Roller Coasters, Rides and Theme Parks!

[Atticus]

I used to love The Snake Train (not a euphemism), but it was literally just a bloke on a tractor pulling a load of people behind it.

Haha, Lightwater Valley had a Snake Train too. So basic and cobbled together I’m actually amazed the ‘concept’ wasn’t exclusive

Crap as that was the park was ace because they let 10-yr-olds ride motorbikes

[Soundwave]

Yo! I'm back in the hizouse after 2 weeks in Florida and I know you're all dying to know my top 10 rides.
Well, don't panic, because every time we went on a ride, we logged it and we spent queue time discussing where the rides go in our family list!


I was pleased that a lot of the new rides made the top 10, so things are still improving all the time.


We did:
Universal
Universal Studios
Islands of Adventure


Disney
Magic Kingdom
Epcot
Animal Kingdom
Hollywood Studios


We had Express passes for Universal and Genie+ for Disney.
Universal is the classic method of showing your pass and get in the much shorter queue.
Disney uses the app and you book a slot. You can start booking slots 1 hour before the park opens and Disney resort guests get early access to the parks, so can book earlier too. Sometimes, a whole day's worth of rides would be gone before we could book or maybe a slot at 9pm.
Disney have a few rides that can't be booked with Genie+, but you can pay extra to beat the lines (about $10-15 per person).


There were a few shows, but we haven't included those, even though they were all pretty great, especially Bourne Stuntacular, Poseiden's Fury, Indiana Jones and the Frozen sing-a-long.


So, in reverse order, here are our top 10 rides!


10

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Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts - Universal Studios



So, the whole of the Potter world stuff is amazing. The theming is world-class. In Universal studios, there's a front that's themed like London (reasonably accurate, to be fair!) and you walk through a secret section and end up in Diagon Alley, with Ollivander's wand shop and a load of store fronts, some of which are real and you can buy merch or food and some are pretend ones and you can buy a wand to cast spells at and something will happen in the windows (pots stir, lights come one, eyes open and so on.)


The focal point of the area is Gringott's Bank, which has the dragon sat atop it that breathes fire every 10 minutes.
Inside the bank, the queue looks a lot like the interior of the bank based on the films and even has animatronic bank tellers, working.
You progress down various tunnels and end up in the office of Bill Weasley, where a holographic introduction using the actual actor talks about how he'll take us down to the vault.
You're then taken into elevators and you're lowered down into the vault and finally loaded onto the carts with "safety goggles" (3D glasses). Problem is, Bellatrix finds you and sends you the wrong way!
So the ride is an amazing combination of real effects, roller coaster and 3D screens that actually tell a story.
It's taking the Spider-Man concept and updating it to modern ride levels.


This is the former site of the Jaws ride and there are a couple of Easter eggs like the record store in "London" has "Here's To Swimmin' with Bow-legged Women" by the Quint Trio and there are shrunken heads in Nocturne Alley that sing "show me the way to go home.

9

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Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - Islands of Adventure

Just pipping Gringott's is the ride house under the giant Hogwarts model.
This side of the park has Hogsmeade and snow-covered shops and houses to explore.
At the end of the street is Hogwarts and this ride.
Again, the theming is brilliant. Even the sign has magic writing and the queue goes through the stairwell with talking painting, a sequence with Dumbledore in his office and even a sorting hat.
The ride puts you on pew-like seats and takes you on an adventure following Harry and the gang.
I found this one to be slightly better because there were more practical effects going on, not just screens including

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death eaters and a full-scale dragon head!

The two sides of the park are linked using Hogwarts Express that has a really clever show as you travel out the "window" and the frosted glass.


All the Potter stuff was amazing and although they must be making a boatload of money from the merch, it didn't feel tacky, just loads of people, young and old, getting excited about being in the places they'd seen in the films.

8

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Skull Island: Reign Of Kong - Islands of Adventure

This was a real surprise treat. It was similar to the Fast and Furious ride, but instead of Deisel Van flying through the air, it had a Kong theme.
After queuing through skull-filled caves with an animatronic soothsayer, everone boards a jungle jeep and sets off to escape a storm. You drive through the jungle then enter the giant gates of the temple where one of the crew gets attacked by the creatures of the island and you set off to rescue them.
You then end up in a sequence with giant 3D screens either side of you, so you're surrounded by the action and Kong has a dust-up with some T-rexes trying to take a chomp out of you. It's all going off and it really feels like you're falling at times. The ride is topped off with a full-size Kong head animatronic with him snorting at you!

