Stranger Trip, The Report. Day 5, TL and HS.

[spencem]

Day 5, October 10th 2018

Today’s plan was a trip to Typhoon Lagoon this morning, an afternoon nap and then an evening at Hollywood Studios for the Star Wars fireworks. Julia took some persuading to follow the Typhoon Lagoon part of The Plan, because of her well documented aquaphobia, but after many assurances from Edward and me that we wouldn’t try to get her into the water and mainly wanted her to come along so we wouldn’t need to hire a locker we all set off at a reasonable hour.

10:30 saw us parking right next to the entrance in an almost empty car park. The weather today was overcast, but dry and with temperatures still in the low 80’s, but the cloudy skies were obviously keeping people away.


Don’t you hate queuing to get in?


No one wanted their picture taken with Gator Dude, or whatever his name is.


Agreeably quiet.

The first order of the day was to get Julia a tea to look at (she might, just might, take a sip or two) and then find somewhere to set up camp for the morning, with some shade and even shelter just in case the overcast managed to squeeze some rain out. We walked round to the right thinking of going to the same spot she’d used back in 2014, but found it is now roped off for posh people only. No matter we quickly found another spot nearby, right by the entrance to the newest ride Miss Adventure Falls. We had brought towels with us from our hotel and all had our costumes on under our clothes so Edward and I were soon ready to hit the slides and Julia her book.

Our first target was the raft ride right next to us, where no one was waiting.


I’ve just had to look this ride’s name up, since it isn’t on the sign.


Animatronics in a water park, hope they are well protected.

This is a fun ride and I especially like not having to carry your raft up the hill with you. I don’t think it is as good as the family raft ride at Blizzard Beach, but it comes close.

Next on our list and the reason we were at Typhoon Lagoon rather than Blizzard Beach was Crush’n’Gusher, where once again we faced a queue of no one at all.


Why couldn’t the main parks have been like this.

Here you do have to carry your own rafts up the stair and with no queues for any of the three options the carrying was quite hard work. Normally you’d go up the stairs a few at a time as the queue moved, today there was no queue and so the whole tower was done at once. My son reverted to being 6 years old and expected his dad to carry the raft. Once on each slide was enough for my legs and so after quickly checking back with Julia we moved on to relax with a lap of the lazy river.


Edward managed to conquer the two person raft at last.


I went my own route to relaxation.


I used to work with a bloke called Sparky, I wondered where he had washed up.

My attempts to get on top of a double ring had my son in stitches, he even insisted on taking the camera off of me so my attempts could be recorded for the trip report. Thankfully he never thought of putting it into video mode.


After many failed attempts to get on top of the thing I decided this would do.

There is only so much relaxing either of us can do, so once we had completed a lap of the river we got out again, which had us next to Humunga Kowabunga. In a moment of madness Edward decided that since there was no queue he’d have a go. I rather sensibly offered to catch his plummet for posterity on camera.


There he goes, in the white half way up the stairs.


One splash and it’s all over. Zoom in and his face says it all.

Storm Slides were next, but after one each we decided we didn’t need to climb all those steps again to ride the others, we both missed the chair lift of Blizzard Beach.


How do they get up there to re-paint the boat?


Julia could have sat here, but she doesn’t like crowds.

We took a walk under the mountain and round the other side of the wave pool to ride Gangplank Falls, the family raft ride.


Always guaranteed to raise a smile.

Edward wandered off in the direction of a bathroom and while I was waiting for him to return I watched the absolute madness of the wave pool. When Edward got back we both stood a little longer remembering each of us losing our glasses to the power of the wave last holiday.


I’m amazed the elves of safety still allow this.

Keelhaul Falls and Mayday Falls we quickly ridden, with Mayday Falls being our favourite I think. We then took a walk round the very shallow part of the wave pool back to Julia. Rather than eat the limited fast food options in Typhoon Lagoon (not everything was open as it was so quiet) we decided to call it a day and eat in Hollywood Studios after showers back at the hotel.


Looks like we left just after noon.

We’d really enjoyed our quiet morning in Typhoon Lagoon. The bulk of the accents we’d heard from the few people around us were British. There were a few Americans, but I don’t think any of them were southerners or locals. To be honest these were the crowd levels we had expected for all the parks, not the peak season levels we’d experienced so far.

Back at the Holiday Inn we had our showers and changed. I suspect there was also some tea involved and probably some of last night’s candy, but with no actual food in the kitchen there was no lunch. With us only being away for 7 nights we had not got the usual bits of food and just picked up breakfast.

If there was a nap it was a very short one. 2:20 Saw us in the disabled parking at Hollywood Studios, looking over the walls at the construction of the new bus station and Skyliner terminal taking shape. I’d have said neither were that far off of being finished, but this week I saw they have set next autumn as the opening date of the Skyliner.


The structure looks done, just cladding to go on the bus station.


Same with the cable car station, but I guess they have a lot more work to do with the actual cables.

There was a photographer out by the Fantasia display without a line, so we paused briefly to get our picture taken.


Hurry please we’re hungry.

