Going Out in a Blaze of Glory - Summer of Sorcery 2019 - DAY 20 -Springs, Studios and missing Forky?

[walt4it]

Welcome back - you made it...I hoped you would!

So many thanks for all of your ongoing reading and messages about this trip report - as much as I posted on earlier days as to how difficult it was to post in the current circumstances, until I had received a number of messages I had not fully understood just how much comfort all of these ramblings and pictures are giving amidst so many cancelled holidays. Whilst it remains difficult to post days with thoughts of holidays cancelled - we will get there come what may

As I have replied, I share the understandable heartbreak that happens when all your planning and Disney Dreams are shattered. I feel so much for everyone with holidays already cancelled and everyone who have seen their Summer holidays vanish.


If you missed our annual golf day which was Day 19 with Orange Lake included too you can read it here

The whole index for 2019 and a link to all of the previous years of shenanigans is here


From slow starts good things do come!

Welcome to Day 20

Monday 12th August


Fresh from a late night and a very late finish, today we headed to Disney Springs in one final attempt to find the elusive baseball top that Joe had been searching for.

Once again, proof that if you see something and like it, buy it!
We had seen this so much earlier in our trip and it seemingly vanished from the shelves.

Our journey this morning we passed the Epcot Skyliner from CBR and for the first time in this whole trip, there were none to be seen- they too had seemingly vanished overnight !

Our arrival into the parking garage with the lights signalling empty parking spaces still makes us chuckle – after all those years of driving round a ground level car park at Disney Springs / Downtown Disney trying to find a parking space seems such an age ago – yet it was only 2013 that the whole Disney Springs project was announced, what a difference it makes when you can find a parking space with ease !

Our stop into World of Disney brought such a lucky find, it was a size too big , but on a positive note, it will get more wear with ‘room to grow into’ -as a result it was quickly purchased! What a find!

We also took the chance of snagging the reusable shopping bags that were on offer here - even now too good to go into shopping use at home and to be honest they were a great buy and a reminder of our holidays every time we open the car boot! One for each park and for Disney Springs too.

We took a final stroll around Disney Springs and once again enjoyed the huge changes that have been made here over the past few years, it has been painful along the way but what an end result – this is such a beautiful place and well worth all the time and effort made in improving it.

We then stopped for some food at Earl of Sandwich, a place that we have generally passed by on the dining plan, in favour of Wolfgang Puck Express and when offsite we have generally not needed food whilst here.

Not today though, we had missed out on breakfast and we were all in need of something to eat.

Earl of Sandwich is such a fab place, like I said, we never usually visit here and we were instantly taken by the place.

Food ordered, refillable soft drinks available and we awaited our order.

The chicken noodle soup was excellent, as were the three sandwiches and a wrap for Joe.

The cost was just under $50, which was less than the rather tempting offering at the Lego store!

From there, we needed a quick Walmart stop to buy the things we were wanting to take home – and to get some Advil pm for grandad at home too.


I hate typing this in any trip report day, but it was becoming more apparent of how many days we had spent here, yet still had so much still to come.


The Advil Pm for Grandad has brought him so much more sleep with his arthritic knees than anything else he has tried or been prescribed. Not having another trip planned has led to a low supply, so if you read this, have a trip planned and can help - just let me know, he pays such rediculous prices to get some shipped via ebay or Amazon US.

As always, when we stop at the Walmart at the junction of Old Lake Wilson Road and the 192- the rain and thunder follows and right on cue, it did so once again. Every single time, you can set your watch by it!

It allowed for some serious mooching around Walmart, no guns but I have to admit the tyres were on promotion

and were tempting, but we declined to chance – with the Walmart wifi kicking in the phone started to deliver loads of whats app messages from Neil at Orange Lake – it was not a day for golf there as the place began to resemble a lake such was the storm outside –

we were about 2 miles away from there and the sound of the rain on the roof of Walmart certainly told its own story.

By the time we had finished it was clearing up nicely- Quality timing !


We headed back to the villa and quickly got sorted out for our Disney park part of the day.

A quick Lyft was ordered and thankfully the journey to Hollywood Studios was a speedy one, the I4 heading to Orlando was without the usual queues and we made it into the park before 5 pm, we headed straight to Tower of Terror just to see what the queue time was- it certainly couldn’t be this long, could it?