7

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Jurassic Park River Adventure - Islands of Adventure

The classic still stands, decades after it opened, partly because Spielberg was involved with its deisgn.
It's really clever how it makes it looks like you've veered off-course as the tour continues on your original route, but you end up in the danger zone.
After a couple of raptor encounters, the piece-de-resistance is the giant animatronic t-rex, that is just about to chomp you and you're so preoccupied looking at it, you don't see the massive drop!
First ride got us drenched, but later rides were nowhere near as wet, so it depends on how heavy the boat is and where you sit, I think.
Some of the animatronics are a bit dated, especially compared to some of the newer rides, but that T-Rex is still a brilliant moment as it stomps out of the mist at you.
The California version has added some screens with the giant water dino from Jurassic World, but that's not in Florida.

6

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The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man - Islands of Adventure

So this is another older ride (1999), but is still brilliant. I think it's a combination of the action and the content.
There are similar rides, like Transformers, but this is just so much more relatable as the Sinister Six try to cause havoc with Doctor Octopus' anti-gravity gun!
You drive around New York, in your news reporter vehicle, but end up being the story as the supervillains try to attack you.
You have heat and water thrown at you and finally zapped with the anti-gravity gun and end up flying over the streets, but what goes up...
Another brilliant mix of 3D and real effects make this an all-time great!

5

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The Incredible Hulk Coaster - Islands of Adventure

There aren't many classic coasters in the Universal/Disney parks, but even without the competition locally, it's still one of my favourite coasters, ever.
The basic premise is that you're getting tested on with a gamma radiation test by General Ross and you experience what it's like turning into the Hulk.
It's got this amazing start where you're trundling up the first hill with the experiment going fine until the gamma rays hit you and you get launched out of the tube!
It's had a refurb since I was there last, changing Banner's experiment to Ross', with new speakers in the seat.
The ride itself is by Bolliger & Mabillard (Oblivion, Nemesis, Air) and it's still a great, smooth ride.
As we were staying in a Universal hotel, we got early entry and rode it twice in a row, on the front seats! Wooo!
The ride itself looks amazing too, with sections that go underground and blast water up. At night the whole thing lights up green and every time it launches, there's a massive Hulk roar.

4

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VelociCoaster - Islands of Adventure

Okay, so this is a new Intamin coaster and it's amazing!
It's higher in my list, but my son felt a bit sick riding it two times in a row, so he downvoted it.
They're really strict with no loose articles, so everything goes into lockers.
You're then lead through a queue area, where you see the cars leave the ride, but they're transparent screens and I jumped when a raptor ran past!
There are also some animatronic raptors in the queue, muzzled up, but their eyes look at you and they rattle their cages and are genuinely unnerving. There are some nice props like books by Dr. Alan Grant and dino chew toys.
After that, there's a giant screen doing a great video where Claire Dearing and Owen Grady talk about the ride and it works brilliantly because she's playing it cool and marketing it to the guests, whilst he's arguing that putting a roller coaster in a raptor pen is a ridiculously stupid idea and berates the keepers riling up the raptors with stun batons. It all adds to a great, authentic atmosphere that it's a crazy thing to do.


You sit in cars (there's a front row queue for a longer wait) and they buckle you in, but there's only a lap restraint, not over-the-shoulder ones and I genuinely thought I would fall out if I raised my arms!
The cars then go into the starting gates and you can see the raptors champing at the bit to chase you and you get launched at 0-50 mph in 2 seconds straight out of the gate.
The track goes through rock structures and loops around over water, with the raptors appearing as you whizz past (with them screeching as you pass through the headspeakers).
Then there's my favourite bit of the ride. At first, I thought it was entering a braking area, but it was a second launch zone, propelling you from 40 to 70 mph in 2.4 seconds, then you fly up a 155 foot hill and crest down again, with the final section being a barrel/heartline roll over water and you feel really close to it!


So the coaster itself is a brilliant, smooth and thrilling ride, but the addition of authentic props and cast videos really elevates it further.

