danimaroo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
Chapter Six: Test Track, BABY!
Day 2: January 18th, 2013
We decided it'd be best to grab Fast Passes, just to guarantee that we'd get to ride it once, so while I sat around and took photos, the rest of the gang grabbed FPs for all of us, with a return time of 9:50am!
You can see in the last photo of my update above Matt and Bruce in the background getting our FPs, haha.
Considering at this point it was already around 9:15 or so, this was pretty awesome for a return time.
We looked at the standby time and there was a very small wait, so we decided to hop in line, as well.
The new queue is very TRON-esque and futuristic. I have to admit, though, I kind of miss the old queue!
When the line finally stopped, I did what I do best, and took awkward photos of everyone waiting and chatting in line.
Including an out of focus shot of Amy, but a very in-focus shot of the lady behind us, hahaha.
As we moved along, we noticed the neat touch screen that you could mess around with to customize a car. It was a nice way to pass time, but we didn't spend too much time there since the line was moving forward.
Obviously with the new Test Track, they only let in so many people to the room to work on creating their cars, AKA the Design Studio. This causes a bit of a backup, because very few people fit in the car-creation room at once/there's only so many stations for car-creating. So we waited a few more minutes before we got to move forward...
More waiting means more ridiculous faces, courtesy of Matt.
Finally it was our turn to create our car. You have something like 5 minutes or so to create your car. Based on what is most important to you in the car, you make it look the way you'd like.
Or, you can go the route Matt and I went and make the ugliest car you could possibly think of.
The finished product:
Isn't she a beaut? Once we were done, we all moved on to the next part of the queue where we waited to board our car.
Now this is where the whole thing was kind of confusing for me. You're not building your car and racing it, you build a car and compare it to how the car you ride did. It's weird, and I don't think I necessarily understood the whole point of wasting precious Disney time on building some wonky car.
Oh, and you had a plastic card you were given to tap on an RFID reader before you got in your car.
Anyway, we got in, buckled up, and away we went!
Oooorrr not? There was no one sitting between Matt and I in the back seat and I managed to buckle my seatbelt into the middle seat's, hahaha. They stopped us and made me re-buckle.
Okay, after we fixed that situation... we were off for real!
So, the inside part was okay, but nothing spectacular. In fact, I'm still kind of scratching my head at why they felt the need to re-do Test Track in the first place.
Along the way, we were shown photos of what looked like images of other people's cars they'd created. What I didn't understand is why we weren't seeing the car we'd just built. I have no idea if this was a bug or something, but yeah, along the way, we weren't seeing our car pop up at all.
The outside part is always my favorite. I mean, who doesn't love going fast?! So I still majorly enjoyed that portion and it seemed like both Bruce and Amy did as well.
We got off and walked into the room where they show you how your car performed. Our ugly beast (we named her Betty) beat Bruce and Amy's pretty car, woohoo. We also had the option to email a video of our car to ourselves or something... but I don't know if that actually happened.
Anyway, we walked outside and Matt and I realized we needed to go get our PhotoPass+ card! We missed out on a ride photo on Test Track, so we figured we'd go grab it right then.
Bruce and Amy really wanted to check out Mission Space, so we told them we'd run over to get our PhotoPass+ while they rode MS.
These guys were performing as we walked by and oh my Lord, white guys who can't rap are just unfortunate. I stopped to take this photo and Matt told me he couldn't deal with standing there because the guy was so bad at rapping it was too awkward to even hear. He was embarrassed for this poor man and then bolted out of sight, hahaha.
If you haven't figured it out yet, Matt and I have a hard time with awkwardness/when people embarrass themselves.
After we escaped Awkwardtown, we headed off to the Photo Center towards the front of Epcot, and there was a mega long line. I stopped by Art of Disney to see about trading a Vinylmation (while Matt was in line at the Photo Center), but there was no trade box.
I headed back to the Photo Center where we waited for awhile because families in front of us were choosing photos to buy and didn't speak English, so they couldn't understand the CM... I don't know what was going on, but it was taking FOREVER.
I wish more people knew you could pre-purchase PhotoPass/PhotoPass+ because having to watch them explain to people what it was, etc. was annoying when all I wanted was to redeem our certificate. Plus there was only one person at the PP counter, and eventually a non-PhotoPass CM came by to help (which is an important detail later on in my TR, dundundun)...
With the PhotoPass+, you have to turn in a little certificate thing that has been sent to you in the mail, prior to your trip (if you pre-paid for it)... and they give you a lanyard with two plastic cards on them.
One is the PP+ card which you are to use for all attraction photos, and then other is a smaller card that is supposed to be punched out with the date that you start using your PP+ card.
