Disney World. October 2021. Day 5. Well the trip is basically over now.
Well, here it is, the last park day.
It feels like this is it for the trip, though Tzvi keeps saying we have a whole weekend left. Anyway, today is Hollywood Studios day! We woke up to some gloomy weather, but that certainly wasn’t going to stop us!
I was up early again to get a lightning lane, so I booked us all for Toy Story around 11:30am. At 9am sharp I booked Rise of the Resistance and even then the earliest time I could get was 3:45pm. Crazy. After another room service breakfast we headed out. The uber drop off is pretty far away, so it was a walk to get into the main entrance. As we walked in we passed the skyliner, which is a fairly new transportation system that takes you between Hollywood studios and Epcot and a few of the resorts. We’ve never ridden them and they don’t have air conditioning.
Well, we made it through security just in time for it to start raining! We scanned our tickets and made a dash for the stores. It was a little chaotic and Hallie kept whining that she needed to buy her Elsa doll right this minute. We said no, and headed over to the Frozen singalong. We had to wait for the first show, but at least you’re in a covered area. The show was good, a few updates from last time including multiple reminders to keep your “face coverings” on when singing.
Our next ride was the new Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, which is in the Chinese Theater where the Great Movie Ride used to be. The ride is totally redone and really great, I wasn’t expecting it at all. Madeleine was pretty scared, which took away some of the enjoyment, but we all survived. Like the new Ratatouille ride, this one is a “trackless ride” – it uses automated guided vehicles without any guide rails and are guided by wifi and GPS. It’s pretty different from the classic Disney rides that just roll along on a track. The ride also had portions where you enter a room and are in front of a massive screen that basically makes you feel like you’re in the scene you’re watching. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like Soaring (the Ratatouille ride had the same thing too).
From there we were off to Toy Story Land, which is always great. I knew Madeleine wouldn’t enjoy Midway Mania so I sent everyone else on while she and I walked around, except it started raining again. We were also kind of late for our lunch reservation, so I started walking there with her, except the woman who directed me gave me horrible directions so I had to walk totally out of the way. The rest of the family met me at the restaurant only a few minutes behind.
For lunch we ate at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. I think it’s supposed to be like you’re sitting in an old 1950s house and there are TVs everywhere showing 50s shows and the waiters are very in character, by which I mean they’re kind of rude to you. Anyway, I think we were all so hungry and cranky that we couldn’t really appreciate it. We all had Caesar Salad with salmon and we also shared an appetizer of onion rings (there wasn’t much on the menu for us). Madeliene didn’t eat her mac and cheese and Hallie just had French Fries. Balanced meals.
Because we were late we ended up missing our lightning lane for the Slinky Dog Dash. Tzvi was pretty depressed about this so after lunch he and I decided to run over and see if they would let us in. We started walking in one direction and my mom stared pushing the stroller in the other direction, but as soon as Hallie realized we were leaving her she jumped out of the stroller and fell down and hit her head on a railing (she was fine but a cast member who saw her went and got her some ice). Then she had a temper tantrum and I just walked away. Tzvi stayed to try and calm her down but that didn’t work, so eventually he left too. When we got to Slinky Dog I told them our lunch took a long time and they actually let us on the ride. Great ride.
From there we walked to Tower of Terror. Tzvi, Robyn and I rode first. Then we came back and my parents rode. We left them and of course it started to rain. Hallie was also still in a mood. We were just sitting under an umbrella when Hallie came to me and said she needed some “mommy time” without anyone else. She was right. Pretty self-aware. So she and I left everyone else and went to ride Toy Story and then the Alien Saucers in Toy Story Land.
Just before we separated it started to pour. Tzvi sat with sleeping Madeleine under a stroller until eventually my parents came to meet him. They were upset because I hadn’t booked them lightening lanes for Rock n Roller Coaster, except they weren’t eligible for it, and Tzvi was upset because he was sitting and waiting for them to come meet him and they were trying to get on a ride they couldn’t actually ride. Let’s just say tensions were high. Glad I missed that.
