Roller Coasters, Rides and Theme Parks!

[Blobcat]

I cried at the celebration of the festival of the lion king. Also I got to touch a freaking rhino at the rhino experience and yes they do feel like a muddy cantaloupe!

[QualityChimp]

Please tell me you managed to get on Avatar at Animal Kingdom too!

[Blobcat]

That's our aim on our 2nd Animal Kingdom day, first was to focus on the animals.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, one of the suggestions by Molly on the AllEars videos was to ignore Avatar in the morning and head for the safari at rope drop because there are more animals out and about in the cooler morning air.

She went at the end of the day, when the queues were shorter.

We'd plussed the safari for the afternoon, so did Avatar at the start of the day and again at the end too!

[Asura]

Yeah we have two days booked.

Day 1 is Africa and Asia, day 2 will be Avatar & Dinosaurs.

[wakka]

What hotel are you guys staying in, out of interest?

[Asura]

What hotel are you guys staying in, out of interest?

Pop Century, and honestly I can't recommend it enough.

[Blobcat]

The Skyliner is my favourite thing about Disney hands down this holiday. Loved every ride on it and makes life so easy.

[Blobcat]

Did our proper Hollywood Studios day, our Tomorrowland and leftover rides day at MK and today is our pandora/ dinoland day at Animal kingdom.

We LOVED tower of Terror and later in the day had our lightsaber experience and some fun cocktails at Ogas Cantina which was just a lovely experience. We got to ride slinky as the fireworks started at night which was awesome.

MK we mainly stuck to Tomorrowland and Fantasy land, only nipping over to Adventure for another citrus swirl, tiki and pirates ride. Buzz lightyear broke down as we were on it but at least we got some good air conditioning. Originally planned to ropedrop 7 dwarves but the queue changed direction and by the time we got to the end it was hours wait so got a paid LL for later. Ride was fun but no way was it worth waiting an hour for.

[QualityChimp]

Would've loved a second day at Hollywood, but I didn't really state my case early enough, so couldn't change our 3rd MK day, but we still had a great day and saw the fireworks.

Didn't get on Tower of Terror, but done it before in Orlando and Paris.
Didn't get on Slinky Dog Dash, but we went on other kiddy coasters.
Didn't get on 7 Dwarves, but again, we went on other rides, so was totally fine with that.

Everyone got really fed up with me SMASHING their scores on any lightgun games like MIB, Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear (aim behind the first big robot's hand, the distant volcano and Zurg's seat!).

We had a nice drink in MK in Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn near Splash Mountain called a "Bear Tracks Slushy", I think.
Om nom nom.

Here's my amazing fact-blast!
Florida is the lightning capital of the world.
All the flagpoles one Mainstreet USA are lightning rods.
It's law to take down the Star and Stripes every night.
So every flag has a slightly different patter, like a missing star or extra stripe!

Did you say you're going to Universal at any point?

[wakka]

]Everyone got really fed up with me SMASHING their scores on any lightgun games like MIB, Toy Story Mania and Buzz Lightyear (aim behind the first big robot's hand, the distant volcano and Zurg's seat!)

Haha, amazing.

[Blobcat]

We had a nice drink in MK in Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn near Splash Mountain called a "Bear Tracks Slushy", I think.
Om nom nom.

Did you say you're going to Universal at any point?

We are just sticking to Disney this trip.

We really enjoyed Pecos Bills and had the Fajita mix meal thing that was pretty tasty and not that expensive. We both loved the lemon slushy thing at Club Cool in Epcot.

It's 2pm now and we not long came back from our 2nd and last Animal Kingdom day. Rode both Pandora rides before 8am and had a go on Dinosaur which sadly I lost my Minnie mouse visor I had been living in when getting off the ride. CMS couldn't find it so I suspect someone saw it and nicked it pretty quickly.

Pandora looked amazing and certainly flight of passage was a great ride along with the main animatronic in the river journey.

We rode Everest for the 3rd time (definitely our favourite rollercoaster) as well as Kali river rapids again before heading to the bird show which I was spellbound by (loved the rooster, stork and the harpy eagle) before getting on the safari again. Big tip, try and NOT be at the front of the bus and be sat on the left. This time we saw less animals overall but saw ostriches and giraffes for the first time, one giraffe kept playing with the driver pretending to cross its path then slowly walked Infront back and forth in the truck's path followed by its friends chasing our truck. Also got to see one of the baby rhinos Milo and a baby hippo.

Just gonna chill in the room till it's cool enough to flip by the pool.

[QualityChimp]

Oh blimey, there's plenty to do in the Disney Parks PLUS you have a reason to go back again!

The giraffes are so smart! They block the road, because they know the keepers arrive with food to tempt them out of the way!