You have something like 14 days to use your PP+ card in the parks, and they have to punch it so people don't try to just keep reusing it in the future or something... or maybe to prevent people from sharing it for more than 14 days? Not sure.
Anyway, we got our cards from the non-PhotoPass guy who was helping out, and then the actual PhotoPass guy commented on my camera saying, "Look at you, girl, that's a nice camera and lens!" Hahaha, he was cracking me up and SO friendly, even though he had a mile-long line to deal with. I ended up trading a pin with him, because I spotted an awesome FastPass pin on his lanyard!
We thanked him and then headed back out, and went to see what the wait time for Spaceship Earth was looking like.
The park was starting to get really busy, enough so that the wait time was 25 MINUTES.
Yeah, no thanks.
We decided to go meet Bruce and Amy, who told us that they both really enjoyed Mission Space. I don't like those gravity-type rides, nor does Matt, so we both were happy they enjoyed it, but were also happy we skipped it.
We all headed into MouseGear to do some shopping! We looked around for a bit, and Matt and I stumbled on the fabulous Epcot 30 t-shirt area. I picked out a blue one, Matt went with a green one, and you will see photos of both of these t-shirts later on in my TR, promise!
We also picked up Matt an awesome orange Epcot 30 lanyard, along with a mystery pack of pins.
As we paid for all of our stuff, I traded for some pins on the pin board on our way out.
We had Test Track FPs to use, so we headed back over there and went on it again. We had the option to create cars again, even in the FP line, but decided to just skip that part because we just wanted to get on.
This time Matt and I were in the front, and since we'd all figured out where the camera was, PLUS we had our PhotoPass+ card, we knew we had to get an awesome ride photo of us all.
Now, let's break this photo down for a moment. Bruce and Amy had the timing down right, opting for a silly pose together. Matt, on the other hand, apparently forgot where the camera was and just decided to go for the usual screaming face.
I am in my own REALM here with this face, because apparently it was my turn to make a really hideous face on a ride. Stand back everyone, Dani is in the game for making ridiculous attraction photo faces.
When it comes to our attraction photos, let's just say we have some real goodies coming in future updates.
Continued in next post
Day 2: January 18th, 2013
We decided it'd be best to grab Fast Passes, just to guarantee that we'd get to ride it once, so while I sat around and took photos, the rest of the gang grabbed FPs for all of us, with a return time of 9:50am!
You can see in the last photo of my update above Matt and Bruce in the background getting our FPs, haha.
Considering at this point it was already around 9:15 or so, this was pretty awesome for a return time.
We looked at the standby time and there was a very small wait, so we decided to hop in line, as well.
The new queue is very TRON-esque and futuristic. I have to admit, though, I kind of miss the old queue!
When the line finally stopped, I did what I do best, and took awkward photos of everyone waiting and chatting in line.
Including an out of focus shot of Amy, but a very in-focus shot of the lady behind us, hahaha.
As we moved along, we noticed the neat touch screen that you could mess around with to customize a car. It was a nice way to pass time, but we didn't spend too much time there since the line was moving forward.
Obviously with the new Test Track, they only let in so many people to the room to work on creating their cars, AKA the Design Studio. This causes a bit of a backup, because very few people fit in the car-creation room at once/there's only so many stations for car-creating. So we waited a few more minutes before we got to move forward...
More waiting means more ridiculous faces, courtesy of Matt.
Finally it was our turn to create our car. You have something like 5 minutes or so to create your car. Based on what is most important to you in the car, you make it look the way you'd like.
Or, you can go the route Matt and I went and make the ugliest car you could possibly think of.
The finished product:
Isn't she a beaut? Once we were done, we all moved on to the next part of the queue where we waited to board our car.
Now this is where the whole thing was kind of confusing for me. You're not building your car and racing it, you build a car and compare it to how the car you ride did. It's weird, and I don't think I necessarily understood the whole point of wasting precious Disney time on building some wonky car.
Oh, and you had a plastic card you were given to tap on an RFID reader before you got in your car.
Anyway, we got in, buckled up, and away we went!
Oooorrr not? There was no one sitting between Matt and I in the back seat and I managed to buckle my seatbelt into the middle seat's, hahaha. They stopped us and made me re-buckle.
Okay, after we fixed that situation... we were off for real!
So, the inside part was okay, but nothing spectacular. In fact, I'm still kind of scratching my head at why they felt the need to re-do Test Track in the first place.
Along the way, we were shown photos of what looked like images of other people's cars they'd created. What I didn't understand is why we weren't seeing the car we'd just built. I have no idea if this was a bug or something, but yeah, along the way, we weren't seeing our car pop up at all.