It’s time for my second rant about Disney security and the ‘atom bomb in my pants’ story. There was hardly anyone going into the park this early afternoon and so the search area was quiet. I thought I’d be helpful and take the big rucksack off of the ECV and carry it to a table to be searched, rather than leave it to the security people to get it off and poke about as normal. Well that was all fine, until I then hung it back on the ECV once it had been searched. The guy was still poking through Julia’s purse (English use of purse, as in wallet, not American as in handbag). Seriously this guy was looking between the notes for who knows what. As soon as I hung the bag back on the ECV he went bananas demanding to know what I thought I was doing hanging my bag on her ECV and upset that he had not yet finished searching Julia. I can only guess he thought I’d got an atom bomb in my pants and had somehow slipped it from there into the bag between table and chair. He then proceeded to re-search the bad. I had to walk away before I said something and got myself kicked out. The irony? I still had that short stubby bottle of water and my glasses case in my thigh pocket looking just like the outline of a gun and NO ONE WANTED TO LOOK AT IT. What on earth can you hide between notes in a purse that you can’t hide in the pocket of a pair of cargo shorts? Eventually Captain Jobs-Worth let Julia past and we went into the park.


How good does this look without a hat or stage?


Tink came and claimed the glory for the stage removal.

You know how we didn’t want to eat ‘fast food’ in Typhoon Lagoon? Well it was now nearly half past two and Edward was hungry. Once we had seen that Staring Roles was closed up and Starbucks had a huge queue Edward marched us straight to the ABC café for chicken strips and fries. Julia got the best of the food with her kids turkey sandwich.

Looking at the app the park was busy, about the shortest queue was for Muppets at 25 minutes so once we had eaten we headed over there.


The star of the show was personally greeting guests.

The wait was nowhere near 25 minutes, we just waited for the show running to finish before going into the next one. It was quite full and they really should have made more of an effort to send people right across their rows. The show itself was as good as ever and gave our lunch time to go down. I really like how they mix the animatronic and live elements into the film here.

Our Fastpasses for this afternoon were Tower of Terror, Rock’n’Roller Coaster and Toy Story, the first of these was just opening, so off we went, pausing for some pictures on the way.


Did it really ‘all start with a mouse’? Some would say it all started with this lovely lady.


We’ll get there soon enough.


The theming down Sunset is fantastic.


Time for some jazz hands.

We had a good poke around the gift shop after Tower of Terror, both to kill the remaining time before our next FP and also because we were looking for a replacement key ring for my sister who was cat sitting for us. Tower of Terror is her favourite ride in Orlando and she has a room key keyring from a few years back that was looking a little worse for wear. Sadly they don’t do the same design now, only a much larger versions.

Julia walked the queue line with Edward and I for Rock’n’Roller Coaster, because she’s not seen it for a while and more importantly she wanted to use up the FP so if there was anything left after Toy Story later we could all use it. When we got to the front she simply told the Cast Member she wasn’t riding as was directed to the unload area.


An unusual graphic to see on a diversion sign.


Edward and I had a nap in the dark.


I love this view of ToT from the R’n’R exit ramp.

There was quite a big gap in our FPs now, so with everything still very busy we decided a search for t-shirts and a stop for coffee was a good thing to do. Again we spotted a photographer with no queue and so got some pictures with our favourite ride in the background. Yes, I’d still rate ToT as Disney’s best ride even with Flight of Passage opening.


Not sure what surprised us?

Nothing grabbed us in the shops and so we decided to go to Disney Springs after the park closed to take a look in the huge World of Disney store, not knowing it was currently anything but huge. Once again half of the shop was closed in Starbucks and so the queue long and slow. Edward was waiting outside with the ECV while Julia came in to help carry everything. After we had ordered and were waiting the longest time for our drinks to get made the heavens opened and it poured down. Thankfully Edward had the sense to disconnect the drive on the ECV and push it under cover, Julia having the key in her pocket. By the time the team of trainees had made our drinks the rain had all but stopped. I put one of the umbrellas back up outside and we sat there just chilling with our drinks for a bit. I’d also picked up a fruit salad, while Julia and Edward shared a muffin.

Once we’d finished up our FP was open for Toy Story, so we headed over for Julia’s first visit to the new land.


Impressive even in the wet.


If you thought the rain would chase the crowds away think again.

Despite the crowds there was only a 30 minute standby line for Midway Mania, but that was enough to make us welcome our Fastpasses. Julia and Edward rode on the same car as me, but with their backs to me so I’ve no idea on scores, only that the Best in Car score matched what I had in front of me. I did spot that the other high score screen had crashed as we exited and walked over to let a Cast Member know, but they’d already seen it and had someone already rebooting it.

When we came out things had quietened down a little and Slinky Dog Dash was showing ‘just’ 60 minutes standby. We talked about what else we could do before the fireworks and decided as this was the shortest line we’d seen so far to give it a go.

There have been some great photo opportunities designed into the layout of the ride.