3

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Avatar: Flight of Passage - Animal Kingdom

Not many "rides" at Animal Kingdom, but Expedition Everest, the Kilimanjaro Safari and some of the shows are well worth doing, but the highlight is the rather random addition of the Pandora section of the park.
There are loads of unusual alien plants and structures, the highlight being the floating rocks dominating the skyline. They're massive and look amazing.
There's a Na'vi river cruise, which is very nice and features the best animatronic in any of the parks, but it's pretty skippable.
However, the must-ride attraction is the Avatar experience.
The queue sees you weaving around the rocks and caves until you end up in a test lab, that has unobtanium experiments and a scale avatar floating in a tube!
You're then lead up a ramp and into a room for about a dozen people and they clean you of viruses and sync you up (some clever camera effects) then a Sigourney Weaver lookey-likey ("Sigourney Beaver") talks you through what will happen.
Finally, you're lead to your "bike" that will link to your avatar's banshee.
You face a metal wall, but after syncing with your avatar, you're soaring above Pandora.
It's quite simply the best simulator I've been on. You can see how they do things if you look hard enough, but you genuinely feel like you're soaring above the world and you feel the wind in the air, smell the grass and feel the splash of the waves. It's breathtaking and a real thrill, we were buzzing afterwards.


It's not included on Genie+, so you can pay or go early. We went early, but slow loading times meant we waited about 90 minutes, but it was 100% worth it.
We did the Na'vi river cruise as the sun set and saw there was only a 45 min wait, so we went on it again.
By the time we got to the loading ramp, we were the only people waiting! So they said we had the pick of the rooms and we asked if any were better and they put us in the syncing room all by ourselves, then sat in the middle-middle of the seats and had our vision filled with the screen. It was even more special the second time and by the time my banshee landed to watch the Pandoran sun set, it was quite emotional!


Then we stepped out into Pandora at night, long after the park had closed and the majority of guests had left, so walked around the stunning paths, all lit up and glowing, it was such a great moment for us to share.

2

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Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure - Islands of Adventure

This is an absolute corker and a must-ride.
It's the only ride in Universal that doesn't allow Express Pass, so it's a right nightmare to get on with queues reaching 3 hours most days, but it's another example of how rides have evolved to be "story coasters" that tell a short story as you ride around. Using the voice of Robbie Coltraine as Hagrid, you go with him on an adventure going past several creatures.
I won't spoil too much as there are loads of lovely moments and surprises.
You ride in twos on a motorbike and sidecar (bike is best) and there are a record 7 launches on Florida's longest ride at over 1.5 Km.
The animatronics are top-notch and the surprises are really great. The feeling of the wind as you race around is pretty unique.


It's a bit bonkers, but if you stay at a premium Universal hotel, you get 2 days unlimited Express Pass and early entry, so we stayed one night at the cheapest of the premium hotels and it still cost less than standard one-ride Express passes! My wife and son went down early to queue for Hagrid whilst my daughter and I took our time in the fancy room and ambled down later to pick up Cinnabon breakfast and went on Popeye's boat as Hagrid had technical issues delaying the start.
2 things of note there, the boat has excellent views of VelociCoaster, but also overlooks Bluto's Bilgerat Barges and the boat has watercannons on it and I was crying with laughter calling out to people and when they looked up, blasting them!
Later in the day, we set an alert in the Universal app for when Hagrid dropped to under 90 minute wait, and it went off, so we raced from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure and managed to get on. With the childswap facility (daughter was too small), my son got to ride with each of us, so he's been on it 3 times!

1

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Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance - Disney's Hollywood Studios

I didn't think anything would top Ratatouille, then VelociCoaster, then Hagrid, but this was amazing.
I mean, I like Star Wars, but a fan would lose their mind at this.
The thing that sets this apart is that it's another "story" ride, but there are so many *real* elements that sets it apart from anything else.
Each section got better and better and there are several sections to it.


The whole section of Galaxy's Edge is so good, with brilliant theming throughout. There's the bloody Millenium Falcon parked in it, for chuff's sake! Smuggler's Run ride is good and stepping onto the Millenium Falcon was so weird, like I'd been there before. I was a bit giddy! The ride itself is OK, but apart from the pilot, who gets to push the lightspeed lever, it's just pushing buttons when it says, but Rise OTR is astonishing.