The outside part is always my favorite. I mean, who doesn't love going fast?! So I still majorly enjoyed that portion and it seemed like both Bruce and Amy did as well.
We got off and walked into the room where they show you how your car performed. Our ugly beast (we named her Betty) beat Bruce and Amy's pretty car, woohoo. We also had the option to email a video of our car to ourselves or something... but I don't know if that actually happened.
Anyway, we walked outside and Matt and I realized we needed to go get our PhotoPass+ card! We missed out on a ride photo on Test Track, so we figured we'd go grab it right then.
Bruce and Amy really wanted to check out Mission Space, so we told them we'd run over to get our PhotoPass+ while they rode MS.
These guys were performing as we walked by and oh my Lord, white guys who can't rap are just unfortunate. I stopped to take this photo and Matt told me he couldn't deal with standing there because the guy was so bad at rapping it was too awkward to even hear. He was embarrassed for this poor man and then bolted out of sight, hahaha.
If you haven't figured it out yet, Matt and I have a hard time with awkwardness/when people embarrass themselves.
After we escaped Awkwardtown, we headed off to the Photo Center towards the front of Epcot, and there was a mega long line. I stopped by Art of Disney to see about trading a Vinylmation (while Matt was in line at the Photo Center), but there was no trade box.
I headed back to the Photo Center where we waited for awhile because families in front of us were choosing photos to buy and didn't speak English, so they couldn't understand the CM... I don't know what was going on, but it was taking FOREVER.
I wish more people knew you could pre-purchase PhotoPass/PhotoPass+ because having to watch them explain to people what it was, etc. was annoying when all I wanted was to redeem our certificate. Plus there was only one person at the PP counter, and eventually a non-PhotoPass CM came by to help (which is an important detail later on in my TR, dundundun)...
With the PhotoPass+, you have to turn in a little certificate thing that has been sent to you in the mail, prior to your trip (if you pre-paid for it)... and they give you a lanyard with two plastic cards on them.
One is the PP+ card which you are to use for all attraction photos, and then other is a smaller card that is supposed to be punched out with the date that you start using your PP+ card.
You have something like 14 days to use your PP+ card in the parks, and they have to punch it so people don't try to just keep reusing it in the future or something... or maybe to prevent people from sharing it for more than 14 days? Not sure.
Anyway, we got our cards from the non-PhotoPass guy who was helping out, and then the actual PhotoPass guy commented on my camera saying, "Look at you, girl, that's a nice camera and lens!" Hahaha, he was cracking me up and SO friendly, even though he had a mile-long line to deal with. I ended up trading a pin with him, because I spotted an awesome FastPass pin on his lanyard!
We thanked him and then headed back out, and went to see what the wait time for Spaceship Earth was looking like.
The park was starting to get really busy, enough so that the wait time was 25 MINUTES.
Yeah, no thanks.
We decided to go meet Bruce and Amy, who told us that they both really enjoyed Mission Space. I don't like those gravity-type rides, nor does Matt, so we both were happy they enjoyed it, but were also happy we skipped it.
We all headed into MouseGear to do some shopping! We looked around for a bit, and Matt and I stumbled on the fabulous Epcot 30 t-shirt area. I picked out a blue one, Matt went with a green one, and you will see photos of both of these t-shirts later on in my TR, promise!
We also picked up Matt an awesome orange Epcot 30 lanyard, along with a mystery pack of pins.
As we paid for all of our stuff, I traded for some pins on the pin board on our way out.
We had Test Track FPs to use, so we headed back over there and went on it again. We had the option to create cars again, even in the FP line, but decided to just skip that part because we just wanted to get on.
This time Matt and I were in the front, and since we'd all figured out where the camera was, PLUS we had our PhotoPass+ card, we knew we had to get an awesome ride photo of us all.
Now, let's break this photo down for a moment. Bruce and Amy had the timing down right, opting for a silly pose together. Matt, on the other hand, apparently forgot where the camera was and just decided to go for the usual screaming face.
I am in my own REALM here with this face, because apparently it was my turn to make a really hideous face on a ride. Stand back everyone, Dani is in the game for making ridiculous attraction photo faces.
When it comes to our attraction photos, let's just say we have some real goodies coming in future updates.
Continued in next post
And that car you designed? Fabulous. You really should consider a career change!
I loved all of your pics at the Yacht Club though- we stayed there a few years ago and now I miss it!!
We carried ours a lot in 2012 but then this trip we just were lazy and didn't feel like lugging them.. We didn't get hot chocolate as much this time. wah. Hahaha, you would probably have to go hide in one of the corner areas to steal that soda. That would be awesome.
