Florida 2018 - Our Last Park Day

We started our day with a bit of a change in routine. We had brought breakfast type snacks with us but at this point we were pretty much sick of all of it. We splurged on some breakfast pastries at the hotel which was surprisingly not super expensive. Our plan was to spend most of today at Magic Kingdom. This is the original Disney World park and has the most rides. I think because it's the original Disney park Disney is most worried about bad things happening here so security is much more stringent then the other parks. The kids don't generally have to go through the metal detectors at the other parks and they randomly select Kerry and I but at Magic Kingdom we all have to go through. Once again we felt we were early and tried to go on Seven Dwarfs mine train but by the time we got in line, the wait was already 90 minutes. I'm glad Kerry was on top of getting all our Fast Passes booked. No one wants to spend their holidays in line. Instead we went on Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. A bit early to get wet but it's another hot day.

On our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean I thought perhaps we had gotten lucky and had happened upon a celebrity doing a random show. They had an actor in doing Jack Sparrow and he looked very much like Johnny Depp but perhaps a Johnny Depp of 10 years ago. The accent was pretty close but there were a few phrases that weren't quite right. Still fun to see Jack Sparrow in person. After Pirates we did the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. Even that had a line-up and all you do is walk through it. Very busy here.

Our final pre-booked Fast Pass of the day was Splash Mountain where we got unlucky, really unlucky and then really lucky. The ride broke down and they had to evacuate everyone. This is the unlucky part. The really unlucky part is that we were on the ride but not at a fun evacuation point inside. We were stuck at the entrance and couldn't get out until they unlocked us. The lucky part was they sent us to guest services to have our Fast Pass reset and gave us two Fast Passes good for any ride for the rest of the day for our troubles. Way to go Kerry!

It was getting very busy at the park so we took a bus to the Port Orleans Resort for lunch which is  themed on New Orleans. This hotel was in the same cost block as our hotel but a bit more expensive. The cost difference looks like it would have been worth it with a nicer pool area and better food. If I were a travel agent, this would be a site visit and I think I would recommend hotel this to my customers. We finished our visit with beignets that we planned to eat on our bus ride back but had to wait till we were off the bus because beignets come with a cloud of icing sugar.

After a break in the afternoon at our hotel we took the bus back to Magic Kingdom for our final evening. We had been watching the wait times on the rides and waited till about 7:30p to leave but it was still very busy when we go there. They had effectively shut down Main Street for the fireworks and you had the option of taking a back exit to get in via Tomorrowland. You don't get to see many behind the scenes areas at Disney parks so this was fun. Interestingly enough, when we were exiting the park earlier in the day I said they should have a short cut around Main Street. They were way ahead of me.

We still had our two special Fast Passes so we tried to find a ride that would be fun to be on during the fireworks. The Seven Dwarfs Mine train fit this bill nicely. We timed things perfectly and the fireworks had started just as we got on the train. The ride goes inside and outside and every time we turned a corner outside there was a burst of fireworks. Kerry tried to replicate the feeling on the teacups but was unfortunately disappointed. Teacups at Disneyland are uncovered but at Disney World they are covered. They still got to watch from the lineup.

If you come to Disney parks it's important to get your rides in at the right time. Early morning is great for getting in rides that aren't overly popular. You can walk on most of them. Late in the evening is good for those rides and increasingly better for the big rides as it gets later. We finished our day with Teacups, Barnstormer, Buzz, Peter Pan, Pirates, Big Thunder, Splash and Space Mountain. As long as you are in line at closing you get to ride and Kerry and the kids made it on to Space Mountain at 11:57. A whirlwind final evening for a whirlwind spring break.

Florida 2018 - Park Hopping and Blizzard Beach

We have a six day pass and Disney World has four parks so that meant doubling up a couple of them starting with Animal Kingdom. We got to the park at 6:45a and headed straight for 'Flight of Passage' and we still ended up in a 90 minute line-up. We were backed up all the way to the Asia area of the park. When we did this ride the first time we used a Fast Pass and skipped the  line-up. This is a missed opportunity for Disney parks because no one does line-ups like Disney. Things get better the closer you get to the front including being able to check out the lab with incubating avatars and some real unobtanium!

