Stranger Trip, The Report. Day 3, HS and MNSSHP.

[spencem]

Day 3 October 8th 2018

Today’s plan had us going to Hollywood Studios for rope drop in order to ride Slinky Dog, with a set of Fastpasses for the rest of the morning and then a nap and then Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this evening. Sadly, like yesterday it went out the window early doors due to illness, but today it was Julia’s turn. Also Edward, who is much more used to switching his body clock around than us managed to sleep in well past the time we should have been heading out to make park opening.

Julia’s issues were her normal stomach ones and she knew she’d be okay after some pain killers and a nap, so not wanting to risk MNSSHP she did the sensible thing and went back to bed telling me and Edward to go use the FPs. This we did, all be it we were tight for time to use our first ones at Tower of Terror.

I’d not had breakfast and so was not in the best of moods anyway when we came across a lovely bit of Disney misdirection. I knew they were working on the new entrance to Hollywood Studios, but didn’t know how far they’d got, so believed the sign telling me to turn right at the end of the Western Way by Coronado Springs rather than left as we had in 2016. I was expecting to see another sign when we got to the Hokey Cokey Parkway, but there wasn’t one so I carried on straight, straight into the All Stars Resort. Oh how I laughed, NOT. It would appear I was not the only one to make the mistake as the people in the car next to us looked equally confused and turned behind us, having convinced the gate guard we were just lost and not up to no good.

A while later we were pulling into a very busy Hollywood Studios parking lot and without Julia and her disabled badge having to get a tram to the entrance.


Not looking too bad.

A little pause here to have a moan about Disney security if I may. Today as most days I went through the Guests Without Bags line. (I long ago learnt not to help Julia with the ECV bags but did briefly forget once this trip, as you’ll hear about another day with the ‘atom bomb in pants story’.) I also wore cargo shorts everyday with my sunglasses in their case and normally a bottle of water in one of the large pockets making it bulge and obviously heavy. Not once did they ask to see this pocket, that could have had all sorts of compact heavy things in, but they did every time without fail want to see what was in my small mesh camera pouch on my hip even if it was obviously empty with my camera in my hand. “Sir what is in this small empty pouch, so small that you couldn’t even hide a plum in it?” They would shout, or something like that anyway, while ignoring the fully closed pocket that could easily have held all sorts of nasty things that go bang. Rant over about security, for today anyway.

All this faffing about had us just past our time for ToT, but we thought we’d try our luck anyway and tell the sob story of the bad signage.


Taken at a trot.

As we got down the end of Sunset Boulevard we encountered a large queue and a sign for Standby showing 170 minutes! We went looking for the FP queue, only to realise that it too was halfway up the road. As we stood looking at it a cast member approached and explained that one of the elevator shafts was broken and we were welcome to come back later if we didn’t want to stand in the estimated 90 minute FP line!

It was only as we walked away that Edward realised that we hadn’t been ‘told a story’ about the ride problems, just simply that they were having technical issues with it. He contrasted this with how on a previous trip when Space Mountain had been down we had been told they had run out of rocket fuel, or when Haunted Mansion had paused we were told mysterious happenings were stopping the tours.

Thoughts turned back to food, but with everything closed down the end of Sunset, Staring Rolls closed and every other restaurant showing as not opening until 11:30 Starbucks had a queue out of the door, round their ramp and out onto the street. I may have got quite upset at this point and rather hangry, but my designated adult son soon told me to behave and we wandered off to Star Tours to use our FP.

I might have still been sulking a little when we got to the ride early and were happily let in despite our FP window not being quite open. I say this because I didn’t take any pictures outside or in the queue. I do remember thinking this ride also had a huge line, before realising that no it was just the crowd watching the Jedi Training. The ride was its usual self and happily didn’t upset Edward as all simulators did back on our last holiday in 2016. We did both note that the sequence now ends in a render of Galaxies Edge with C3PO saying something like “This adventure is only just beginning”.

