Just The Four Of Us - Onsite at OKW - Day 2 - Hollywood Studios and a late night at EPCOT

[Kidd McFluff]

Today we had planned to get up early and do EMH at Hollywood Studios but the Gods of jetlag and general disorganisation had decided otherwise. I woke up at 3:30am to the sound of Dylan stumbling around the bedroom looking for the toilet. I hopped up and pointed him in the right direction. He asked why it was dark and I told him it was the middle of the night. ‘Can we go to the parks yet?’ he asked. I told him no and put him back to bed where he chattered on for a bit and then after making sure mum and dad were fully awake, he went back to sleep. (perfect).

Mrs Mcfluff and I stared at the ceiling for a couple of hours before we finally gave up, got up and made some breakfast at about 5:30. (waffles and fruit salad with pop tarts on the side). Dylan was soon up and eating but Isla was out like a light until 6:30. Showers, dressing and packing the bag for parks took ages. (Are we all wearing our magic bands?... Do we need poncho’s?... Where is the first aid kit?... Why are you still in your pants?...just put your flippin shoes on!...) but we finally left our room and headed for the Turtle Pond bus stop (and then back to the room twice because we’d forgotten Dylan’s hat and then the sun block). By the time I stepped onto the bus I had done over 2000 steps according to FitBit and it was only 7:30.

The bus arrived and after a short trip we were dropped off at Hollywood studios at about 8am. We were though the bag check within minutes. It was hot and sunny already and although we’d missed the Extra Magic Hour the park was fairly quiet. We headed straight to Star tours for our first fast pass and walked straight to the front and were on within seconds. As usual this was a great ride (we have some serious Star Wars fans amongst us and so this was a real treat). So good that we went straight back to the 5 minute standby queue and rode again. There’s lots of variation between rides on Star Tours so it was completely different the second time around. We could have been back on the ride within minutes but we loitered about in the queue and made sure we had a good look at all of the exhibits this time. The details are brilliant here, loads of cool droids and tech to nerd out over for the Star Wars fans. After the ride we had a quick look in the shop and made plans to come back to look at light sabres later in the holiday.

The park was still very quiet, it was nice to stroll over to our next fast pass rock and roller coaster, taking our time to have a good look at the park and the exhibits. I’ve been here before but I had managed not to notice the huge dinosaur by the lake before! We had a look in a few shops and stalls and generally took in the atmosphere as we walked. We’ve never seen the parks this quiet before and it was lovely to be able to have the kids running around without worrying about losing them in the crowds.

As we walked past we noticed there was only a 5 minute standby queue for Tower of Terror. I had been looking forward to doing this ride for ages and although we had FP+ bookings for later in the week we decided to take advantage of this lack of queue.

I struggle with heights, no that doesn’t quite cover it. I struggle a lot with heights. Tall buildings are not my friend, towers even less so. I was looking forward to this but at the same time knew that it was more likely to terrify than entertain me. The excitement built as we entered the hotel and went straight to the elevators. We were on within minutes and while we strapped ourselves in I had a small moment of panic as I wondered ‘why the hell am I doing this?’ The lights flickered and we were off…

Tower of terror was brilliant..I may have screamed a little! OK so I screamed a lot, as did the rest of the clan. Dylan and I loved it, Kirsten enjoyed it too but Isla was not impressed. (to put it mildly). She didn’t cry (brave girl) but was absolutely never (don’t even mention that ride again Dad!) ever going near that thing again.

Dylan and I would have ridden again immediately and the queue was only 25 mins but this was vetoed and so we headed off to our original fastpass choice Rock and Rollercoaster.
We hadn’t done this ride before and were impressed with the whole show. I’m a bit of a closet Areosmith fan as well as an adrenilin junky so this one ticked all the boxes for me. Dylan loved it too but it was all a bit much for Isla. ‘ All I did was scream!’. Kirsten enjoyed this one too but Dylan and I couldn’t convince the ladies to ride again. (only a 15 minute stand by). We had a mooch around the rock and Roll shop and checked out the leather jackets and guitar straps. We were off to Starbucks next for much needed coffee and cake. It was huge frappuccino’s and iced coffee for the most part (Diet coke for Dylan) and some cake lollies to go with them. The drinks were great but the cake lollies were a bit doughy and flavourless. We used snack credits for everything here and sat on the steps outside in the shade watching the world go by while we worked out what we were doing next.