By the time we got off the ride the line-up was 240 minutes. Yes, that's right, 4 hours. No line-up scenery is worth waiting that long but it was time for us to do our Fast Rides including Expedition Everest, Na'vi River Journey, African Safari and Cali River Rapids. The Na'vi ride is pretty low key with a slow moving boat and lot's of things that glow in the dark. The Cali ride on the other hand can get you very wet. We put our stuff in a locker and this time Kerry bought a rain poncho. I think she's tired of always being the wettest one when we get off a water ride.

We had reservations at the Rain Forrest Cafe and on our way there we saw a flock of odd looking birds flying overhead. As we got closer they flew quite low to the ground and you could tell it was a flock of parrots. I had assumed they were wild but as we got even closer we saw them all perched with their handlers giving a talk. I'm always amazed at people that are able to train birds to fly in the open and come back. It seems like a rather risky hobby. You would only need to lose them once and these don't look like cheap animals to buy.

For our afternoon break we went to Blizzard Beach. This is a fun water park with a winter theme. There are icebergs, ski chairs, snow men and sleds. One thing that was not there was frozen hot chocolate. When we were here three years ago I promised Callie that we could have a frozen hot chocolate on our way out. Unfortunately they closed the concession before we left and she missed out. She still remembers and thought we could rectify the miss but it seems they don't sell it anymore. I will have to figure out how to make it.

We bought a park hopper pass which is more expensive, however it allows you to go to more than one park in a day. So far we hadn't done any park hopping but there are other benefits to the pass including the water parks and some very fun mini-golf courses. We chose to do the summer course which is themed as if Santa was visiting a sunny location on his holidays. Everyone was well behaved on this round. We don't keep score in mini-golf anymore because that only leads to problems. With the two water parks and mini-golf we made the park hopper passes worth our while.

We chose to go back to Magic Kingdom in the evening and we were going to meet up with Callie's friend however they had given up at 6:00p. It seems it is most people's spring break in the US this week and the number of people has increased at least 50%. Most rides have one hour waits and there are people everywhere. I'm goad we get two weeks for Spring break and got here the week before. We did whichever ride had the shortest line-up and were able to see most of the fireworks which I think were longer than previous nights.

Florida 2018 - Hollywood Studios

We've not had great luck this trip making it to any of the big rides before the line up gets too long. This time we got stuck in the slowest bag check line at Hollywood Studios. By the time we got through and walked to the Toy Story ride the line-up was probably 500 meters out the door. On top of that we got word that the ride was temporarily broken down. Sometimes that type of breakdown is temporary but with a 90 minute wait already we decided to cut our losses and try to find something else to go on.

Hollywood studios doesn't currently have a lot of rides that interest us and we already had Fast Passes for the main ones so we checked out the Star Wars area where we could get a picture with characters including BB-8. I was a little confused when we walked into the room because he's not a big guy and he's kind of quiet. Later on we had fun watching a 10 minute show on the future Star Wars land. In the line-up two storm troopers showed up and I was wearing my "Galaxy's Greatest Dad" shirt with Darth Vader. They were kind enough to thank me for my support of their cause.

After a relatively unsuccessful magic morning our Fast Passes were coming due so we headed towards the Tower of Terror and the Rock 'n' Roller coaster where once again we bumped into Callie's friend. We have a general idea of where they are each day but I'm amazed at how quickly we find them in the sea of people. I got a break from rides for a bit because both of these rides have big drops. I lent my band for Tower of Terror to Callie's friend and Kerry took turns with the kids going on Rock 'n' Roller coaster. It's definitely one of her favourite rides.

