Hurricane? What hurricane? Universal & Disney Sept. 2017 - Day 7, Shopping & DHS

**sha9** · 5 Oct 17, 07:44 PM

The dining report for today is here.

We had a plan today for a later start doing Hollywood Studios in the afternoon/evening for Fantasmic! with a dining package booked at Hollywood Brown Derby.

I woke up about 6.40am so a long lie! We made plans to pop to the Vineland Premium Outlets for a look before we headed to DHS later. Since we were in no hurry we decided to have breakfast at Riverside Mill. This was fine but given how much we later spent on OOP food this trip I wish we’d went offsite to Lake Buena Vista for breakfast.

We went to the outlets and I got another pair of jeans. We both got stuff from Jockey. We didn’t stay too long. Many of the shops were closed despite no word of a curfew until Sunday evening at the earliest and many had signs saying there were closing early that day. Some even said “until further notice”. We could see sand bags piled up and many of the outdoor booths and kiosks were being packed up. It didn’t feel right shopping so we headed back to POR around 12ish.

On the way we decided just to go straight to DHS as we didn’t have any reason to go via the resort. Our FP were all booked for later, between dinner and Fantasmic! so once there I got on the app and changed the timings. I was easily able to change them and got TSM for 5 minutes later. An effect of Irma I suspect as the standby line was 20 minutes.

No more Great Movie Ride.

We rode TSM then Star Tours. I had made a FP for the Frozen Sing Along as we struggle with tier 2 FP here too. I like Tower of Terror but Marie doesn’t and I’m too scared to ride alone

. We normally make one that we don’t use so after seeing Tim Tracker at the Frozen show we (I) decided to give it a go. We normally don’t do the shows but I reckon we’re missing out.
I’m not entirely sure what the point in the FP was and it may have been just because the park was so quiet but we were just in with everyone else. We arrived about 20 minutes before the show unbeknown to Marie who wasn’t pleased that she had to wait so long

. Anyway, we watched the Arendelle history shorts on TV while we waited! We really enjoyed this! Marie who was rolling her eyes at me for FPing this roared with laughter all the way through

. We both did a bit of singing too!

As soon as we’d used the Frozen FP I was able to make a 4th so made one for TSM later so we could ride it in between dinner and Fantasmic! Again we had our choice of times.

After Frozen we popped into One Mans Dream to have a look and meet Star Lord. No Baby Groot today but Star Lord was very chatty and the interaction was as good as you wanted it to be if that makes sense. Since he’s a real person you either join in or you don’t! We did our best but always feel a bit awkward in these situations. He asked us if we’d seen Rocket and launched into a bit of a story where we just really had to agree with him!

We were a bit hungry but still 2 hours away from dinner so shared some nachos from Min & Bills Dockside Diner. We used a QS credit and shared the drink too. This was enough to keep us going until dinner.

After this we watched the March of the First Order. I love this! I still can’t believe how something as simple is so effective! I think the ominous music helps! I noticed they’ve changed the route so it covers more of the park too.

I noticed after this that there were no times up for the Galaxy Far, Far Away show which I’d been looking forward too. We asked one of the CMs who explained the stage had been taken down in advance of Irma for safety reasons. That made sense and that’s when I realised I had noticed the stage was gone

. He also told us it could take a week to go back up

. We chatted with the CM a bit about Irma. He was the first of many CMs who reassured us we’d be safe at Disney as they’d take care of us and that they had their own power supply. I think this was the longest we’ve ever just stopped and chatted with a CM.

We went for a bit of a wander and did Path of the Jedi. I have no idea why I took picture of the screen.

They'd taken the scrim down because of the hurricane too. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get great pictures but got this one of the old Streets of America.

I thought I'd got one of the Toy Story area but can't find it. You couldn't see much anyway.