It was getting very hot by now so we decided it was time to head to a firm favourite, Muppet Vision for a chance to catch our breath and cool down with the Kermit and Miss Piggy. We love this show and it didn’t disappoint. The 3D effects are good and the jokes aren’t too bad either. All of the best muppets are there and the slapstick comes thick and fast.

After the show we took another slow stroll through the shops and headed towards the lake to find our dining spot for the day. Prime Time Diner.

We booked Prime Time Diner ages ago. It was one of our first firm decisions when we planned this holiday so expectations were high (We’d seen mixed reviews but liked the sound of the theming and the server interaction). We were looking forward to be bossed around by our server. (We’ve forgotten her name but she was lovely). We waited for about 15 minutes before being shown to our table where our order was taken. Pork Chops, Fried Chicken, Mickeys Chicken Pot Pie and Mac & Cheese were ordered. Isla requested her pie without the mushrooms and I ended up with the chef at our table going through the ingredients of my meal… All delicious and huge portions. Kirstens Fried Chicken with mash was excellent and with such a huge portion that we all had a bit.
Isla’s Pie was ‘really lovely and with just the right amount of chicken’ and Dylan again announced that this was the best Mac & Cheese he’d ever tasted.
We washed our food down with margarita’s, long Island Iced tea and Sprite for the kids. Isla and Dylan got their drinks in souvenir cups that came with cool glowing ice-cubes. These were not on the dining plan but Isla convinced us to buy them with the unbeatable logic of ‘come on guys we are at Disney!’
There was a lovely atmosphere here with the restaurant modelled on a typical American 1950’s kitchen complete with a TV in the corner and kitchen theming throughout. The TV was showing funny cartoons and adverts for old kitchen gadgets and convenience foods.


It was all good fun and our server was great at judging her audience. She was mucking about with some guests more than others but made sure that everyone got a slice of the no-nonsense ‘ elbows off the table’ ‘You’ve not eaten your vegetables’ action. At one point she was making aeroplane noises and feeding a boy with his fork like a toddler because he’d not eaten enough broccoli. This was well received by most of the diners but I’m pretty sure it’s toned down a little for the English guests. We all thought the servers were very funny and enjoyed all of their antics.

Pudding was huge. The kids had Ice Cream Sundeas, Kirsten had a Mom’s Brownie which was huge and came with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce and I had a slice of cheesecake. The general consensus was that ‘everything was pretty perfect. The fun and games from the servers was entertaining rather than annoying and the atmospehere was great. 8/10 from the McFluffs for this meal.

We stumbled out of the Diner with our stomachs bulging, blinking in the bright sunshine and were soon melting in the heat of the early afternoon Florida sun. Cooler towels were activated (these worked pretty well throughout our time in Orlando) and we headed for the exit. We were soon back on the bus back to Old Key West The plan was to hit the pool for a couple of hours before getting the boat over to Disney Springs to explore and grab an early dinner.

As we sipped our cocktails by the turtle pond pool (Margarita’s and Mojito’s) we had a quick look on the app to see if there were any fast passes available for later in the afternoon. We were lucky enough to bag a Soarin FP and decided it might be fun to hop on a bus over to Epcot for some Quick Service dinner around the world and a surprise FP+ on Soarin. (The kids would be fine with a bit of a late night….what could go wrong?)
We were out of the pool by 5:00 and after filling the resort mugs and a quick pit stop in the room to shower, change and repack the park bag we were back at the bus stop at around 18:30
We waited for about 10 minutes for the bus and were soon on our way. On arrival at Epcot we realised that Dylan had left his magic band in the room (Que tears and an inconsolable Dylan for 10 minutes) and so another visit to guest services (10 minute wait) and we were sorted. They did ask Dylan if he was willing to work a shift in the park to pay for his park entry. He wasn’t entirely happy about this but was more than willing to offer his sister to work in his place! We escaped without having to sell either child into slavery and quickly walked over to the park entrance.

