Magic Kingdom Odds & Ends…

Spent a few hours in the Magic Kingdom last weekend and thought there might be some things of interest to all three of my dedicated readers (and yes, for a while there were four of you… but that’s a story for another day…).

I know how much you all love pics of construction walls!

Small World is currently down for a refurb… the word going around was that they were “working on the queue…”

But the current down time is scheduled from Sunday, August 1 to Friday, October 22… long time to just be working on a queue line…

I was just taking a picture of the construction walls, really...

Well, let’s look at some of the new merchandise that’s available now in Fantasyland.

Hummm… looking at those Mary Blair-styled characters it seems like we may be getting the same insertion of Disney/Pixar characters into Small World like they did in Anaheim…

Now when they announced that change was going to be made on the West Coast, lots of the Disney Purists (or at least some vocal ones) were all up in arms about adding such characters to a classic attraction that should be left alone (and I believe the Blair family, or at least some of them, were none to happy about it as well). But most of that seemed to die down soon after it was re-opened, and from what I can tell, the characters are relatively subtle and are in appropriate places in the attraction.

Me, I’m actually kinda looking forward to it (of course, any way we can add more Alice is a good thing!)… time will tell what we actually get… October is going to be a fun month!

And yes dear readers, there was a bit of food. I already posted a pic of one of the new “Specialty Hot Dogs” from the new menu at the Lunching Pad in Tomorrowland. The first part of August three specially topped dogs replaced the Turkey Legs (now only to be found in Frontierland I believe…) and Pretzels that were the main fare there previously. By my first trip to sample these at the end of August, one of the dogs (the Ruben) was already gone from the original menu change, and the prices had risen by twenty cents…

So we now have a Philly Cheese Steak Hot Dog and a Taco Hot Dog, both come either with chips or “whole fruit” and will set you back $8.09. I sampled the Philly, which was topped with sliced beef, peppers, onions, mushrooms and “cheese sauce” (of a color that doesn’t occur in nature…).

The dog itself was large and of a good quality and the toppings come in sufficient quantity and excessive messiness… many napkins are required to consume this… I’d actually suggest a knife and fork. Flavor was fine, but a bit of hot sauce would be nice. Next I’ll have to try the Taco Dog (assuming it’s still there on my next visit…), I’m thinking it could be a pretty successful combo, something like a South of the Border chili dog… of course I’ll let you know… I hope my cardiologist doesn’t read this blog…

It will be interesting to see how this menu might evolve… yes there are people that do dearly love those turkey legs (I spoke to a group of guests that had headed there specifically to dine upon those monster fowl appendages, and seemed a bit put out that they weren’t still there)… but I’m all for Disney at least trying to add some food options and variety.

It’s interesting to note that the official Disney Blog had a post dated September 2 highlighting the change in the Lunching Pad menu… including a picture and description of the already departed Ruben Dog… actually it refers to “two versions of the reuben hot dog: one with beef, onions, peppers and melted cheese, another with more traditional corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing”. Of course the former is the Philly Dog, and was called that on the original menu… oh well, I guess the “official” blog can’t always be right…

Another recent change in the Kingdom was at the Harmony Barber Shop.

For those of you who may not know, yes there is a working barber shop on Main Street of the Magic Kingdom –

it’s especially popular for little ones first haircuts (and they do make quite a show of it) and old guys like me (maybe it’s a nostalgia thing for those of us who actually grew up getting their locks shorn in a place that had an actual barber pole outside and the combs sitting in that funny blue liquid). A co-worker (who is one of those people that just doesn’t “get” the whole Disney-thing…) upon finding out that I regularly get my haircut at Disney asked me “Just why would you do something like get your haircut at Disney of all places?” The answer of course was (and is) “because I can”.

Actually they do a good job, it’s not that expensive (currently $19 for an adult haircut), and it’s a great and fun atmosphere. If you’re real lucky, you may even get serenaded inside the shop by the Dapper Dans… and if you’ve seen those kids (or the occasional adult) wandering around the park with colored hair gel and “pixie dust” this is the venue where they got it done…

Just who is that strange man???

The things one will do in the name of charity...

Anyway, about the change… for a while this place was relatively quiet and flew under that radar, haircuts were strictly on a first-come, first-served basis. But as the shop got more and more notoriety around the interwebs on podcasts and blogs the lines seemed to get longer and longer… several months ago they added a third chair (this is a small place!) and about a month ago they started taking appointments for the first time.

As I was getting my haircut (and yes I had made a reservation for the first time ever) I asked my regular barber (and yes I have a regular barber there, like my favorite blonde Czech bartender that doesn’t have to ask what my drink of choice is, he doesn’t have to ask how to cut my hair…) how the whole new appointment thing was working out.

During the conversation he hit upon a few interesting things: the original idea was that they would only take reservations for the “first haircuts” (which I think is a really good idea), that then became 12 and under, then only resort guests could make appointments (now anyone can…). He told me that more than one guest who was unaware of the change had complained to Guest Services about standing in line while those with an appointment (I guess you could call that a haircut fastpass) got to go ahead of them.

There currently is nothing posted about the ability to make appointments, and if they continue to do so, they really need to for the guests edification…

FYI (in case you’re heading down for a trim), currently they schedule appointments on the hour and half-hour (not sure how many they schedule each time) and walk ups wait in between to be called “next”. To schedule a haircut you can call Disney Dining, DVC (if you are a DVC member) or visit the concierge if you’re staying on property. They are requiring a credit card guarantee and will charge your card $10 if you’re a no-show (which I think is a bit silly since they will immediately fill the chair with a walk-in…). It will be interesting to see how this new policy may change and evolve… for me it was always part of the fun (and challenge) to get to the Magic Kingdom before rope drop and bolt to the barber shop to be one of the first in line for the day…

And yes, I have used the word “interesting” an awful lot in this post… where’s that damn thesaurus???

There is a nice short video about the barber shop in the Disney Parks Blog – note the time info, etc. there is pre-appointment era.

So there’s your quick odds & ends of stuff going on in the Magic Kingdom… now back to the kitchen, got to get going on the next Margarita of the Month! Work, work, work…

This post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival. Head over there to see more great Disney-related posts and articles.