Since I’m staying in Treasure Island, west of Tampa, and it was Monday and not the weekend anymore, I realized it would take a couple of hours to get to Orlando. Because of that, I got up early for breakfast and got on the road as quickly as possible. Left at 8:30 and after just around two hours I arrived at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort. Smooth check-in, parking rather close to the building I’m staying in, the football section (woho!). Just dropped off the bags in the room and then grabbed the pre-packed backpack and headed off to the shuttle buses that take residents to the parks.
I won’t get into details, but you have to first buy tickets, then you have to make a reservation per day to one of the four parks you want to visit that day. Anyhow, I had booked Animal Kingdom since I expected it to be the “fastest” one and I’ll miss half a day because of travel.
Security was almost nonexistent. Well, I passed a metal detector, but that probably lit up as a Christmas tree after all the stuff I brought. Tap the ticket from my Google Wallet and boom, I was in! Took a lap around the park and browsed the app to see what I should do. Most attractions had at least 30 minute wait time, something I probably just have to get used to. Got in line for Kilimanjaro Safaris, waited for about 45 minutes, and then went on a 20-minute ride in buses looking at different animals. Great guide and quite fun to see giraffes, elephants, rhinos, and many more.
Afterward, I found a hot dog stand, where I got my lunch 🙂 Kept walking around on and got in line for the new attraction in this park Avatar Flight of Passage. Wait time was down to 85 minutes when I got in line, earlier it was about two hours. Spent the time listening to podcasts. It was worth it though. Sat on something that was like a motorbike and then got locked in. Then the screen in front got lit up and we got a magnificent flight. It’s cool how much you can trick the mind by moving you around a little bit and playing a video in front of you. During the last dive, I held on for king and country.
I then went for another ride, this one warned you that you would get soaked. Kali River Rapids was a bit short but fun and even though I didn’t get soaked, I got a bit wet. Nothing new, my back was already soaked with sweat.
Decided I was done with the Animal Kingdom so I got on a bus to EPCOT instead. First I had planned to skip this one but the talk with the Swedes last night made me rethink that decision. When I checked the app there overall rather long waiting times, but Mission: SPACE wasn’t too bad so I got in line. You could choose between green and orange missions, where the latter would be more intense. They kept pushing for that fact when entering the queue, several times during the introduction video, and while waiting in different areas. A small kid backed out just before we were about to enter the pod. Since the Avatar ride was quite intense for me, I got a bit nervous. But this was clearly easier. You got a few G-forces (or simulated such) but it was alright.
I went on to Spaceship Earth which was a slow ride with a history lesson. Quite interesting and beautiful. Found my way to Disney Pixar Short Film Festival which shows that both Disney and Pixar have some creative artists that can create lots of fun and emotional short videos. Like this one:
At 18 a new virtual queue would open for the big attraction, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. However, by talking to “Guest relations” I realized it was only open if you were staying at a Disney resort (which I was) of a certain level (mine were too low). To be able to ride this particular attraction, I would have to be at EPCOT in the morning and I had booked Hollywood and Magic Kingdom for Wednesday and Thursday so I missed this one. I should have done more research…
At this point, it started to rain. Not a lot, just some drizzling. It was still warm so I just kept my cap on and moved around, while some took a run for shelter and brought out rain protection gear.
I went to do Soarin’ Around the World. Got placed beside a family with two kids who were screaming their lungs off, with joy. It was quite magnificent to see the different views and we got a couple of drops and dives. The kids loved it and their reactions made me smile and enjoy it even more.
I decided to stay and wait for the fireworks show at 21 so in the meantime, I tried to find some food. I’ve found out throughout the day that it’s more full restaurants (with long queues) than hot dog stands around the parks. Probably good for families, but not as smooth for a single guy on the run. Found some sort of Belgian food stand that had a stew with mashed potatoes and some waffles (two separate dishes…) which I grabbed and ate on the way to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. It was about an hour’s wait, but that passed rather quickly when I started talking with a guy from Alabama who was visiting with his family. We covered a bunch of topics, among other things Ukraine and Taiwan where we both found it interesting to get each other’s perspective. The ride was quite fun!
Found a good place for the fireworks show Harmonious. I filmed the first half of it, after that, I ran out of storage space on the phone.
The show was phenomenal and went on for about twenty minutes. Afterward I tried to walk quickly to the bus that would take me back to the resort. I figured it was a couple of thousand more that were going to the bus station.
The line wasn’t too bad but apparently, the first bus had a technical malfunction, so it had to be emptied and on to another one. The next bus came rather quickly though so I was back at the resort around 22. Luckily enough the dining hall was open until 23 so I could get a pizza slice and some soda as a late second dinner. I was really tired, so the second half of this post is written a couple of days later. Got in bed after midnight and set the alarm to 6:55 to be able to book a lightning lane ticket when they open the feature at 7.
