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Old 1 Aug 14, 02:57 PM  
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tracey1302
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Disney with the Dufflers - Day 13 - Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios and Fantasmic

Here you go!

Pre-Trip Report

Day 0 - The Day Before

Day 1 - Travel Day and Arrival at CBR

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Day 3 - Typhoon Lagoon and Bahama Breeze

Day 4 - Epcot and Via Napoli

Day 5 - Pool morning, Downtown Disney and California Grill

Day 6 - Universal Studios

Day 7 - Drinks around the world and Le Cellier

Day 8 - Hollywood Studios and the Hollywood Brown Derby

Day 9 - Girls/Boys Day, Downtown Disney and Raglan Road

Day 10 - Islands of Adventure and Bubba Gump

Day 11 - Animal Kingdom and Teppan Edo

Day 12 - Princesses, World Cup Final and Citricos

Day 13 - Blizzard Beach, Hollywood Studios and Fantasmic

In a massive departure from the original plan for this day, we actually spent the morning at Blizzard Beach. For the last day, our plans were usually to do our favourite rides at Epcot and Hollywood Studios but our Fastpasses were only at DHS and nobody seemed that fussed to return to Epcot (poor Epcot! ) however, a few of us were still fidgeting for the incredible slides at Blizzard Beach. So we left Mark, Katie and Jonathan at CBR and headed for the slopes!

When we were on the approach to Blizzard Beach, and the height of Summit Plummit came into the distance, I began to feel like I was eleven again, as Neil started goading me to go on Summit Plummit. That water slide is my only vice. I will quite literally do anything but that slide. But I was adamant, there was no way I was doing it.

We got there for park open at 9am, hadn’t brought any valuables with us at all, so we just dumped stuff and headed for the slides. Neil was adamant he was going on Summit Plummit and he wasn’t going alone. So, this was how Martin found himself at the top of Mount Gushmore, ready to plunge 52 foot! Martin hadn’t done Summit Plummit in fourteen years. The last time he’d done it had been with his Mum, who is sadly no longer with us, so it was quite nice for him to return and enjoy a ride that he says still gets his adrenalin pumping.

I stupidly got all ridiculous, hands over face, looking at them both, but especially my wonderful fiancé, as they waved to us from the top, thinking, ‘Oh God, please don’t him die!’ Funnily enough, they both survived! Don’t be such a Jessie, Tracey!

Next, we all headed to the top of Mount Gushmore to do Teamboat Springs. Tonnes of fun! Although I was a little disappointed that they don’t take your picture at the bottom anymore! I’d been looking forward to getting that snap!

After this, we headed for the Toboggan Racers. This was absolutely down right hilarious. We all lined up ready to go, positioning ourselves on the mats, ready for the off. THREE, TWO, ONE. GO! The boys shot off straight away, leaving myself, Mum and Debsy, desperately trying to launch ourselves off the starting post. I wriggled myself away, quickly flying down, the water spraying up in my face. I looked back when I got to the bottom, seeing Mum to my right, flying down, killing herself laughing and then, going so quickly she practically had smoke behind her… HERE COMES DEBSY! Debsy flew down the slope when she finally set off. It was absolutely side splittingly funny and we were all crying with laughter when we got off the slopes.

After that, we did the Snow Stormers and Double Dippers, before heading for the lazy river. Finally, we came across a Photopass photographer, who actually took a fairly spectacular photo.



Me, Sam, OB, Martin and Neil did the tyre slides at the back of the park – fabulous – before we all decided to head back to Caribbean Beach. A very enjoyable and unexpected morning.

Then, after showering and changing, we headed for Hollywood Studios. We told everyone what our Fastpass times were so everyone sort of knew what the plan was. The Dufflers were going to meet us later on for Fantasmic as they were eating at Planet Hollywood that night (ended up going to House of Blues!) and we were eating at the Derby again.

Neil and I had a few Photopass pictures of our own.





