Part 1 – My First Attraction Experience

So it’s been a while since I took the one day trip to the Magic Kingdom. I’ve had some time to reflect on the park…and to go back to Disneyland for the 24 hour summer kick off (a topic for another entry all together). So I figured it was time to dive into the trip.

First thing I did after the Welcome Show and after seeing the spectacular sight that is the Cinderella Castle, I decided that I wanted to do something new that I couldn’t do at Disneyland. So we went on the 7 Dwarf’s Mine Train Ride. I knew that this ride was still relatively new and would have a longer wait time throughout the day. So i bit the bullet and went in it first to get it out of the way.

Now, Walt Disney and the Disney company have always been big on entertaining you while you were in line. Usually, it’s been in little details to notice, things to read and a great view. But the Magic Kingdom has gone above and beyond with some of the things that they have added to the lines to entertain and the 7 Dwarf’s Mine Train Ride is no exception.

One of the features in the queue was a line of touch screen panels that showed a stream running by with different color and shaped gems. The point of the game was to match the shape and color of the gems to the right spaces on the side of the stream to complete a set.

Next, was a musical water instrument. You waved your hand under a row of carved wooden forest creatures and water poured out along with a musical note. Up and down the line of spouts resulted in higher and lower pitched sounds.

There were a couple of other things to do but enough about the line…you want to hear about the ride. For lack of a better adjective, the ride was okay. I mean, it wasn’t bad but it didn’t amaze me. I enjoyed it enough that I would make sure to go on it at least once during my next visit.

So here’s what I experienced. First, Disney Imagineers invented a new car system that allows the ride vehicles to swing back and forth as you go around turns on the ride. The problem with it for me was that I couldn’t tell it was even swinging while on the ride. It really felt like the car was banking around a corner like all roller coasters do. The swinging cars look good to the spectators watching the ride but to me, didn’t do much to enhance the ride experience.

Second, the ride feels like a 20 second mild roller coaster followed by a 40 second dark ride followed by a 30 second mild roller coaster. It is in Fantasyland and designed for the younger audience but that wasn’t the problem for me. I understand that Walt wanted everyone to be able to have fun as a family at Disneyland. And that means rides that are a bit on the calmer side but I wanted either more coaster or more dark ride rather then the split.

The dark ride portion of the ride was fantastic. The Imagineers are really testing the limits of what can be done with animatronics and the 7 dwarfs are proof of that.

So to summarize my first ride at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, it was good. Not absolutely amazing, but good.

Check back soon for the next entry. Thanks for reading.