Spring Break 2023 - Day 10 and 11 - Disney World Magic Kingdom and Flight Home

Today was the last day of our trip and our last day at Disney World. I say today however I'm actually writing these about a week later. For some reason my laptop wouldn't connect to WIFI at the hotel so I couldn't do a blog as we went. I had notes for most of the days but never got around to writing anything for our last day so I'm pretty much trying to make this up based on the pictures we took. It should be fine though. 20 years from now when we're looking back at these, we won't really remember what actually happened. 

This was our second day in Magic Kingdom because it has the most rides and our approach to rides for the morning was a bit different than normal. Ordinarily we go for the big rides first thing but this time we were doing Fantasyland first. It's where the kids rides like Peter Pan, Pooh Bear, the Carousel and It's a Small World are. These rides get very busy later in the day and they aren't worth waiting an hour for. Had a good nap on the It's a Small World ride. It's a very good nap train.

We also took a ride on the Carousel of Progress which is a ridiculous portrayal of 'progress' from a purely American point of view. I guess the ride was originally part of a worlds fair and they indicate that it's the most watched stage show ever. Pretty easy when the characters are robots. The audience sits in a set of seats that rotate through the 1900's up to the present in 20 to 30 year increments. The man is in charge of the household, the woman is in the kitchen, the boy plays sports and the girl chases boys and makeup. There is also a dog. This was the first and likely last time we will go on this ride.

We had a bit of time before lunch so we hopped on the paddle wheeler which does a trip around the park area and then got on a raft over to Tom Sawyers Island. The paddle wheeler doesn't really do anything but it's an opportunity to decompress and get out of the sun. The island is the same. There is a fort and some bridges and a walking path. It looks like they used to have a place to buy food but we haven't seen it open in either Disneyland or Disney World in quite a few visits. Maybe they have it open during the summers.

Around this point we realized we had to hurry back to our hotel if we wanted to have a break. We had attempted to get into the virtual queue for the Tron ride in the morning but didn't make it in the queue, but we got another chance later in the day and our return time was around 4:00pm. This was the first day the ride was going to be open and the virtual queue gives you an hour window where you need to be back in line and it shifts throughout the day. at 1:00pm it was 345 minutes but later gave us a firm time of 4:10pm to 5:10pm. 

By the time we got back to the hotel, had a break, started packing and got on the bus to come back to the park it was already almost 4:00pm. I had already decided another roller coaster was not for me so the family dumped all their stuff on me so that I was the one to get stopped at security and they ran to the Tron lineup. Their description of the ride was that it was very fast at startup but seemed too short. It's the fastest roller coaster of all the Disney rides so I think it was a good call for me to avoid it.

We finished the day off with the Tiki Room, Pirates and the Country Bear Jamboree. Another animatronic  stage show that is my new worst stage show on earth. Our favourite line was the girl bear that says "All the guys that turn me on, turn me down." I swear some of the bears were starting to lose their fur. One of the bears looked like our dog Oliver from the time the vet had to shave his face but left the rest of his body hair long. I suppose this is one of the few rides where they make fun of Americans. I want to say this was one of those "it's so bad it's good" things but I'm really just to traumatized to have an opinion.

Disney used to have buses that would come direct to the hotel. They even had flight check in kiosks at the hotels and you could check your luggage in at the hotel. There even used to be a special area of the Orlando for when you arrived. After covid and with the advent of ride share apps though I guess it just wasn't economical for them anymore. We had pre purchased a third party shuttle that was arriving at 6:40am. I think they size the shuttle based on the number of people who have signed up. I saw some small vans but ours was a full bus and we stopped at a couple of hotels. We got to the airport on time and had no issues with the first leg of our flight.

