Another Failed Trip Report... Day 4 Hollywood Studios, SciFi Diner and Wolfgang Puck Express

[clubhouse]

Day 4 - 27th June 2016

Hollywood Studios, Sci Fi Diner and Wolfgang Puck Express

Index is here.

In hindsight I've no idea where we got our energy from, but it was another early start for us. I have to admit I can't imagine any other way to "do" Florida other than early starts and rushing to get as much done as you can before lunchtime! We do start slowing down a bit from this point though and even sample the delights of the OKW pool.

DH and I were awake before the kids and I noticed the drawback of the 1 bed setup in Disney - although there is a bath and washbasin in 1 room and a shower and washbasin in another room, making it easier for multiple people to get ready... there is only 1 loo! DH was in there for some time and by the time he came out I'd moved beyond the wee wee dance and thought I was going have to wee in the bath! When I heard him open the door I barged past him to the loo! Before long the kids woke and we got them washed, dressed and fed (more healthy cereal - I mean if it's got green bits in it must be healthy right?). We headed off to Hollywood Studios and were in before the official opening time but were held back on Sunset Boulevard by castmembers for a ropedrop. We browsed in the shop for a bit and then headed off when the rope was dropped in the hope of getting the kids signed up for Jedi Training. They have both done this a couple of times before, but they both wanted to have another go and were hoping to do battle with Kylo Ren.

We knew roughly where we were heading for but when we got there the castmember directed us to a new queueing area. This totally disguised how long the line was. It was a sort of tented area where you snaked back and forth before heading outside towards the Indiana Jones area where there were some desks set up. We spent 40 minutes in that line, 40 minutes! Now I think that definately gets me some mum points after all my complaints about Wilderness Exploring yesterday. Now that our padawan had secured their slot we headed off to meet Olaf. DS often sings and dances to Olaf's "In Summer" song and obviously was a wee bit excited while we were waiting!

Posing over, we headed to Star Tours as the wait time was showing 10 minutes, turned out to be a bit longer than this. We all enjoy this ride, but I have to admit on this holiday I found we got the same film most times, although it was nice to see BB8 had been added. On exiting we noticed that the line for Chip and Dale was short so joined that.

DD had a few Chip and Dale pins so they made a big fuss of her. Chip and Dale are one of the best meet and greets in my opinion, they are always great fun and very cheeky!

After that we stopped off for a few snacks, DH and I had a carrot cake cookie (our favourite, but better shared as a full one is just too much!), a chocolate chip cookie for DS and a Chocolate Whoopie Pie for DD. These were lovely!

Next it was time for DD's first ride on RocknRoller Coaster. She was just too small last year and was a bit gutted when her big brother was able to ride but not her. I think she was a bit nervous about it, but she was very brave in the end.

She decided to ride with her dad, but I did worry she was going to change her mind about riding when we were watching the car take off! She doesn't look to chipper in the ride photo (excuse the tongues, but DS was in charge of the pose this time and thats what he chose), but she assures me she really loved this ride.

When we got off, her legs were a bit shaky, but she's have liked to get straight back on. Sadly it doesn't work like that, well very rarely anyway.

I checked the app to see what we could do next and saw that we had time for the Frozen singalong. We'd never been to this and as it was another very hot day we were happy to get out of the sun for a bit. We really enjoyed this show and the kids and I were happy to belt out the songs. Not so sure about DH, but he seemed to enjoy it anyway.

By now it was time for our ADR at SciFi Diner. This is an annual tradition for us and the kids love it. Our server was very efficient (initially) and were quickly settled in with drinks and glasses of water.

I had the special, which I think was a burger with red pepper and feta (the cucumber salad wasn't great - a bit watery), DH had a rueben sandwich, DS had a bacon cheeseburger and DD had the Ribs.

DD and I had milkshakes, mmmmmm these are lovely by now I'd given up all hope of healthy eating and I can only imagine how many weightwatchers points are in one of those bad boys!

We had desserts, but to be honest we were all too full to enjoy them. I'm sorry I've not made a note of what they were as I had kept the receipts to help me, but I've misplaced them (sorry food fans).

