January 2016 Trip Report Part Three

Friday, January 15, 2016
It was another early morning for us as we rushed over to Hollywood Studios after a very quick breakfast at the resort, so we could could hopefully fit in the entire day there before our dinner reservations at Ohana. 

One of the things we were really excited for at Hollywood Studios was the re-vamp of Star Tours to feature characters and locations from the new movie. We immediately made our way to Star Tours, and ended up riding it twice in a row because it was still early enough that there was no line. Both times we got one of the old locations and Jakku, the new location, and we also had some of the new characters both times we rode. We assume, at least at the time, the new parts were probably featured in every ride, and the older parts changed between different locations like they usually do, so the ride would still have some variety and also promote "The Force Awakens." 

Getting photobombed before Star Tours

As we exited Star Tours the second time, I took out my phone to post the above picture on Instagram, when I realized I had a bunch of Facebook notifications. This was the day that is was officially announced that Lights, Motors, Action! (LMA) was closing permanently to make way to Toy Story and Star Wars Lands. Conveniently enough, I was already in Hollywood Studios, and though it was only about 10:00 AM and LMA was obviously not open yet, we headed to the back of the park to take some pictures.

LMA was honestly never my favorite show as a guest, at least not until I worked there. I've never been a car person, and I had only seen the show once before I found out that was my location for my second college program. Like many CPs who are placed at shows rather than rides for attractions, I was initially disappointed (especially since I had requested Tower of Terror on my extension application). The more I learned while working at LMA, and the more times I saw the show, I found myself with a much greater appreciation for it. Where Dinoland, my work location in the fall program, felt like a test of how much of something I didn't like I could take, LMA (another show that I did not particularly like before working there) really grew on me, and became my home during the program. I enjoyed going to work every day, and while at the most basic level I worked crowd control, the show really did become special to me. I met some amazing people there, some of which I'm still good friends with, and I learned to look at things with more than just their face value. Even though myself, and everyone else at LMA, all knew the end of the show was likely just around the corner, it was definitely a little bit more sad than expected when we heard the official announcement. 

My phone's camera didn't pick it up so well, but it's actually down-pouring in this picture. Kind of fitting I guess given the circumstances of the show closing. 

When I felt I had a sufficient amount of photos in front of my CP home that I might never see standing again, we decided to head next door and meet Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc. Ironically enough, although I had worked right near their meet and greet location, I had actually never met them at all while I was in Florida. With the announcement of LMA closing, it was clear that their meet and greet would also be closing, so we figured that was probably the best time to meet them.

First and last time at the Monsters Inc. meet and greet

While the rain picked up a little bit, and we were already in the area, we decided to walk through Watto's Grotto since that would also not be there once the Streets of America part of the park closes. Even though this shop was set up during Star Wars weekends, it was still a little bit weird to be shopping where the Backlot Tour's exit used to be. 

Outside the shop, we met a nice PhotoPass photographer who was taking pictures in front of some of the Star Wars props from the Backlot Tour that were still near the rides' exit. He was one of our favorite cast members of the trip, and he actually ended up taking about thirty pictures of us, all with different poses and props, as he knew we were in no real rush to head back out into the rain, and there was no one else anywhere near us waiting for a picture. 

Our PhotoPass friend even covered the trash barrel to get this picture

By this point, we were getting hungry, but we didn't want to eat too much since we were saving ourselves for dinner at Ohana'. We decided to do what all of the marketing at Hollywood Studios seemed to be telling us to do, and we headed over to the Backlot Express to order a Star Wars themed lunch. We split one of the Royal Guard burgers (with the black buns) and we also split one of the specialty drinks, that we couldn't help but get one of the light up Star Wars themed ice cubes for. The general consensus-- the burger was surprisingly good, especially for quick service in Hollywood Studios, a park that is normally lacking, and sharing one between the two of us would probably have been enough food even if we weren't planning on having a huge dinner later that night. The drink left something to be desired, although this might just be a matter of my opinion. It was really strong, which I guess is typically good because you think you're getting a good value. But it also was in a fairly small cup and cost $15 with the ice cube. Now I know we paid more to have the light up ice cube in the drink, but regardless I felt like it was a little too much of everything going on-- too sweet, and too strong, if both flavors were toned down a bit it would probably be good. If you really want a Star Wars themed alcoholic beverage, I'd suggest going somewhere with a full bar to get more of a mixed drink, as the ones at the Backlot Express come out of the lemonade style machines with alcohol mixed in after. Unless you like your drinks to taste like liquefied Pixie Stix, in which case I've found the perfect drink for you.

