#USAnumber3- Helen&Andy Nov 18 - Day 10: Hollywood Studios, Blaze Pizza, The Edison & Illuminations

[HelenJNT]

Index is here

Previous day is here

Day 10 – Hollywood Studios, Blaze Pizza, The Edison & Illuminations

After our somewhat mega day yesterday, we took it a little easier this morning. It had been THREE DAYS without any tater tots, which (as I am sure Goldia will agree) was quite frankly, unacceptable, so we planned to get breakfast in Hollywood Studios and make the most of having some slightly later fast passes. This really was a trip of two halves – half of it was just chilling and trying to be “off plan” and the other half was letting our old friend FOMO kick in and race around in a panic, trying to do everything we’d missed when we were busy relaxing and taking things in our stride.

As it was, our more relaxed morning was probably still early by lots of people’s standards. We were clean, non-sweaty (thank goodness it was a little cooler today, as you can tell from the cloudier skies) and by 09:30 were waiting at the Friendship dock for a boat to Hollywood Studios.

After yesterday’s events, and our Day 2 stampede to the park, walking there was simply not on my agenda today.

Boat life is definitely preferable to bus life…

The order of the boat stops to Hollywood Studios are Boardwalk, Yacht & Beach, and the Swan & Dolphin. It’s probably only a 5-10 min walk between each of them but today we felt lazy and got on at the Yacht & Beach, meaning we also had to sit through the stop at the Swan. We didn’t mind though, the dock there is gorgeous, and it was, as I have said before, a lovely reminder of our honeymoon.

You & me & the scooter makes three...

We were inside the park by 10:00, and couldn’t believe how deserted it was around the hub area. I guess everyone else had made a bee-line straight for Toy Story Land…

<just noticed the kid’s face in this photo. #makingmemories>

…which was exactly where we were heading. It was time for breakfast! Hurrah. Best meal of the day. As we were walking there, I used mobile ordering to place the food order. I was getting the hang of this by now and it was really useful for places like Woody’s Lunchbox (still makes me snort, sorry) as the queues there were persistently pretty bad as you’d expect.

Andy, who has a far sweeter tooth than me, wanted to try the S’mores French Toast, and I went for the tater tots breakfast bowl again. No prizes for guessing that one, eh?

The French toast would certainly hit the spot for those of you who love a sweet breakfast (Lisa, I’m looking at you). It was gooey, chocolatey and with melted marshmallows in the centre. One of those real “on-holiday” treats, I think. Andy grudgingly permitted me to have a bite and one bite was sufficient to send my blood sugar rocketing through the roof. It was really tasty though and nice to have something with “proper” chocolate spread rather than the ubiquitous (and ghastly) Nutella.

Unfortunately, something had gone a bit wonky with my breakfast bowl, and they had forgotten to add the spring onions, which was a shame as they were a highlight of it when I had eaten it the other day. By the time I had sat down and realised though, I couldn’t be bothered to queue up again to get some added on.

Oh, and the little pot of strange pink stuff was cheese sauce, which I wanted to try. It didn’t look the most appetising – and it was a snack credit which was a bit if a swizz as is only a dollar or so, but we had so many snack credits at this point that I didn’t feel it was a waste. It was alright, had a nice little peppery heat to it but I couldn’t get past the colour of it. This plus the weird white gravy (which I have already discussed at length on Day 2) made for a slightly confusing and somewhat mushy meal. Really, it needs a bacon option. Come on Woody, sort it out!

It was now 10:30 and time for our Slinky Fast Pass. Originally this was the first one I had managed to get which is why we ended up at Hollywood Studios two days on the bounce – if you recall (I would rather not), we rode it on our second day by queuing at rope drop.

The ride was great – again – it is just so smooth and makes you feel on top of the world, literally. So much fun. Especially with a fast pass…

After this, we realised that One Man’s Dream was open again; this was closed on our last visit, and Andy wanted to go and have a look around. My favourite part is the models of the parks.

Unfortunately, the movie about Walt’s life at the end is long gone, and this time we watched the looooong trailer for Wreck It Ralph Breaks The Internet. I thought it looked good (and I was right, I really enjoyed the movie when I eventually got round to seeing it earlier this year). However, I have to say, Vanellope almost eclipses Jessie for me as my top ranked most irritating Disney character. Don’t @ me.

Andy then decided he wanted to have a look round the Star Wars launch bay. This doesn’t really fill me with excitement but I suppose I had better get used to it given our next trip will probably be Star Wars overload.