We thought about food options again next, as it was now time for places to open and decided we would go and take a look at the options in Toy Story Land having read so many good things about them.


The new area looks great and the entrance between the old sound stages actually works really well.

We initially walked past Andy’s Toy Box thinking that was just a snack place and that the actual restaurant would be much bigger.


Is that it, just two registers and three windows? Yes I’m afraid it really is that small.

Predictably the line was very long with such a small outlet in such a busy area and the crowding was made worse by people holding tables for people in the queue. Edward stayed with me for a while before reluctantly heading off to do what we were moaning about, trying to find us a table. If he hadn’t we would never have got anywhere to eat, but I think an enforced policy of not letting tables be held would improve things no end. Because the queue was so long and slow tables were being held for longer than most people were taking to eat.

The cast member organising the queue was friendly commenting on my shirt, the one taking the orders was fast and friendly, the one at the window taking your receipt and organising drinks was efficient. Sadly they were all let down by a tiny kitchen where food could not be prepared anywhere near as fast as it was being ordered, both in person and with the new app system. The poor girl behind the window was taking receipts as fast as people were ordering, getting their drinks and putting them on top before having to awkwardly stand around waiting for food to come out of the back. You could see how she was desperate to do anything to try and speed things up for her guests, but there was nothing she could do.

When I did eventually get our food it was very good, but it took half an hour from taking that picture in the queue at 11:30 to getting to our table at midday. I know this because as I got to our standing table the Green Army men were marching by and I hurriedly put the tray down to take their picture.


Drum and Bass Green Style, taken at 11:59.

I had the Totchos (Tatter Tots with chilli) that were really good and Edward had a lovely BBQ beef sandwich that I had to help him out with. We were less impressed with the bacon/chocolate tart as it was very dry and only had about 7 tiny flakes of candied bacon on it. Half way through our meal some people balancing on one of the logs moved on and with some swift foot work we were able to secure their tiny space to sit and finish our food.

Lunch over we quickly moved on to let someone else sit, Edward having nearly collected an older lady on his lap anyway when we sat ourselves. We took a walk down to the current end of the land to see the progress of Galaxies Edge. It is beginning to look really good, but they must be behind as not only were there workers visible up on the scaffolding during the day but they were also using the tower cranes while the park was open, something Disney usually try to avoid.


There are a few spaceships parked up already, they must be trying to beat the inevitable opening crowds.

Construction update done we decided to go and see the length of the Fastpass line for ToT having noticed the standby line had shortened to ‘just’ 100 minutes. On the way I noticed a Photopass photographer with no line and decided we needed to get some pictures to add Julia into later. I’m so glad we did as he totally restored my faith in Disney Cast Members, the guy was excellent. Once I explained what I wanted to do he was fully into the whole thing laughing along with us and getting us to do a silly pose for him. Then as we walked away he called us back and asked to see Edward’s hat, on inspecting the Universal hat, he frowned before adding a Mickey sticker over the logo and pronouncing it much better now.


Gap for Julia.


Where did they come from? Disney need to fix their drains.


That’s better, even if the cold has shrunk her a bit.


Who knows what we were supposed to be doing, we were too busy laughing to care.

In a much better mood we approached the chaos of Tower of Terror, where although the ride seemed to be working much better with both sides running there were still huge queues. We spoke to a Cast Member who said the FP line was about 40 minutes, so with nothing better to do we joined the back of it. In the end I think I was about 35 minutes before we got in the library.


Could be worse, we could be in that 105 minute standby line.

While waiting we got talking to some of the people around us and were asked by one teen where we were from. As usual we just said near London as everything else confuses most Americans. This one was still confused and had to be told that is in the UK. She then went on to ask “Wow, that’s really far, did you take a plane to get here or something?” She was a little put out by my answer of “well it was that or a 3,000 mile swim”, but her mum found it funny.