Our layover this time was supposed to be 3 and a half hours so we had a lot more time to catch our second plane. We got to our gate with plenty of time, our plane showed up and parked and then out came the step ladders and the repair trucks. Interestingly we only got notified there was going to be a delay by text message. It was fun to see everyone reacting to the same text. Our first delay was 2 hours followed by another hour and then one more hour. It was getting late in the day so we were worried it would be cancelled but in the end we made it on and the only real impact was that we arrived quite late. Apologies to our pick up driver who had to get us at 11:00pm.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 9 - Disney World Animal Kingdom

The animals wake up early in Animal Kingdom. It was a 7:30am start time for us today so we were up by 6:00am. I had a great sleep but apparently Carter did not. I briefly woke up around 2:00am to hear Carter and Kerry talking about me. Callie refuses to sleep in the same bed as her brother so it's Callie and Kerry in one bed and Carter and I in the other. I don't recall much of the conversation except the line from Kerry of "Did you punch him? That usually works." Anyways, we had cereal and granola bars in our room and then got on the bus to go to the park.

Our first ride was Avatar - Flight of Passage. It took a few minutes to walk to the end of the line but in the end it was only about a 40 minute wait. This ride has you sitting on what looks like a motor bike but is meant to be a banshee from the movie. There is a weird bit at the beginning where you 'merge' with your animal and there is a lot of buzzing and vibrating. While the ride is going you can also feel the animal 'breathing'. All a bit creepy but the ride is a lot of fun. Banshees fly so there is a lot of swooping. I generally close my eyes for the swooping. 

We considered going on the other Avatar ride which is a river boat but it was already a 75 minute wait so the rest of the family went on Expedition Everest while I watched the character boats go by in the harbour. It was at this point that I realized that my camera battery was about to die. Of all the days I needed my regular camera it was Animal Kingdom. A zoom lens is a must for when you are out on safari. I then got a bit stingy with the big camera and switched to my phone. A good reminder that I should get a second battery for our next trip.

Next up was Dinosaur which is very similar to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. I was reading recently that when California Adventure first opened, it was a bit of a flop and one of the key reasons was that the whole park was devoid of characters. That seems to be the issue with the dinosaur area of Animal Kingdom. This ride is really well done but the line up is usually pretty short. There was also a rickety roller coaster that has now been closed down with no apparent replacement planned. We skipped the sand box archaeological area. It was fun when the kids were younger.

We had attempted to go on the safari ride earlier in the day but it was closed for 'technical reasons'. Our assumption was that the lions were playing with a sleeping zebra. We eventually got on and were able to see the majority of the animals including hippos, elephants, giraffes, zebras and several others. The only thing we didn't get a great view of was the lions. We did however learn that their roars could be heard across the park so it was fun that as we were leaving we heard them. We would have assumed it was a recorded sound but apparently it's real. 

After the safari we went on the gorilla walk which includes gorillas as well as a number of kinds of monkeys. It is interesting sitting and watching the gorillas. They are more like us than the monkeys and I can't help but wonder what they think about each day. They don't have a job and being in captivity they also don't have any dangers to worry about. We saw a couple of rabbits in the cage and of course there were a lot of questions about how they interact with them. They are vegetarians but they have caught them a few times but they just hold and play with them. 

As a family we all went on the Kali River Rapids which is a tube ride and there is the potential of getting very wet. Kerry and I had our jackets which were water resistant and Callie wore one of the ponchos we brought. Carter chose to go with nothing but it wasn't a big deal since this was one of the warmer days of our trip. After the ride, Kerry spent some time drying out our things and the rest of us went on the tiger walk. The tigers look much less happy than some of the other animals at the park. This one was making horrific sounds to his mate in one of the other areas and doing a lot of pacing.

We had a dinner planned at the Rainforest Cafe. This is a tradition for us and we usually have at least one kid that is upset about something. This time both kids remained happy. We finished up the day with the Lion King Musical, A Bugs Life stage show and the Avatar Na'vi River Ride. The Avatar ride was one of the few poor experiences of our time in the park. The line moved incredibly slow and even when we got to the front, they were letting several minutes of fast lane riders ahead of us while avoiding looking at the other line up. Translation - "The mean lady wouldn't let us on." The ride is terrible anyways. Don't go on it.

Spring Break 2023 - Day 8 - Disney World Hollywood Studios

Day three at Disney World was scheduled for Hollywood Studios. I do actually mean scheduled. Post Covid, Disney parks require you to indicate which days you are attending. I'm not actually sure what happens if you don't. Hollywood studios entrance had changed a bit since were there last so the big sign where we usually get our picture taken was replaced with a new overhead tramway. Luckily as we entered the gate there was a guy with a sign that said 'This is the way'. Not sure what we would have done if he hadn't been there.

