It's Gonna Be Hot! Hot! Hot! - Aug 2011: Day 14 – EPCOT – The Return / Hollywood Studios III

[Siddex]

Day 14 – EPCOT – The Return / Hollywood Studios III
(Sunday 4th September 2011)

This was day 14, the last full day of the much planned and anticipated holiday.

Today’s plan said Hollywood Studios – maybe and then Epcot, we had a couple of things to do that had been missed before.

One of these was Voyage Of The Little Mermaid, it had been closed for refurbishment and was due to reopen today. We had been waiting years to do this and I mean that literally. Back in 2008 we had to leave the queue as Ella needed the restroom and we had never managed to return. We had not been able to do it on our previous 2 visits to the studios on this trip, as it was closed for refurbishment, so today was the first chance to see this after waiting several years.

The other thing that we had planned, was an ADR for dinner in Coral Reef, this was a surprise for Grams birthday (which was tomorrow). Again this was something that we had planned back in 2008 but I had to cancel our reservation at the time because we had pigged out in Beaches & Cream on the day (on a Kitchen Sink no less) and could not face another meal , so we also had been waiting to do this for a number of years.

So today, I was up at my usual time of 7AM and roused the others at 7.30AM for our day of park hopping. We had breakfast in the villa, this consisted of toast, fruit and most importantly CAKE! Yes we were at the point of the holiday where we were trying to eat all of the nice looking things we had purchased up to this point. We eventually left for HS at 8.40AM which was our customary 10 minutes late. We got into the studios by 9.10AM and it was already very busy in there.

I went and got us some fastpasses for later, 3 for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and 2 for Tower Of Terror. I was ever hopeful that Maria would come on RNR and that anybody would come on TOT with me.

We headed over to Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream as we fancied seeing this. It was OK, but I would have preferred to see more information about WDW.







Now it was finally time for Voyage Of The Little Mermaid, I made sure Ella rest roomed before we entered and then we were in, after 3 years wait! So it was OK but probably not worth the wait! But now we could say we had finally done it.


The wait was finally over.

The last thing to do at HS before we left was to use out fastpasses on the big rides. Maz bottled out of RnR again, so James rode that alone whilst I did TOT (again I had no takers to come with me). I met James after this and we did RnR together using our last 2 fastpasses.

We left park 1 after a couple of productive hours and moved over to park 2. At Epcot, we noticed that it was quite busy today. When we arrived I shot off to guest services to get Grams a birthday button for today. I did not realise that they issue each member of your party with a badge, so it was badges all around before we started on the attractions.


Grams with her birthday button.


Other party member’s buttons have been deployed.

We saw Daisy Duck near Spaceship Earth and took the opportunity for a meet and greet with her and then almost immediately we saw Stich in the same spot so we met him as well. Whilst we were doing these character meet and greets I had sent James off to get fastpasses for Soarin’, he got 5 for return between 3.15 and 4.15PM.




This is Maria’s ‘arty’ shot of Spaceship Earth.


I had forgotten my shades, so borrowed Maria’s!

Our first attraction at Epcot today was to be Figment and on the way we bumped into Chip & Dale, so we did another Character meet and greet, had pictures taken, etc. We all rode Figment and then played some games in ImageWorks. The time was now about 1.30PM and we wanted to grab some more fastpasses when our window opened up 20 minutes later, so we killed some time in Innoventions before grabbing some fastpasses for Test Track for later.



I now made the other do Ellen’s Energy Adventure with me! I do quite like this, the others hate it, but it killed 37 minutes or so in a nice cool environment. It was really humid today without being particularly sunny, so it was quite hard work outside in the heat.

Saying that about the weather, my notes now say that we took a stroll around the lake catching up with some characters that we hadn’t seen yet! So it seems at this point we chose to wander around in the hot humid conditions.

On the character front, we managed to capture Mexican Donald in err Mexico and Mulan in China. We narrowly missed Alice In Wonderland in England. Other highlights of our lake wander include a Margarita in Mexico and we caught The American Adventure show.


Hola Meester Donald!



