Day 27 - Sunday 5 March - Hollywood Studios and Epcot

8:00 bus again today, but got through the gates a bit quicker.

This is the way! I really should have stopped and got him to pose but I just snapped this as we were racing past to get to the entrance

First up we did Toy Story Mania which said 20 minutes but was probably about 15. This is another ride where you sit in a train and shoot things, except you use a lever to fire which makes for a sore arm by the end of the ride.

Had another go at the Slinky Dog Dash. It said 40 minutes and was probably about 35. It really is a nice roller coaster.

Slinky Dog roller coaster

Had another go at Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance which took a different lift past the AT-AT walkers. Said 60 minute wait, was about 53 minutes.

Me and David in Star Wars land

Lizard

Storm troopers in a docking bay in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

TIE fighter in the docking bay in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

Storm troopers in a docking bay in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

AT-AT walkers in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

Speeder in Star Wars land

Had a quick look in the Build-a-robot shop.

Droid pieces you can use to build your own droid

Did Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run as singles again. This time I was with a family of four and another single. The "pilots" did a much better job this time, but the mother was so effing LOUD - she wouldn't stop SCREAMING through the entire ride (not scared screaming, but like WOOOOHOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!). Damned loud Americans.

Millennium Falcon

Had a bit of a look at Launch Bay.

Star Wars Launch Bay

Speeder bike used in Return of the Jedi

Slave-I model

Star Wars models

Then another THREE goes on Tower of Terror. First time it said 30 minutes wait, but was more like 11. Second wait was even quicker. Didn't bother going again after the third go because the queue suddenly got a bit longer.

The Hollywood Tower Hotel (Twilight Zone Tower of Terror)

We left Hollywood Studios and took the two Skyliner cable cars across to Epcot. Although it goes so far out of the way to come back that you could probably walk it quicker. But then you wouldn't get to enjoy the cable car.

Me, David and Hayley in the Skyliner cable car going to Epcot

Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort and the Skyliner

Mickey and Minnie topiary

We went back to the Regal Eagle Smokehouse for lunch.

Then we took the boat back to the TTC. Except it's super slow and we just missed the 15:40 bus. Doh. So we got the 16:10 bus to the Hilton across the road.

Boat that goes between the resorts and parks

Back of the French section of Epcot from the boat

Disney's Beach Club Resort from the boat

Disney's BoardWalk from the boat

Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort from the boat

Had a bit of a swim, then we walked across to Disney Springs. David had a huge hot dog for dinner. I had his packet of chips "side". Cause there was no way I'd be able to get through a whole hot dog. Had a look in the Lego Store (there was a queue just to get in) and a quick look in the Disney Store. So really only saw about a third of Disney Springs. Oh well.

Rainforest Cafe and Lava Lounge at Disney Springs

Mickey from Fantasia in Lego

Grogu in the Lego store

Dragon in Lego

Star Wars characters in Lego

Dragon in Lego

Dragon in Lego. With pigeon

Star Wars characters in Lego

Elsa and Olaf in Lego

Anna in Lego

Frozen characters in Lego

Me and Elsa

World of Disney store

Went back to the hotel and got the 19:00 bus to the TTC, and a monorail to the Contemporary Hotel. On the way it POURED. Absolutely bucketed down. Although it did ease up by the time we got to the hotel. The hotel has these outdoor balconies at either end of the building for the fire escapes, but the ones on the northern end have a view over Magic Kingdom, and the fireworks go off right over Space Mountain. David braved the rain and setup his camera on a tripod. I did handheld so I could stand back from the rain. They also broadcast the music for the fireworks throughout the hotel including the balconies, so that was pretty cool.

Looks a little moist

Two monorails inside the Contemporary Resort

Magic Kingdom fireworks from Contemporary Resort

Took the monorail back to the TTC, and again took a Hilton bus back to get back half an hour quicker.

Snickers and snackages for dinner. Hayley came up to our room as well to say goodbye.

I was hoping on our last day that we could get back to the hotel early, relax, repack all our bags and have an early night. Well other than a short swim there was no relaxing time, I never got a chance to properly repack, and we had a late night. Doh.

So. Disney.

There's nothing magic about Disney. The queuing experience sees to that. Still, it certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been. And aside from the last night the weather was pretty good (no rain) just a bit hot and very humid. The rides aren't "thrill" rides but some of them are quite fun. Other things I noticed.. heaps of groups had matching tshirts, either for their families, or for a specific vacation event for families or groups. I guess it'd make finding people a lot easier. Especially kids .. "what were they wearing?" "this" haha. And *heaps* of people were wearing Disney themed tshirts. In the England section of Epcot we found a heap of really cool Monty Python tshirts, but they were *ridiculously* expensive, like thirty or forty USD for a tshirt. Yeah no. The parks were full of bubblers, sometimes even in the ride queues. We made a point of having a drink whenever we passed one, as we weren't carrying water bottles. We generally had a pretty good week. We certainly saw basically everything that we could see. And some of the better things more than once. Having Shroedingers covid didn't help the first few days as I was quite tired and not being able to eat much was certainly annoying. I tried my best not to spread germs. But America has given up on covid anyway. There's almost no hand sanitizer *anywhere*. Even the restaurants didn't always have it. I guess because even if they did have it, noone would use it anyway (on the ship they were literally right next to where you pick up your plates to go past the buffet lines, but I never saw a single other person using them). That's ok, Americans have probably all had covid two or three times each by now. Thanks to David for a pretty awesome week, and in fact holiday :)

Americas 2023

Day 27 - Sunday 5 March - Hollywood Studios and Epcot

Comments