says "Sorry, these restrooms are closed, but there are more restrooms at the bottom of the ramp". That must have been the straw that broke the camels back because Linda lost it on the guy. "Closed! Closed! What do you mean closed? How can they be closed? They can't be closed!" Mark, to his credit, calmed his mother down and we went to the bottom of the ramp and found some restrooms.
Back to the story... we followed the flood of people across the Tomorrow Land bridge. There was a mix of people heading the correct way and the wrong way (coming at us) because they didn't know where to go. It wasn't clearly communicated that after going to Tomorrow Land you could exit the park next to the Carousel of Progress. Instead, people flooded into Tomorrow Land and didn't know where to go. Worse, a flood of people who had crossed the Fantasy Land bridge hit Fantasy Land and took a right into Tomorrow Land with the hope of getting across our bridge so they could exit. There was one cast member standing at the end of the bridge trying to stop the flood by yelling "This bridge is one way! Go back the way you came!"
The crowd was insane: complete pandemonium. I was run over my several strollers and almost taken out of action by a wheel chair. We had to get out of the crowd and jump on a ride but everything had 50 minute waits... except for one ride....
The Carousel of Progress! The line was short, the ride holds a lot of people, we got right on, and then enjoyed a nice air-conditioned show. When we emerged from the ride, the crowd had nicely thinned out. We stayed for several hours enjoying the dance party and several rides, then left the park around 11:30.
My description of events might make it sound like we didn't have a good time. Actually, Disney World offers such a fantastic time that it is rare (and noteworthy) for those short moments when everything isn't just perfect.
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