It was a very cold morning so not easy to decide what to wear. 8 degrees in the morning and a high of 20. I decided shorts were the right call. Callie was flagged at the entrance once again and we arrived just after they fully opened so we didn't have to wait behind the ropes. Today's first ride was Rise of the Resistance. This remains my favourite ride. I'm not even sure where the line ends and the ride starts. At some point you get loaded on to a transport carrier which takes you to the actual ride where you are moved through some very realistic scenes and eventually 'docked' for a Star Tours like 4D ride.

Galaxy's Edge is virtually identical to Disneyland. Everything from the layout to the rides and shopping areas. Hollywood studios used to be a bit of a dud when it came to rides but since they added Galaxy's Edge as well as Toy Story Land there is quite a lot to see and do. Since we were only going to be here for a single day we had decided last minute to get the Genie Pass. This confirms my suspicions about Disney's greediness. No apparent restrictions on Genie Passes. I had expected the passes to be sold out. Instead we forked over more money for a faster experience.

Even with the Genie Pass you have to be smart about what you sign up for. Early on you can sign up for anything but as they morning goes on, the time to the next available time slot gets farther out. If you were to show up late you might not get to use it at all. If you sign up for something at 7:30pm it means you get nothing else until that time slot. We chose volume and tried to select rides we wanted that were relatively soon. I think we got 5 fast lanes in while Disney says 2-3 is average. By noon we had done Smugglers Run, Mickey's Runaway Train, Star Tours and Toy Story where I once again had the family high score.

I try not to buy too much in the way of merchandise as it is both expensive and you can quickly run out of space in your luggage. I couldn't resist however getting a 'Droid Builders' hoodie. Hopefully in the next 2-3 years I will have earned it and finished building my first droid. Since I'm working on an R2D2 any of the R-Series droids were of special interest to me. They are everywhere in Galaxy's edge including on the cars on Rise of the Resistance. They share a common body and leg format with a number of different heads and various colour patterns. Many of the ones here are just shells.

By this time the access to Genie Pass was pretty much done so Kerry and the kids went over to the Slinky Dog Train to stand in line. It ended up being almost two hours fir them. It's a crazy roller coaster so I sat this one out and wandered around looking for a treat. Unlike Disneyland, Disney World is much harder when it comes to finding sweets. Instead of a sweet shop on Main Street each restaurant has one or two options so I had to wander around until I found something I liked which turned out to be a very good mint cheese cake at the ABC Commissary. 

We finished the day up with the Alien Swirling Saucers and had a bit of time left despite having done everything we wanted to do. We treated the aerial tramway as a final ride and took it over to Disney Springs where we had dinner and went to the Coke store. They were very tricky with the area where you can get your picture with the coke bear. It was lit with blue light and they had a flash so your pictures sucked forcing you to consider there's. Callie was tricky though and snuck pictures of the samples as the sales person was showing us our options. 

We tried out the coke sampler flight which includes samples of coke products from around the world. Some country out there thinks coke that tastes like ground up cactus is a good idea. We had a new favourite terrible favour though as some other country figures their coke should taste like BBQ sauce. We finished the day with churros and waffle sundaes and they headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. Good thing our hotel is redoing the pool next year because I hope they redo the hot tub. It's off in an adults only area and is a very small circle. Too many drunk adults staring at me for my liking. 

Spring Break 2023 - Day 7 - Disney World Epcot

Day two had us going to Epcot. Ordinarily we get a park hopper pass which allows us to do different parks in the morning vs the afternoon but they have gotten much more expensive so we made the decision to stick to one park per day. The weather for today was going to be the coldest so far with a low of 12 in the morning and a high of 19. Not terrible if  you were in the sun but not quite the Florida weather we had hoped for. Breakfast was beignets from our hotel. They were Mickey Mouse shaped which was fun but they still weren't as good as Cafe Du Monde. 