Our ADR was at 12.55pm so we'd thought we'd have no problem making it to the Tower of Terror before out fastpass window expired at 2.10pm. Bur our (previously efficient) server was nowhere to be seen! We waited and waited and finally got him at 2pm, but a 2.05pm he'd not returned with the bill. Tick, tick, tick... I was getting anxious as my all time favourite ride is ToT and I didn't think I'd be getting on it. Tick, Tick, Tick... DH sent me off with the kids and waited for the bill. We fast walked towards the Hollywood Tower and DH caught up with us just before we entered the queuing area. We were very quick getting into the preshow, but when the door opened we hardly moved at all - it seemed very slow to move. This wasn't good for us as it gave DD time to change her mind. She really didn't want to ride. She did this last year and ended up enjoying it. So we (I, it was all me) were very bad parents and made her go on. She really didn't enjoy it and really clung onto DH. She can be a bit of a drama queen and we thought she was just playing up a bit, when we got off and looked at the ride photo we could see she didn't look like she enjoyed it. Some of you will know that with photopass/magic maker they actually load up a ride video. I actually felt quite bad when we watched that, she looked terrified. I've just asked her what she thinks now and she says she can't wait to get back on it, but she remembers she was very scared that time.

(pose this time was Kevin from Home Alone)

She had no time to dwell on it as we had to run over to Jedi Training next. DH took them in, to get the outfitted in their rather fetching (I mean sweaty) Jedi cloaks while I waited next to the stage to get a good spot for pics. Well I think I managed all of 90 seconds. I was melting, it was soooo hot and there is absolutely no shade to be had. I didn't have a hat with me, but I did have DD's sun hat so tried that to see if I could manage to stay in the sun, even if I did look like a total prat. Nope, I was going to spontaneously combust so headed to the quickservice next door for a cold drink. I got a diet coke and found a seat where I could see what was going on. When I saw the kids making their way towards the stage I went back outside to meet DH. Now I'm not sure if you are meant to or not, but while I was waiting I refilled the coke. This made me feel slightly better about spending a snack credit on a diet coke.

As usual Jedi Training was excellent, but hot.

We were all a bit disappointed that they were not battling Kylo Ren but since the force was strong our younglings and they can now open elevator doors with the power of the force we soon forgot about that. The kids looked absolutely roasting and when they were done, we all got cold drinks and agreed it was time to make our way back to OKW to cool off in the pool, which as yet we've not had time to visit!

We headed back to the carpark and DH decided we would detour back via Crossroads as he wanted to visit the ABC liquor store there, the rest of us just wanted to get back and get in the pool. We parked up and DH went in. Taking the ignition keys with him. Before long the car alarm started going off. No problem I thought, he'll hear it,he'll be out in a minute, he's only getting beer. Well turns out there was a huge selection of beer that required perusing and we put up with the alarm for about 15 minutes! I can't complain too much as when he came out with the beer he'd also got me a bottle of Southern Comfort. But this was no ordinary bottle of Southern Comfort, it was a behemoth! And a very cheap behemoth at that, 1.75 litres for $20 and was extra classy in a plastic bottle.

We'd priced a litre bottle in the liquor store near Target and it was $24.99 so I could overlook sitting listening to the alarm going off and the kids moaning.

We got back to OKW, reapplied suncream, got our swimmers on and made our way to the pool. DH and I may have filled our refillable mugs with beer. Mmmmm beer. We picked up towels and found a couple of beds, the pool area was fairly busy. The kids were straight in the pool and before long had found a couple of pals and it was nice to see them playing. We spent a relaxing couple of hours by the pool. DH and I may have taken turns to return to the room to refill our refillable mugs with beer (this was an advantage of being very close to the Hospitality House). It was nice to kick back and relax, now we really felt like we were on holiday. Sadly I have no photos of our relaxing pool time, I'm sure I do have some later in the holiday.