Continuing the Star Wars theme that we briefly interrupted to visit LMA, we headed over to the Launch Bay, which neither of us had yet experienced since it opened after our programs ended. Like Watto's Grotto, it was a little strange to see a building we knew  so well transformed into something different. From the outside, the Launch Bay honestly looks like the Magic of Disney Animation with some kind of weird Star Wars overlay-- like you can walk right inside and draw Darth Vader for that day only or something. 

While I do think that they did a good job remaking the exterior of the building, I still can't get the animation building idea out of my head when I look at it, at least for now. The inside however, except with a couple of unique nods to the layout that I assume were just impossibly to change, actually looks completely different. If you were not super familiar with the animation building, you might not even remember where the old attractions were once you're inside. 

We really enjoyed reading up on the exhibits, and seeing some of the props from the movies, but the highlights of the Launch Bay are the character meet and greets. We were able to meet Chewbacca, and Darth Vader, which I guess is pretty neat because his meet and greet changed over to Kylo Ren pretty quickly after we came home from Florida.

The dark side is scary...

Speaking of Darth Vader, when we went to the Disney Visa meet and greet after the regular one it was.. um... also Darth Vader. I mean, I guess since it's behind a different door, you could easily make the argument that he greets on both sides, but like... character integrity? Just a thought...

On leaving the Launch Bay, we circled back to LMA to make it in time to see the second show of the day. As I was aware that you don't need to show up to LMA early at all (unless it's Christmas week or something crazy) to get a seat, we arrived only about a half hour before the show started. While walking into the stadium we stopped and talked to a couple of my coworkers, which was kind of nice and convenient that I happened to be in the park on the day when the closing announcement came out. (For anyone who doesn't know what happens when attractions close at Disney, don't worry, they won't be out of a job. They'll just be moved to a different attraction). 

Is it weird that during certain parts of the show I still hear the radio calls we had to make in my head, and by instinct I wanted to make sure guests exited to the right?

When the show was over, we ran into one of the CPs who worked at LMA with me during my program, Kaitlyn. She had gone part time, and was transferring to merchandise, but she still picked up shifts at LMA. Like many of the cast members from LMA, including myself, she agreed that she figured the show was getting towards the end of its run, but the fact that it was closing was sad nonetheless. 

Last photo in front of the set... or is it?

When we found out that LMA's last show would be April 2nd, I decided right then and there that I would be there for it. At the very least, LMA was my home for the second half of my college program, so it does really mean a lot to me and if I couldn't work it I at least wanted to be in the audience for the last show. (Almost immediately after coming back from this trip, I booked my airfare and hotel room to be there on April 2nd, but more on that later). 

After my second to last time seeing LMA, we still had some time to kill before we would need to leave for dinner so we walked down Sunset Blvd. Although I used to really not like any thrill rides, I've become weirdly comfortable with Rock n' Rollercoaster. The only part I really still hate is the launch, and I know it goes by super fast so I just plan on dealing with it and enjoying the rest of the ride. Tower of Terror on the other hand, I will probably always hate, which is kind of a shame because I love the theming and the story behind the ride, but the drops horrify me, and the fact that it doesn't follow a set pattern makes it even worse. Still, I tolerate it being the good friend I am to whoever I'm with, and I'm sure my screaming just provides them with some extra entertainment.

By that point, it was time to make our way out of Hollywood Studios for our dinner reservations at Ohana. We took a bus from Hollywood Studios to the Magic Kingdom, and then hopped on the monorail to get to the Polynesian for dinner. I know some guests probably would have taken an Uber to avoid the multiple forms of transportation to get to dinner, but it really doesn't take long all that long, and considering the Disney transportation is free, we're completely okay with it. 