After waiting for Callie to get through security as she was stopped once again, we headed for Test Track which pre-dates the cars ride at Disneyland. You get to design your car at the beginning trying to balance performance and looks. Carter designed some crazy looking thing that looked like a small SUV on monster truck tires. Kerry and Carter missed registering their vehicle when we got on which was too bad because we didn't get to compare it to Callie's vehicle which was much more stylish. The ride itself gets up to 104km/h with a G-Force of 2 which you definitely feel. 

We attempted to do the Frozen ride next as we know it gets busy and isn't the fastest line up but it was temporarily broken so we headed over to the Italy pavilion to go on the Ratatouille ride. This is a 4D ride where you are experiencing the world from the rats perspective. There was a point where you are in front of a screen that has you scurrying under a table and it felt completely seamless. There is also a point where you are in the kitchen while they are making bread and you can smell the baguettes. It made us very hungry.

Next up was Soarin followed by the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride. The family claims they knew nothing about this ride but I don't believe them. It was new so rather than a separate fast lane, Disney had a virtual queue. You have to sign up at 7:00am and they tell you what time to come back and get in line. The line was still 45 minutes even with the virtual queue. The ride itself was definitely a 'close your eyes ride' from my perspective. It's a roller coaster like Space Mountain except the individual cars spin. It doesn't technically go up side down but it feels like it comes close. Never again for me. The family loved it.

The Frozen ride was open again but now showed a wait time of 65 minutes on the app, and apparently was 75 minutes by the time we were through the front door. Unusual for Disney was that the ride actually ended up being that long. The worst part about this particular line was that it was so incredibly slow moving. They Fast Lane was letting about 5 people through for every slow lane rider. All this for a basic boat ride like Pirates. We followed that up with the boat ride at the Mexico Pavilion that had zero line up and we walked right on. Mexico was better.

For lunch we had reservations at the Italian pavilion. It was good and I think for the first time ever, we ate every bite of food between the four of us. I had a minor issue with a bone in my chicken parmesan. Kerry attempted to hint for a discount but no luck. Although good, in hindsight, these sit down meals are pricy when you factor in inflation, tip, exchange rate and possibly credit card exchange fees. Ended up being $175 on our credit card. We then continued over to the Japan pavilion which I think is the nicest as they've spent so much effort on the gardens.

Next up was Canada house with its cobra chicken topiaries. The gardens are nicely done, the buildings look impressive and people seem to enjoy it there but as a Canadian it was mildly embarrassing. The 'ride' is a 360 degree movie showcasing the major Canadian regions including the east/west coasts, prairies, north etc. All was going well until they finish the movie up with an original song written for Epcot called Canada. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi_wDsfGp00) Not our finest moment. Thankfully they had some fiddle playing lumberjacks in the evening on stage which were much better.

We then had a fun 'interaction' with Pooh Bear. He was spending some time in a field catching butterflies and as we were going to get his picture, he started to head out to 'get some hunny' as his handler explained. I've never seen a character head for the exit so quickly. He was definitely done and completely avoided interacting with a kid that was trying to say hi as he was leaving. His handler had to clarify that he'd been on the job from 10:00am to 5:00p. Not sure if this was entirely true but it was definitely time for the next Pooh Bear actor. This one was done. 

Next up was what I like to call the 'Lettuce Ride'. It's a boat that goes through several green houses that showcase what gardening of the future might look like. Lots of different techniques for aquaculture and fun to see Disney attempt to say that it is a 'research' area when it's pretty clear they grow things off site and bring them in at their peak. I still like it as it is fun to see different growing techniques plus it's a leisurely boat ride that is good for napping or as we are now calling them 'nap train rides'. 

After the 'Lettuce Ride' we finally found some manatees. Not as good as seeing them in the wild but they are still fun to watch. It would be nice to think they grow the lettuce for them in the local green houses but it would be tough to keep up. Apparently they eat 75 to 150 heads of lettuce per manatee per day. One of the manatees likes to wander the tank and spends the entire time spinning. Kerry noticed that we saw the same guy doing the same thing when we were here several years earlier. These are rescues but I think they've gone slightly mad in captivity. 