I'll spoiler what happens in Rise, in case anyone else goes as it's best not knowing:

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You start off queueing in the rebel caves and end up in a briefing room where an animatronic BB-8 and a holographic Rey tell you that you need to escape on a transporter ship, you're lead outside and there's Poe Cameron's X-Wing, right next to your transporter. You don't really have time to drink it in as you're lead into the transporter. Inside, the pilot is an animatronic Mon Calamari, but you see out the window the whole ship gets sucked into a Star Destroyer!


The hatch is forced open and an Empire general tells you to disembark for interrogation, you step out of the ship INTO A HANGAR. It's massive and cold and you can see out of the launch window ships passing by. You're flanked by a load of stormtroopers and droid, so there's no espape as they throw you into the prison cell.


Up above, General Hux and Kylo Ren decide your fate and it's not good.
Then the wall lights up as a hole is cut out and you're greeted by rebels. Man, it was good to see them.


They put you in reprogrammed droid carts and begin your escape - play it cool.
A torture droid spots you and all hell breaks loose. It was all a bit of a blur at this point, but in your escape, you run from blaster fire. You see Kylo Ren and Hux at the controls of the ship. You see the rebels having a massive fight out the window. You see Kylo Ren chase after you and even cut a hole in the ceiling with his lightsaber to get down to you. You even race into a hangar where there are TWO FULL SIZE AT-ATS!


You manage to escape with a rough landing and Mon Calamari saying we've saved the day but been really lucky.

Honestly, both my wife and I were absolutely buzzing. The kids loved it too, obviously, but it was all so well done. We didn't think we would get on as it was broken down more than running on the day we went to Hollywood Studios, but I said I really wanted to do it.
It was probably our longest wait at about 90-120 minutes because they had to clear all the people who had paid first, then we got our turn.
It was quite funny as we were waiting to be put in our cells and my daughter said she needed a wee and the guard kept in character, snapped his fingers at a subordinate and said "You! Take this one to the restroom" and I just had to sit on some crates next to a stormtrooper!

So that's our list of top ten rides!
We had an amazing time and was really pleased the new rides were so great.

Wow dude what a write up, loved reading it, so glad you had such an amazing time.

Now can I pick your brains on how it all worked?

Did you still have to do a pre-departure test?
How were the airports & flights...did you still mask up?
How was the park experience as whole? were the queues long? How were the other guests?

Sorry for the questions but getting geared up for October ourselves, we've pre-booked all our Disney park days but just wondering how it is as a whole now, assuming the experience is massively different to when I was there in 2019 but still so excited to be heading back

Neil

[QualityChimp]

@Soundwave, I'm happy to answer any questions that you have
I don't think you can know too much for a trip like this.
Apologies for what's going to be a long post.

OK, let's talk about flights first.
The first thing to do is fill in an ESTA form that basically declares you and your family aren't terrorists:

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/

We had to do a video test of us all doing a Covid test. About £35 a pop!
Basically, you get sent a kit, arrange a time and do the test.

We had to wear a facemask the entirety of flight there and the flight back, so make sure you all have one you're comfortable wearing for hours on end. I think the law changed whilst we were out there because at the start of the trip, we needed masks in Uber taxis and could only order XL cars and later on, could order normal cars. The Magic Kingdom monorail had mandatory mask-wearing at the start and dropped it by the second week.
My advice is to always carry a mask, because you never know when you might be asked to wear one, or someone is spluttering away in front of you.

Flights were a mixed bag. We flew with Aer Lingus and the actual flights were fine, but the organisation was AWFUL and we're going to claim compensation.
On the way there, it was Manchester > Dublin, Dublin > Orlando.
One woman was at the gate, no other staff. She cleared the priority line first (fair enough), but one couple had an issue, so she was on hold to Aer Lingus for about an hour and everyone had to wait whilst she dealt with that.
Then we went up to the gate and the same woman was there and when we joked, she said it was supposed to be her day off, so they're hideously understaffed. They even had to apologise on the website for delays.
Then the flight to Dublin was delayed, with no information for ages. Finally we got on a propeller plane and arrived at Dublin. We then passed through US customs there and let me tell you, Lester was NOT in a hurry.
We ran through the airport like a rubbish rom-com and got to the Orlando flight SIX MINUTES before take-off.