Unfortunately my phone was acting up, so we have no pictures from dinner at Ohana, but if you've eaten there before you know that the food is amazing, and pictures would just make you bitter that you're not there eating it anyway. Kona Cafe has always been our favorite restaurant at the Polynesian, but lately Ohana has been catching up. 

When we were finished eating, we decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom for a couple of hours, since you know we were right there. We hit up our usual attractions, like the Peoplemover and Space Mountain, before going back over to Liberty Square for another favorite, the Haunted Mansion. While at the Haunted Mansion, we saw Ty again, and took the opportunity to take a ghoulish photo:

I don't think Chaz got the memo that this was a "ghoulish" photo

We spent the last hour or so of the park being open re-riding some attractions and wandering through the shops, making mental notes of things we'd buy through the app after we got home.


Saturday, January 16, 2016
After a couple of days of waking up super early, we finally got a late start on Saturday, when we slept in just a little bit and decided to go to Disney Springs before visiting any of the theme parks. 

Disney Springs is something that, especially while on vacation, I would overlook in turn for visiting the theme parks or resorts instead. It was convenient that when I lived in Orlando, I would just go to Disney Springs pretty much when I wanted to either go to the movies or go to a specific store, but even then most of my time was spent at the parks. With some of the recent additions of Disney Springs now being complete, we did want to take some time to at least walk through and look at everything that had been finished since we finished our college programs. 

The Boathouse, which just opened during the last week or so that we were there, was impressive, and somewhere I'd like to dine in the future. Not on this trip, or even on the next trip, but some day when I can justify spending the extra money I would definitely like to go. And the Amphicars look like so much fun, but again, I just don't have the kind of disposable income to justify the cost of something like that at the moment. I have no problem waiting for a later trip to ride in the Amphicars though, it's such a costly experience that it really seems more like a special occasion sort of thing to me anyway. 

One of the new storefronts that we both absolutely LOVED was the Joffrey's tea shop. For obsessive tea drinkers like the two of us, this little store was amazing. Not only did they have a huge assortment of teas that you could purchase to brew at home or drink there, but they also had tea pots, cups, mugs, kettles, recipe books, and even a counter of tea themed or flavored desserts. We were originally going to try one of the new restaurants at Disney Springs, but we couldn't help ourselves and ended up getting breakfast from Joffrey's, so an early lunch just wasn't in the cards that day.

We had originally planned to spend the day in Epcot, so in sticking to that original plan, we decided to make our way out of Disney Springs, and to a bus or boat to a resort so we could switch to an Epcot bus or boat. (In case you're not aware, and it sounds weird that we'd need to do this, there are no buses that go from Disney Springs to the parks. Basically Disney Springs offers free parking, and the parks do not, therefore no buses between the two because people would take advantage of the free parking. Technically you could still take a bus to a resort and a bus from there to the park, but that's a lot of effort that most people probably wouldn't do just for the free parking). 

Since we needed to go to a resort first anyway in order to get to Epcot, we decided to go to a resort we had never been to before. Also for the sake of relaxing a little bit, we decided to stop at a hotel that the boat stopped at, just so we could enjoy the little boat ride. 

We got off the boat at Old Key West, and walked around the resort a little bit before going to the bus stop. Old Key West was a beautiful resort, and I'm definitely going to make a point to stay there eventually. We also checked out the menu for Olivia's, which according to many of my Disney foodie friends is one of the most underrated resort restaurants, so we'll be trying that in the next trip or so too. 

the marina at Disney's Old Key West Resort

During the bus ride to Epcot, Chaz had mentioned that he really wanted to eat at Le Cellier. By that point we figured we'd be hungry in about another hour or so, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to check My Disney Experience to see if we could get a reservation there for a later lunch. To our surprise, we were able to get reservations at Le Celler for just about two hours later from when we made them!

Once at Epcot, with a relatively short amount of time before our new lunch reservations, we rode Spaceship Earth of course, and then decided to visit the Epcot Character Spot. Ironically enough, we had never been in the Character Spot, but with some time before lunch checking out the Disney Visa meet and greet area seemed like a good idea. 

