The alarm went off at 6:55. A thought, “Why am I doing this to myself” ran through my mind before picking up the phone and booking a lightning lane slot for the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. After booking I snoozed for ten minutes before getting up, getting dressed, grabbed my already packed backpack and then went off to the dining hall to get me some pancakes which I brought to the bus station.
Since I’m staying at a Disney Resort I get early entry, which means I could get in at 8 instead of 8:30, hence no sleep-in. I got there about eight, it was as easy as yesterday to get in and I went straight for the big attraction Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. However, they had some technical difficulties so there were about 30 staff standing around the entrance encouraging visitors to go see another attraction because they didn’t have an estimate on when it would be fixed. One group of people had started a queue along a wall and just after I joined it a staffer came and stood at the “end”, telling people there was no queue. Another staffer came by and told us in passing to move along. We pretended to not hear him and remained standing in our imaginary queue. I guess they didn’t want people to assemble because it will just create problems. I would estimate that a couple of hundred were standing in various locations close to the entrance.
At 8:45 the entrance opened and in a rather orderly fashion, everyone moved into the long path that can house lots of people. Took about seven minutes just to walk all the way and I didn’t have to stop until at the attraction. The ride itself was great! Several steps with a good story of being captured and interrogated, most of the staff playing their characters rather well. I felt sorry for the small girl who rode in the same pod as me, she was terrified for most of the trip and the parents probably had to bribe her with some ice cream afterward. When exiting I could see that the waiting time now was 125 minutes. So my 45 minutes of rebellious queuing paid off.
Since I still had some time before my slot at Millenium Falcon I went over to Star Tours which wasn’t as exciting as Rise of the Resistance but quite fun. Kept walking around and looking at all the fantastic environment. The ride was quite fun and hectic, however, our crew wasn’t especially good so we got a quite low score. Fun that you actually could affect the outcome!
I slipped into Indiana Jones™ Epic Stunt Spectacular! and it was rather fun. I had expected they would explain more about how the stunts were done but it was basically a few scenes with fights, fire, and explosions. Fun to watch!
Went on to Toy Story Mania which I had booked a lightning lane for. You went around in a pod and used some sort of gun to shoot at targets. I was quite happy with my score of 163k, until I saw the best score of the month, 630k.
I got in line for Alien Swirling Saucers which was rougher than I expected. Not sure how much of a factor the rider’s weight is, where I bring quite a lot. Next, I found myself in Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy which was funny but really a kids’ show. The shows is quite nice because you get to sit in a comfy chairs. On the other hand I started to feel my lack of sleep. It would have been nice to tilt the head back and take a nap.
I did both Muppet*Vision 3D and For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration which both were entertaining. Especially the latter with an auditorium full of kids singing along to the songs.
Disney World has an app (of course) that sure can be a lot better, it crashes and the map is buggy. But it helped me around, giving waiting times, booking lightning lanes, and descriptions of the attractions. I do like that the park is so clean, there is a lot of staff. And in all attractions, they had prepared so you could bring your backpack. If the attraction was rough enough you got some sort of storage space!
The last attraction I had a lightning lane to was Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway which was more exciting than expected. I did a Star Tours again, got a bit surprised that the story wasn’t the same as before lunch and a staffer confirmed that the show was comprised of a bunch of sections that they could combine into different stories so you would be unlucky if you got the same show twice.
The Millenium Falcon had now opened up for single riders so I tried that which meant I got to the front right away, but I couldn’t choose what position I got, which meant I became an engineer who sits in the back when filling out a team of four or five.
I had a dinner reservation at 18:45 so I decided to get in line for Rise of the Resistance again, the sign said a 95-minute wait time. The guys I got behind didn’t think it would take that much time so they started a timer. I started an episode of 9-1-1 on my phone. After about 40 minutes of queueing, we got in. Afterward, I did a couple more of Millenium Falcon.
During the last runt, my phone started vibrating quite a lot and I was wondering who called now. It turned out to be an emergency alert from Florida state about a hurricane warning. I went to a Guest relations staffer and asked what I should do. Nothing really was the answer, however, the parks would be closed Wednesday and Thursday. The Guest relations office would be able to help me with a refund. So I set off to the entrance where this office existed. When I arrived I saw that the line was quite long so I asked a staffer outside if she could confirm that the park would be closed, because the homepage still said it would be open. Yes, it will be closed, so I joined the queue.
The guy in front just wanted to hand in an audio guide and the guy behind me wanted to rebook his park tickets so he and his family could get in on Friday instead. After about 45 minutes I got in and Giovanni (I think) helped me. Everything seemed straightforward at first, they would just downgrade my 3-day-ticket to a 2-day and I’ll get the difference back. However, since I booked through their homepage (mind you, the official homepage), he couldn’t “see” my credit card so he offered me a gift card on the amount instead. I stated that it would be basically useless for me, I don’t know when or even if I would return to Disney World. He checked again with his boss and they did an exception where they charged my card with $1 and then return the amount to the card.
I thanked him and rushed off to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant, the one place that Disney Tourist Blog recommended if you were to choose only one restaurant. The same blog where I did most of my research. Boy, do these guys seem to have spent way too much time and money in the Disney parks.
The restaurant simulates a drive-in cinema from the fifties, so you take your seat in a car and they show old short movies on a big screen. A quite nice contrast to the high-tech attraction I started the day with. Since I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast the burger I ordered went down rather quickly and after getting a t-shirt I took the bus back to the hotel.
Once back I asked the reception if I could shorten my stay one night, depending on that my hotel in Miami could take me a day earlier. Yes was the answer, just check out before 11 tomorrow. Great! I shopped for some supplies and then got back to the room and called the hotel in Miami. They couldn’t give me “my” room a day earlier but they had another so I will have to switch after one night. Good enough. The internet at the resort had stopped working so I postponed the blog post for another day and just watched the news regarding the hurricane and a well-needed early night. I haven’t taken care of my sleep, food- or water intake the last few days so this was probably good for me anyway.