(ignore my feet!)

Aaaaand the award for most random merchandise tie-in goes to this, a $40 bottle of Star Wars Skywalker Ranch olive oil. No, I don’t know either. Maybe the olives were crushed by Luke Hamill’s own toes.

Funnily enough though, I did actually end up making a purchase here. I spied a knee length cardi made from a really nice light knit, with an oversized hood. Turns out it’s actually a jedi robe but luckily, the resistance logo is hidden under the hood, so I can get away with it for everyday wear. A lot of the Star Wars apparel is made by a company called Musterbrand and I quite like some of it – colour me shocked. It’s quite subtle in terms of not screaming Star Wars.

Anyway, I don’t have a photo of me in it but here are some from the retail website:

I paid full price for it, about £100 I think. Eek. And the knit is so fine that it didn’t take long for a cat to put a claw through it once we got home, so I haven’t even worn it yet as it needs fixing. I don’t think I’ll be wearing it THIS way though, hehehehe.

After this, we were nicely in the mood for our next fast pass, Star Tours.

They seemed to have fewer staff on duty there, and it took forever for us to get on, even though we were only a pair. I never ever know which side is better to stand on, the left or the right. Right has always served us well but we were waiting there for a good 15 minutes this morning as they let a million people in from the left. Ah well, such is life.

The ride is always good fun. Neither of us have ever been picked as the rebel spy though. I always thought it was a certain seat in the ride but now I am not so sure. Does anyone know?

After this, we grabbed some bottles of water (actually I think I had a Coke) and went and sat on the wall by the gates to Galaxy’s Edge, deciding that we might as well get in the queue for it now, haha. Behind this dude. Does look pretty impressive though, doesn’t it?

Continued below...

[HelenJNT]

Next up was our final fast pass of the day, Tower of Terror. We weren’t scared any more, just excited.

No, no idea.

As we were queuing up, a little boy tapped me on the leg and asked me, in the most gorgeous southern accent, whether I was frightened, so I played along and pretended to be really scared. If this was last year’s trip then I wouldn’t have had to pretend at all, haha. He was really adorable actually – coming from someone who isn’t big on kids – and we had a lovely chat about how brave he was going to be. His parents seemed lovely too. The dad had on a cracking #USAnumberone t-shirt too, as you can see in the photo below.

After we came out, we were walking back past the exit and a bit of sort-of magic happened, where we just happened to be in the right place at the right time. A lady came up to me to say her husband had bottled out of going on the ride and she didn’t want to do it alone, so did we want her fast passes for it, as they were about to expire so there was no point in cancelling them. Did we? Yes please!

We checked with the cast member that it would be OK, who confirmed it would, and the lady tapped both bands, so we were able to go in. Amazing!

I was a little worried when we got to the bit inside where you have to tap your band again for fear we would look like sneaky queue jumpers, but we were waved through, so I guess the guy on the outside had radioed over that we were coming in and to let us through. Seamless. Hurrah!

After we had ridden again, we felt it was time to use up some more of those snack credits – I have no idea how many we had left but it was certainly too many for this point of the holiday. We also felt our count of Starbucks refresher drinks was terribly low, and therefore we needed to do something about it, so headed on over to the Trolley Car Café.

As ever, it was totally rammed and took forever to get served. Happily, though, as we were waiting, I felt a little tap on my leg again, and looked down to see it was only my little mate from the first ride we had on ToT! How cute. He’d remembered me and wanted to have a long old chat about how much he had enjoyed the ride and how brave he had been, and how silly I was for being scared. Heart, consider yourself well and truly melted.

It was about 14:30 by this point and we felt like we had had a good morning at Hollywood Studios and that we didn’t have a lot more to do, so decided to go and get the boat back to the hotel, sipping our drinks as we went.

As you can see, there was a bit of a queue, but the wait lines for the boat are deceptive, like the buses, the boats hold more people than you’d expect, so we actually ended up getting on the first one.

This chap was hilarious, he talked to us all the way back to the Boardwalk, with some pretty droll commentary, for example that the “dolls” in It’s A Small World are actually naughty children from over the years, who misbehaved and had to have their feet nailed to the floor! Haha, good grief.

Looking at the timing of the photos, we weren’t back in the room for longer than it took to have a quick change of t-shirt, as half an hour later shows us on a bus to Disney Springs! We didn’t really have any evening plans other than to see where it took us, and it was nice to feel a little more relaxed.