And we headed to Tower of Terror to meet Katie and Jonathan for our first Fastpass. We were meant to be going on with Martin and OB so we waited on a bench nearby so we were sure to see them when they showed up. Anyway, we waited, and waited. And then suddenly caught sight of them… exiting Tower of Terror! Turns out we hadn’t seen them and they hadn’t seen us so they’d used their FP and gone on!




So as not to lose our own Fastpass, myself, Katie, Jonathan and Neil decided to go on… we went for ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ this time. Neil just did his own thing. Clearly doesn’t listen to our ride posing instructions…



Anyway, this was when we ran into some absolutely incredible luck. A few things had happened with Fastpasses for this day. I’d originally picked TSM and ToT. And then, as you know, I had to have another Tier Two. So I’d picked Great Movie Ride. However, after concluding that it was crap when we emerged on Day Eight, I’d gone on MDE to try and change it for another ride. Expecting to get something like Voyage of the Little Mermaid for being so late in the game, I hadn’t really thought much of our options. However, when I was greeted with the choice of………’Rock N Rollercoaster starring Aerosmith’…… I was like, ‘Say, WHAT?’ I quickly snatched the FP, expecting it to just reject at the last minute because it hadn’t realised at first that I had two Tier One experiences….but instead, I was greeted with, ‘You’re all set!’

So it was with hesitancy but a smug happiness that myself, OB, Neil, Katie, Martin and Jonathan beeped into the FP queue for Rock N Rollercoaster, straight after ToT.





After this, we had a bit of time to kill before we’d said we would meet the Dufflers by TSM for our last Fastpass of the day. So we passed the time the way we’d learned how.





Uncle Mark shared that he had finally met Phineas and Ferb that morning while we’d all been at Blizzard Beach! He’d tried to meet them on two separate occasions throughout the holiday but each time had been thwarted by the weather!



After this, I was just a little bit cheeky. You see, the Dufflers, on this day, had originally planned to do their own thing. I kept saying to them to let me know if they wanted any Fastpasses booking but they never did. Then eventually, they said they’d like to join us for TSM. However, when I tried to add them on, it tried to reject my earlier acquired RnR Fastpass. So I decided to blag it. We arrived at the ride and I sent Mum, Martin, Neil, OB, Katie and Jonathan through first (I knew their Fastpasses would be fine) then I approached the CM and shared that the system just hadn’t let me add the last four members of our party onto the Fastpass. (True, in a way!)

The CM was great about it and let them all through so we all got to ride TSM together again. The only thing was, for some reason, as soon as I started to shoot, my hands started aching terribly, with the result that my score was an absolutely abysmal 67,000. I am so ashamed of myself. OB cleaned up this time around. I swear next time, I need to get drunk first. It seemed to work in May 2011!

We emerged from TSM and noticed that familiar black sky. And once again, it lashed it down. We had an earlier dinner reservation booked this time as we wanted to watch Fantasmic later so luckily, we just had to dash from TSM to the Derby. The Dufflers headed to Downtown Disney to have some dinner.

I was truly thrilled that we decided to return to the Derby because everything on our second visit was so much better than our first. The food, we all made better choices, the service, (the waitress didn’t screw up the dessert order! ), the table... Because there were only seven of us, and not 11, this made a real difference to our meal. It felt more relaxed and more intimate and we could all chat to each other a lot easier.

I had the wine flight again.



And the fillet steak.



And I have to say, this fillet steak was, for me, on a par with the fillet steak at Le Cellier. It was just stunning. Neil had the same and agreed. Jonathan and Katie said it was etched out by Narcoossee’s on the last night with the surf and turf. But this was much more the standard we expected from the Derby. Thank goodness, otherwise, it would have been axed from the next trip! And that would have been an extremely sad state of affairs.