[Blobcat]

So its been 2 months since we left for our amazing Walt Disney World delayed 2 week honeymoon. Its rather cheeky to say but its really quite amazing how perfect it ended up being. We pretty much rode every ride and did everything we wished to achieve on the holiday except visit BOTH water parks as Blizzard beach was still closed when we went. We only JUST missed out on the opening of the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride and sadly TRON was not finished in time for us to ride, but hopefully there will be a next time in the future.

I initially wrote a long sum up about the rides and shows and such but it was an essay and a slog to read. With longer time to reflect I can comment what I feel what we both felt were the best rides and shows at the time we went.

Best Roller-coaster = Everest in Animal Kingdom.
I think we rode this 3 times in the end. Excellent theming in the queue and overall fun and a comfortable ride!

Best boat ride = Pirates of the Caribbean in Magic Kingdom
Again I think we rode this 3 times, its a classic and loved the lesser Jack Sparrow animatronics more than the deluxe one at the end.

Best live show = Festival of the Lion King in Animal Kingdom
Seriously worth the park ticket on its own, such a good show. Closely followed by the Feathered Friends in Flight show also in Animal Kingdom.


Best Animatronic show = Country bears Jamboree in Magic Kingdom
Despite personally finding the character costumes of the characters actually terrifying and creepy WE LOVED THE COUNTRY BEAR SHOW! It was so charming and fun and you find yourself singing along and thigh slapping. I loved the heads on the wall.

Best Thrill ride = Tower of Terror in Holywood Studios
I was worried the 'fall' would be painful or too hard on me. It wasn't and as soon as I realised that I LOVED this ride. Second time we got to ride it, the cast member bellhop was super into the role and made it more enjoyable.


Best 3D/4D show experience - Mickey's PhilharMagic in Magic Kingdom
Overall great experience, some of the best 3d effects I have seen with 3d glasses.

Best Trackless ride/ Best overall ride we keep talking about months after/ Best Disney Magic feeling in a ride =
Its a TIE between Rise of the Resistance and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway! Both in Hollywood Studios!

Why a tie?

RISE is just an amazing ride and show, it's best to go in blind and you are IMMERSED in the Star Wars story and really feel you are part of it. We got to ride it twice with paid reservations which worked very well for us, enjoyed the first ride way more than the second not only because we were so new to it, but the cast members at that time were SUPER into their roles too. Our second ride had a particular animatronic that was not working the first time but the staff were very chill and not overly into their roles apart from those right at the end. Its a ride I feel you need a big break from to enjoy it a second time as it feels like watching a movie immediately again if you ride it too soon. It worked out for us as we saw a slightly different ride and were aware of more things to look at.

Mickey and Minnie's ride was just...MAGIC. The song in it is an ear worm and you are sucked straight into the cartoon which to this day we are still talking about how good the effects were. There are some super fun bits and I genuinely felt a bit moved at the end. We rode this twice and its going to be 98% the same guaranteed good ride each time you ride it as long as everything works and has only 1 cast member involved in the ride which is really sweet.


Worst rides = The Seas with Nemo and friends & Journey into the Imagination - Both in Epcot
Nemo ride was very dull and just showing the film but with the backdrop being the aquarium which I was wishing I was looking at rather than the ride, the only plus was we got to sit down. [MENTION=5941]Asura[/MENTION] felt this was the worst ride but I really hated the current Journey into the Imagination ride more. It was just so bad apart from the last seconds with Figment (and the portraits at the start) it made me want to start smoking.

Underwelming Ride - Remy's Ratatouille Adventure in Epcot.
We are not the biggest Ratatouille fans and only rode this on our last park day as we had ridden everything else. To be blunt we felt it was just a few big screens and plastic giant props, felt genuinely underwhelmed and glad we didn't wait long for it as we ropedroped it in the morning. I do know some friends who LOVE the Paris one but have not been to WDW's yet so its almost certainly a personal thing.

Most ridden ride = Star Tours in Hollywood Studios
Rode it at least 12 times. Excellent all the way through

BONUS = The Skyliner was one of the highlights of the holiday. We got to ride it pretty much every day and it made travel so much more relaxing and enjoyable. As a kid I can imagine I would have asked my mum if I could just ride it all day. Staying at a Skyliner resort defiantly impacted the holiday to make it much better than it could have been.

Space Mountain in Magic Kingdom was so uncomfortable it was painful for me to ride throughout so sadly hated every second I was on it.

[wakka]

Great impressions.

You're definitely not alone on Ratatouille - I rode it in Paris a few years ago and was massively underwhelmed. I was anticipating something approximating Spider-Man at Universal (albeit a bit tamer), but I agree that it really does just feel like load of massive plastic props and some screens. The components never really gel into a cohesive experience IMO.

Tower of Terror is always great fun. A bit of ToT trivia - I bet Asura told you this already, but the Japanese version has a different storyline about a spooky little girl ghost, instead of the Twilight Zone stuff

I'm so glad that ToT in Florida and Paris are still Twilight Zone based - they converted it into Guardians of the Galaxy theming in California. I'm a huge fan of the original programme so for it to have such a legendary theme park ride is just great.