Before lunch we went to the Indiana Jones stunt show. They had three separate scenes with huge rolling sets that moved out of the way for each scene. They asked for volunteers and I guessed early on that at least one of them was an audience plant. They pulled Zack from the back where everyone else was from the first few rows. It became pretty obvious when he got into a fight with the biggest stunt actor there and took each punch perfectly. The final scene was from Raiders of the Arc with fire and explosions. You could feel the heat 100 feet away.

For lunch we had our first lunch reservation. Any of the reservation spots tend to be more expensive so we limited it to two this trip starting with the Sci-Fi Theater. It's a fun concept where you are inside, sitting in a car as if you are at a drive-in movie theater from the 1950's. The movies are all authentic including Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The food was good but we did have two issues. One was that the car was like a real car with a back and front seat meaning you weren't really interacting with your full group. The other was that it was too dark to see your food which was a bit unnerving for Callie. Overall still a fun experience.

We took a break in the afternoon to go back to the hotel and have a dip in the pool before heading back for some evening shows. The first show as Fantasmic. We've seen this show in Disneyland and the great thing about Disney World is that it's a proper amphitheater so you can to sit down instead of having to stand. The best part for me was the music for the pre-show. The songs being played were current popular radio songs and the crowed was really into it. The show itself was good too with more fire, light, fireworks and a mix of projected scenes and real actors.

Fantasmic got out just in time for us to see the Hollywood Studios fireworks show. This one is themed on Star Wars and I think it's the best one I've ever seen and we weren't even in a position to see the whole thing. They had scenes projected on to buildings around the central square, fireworks timed to the Star Wars music and even had the lights on the trees changing colour in tune to the music. Hollywood Studios is a one day destination right now but once they finish up Star Wars Land the place is going to be my primary destination.

Florida 2018 - Animal Kingdom

We are staying at a Disney World hotel and one of the benefits is something they call Magic Mornings. On select days during the week that we are here the parks open one hour early for us than everyone else. This meant that rather than starting at 8:00a we got to enter the park at 7:00a and in Florida at this time of year this was before the sun was even up. The fun part of arriving in the dark was that Animal Kingdom has Pandora which is based on the Avatar movie. They've colored everything with neon and glow in the dark paint and being able to enter with so few people was amazing.

Our plan was to walk right to the Avatar Flight of Passage ride but it seems everyone had this same idea and the wait was already over an hour by the time we got to it. We had a Fast Pass for later so we decided to try something else. Unfortunately the other Avatar ride was broken so we exited and headed over to to Dinoland USA and the Dinosaur ride. The entire time we were on the ride we only saw 2 other guests. The ride takes you back in time to get something for some guy right before the asteroid kills the dinosaur. (I didn't follow the story very well.)

We finished off the rest of the rides in Dinoland including Primeval Whirl and Triceratop Spin then headed over to the Asia area and the Expedition Everest ride. This is a roller coaster ride that surpasses my roller coaster ride threshold so I looked after the bags while the rest of the family rode. It may seem like I spend more time watching rides then going on them, but there is only about 10% that are too much for me. My limits are spinning and big drops and anything upside down.

One thing we've noticed at Disney World is that there are not a lot of spontaneous opportunities for pictures with characters. Most of the picture areas seem to be in controlled settings sometimes with wait times listed. The line-up for Minnie and Mickey looked manageable so we stopped for a quick picture. I like to take a bunch of pictures as the kids walk up to them because that's when they have the best smiles. Only then do I hand our camera off. The park is great about having a volunteer person take your picture with your own camera so you don't have to buy the picture from them.

A couple months ago Kerry signed us up for Fast Passes for everything including the Kilimanjaro Safari and a few weeks ago got an e-mail indicating the time we chose was no longer available. She signed up for something else at the time but asked about it at the front desk when we got here. They didn't know why the cancellation happened and said we could get a special pass for anytime on the day of our stay. We didn't know which day we would go so they gave us a pass for both days. This meant we got an extra pass to go at a time of our choosing!