I have to say the queue for Slinky is nowhere near as interesting as the one for Flight of Passage, being just endless switch backs. Where Flight of passage has all the different areas and all the detail to look at Slinky’s queue is built around the supposed box the ride set came in. Julia had the most entertainment, negotiating the endless hairpin bends on the EVC.


This is an interesting part, I wonder if the parts count is accurate?

The ride itself is great, smooth enough to not disturb the littlest kid, or most nervous adult, while still being big and fast enough for bigger kids, not to mention me. The last section is the best, with all the bunny hops, it reminded me of our flight over on Saturday. It is well worth waiting half an hour for, but I’m not sure I’d wait any more than that now I’ve done it once.


Wheezy and Mr Mike keep you entertained on the break run, shame one of them can’t head over to the queue pens.


The ride and indeed the whole land looks great at night.

We waited 55 minutes in total for the ride, so the estimate of an hour was pretty accurate. Once off we still had about 45 minutes until the fireworks, so didn’t rush back to the square in front of the Chinese Theatre. When we did get there it was surprisingly empty. I asked a Cast Member guarding the VIP area if there was a disabled viewing spot and was directed over to the left as you look at the theatre where sure enough there was an area roped off.

On the way over I stopped at a kiosk to pick up a stuffed pretzel, neither of the others wanted anything. Once we were settled Edward, with a little prompting, went to get some coffee, only to return empty handed. He’d arrived at Starbucks on the stroke of 8pm and had the door closed in his face. I really don’t understand Disney’s mentality of closing down the coffee shop half an hour before the show, or even at exactly park closing time. There are thousands of people walking past who would probably quite like a drink to take on their journey home. I suspect it is down to some stupid accountant who only looked at the cost of employing staff for an extra hour and not at the income they’d bring in. It reminds me of when my mother worked for a book manufacturer and their new MD cancelled all the orders for paper as they couldn’t understand why they needed so much, 3 months later the company went under.

Just before Edward got back something calling itself Disney Movie Magic started, basically a projection show of film clips on the theatre. I presume this show is really just a test that everything is working before the main event, it certainly didn’t show up on the times guide.


Yep, all the projectors came on as they should have.

I was surprised at how quiet the square stayed right up to the Star Wars show, but taking the stage out has really opened the whole area up. The show itself has changed massively since I last saw it in 2016, with no big fireworks at all now. I guess they had to take them out when Toy Story Land opened as they were fired from somewhere back there. It is still a great show, but not as good as it once was I think.


The projection is still as clear as ever.


The flame projectors just as huge and as hot.


But the fireworks have shrunk to just some single shots from the building roofs.

Rather than do our usual wait for everyone to go before moving we left with the crowd tonight as we wanted to get to Disney Springs before World of Disney closed at 10pm. Julia was finding it easier to negotiate crowds at night now she had her super bright headlight to warn people she was there. That said she was still nearly taken out this night, by a woman on one of those huge scooters with a canopy on. This ‘lady’ decided she wanted to go from left to right across the whole street and she wasn’t stopping for anything or anyone. I gave her a clap for her amazing skills of smashing a few ankles, knocking over a kid and nearly destroying Julia’s ECV. The man on a very similar machine waiting over on the right didn’t appreciate my applause, but he’d have appreciated me much less if his (I suspect) wife had actually hit Julia. If it had been my kid having to be picked back up off the floor I might have been calling Disney security.


When I said the show wasn’t crowded it still looked like this getting out. Imagine driving something not much smaller than a Smart Car sideways at speed through this lot.

We were soon on the road and parking up in the Lime garage for our shopping experience. I was hoping to eat as well, having had some fruit and a pretzel in the last 7 hours, but my son announced he wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to wait for me to eat as I was looking at the menu for the Polite Pig. This didn’t put me in the best mood to shop and that wasn’t improved when we got to The World of Disney to find it still in the middle of it refurb. I knew it had been closed for a while, but knew it had re-opened. What I didn’t realise was that they had only opened a tiny proportion of the shop.


Westfield/Trafford Centre/Bluewater/Metro Centre *delete as appropriate.


This was it, but it does look good I’ll give them that.

None of us found what we were looking for, except Julia who got a couple of small bits she wanted as gifts. Our shopping trip didn’t last very long and we were soon back at Orange Lake where I had a very late breakfast to keep me going until proper breakfast.


Link back to the index.

[klr15]

Another really good read.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by klr15

Another really good read.

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Thanks

[Excitedx4]

Another great day! Wow the woman on the ECV I’d of been fuming! You really do see some sights of people driving those when let’s face it they are practically a small car and can really do some damage especially to kids! I suspect the fireworks look less crowded to start with as fantasmic is still on then people flow out fo the stadium and watch the Star Wars Fireworks

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Excitedx4

Another great day! Wow the woman on the ECV I’d of been fuming! You really do see some sights of people driving those when let’s face it they are practically a small car and can really do some damage especially to kids! I suspect the fireworks look less crowded to start with as fantasmic is still on then people flow out fo the stadium and watch the Star Wars Fireworks

See more...

Having an ECV with us I totally understand that there are a lot of people who don't give them enough space, but this woman was a real menace.