Into the park and straight to Soarin, only stopping for a quick photo pass shot under the Golf Ball Thingy. As I mentioned before I’m afraid (very afraid) of heights and so this was a challenge for me but a firm favourite with the rest of the clan. As ever it was a great ride (we did get the banana shaped Eifel Tower unfortunately, but it was still exhilarating) We stopped to buy pin badges for Dylan on the way out and once I’d stopped shaking we headed over to World Showcase for QS at Japan and Mexico. We had just missed the ferry across to Morocco Pavilion so we walked around the lake getting to the Japan Pavillion via Canada, England, France and America. The little McFluffs were complaining about sore legs and being tired but the sights and sounds of the World Pavillion were enough to keep them entertained and the moaning to a minimum.
We decided on QS meals from the Japan pavilion which were fairly good. We had a couple of sushi plates and some tempura Shrimp with noodles and broth. The sushi was pretty good (although in retrospect, no better than you can get from our local Sainsburys sushi counter) and the tempura shrimp with noodles were OK too. We ordered a couple of beers on the meal plan and bought a Sprite for the kids with snack credits to go with these meals. The Sapporo Draft beers were very nice.

I wanted to try the nacho’s on the Mexico pavilion and so headed over to La Cantina de San Angel on a solo mission to find Gluten, Onion and Garlic free food while Kirsten and the kids explored their way around world showcase to met me when they were done.
The allergies menu was dutifully provided and I was pleased to find that the Loaded Nacho’s were unlikely to give me any trouble if they could make a few changes to the recipe for me? (The chef was great, he made me a plate without salsa or beans but kindly added a pile of beef and chilli peppers from the Taco’s de Barbocoa instead of the ground beef that usually comes with the Nachos…Result!). I had a huge plate of food to contend with by the time I sat down. I ordered a large Margarita to go with the nacho’s and found a table on the edge of the lake. It was nice to watch the world go buy while I munched. Nacho’s done (OK, almost done, I could only finish two thirds of them) I went off to find the rest of the clan and within moments I had bumped into them.

The kids were flagging (duh! . In fact Dylan was pretty much dead on his feet and Isla had entered the ‘weird silent zone of the ulta-tired) and so we decided to head home. we made our way to the exit just as the fireworks started. We were well ahead of the crowds and boarded the bus at around 9:30. We tried hard (and failed) to keep the kids awake until we got back to Old Key West. We had to keep waking them up and by the time we got back to Turtle Ponds they were both dead on their feet (again). We marched them back to our room and they flopped into bed and off to sleep within seconds of cleaning their teeth..

After a quick room tidy up it was time for margaritas on the balcony. We wrote up our trip report notes and discussed our day and plans for tomorrow. We were in bed by about 11:00 and asleep within minutes.

So what did we learn today? Too much too soon? We may have over Disneyed? Both Isla and Dylan were in tears at various points to and from Epcot this evening so we can’t claim total success. We enjoyed ourselves but should we have stayed at the pool and headed to Disney Springs for an early dinner?…Probably. Lessons learnt we vowed to take things a little easier tomorrow. We’re off to Wakiwa Springs for canoeing and wildlife spotting. Lets hope we can get an extra few hours sleep tonight?

INDEX.
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1100196

[Jessika]

A great full on full on first day, thanks for sharing.

[clubhouse]

A great day today - the Tower of Terror is my favourite. It’s so easy to “over Disney” - we do exactly the same thing then regret it, but we just get carried away.

Looking forward to tomorrow!

[minnie29]

Great! I love the look of the 50's place to eat

[mick]

That was a busy day hope the children have a good nights sleep

Joan

[Kidd McFluff]

Originally Posted by minnie29

Great! I love the look of the 50's place to eat

See more...

It was great. The food was well cooked and the service wal brilliant. I can see how some people might be put off by the antics of the cast members if they were a little shy but on the whole it was great fun and we enjoyed ourselves. Looking back on the entire holiday, it was easily one of the best meals we had. That may have been because it was early in our trip and we hadn't done any Disney dining before but in all honesty my Pork chop was one of the best I've eaten and the fried chicken was excellent.

[Cinderella]

Great report 👍

[GezzasGem]

I am under strict instructions this year that I must plan one day on and one day off in the parks..I will try but can't promise fast passes allowing! 😂😂

[jothp]

Another really busy day. We like to cram as much as possible into our trips too.

Soarin was a great extra FP to get if you are willing to spend a bit of time refreshing the app you can get some great ones. My kids still get grumpy and bicker with each other when they get tired too.