Just as we got to the portico it started to rain and by the time we entered the lobby it was absolutely pouring down. In the way it only does in Florida when we emerged from the ride a few minutes later the sun was back out and the pavements steaming themselves dry.

We still had some time before our last FP of the day for Toy Story Midway Mania so much to Edward’s horror I decided now was a good time to take a look in the shops along Sunset as I’d only brought 4 t-shirts on holiday with me and needed some new ones. I did see one I liked, but there was an offer on saving about $10 if you brought two adult ones together, so since it was a generic 2018 shirt that I thought most shops would carry I left it until either Edward or I found another we wanted. Julia usually shops in the kids range and they weren’t in the offer.

Shopping done for now we took a slow walk back into Toy Story Land noting on the way the whole street past the old entrance to TSMM is currently closed. I guess this gives the construction workers doing the replacement for Great Movie Ride easy access without having to cross guest areas.


The toys were on their way back out after the rain.

Even with the slow walking and shopping we were still a few minutes early to enter the ride, but the Cast Member noting us hanging around asked us to tap in anyway and said it was close enough to our time so to head in.

I was happy to see Mr Potato Head back in the line, him being absent in 2016, but was a little disappointed he is behind walls from the FP line.

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Why can’t the FP line see him?

We had a very close game with me just beating Edward 149,000 to 139,000, both of us far below the records for the hour and day. I think the day was at around half a million points, who knows where those targets are!

When we got to the exit, after a route march around the whole building it seemed, we found it blocked by people sheltering from the returned pouring rain. We planned to leave the park anyway now, so simply set off and got immediately soaked to the skin. We did get a few looks on our way across the park, but the paths were lovely and empty. We didn’t actually head straight for the car, first we needed to go into Starbucks which thankfully had a much reduced queue even if it did have a crowd sheltering from the rain around the door. The reason for our stop was not just a much needed Pumpkin Spiced Latte each, we also needed to pick up one of the You Are Here mugs for Julia’s friend who had asked her to get her the full four park set for her husband.

Mug safely in hand we headed out, in bright sunshine again, love these short showers. We were out of the park about 2:20 and once back to the hotel enjoyed some dry clothes and our afternoon naps.

Julia was fully recovered and raring to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. She’d also got to play with the washing machine and drier in the apartment, so the pressure was off to buy t-shirts immediately. We headed out around 4:45 and were soon passing under the pumpkins into Magic Kingdom’s parking lot.


The clouds were back, but the rain held off for now.


Into the park just before 6pm, getting there really does take time.

Once in the park we got our wristbands and headed up the back passage to our first candy stops. The photographers all had queues beyond our patience so no photos with the Halloween statues this year for us.


This has been cleaned up considerably over the years we’ve been traveling, the first time we came this way it was a car park.

Once we were into the park proper we found a photographer with no queue and stopped for a magic shot.

And the Oscar goes to Edward for ‘surprise at an empty hand’.

On checking the app I was genuinely surprised to see Space Mountain had a queue of 60 minutes while Seven Dwarfs only showed 20 minutes. Want to guess where we shot off to?


No prizes, even if the line had grown 5 minutes while we were on our way.

I think we just caught the ride in the sweet spot as day guests were being thrown out and party ones were still arriving, the line certainly built back up over the evening. In between playing with the interactive bits in the queue I had a look at food options and was rather shocked to see that everything appeared to be closing at 7pm. We were certain this was just an error in the app, but not so certain that we didn’t choose somewhere to eat and headed straight there once back from the mines.

Starlight Rays was our venue of choice, although for some reason we didn’t sit where we could see the star of the show. Edward had a chicken sandwich and Julia her usual PB&J while I had their Halloween special ‘black burger’.


See, a burger in a black bun.