We met a cast member who was here from Norwich on the CRP, we shared a nice chat with him and we were heading to a queue of around 30 minutes.
Rees and Katie joined us in the queue thanks to the many messages sent by the boys via text.

It was shorter than that - by the time we sat in the elevator we had waited just 16 minutes, a great result as we thought that the ongoing refurb of this ride would mean the two hour wait time would be a continued feature of our holiday- not tonight!

We rode in the newly refurbished right hand lift shaft and it was superb to see an additional bit of detailing on the lift drop too, with a ghostly figure seen in between floors, now much more obvious to the naked eye – really spooky when you notice it though. Merch opportunity missed on the way out though

From there the children headed to Rock ‘n’ Roller coaster whilst we went to the Baseline Tap House and met Neil and Karen.

It was great in there, meeting a family from New York who had been invited by their sister (a Senior Disney Exec) to come and ride Galaxy’s Edge.
Their son was currently experiencing it with his aunty , they had previously had the opportunity too . The photos they had were incredible and amazingly immersive – we were too early to get the opportunity on this trip and so it will remain one of those that is there for the future.

As our children came to meet up , after a Star Tours ride too, we once more said our goodbyes and headed in our different directions.

We were short on time and with two fastpasses to choose between. Toy Story Mania which expires in 4 minutes or Rock ‘N’ Roller that starts in 4.

We took the first option and it proved right as RnR had gone down and it was only later we realised that would have been such a wasted journey across the park.


With the light fading Toy Story Land takes on an additional bit of excitement and intrigue. It takes on a whole new complexion and is so atmospheric, you don’t get that feeling on an early morning park entry rushing to Slinky Dog!

We just breathed it in a while. If you could actually visit this place in this light every time , it would be incredible, it is so beautiful.

We rode Toy Story but in all honesty it was a bit of a wasted ride.
Two out of the four shooters were not functioning properly and it became a bit of a farce when only one in every three or four attempts actually resulted in a blue splodge being fired.

Rather than get rope burn or indeed RSI from firing blanks – we decided this was a null and void game. I will avoid any football reference here!

I took it well and apart from a couple of expletives being uttered I did not allow it in have a detrimental impact on the evening!

What we found next did!

Forky had disappeared - that nice photo Joe had on Day 4

was now replaced by …

NOTHING!

They had literally killed Forky in the space of a holiday, not available in the shops as a plush, due to a product recall on them and now this!

We then headed back to where we had come from, not the Tap House this time, but the Sci- Fi diner - yes we were going to follow up on that promise last year of returning and paying OOP too.

We were seated quickly and with an 8-15 reservation time we knew that Fantasmic was not going to happen, we had accepted that.

We had a good meal, service was just Ok this time, but burgers were delicious and being able to enjoy a glass of wine was too.

This was possibly the best food photo of the lot!


Now, as we exited we had a conundrum- stay for Star Wars fireworks? or get a head start on the crowds?

Now, those crowds were obviously in Fantasmic as there were so few people waiting for the Star Wars fireworks!

This place was eerily quiet, having sat with the masses awaiting Frozen fireworks and indeed the first version of the Star Wars variety this was empty by comparison, just 10 minutes before the show and we could have sat anywhere in the viewing areas there was no longer that clamour for places down towards the entrance gates. A sad sight , but a reflection of the serious reduction in the nighttime show here and the fireworks no longer anything like those seen previously.

Tonight, we took the sensible option, the pool and hot tub calling we got a Lyft back to the villa.

Our exit from the park was so special though, with CM opening for Galaxys Edge continuing, those on the gate were keen to share all things Star Wars – this was such a lovely way to end the evening.

We were in the Lyft as the Star Wars fireworks began, having easily found the pick up place and spotted the car quickly as it entered – we were in the villa pretty swiftly too.

Now what followed was possibly a taxi ride that was one of the stand out moments of the whole trip!

A fab driver( just in case he is reading this!) who had the conversation of the character Dale from King of the Hill!
Will avoid dropping in a video, but if you ever watched King of the Hill , you will understand exactly.