We had dinner at the United Kingdom pavilion and Carter and I had fish and chips. Mine was missing most of the batter and I should have rejected it especially after I saw Carters. It was still very good. The last ride as a family was Spaceship Earth which takes you through history from a very American point of view where everything in history was either in Europe or the US. No mention of the rest of the world. The rest of the family also went on Mission Space which simulates a rocket launch. We then headed home after a very long day. Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios. 

Spring Break 2023 - Day 6 - Disney World Magic Kingdom

There are a few benefits of staying at a Disney World hotel. The first is that there is early park entry for Disney World hotel guests. For Magic Kingdom this meant we got to enter the park at 8:30am. The other benefit is that you are able to use their buses to get to the parks. Disney World is the same size as San Fransisco so it can take 20 minutes to get there. Rather than having to rent a car you can just take a bus for free. We almost didn't get on the first bus but it would have been okay as another showed up as we were loading.

One major change for park entry this year was security. Since 9/11 they have had metal detectors and bag checks for all guests. It started with a second row of tents but over the years they've added permanent structures. This year instead of every guest being stopped they have some sort of AI that scans all guests and decides which bags are at risk. For us that meant Kerry's backpack was safe but Callie's backpack purse got flagged every time. We figure it was the aerosol deodorant.

The park doors open around 8:00am but they have ropes stopping you from getting to the rides so we had a bit of time to to wait until our first ride which was Seven Dwarves Mine Train. The line up ended up indicating 70 minutes by the time we got there but the estimates early in the day are a bit generous so it was only about 45 minutes. One odd thing was the hair band graveyard we saw on the ride near the end. I guess people get bored when they are stopped and once one person does it everyone does it.

While waiting in line for Seven Dwarves we saw our first 'Karen'. A father and daughter were making their way through the line to catch up with their party and the 'Karen' started yelling 'Sir... Sir...' to one of the Disney attendants saying they were cutting in the line. No action was taken. Carter's comment was 'Oooh. A real live Karen in the wild'. Next up was Space Mountain. I don't mind this ride but I really hate the down parts of roller coasters. I tolerate Space Mountain once on each trip.

One thing we noticed on all the rides was that the water marks on the automatic pictures were much bigger. I guess too many people just took pictures of their picture rather than buying. 

Another change this time was a return to refillable popcorn. For $13 you can get a bucket with $2.50 refills vs $5.50 for a cardboard bucket. The way Carter likes to eat popcorn, refillable is definitely the way to go.

On our way to Pirates of the Caribbean we walked by Splash Mountain which for Disney World was being retuned. It was previously based on a movie called Song of the South which is a fairly tone deaf portrayal of the south in the early years after slavery. They are retooling it to be based on Tiana which is a Disney princess. I'm assuming it will still be a log ride but it will be sad not to have zippity do dah as the main song. Hopefully they pay tribute to the old Splash Mountain in some way.

We stopped for churros by the water though I wasn't very impressed. They were not fresh and had lots of icing and sprinkles on them. They are always better fresh. We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion. Some good ideas for gravestones for Halloween. This is where we started to see the flaw in not getting the Genie Pass and the apparent greediness of Disney. They've made it more expensive to use the Fast Lanes but with a very high limit for the number they sell. We found they let way more fast lanes through and it really slowed things for us.

Our next ride was Goofy's Barn Stormer which is a roller coaster geared for kids. It's short and not very fast. I like to scream on this one as if it's the worst ride ever to see if I can frighten any kids. Best line I heard as I got off was 'Why is that man screaming. It's not that scary." It was now time for lunch which has sort of gotten easier as they have mobile ordering. As long as your phone has good wifi, you can order on the app and pick up right away. I had a chicken Caesar salad which was not very good. We finished the morning off with the magic carpet ride.

The start and end time for Magic Kingdom is enough that it makes sense to head back to the hotel for the afternoon for some time by the pool. We also had to wash clothes as it's difficult to pack for 10 days without washing clothes at least once. We wandered over to the sister hotel which is Port Orleans Riverside to check out their pool. We had thought our pool was going to be closed and we would have had to use Riverside but turns out that is next year.