We connected with Callie's school friend again for a ride on Expedition Everest. We have wrist bands with our passes on them and since I wasn't going to use it we gave it to her. There's no picture of us with our pass though I do wonder if she was listed as an adult male when she went through. After that we did the Avatar ride which has you on a motorbike like seat as you fly over Pandora. Definitely one of the best 4D rides I've been on. Carter was very excited to finally spend some of his money and he bought a banchee from the movie. It allows you to control it's wings and head and he's named it Cheech.

The pass we bought for the park allows us to go to more than one park each day but it also gives us access to the two water parks. The first one we went to is called Typhoon Lagoon and is themed on a shipwreck. I've been to most of the water parks in BC and this one blows them all away. There is a lazy river around the entire park that takes about 15 minutes to get through and water slides for all ages. The sitting areas have sand, sun ,and shade and with the weather at 28 degrees it was a great day to come to the park for the afternoon.

The water parks don't have direct access from  all the hotels and instead you have to transfer at either a hotel that does have direct access or in our case Disney Springs. This is a shopping district area that does not require a ticket and it was a good place to stop for dinner. We plan on coming back here on our last day so we didn't do any shopping or exploring. We stopped for dinner at Wolfgang Pucks and I already knew where we were stopping for dessert. I visited the Ghiradelli shop when I was in San Fransisco for a Salted Caramel sundae so now whenever I see one of their stores I have to stop. Callie and I shared so I didn't go into diabetic shock.

Florida 2018 - Epcot

Our strategy for Disney parks is to be there right when they open. You can usually get to some of the bigger rides before the line-ups get too big. Things weren't looking good when we got to the bus stop though because even though we had left at 8:15, the first bus wasn't listed to show up until 8:51 based on the 'Next Bus' sign. Things improved as we waited and eventually the first bus ended up being at 8:35. This was good for Callie who had been a bit slow getting going, much to Kerry's dismay.

There are three big rides at Epcot that we wanted to do including Test Track, Frozen and Soarin Over the World, however the way the Fast Pass works, you can only do one from that group. We had chosen Soarin so to start the day we ran to the Test Track ride which is a very fast roller coaster type ride in a car. The line looked a little scary but only because they hadn't opened the ride. Carter and I had fun designing our vehicle which came in 2nd overall in our group for speed and performance. Creating your car is really just a trick to make waiting in line more fun.

 After Soarin, we met up with the other family again for Mission Space. This ride is pretty smart as there is a green side for space wimps and an orange side for space experts. I of course am a space wimp and took the green side. Even then I still got a bit dizzy as it's another one that combines a simulator with a screen. Kerry did the orange side and it sounds like I made a good choice. The highlight of the day happened while we were waiting for our group to finish. Carter got the refillable popcorn bucket and tried to buy popcorn but they weren't open yet even though they had popcorn. They gave him his refill free!

We wandered around a bit as we waited for our next Fast Pass to come due and stopped in at a store that allows you to sample pop from around the world. I seem to remember more pop samples last time but this time all machines had the same options. I liked the Inca Cola from Peru and I choose my sampling order wisely. There is always one sample that no one seems to like and everyone had already tried it so I was able to avoid it. You can't buy any of the pop but it was still fun to sample.

After the soft drink store used our last scheduled Fast Pass to go on the Space Ship Earth ride. This is a very slow moving ride that takes you through key inventions in history, mostly from a European point of view. I think it is time for it to be updated as the last key event was Steve Jobs sitting in his garage creating Apple. I think it's safe to say that there have been a few key inventions since that time.

Once we were done with all the main rides at Epcot we walked over to the Epcot World Showcase which includes pavilions for 11 countries. It's pretty much what you would see if you went to a world fair with an area for each country. The difference being that I feel the representation for each country is a bit stereotypical. Canada included hockey, curling, lumberjacks and maple syrup. Mexico had tequila and skulls and of course Donald Duck wearing a sombrero initiating a light saber attack with Carter.

