Now that I have posted all about our recent holidays, here is a summary post with links to all the posts, first for Florida. Happy Disney (and astronauts and wizards)!
How times flies. A week ago we had arrived after a fairly long journey and were at the gates of Magic Kingdom at 8am. Now, 7 days later, it was the same situation, however in the past week we had done all 4 Disney parks, Universal Studios, and the Kennedy Space Centre. One last day to act like kids (well, some would argue I do this most days and you are probably right).
into the beast’s lair
Of course it was another early morning to do a Disney breakfast, this time in the Beast’s Castle. There were no character meet and greets, but it was just to have a good brekkie in elaborate surrounds, and be in the park nice and early. The castle was pretty cool, with all kinds of Beauty and the Beast ephemera about.
From there it was all about filling some gaps of things we hadn’t done (and getting on some of our favourites again). We were right next to Peter Pan’s flight so jumped on. For reasons unbeknownst to both of us, the line is always huge for this ride. I mean, it is fine, but it is just an elevated boat type ride through the Peter Pan story. We went on since we were literally first in line, but neither of us think it is worth the typical 90 minute wait.
From there we went to our first fast pass ride, Splash Mountain. Lucky we sorted fast passes as the line was… non existent. Nope, a 5 minute wait. That was OK… on we went and got nice and wet as we hoped… and then went straight back on. Why not?! It was already warm, and we may as well get doubly wet now than wet again later! So back on started our day nice and soaked. Oh yeah.
We jumped back on to some of our other favourites. Big Thunder got a run (still better than 7 Dwarves Mine Cart) and also onto Jungle Cruise (sorry driver this time… you weren’t as good as our first one last week).
In our travels through Adventureland, I finally got myself one of my Disney must-gets. Dole Whip Float! That super sweet Dole pineapple whip with pineapple juice is so delicious and perfect in the Florida heat. So much better than the Beer Float from a few days ago.
It was then into Tomorrowland to jump on a couple of rides. We popped on to one of our usual favourites, Buzz Lightyear Astra Blasters, which was actually named something slightly different. Once on the ride we found out why. It must have been the first version of the ride as it was very lacking compared with the usual. Everything about it (the guns, the targets) just seemed off. Oh well, now we knew.
Space Mountain also seemed a bit different. Neither of us could remember it being more of a sled that you rode in (single file, just like a bobsled). The ride itself seemed the same… rollercoaster in the dark with things flying about… but again it just seemed a little different. This must have been how they tried to differentiate Disneyland and Magic Kingdom a bit decades ago when this was built.
doing his best to cut me out of the photo
While in Tomorrowland we bumped into another character… Mr Incredible! We met the big guy and he was hilarious. He was “busting moves” onto Kate so I had some banter, and then in our photos he proceeded to block me out of all of them. Gold! It is great when the characters have some fun like this. I imagine it must be a tough gig being in these suits for hours, so I am grateful when they have fun with it.
We got one last ride on Haunted Mansion. It seemed a number of the rides were suffering technical difficulties at the park, meaning longish lines at most rides. We got our final fastness sorted for our favourite ride, so back on to Haunted Mansion for one last time. It was nice to get the buzz of our spooky hitchhiker mentioning Australia again.
It was getting dark and in our last hour or two we did some of the shows, like Country Bears and the Tiki House, as well as go around Pirates of the Caribbean again. Fitting since tomorrow we would be on our way to a country on the Caribbean. Maybe we would run into a pirate or two on our travels.
And so with that we were done at Disney World. I have to say, it was a super fun week. I like my Disney, but having the 4 parks, all quite different experiences, and staying in the resort with magic bands and easy fast passes and the systems that worked a treat, it was great fun. Kate did a great job of organising things which, while I was worried was going to mean we were TOO planned, actually meant we had a smooth and line-free Disney, which is the best type of Disney.
We got back to the room and did a pack, ready to embark on a new adventure… to Costa Rica!