The flight back was even worse.
It was Orlando > JFK, JFK > Manchester.
We got to the airport and the first leg was with a 3rd party and they'd cancelled the flight.
The guy on that desk was really apologetic and showed us some alternative flights, but they were via Iceland and things.
Eventually we did the reverse of the way here, leaving about 11 hours later, so we went back to the hotel for a bonus pool day.
Obviously, when we returned to the airport and showed the Aer Lingus staff our reservation tickets the staff looked blankly at us and said "we don't have you" and "they retconned the tickets". We waited around for ages and they eventually said we had to go back to the other desk again and sort it.
This was a monumental mistake and the straw that broke the camel's back.
My wife cracked open the teacher voice and told them "WE ARE NOT WALKING BACK TO THE OTHER DESK, YOU ARE GOING TO GO AND SORT SEATS ON YOUR OWN FLIGHT. Off you toddle." The guy nearly soiled himself.
There was six of them stood around whilst me and the kids sat on the floor. I eventually said they've made my kids sit on the floor for 2 hours and you've not even offered them a drink.
Monumentally poor customer service.

I could go on for longer, but they eventually got us on the flight, separated but we'd paid for Business Class on the longer leg, so was less of an issue.

A quick word about Business Class - we paid about the same amount for it as a direct flight as it was before flights were getting busy again. It was a real treat and lovely to be able to lie down to sleep on the flight home.
They even managed to mess that up months before, because they made the 45 min section 1st class and the 9 hour bit economy! So you really have to be on the ball.

To be fair, Virgin lost 3 of my sister's cases and Rob Beckett got bounced by British Airways, according to his podcast, so none of them are perfect!

[QualityChimp]

Hotels.
Sorry if you know all this but it's worth noting for anyone new to all this.

Basically, your options are independent hotels/villas, Universal Hotels, Disney Hotels.
If you stay at a non-affiliated hotel or villa, it's cheaper but get none of the early park opening bonuses.
If you stay at a Universal hotel, you get early access to both theme parks and Volcano Bay waterpark..
We stayed at Cabana Bay, which has a guest door to Volcano Bay, but we never went because the hotel had 2 pools (waterside side and lazy river side) and we preferred to be in the parks.

Remember, I said one night in a premium Universal Hotel grants you unlimited Express passes, so we literally had a random night in another hotel for one night and got 2 days of Express Passes.

If you stay at a Disney Hotel, you get the bonus of early entry to the parks, but also early access to all the rides via Genie+, so quite often we'd find when the app opened up to non-guests, all the early slots on the better rides were taken.

Ultimately, although we lost out on the Disney early access, we're more Universal people, so were happy with the Universal site.
There are buses (and boats in the Premiums) to Universal, but nearly every time we chose to do the 15 minute walk as it was quicker, but nice to have that option after a long day on your feet.

I've hired a car in the past, but for the Disney parks, we used Uber and Lyftt, which takes you all the way to the drop-off point and you don't have to worry about where you parked ("remember we're parked in the Itchy lot.") and driving on US roads.
Deffo recommend that route.

[QualityChimp]

*As for the parks, you have to be clued-up before you go.

I think the best advice I could give for all the parks is be there at "rope drop", i.e. when they open.

For Universal, we had 5 days entry to both parks. Worth noting if you buy individual days for each park, you can't "park hop" or use Hogwarts Express to travel between them. We definitely appreciated being able to do this as we went from Universal Studios to Islands of Adventure to go to Hagrid when the queue dropped or vice-versa to get to the Mardi Gras parade.

We paid for 2 days standard Express Pass (one ride on eligible ones) and got 2 days (unlimited) for the Premium stay.
It absolutely chucked it down on the 2nd day of the paid pass and we'd been on one ride with it, so went to customer services and they gave us another pass, which was brilliant of them.

Having Express passes made the whole time at the Universal parks so stress-free, but you have to pay for the privilege.
We went on everything decent multiple times. The only thing you can't Express pass is Hagrid, but it's worth the wait.

In contrast, my sister had no fast passes for anything.
She spent more time in the premium shopping outlets and struggled to wake her kids for rope drop, so her experience was mainly of queues. When the parks get busy, even the less popular rides start getting longer queues of around an hour, rather than 10 minutes.
It was only until she got up for rope drop that they got on a load of rides in a row.
She left the son in bed!
Obviously, it was their holiday, but I wouldn't go all that way to lie in bed!

Disney is quite different and everything is dependant on their app.

