When we came out of Star Tours, the Golden Hour was in full swing! The lighting over Star Wars Land was lovely.
We had accidentally missed our Millennium Falcon Lightning Lane, but the line wasn't terrible anyway, so we headed there. However, it turns out they still accept it even if you miss it, so on we went, even quicker than we thought! We unfortunately only ended up as gunners, as Carter really wanted to drive and prove he was better at it than Jacob! However, that ended up being just as well because I realized as I was sitting on the ride that it was check-in time for our flight home and I needed to do it ASAP as I didn't want to get a terrible boarding group. I ended up spending most of the ride trying to log in, only to get a text from Craig in the middle of it that he had checked us in. Whew. Not exactly how I wanted that to go, but at least both things were accomplished regardless.
When we came out, Golden Hour had transitioned to sunset, which was so pretty.
We passed one of the "grenade" Coke vendors on our way out of Star Wars Land and remembered that Carter wanted to get one of those to go with his Sprite from last time. The spherical bottles in fictional language Aurebesh (who knew?) are really cool!
We wandered back through Toy Story Land, which is always very pretty at night, and confirmed the Slinky Dog line was still too long.
While there were lots of other rides on this trip that I would have liked to ride, Slinky Dog was the only one that would have been a must-ride under any other circumstances. But between our limited park time and the rainy day keeping it closed for so long, leading to long lines the rest of the day, we really couldn't spare the hour and a half it would have taken to ride. Had we not had some other plans to finish off the night, or if this particular park had more non-essential rides to kill time on, I probably would have suggested we maximize our time by riding a bunch of other things and then hopping in line right before closing time, since you get to ride as long as you're in line before then. Oh, well.
We did wander around a bit more because I wanted to check the Indiana Jones store to see if I could find my African carving souvenir there, but unfortunately it was closed. We did get to see Echo Lake almost completely drained. Turns out the dinosaur doesn't have legs. The boat looked pretty funny, too.
Hollywood Boulevard looked gorgeous on our way out.
To end our evening, we decided to hop the Skyliner to head over to EPCOT. We figured we could maybe ride Journey into Imagination (since, as mentioned, Figment is one of our favorites). The sunset was so pretty as we took off, but unfortunately, we had a wrap on our gondola and it was hard to get a good picture. I took one through the little screen, and this was the best I could do.
I did get a slightly better through the side windows, though by then the color intensity had faded a bit.
Well, when we got to EPCOT, we realized the wait on the Ratatouille ride was actually pretty short, which was rare. We made the last-second decision to hit that one up while we had the chance for a short wait.
I was actually sort of happy we did because I had forgotten they had converted that ride to 2D, so no more glasses and probably less motion sickness for most people. I don't really think it made the ride any less effective. Apparently a week or two after we got back, they added some new, oversized props to the ride, like a cheeseboard and some other items to the last scene. I guess that's reason to ride it again next time!
When we came out, the fireworks show was just coming to an end. I guess we've never stuck around for it that deep in the park, because we'd never seen the end result--this amazing water feature:
We figured there was no sense rushing since the buses would be busy for a while, so we gradually made our way back toward the front of the park. I loved this lighted walkway.
We also stopped for a picture with Walt the Dreamer!
As the fireworks were over, Spaceship Earth resumed its light show, which allowed me to redeem the lack of good pictures a couple days earlier. I got some good ones!
Cameo by the streaking Monorail...I knew it probably wouldn't turn out but I sort of like it anyway.
Too many favorites! Just so you get the full effect:
I made Carter sit there for probably a bit longer than he would have liked, but honestly, the rest for our feet probably wasn't the worst thing. I finally consented to head out, though I did grab one more pic for the road, just because the moon above was too good to pass up!
Not for nothing, would it kill them to fix the rogue lights? They're wrecking my perfect pictures!
It's always sad to leave that view behind, and it being the last park of the trip made it a double bummer. Even if we had 2/3 of a day left in the bubble the next day, leaving the last park is the first step away from the magic and back to reality. Sigh. We headed back to the resort, and while I would have liked to check on the status of the Dole Whip machine (Key lime would have really hit the spot that point, but alas, I would have been disappointed), we would have missed it by a few minutes. Oh, well. Back to the room we went. Suffice it to say, there is no tired quite like Disney tired!