It was soon time for dinner so we headed off to the Brown Derby. This was our first time here and I think the menu was not really to Marie’s taste. We both liked it but I don’t think Marie liked it enough to go back given it’s 2 credits. The highlight of our meal was that our servers name was Fonzie and Marie didn’t even notice!

We rode TSM with our FP but noticed a 10 minute wait time. 10 minutes! I had to take a photo!

I then made a FP for Star Tours and in the meantime we headed to the Launch Bay to do the character meet & greets. This was all quite funny as Marie was wearing a Darth Vader vest and the CM at the BB-8 one told her BB-8 was scared of her top. Chewbacca then made a big deal of not being happy! Marie had to tell him she didn’t really like Vader before he would settle and give her a hug! I got my hug no bother!

We then went to Kylo Ren which I can never do with a straight face. I decided I was going to agree to join the First Order but he didn’t ask.

I had to take a picture of this Revenge of the Jedi poster! I still remember seeing that merchandise in John Menzies before they changed the title.

I spent most of my time in DHS trying to get a decent Stormtrooper photo and failing miserably!

On the way to Star Tours we saw the Olaf meet & greet so I suggested to Marie we may as well meet him too since the wait times were all so low. While in the queue the CM announced that “Olaf cannot read so will not be signing your autographs!”. We thought this was really funny for some reason!

By the time we’d ridden Star Tours it was nearly time for Fantasmic! so we had a look in some shops on the way up to the theatre. We had a look at the food stalls on the way to get a snack but in the end waited until we were in the theatre to get some cinnamon glazed almonds/pecans and a bottle of juice. We used snack credits for these.
We had a good seat for Fantasmic! with the dining package seats and sat near the end of a row for rapid exit. As always we enjoyed it but I still don’t get the Pocahontas bit.

Back to the hotel after this and to bed as this was a late night!

Steps 15627

**OB1LukeLucas** · 6 Oct 17, 05:09 PM

Sounds like you had a great time in HS, that wait time for TSM deserves a photo.

**Goldia** · 8 Oct 17, 08:43 AM

You actually managed to sleep in today, any time after 6am at disney counts as a lie in doesn't it? Good fun was had at HS. I can't believe you saw Tim Tracker! How fun.

**WileyCoyote** · 8 Oct 17, 09:39 AM

A brilliant day round the studios. Must have been a bit scary though seeing the shops closing up, making it all a bit too real. Am popping over to read the dining report now !

**sha9** · 8 Oct 17, 09:49 AM

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Sounds like you had a great time in HS, that wait time for TSM deserves a photo.

Yes it was unbelievable!

Originally Posted by Goldia

You actually managed to sleep in today, any time after 6am at disney counts as a lie in doesn't it? Good fun was had at HS. I can't believe you saw Tim Tracker! How fun.

I've just re-read what I wrote and it does suggest we saw Tim Tracker but actually what I meant was that we'd watched him on YouTube at the Frozen singalong

. Sorry for the unnecessary excitement!

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

A brilliant day round the studios. Must have been a bit scary though seeing the shops closing up, making it all a bit too real. Am popping over to read the dining report now !

I'll be honest, closing on the Friday seemed a bit excessive to me. It was still glorious sunshine on the Saturday. I get closing early to make preparations but 48 hours seemed a bit much. The general feeling was that no one wanted to be caught out so everyone was preparing for the worst case scenario. I did start to think maybe we were underplaying it!

**Goldia** · 8 Oct 17, 01:02 PM

Ha ha, well at least you both enjoyed the frozen singalong

collybird · 10 Oct 17, 12:06 AM

It's really interesting to see how everyone is reacting to the build up to the hurricane, the atmosphere must have been slightly odd.

**sha9** · 30 Oct 17, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by Goldia

Ha ha, well at least you both enjoyed the frozen singalong

Yes we definitely did!

Originally Posted by collybird

It's really interesting to see how everyone is reacting to the build up to the hurricane, the atmosphere must have been slightly odd.

It was odd. Especially as the weather was so nice at that point.