The app tells you queue times, but if you pay for Genie+ (about $15 pp) you can book rides every 2 hours, which is a great way to maximise your time, so you're never really queuing for long because you go between rides you've booked or shorter queues.

They also have paid Lightning Lanes in all four parks like Ratatouille, Rise of the Resistance, Avatar and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I wanted to pay for Rise and even set an alarm, but all the Disney guests get priority and every slot had gone by the time I could access the list.

So you have to prioritise which rides you want to do.
Epcot, for example, has 3 big rides, Ratatouille, Frozen and Test Track.
We Genie plussed Frozen, queued for Rataouille and skipped TT, favouring stuff like Spaceship Earth (in the big ball).
At Animal Kingdom, we Genie plussed the safari (booked at 7am for a slot about 5pm!) and rope dropped Avatar.
At Hollywood Studios, we Genie plussed Smuggler's run, rope dropped Toy Story Mania and queued at the end of the day for Rise when the queue time dropped. We skipped Tower of Terror and Slinky Dog Dash.

So, it's a bit of an arse that even though we paid for Genie+, you only get on a handful of rides, but again, why would you pay to fly all that way, stay in a hotel and then scrimp on $15?

My wife found an amazing bundle where we got 2 weeks for the price of 1, Genie+ for all parks and the photopass, which was actually a nice bonus because we got all the ride photos and every time you saw a photographer, you could scan the passes, so we've got some nice family snaps in front of the castle, Epcot globe, Tree of Life and so on, without me doing the longarm selfie thing!

You have to book the Disney Parks in advance. There were people stood with signs asking for tickets at Magic Kingdom as it was full. You can book up to 60 days in advance, but we did it a month before, no problem. Just don't expect to arrive on the day.

You can also book to eat at the more interesting restaurants in advance. We couldn't get into Space 220 at Epcot (space lift with a big window of Earth), but got into Coral Reef (overlooking the shark tank!).
At MK, we ate a the explorer's lodge. At Hollywood Studios, we ate at the diner that made it seem like you were in a 50s house, including waitress telling kids off for elbows on the table!

So, the only things we significantly queued for was Hagrid and Rise, which had technical difficulties on top of their popularity and Ratatouille in a ride-shy park.

A few bonus tips.
Do a Walmart run for snacks and sandwich stuff so you're not always paying for park food.
Get a small rucksack as some days you can go light and the bigger Universal rides have free, but tiny lockers.
Universal have souvenir cups that you can refill all day, then reactivate on subsequent trips. We were constantly drinking as it was hot and nice not having to pay for every drink.
Frozen Butterbeer is nicer than normal (but expensive).
Take a decent portable USB battery. You're constantly checking ride times, booking rides, booking Ubers, taking photos, scanning for Lightning Lane or photos. When you're stood in a queue or eating lunch, you can juice up.
Get the Lyft AND Uber apps as Lyft has a deal with Disney and you can compare prices with each trip. Sometimes saving $20 in comparison sometimes!

Sorry, that's three long posts, but I can't stress enough how prep is important. Oh and getting up early!

Apart from the flight issues, it was an absolutely brilliant holiday and I think that's down to our planning, strategic queue approach and generally just happy to be there and chat to people.

As for people, it was pretty decent and most people were friendly.
Magic Kingdom was probably the worst. The queue for Winnie the Pooh has an interactive section and it felt like a seventh level of hell with some scrote redneck kids climbing on everything with their mom alternating between screaming at them and swilling Bud Light. They weren't rude, but the screaming and banging on the toys was a bit much.
In Philharmagic, a large family were oblivious that they weren't the only people at the show, ambling around, saving seats in the middle and then coughing through the show (we masked up!).
A woman lead her 5 kids to their dad through the massive Avatar queue to lots of complaint.

That's really the only blips in 2 weeks of parks, rides and queues. Everyone was else was absolutely lovely.
We took the time to chat to staff on the queues and stuff. It breaks up their day and in return, they help where they can (front row on "Rip, Ride, Rock-it" or best seats in Avatar).

[Blobcat]

We are nearing the end of our 2nd full day at the Disney parks for our delayed honeymoon and just about to watch Epcot's firework show Harmonious.

Had a fantastic day in Epcot yesterday with early access as we are at a Disney resort (Pop Century). I absolutely loved the Skyliner and we got genie+ for the day. Spotted someone with a Skyliner gondala shaped popcorn bucket and they said they just got released that day. Best purchase, you buy a bucket with popcorn for about $20 and you get refills for around $3.