While waiting for our food the lady serving was so surprised to see an order of carrot sticks to go with Julia’s sandwich that she came over and thanked her for “showing our carrot sticks some love, no one ever orders them and they’re awesome”. She must have been confused by the strange order, because Julia got fries as well as her carrot sticks despite not ordering them. In the end she quite enjoyed her dinner of carrots and fries, saving the actual PB&J sandwich for later.

Dinner eaten we were now free to eat our candy, but first to top up our supplies we visited Ariel’s Grotto which had been transformed into a candy station for the night.


A much better use for the space.

While we were that way we went to visit Ariel under the sea. As normal the ride was a walk on, which I think is a shame as it is a great example of a Disney dark ride.


She seems quite happy for someone stuck up a pole.


I think the transition to go under the water is very cleverly done on this ride.

Once back on dry land we checked the app and set off for the 25 minute wait at Haunted Mansion, but not before another set of photos.


Beast’s castle always looks too small to me.

When we got to the Haunted Mansion the sign was still showing 25 minutes, but the line went way past the Liberty Bell, so we kept moving rather than believe their lies. While looking to see what to do next we could hear the show running on the castle stage and running water. For those who are interested I now have photographic proof that Disney use a sprinkler system on the roofs around the castle when using fireworks.


Fascinating, for those few pyrotechnicians on the forum.

Big Thunder was also showing a reasonable wait on MDE, so we took a walk round Frontierland to see if this one was correct. There was a singing cowboy group out and about, but sadly they finished just as we reached them.


I’m sure they have an actual name rather than Singing Cowboys.

No matter how I tried and believe me I tried, I couldn’t get either of the others to ride Splash Mountain. Julia doesn’t do water rides unless there are dinosaurs, pirates or creepy dolls to look at and I’m not sure what Edward’s issue was. I need to wait for my sister to travel with us again it seems to ride Splash if I don’t want to do so alone.

Julia decided to give Big Thunder a miss due to her earlier issues, so volunteered to go and get us some more candy from the station under the railway while we queued. I suspect she also had a poke around Splash Mountain’s gift shop, but nothing was purchased if she did. Edward and I waited about 20 minutes for the third wildest ride in the wilderness (behind Paris by a mile and California by a little bit as well).

We had been in the park for over two hours now and hadn’t ridden either of Julia’s two favourites, Pirates and Haunted Mansion. This had to be corrected and so with Haunted Mansion mobbed we went for Pirates. Initially things looked good for a quick ride.


Nice and quiet here.


Rather busier here, but the sign is promising.

As we got to the ride there were some big raindrops in the air, so Julia and Edward got the cover out for the ECV and made sure it and our bags were protected properly before joining me in the queue outside. I’d had to step aside a few times to avoid going into the actual queue without them and as they joined the heavens opened. Luckily those in front squashed up and we made it under cover just in time.

I was expecting to come across the character in the queue, Gun Powder Pete, but I wasn’t expecting the one in the ride itself looking for Pete. While Pete was a bit hit and miss with people wanting to take selfies and him trying to stay in character the guy inside had a much easier job shouting at the boats as they went past. All in all having live actors was a big improvement to the ride.

By the time we came off the ride the rain had stopped again. We thought about coffee, but decided we’d get one while waiting for the fireworks later instead. Buzz was showing a low wait time, so we took our chances and crossed the hub just before the first parade closed it off. As everyone should know you always watch the second parade on a party night if you like lower crowds.


Tomorrowland was even more colourful than ever for the party.

Edward managed to get tagged by a stroller on our way to Buzz and was bleeding from a cut on his leg when Julia parked the ECV up, so she swung into full first aid mode to clean him up, somehow managing to sit in someone’s spilt slush drink on the curb as she did so. With blood and a messy backside to deal with she was less than happy when we went off to fight Zurg.