The Disney Visa meet and greet was awesome because you get to meet two characters at the same time, and the characters you get to meet change frequently. The day we went, we were able to meet Mickey and Goofy, which made for some nice pictures with the two of them:

After our meet and greet with Mickey and Goofy, we decided to start walking to World Showcase for lunch, stopping at Figment's along the way as it is Chaz's favorite attraction.

Lunch at Le Cellier started as it always does, with pretzel bread and cheddar cheese soup. We used to get a soup each, but eventually we realized that we never actually finish all of the soup, we just dip the pretzel bread in it-- so having a bowl each doesn't make sense. The one soup was perfect, just enough to serve as a dipping sauce for the bread.

I ordered the filet mignon, with (the world's best) mushroom risotto, and Chaz went a completely different route and ordered bison. Le Cellier is still one of our favorite restaurants, so you'll have to keep an eye out for our full review and another review, of my attempt at making the soup at home!

After lunch, we continued through World Showcase, stopping for drinks here and there and watching the American Adventure. By the time we had reached Mexico on the other side of World Showcase Lagoon, it had begun raining a little bit, and we decided to stop back at the resort to grab an umbrella and change into dry clothes. Since rain is, well, water... and water really isn't going to hurt you, we did the opposite of what most guests seemed to be doing, and we went right back out to the Magic Kingdom for the night.

Another reason why we needed to spend the night at the Magic Kingdom was because Splash Mountain had been closed for its annual refurbishment during the first half of our trip, and this was the day that it opened! Splash Mountain is one of our favorite attractions, and even though we purposely put on dry clothes after the rain we couldn't help but rush to it once we got to the park. Thankfully we didn't get too wet, and we were able to spend another couple of hours in the park without freezing. 

In lieu of avoiding the rain, we made sure to spend some time on indoor attractions like the Country Bear Jamboree, Mickey's Philharmagic, and Space Mountain, all of which never get old. 

As it was getting late, and we were beginning to realize that we had worked up an appetite from not eating since lunch, we decided to split a burger from Cosmic Ray's. If you know me, you know I love Cosmic Ray's because of Sonny Eclipse, he's one of the many reasons why I love Tomorrowland so much. The food is good too, but Sonny makes the whole Cosmic Ray's experience. I didn't go nuts with pictures here, because aside from the toppings bar, the burger is pretty standard, but I'll have a full review of Cosmic Ray's up sometime soon.

We stayed in the park until it closed, visiting some Fantasyland attractions like it's a small world and Peter Pan's Flight after dinner. While we didn't catch Wishes, we did also stay for the Kiss Goodnight that night, which reminded me of how smart of a decision it was not to watch the Kiss Goodnight before leaving to drive home from our college program. 

Avoiding the usual closing crowd, we took our time exiting the park through the emporium and the confectionary, and picked up some rice krispie treats to pick on the next week when we were back from vacation. 

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Click here  to read my article on the history of the Streets of America in Theme Park Tourist!

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January 2016 Trip Report Part Two

Wednesday, January 13, 2016
On Wednesday, we were up early per usual to get to Animal Kingdom right around park opening. Even though the parks weren't really crowded this week, with the exception of the holiday weekend, I'd still rather get up early because the parks are less crowded in the morning, and being an off time of year everything closed earlier so it made sense to start earlier. 

Animal Kingdom is also my favorite, and it has been ever since I worked there. I feel like I didn't spend as much time in the park as I should have when I worked in Dinoland, so I always make it a point to spend a good amount of time over there now.

Breakfast was at Joffrey's, because it had been so long since I'd had one of their face sized donuts. It lived up to my expectations obviously.

See? Face-sized donuts. Thanks Joffrey's ;)

Ironically enough, the first stop of the day was Dinoland USA, not because I was aching to get back but because the way our Fastpasses were scheduled it just made the most sense to start over there-- otherwise we'd be running back and forth, which would be very inefficient. 

