And Then There Were Three... The Big 18/21 May 6th 2019

[Dixiechic]

Index is here

Monday 6th May 2019

I woke with a start thinking that I heard Jasmine say something. I looked towards my bedroom door but couldn’t see her. I then realised I was looking in the wrong direction as I wasn’t in my room at home! No sign of Jas so looked at the clock - bang on 3am. Shut my eyes for 5 minutes but then decided to start typing up yesterday’s adventures.

Side note. Why doesn’t America have lamps with a simple switch?! What’s with all this double twisting business?!

Today we are going to the Early Morning Magic event at Hollywood studios. The rides in Toy Story Land are open between 7.30 and 9 followed by breakfast. We decided to book this after we discovered that Phoe was going to have fastpass issues and it was highly unlikely that we’d be able to get slinky dog fastpassses at 30 days out (we didn’t).

We are up and out of the door by 6.30 and it’s just getting light. We plug Hollywood studios into the satnav and of we go. We make it onto Disney property with no problems - although I do seem to be having trouble staying in my lane this morning. I keep veering to the right.

Then the fun and games start we’re following the purple signs and it becomes clear that everything has changed since the satnav maps were last updated (wouldn’t have this issue if I had my own one with me!). The purple signs are telling me one way and the satnav something totally different. In the confusion I miss the exit and then have to do my first u-turn. We eventually get back to where we started and make sure we don’t miss the exit. Jas has now been nick named Doris 2.0 as she was telling me where to go.

We finally go through the gates to Hollywood Studios and park in the front row. It’s still quite a walk to back check as they are doing construction near the entrance. The new gondola cars are hanging in place.

We check in with a lady with an iPad and get out Early Morning Magic wrist bands. We’re through the tap-stiles and on our way to Toy Story Land. This opened a couple of weeks after we left last year so it’s all totally brand new. I need to get a picture of the Fisher Price camper van that my sister and I had as children and my mum only recently got rid of but it’s decided there’s no time for pics, we need to get to Slinky Dog Dash.

We get to the entrance and it says a 5 minute wait. It was probably less than that. The attention to detail here is incredible - Andy has designed a roller coaster for slinky dog and has built it using his toys and games.

The cast members keep everything running smoothly here by dividing the line into 2 just before loading - parties with odd numbers and parties with even numbers.

The ride is fab - it’s a lot faster than I thought it would be. We got off and went straight round to get in the queue again. Slightly longer wait this time but no more than 10 minutes.

We then heading to alien swirling saucers. That’s definitely a once and done for me. It’s a bit spinny and I don’t like rides that spin.

We then headed for Toy Story Mania which is an old favourite of ours but on the way we decided to go on Slinky again. Jas and man next to us in the had both been to Asda!

There is a great view of the New a Star Wars Galaxy Edge which looks phenomenal. If we get to ride slinky again this trip I’ll try and get a photo.

Then it was Toy Story mania which was literally a walk on. This is a 3D fairground shooting style game which is very cleverly done but it kills your arm/shoulder. It was so bizarre seeing the queuing system so empty. We went straight round and ride again. I won both times but the second go was close all round.

It was now 8.45 and the plan was to head to the other end if the park and ride tower of terror before heading to breakfast which was included with our ticket and ended at 10. We had to battle against the hundreds of people bring led by cast members to Toy Story Land. We get to ToT to discover the wait time was 55 minutes. Half of ToT is currently under renovation so there are no fastpasses. We don’t have time to wait and still get breakfast so we abandon tower of terror and head to the restaurant - this is only open to the early morning magic guests. You order from a selection at the counter and then there is a buffet of cereals, fruit and pastries, juice, tea and coffee.

Suitably filled with more pastries than necessary, we reflect on if it was value for money and decide that it was. It was around £65 each but we rode Slinky 3 times, Toy Story mania twice and alien swirling saucers once. If we hadn’t tried to get to ToT for 9 we would have joined the line for Slinky again. We had plenty of food too.

We decided to take things easy next - jas has a blister the size of an extra toe on her little toe so she wasn’t up for much walking. We headed for Frozen Ever After which is a Frozen Sing sling show but they weren’t letting people in yet. The cast member advised that we had time to watch the Star Wars March of the first order first. Which we did - I love a Storm Trooper!

Then back to Frozen which was really funny - Eric was very entertaining

Jas and I had a fast pass for Rock n roller coaster at 12.50 and we decided that if Phoe queued in the single rider line we may ride st a similar time. We still had an hour to wait so decided to queue for Star Tours - a 45 minute wait. It’s ages since we’ve queued that long for anything but the queue steadily moved. At the beginning of the line there were some paramedics with a trolley and family then pushing a girl in a wheelchair who was fanning herself so she’d possibly overheated. One of the paramedics was proper hench! Managed to get a pic as he walked off but the bottom half of his body didn’t look strong enough to support the upper half!

We got on the ride exactly 45 minutes after joining the line and, we actually hit a different mission. Every time we went on the last 2 trips we had exactly the same mission. None of us were the rebel spy.

