I JUST missed a bus to Hollywood Studios, so I parked myself on the ground and watched the masses pouring into Animal Kingdom. I thought this was the quiet season! I also checked out the different bus wraps. They’re getting pretty awesome.
A bus came along eventually. The air conditioning felt amazing and soon enough I was cruising through security at park 2 of the day. This is where efficiency ended though. I got to the tapstyles and picked the shortest line. This turned out to be a terrible decision. There was a mother with multiple kids at the tapstyle. No big deal, or so I thought. You see, she wanted to use her Apple Watch to scan in to the park. But she hadn’t downloaded her tickets into her whatever they need to be downloaded to. She HAD ticket cards with her. But she wanted to use the Apple Watch. So it had to get squared away before she could enter. And I couldn’t easily move over, because the family next to me had come over from Animal Kingdom on the same bus as me, thinking they could park hop. But, from the sounds of it, they had the one park per day promo tickets, not hoppers. So that was also going smoothly…
Eventually I made it into the park and stopped for some picture taking to prove I’d been here.
Once the bored photopass photographer was done playing with Magic Shots and weird angles, I headed deeper into the park. Time for Mickey 2 of the trip.
The wait to see the “Hollywood Stars” was posted at 35 minutes. It wasn’t. It was more like between 15 and 20, which felt more than fair for the middle of the day. The line was outside but it was completely covered and had decent fans going so it was a pretty pleasant wait. This honestly would be a good spot to ride out a summer rain storm. Once inside, the process was really orderly. Meet Minnie in one room, then get sent down a very short hallway to Mickey. Then outside you go.
Mickey picture 2 taken, I headed off to Grand Avenue. Time to watch the Muppets 3D show, in case everyone’s fear that the new Monsters Inc Land will replace Muppets is true. I got there right after a show loaded, so I had to wait the full 10ish minutes, but, hey, it was air conditioned. Also, I got the full experience.
When it was time to enter the theater a lot of people missed the memo about stopping in the middle of a row being distinctly unpatriotic, but, I climbed over some people and found a seat, with some space around me. The show obviously was cute.
Show over, I took a couple pictures then headed towards the park exit, stopping for some more pictures with a more enthusiastic photopass photographer, who was all about the Magic Shots.
Picture taking done, I truly left the park, stopping for a “park 2” picture before I headed for the buses.
Thankfully the bus stop for Coronado was pretty close by and a bus was actively loading. I hopped on that and was back in my room minutes later. Apparently Coronado Springs is actually really close to Hollywood Studios. Back in the room, I took a much needed air conditioning break, then went for a quick swim. Have I mentioned how convenient the pool is to my room?
Once both my cell phone and I had recharged, I got ready for the evening and headed back to the bus stop. A bus to Epcot appeared a few minutes later, and I was off. It was an uneventful bus ride and even my entrance into the park was (finally) uneventful. Shortly after 5 pm, I was taking my park number 3 pictures.
And then it was time to decide how I was spending my time. I had a dinner reservation at 5:55 so I didn’t have a TON of time. In the end, I started walking towards World Showcase (is it still called that?), monitoring wait times along the way. As I got closer, I saw that the wait for Imagination was short, so I detoured there. It was a walk on.
After Imagination, I made the trek to Morocco. Once there, I checked in for my reservation through the app, then took a couple pictures.
About as soon as I finished taking pictures, I got the text that my table was ready. Time for dinner at another new-to-me restaurant! I headed inside Spice Road Table, where I was seated immediately.
This was another restaurant I’ve been wanting to try for awhile. It’s really hard for me to eat at actual restaurants in Epcot during festivals, because there are so many food booths to try, and this was the first time I’d been in Epcot without a festival happening in YEARS. So it was time. I had a great view from my table, of World Showcase Lagoon. I had the sampler platter as my meal, and got the dessert sampler for dessert. I had the Medina Mixer to drink. The food here is small plate/tapas style, so the sampler platter was some sort of chicken dish, a cheese and phyllo dough pastry and lamb kefta. The dessert platter was walnut cake, baklava, and an almond cookie (that tasted more cherry than almond). All of the food was excellent. The drink was very good. The atmosphere was nice. The service was…not the best, and the issue seemed isolated to my table. My server was very pleasant, when he interacted with me. But he was pretty inattentive. I had to flag him down for dessert, and my check, after an extended period of waiting and him walking by numerous times, with it looking pretty obvious that I’d finished a course. No other tables around me seemed to have the same problem with him. I would return to Spice Road Table; the food was excellent, and it seemed like generally speaking service was totally ok.
Dinner finished, I headed back towards the area formerly known as Future World, picture taking along the way. It was a really nice night both in terms of weather and low crowds.
Eventually I hopped in line for one more Mickey picture. The line for the Epcot character meat was posted at about 35 minutes. I think it took closer to 25 minutes. Here, they had a lineup of Mickey, Minnie and Goofy, and the attendants and photographers definitely had a system moving people from one character to another very efficiently.
Pictures taken, I wandered over to and through the big store, then headed for World Showcase. I snagged a spot in between the World Showcase entrance stores and Mexico along the water, and camped out until 9:00. This area didn’t fill in remotely close to how I expected, which was nice.
Luminous started promptly at 9:00. This was…significantly better than Harmonious, but still no Illuminations. I’d watch it again. And I really appreciate that visibility for it seems to be more like Illuminations was. Having to be in really specific spots to get a full view of Harmonious was my chief complaint with that show, and a real disservice to park-goers.
As soon as Luminous ended I high-tailed it to the monorail platform. I did well, and managed to easily make it onto a monorail before massive lines formed. Like my only wait was for the monorail to show up.
Once at the TTC, I transferred platforms, avoided an obvious protein spill, and hopped on the express monorail when it arrived. Again, I had minimal wait, and thankfully the trip over to Magic Kingdom was uneventful.
Getting into the Magic Kingdom was interesting. The fireworks had ended at least half an hour earlier, so the mass exodus was occurring. They literally had CMs directing traffic to allow those of us coming off the monorails to get through the crowds trying to leave. But, I was in the park a few minutes after hopping off the monorail. So all was good, and I took the requisite 4th park of the day picture.
Once inside the park, my mission was pretty basic…kind of. I had a Lightning Lane for Tron that was valid between 9:55 and 10:55. Since it was already about 10:00, I just headed straight for Tron.
Not to sound lazy, but I just have to say that Tron is a freaking hike from the entrance to Tomorrowland. Holy cow! But eventually I made it to the entrance (I thought). This would be my very first ride on Tron, so I made sure to get some pictures.
Then I worked my way towards the Lightning Lane entrance, passing the virtual queue switchbacks that were still filled with people. There’s no way those people will be off this ride before the park closes!
I cruised through Lightning Lane for awhile, so I ended up being on Tron about 15-20 minutes after scanning in. Not too shabby. Fellow guests were kind enough to explain the weird boarding system to me, and before I had too much time to overthink my decision to ride this, I was strapped into my lightcycle.
Tron is short (like literally a minute) but intense. I like Guardians better. I’ll probably ride this again with Nick later this week, but I don’t think Tron is going to be on my priority list most of the time.
Once I was safely back on land, I headed for the park exit, taking some pictures along the way, knowing that we would be trying to cram a LOT into our party night.
I left the park just before its 11:00 closing time. I don’t think I had to wait an excessively long time for a bus, and soon enough I was back at Coronado, where I showered and crashed hard.
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