First up though, it was a while since breakfast, and it was time for some sustenance so there was only one thing for it….

It was about 4pm so Blaze was actually pretty quiet, which we were pleased about. Andy got a seat (inside, as it was still really hot) and I waited at the counter for our orders.

I went for jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, spinach and extra garlic, and Andy had peppers, mushrooms and spinach.

The draft beers here were pretty gross by the way. We’ve never had a good beer here, which is a shame. I’d stick to their home made lemonades in future. The blood orange one especially.

We shopped for quite some time, a couple of hours at least. I bought a t-shirt, which you’ll see in tomorrow’s trip report, and I also managed to sneakily buy another t-shirt with a picture of the three Magic Kingdom mountains on it, which Andy had admired earlier on in the trip (a Christmas gift for him). I spent ages in Free People, causing Andy to seek out the comfort of a texting chair, but didn’t end up buying anything there, and I also bought a few more bits in Sephora, mainly lipsticks I think. Oh wait. No. Here’s the photo.

We ventured into the Christmas shop to see whether they had any of the Haunted Mansion Grim Grinning Ghost doom buggy tree ornaments that we had seen the other day, but after a thorough search, we couldn’t find any, and a cast member informed us that they were a Magic Kingdom park exclusive, so we should try back at Memento Mori. Yes, we all know how this is going to go.

I also popped into Something Silver, where I spied these earrings which I thought Rachael (RedRach on here) would like, as I know she loves a giraffe - so these were purchased in advance of her birthday. I am nothing if not organised!

Phew. All that shopping was hard work, and it was time for a drink, so we decided to check out The Edison. I’d toyed with the idea of going for dinner there on my birthday (but cancelled as I didn’t really rate the menu), and we had quite fancied going on a Saturday night to the over-18s cabaret, but it just hadn’t matched up with our plans.

We genuinely weren’t sure what to make of it, to be honest. For starters, it is a lot smaller than the photos online make out. Sure, it’s impressive and if you are a fan of steampunk then it is worth checking it out, but the cavernous nature of it meant that it was really noisy – a baby’s cry echoes like anything in here – and it felt a bit chaotic, even though it wasn’t very busy. I think it would function far better as a late night bar or club than a daytime pub/restaurant and perhaps we’d just hit it at the wrong time.

It was full of over-tired kids who were yelling the place down, and the seats were mainly high up and not very comfy. There were a few sofas dotted around but they were few and far between. It’s definitely not a kid-friendly space.

We finally found a table, but we had no idea whether it was table or bar service, so we sat for a while, but no-one came over, so eventually Andy went up to the bar. The beer was alright, but expensive for what it was. Felt like we were sat having an over-priced drink in the middle of an All Saints.

As you’d expect, we didn’t bother with a second. We might go back, maybe, if it was later at night and perhaps the evening show was on, but for somewhere for a quick pit stop, it wasn’t great; I think we’ll definitely stick to the Hangar Bar in future.

We were laden down with a few bags, and decided that if the buses played nicely, we’d be able to get back to the room, drop everything off and still make Illuminations, which was at 22:00 that night. Plan on!

The buses did play fair – we were very relieved to see that the walk to the Yacht & Beach bus stop is nowhere near as far as it had been to Animal Kingdom Lodge the year before – and 40 minutes later we had dropped off our shopping in the room, and were on our way to Epcot. Excellent!

This was just another reason why the Beach Club location is so hard to beat. We could be from our room to the International Gateway in under ten minutes, and it worked really well for us tonight as we found a perfect viewing point in the little area by France, meaning we didn’t even have to venture very far into the park at all.

We arrived about 15 minutes before Illuminations was due to start, and so had time to quickly nip to the kiosk in France and buy a glass of champagne (him) and a Citron Grey Goose Slush for me – the first one of this holiday. It still doesn’t disappoint. Yum.

It wasn’t the best view of Illuminations that we’ve ever had, and the wind was blowing all the smoke in our direction, but considering how quickly we’d skated in there, it was pretty acceptable.

I was acutely aware that this was probably/definitely going to be the final time we would see the display, and so was having all the feels when the lights went out and then all the pavilions lit up one by one.

At one point, Andy nudged towards me to whisper something in my ear, and I thought he was going to be all romantic… but no. His romantic whispering consisted of “I really love that smell of sulphur from the gunpowder”. Yes, dear, me too.

Once the fireworks were over (snivel) it was so easy for us to get out of the park and we were back in the room by 22:30.