We then headed down to rock n roller where the standby line was 105 minutes! We stopped at guest services in the way and picked up the birthday badges. Jas decided she didn’t want to ride do Phoe used the fast pass instead. We got right to the front and then there must have been some technical problems as it took ages to get on the ride. I think I’m getting too old for this one - it really hurt my head.

We found jas where we left her and she wasn’t too happy. We then headed out of the park and back to the car where it was saying the temperature was now 90°. Good job it was still mainly overcast otherwise it would have been unbearable.

We decided not to use satnav and just follow the purple signs to Disney Springs - jas wanted to take a look in the Lego store. Bad move a none of the purple signs mentioned Disney Springs and before I knew it we were heading off property towards the i4, did another u-turn to avoid that and ended up by the Gaylord palms hotel (Phoe always has a chuckle at the name). One more u-turn and we were back in the land of purple signs and making our way to Disney Springs. Except the car park I wanted to be in was on the other side of the road so I had to do another upturn! I have well and truly mastered these today.

Parked up in Lime garage and headed down the escalator to the Lego store. Jas purchased A new new Avengers piece and happily used Phoebe’s annual pass discount. We were now hit and thirsty so headed to Ghiradelli for a sit down and an ice cream, stopping to get Jas a frozen lemonade on the way. Phoe somehow managed to order herself the wrong thing!

Revitalized we then popped into World of Disney to pick up a Disney Rubik’s cube which we had seen earlier. Phoe also hot herself a Thanos mug to use as a pen pot at work. It’s hood to see that they’re getting some Marvel merchandise now - Disneyland Paris are doing loads of Marvel things but there’s an issue here because Universal studios still have marvel rides and character meets.

We then headed home - without incident! Doris 1.0 and 2.0 assisting.

We quickly stopped at Publix supermarket to pick up a couple of bit and then jumped in the pool as soon as we got home. Dinner at home tonight. Sat outside and relaxed. Got some washing done. Bath and then bed to start typing this - I know there are going to be loads of errors as I’m so tired! Sorry!

Another observation for today - Disney toilet paper is now thinner than ever. It’s practically see through.

PHOEBE’S VERSION OF EVENTS:

Day 3 - Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios

I woke up for the first time at half 3, why all of these stories start with a 3am wake up I don’t know. I call them stories because they are stories and those that know me, know I love a good story!

I then finally woke up at 5am and started to finish/rewrite the blog. I went and woke Jasmine up at 5:45 and got semi ready and went back down to finish getting myself ready. I then went back up to her at 6am and she was still in the same position! I gave her a 15 minute warning and as soon as she was dressed to come down stairs and I’d suncream her.

Jas absolutely hates being creamed up, especially her face. I sent her outside and took the special spray one so she didn’t even have to rub it in. I sprayed her arms and legs and then braced her for the face. Well that’s where it all went wrong and I’m now banned from using the suncream on her. I warned her the spray was coming and she knew it. She then moved her face and I almost blinded her with the spray and I’m pretty sure she ate some of it. I told her I’d then rub it in but I needed to spray some more to fully cover her. She then said “okay now, whilst my eyes aren’t strunchted up” - I obviously thought she mean spray again, so I did. Turns out she meant rub it in!

After that trauma we were ready to go and head to Hollywood Studios. At 6:30am we set off, hoping Dorris (sat nav) would take us the right way today. We got all the way onto Disney property with no hitches until we tried to turn into Hollywood. The sat nav we have from Mr car hire man is shoddy and isn’t fully updated. I miss the original Dorris who belongs to us but Gdog has it! the sat nav was telling us one way, Disney signs pointing another and Dorris 2.0 (Jas) saying a third different way. Well safe to say we missed the turning as usual and did a detour. I also love a good detour!

Finally arrived at Hollywood just after 7am and parked the car. We were so close to the front of the park it was ridiculous. We then completed bag search, checked in and got our wrist bands and a breakfast menu.

Walked straight over to Toy Story Land. This was our first time in TSL as we’d missed the opening by 10 days on our last trip! First ride was Slinky Dog. We’d anticipated it would be a bit like Barnstormer rollercoaster in Magic Kingdom, which is aimed at kids and not very thrilling. Well we were wrong! Slinky was brilliant! Mum recorded the ride and you can probably just see my arms and hear “oohing” and “ahhing”. Literally no wait so we went straight round and rode it again.

Next onto Alien Swirling Saucers. I was on my own for this one so when it spun round didn’t have anyone to crash into so slid from side to side crashing into the ride! You’re only held in with a clicky buckle seat belt which served no purpose when you’re small and on your own! The bar was also too far away for me to hold onto, there was no hope.

Went straight back round to Slinky again and this time we saw the new Galaxys Edge taking place! We then went straight to Toy Story Mania which was a walk on! Mum got the highest score in the cart, which irritated both Jas and I. We then rejoined and went on again. I was determined to win. But once again mum was the best. I don’t mind losing, don’t get me wrong if I win, I’ll go on about it for days and when I lose I’ll stamp my foot, sulk and pull my ‘Phoebe face’, as mum calls it. But losing to mum, it irritates me more because she’ll bang on about it for the next 10 years and I’m sure she mentioned how she won both times above!