We had no dinner plans this evening but didn't fancy the offerings in OKW so agreed to go over to Disney Springs for the evening. We were on our way by 7pm, taking the boat from OKW. Dinner was had in Wolfgang Puck Express which was fairly busy. We snagged a table as another group of diners left and a waiter soon cleared it for us.

I had the pasta bolognaise with brocollini, DH had pizza, kids had chicken tenders and some of DH's pizza. Dessert was brownie, cheesecake and frozen yogurt.

Don't seem to have a pic of the frozen yogurt. Kids enjoyed it.

Fabulous value for 3 x QS meals ($68.48 - had taken a photo of this receipt). We were a wee bit disappointed with the small apple juice DD was given, she'd have taken a soda had she known it was just a small carton, previously it was the large bottles of minute maid apple juice you got. Nevermind, it was great meal anyway and still great value. We left a tip for our waiter and went for a walk round Disney Springs. We didn't make it very far however as there was a dance party in full swing at the stage. We took a seat and soaked up the atmosphere. It didn't take long before the kids were up on their feet joining in the cha cha slide, cupid shuffle and wobble, wobble something or other. It was great fun!

After that the DJ got some audience members up on stage for a male versus female Lip Sync Battle. This was great entertainment and the participants were good sports, really getting into it. It was a close run competition, but the girls won. Mainly because one of the girls could perfectly lip sync to the little mermaid and knew all the moves! Time was marching on and we were all very tired, so had no problem talking the kids into returning home to bed. We were lucky that we got straight onto a boat and half an hour later we were all tucked up in bed (10.30pm) after another brilliant day.

Step count for today - 19,038

Tomorrow - More pool time and Yachtsman Steakhouse

[Loopylooloo]

Your step count! Thats nearly a weeks worth for me at home! Amazing.
Your day at HS looks fab, I love all your poses for the photos! I am never that organised. Am going to brave TOT this time, having avoided before, not sure about aerosmith though..! Looks like a great day.

[collybird]

We also favour early starts in Florida. We are naturally night owls so the thought of a lie in is appealling, alongside the appeal of being in the parks at night - when they are even more magical - but realistically we would never achieve as much as we do in the parks as we do at rope drop.

The Olaf picture is lovely!

Sounds like a really lovely end to the evening.

[2littleboys]

Jedi training looks great for the kids, however they must have been roasting in those cloaks!

Well done on your daughter doing Tower of Terror, I hate it! Once was enough for me, never ever again!

[clubhouse]

Originally Posted by 2littleboys

Jedi training looks great for the kids, however they must have been roasting in those cloaks!

Well done on your daughter doing Tower of Terror, I hate it! Once was enough for me, never ever again!

See more...

The Jedi training is brilliant for the kids, the castmembers are brilliant with them, however the
cloaks are horrid. Really hot and sticky - however they do keep the sun off them so not all bad I suppose!

Thanks for reading along - I'll try to get another day completed!

[Excitedx4]

Another fab day!

[closeder]

Fab day, the pics with Olaf and Chip and Dale are great. Remember the days when you could sign up to Jedi training with very little queue at all, well done for waiting for 40mins! Could you write up all the other days now so I can read them on my holidays please😄

[clubhouse]

Originally Posted by closeder

Fab day, the pics with Olaf and Chip and Dale are great. Remember the days when you could sign up to Jedi training with very little queue at all, well done for waiting for 40mins! Could you write up all the other days now so I can read them on my holidays please😄

See more...

If only I had your tech savvy and had done it on the reporter app! I think you are MAYBE rubbing it in that you go off on your holibobs soon! I've just done day 5, I've not got many notes from day 6 and we couldn't take photos on Keys to the Kingdom - hopefully I can remember what we got up to!

[Jake71]

My favourite ride is also ToT and we paid our first visit to Sci-Fi Dine-in and loved it, I can't wait to take our grandkids when we go back. A really good day, you are getting so much done in your days.

[smithlane]

Another great day, you're really packing it all in!
Your photo pass pics so far have been so good.
Tower of Terror is terrifying but equally such an amazing ride, I hope your DD overcomes her fears for this year