We discussed the Skyliner, the original Skyliner in MK-
“ that people used to throw things at you from” ,
the lack of air conditioning on the new one was something he was not aware of and as a result was more happy about, it added to his Disney ire!

The conversation flowed but got deeper into politics, Brexit, Trump and the news of the bloke Jenner who committed suicide in prison and then the conversation escalated quickly!

Area 51, tunnels underneath Tampa and more conspiracy theories than you would ever dare to think of!

Fake news , wrong news and just made up news too!

Johnny Cash avoiding being drugged to an early grave- Prince , Michael Jackson , I piped up with Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. The list was endless, I’m surprised he didn’t announce himself as the son of Elvis 🕺🏼 before we finished!

Entertaining and apart from the over bearing stench of his in car smell of about 200 air freshener things. It was possibly to cloud the amount of excrement he was talking, but it was so engaging and hugely funny, yet it was 100% serious to him .

The journey time was 22 minutes.
It took us longer to google the issues he raised in the conversation !
We tipped as we got in the house.
We did make sure he drove off first though- just in case!

Next stop pool and hot tub!
An advantage of an early return from the parks and another reminder as to how good a villa is, such a great end to every day.


With a bit of baseball, as I typed up my trip report notes. With Tampa away in San Diego the game started late and as my eyes were shutting, I headed fur bed rather than fall asleep on the settee !

As I post all of this - I just dread to think about what our Lyft guy would have made of all this Covid stuff


Day 21 is coming real soon - thanks for reading and if you read the Lyft driver bit before going to bed - please don't have nightmares

See you real soon for Day 21 and thanks for reading
The search for Forky starts now!

DAY 21 is now just a click here away

[Swimmer68]

Thanks for posting , sounds like a busy day with some great rides . We love toy story land in the evening like pandora the colours are amazing . Looking forward to the rest of your trip 😀

[mick]

Pleased to see another day posted I have been wondering where you were

A good day glad you found the top! It does pay to buy things you really want as soon as you see them, we learnt that a few years ago.

Hope you and yours are all keeping well ?

Joan

[Ilovesnowwhite]

Yay day 20

Oh yes if you see Buy it, so many times we have gone back for something and its gone.

Oh No what have they done with Forky? lets start the conspiracy theories lol

Another fun tho busy day xx

[Palm trees]

Thanks for entertaining us with another daily update. Your taxi ride sounds "interesting". Shame about the Toy story mania let down, it's one of my favourite rides (but I never get a score worth talking about anyway!)

[flo-tinka]

Thanks for posting a busy old day again 👍

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by Swimmer68

Thanks for posting , sounds like a busy day with some great rides . We love toy story land in the evening like pandora the colours are amazing . Looking forward to the rest of your trip 😀

See more...

Great to see you got to be first to post! I know you have been waiting for another day to get posted Sorry for teh delay.
Amazing how many miss the subtle change in atmosphere at night time in Toy Story Land, the lighting is something else in Pandora a night time visit is a must, the changes are just incredible to see and to appreciate

Thanks for reading as always - the end is coming I'm just not sure I want it to end

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by mick

Pleased to see another day posted I have been wondering where you were

A good day glad you found the top! It does pay to buy things you really want as soon as you see them, we learnt that a few years ago.

Hope you and yours are all keeping well ?

Joan

See more...

Still here Joan
Unfortunately have not gone anywhere We can only wish!

Never one to post of family stuff on The Dibb but Mrs walt4it is having a few weeks that will possibly add even more to the 2020 story!
A second hospital stay and no nearer a gallbladder answer

As for finding Joe's top - it really was one of those moments !

The thing is we also learnt that time and time again - you just hold off when spending those holiday dollars from Grandparents
On first viewing it is noted and then mentioned a few days later and the rest of your flippin' trip looking!


There is a bigger one upcoming that may result in a bit of a trip report of it's own

Hope all good with you and Mick.

[Disneycraft]

Enjoyed today . Your driver sounds like fun

[TractorBoy]

Thanks for posting another day Walt. Another really good read.

We also got those bags. Use them when we go out for the day. Good size!

Sorry to hear about your good lady. Hope she gets issues sorted out soon.