Disney Feast West&East Day 28: IoA, TNA and Andy has his B-Day

[WileyCoyote]

It is Andy’s birthday today, 23 August and what better thing than to do than be up super early and pegging it to a theme park eh !


We are all sleepy ( attributed to Andys late night jackanory quest) but up at 7.15 and having a delicious breakfast at 0730. Pastries, toast, cereal and donuts. Nice coffee and juice and almost civilised at this early hour.

As there is a queue for the water taxi we decide to walk , arriving at 0810 .


























Potterland is busy already and I need to stow my bag so we send the boys on, arranging to meet them at the exit of Dragon Challenge – so they are to do FJ and DC and then meet us. I must say this to them about 15 times on the way in.

I think the lockers are a blatant rip off – free for 30 minutes when the average queue time for FJ is about a week long. None theless bag safely stowed, it is only as I am in the queue, which is longer than 30 minutes, do I realise my purse is IN the bag which is IN the locker and we cant get it OUT without money. Hmmm, tricky this could be, as Yoda would say ...

[WileyCoyote]

Anyway the queue for FJ is 30 minutes , which is ok, had hoped for less, but definitely could be worse.

We can see the boys a few rows ( about 10 minutes) ahead of us and I restrain Andy from joining them as that’s queue jumping and I cant abide it….. doesn’t stop the family behind us doing it though – that old “ oh my child is just up here trick” , humbug.

I am apprehensive about this ride but really, really want to try it. I can just manage to hold Andy’s hand so that helps as we set off. As someone who doesn’t like rollercoasters, I have been quite adventurous on this trip and I am so pleased that I did this one , it was quite thrilling and I thought the effects were really brilliant. Totally enjoyed it and would have loved another go but wait times were too long once we got off.

Who designed a queue area in a greenhouse in 90 degree Florida heat





Inside its very dark so you cant see the colours, except if you are very annoying like me, and using a flash ...

















you cant quite see the holograms on the pic but Ron, Hermione and Harry appear on the balcony





Andy and I are off Forbidden Journey by 0850 and find the boys waiting for us at the exit – odd as I was sure we had told them to go straight over to Dragon Challenge – but no problem as with the FOTL they will be on and off in no time.

We again agree to meet at the exit ( but failing to actually identify where the exit actually is). We retrieve my bag, thankfully Andy had some spare cash on him otherwise it could have all been a bit tricky.

I set off to look round the shops which are brilliantly themed but terribly small for the amount of people crammed in and already a long line has formed for Ollivanders. We try some Butterbeer – its curious and we cant work out if we like it or not !

[WileyCoyote]

Sorry , picture overload , i thought the theming was fabulous

















As we sit and wait for what seems like ages ( and I miss a pic of the owl peeping out on the hour) , I go in search of the boys – who were indeed at the DC exit – it seems Andy and I were not and they had been waiting for ages .

Never mind, re-united we decide its too busy in here already for our liking so we walk against the incoming tide who will be greeted with a 90 minute wait now at FJ ( I got a peek at the wait boards around 1045 and it had gone down to 75 minutes). Dragon Challenge was only 10-20 minutes though most of the morning.

As we all have FOTL , we know we can whizz round so we split from the boys agreeing to meet at 1100 ( its just after 9 now). They go off and will get on Hulk, Spiderman, Accelerator, Ripsaw Falls and a spin in the Family Drying Machine in that time. By all accounts thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Bob, the talking fountain was quiet this morning




but still sneaky



Andy and I enjoy ourselves in Seussland – the only non child accompanied people using FOTL passes on the Skyride trolley , One fish, Two fish and Cat in the Hat. All of which we really rather enjoyed, even more so as we walked on with at most a 5 minute wait.














man, its a jungle out there ...

[WileyCoyote]

I love Seussland - it might just be my favourite bit !













Round to Toon Lagoon where I love the theming – you see something different everytime you look

[WileyCoyote]

A brief look round the Marvel Superhero section but not much for us here as neither of us fancies the coasters or Spiderman. We head to Jurassic Park and have a look around the Discovery Centre and are disappointed to learn that you do need a child to go on Pterandon Flyers !