Having done the parks, we had the luxury of picking and choosing what to do for our final couple of days at Disney. We knew we were going to do one more full day at Magic Kingdom, but today we thought we would bounce around a bit between a couple of parks and Disney Springs. So with a relatively lazy start (leaving the room at 9am), we made our way back to Epcot to start the day.
good ole figment
Why Epcot? We were pretty content with our day at Animal Kingdom, that we got everything done we wanted to. We planned to go back to Hollywood Studios to go on our favourite rides again, but we rushed through a bit of Epcot and also were frustrated by the wait (and non-ride) of Frozen Ever After, so we headed back to fill that gap.
Frozen Ever After, as I alluded to earlier, is the most popular ride at Epcot. In part because it is Frozen, and mainly because it is the newest ride. As such, Fastpasses are very difficult to get. So first thing we headed there and had the luxury of only having to wait 15 minutes or so to get on.
back in norway
thankfully they were not singing let it go
And how was it? It was alright for one of the slow boat-type rides. Given it is a few decades newer than most of its type (i.e Pirates), the animatronics were a lot better, with animated faces rather than the weird puppet like figures that is the norm. There wasn’t too much “Let It Go” either which made even more pleasant. As we docked to end the ride, there was basically no queue, so around we went again! Why not given we were going to head off from Epcot soon.
We wandered the international part of Epcot for a bit, which we had some trouble doing last visit due to the rain. In many respects if I had an annual pass to Disney here, I would end up spending a bit of time in the International Showcase at Epcot. Mostly because it is not about waiting for rides, rather than chilling out eating and drinking, so I could imagine it would be fun with a bunch of people to pick a country and hang out there for a few hours.
So after a couple of hours of wandering, we decided to head off to Hollywood Studios. Conveniently, a boat connected the two, so on to the boat we jumped and 20 minutes later we were at the doorstep of our second park.
We didn’t really have much of a plan here… we just knew that we were more likely to jump on random rides we liked here more so than Epcot. I went straight for Star Tours to see where I could end up. Sadly another pod race, but I did get to zoom around the Wookie planet which was fun. No Endor unfortunately. Kate took the opportunity to have some Darth Vader waffles from the nearby eatery. Why not hey?
With our magic bands and the app we scored some fast passes for Toy Story Mania which is always ace fun. We even bumped into some Army Men out front and joined in with their drill.
I had neglected one main ride here, mostly as it was a Kate no-go-zone, but also because, well, it seemed a bit kitschy. Rockin’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. Yep, Aerosmith. That immediately dated the ride a bit, but it was a full on rollercoaster, so the opportunity arose and I jumped. The ride was just as I thought. After a VERY dated kitschy opening (apparently we had to rush to the gig!), it was onto the rollercoaster and off on what is probably the most adrenaline filled ride in the Disney Parks. Imagine Space Mountain but way faster and amped up and that is Rockin’ Rollercoaster. Good fun once it got underway… they probably just need to think about replacing Aerosmith.
As you may notice too, it was May 5th. May 4th is a BIG day in the Star Wars universe, but sadly the parks don’t seem to do too much. We had checked, and there was nothing worth coming to Hollywood Studios yesterday that was special, outside of a chance to buy a limited t-shirt. So we kept our Animal Kingdom plans. But being there on May 5th (which is also the lesser known celebration day… i.e Revenge of the 5ith) gave me a chance to pick up to limited pins that are only sold on these two days, one for each day. I nice specific memento for our trip.
We rode some rides some more (I hit up Tower of Terror again) and then at dinner time decided we should head to Disney Springs for an opportunity for some better food and drink. Kate had found a bar to try out, so on to the bus and in no time we were there.
The destination was Jock Lindsay’s Hanger Bar. Who is Jock Lindsay? He is the water-plane pilot at the start of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and it was his bar apparently. It was pretty cool, done up with all kinds of ephemera, including the gold idol hiding up on a shelf. Here they also had special cocktails and mugs, so of course we opted to try the one that came in the monkey head. We also had some good food to go along with our strong drinks which made a nice end to the day.
A bit of a wander around the rest of Disney Springs, and we drew a close to the penultimate Disney day.