We went back to the park around 6:00pm and tried to go on the Monsters Inc ride which we assumed was like Disneyland but turned out to be a life action comedy show. It was pretty funny with a bit of video interaction with the audience. One poor guy kept getting picked on. We also did the people movers where we saw the fireworks and Autopia where it's very noticeable they still use gas engines. I would not want to work on that ride in the pits. Hot and smelly. 

We also got to see the Tron ride at night. It wasn't open yet but was scheduled to open before we came to Magic Kingdom again. If we can get a spot in the virtual queue we'd be some of the first regular park goers on it. The outside looks amazing at night and you could see the cars running empty which you ride as if you are riding one of the Tron motorcycles. Probably too much for me. We headed back to Barnstormer which I decided to sit out. Apparently I was too busy on my phone because the family did it three times walking by me each time as there was no line up. 

Spring Break 2023 - Day 5 - Travel to Disney World

We got around 6:00am and got the car packed up because our hotel offered free breakfast at 7:00am. I made sure to make lots of noise as we were leaving to get back at the mean college kids who were blaring music walking in front of our room at 2:00am. Breakfast was not very exciting. Biscuits and gravy with cinnamon toast sticks and watery eggs. I had a bit but none of the family wanted anything so we left right away to go find Starbucks and Burger King. We also stopped at a Walmart to get breakfast things and water so we could avoid buying breakfast in Disney World.  Somehow we managed to forget the water though.

It was at this point where we realized we had missed out on the real Panama City Beach. Our hotel area was quite run down and there was even an abandoned amusement park nearby. As we were leaving though we realized there was a whole new area that included mini-golf with waterfalls and even the "Ripley's Believe it or Not" museum in a giant ship. Kerry now remembered that she knew about all of this from when we planned our trip three years earlier but had completely forgotten. My recommendation if you go to Panama City Beach is to not go where we went. 

One of the things that I dislike about Google Maps is that sometimes it offers you the quickest route that might only be quickest for a short period of time and is really not the best overall pay. Case in point for our trip leaving Panama City Beach was the dirt road it took us on before getting us on to the I-10. We ended up on several back roads before we were comfortable that it was sending us in the right direction.  Northern Florida was a very boring drive. Mostly just Forrests with relatively small pine trees. This is the part of the drive that we probably should have taken the older highway closer to the water.

Although our plan was to get to Disney World today we had one stop we wanted to get in on the way. There is a town called Crystal River that has a national park with wild manatees. They come into the inner channels at this time of year. We should have done more planning though as we had to get our car back by 6:00pm and forgot we were losing an hour with the time change. If the national park had parking we might have been okay but you have to park a ways out and get a shuttle. We walked around a bit but we struck out seeing wild manatees.

We dropped the car off at the Disney Car Care centre around 5:30pm and got a shuttle to the hotel. Check-in options are starting to change with hotels. If we had known we could have checked in remotely and used our phone to access our rooms. We checked in the old way, picked up our magic bands and started to explore on our way to the room. It was nice that we had done the real New Orleans before coming to Disney World. Callie picked up on things like fountains and architecture and the name of our gift shop was Jackson Square. Major difference was cleanliness and there were no holes in the side walks.

We had reservations at Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs at 7:00 and had just enough time to catch a boat to Disney Springs. Most of the hotels have a 'unique' way of getting to at least one or two key locations and ours was a boat. Others have things like the monorail or gondolas. Planet Hollywood was a bit much for me. Very noisy and lots of people. Even though I was hungry, the full rack of ribs was way more than I could handle. Presentation was nice. It came on a tiny picnic table. It was at this point that I realized these sit down dinners were going to be pricy. They averaged $175 for the three we went to.

We finished the evening off with dessert at Ghirardelli. It's not cheap but these are the best sundaes I've ever had. They put a big glob of sauce in the bottom before they put the ice cream in so you always get to end with the good stuff. I highly recommend. We also wandered around Disney Springs a bit. It was a Friday evening and it was St. Patrick's day so it was very busy. On our way to the restaurant we had to run past an Irish Pub and they had live music and it was packed. We took a bus back to the hotel and got rested for our first day at Magic Kingdom.