TBH we barely used genie + to wait later for rides, we booked Mission space first as [MENTION=5941]Asura[/MENTION] was very keen to ride it but it was pretty much a walk on. We walked onto Soarin' pretty much (probably the 2nd run of the day). As soon as we got on mission space we booked Frozen which was for much later in the day (4.35 I think). We walked by spaceship earth which by then had a big queue, looked at getting Lighting lane and as it was more than 120 mins till our next booked one, we could get a other and it was on 5 mins. This happened several times when we passed random rides to get LL for and we only queued for 15 mins for other rides.

We did every ride and some 'shows' in Epcot except Remy and the jetlag was starting to hit us at 5pm so we left and missed the fireworks to save our feet. Had late lunch at Garden Grill and met some characters, really big meal we happily didn't order more as it was all you care to enjoy. Got an extra dessert and celebration cookies as we had some celebration buttons on (first visit and happily ever after as it was our honeymoon).

Had a rest day today except popping into Hollywood studios for a few hours as we had a reservation and shot back to Epcot for fireworks after a rest. We only went to HS because we got a reservation for Rise and were there longer than expected because it broke down just before our paid LL. Somehow managed to ride Startours twice (loved it) and smugglers run with 1hr queue (it quoted 45 mins) on Starwars day of all days. And yes Rise of the Resistance is just jaw droppingly good.

[QualityChimp]

Yay [MENTION=16665]Blobcat[/MENTION], it sounds like you're having a great time!

Don't forget we went at Easter, peak time, so it was really busy in all the parks, especially Magic Kingdom.

Y'know, we had a really nice day in Epcot and it's actually a shame there are rides, because I could have happily spent the day mooching around, trying different foods and drinks from around the world with those lovely gardens and that lovely retro futuristic feel that Epcot has.

As it was busier, we were totally all over Genie+, booking the next ride as soon as we could.
We rope-dropped Frozen as Ratatouille is a paid ride. No regrets, I loved it!
We plussed Soarin', Spaceship Earth and Mission Space too.
Walked onto Living With The Land (because it's pretty rubbish) and had a very short queue for Imaginarium.
Walked onto Nemo on the way out.

Gutted that the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride wasn't quiiite ready yet, but had to accept there are loads of new rides since my last trip like Velocicoaster, Rise and the whole of blimmin' Hogwarts!

Ratatouille is the best ride at Epcot, but I'd say if you've had a lovely day, then it's just a complete win!

We thought we'd grab some breakfast from the bakery next to Frozen and eat in the queue.
Problem is, they only had cakes. They only had alcoholic coffee coolers.
So we stood in the queue before 9am, eating cakes. My daughter's cookie was bigger than her face.
My wife and I slurped on alcoholic coffee.
No regrets on that either - best drink of the holiday!

What are your other plans?

[Blobcat]

It's almost 6am on our 3rd full day at the parks. Plan is first Magic Kingdom day but blisters are still a big problem. I have a nasty large one which is now manageable wearing my sketchers for a couple of hours but the bloke has got one of those small but deadly ones from yesterday I think is going to be a problem if we try going back and forth across the park too often. Plan is to Genie +, focus on Adventureland and Frontier land today venturing as far as haunted mansion but go back to the resort in the middle of the day, returning later and staying for the fireworks. Rides I really want to do today are Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, big thunder mountain and splash mountain if possible with country bears and hall of presidents if possible (I am very keen to see hall of presidents randomly, especially after loving the American Adventure as I love animatronics)

Our future 2nd magic Kingdom day we will mainly focus on Tomorrowland and we want to eat lunch at Cosmic rays and ride the people mover lol.

Tomorrow is waterpark day. We really wanted to go to Blizzard Beach but as it's closed we will venture into Typhoon lagoon and then go back to Epcot in the evening for dinner at the German pavillion restaurant. Next time we do a morning at Epcot we plan to focus on the world showcase.

Worst rides by far was the current Journey to the Imagination which was as dire as I had heard appart from the last minute of it, considering the original attraction was so beloved it's not just people missing the old one, genuinely just didn't enjoy it. Also the finding Nemo one was pretty bland but it rested our feet and both supplied much needed air conditioner. I loved looking at the fish as always and loved the show with Crush interacting with the kids there (Duuuuuude).