The first stop in Dinoland, besides noticing some little things that had changed since I last worked there (like the Disney Vacation Club kiosk near the Boneyard Cart, what? When did this happen?) was to go on Primeval Whirl. If you know me pretty well, you know I have a love/hate relationship with Primeval Whirl. I want to love it, just like I want to love the rest of Dinoland... but I can't. It's just not a good ride, sorry Dinoland! Primeval Whirl looks like it has a lot of potential to be fun, but really it's just uncomfortable and every time I ride it I can't wait for it to be over. And also, most average sized adults have a difficult time being even remotely comfortable with the way the lap bar goes, especially when you're squished in there with three other adults. The whole thing is terrifying, and doing something so terrifying while slowly moving over the carnival games that I also have a lo... err.. lov.. ugh fine, love/hate relationship with. 

Side note: This photo was obviously taken before riding Primeval Whirl

After Primeval Whirl, we decided to play some of the games in Dinoland. I don't know what came over me-- a momentary lapse in judgment on my part, or my desire to show off, because at least in theory I should be able to win. We ended up playing Fossil Fueler, and saying hi to a couple of my old coworkers who unlike the skipper at the Jungle Cruise did remember me, and of course I won a seahorse. We should have waited for a couple of more guests to play so I'd have a chance of winning Chaz a shark, but it was too early for Dinoland to be crowded enough to get more people to play. Also, paying to play Fossil Fueler is kind of depressing-- when I worked there I could never imagine paying to play those games, but I guess I miss it? Hmm...

Next on the agenda was Dinosaur, which we did have a Fastpass for. Dinosaur usually doesn't need a Fastpass, but with Kali closed (and it being too cold to want to get wet anyway) choosing Dinosaur for the third Fastpass (along with Kilimanjaro and Everest) made the most sense. Of course, since there was no line we ended up riding twice. :)

When we left the Dino Institute it was nearing 11:00 which meant one very important thing-- Flame Tree Barbecue would be open by the time we could walk over there! So back to Discovery Island it was, because we definitely needed some ribs immediately after having face-sized donuts. Hey, we were on vacation, calories don't count. 

Flame Tree Barbecue is my favorite quick service restaurant on property, and I love it even more now that the coleslaw has been replaced with cornbread. I've never been a fan of coleslaw, so that works out perfectly for me. I also really like their onion rings, although we missed having them this trip because we had to have some kind of self control after the donuts we ate for breakfast.

Why can't I just eat this forever?

During lunch, we mapped out the rest of the day, deciding that we'd finish up our Fastpasses for Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris, before hopping on the bus to the Polynesian for our dinner reservations at Kona Cafe. 

En route to Everest, we noticed a new bar in Asia so of course we had to stop and try something from there, you know, for science. It's such a chore to have to test out new margaritas for my readers ;). The staff there was brought over from the Dawa Bar in Africa, so of course the drinks would be good, and pre-Everest drinks are never a bad idea... unless you have pre-Everest drinks and then go on the ride six times in a row, don't do that. I'm not speaking from experience of course.

5:00 AFTER riding Everest obviously... don't judge us.

Next up was Kilimanjaro Safari, where we hoped to be able to get on Tony's truck. (Tony was one of my trainers at Lights, Motors, Action!) But he turned out to be off that day, so we enjoyed the safari anyway as it's definitely the best attraction in Animal Kingdom and we planned to come back later in the week while he was working. 

The best thing about the safari is that it really can be different every time you ride it. The true highlight of this ride was seeing a baby rhino! I've had strangely good luck the past couple of times I've been in Animal Kingdom seeing baby animals, and this trip was no different. I wish I had a less blurry picture, but how adorable is this rhino?!

Look at the baby! =D

As we exited the safari, we realized we actually had some extra time to kill before we'd have to leave to catch our dinner reservations. By some extra time, I mean we had time to get another drink, see Festival of the Lion King, walk through the shops in Discovery Island and then go.

Being that we already had margaritas from the Dawa Bar's new competition, it seemed to be the perfect time for a Safari Amber, the beer that is exclusively made for Animal Kingdom, Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the African Outpost in Epcot. 

Yes, I'm aware that the beer is almost spilling, I wasn't drunk from one margarita, I'm just not coordinated enough to take a selfie and hold a beer at the same time. 