After yesterday’s experience of not seeing fireworks properly we made sure to get ourselves a spot in plenty of time tonight and got right on the rope in the disabled area. Once settled I went off to Main Street Bakery for a round of drinks and the Magic Kingdom mug. Even with half of the shop closed up and a huge queue I still made it back to the others with time to spare. WHY close half the shop when loads of people want to spend money either on their way out after the parade or like me while waiting for fireworks? Stupid accountants only looking at cost and not benefit is why I suspect.

HalloWishes was as good as ever, in fact I suspect it was almost an identical show to the last time we saw it in 2016, not that that is a bad thing.









Show over we split up with Edward and I going to ride Space Mountain and Julia letting the worst of the crowd clear before heading to Haunted Mansion. We hoped to join her there for a quick ride before the second parade as many people were leaving the park now.

Sadly the queue for Space Mountain was still quite long, but we did get to ride after a shortish wait. For the party all the lights were off in the ride, even the tiny star lights you usually have so it was absolutely pitch black in there. They even had the effects as you launch and slow down at the end turned off. Also they were playing some sort of thrash metal ‘music’ from some very loud speakers at the bottom of the ride. The only light was the flash for the on ride camera.


Not sure either of us were that impressed with the changes.

For some reason the regular exit was closed and we were sent out of a fire door at the back of the unload station and then had to walk right round the ride to come back into the park proper to the left of the gift shop.

By the time we’d ridden and gotten ourselves back to the hub the path into Frontierland was already closed for the second parade so we instead went into Adventureland and cut through the bathrooms. We knew Julia was somewhere around the loading dock for the Liberty Bell, but as we got to the crossing point the parade actually arrived and cut us off.

We took a spot on the rope and sat down to avoid blocking the people stood on the steps of the veranda behind us.


Tink wasn’t very scary.


The Grave Diggers were a lot more scary, especially sat at the front.


This lot have over done the sunscreen I think.

At some point the rain started to fall, but a lot more gently than the last few showers but I still retreated to the covered veranda with Edward for the end of the parade. Thankfully it didn’t come to much and stopped again before it could ruin the parade.

As the rocking skeletons brought the parade to a close we followed them up the road and met up with Julia to finally get on Haunted Mansion which was now a walk on.


Looking spooky with its party lights and fog.

As we came off we joined the very small line for the special picture with the hearse, then the lantern one at the ride entrance and then found a third idle photographer back by Liberty Bell who was doing the hitchhiking shot. The last one was a total fluke and we didn’t know it was a party shot until we were asked to pose with our thumbs out.


I bet a Co-Op funeral would be cheaper.


Not sure what we’re supposed to be scared of?


I’m sure we’ll be picked up soon.

It was almost time to go, but first we just had time to see the last castle show of the night starting at midnight.


The legally required reflection photo.


Magical use of a scissor lift as a lighting stand.


Projectors doing their thing.


A little bang to finish.

This show is well worth seeing, but if you wait until the end of the night you can stand near the front without waiting ages. We headed under the railroad at 00:25 and took the resort monorail back to the car, only waiting one train before boarding again. Thankfully there were no issues this evening and we were back in the hotel about 01:20 where we didn’t take much rocking to sleep.



Link back to the index.

[mick]

So glad Julia was we enough to go to the partysounds like you had a great evening

Joan

[spencem]

Originally Posted by mick

So glad Julia was we enough to go to the partysounds like you had a great evening

Joan

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Thanks, we did indeed really enjoy the party again this year.

[Palm trees]

You've got some lovely photos on this report, the castle ones are really pretty

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Palm trees

You've got some lovely photos on this report, the castle ones are really pretty

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Thanks, it is amazing how powerful phone cameras have become over the last few years.

[Jockey]

Lovely day

[spencem]

Originally Posted by Jockey

Lovely day

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Thanks, it certainly was.

[klr15]

The Halloween party looked really amazing.

[spencem]

Originally Posted by klr15

The Halloween party looked really amazing.

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The parties are well worth the extra money in our opinion, they are a great night out.

[Excitedx4]

Ah great day, the party looked fab!