Our last Disney park! Not our last Disney visit, but our final park to visit, and my last park to see to get the set (i’m not counting Disneyland China yet). Animal Kingdom! This was the one park I really didn’t have much idea what to expect. Magic Kingdom I had basically visited in a bunch of other countries, Hollywood Studios there had been variations in Japan and California, and Epcot has been in the pop culture consciousness for a while. but Animal Kingdom was a bit of an enigma for me.
We arrived early for a planned breakfast. Another brekkie with characters and one that would get us into the fairly new Rivers of Light show in the evening. Animal Kingdom obviously has a strong African theme, and breakfast setting was no exception. Kinda funny given almost a year to the day I was in actual Africa. Breakfast was a pretty extensive buffet and I made sure to have lots of granola and yoghurt… as well as my fill of bacon. Mmmm.
With a hearty brekkie to kick start our day we went to our first “ride”, Kilimanjaro Safaris. I say “ride” as it is actually much more like a zoo experience, where we loaded into big jeep like trucks and made our way through their african animal enclosure. It was a mini Ngorogoro Crater (well, kind of). They actually had quite a collection of animals… zebras, lions, elephants, rhinos… all the big ones. It was not quite as a big a deal for me as many others in the jeep, but it is still always fun to see those animals.
The day was much like our other Disney park days. We made our way to all the rides thanks to our well planned fast passes and Kate having a good idea of what we needed to visit. The centrepiece of the park is the massive Tree of Life… a statue of sorts that represents all the animal kingdom and it was a sight to behold actually. We would keep coming back to the tree as we moved from area to area of the park.
expedition everest!
There was a bunch of fun rides here at the park. Given it was a nice warm day we decided to get on to Kali River Rapids nice and early. It was a classic water rapids ride. There were warnings about getting wet and we indeed did get wet. So nice! Very refreshing in the warm Florida morning. I also had fun on Expedition Everest, a rollercoaster type ride around and through a mountain, getting chased by the elusive yeti. Love some backwards roller coaster action.
We also had a chance to meet a bunch of characters. Mickey and Minnie were hanging out there as expected, but we also ran into Russell from Up (yay!) and even the cheeky Rafiki. We also went to a few musical shows. The Lion King show was pretty good, and the Nemo show not too bad either.
As the sun began to set we decided to jump on to Kilimanjaro Safaris again. At dusk the animals start to get a bit more active, and while it wasn’t too much different to the morning, it was fun to get out there again.
It was dark and time to head to our seats for the Rivers of Light show. On the way, the Tree of Life was starting its “awakening”… a series of projections on to the tree at different times that would make some of the animals carved into the tree spring to life. We saw the opening one as we headed to the show and it was quite stunning. The tree was teeming with life as animals got up to all kinds of things all around the tree. There are a series of different awakenings meaning we would need to get back to see some more.
We got to our seats ready for the Rivers of Light show. As mentioned, this was a fairly new show and quite hard to get in to. Unlike many other evening shows and parades, there was set seating so we were quite lucky to get a spot. It was a pretty cool show, a fairly straightforward boat-float-water projection type show. Being new gave it novelty for most, but for me I thought it was pretty good without being stellar.
With that it was time to head back to the hotel. We caught another tree “awakening” on the way out, and like most nights it was approaching midnight before we got the chance to jump into bed. Phew.
Today was our one other day outside the Disney bubble. The Orlando area has a bazillion things to do, and the other main theme park to visit is undoubtedly Universal Studios. I had visited Universal in California many many years ago, and while it is fine it is not somewhere I would rush back to. It’s a little different these days with the addition of the Harry Potter franchise.
In reality, Potter was the reason we were visiting the two Universal parks. Yep, two. They have a good scam going on, with the Harry Potter rides and experiences split between the two parks, meaning you had to have a special 2 park ticket to get to both. Of course they did. That ticket was also the only way to get onto the Hogwarts Express that runs between the two parks. There was never a question of not going, but it made it a bit of a bitter pill.