Melting into my bed, a happy but tired mess!
The real magic of Disney truly is that you can spend your trip exhausted, overheated, hangry, overstimulated, and newly poor, but you still love it so much that you can't wait to go back.
Sunday was the day Carter and I were going to head out for another full park day. We had a lot of ground to cover, so we had to be efficient. As a result, I bought the Multi-pass Lightning Lane to give us some shorter lines to work with, and it ended up being a great purchase, even though a lot of lines were a bit less than expected on standby. But we never would have been able to do all we did without it.
We didn't get as early a start as I'd hoped, mostly because our lost food hadn't been found yet, so we had no choice but to stop by the hospitality house and grab a quick breakfast there--Mickey waffles for Carter and a Mickey cinnamon bun for me. Then, the Magic Kingdom bus took forever to get there. We must have just missed one, and then the next one was way longer out than usual. We still got there around 9am, which wasn't bad.
I was so happy to be going into the park this time, after being outside it last year on our monorail resort hopping day and only being able to look at it longingly!
Of course we had to get a picture of Carter near the same baseball guy that had "photobombed" Craig and Jacob's picture the other day...
And we had to get one outside Casey's, too!
There is nothing quite like that glimpse of the castle from Main Street, and the cool thing was that the castle looked different than our previous visit--technically now the fourth version we've seen, although the first and fourth were pretty similar, aside from a more vibrant shade of blue this time around. I think I like this version best, although the 50th birthday version was quite pretty.
When we got in the park, I realized that the wait for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was super short--like a half hour, which was at least half what it usually is. We couldn't get a Lightning Lane for that, so we made a beeline there. We'd never been through the standby queue before (seemed to be a recurring theme on this trip) and it was quite delightful. I loved these little light-up jewels!
They also had a fun water feature and spinning barrels of jewels that created projections on the ceiling. It made the wait go pretty quick, and before we knew it, we were on! It isn't the longest or most exciting ride, but I still love it--especially the one view mid-ride with the castle in the background over the rocks!
After that we headed to our first Lightning Lane, the upgraded Buzz Lightyear ride. They had recently totally redone the shooting mechanism on this ride, which made it way better than it used to be. Still not quite as fun as Toy Story Mania, but so much more fun than it used to be! I love this on-ride photo!
I may have won, but don't worry, Carter got his revenge later!
We were able to snag a Space Mountain Lightning Lane after that, which was super quick. That ride hit me a bit harder than in the past. I had some sort of crick in my neck that absolutely jolted me with one of the jerks and made me question if I should be going back to the chiropractor sometime soon. I also had my water bottle try to open up on me mid-ride, which had me in a slight panic for the second half, in addition to worrying about what I may have just done to my neck. All was well other than a small wet spot on my shorts. Still fun, but yikes.
We checked the Tron wait after that, and it was reasonable--maybe 45 minutes or so--so we hopped in line. It felt a bit longer, but all things considered, it wasn't bad. And that ride is so worth it, even if it always feels too short! We also had our favorite queue interaction of the trip in that line, with a dad and his daughter from Canada. She was just tall enough to ride, so we were excitedly chatting about that. We also talked about other amusement parks like their close-to-home Canada's Wonderland, and how they might have to downplay the ride to the mom, who was with the little baby brother. I couldn't wait to see how she liked it once we got off. I personally love the launch on that ride so much, both for the speed and the outside portion of the ride. Never gets old!
When we got off and I asked her if she liked it, she faked fainting into her dad, which was hilarious! But she loved it!
From there we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain, which was also refurbished since our last trip. I was excited to ride it and see all the new stuff. Of course, as we were walking there, it looked like this:
It was a little early for the usual big afternoon thunderstorm, so I was hoping we could cram in as much as possible before it hit. I did catch this very pretty picture of the Tangled bathrooms, as well.
From Big Thunder we could see the early stages of Piston Peak, the new Cars land, which has shut down a lot of that section of Frontierland. I'm excited for it, but it's always overwhelming to think of the work that goes into theming as intense as Disney's!
We just made it through our Big Thunder ride as it started to sprinkle. It was great, and the updates were a nice touch. I will always love that ride as it was my first ever big coaster!