FOLK

After Festival of the Lion King, we slowly made our way out of the park, wandering through some of the shops and pin trading along the way. Since we left in May, some of the parks have new pin boards on the side of trash cans that custodial cast members can use to pin trade with guests. As a former custodial cast member, Chaz was super jealous, and just wanted to come back to work for Disney again. It was definitely a great idea for pin trading, much more unique than a regular pin board, and typically with more to look at since it had three sides of pins. 

We got to the Polynesian a little bit early, so of course we stopped for drinks at the Tambu Lounge over by Ohana. If you haven't had a Mai Tai at the Poly you're missing out, because they're the best. By the time we finished our drinks, Nora and Holly arrived, and we were off to dinner at Kona Cafe. Holly was my roommate in the fall. It was super convenient that they were able to get dinner with us that night, and it was definitely great to catch up, especially with Holly since we would only see her that time during this trip. 

Dinner was excellent of course, because Kona Cafe is one of the best restaurants at Disney. It's hugely underrated, especially for dinner, but even with all of the crazy menu changes over the years (R.I.P. prime rib) it's still a favorite of ours. 

We started off with a Lapu Lapu, which is apparently fruit juices mixed with alcohol, but if you ask me it was alcohol mixed with alcohol. Thankfully everyone ended up having some, because if I drank that whole thing alone I don't think I would have been able to walk out of the resort. I had the noodles which were the best obviously, maybe tied with the steak, and we got a couple of appetizers, again for science. We had to test them out for this blog, right? Check back later for a full review of Kona. 

Pot stickers, note the also delicious corn fritters in the background

When dinner was over, we said good-bye to Nora and Holly to head back to the Magic Kingdom. While they both work in Orlando, neither of them work for Disney still, so they planned on only meeting us either at resorts or Disney Springs. 

Can you guess what we did when we first got to the Magic Kingdom? Could it be... 

Space Mountain!

As per usual, the Peoplemover was next. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I really like riding the Peoplemover right after Space Mountain. I know when I was younger I liked it because it's kind of relaxing after doing a rollercoaster, but for whatever reason even now that I'm no longer scared of Space Mountain it's still a regular thing.

Next up was Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, because Chaz was absolutely determined to get a perfect score. Our scores were close for much of the ride, but I ended somewhere in the 700,000s while Chaz did indeed finish with a perfect score of 999,999, making him a "galactic hero."

In case you're wondering, yes, he did wear the galactic hero button for the rest of the trip

Our next stop was Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which we didn't do the day before due to my head being uncooperative. I love so many things about Mine Train, the animated details in the audio animatronics, how smooth the ride is, the mild yet not so mild thrills at the same time, and of course the re-used vultures from the original Snow White's Scary Adventures ride are pretty cool too, but like so many people I have to agree that the ride is too short. I pretty much refuse to get in the standby line for it unless it reads forty minutes or less, because the line can get so out of hand and while I do like it, I don't need to wait that long for it. However, while I do agree that the ride is too short, I do not feel the need to complain about it non- stop. The Mine Train was a fairly last minute addition to New Fantasyland, and if you've seen the area, which I assume you have, you know that there was not a lot of space to work with. So yes, the ride is too short, but at the same time it was a very last minute addition planned for a very small piece of land, so give TDO a break guys. 

It was time for two more repeats of favorites from the day before after Mine Train-- the Haunted Mansion, where we of course saw Ty again, and Pirates of the Caribbean. That night we also watched Wishes from Fantasyland in between Mine Train and Mansion, and while Main Street is obviously the best place to watch Wishes, behind the castle isn't a bad backup plan. 

We spent the rest of the night doing some shopping that we'd put off from the first two days. I know a lot of people save shopping at Disney until the end of the trip, but I'd rather spend the last day or so enjoying the parks. The big purchase of the night was a Nightmare Before Christmas sweatshirt that you'll see me wearing in some of the pictures. It has Jack Skellington's head as the moon rising over a cemetery, obviously I just had to have it.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

On Thursday it was (finally) time to spend the bulk of the day in Epcot, my favorite park. Like the Magic Kingdom, we have a tradition of sorts, in that the first thing we usually do in Epcot is head right for Spaceship Earth. It's our favorite ride at Walt Disney World, and even though it's still a little tough for me to tolerate the "new" ending, I still love it. 