My favorite pavilion is Canada followed closely by England where they have quaint old streets and excellent fish and chips. My only knock on it is that all the staff have a very strong English accent. So strong I feel it's not quite real. The best part is that you can sample food the whole way round. Callie and Kerry had Chinese food, I had fish and chips and Carter, not surprisingly, stuck with America. I was amazed how many people seemed to end up eating at their own pavilion. French accents, English accents and American accents all at their corresponding country.

Florida 2018 - Magic Kingdom

Now that we are done with Kennedy Space Center and Universal studios it was time to return the car. We are staying at a Disney World Hotel and it includes a shuttle/monorail system to all the parks so you really don't need a car. I figure this means you save about 75 dollars a day in gas, car rental and parking. We dropped the car off and got on their shuttle. The driver said it was faster for both us and him if he took us to the Grand Floridian as long as we didn't tell anyone. They frown upon non hotel guests getting dropped off.

By dropping us off at this hotel instead of at the park it meant he avoided the car line up and we could do security there and catch the monorail. It worked out great as the security line was empty and the monorail drops you off on the other side of security at the park. I now didn't feel bad about tipping him a bit more than normal. He had a beautifully displayed tip jar with high denomination bills from various countries as well as a story about moving to England next week. Might not have been true but his drop of plan worked great so it was worth it.

We started our day on Buzz Light year where I masterfully scored more points then the entire family combined. Being able to shoot space aliens with lasers is a critical skill that I need to teach to others. Our next destination was the Tomorrow Land speedway. It was finally time for Carter to drive the car on his own as he's tall enough and can reach the pedals. I drove with him this time but next time I think he'll be okay with a car on is own. Driving a car on a track where you can only go forward is also an important skill.

We continued our day with our first Fast Pass which Kerry had woken up at 4:00a about 3 months ago to book. We are allowed 3 per day to start and can book more after we've used them. The first was Big Thunder Mountain which is a fast moving train, followed by Splash Mountain where I think we got about as wet as we ever have. We finally convinced Callie to go as we've been trying for years. It has a big drop that you can see from outside which scared her. We knew she had been on much bigger rides though and as expected I think she was a bit underwhelmed.

Next up was the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Space Mountain where we met up with Callie's school friend again. We have plans to go to the same park every day so we expect we will meet up with them when we can. They are already two families and to have three families try to coordinate our days is not a good idea. I saw a group of 12 try to get on one of the rides and it looked like a nightmare. They had to wait on the side until there was enough room on a single train car. It's much easier to get more rides in as a group of 4.

We like to break longer days up so we took the bus back to our hotel for an afternoon by the pool and a snack. There is a very friendly squirrel that seems to be around whenever we are there. It was begging for food at our table like a tiny dog. I think if we had asked it to sit and shake a paw it probably would have listened. Kerry also took some time to do a load of laundry. Another thrifty move of hers is to bring our own laundry detergent and fabric softener. Much cheaper than buying it there.

We started our evening on the people movers with the idea that the wait would be short and we could collect our thoughts. It's a slow moving ride through Tomorrow Land but for some reason it had a line up. We figure it must have broken down for a bit. We had Fast Passed Pirates and after a brief stop to watch a portion of the fireworks we got on to check the recent changes. It seems there is a lady pirate and they auction chickens instead of women. I think the changes are fine but as anticipated they are still controversial. Tomorrow we are at Epcot.

Florida 2018 - Universal Studios

On day two of our trip we headed to Universal Studios Florida. We still had the rental car and it was just a 20 minute drive where we found some reasonably priced parking at $22.00 per day with the option for preferred parking at $35.00. We opted for $22.00. There were plenty of moving sidewalks for the 10 minute walk to the front gate. Security at these places now includes bag checks as well as metal detectors and finger print checks. Gone are the days of just showing your paper ticket and walking in the front gate.

