DAY 16 - THURSDAY 15th NOVEMBER 2012
Participants: Tam, Kev, India, Georgia, Sharon, Deb, Matt, Mark and Mandy
We are up at
6.30am and it’s very foggy.
Disembarkation is swift and very easy. We’d kept our
luggage, so we just walk off the ship as soon as it’s
cleared. We are in the car and on the way to WDW by 7.30am. The
drive is straightforward and we pull into the Boardwalk to check
in at 8.45am. Of course, a room is not yet available, but we are
offered the choice of the second or fourth floors. We pick the
fourth, purely because it’s up high and we like a nice view.
The bags are left with Bell Services and we catch the boat to
Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
We enter the
park at 9.30am, not bad really, just 2 hours after getting off
the ship. We head straight for Toy Story Mania and pick up
Fastpasses, which are for 3 – 4.00pm.
On to Star Tours. This is the first time we’ve ridden since
the revamp and it’s pretty good – certainly an
improvement on the old ride.
We are due to meet up with our friends Deb and Matt (from the UK)
and Sharon (from Texas) at 11.00am. Tam has an ap on her phone to
enable her to message them all and we discover Deb and Matt are
just heading to Star Tours, so we meet up with them and catch up
on what we’ve all been doing before riding again. It’s
a completely different ride this time, so they’ve done a
good job in making this attraction interesting to ride multiple
times.
Next is the
Great Movie Ride before walking to Rock ‘N Roller Coaster
where they all do single rider except me and Deb. I’m not
risking feeling ill for the next few hours.
Muppets is next before we meet up with Sharon and then head off
for lunch at the Backlot Express. I quite like this place, the
foods nothing special, but there’s always plenty of room and
it gives some time to chat with our friends.
Fed and watered, we try to see Voyage of the Little Mermaid, but the timings all wrong and we would have to wait for nearly an hour, so we give it up as a bad job. We tried a couple more times later in the day and never did get to see it. Oh well, not everything can go to plan.
Deb and Matt
now go off for a wander round while the rest of us ride Toy Story
Mania. To my shame Sharon wins. Mind you, coming from Texas she
ought to be better at shooting things than me.
Sharon wants to ride Star Tours, so we go back there for a third
time, which is a sort of cross between our first and second
rides.
We meet up once more with Deb and Matt along with more friends, Mandy and Mark at the Tower of Terror. Once again I sit this one out, but console myself with a beer and some time spent on the trip report. It’s been overcast all day, which is different from the forecast of 79° and mostly sunny. Never trust a weatherman, at least not a Floridian one. Just to prove the point it starts drizzling.
Demon eyes before the Tower of Terror, quite appropriate.
Deb, Matt,
Mandy and Mark bid us farewell as they are off to see the Osborne
Family Lights and then on to Downtown Disney.
It’s far from being hot, so Sharon and India buy hoodies.
How come this is accepted in Disney yet frowned upon in shopping
centres in the UK? ‘Excuse me madam, you can’t come in
unless you remove the hood from that Tinkerbell top’.
A conversation
follows about whether to watch Fantasmic or not as the only
showing is 6.30pm. The drizzle appears to be stopping, so we
decide to risk it. Sharon goes off to ride Rock ‘n Roller
Coaster single rider while the Stringers go into the Fantasmic
stadium to grab some seats. The 3 old enough to drink have beers
and Georgia has a hot chocolate.
They have a sort of pre-show with a way over the top team of
young cast members exhorting people to make some noise. I would
like to make them make some noise by introducing the toe of my
shoe to their dangly parts. This is perky over enthusiasm on a
monumental scale. If you could feed this sort of power into the
National Grid, all our energy problems would be over. Please can
I push them in the lake?
Sharon joins us again and informs me that it would probably be ok
if the enthusiastic pre-show team drowned, it would be
justifiable homicide.
After an
enjoyable showing of Fantasmic! We make our way across to see The
Osborne Family Lights. On the way Tam buys a set of twinkly
lights to wear – sigh – she’s such a child.
We haven’t seen the light show since it moved to the new
location and had music added. We all think it’s excellent
and have great fun watching several light shows, especially
dancing along to Felix Navidad.
India and I are reading a sign with information about the Osborne
family and she says ‘Oh, I didn’t realise they came
from R-Kansas’. I have top point out to her that it’s
‘Arkansas’ and pronounced R-Can-Saw. Ah well, I bet
Americans can’t pronounce Gloucestershire.
Tam likes to get a bit arty with her photos.
We get the boat back to the Boardwalk where we have a discussion about where to go to eat. In the end we decide on trying the Crews Cup Lounge at the Yacht Club. Between us we have shrimp pasta, chicken with sweet potato and a club sandwich. I also sample a Tennessee Honey and a Red Stag Lemonade.
We walk back to
the Boardwalk where Sharon gets a taxi and we go our room for the
first time. It’s number 4001, which is about as far from the
lobby as you can get. I really don’t mind this. I know lots
of people complain about how far it is to walk, but it’s not
really THAT far and it gives a great view from the balcony back
across the Boardwalk.
We have to wait a little while for our luggage to be sent up, but
we are unpacked, showered and in bed by 11.20pm.