After the meal, we strolled on Sunset Boulevard, ready to watch Fantasmic. It was still raining, but just little spits and spats as opposed to a full on downpour. We approached the amphitheatre and disaster struck. I heard it over the speakers before I heard it from the CM at the front. Fantasmic was cancelled. NIGHTMARE. Now, the Dufflers, it turned out, had already seen Fantasmic on the other night when we’d come to Hollywood Studios. But we hadn’t. And there was no way I was missing it. There was another showing at 10.30pm luckily but now it was 8.15 and we had a lot of time to kill.

So myself, Neil, Katie and Jonathan decided to do the Muppets. Big mistake, huge, as Julia Roberts says on Pretty Woman. The Muppets is soooooooooooo poor. Didn’t notice anything 4D, unless we’re meant to count the two old men? The Pre-Show with Constantine, makes it seem like the actual show is updated, when it isn’t. It was truly crap. Wished we’d have walked out like we did the first time!

After this, we headed for the Tune In Lounge, just wanting somewhere to be able to sit down and have a drink out of the rain while we waited for Fantasmic. I also wanted to watch the Frozen Fireworks Spectacular and just outside here was actually quite a good spot. So we got a drink and had a sit down.



At 9.40, Katie, Jonathan, OB and Neil decided to go on Star Tours again and me, Mum and Martin watched the fireworks. I have to say, if anyone is debating as to whether this fireworks are worth staying for… they absolutely are. It was my second favourite (behind Wishes, of course) nighttime spectacular of the holiday. Given they will have have to put it together relatively quickly, it really is a credit to Hollywood Studios.

Then, after the Frozen fireworks, we headed back to the Hollywood Hills Ampitheatre, only to be told that Fantasmic was ‘standing room only.’ You’re joking. How can that absolutely massive amphitheatre be full already and where would people ‘stand’? So we we herded like cattle (a truly awful experience, I must say) through into the theatre. Standing room only? An outright lie. There was seating room down the far left hand side, at least three deep of unoccupied disabled benches at the back of each section and some seating room at the back… where we ended up sitting and actually got a pretty good view

I have to say though and I hope it doesn’t cause any offense in saying so, it really does irritate me that they don’t let people sit down on the disabled benches when they are unoccupied. OB asked if he could sit there and he was told, ‘No.’ Same with Debsy apparently when they had watched Fantasmic. If they are not being taken by anyone, including a disabled person, I don’t see the point in having other guests having to stand or not have as good a seat. It doesn’t make sense.

Anyway, thoroughly enjoyed Fantasmic!

It was actually EMH that night at Hollywood Studios but after the farce of having to stay later for Fantasmic than originally planned and the fact that they’d shut TSM? ! , and the fact that Neil’s feet were killing him again, we decided not to bother.

I remember not wanting to consider the next day because it was the day I’d dreaded the whole holiday…. The last day.

Day 14 - Magic Kingdom, Narcoossee's and Wishes is here

Edited at 09:58 PM.
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Old 1 Aug 14, 03:01 PM  
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summersun
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great report
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Old 1 Aug 14, 04:13 PM  
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Great report. Thanks for sharing x
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Old 1 Aug 14, 04:20 PM  
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Have really enjoyed your pre and trip report, don't want it to be the last day!
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Old 1 Aug 14, 05:00 PM  
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Really enjoyed your trip report. Thank you for sharing.
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Old 1 Aug 14, 06:58 PM  
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Lovely report great family reminds me of my family !

Thanks xx
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Old 2 Aug 14, 07:10 AM  
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Yay for Uncle Mark!
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Old 2 Aug 14, 11:21 PM  
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Hope we get lucky with FP For ToT and RnRC

Great day
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Old 3 Aug 14, 09:16 AM  
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How lucky to get RnR - must try that.

Derby night looks like it came good

So sad I'm running out of days to read, hs been brilliant
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Old 10 Aug 14, 09:22 PM  
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Jnyfrk8
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I love Fantasmic but I do wish seating was a bit more comfy! lol
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