Our plan was to meet up with Callie's school friend at the Harry Potter area. Carter and I made a few stops for pictures with various Simpsons characters along the way. Carter doesn't even know who they are but who wouldn't want a picture with a friendly cop eating a doughnut. Kerry was leading the way until we discovered she was looking at a map for the other park. That's like trying to find Paris with a map of England. She was moving more by feel anyways as we knew Harry Potter was at the back of the park so no harm done.

We found Diagon alley which was done perfectly in the spirit of the books. It wasn't marked and you had to go through a break in a brick wall that opened up to an area that perfectly matched what you would expect for Harry Potter. We had to wait a bit before meeting our group as they had arrived a few minutes before us and were already on one of the rides. This gave us a chance to explore a bit and we quickly realized that Universal Studios seems to be more about merchandise than rides. There was only one ride and about a dozen stores. Still fun to explore.

After we found everyone and they went on the Gringots ride one more time while the line was short it was time for selecting a wand or in Harry Potter world, where the wand chooses you. There is a 5 minute play and Callie's friend got chosen to star. The merchant got very into the scene and the room has several effects including lights, sound and shelves that react poorly when you cast the wrong spell to find your wand. Callie choose the 'non interactive' wand which was still $46. I think it probably costs about $2 per wand to make based on the volume they are selling.

Wand choosing was incredibly chaotic and if you go I recommend you see the play and then go around the corner where you can just pick the wand you want and buy it. The actual wand store is more mysterious with lot's of box opening and closing. It was good to get that finished so we could try the other highlight of the day. Butter Beer which figures quite prominently in the books. I would characterize it as a caramel flavoured cream soda that has been coloured yellow and even comes with a foam top. Probably terrible for you but still very tasty.

Three 12 year old's don't make decisions quickly so Carter and I took one of these moments to go check out the Transformer's ride. This is where I realized that I am not a fan of the style of Universal Studio rides. They tend to be 4D where there is a 3D screen and a car that you ride that shakes you around. I don't do well with this style ride and have to spend most of the time with my eyes closed to avoid getting too dizzy. The ride doesn't move much but the addition of the screens is too much. They still seem like fun rides for those moments I do open my eyes.

Transformers was a sign of things to come as every major ride seemed to be 4D. Kerry and the kids had a great time on Jimmy Fallon Race Through New York and The Mummy. By the time the Mummy came along, I figured I could stay outside with my eyes closed which worked out better for everyone since Universal asks that you keep your bags off the ride which means a lot of time putting things in lockers. We also did the Shrek ride which is a theater show with seats that bounce up and down and water gets sprinkled on you to match the scene.

At this point it was time for us to split up. We had paid for the park hopper pass where Callie's friend only had a ticket for a single park and was planning on coming back for the other park. This meant she couldn't join us on the Hogwarts Express which travels between the two parks. The train leaves from the 9 3/4 platform and you even get to walk through a wall. Everything looked great but it was a bit anti-climactic as when you are on the train you are just viewing a screen for the window. There are shadows moving in the hallway but everything is over pretty quick.

The second portion of Harry Potter land was just as amazing as the first but this time was focused on the out doors. There is a perfect replica of Hogwarts that houses the Forbidden Journey ride. The estimate for the right wait time was somewhat deceiving and we had to stuff everything in a locker again but the ride itself was worth it. I got to see about half of it since it had some real portions in addition to the 3D screens where I kept my eyes closed. The kids and Kerry went on the Hippogrifth ride to finish off our Harry Potter experience.

The second park had areas like Hero Island and some bigger coasters like The Hulk. This ride was way to much for Callie, Carter, and I, but Kerry had it on her list of rides she wants to do. The wait was longer than anticipated which of course adds to the drama and she confirmed it was not a ride we would want to go on. We finished the day on the Jurassic park ride since it is a water ride and it was too cold to walk around wet. After a quick desert we walked back to our vehicle at the end of a 12 hour day. Universal Studios is definitely for older kids and people not as ride wimpy as me. You'd need at least a full day per park to do everything.