I found the car and messed with Google enough to keep me off of I-4 (NOT where I want to be in torrential downpours), and used the same International Drive route to get back to Disney that I had taken in the morning to get to Aquatica. I was pleasantly surprised by how little traffic there was. It was an easy roughly 25 minute drive back to Movies, and it miraculously did not rain. Apparently that storm was all over on the Sea World side of town. For now…
When I got back to the room I redid my bandaid artwork and relaxed in the air conditioning for a bit. Then I got my park bag ready and headed for the bus stop. It was time for an evening of food!
It took awhile but a bus came along for Hollywood Studios eventually. It was a relatively short ride there (10 minutes?) and it started downpouring on the way. But then the rain lightened up as the bus pulled into the bus zone, so I didn’t wrestle a poncho on right away.
When they redid the Hollywood Studios bus zone, they definitely did it right. I was able to stay under cover dodging rain drops for long enough to truly get out of the way. I really wasn’t excited about putting a poncho on in August humidity, so I found a spot out of the way, that was covered to check the radar and make decisions. In the end, the poncho won.
I headed for the entrance to the park trying to decide on my game plan. I’d gotten here later than I’d intended so I needed to recalculate a bit. In the end, I ended up in front of the Frozen Singalong just before it started, so I headed inside. Mom had told me I needed to see it.
It was fine. The two that lead the show were pretty funny and overall it was cute. The air conditioning was good. And the rain was completely over by the time I left, so once I exited and moved away from the building, I was able to put my poncho away.
Poncho wrestled back into my bag, I headed for dinner. Once I got near Mama Melrose I did online check in, and I got the notification that my table was ready just 5 or so minutes later. The staff was friendly and I was seated quickly, according to the hostess, at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Service here was good and they also seemed to be making it a point to stagger where they were seating people. I had the Mama’s Margarita (margarita that also involves limoncello) and the Mama’s Italian Pasta with chicken. The margarita was a little heavy on the lemon, but overall dinner was great. I was pretty excited that they brought me multiple rolls even though I was solo, and my pasta dish was nice and light with great flavor.
It was fine. The two that lead the show were pretty funny and overall it was cute. The air conditioning was good. And the rain was completely over by the time I left, so once I exited and moved away from the building, I was able to put my poncho away.
Poncho wrestled back into my bag, I headed for dinner. Once I got near Mama Melrose I did online check in, and I got the notification that my table was ready just 5 or so minutes later. The staff was friendly and I was seated quickly, according to the hostess, at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Service here was good and they also seemed to be making it a point to stagger where they were seating people. I had the Mama’s Margarita (margarita that also involves limoncello) and the Mama’s Italian Pasta with chicken. The margarita was a little heavy on the lemon, but overall dinner was great. I was pretty excited that they brought me multiple rolls even though I was solo, and my pasta dish was nice and light with great flavor.
Dinner finished, I headed straight for Runaway Railroad. The wait was posted as 45 minutes, and the line was physically long but it really never stopped moving. It was exactly 30 minutes from the time I entered the start of the queue to the time I entered the pre-show. All told, can’t complain about that wait. And I was glad that some of the charm of the interior queue was still there.
What to say about Runaway Railroad? It’s cute. It’s a little odd. It’s a lot disjointed. I definitely need to ride again to see if I understand it better. Next trip.
Runaway Railroad complete, it was time to head for Epcot. To save my very uncomfortable feet, and to theoretically save precious minutes, I decided to take the skyliner, figuring even with the transfer, it was probably quicker.
I do think the skyliner is quicker, if there’s a wait for the bus, which obviously is something you just don’t know. It definitely was quicker than the boats. It was a pleasant ride, with virtually no wait to board or to transfer. And the weather was cooperating. If it had looked even the slightest bit threatening weather wise, I wouldn’t have tried. The other bonus to the skyliner is that it dropped me off near World Showcase, which saved me a lot of steps, given my plan for the rest of the evening.
When I got to Epcot, I headed for the entrance to World Showcase. I was here to cross the last couple of items off my Food and Wine Festival list. First stop was the Refreshment Port for the Maple Boursin cheesecake.
This was fantastic. Seriously, excellent.
Next stop was the Odyssey building for the Brew-wing booth. I got a cider flight here. The building was nice and quiet and I found a great table in a quiet corner to enjoy my flight. This flight was better than the one at Appleseed Orchard. Still not the best, but definitely MUCH better.
Cider consumed, I checked out the Doughnut Box booth and decided I wasn’t interested in any of the options. So I made my way out of the park, stopping for a bunch of pictures along the way. Half the park may be a construction nightmare right now, but the entrance plaza is looking great, especially at night.
Pictures taken I hobbled to the bus stop, where a coach bus was actively loading. It left shortly after I boarded and pretty soon I was back at Movies, where I showered, facebooked, listened to the music on that Disney parks info channel, and eventually crashed for the night. It had been another great day!
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