We had a Lightning Lane set up for Tiana's Bayou Adventure next door, but we were about 10 minutes too early, so we decided to go to Pirates of the Caribbean because it had a super short wait. Well, when we came out, as expected, it was pouring with quite a bit of thunder and lightning. We hung out in the store for a while trying to figure out what to do, as Tiana was now closed and our Lightning Lane was on hold. Eventually the rain slowed a little bit, and we decided to have lunch nearby to see if we could wait it out and still get on Tiana within our Lightning Lane window. So over to Pecos Bill's we went, which seems to always be where we end up for one meal or another! While we were waiting in line, there were a few hardcore cracks of thunder--like right there and enough to even get a reaction from the cast members. When the locals start looking concerned, you know it's a doozy. I heard later that the top of Space Mountain may have gotten struck, but either way, it was close and loud and I was worried that it would strike a person next! I always marvel at how things are typically business-as-usual around the parks when it rains, even with lightning. Probably not smart, but somehow that's just how things roll, and yet I don't think I've ever heard of anyone getting struck there. We had a good lunch, despite it not being my first choice and it taking about five minutes of wandering to snag a table.
When we came out, it was still a little drippy outside, but not terrible. We wandered over toward Tiana and noticed that they were sending empty boats through, which made me hope that they would open soon. We figured that since it was one of the last things we needed to ride there, we might as well wait and hope it reopened, just like we did with Test Track. Sure enough, after about 15-20 minutes, it opened and we were on the ride very quickly! So quick I barely got any pictures of the very fun queue! I did snap a shot of the bottom of the big hill while riding, though.
And I got this one inside. We decided we definitely liked this theme better than the "Song of the South" Splash Mountain one. I especially liked the fun colored illuminated bottles hanging in a few different spots, but too bad my picture didn't turn out.
I also loved these funky mushrooms!
And another great on-ride photo:
Once we got off, Haunted Mansion's wait wasn't too long at that point, so we figured we'd hit that one on the way out. It's always a good time! The weather was looking threatening again at that point, so I figured we might as well duck in somewhere! The wait was maybe 15 minutes, which wasn't bad. Every time I'm on that ride I notice something new! Unfortunately, we got someone else's ride photo for that one...bummer, because I really liked our hitchhiking ghost!
It was once again pouring when we came out, so we changed shoes and put on ponchos for the walk out of the park. I insisted we stop for a few more castle photos, though. Despite the rain, I wanted to savor the new/classic blue and gray version!
And one fall decor pic for the road...
We briefly considered just taking the Monorail over to EPCOT to squeeze in a ride or two, but it ended up being a bit delayed by the weather. Since I had already started booking Lightning Lanes at Hollywood Studios, I was worried we'd miss our window and didn't want to risk missing rides, so we thought better of it and hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios instead. At that point the rain didn't bother me too much, because we did Hollywood Studios on a hurricane day previously and I knew it was very doable despite weather. It was still drizzly when we got there. Even still, I always love the retro Hollywood feel with so many fun art deco details.
Our first stop was to use our Lightning Lane for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, which now features the Muppets! Aerosmith was cool and all, but as a girl of the 80s and 90s, I LOVE the Muppets. From The Muppet Show to The Muppets Take Manhattan to Muppet Babies and everything in between, they are firmly implanted in my childhood and I adore them. I sort of told myself I'd never ride this one again because it's not the most comfortable ride, but with the re-theme, I had to do it!
The car and guitar outside both got redone...
I loved these posters near the entrance to the queue. If you look close, most of them highlight a specific character in the Electric Mayhem band.
We got through the line pretty quickly, almost quicker than the time it took to remove and stash my poncho. The pre-show was similar to the old one as it was still in a recording studio, but it was so fun to picture the Muppets there. And there was a real animatronic Scooter, which felt so real that it almost felt like being in the presence of a celebrity!
The rest of the queue had some really fun details, from costumes that the band members wore (presumably real?), references to Muppet Labs, animated drawings of Beaker and a "Mahna Mahna" backup singer in the safety video, props from The Great Gonzo, and even a tiny door to the "Squeakeasy" (presumably for Rizzo and friends) next to the facade of a comedy club entrance. It was really cute.