We made it all the way around the lake and went back to Soarin’ to use our fastpasses, the standby line was showing a 75 minute wait! We got row 2 this time and had as much fun as before, although Grams had a strange bloke next to her who made some odd noises throughout the ride and seemed to be enjoying the ride a little too much!

Another ride on Test Track beckoned, but as we got over there the heavens opened and it was stair-rodding down. We waited it out for about 10 minutes and it had eased off by then but the ride was shut due to an impending storm.

Continued below...

[Siddex]

... Continued from above.



As we were all a bit damp by then, Maz and I went all the way back to the car for our jackets, as we did not want to sit in an A/C cooled restaurant in our damp clothes. On our way back from the car the rain got a lot harder and we got soaked. We had arranged to meet the others by the seas to check in for our surprise meal for Grams. They were running late as Grams had gone into shopping mode in Mouse Gear and James could not get her out. Bless him, he tried but she did not listen as she did not realise we had plans and I think James was getting a bit distraught by it all.

When they eventually returned we checked in for our meal and had a nice, although expensive meal. I had arranged an Eeyore birthday cake for Grams and that was delivered during our meal (well after the mains). It was a nice cake and worth the $32. So all in all, we had a nice meal that was not rushed like our other Disney dining experiences.




She’s smiling inside!


The Birthday Cake.



Overall it was one of our better Disney meals – as we weren't rushed out of the door after 40 minutes. James is still not recording what we were eating but the marks were:

Mark - 7/10
Maria - 7/10
Grams - 10/10
James - 9/10
Ella - 7/10

Coral Reef scores 40 / 50 and cost us $211.

We finished at Coral Reef by 8PM and then went to check to see if Test Track was now running, hurrah it was! So our last ride at WDW was going to be Test Track which is probably the family favourite. This excluded Grams who does not ride it and was happy to sit it out and sort out the remains of her cake for transportation. Unfortunately TT went a bit awry on our way around and all the timings went out, meaning we lost the truck part and some of the corners were not taken at the correct speed. Still the end part was good though.


The last ride of the holiday and everyone pulls the pose! Ha, bet the other passengers stare in bewilderment at their ride photo!


We met grams after our ride at 8.40PM, she made it on time, and went to get a spot for Illuminations. We found a good spot between Mexico and Norway and only had to wait 10 minutes for the show to start. It was enjoyable as always but does not seem as magical as Wishes or Fantasmic.


Bye, bye Epcot.

We left with the crowds but had a nice clear run back to the villa, as Disney handle crowds very well and can soon clear a park / car park. We were back at the villa for 10PM.

Two things then happened, the villa internet decided to go on the blink meaning I could not do online check in for our flight home and I had an encounter with an Armadillo! The former is self-explanatory but the latter needs further information. Grams had been emptying some rubbish outside when something was rustling about near the bins, she came scooting back in and declared it was either an alligator (really), a snake (they were strong Margarita’s from earlier) or Racoons! So I did the best thing possible and grabbed the camera and went off to investigate. I must admit at first glance I was not sure what it was either, but I did know it was NOT an alligator or a snake. But upon closer inspection and some nature program recall, I managed to determine it was an Armadillo, I took a couple of pictures and went in to leave it to its devices.


Wats dat rustlin’ in dem bushes?


It’s an ARMADILLO!

The weather on our last full day was hot, more hot and hot with a little bit of hot thrown in!

Day 15 here.

[Cinderella]

Happy birthday !

[Col&Ali]

Are you sure Grams was smiling on the inside? lol

You had me worried for a mo when I saw those sun glasses!

Sad to see your final day I have enjoyed your trippie - thanks for sharing

[orlandosgr8]

Sounds like you all enjoyed your last full day, glad you got to tick some things of your 'to do' list.

[disney owl]

What a lovely place for a birthday

[madhatter3]

ah the ending is near.
sounds like you had another great day in Epcot.
love the eeyore cake.

[Guest]

Cake is great, I'm ordering one for Ds's birthday when we go

[mouselover22]

Park hopping is a great way to spend your last day
Great photo's
Sad it's coming to an end, have enjoyed reading