Everything I touch turns to broken. A fantastic Festival of the Arts Trip – January 2023 (Updated 6/22!!)

[VAtink]

The drink is so cute! Glad you got to enjoy a nice meal at Nomad. That view!! How nice getting to watch the floatillas go by.

It is seriously my favorite place in AK. One of these trips I need to make sure not to have anything scheduled for the afternoon so I can just sit there enjoying the atmosphere for the afternoon!

 

[VAtink]

Were you using a magicband+? Those do seem super finnicky with rooms! Although Ive had bad luck with the old ones too LOL

I was! I didn't even think it may have been the band, it worked on our trip in September, but who knows. With Disney's IT I wouldn't be surprised.

also I was constantly getting pulled aside for secondary checks in disney and I tested out a theory that maybe my major RBF was causing it. I always make sure to smile now and ever since I havent been pulled aside! its probably random and not even a thing but it does seem weird! lol

HAAAA!!!! OMG, I *almost* googled what RBF was, yeah, long day of work today.

I really wish I knew why I always seem to set it off. Maybe I'll try to smile more next time we're there!

Also, saw your post on instagram and just wanted to say congratulations!

 

[VAtink]

So fun! Love EE in the early morning!

Me too, I especially love how empty it is first thing in the morning!

Nothing better than a great safari.

Exactly! This was the best one I think I've ever been on, there was so much activity!

I have never seen the bitd show at the front of the park but I adore the one back in Asia.

It's cute, but pretty short. We'll only watch it if we see it happening or about to start when we're in the area.

Nomads is always such a treat.

It really is. I wish I were at Nomad right now!

What a fabulous morning! Nothing like leaving the park with a full rest of the day planned!

It was such a great morning, love starting the day at AK!

 

[VAtink]

Following!

thanks for following along!

 

[suse66]

It really is. I wish I were at Nomad right now!

You and me both!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 3: More FARTs Food Studios!​

After a nice break back at the YC, I was ready for more food!

I headed out at 5:40 and made my way over to Epcot!

Of course I stopped for photopass pictures on the way in!



My first stop was the Encanto Cocina where I got the empanada and the pina colada.

Food in hand I made my way to Morocco to find a table.



The flavors of the empanada were good, but it seems the one I got was a bit burnt, so it was overly hard which took away from it’s ranking.

The pina colada wasn’t my favorite, it tasted kind of like a cheap mixer.

While eating, the return times for MMRR finally got late enough for me to modify my LL for when I would be in the park. Seriously, HS must have been dead this day, most of the rides had return times within the next hour most of the day!

By the time I was done eating it was into my return time for my ILL for Guardians so I headed that way. At this point I have had all but one song, Disco Inferno, so my goal this trip was to get that last song!

This time on Guardians it seemed like 90% of the people in the preshow had been on it before since there was a lot of pushing and shoving to be on the right side of the room. It’s too bad they didn’t design it to have doors on both sides so you don’t know which side will open!



Once again I got September as my song. I’ve been on the ride now 11 times, and 6 of those rides have been September. At first I figured that maybe September was played more frequently, but I chatted with so many people this week who have had all songs BUT September. Even this day, when I got off the ride I went to go sit on a bench and call my mom and while chatting with her another woman came to sit next to me and when I was telling my mom that I got September AGAIN, the woman next to me goes “What! I’ve been trying for months to get September and it’s the only song I can’t get!” Seriously, I feel like it’s the only song I do get! HA!

After a quick chat with my mom I was getting hungry again so headed out for some more food. This time I stopped at Moderne and got the scallops.



Everything on this plate was delicious, except for the scallops. HA!

Seriously, they tasted like they’d been sitting out all day and were very fishy. It’s unfortunate since the rest of the flavors on the plate were stunning, and if the scallops were done well it would have been one of my top dishes of the fest! If I had a longer trip I’d probably try them again but earlier in the day and hopefully get a fresher dish, but alas, this was a super short trip!