We catch up with the boys and head to Poseidons Fury which is misleading as it says 20 minutes but FOTL is a walk on – but not really as it’s a show and its on a 20 minute cycle so FOTL gets you to the front of the queue for the next show. It’s a fairly dull queuing area and everyone is feeling a bit peckish so those whining noises and fidgety actions start to make an appearance and we resolve to have lunch straight after this. The attraction itself is a bit naff to start with but does improve with some decent special effects. Not one I would rush back for but one we didn’t do last time so it was good to try it this time.












to be continued - but now, I need to eat my lovely chinese takeaway ! ...

[SammyScotland]

Fab photos Amanda. Hope you enjoyed your Chinese - we had a Chinese takeaway yesterday.

[WileyCoyote]

mmmm, was I talking about food ? continued ...

We are out at 1200 , definitely hungry so we nip across to Mythos where we have a 1230 ADR but they are happy to seat us early. Its really nice inside here and the cool air con and cold drinks soon revive everyone,especially Andy who has a birthday beer.










The meal is delicious – we have 1 chicken wrap, 1 pizza, 1 panini and 2 cheeseburgers 4 sodas and 2 beers – and it comes in at an incredibly reasonable $80 so $95 after the tip. Very nice for “theme park” food.










Over lunch, while looking at the park map we see that the TNA wrestling is being filmed tonight so we decide to see if we can get tickets but wont tell the boys in case we are unsuccessful.

We head straight to guest services and the lady there does everything she can but cant get us tickets as they are handed out first thing in the morning. She tells us to pitch up around 5.30 and try the standby line.

The boys are a bit grumpy about all the hanging about waiting for us to finish with the lady but that’s because a ] they are grumpy toads anyway and b] they don’t know what we are trying to do .




So we fob them off by coming out with some souvenir universal dollars – which we never knew existed . They look like this




We exit the park around 1.30 after a great morning

[WileyCoyote]

These parents, never around when you need them ...









its my birthday and I'll sit here if I want to ...



Jamie finds a kindred spirit





reservoir dogs get some wheels



Andy heads off for a well earned birthday kip in peace while the boys and I spend some time at the pool and the y make use of the table tennis, volleyball and the water play area. Its busy here but still seems to be enough space to go round and its very pleasant ( and hot). We have a nice couple of hours messing about down here













We go back to the room around 4 to get ready for going out, making full use of the club lounge before we go to have a cheeky drink ( wine for me, beer for Andy) and soda’s for the boys. The afternoon snack is chicken with rice which is delicious and Andy and I won’t need an evening meal after this, yum yum. We watch the latest update on Isaac , well , it’s getting hard to miss it now, it’s on every channel, all the time.





We pitch up at the Studios at 5pm , catching the end of the parade and have to fess up to the boys what we are planning to do –namely a lot of hanging about to see if we can get in – but we did remember to bring the cards with us.

[WileyCoyote]

We know that it will be at least 6pm before they get round to this queue as there are two other queues before us ( who do have tix) and apparently two other queues out the front by Blue Man Group who also have tix .

The guy tells us he cant promise anything but that based on where we are at in the SB queue, people generally do get in. As Rip Ride Rocket is only a 15 minute wait, the boys scoot off to do that and then forage for food ( hot dogs) while waiting. And we do a lot of waiting ….



At 6.40 we are led off – but only to join another queue , inside a sweltering hot building , for a full 60 minutes before entering the Studio.



people still coming in behind us



Alot of this ...





But we strike lucky by getting the top row – this is good as you can lean back because trust me , these are possibly THE most uncomfortable seats in the world and the people in front all leave with hunchbacks .














i have no comment to make about this photo - I didnt take it



ooooh , handbags !




What can I say, its all razza matazz and quite good fun – for the first hour but then it kind of gets repetitive – theres some talk, some wrestling, some stage re-setting, some crowd whooping and then you do it all again. The boys recognise some of the names and get into the whole chanting thing ( Who is RVD anyway ?). We stay to watch Mr Anderson ( no, not him off the Matrix) but then call it a day around 9.30. the show goes on for hours more but we have seen enough – it was free, unexpected and good fun so lets not overdo it !




We are back at RPR at 10 and Connor and Jamie go off to play table tennis until 11 while we pack up to leave tomorrow – its amazing just how much 5 people for 2 nights seem to need !

This has been a very good day

[mick]

Another full day, a good Birthday