One slightly random thing we did while we were spending some time in Future World that morning was taking pictures in front of some of the ODV (outdoor vending) carts. We probably looked really strange to people walking by taking pictures at nine in the morning in front of empty carts that weren't open yet, but Cristian, our friend from the college program who used to work Epcot ODV requested that we do so. Being the good friends that we are, we obliged, and had some fun with it. 

Look at this delicious menu of sandwiches that Cristian could have made for you if this cart were open and he were actually here. 

In case you can't tell, the above cart is Taste Track, which means we were of course, right near Test Track. We had a Fastpass for Test Track, which was kind of perfect because Soarn' was closed for refurbishment during this trip, so we didn't have to deal with the whole Test Track/Soarin' Fastpass dilemma. (When both attractions are open, Epcot uses a tier system for Fastpasses and you can only use one for Soarin' or Test Track, you can't book one each for both. This usually means that I just pick Test Track, but sometimes whoever I'm with would rather do Soarin, and so goes the Test Track/Soarin' Fastpass dilemma).

Have I mentioned how nice it was during this trip to not have to ride Test Track by going through the single rider line? When I lived down there, it almost never failed that I was either visiting Epcot alone, or I was with friends who just opted for the single rider line since we didn't plan and get Fastpasses and no one wanted to wait. We had good luck getting Fastpasses for Test Track during this trip, so we were able to ride it together every time. It really is way more fun when you're sitting next to someone you actually know, and you're not just in the way ruining a random stranger's ride photo.

As per usual, we tried to design the most ridiculous car. Did we succeed?

Pssshh... I have one of those in my garage at home.

After Test Track, we cut through Mouse Gear over to the other side of Future World, where it was time to go on one of Chaz's favorite rides, Figment! I love Figment too, however it's more so because I'm a Disney history nerd and I really liked the older version of the ride with Dreamfinder. It's still cute, and I'll still do it every trip, but there is so much missing from the current ride that really added a lot of charm to it before it was refurbished in the 90's. 

I wonder what his favorite ride is...

I will say though, that even with the changes to Figment that I'm not so thrilled with, I still love the character. Figment is so classic EPCOT Center, and it's nice to see a character from way back when still sticking around like that. He's even been the focal point of some of the event specific merchandise for the Food and Wine, and Flower and Garden Festivals in recent years, as well as having not one, but two, revived comic book series, maybe Figment will get some kind of attention soon in terms of restoring the more memorable parts of the old attraction, who knows...

Next up we decided to head to World Showcase, as we had lunch reservations at Biergarten so we'd have to end up in that direction sometime soon anyway. Although we were on the side of the park with Figment, we did a bit of a zig zag and started back in Mexico. I don't know what it is, we just like starting in Mexico better. 

We were very excited to go to Mexico too, because right before this trip the audio animatronics of the Three Cabelleros were recently added to the ride in the Mexico pavilion. Before they were added, the ride just featured the characters in their cartoon form on a screen, however the last scene of the ride currently shows them in their audio animatronic form. It's also neat how the animatronics are actually leftover from the Mickey Mouse Revue (which was the old show that was in the building that currently houses Mickey's Philharmagic in the Magic Kingdom) so it's interesting to see some historic figures be brought back to the parks. It also really did add a lot to the ride, at least in my opinion, the screens got kind of dull after a while, and the "new" audio animatronics give the boat ride a bit more life. 

Only one margarita was consumed in the making of this picture

We also met Donald in Mexico, who is one of my favorite characters to meet, although he was not a fan of my Mickey shirt. 

Next up was Norway, where we didn't really stop to do much of anything as I still had cookies from the gift shop from my last trip and the Maelstrom obviously isn't open (R.I.P. Maelstrom). I still love the pavilion though, and I plan on spending some time here regardless of what's open when I get my new camera so I can get some nice shots of the pavilion regardless. Norway is also tough because whenever I walk through there I have to try to resist the urge to get a troll horn...

But they look so good...

Yea, we all knew there was no way I could resist getting one. I must have momentarily forgot that calories don't count on vacation.

What is self control?