Once I wrapped up with my food it was about time for my LL for Remy, so I headed that way.

The LL line was pretty long when I got there, a bit outside of the entrance. When I finally got to the load zone about 30 minutes later I saw why, only one side was loading!

It was a cute ride as always, but I’m not a fan of being a single rider on this one, the cars are pretty small and being three adults across it was a bit cramped with strangers!

After Remy it was time for park number three of the day!

Next up: After Hours at Hollywood Studios!​

 

[MamaMouse0920]

Catching up!

The woman at the front desk basically chastised me for not coming to the front desk after getting my room number alert, it was a bit odd. She said that once you get the room alert you need to come to the front desk to get your bands to work, I wanted to tell her this was wrong, but it wasn’t really worth arguing about. I just wanted to take a nap!

So I'm wondering if this is a new thing?? When I was at Coronado Springs last week I stopped at the front desk before heading to my room to ask a question and the woman asked me "are you planning on using your magic band this trip?", said yes and she said "okay your magic band will be good to go to open your door now!" as though she activated something.... You'd think Disney would advertise this new process though?

 

[2xcited2sleep]

So funny about the songs on Guardians. I feel like I "always" get I Ran, which I enjoy. I don't think I've had September. It is a great attraction, even if I'm still not 100% convinced it belongs in EPCOT. My friends and I always say that they need to invent some kind of cake toast treat and have a stand in that area. They'd make a fortune! Re: Ratatouille, it must depend on the cast member. I've ridden solo a few times and have (thankfully) always had the row to myself. I would not want to be squished in with strangers.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Everything on this plate was delicious, except for the scallops. HA!

Seriously, they tasted like they’d been sitting out all day and were very fishy. It’s unfortunate since the rest of the flavors on the plate were stunning, and if the scallops were done well it would have been one of my top dishes of the fest! If I had a longer trip I’d probably try them again but earlier in the day and hopefully get a fresher dish, but alas, this was a super short trip!

It seems as if the best food is right when they open in the morning. We had one of the empanadas when it first opened, and it was really good.

 

[Araminta18]

We got super lucky on our trip - got every song except "One Way or Another", in about 6 or 7 rides. I liked "everybody wants to rule the world" best, though I couldn't hear it as well as the others cause the other people in the car were teenagers girls just constantly screaming the entire time. I'm all for excited screams but man, it was just *constant*. Can't wait to go back in August and try again.

 

[VAtink]

Catching up!


So I'm wondering if this is a new thing?? When I was at Coronado Springs last week I stopped at the front desk before heading to my room to ask a question and the woman asked me "are you planning on using your magic band this trip?", said yes and she said "okay your magic band will be good to go to open your door now!" as though she activated something.... You'd think Disney would advertise this new process though?

Ohhh, I didn't even think about that. It seems so silly to make us stop by the front desk if we do mobile check-in, like doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of mobile check-in? Hopefully they get this sorted out!

 

[VAtink]

So funny about the songs on Guardians. I feel like I "always" get I Ran, which I enjoy. I don't think I've had September. It is a great attraction, even if I'm still not 100% convinced it belongs in EPCOT. My friends and I always say that they need to invent some kind of cake toast treat and have a stand in that area. They'd make a fortune! Re: Ratatouille, it must depend on the cast member. I've ridden solo a few times and have (thankfully) always had the row to myself. I would not want to be squished in with strangers.

Haha, it really is kinda odd how some people keep getting the same song! I seriously love the attraction, but I do agree it doesn't really fit Epcot. Although I guess at this point I need to accept the fact that Disney doesn't want Epcot to stay as classic Epcot. It's a bummer, but at least there is still a lot there I love. Now if only they could bring back Horizons!

I wish I had a CM at Remy who didn't make me ride with others! Although I guess since one side was down they were trying to pack as many people in each car to move the line quicker. Definitely an awkward ride to sit with strangers though, almost as awkward as being squished next to a stranger on 7DMT!