But it was not only Harry, but also the Simpsons that I was keen to see. As gates opened and we headed straight for Diagon Alley, we made our way through Springfield. Yes! We would come back later in the day, but I couldn’t help but stop with pictures with pretty much everything. The Springfield sign! Jebediah Springfield! Chief Wiggum! The Comic Book Nerds store! The Quickie Mart! Moes! Duffman! Queasy, Surly and Remorseful! I was grinning from ear to ear.
We moved quickly through there and arrived in ye olde London, specifically just near Kings Cross Station and also the hidden entry to Diagon Alley. Kate stopped for a quick chat with the conductor of the Knight Bus, as well as the shrunken head hanging off the read view mirror, who was actually pretty hilarious.
But we had rides to get on, so into Diagon Alley we went and headed straight for Gringotts. Having only one day at both parks, we had the aim of doing everything Harry, so made sure to get our ride on early. It seemed to be a quiet day so it didn’t seem like it would be too hard, but regardless we headed straight into Gringotts for the escape ride.
We wove our way through, meeting goblins and Bill Weasley who acts as your guide throughout. The gist of the ride is we are in a Gringotts cart when we meet Voldemort and Bellatrix and have to escape. So it is a fast mine cart like ride with amazing visuals and all kinds of thrills. BEST. RIDE. EVER. It was sooooo good. If it isn’t the best theme park ride it is right up there. The cart bit was great but the visual were stunning. Even Kate who doesn’t do motion rides was giddy. We got out and saw basically no line so went straight back on. We knew we would be back again later too.
We spent the rest of the morning exploring Diagon Alley. That meant heading into Olivanders, where Kate spent time pouring over the wands and trying to make a choice. We also saw a few performances by the local acting troupe, who acted out stories of Beedle the Bard with some great puppets (similar to the style in the Deathly Hallows film).
But a close second to the escape from Gringotts was the frosty goodness of frozen Butterbeer. Oh man. It was soooo tasty. My sister had given me a heads up about it, and it did not disappoint. Delicious!
By now we had seen much of what Diagon Alley had to offer, so on to the Hogwarts Express it was to head to the other park. The train ride is actually a bit of a ride, which makes it quite cool. You are in cabins just like in the movie and you are attacked by dementors on the way. A nice touch.
We arrived into Hogsmead at the other end and were greeted with a huge Hogwarts towering over us. It was pretty stunning and was actually the home of the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, another dark motion ride. Again Kate was sucking up her dislike of motion rides to go on. Like Gringotts, there was lots to see in the line, but as there were so few people we moved through very quickly. In no time we were on the ride. This was similar to the Gringotts ride, however involved much more zooming and swooping and massive screens giving the impression we were zooming all about Hogwarts on our broomstick. Every now and then a dementor would pop out to give us a fright. At the end I LOVED it. Another best ride contender. Kate, not so much. This one was a bit too zoomy and was not her cup of tea.
It was time for lunch so into the Three Broomsticks it was for a bite, before exploring Hogsmead some more. We went on the Flight of the Hippogriff, a small roller coaster type ride, and I also went on the Dragon Challenge ride, a full blown upside down roller coaster. They certainly up the adrenaline at Universal.
Like Diagon Alley there were some shows to see, with the students from the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang putting on a show. We experienced all Hogsmead had to offer and with only an hour before this side of the park shut, we did a quick scoot around the rest of the park. To be honest, there was not much in the rest of the park of interest. I went on to a Spiderman ride that was a mix of motion and sets and 3D that was actually pretty good. But otherwise not much else was of interest.
So back onto the Hogwarts Express it was back to the other park to get some more Gringotts, before exploring the Simpsons land a little. I went on the main Simpsons ride that was a Star Tours type ride… a motion simulator ride that was kinda fun. They had a fair bit of the Simpsons humour in there.
And with that we were done. 9pm had arrived and it was park closing time. We were happy to have gotten everything we wanted done, and as we thought, Harry was the clear highlight. With the Potterverse done, we were content and ready for more Disney.