Our on-ride photo cracks me up because Carter looks terrified and while I look happy, if you look close I'm actually bracing myself through the launch, because I knew some headbanging (and not the fun rock 'n' roll kind) was in my immediate future.
My beloved Statler and Waldorf even made a cameo at the end (rumored to have come out of their spot in the old Muppets in 3D Theater). That felt appropriate as it was the 30th anniversary of the day I moved into college for the first time and met Mary, and we once likened ourselves to Statler and Waldorf when we were the "stage crew" for an InterVarsity Christmas pageant. I happened to read her post mentioning the anniversary right before, and then had to mention their appearance to her. Good memories! (But 30 years? Yikes!)
They also had this photo above the exit that's a Muppet version of creator Jim Henson.
Were we not already at our max for stuffed animals, I would have been awfully tempted to buy the stuffed Swedish Chef in the store. He was so cool. I also loved this fun mural:
From there it was off to Tower of Terror. I absolutely love that ride as much as it terrifies me with every drop! I almost never take a picture of the hotel lobby, but I found the ceiling particularly striking this time.
We had a fun ride, though I think the kid next to us was pretty freaked out. His mom said something to him in Spanish that sounded...exasperated but amused? Ha. After that we had to start making our way over to Star Wars Land. More pretty buildings along the way...
While wandering over there, you could see bits of the construction for Monstropolis, the new Monsters, Inc. land. The remnants of the Muppets in 3D theater are being incorporated in (where the clock tower is), and some other new things are being built or redeveloped. I can't wait for the flying door coaster!
We grabbed some mini churros as a snack along the way, to get us through some extra rides before a dinner break. They were SO good. Upon arrival in Star Wars Land, we got a reasonable wait for Rise of the Resistance, which was helpful.
This theming is among the best in the entire property, and I'm not sure if I ever really appreciated this garden courtyard space...maybe because my only other time through the standby queue was while I was still rather hurricane-drenched.
I had a great view of Admiral Ackbar!
Had to take a quick selfie with the Storm Troopers!
That ride is always so fun and so impressive, though the girl who was in the front of our car might disagree. She was buried in her mom's shoulder most of the ride! Also, someday I will get a good picture of the AT-ATs, but darn it, the movement is always too much.
Next up was Toy Story Mania, which is always such a blast (literally), and our Lightning Lane came in so clutch! I felt pretty guilty walking past a whole long line of people! We had a little bit of a wait once we were in our vehicle, and I happened to notice the cute Tinkertoy prop. The green fin on that exit sign took me right back to my childhood, playing with those at my grandma's house. The little nightlight in Andy's room was cute, too.
Selfie in our stylish glasses!
Carter soundly kicked my butt in this game, by about 50,000 points, and was the top score in our vehicle. His young muscles, joints, and reflexes definitely had the upper hand in getting more shots off, and rapid fire is so important. That ride is SUCH a workout and my arm is always so tired by the time it's over. But it is so much fun!
Had to grab a couple pics on the way out. I love the props here so much!
We would have loved to ride Slinky Dog Dash, but after being closed half the day for rain, the line was ridiculous. We just couldn't do 80 minutes if we wanted to hit up the rest of the things we wanted to do.
So, next it was off to our Lightning Lane for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway. I really do love that ride, and much like Haunted Mansion, I notice new details every time! After that, it was finally time to grab some dinner. We decided to go to the ABC Commissary, which had a meal I wanted to get last time but had to skip because Carter wanted to eat somewhere else. Well, once we got there, I saw something else on the menu and decided to get that instead. Maybe next time (again) for the other one! Carter actually did have that meal--the Buffalo chicken grilled cheese--and I had shrimp tacos. Both meals were really good!
We needed to run back into Star Wars Land for our Millennium Falcon ride, and Carter decided we should stop at Star Tours along the way. It's not my favorite, but it is fun, and there was a kid in our row (possibly special needs because they came in separately, which I assume meant they had the DAS pass) who was totally buying in, which was cute. And it's a tradition, going all the way back to tiny Jacob, that I had to get a picture of Carter in the glasses!
With that, our daylight was fading and evening was upon us--but we still had a busy home stretch to go! But that's going to be its own post!