We then flew over to Tower of Terror for park opening and as we made our way back over a sea of humans were being held back and led to Toy Story Land. When we left the wait time was 20 minutes for slinky, within 5 minutes of the human sea it was up to 80!

Tower of Terror was a 50 minute wait. We had to be in the breakfast area, which was included in our extra event, by 10am. We got into the queue and then gave up and went over to the backlot express for breakfast.

I had the kids scrambled egg and sweet potato tots, Jas had the kids fried chicken and sweet potato tots and mum had avocado and toast. I’m struggling to find vegetarian fish free meals, so basically carbs! I do eat meat but I’m very funny with it and it’s just so much easier for everyone involved for me not to bother. The fear is real people! They also had cereal, pastries and yoghurt. This is where I ate my money. I had two bowls of fruit loops. Two croissants, a cheesecake pastry, 2 shell looking pastries, a jam looking one, 2 doughnuts from Jasmines meal and her tatatots!

After this we then headed to Frozen sing a long but was far too early so sat and watched March of the First Order with the storm troupers. Then back to Frozen ever after. I loved this, I was singing my little heart out! Now they just need to make a Little Mermaid singalong!

We then queued for Startours. It stated 45 minutes wait and was exactly that until we sat down! I’ve kinda missed queuing like normal people! The group in front of us were playing heads up And Jasmine was so into it, she kept moving to see the screen, smiling away at her self bless her. Unfortunately neither of us were the rebel spy.

Jas then got an ice cream and we headed for birthday badges and celebrating badges. Then onto Rock n Roller Coster. Plan was for mum and Jas to use the FP and I’ll go single rider. At this point Jas had had enough and wanted to get to the Lego store so gave it a miss. Mum and I used the FPS. The ride kept breaking down whilst we were queuing so it was almost an hour until we’d ridden it! Got put into row 1 which is intense. The pull down over head bars annoy me here. I’m not fat enough to fill the gaps they leave, and I’m not thin enough for it to click into another one, so I’m flying around like no tomorrow.

We then headed back to the car and momentarily lost Daisey ( the car ). Headed off the Disney Springs but once again, took a wrong turn and had to detour!

Then arrived into Disney Springs and headed straight to the Lego store. Jas got a avengers ship or something. When we paid, cheeky annual pass discount the lady serving us gave Jas a Captain Marvel printed picture. All I heard was Captain and thought she was going to say Captain America and got way too excited she then gave me another!

Stopped at Ghiradelli for a Sunday. I’d decided on a cookie dough one but then I got to the till I ordered a mint bliss and didn’t realise what I’d done until I started to eat it. We then took a trip into World of Disney where mum got herself a Disney rubix cube, I got some socks and the coolest Thanos mug ever!

Back to the car to try and get home. Again, got lost and a detour! Finally arrived home and got straight into the pool. I lounged on flounder whilst mum and Jas played with a baskets ball and net. We then had dinner and played a couple of games of 7’s.

Mum and I then got In the Jacuzzi after jas had gone to shower. So hoping I sleep well tonight ready for Magic Kingdom again!

[Loopylooloo]

Having the annual pass is a shout, especially for those extortionate parking fees. The new toy story land looks good, I expect the star wars one will be epic but crazy busy for few years! Havent ever noticed the toilet paper issue but am sure I will next time we go now you have pointed it out!

[scottishnellie]

Great getting to ride all the toy story rides with the extra hours. I can’t get a slinky dog FP either but just can’t bring myself to part with the cash required for the extra hours.

Can we see the Thanos mug if you get a chance? LOVE Thanos!

[Dixiechic]

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Having the annual pass is a shout, especially for those extortionate parking fees. The new toy story land looks good, I expect the star wars one will be epic but crazy busy for few years! Havent ever noticed the toilet paper issue but am sure I will next time we go now you have pointed it out!

See more...

I think the Star Wars section will be packed for decades! I remember last year getting back to MCO after staying on site in the Disney bubble and thinking ‘wow, this toilet paper is quality!’
I’ll try and take a pic today!

[Dixiechic]

Originally Posted by scottishnellie

Great getting to ride all the toy story rides with the extra hours. I can’t get a slinky dog FP either but just can’t bring myself to part with the cash required for the extra hours.

Can we see the Thanos mug if you get a chance? LOVE Thanos!

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I was reluctant to spend the money but knew it was the only way. Glad I went for it but wish I’d done it on a day when my mum and dad are here now.
Will get a pic of the Thanos mug

[DISNEYNIC]

Toy Story Land looks fab. That ice cream looks lush too.

[Dizzny Momma]

Another fun filled day
Margaret

[Palm trees]

We did the Early morning toy story event (like you had no expectations of 30 day passes for Slinky, especially as we were there over the Easter holidays). I agree that it was worth it for the number of rides we got done, we loved Slinky dog too.

[collybird]

Haha OH has that Buzz t-shirt too!

I agree with you about Swirling Saucers being a once and done, worst ride in Disney for me!

[margyloveswdw]

Slinky Dog is a fab ride! Way more than I was expecting.

Another fab day