By the time I had irresponsibly consumed a troll horn, it was already time for our lunch, so we were off to Germany! Apologies for the lack of pictures, I knew the lighting in there wasn't having it and I was only using my phone for pictures during this trip-- time time will be better, promise! But Biergarten was delicious, as it always is, though I do slightly prefer lunch to dinner. It's one of my favorite restaurants in Epcot, and it's always nice for somewhere different as I can't find anywhere with authentic German food at home. Favorite parts of the meal-- the show obviously, wine (Dr. Loosen Riesling) and sausage/noodle grautin. Least favorite parts-- paying the bill, and the feeling of regret in my stomach for the rest of the day.

The rest of the time in Epcot we spent wandering through the shops in World Showcase. We didn't buy too much of anything really, until we got to Japan where we bought a bowl. I started collecting them during my college program, and now I've been buying one per trip, so we'll hopefully have a whole set of different bowls from the Japan pavilion by the time we move out. We also stopped in the American Adventure, saw the show and the Voices of Liberty, which Chaz had never seen before somehow until this trip.

This was the night that we planned on seeing Fantasmic, so after the American Adventure show we breezed quickly through the rest of World Showcase and hopped on the boat by the International Gateway to get to Hollywood Studios. 

Once there, we rode the Great Movie Ride, and Rock n' Rollercoaster (I could post the picture, but I'll spare you) and then went to see Fantasmic. On the subject of Rock n' Rollercoaster, this was my first time riding it with my glasses on-- usually I'd be wearing contacts, but I had switched to glasses on our way over to Hollywood Studios. I didn't know how they'd stay on, so after the launch, I instinctively ripped them off and held onto them for the rest of the ride. The problem with that, is that I actually can't see anything without my glasses. I just see shapes and colors. So let it be known that going on Rock n' Rollercoaster when you can't see is probably one of the most terrifying things ever, there were street signs and lights and everything just coming at me, and I couldn't tell where we were going or what anything was, never again, haha! Oh, and for the record, I rode it again later in the trip, and my glasses stayed on no problem, so I basically brought that upon myself. 

When it was time for Fantasmic, we ended up sitting towards the front, because we got there sort of on the late side and the options for seats for slim. I was fine with this however, the last couple of times I had seen Fantasmic I was working it, so sitting down anywhere (especially with a beer) to watch the show was fine by me. 

When Fantasmic ended, we stayed around in the stadium a little bit to let the crowds clear out. I knew from working there that leaving immediately after Fantasmic isn't even worth it because of the crowds. Sitting down and waiting a little bit worked out well, because we used the time to plan the next couple of days of the trip.

Once we did finally leave the show, we caught one of the FriendShip boats outside the park, and planned to get off at the Swan and Dolphin. We walked from there to the Boardwalk, went through some of the shops there, and got a bus to Disney Springs. While we don't typically spend too much time there during vacations, being an off week the parks were all closing pretty early, so we thought going to some of the shops there would be nice. We ended up getting an ornament from the Christmas shop, which we decided would be a new tradition, to get one ornament per trip, and some soaps and things from Basin.

Around 11 PM, we went to the bus stop for our resort, which was for whatever reason being shared among the other All Star Resorts, and it was the only time we ran into problems with the bus during the trip... or actually any trip, I might just have really good luck, but I've never had issues with the buses. Anyway, right in front of us for the bus was a group of cheerleaders, easily at least 100 of them, waiting for the Disney bus to one of the All Stars. After twenty minutes or so, it became clear that Disney had re-routed other buses to drop off at the All Stars instead given the situation, and while it was still really crowded the backup was getting resolved. It was a little frustrating because Disney had done everything they could have to make the situation better, the problem was really the cheerleaders, who for such a large group, should have arranged for their own transportation. On the plus side, as soon as they started cheering, a nearby security guard stopped them. (Thank God!) 

As an aside, I have nothing against large groups, just don't chant, and don't cause me to have to wait for six or seven buses. The whole situation probably wasn't even the cheerleaders' faults, as I assume their chaperones or whoever told them to just take the Disney buses, but regardless, being stuck behind a massive group of them is just annoying. 

That's all for this post, check back for part three soon! :)

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Check out my latest article for Theme Park Tourist! A Tribute to the Streets of America

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