Tzvi and my parents and Madeleine went out to Galaxy’s Edge (Star Wars land). They were 45 minutes late for our reservation at Oga’s Cantina, the new bar that’s supposed to be like the bar in the Star Wars movies. They said they would need to wait a little because they were late, but the wait ended up being 45 minutes and by the time the table was ready Hallie and I were there to meet them. Well, the wait was not worth it. The bar is cool, but not 45 minutes wait cool. We had thought it would be really big and there would be multiple rooms to explore, but it was just one big room and we got a high-top without any stools, so we just had to stand there. The drinks were okay. Hallie had a good juice.
After that we went on Rise of the Resistance, the new Star Wars ride. I think that was probably the best ride of the whole trip. [Spoiler alert: If you don’t want the ride ruined for you and want to be surprised by it, skip the rest of this paragraph]. First, you go through an indoor part then are led back outside, where you’re loaded into a transport ship that’s supposed to be taking you to the rebel base (or something like that), except of course you get captured and stuck in a tractor beam. At first we were confused, because the ship is actually moving, but you’re not strapped in or anything – you’re just standing there. When the doors to the ship open, you find that you’re inside the hangar of an enemy First Order ship filled with stormtroopers (I guess the transport ship is an elevator?). From there you’re led into the next room, where you line up for the next part of the ride, but the cast members are totally in character and do a really great job. One came up to me and asked what was on my head (my Minnie Mouse ears). I said “ears.” She said “what kind of species has two sets of ears?” I said, “a Stephanie species.” She walked away and said “there is no such speices.” From there you’re led to a prison cell where the wall is then cut open and cast members who are rebel troops free you. Then the ride actually starts and you go through a whole trackless dark ride. I’d say it was the most immersive ride I’ve ever been on and was awesome.
After that Tzvi took the girls, and Robyn and I rode Rockin Roller coaster. It was great, but shakey. The guitar is covered up so I wonder if the rumors of a rebranding are true. Guess we’ll see. When we met Tzvi, Hallie had purchased her Elsa doll and Madeleine had a Chewbacca doll (and not a particularly cute one). Interesting choice. Apparently she latched onto it. Hallie also bough a snuggie. We don’t know why – she’s seen it in a few stores over the last few days and keeps asking for it, so Tzvi got it for her. It’s cute – a black blanket with Mickey heads – but we don’t know why she loves it so much.
We left the park and headed back to the hotel. Hallie asked why we were leaving so early (it was 5:30). Guess she’s gotten used to the late nights.
Anyway, today was date night. We got back to the hotel, showered, and got ready to head out to… Disney Springs once again!
Tonight’s dinner was at Morimoto. When we got to Disney Springs we had some time to spare so we walked around and shopped a little. Then we made it for our reservation. When we got in I requested a table upstairs and they said they were full. I asked if that was something I could have requested earlier and they didn’t really give me an answer. Then they brought us to a table that Tzvi didn’t like (it wasn’t a great table) and we asked if we could have a booth instead. Thankfully they said yes and that was actually very nice. It was weird – we had this reservation for months and they were almost acting like we were walk ins.
For dinner we shared edamame, a miso soup, a stir fried tofu medley and a kung pao cauliflower. Tzvi also had the Morimoto “buri-bop” (Korean-style yellowtail rice bowl served in a hot clay pot, finished with egg yolk) and a spicy tuna roll. So yeah, we had way too much food as usual.
I was so nauseous after dinner. Maybe it was all the salt? There was nothing we wanted on the dessert menu, so we decided to leave. We had originally planned to go the tiki bar at the Polynesia hotel, but when we called the Polynesian to try to find out about the wait, we were told that the only way into the Polynesian is with a dining reservation and the bar doesn’t take reservations, so basically the only way we could get there would be to take an Uber to the transportation and ticket center and then take a monorail over, and then there was no way to know if there was a two hour long wait for the bar or not. So we decided to forgo that and instead went to Paddlefish, another Disney Springs restaurant which is on a huge boat. We’ve never been there so it was cool to see. They seemed to be closing up, but still sat us for dessert. Our waiter seemed like a freshman in college and didn’t know much about the menu, but he was nice. We got a key lime pie and a cookie Sundae. Both were pretty good. Things were closing up after that so we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
Good day.