Edit - only thing of Journey to the Imagination ride we felt anything for was the large portraits of the scientists before the start of the ride which hit us quite hard emotionally, as it's Eric idol's character from the ride, Robin Williams' character from Flubber and Rick Morani's character from the Honey I shrunk the kids' ride. Just that line of pictured affected us more than the ride.

[QualityChimp]

Sounds like a good plan, to be fair.
Sorry about the blisters. I bought my kids Skechers specifically because I knew they'd be more comfy.
I had new Nike skate trainers and they hurt my feet after a while, so switched to my much lighter running trainers.
We were doing over 30k steps every day in the parks!

Pirates, Splash and Thunder are all relatively close to each other. You'll pass Jungle Cruise on the way.
JC is trickier to get onto after the recent film with The Rock, but our tour guide was rrrrrubbish and was one of the worst rides of the trip, sadly. Maybe you'll get a good guide.

Do those in the morning, then look at Haunted, Presidents (we skipped that, lol) and Small World in the afternoon, maybe.
Just go with whichever is available on Genie+ though.

MK was definitely the busiest of the parks and had the most people in family vacation shirts.

Imaginarium was poor and I agree, the 3 "scientists" at the start was the best bit and I took a photo!

You doing any of the Universal Parks?

[wakka]

Good trip report Blobcat!

Can’t believe you were doing 30k steps a day QC. My partner would never go for that, I’ve about killed us both on some theme park trips keeping us to a strict agenda, so an Orlando trip has to be done under the strict proviso that ride and show stuff is done at a relaxed pace and mixed up with chilling. My natural inclination is to plan a theme park day like a military operation from rope drop to close like yourself though

[QualityChimp]

Like I say, my sister and her family were at the other end of the spectrum from Operation QC and they spent a lot more time in the hotel or queuing.

You can't mess about on stuff like this, having fun is a serious business!

Didn't feel like that many steps as you're having fun.

[Blobcat]

We had a nightmare getting our first genie + as we booked jungle cruise after 2pm when we were adamant to leave by then as we need to rest in the middle of the day. Managed to change it to 1pm.

We rode the bus to Magic Kingdom, we had early access which allows you to enter the park and pass through tomorrow land to fantasy land to get in line/ ride some before official opening. You can't access frontierland or Adventureland until 9am so we stood at the rope for that early and were at the front. We managed to ropedrop big thunder mountain, followed by splash mountain and pirates of the Caribbean with only a long but quick wait for pirates which was only about 20 mins, the first two were walk on.

We mobile ordered some food and chilled to see a cavalcade at Casey's corner before we watched the parade and headed to a LL of its a small world.

Jungle cruise was very good with a very good skipper but it was getting unbearably hot by the time we got on. Walking back to get the bus was a challenge.

We are chilled after the pool and are hoping to do Haunted mansion at the very least and maybe presidents before the fireworks. Will do Country bears another day as I expect we will probably ride pirates again in the future and I want to ride the paddlesteam boat on our last MK day.

[wakka]

Like I say, my sister and her family were at the other end of the spectrum from Operation QC and they spent a lot more time in the hotel or queuing.

You can't mess about on stuff like this, having fun is a serious business!

Didn't feel like that many steps as you're having fun.

I get you totally. Don’t worry, it will still be fully optimised to skip queues! Getting stuck in those unnecessarily is a rookie move.

[dataDave]

We're visiting for the first time in ages at the back end of July and I fancied a visit to Alton Towers, but not for the prices they're asking. Maybe when the lad isn't four years old and can appreciate it a bit better.

[QualityChimp]

We're visiting for the first time in ages at the back end of July and I fancied a visit to Alton Towers, but not for the prices they're asking. Maybe when the lad isn't four years old and can appreciate it a bit better.

That's a really sensible decision, dD.

Loads of great parks to go to aimed at smaller kids.
Yes, there's stuff for kids at Alton Towers, but you're paying for those big coasters too.

I mean, there's Peppa Pig World, but I wouldn't inflict that on yourself.

As you can see a few posts up, I'm a big fan of Drayton Manor, which has a whole Thomas Land section with kid-friendly rides.
They have a hotel onsite too, with Thomas themed rooms.
Hilariously, we had a work conference there and one of my friends ended up in the Thomas room, but was secretly delighted!