Pretty good going, and once again, we thanked our stars that we were lucky enough to get the upgrade we had. It’s going to be very difficult to even consider staying anywhere else on our next trip, but alas, thanks to the price hikes, needs must.

Readers of my past trip reports will know that I have historically (and amusingly, for some) always had a day where I have left my magic band in the room. I was utterly determined not to let that happen on this trip, so every night I had got into a routine of hanging it on the inside door handle of the room. I’m pleased to say this technique worked for me and there were no heart-stopping magic bandless moments on this visit. Sorry.

Oh, I also pinched the “room occupied” sign - sorrynotsorry – for our bathroom door. Nine years in this house and we still haven’t got around to fitting a lock on it, much to the consternation of our guests.
“Be our guest, be our guest, put our bathroom to the test…”

So, there we go, day ten! It was a pretty jam packed day in the end, but it didn’t actually feel like it at the time as we went at a fairly steady pace. Was still a solid 11 hours on the go though, and definitely our highest step count for this holiday!

I hope you enjoyed today’s instalment and that you’ll join us for Day 11 where I meet up with an old friend, I make a new friend (clue: it’s alcohol) and we get to see Happily Ever After for the first time this trip... which can now be found here

[Redrach1903]

Ahhhh so glad I’m not the only one who despises Nutella. It’s gads.

Love your wee moment with the young lad on ToT. And then an extra ride? Memories galore!

Ahhh Blaze. Can’t beat it!

Awww I do love those earrings! Thank you again!

Walking to Epcot is just the biz! I’m going to miss that next time! Unless we stay there again

LOL at Andy’s romance

Perfect day, so many of my favourite things! ToT, Blaze and walking to Epcot! YAS xxx

[Inky]

Blaze is yummy! I was the rebel spy last time we went, think it’s random though. Love your reports.

[Goldia]

I am glad to see the tots make a come back, even if the spring onions were sorely lacking.

Back to the comparison of deluxe vs moderate QS breakfast. Not only did POFQ have both berry and choc chip pancakes, they also have tots, except they call them potato barrels. Did we discover them on day 1? Nooo they were very tasty though.

Anyway, back to you...lovely gift of a FP for a 2nd round of tower of terror. Also great that your new friend found you and you could discuss how silly you'd been for being frightened of it!

Oh and the girl with the pleased to be here face in front of slinky does look about as excited as anyone can be, how cute.

[PixieBoot]

What a fab day...ending with a Grey Goose slush ...mastery! Thank you x

[Lisa_Lollipop]

Haha I had to chuckle at that photo of you both at DHS, it looks more like A is pointing to your chest area than Tinkerbell!

Oh that s’more French toast… literally dribbling over my keyboard! This is totally my kind of breakfast… and it has totally made it onto my ‘must-do’ list for our trip! Thank you for bringing such a delicious beauty to my attention!

Totally love your Jedi cardigan, literally your style down to a tee!

Ah your little friend on ToT sounded the cutest! And how amazing to get an extra ride too!

Actually laughing out loud at A’s comment about the smell of sulphur… and they say romance is dead!

The location of BC truly is the dream, to be able to nip into Epcot just to watch the fireworks is truly remarkable and then to effortlessly be able to walk back again after… staying there is totally on my bucket list!

Such a great day, busy busy as always (just as I like it!) and thank you for once again confirming that I must get to Blaze ASAP!

[collybird]

The next time my OH moans that we are squeezing too much into a day I am sending him to read one of your reports

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

Ahhhh so glad I’m not the only one who despises Nutella. It’s gads.

Love your wee moment with the young lad on ToT. And then an extra ride? Memories galore!

Ahhh Blaze. Can’t beat it!

Awww I do love those earrings! Thank you again!

Walking to Epcot is just the biz! I’m going to miss that next time! Unless we stay there again

LOL at Andy’s romance

Perfect day, so many of my favourite things! ToT, Blaze and walking to Epcot! YAS xxx

See more...

Whilst it does not surprise me in the slightest that you do not like Nutella, it's good to have an ally.

Glad you love the earrings! I love that shop, spend ages in there on every trip.

You're on-site Boardwalk converts now. Especially since you found the washing machines...

[HelenJNT]

Originally Posted by Inky

Blaze is yummy! I was the rebel spy last time we went, think it’s random though. Love your reports.

See more...

Ahhh a real-life rebel spy checking in here! I am impressed! Thanks!