 

[VAtink]

It seems as if the best food is right when they open in the morning. We had one of the empanadas when it first opened, and it was really good.

I would agree with this. Definitely had better dishes at the beginning of the day than in the evening. I do wish I had an extra day to try the scallops again since everything else on the dish was sooo good! Maybe next year if I can discover 4 more vacation days at work!

 

[VAtink]

We got super lucky on our trip - got every song except "One Way or Another", in about 6 or 7 rides. I liked "everybody wants to rule the world" best, though I couldn't hear it as well as the others cause the other people in the car were teenagers girls just constantly screaming the entire time. I'm all for excited screams but man, it was just *constant*. Can't wait to go back in August and try again.

Wow, I'm impressed you got all but one song! I think I actually like September the best for songs (which I guess is good since I keep getting it ), but I also really liked Conga! I just hope I finally get Disco Inferno on my next trip!

That is so annoying about the teenage girls! I usually laugh the entire ride, but screaming for the whole thing seems like a lot, and kind of painful, that's a lot of screaming!

 

[VAtink]

Day 2, Part 4: After Hours at Hollywood Studios!​

We last left off with me heading out of Epcot.

I decided to take the boat over since I was really feeling the lack of sleep the night before and didn’t want to use any energy to walk.

The boat took a while with the waiting for it to arrive and the stopping at all the resorts, so I didn’t get to HS until about 8:05. I had a LL for MMRR that “expired” at 8:05, but I figured I’d still make it there in time to scan in during the grace period, which did end up working, phew!

The line here tonight was super long. I really dislike the way they set this queue up, so much of it is after the LL/standby merge point that even with the LL the wait can be so long. This evening it was about a 45 minute wait in the LL (even though it was posted at 20 minutes for standby)!

When I exited the ride, the movie projection show was happening, so I found a fence off to the side to lean on and watch. After it finished up I hung around and waited for the animation show which would start at 9.

I definitely preferred the animation show!

Now, this evening storms were supposed to be hitting the area from 10-1, so basically during the entire After Hours event. Since I wanted to make sure I got on Slinky at least once before the storms hit and it potentially closed, I booked it over to that side of the park once the animation show ended.

I got to Slinky at 9:16, and it looks like everyone else with After Hours tickets had the same idea! The line was pretty long, and half the people I passed while walking the queue was watching the radar on their phone

Even though the line was long, it was only a 20 minute wait, so really only ate into the official After Hours time 6 minutes. Not bad!



After Slinky I decided I should grab snacks since once again, storms were coming and I didn’t want to chance food carts closing or having to eat out in the rain.

I decided I wanted some popcorn and soda, but my goodness, popcorn was hard to find! I circled the park going from cart to cart until finally at cart #4 I found the popcorn!

This is one thing I didn’t like about the HS After Hours compared to the MK. At MK it seems like there are snack carts every 200ft, but at HS they are far and few between. I only saw 4 carts total! And only one of them had popcorn!

I also wasn’t a fan that the soda came in the paper cups instead of bottles. And the BIG cups, like 20oz. So basically if you only want a little bit before hopping on rides you have to throw it out instead of just bringing it with you in a bottle. Seemed like such a waste.

Once I had my popcorn and soda in hand, I went to find a table by a lake to enjoy.



You may be wondering why I’m holding the popcorn (ok, probably not), well it was soooooo windy this evening so I couldn’t put the popcorn down without it blowing away!



It was a nice break. While eating I checked the ride times, which hadn’t really dropped much at that point, most in the 20-30 minute range. This was surprising for an after hours event!

Once I wrapped up with my snacks, I decided to head over to Rise which was still posting a 20 minute wait, but I hoped they were just exaggerating the wait time at that point.

I arrived at the entrance to Rise at the same time as this mass of people, seriously like 75 people. I found out later that Rise had been down, so I guess it opened shortly before I headed over there so everyone apparently rushed over at the same time. Oops, not great timing on my part!

The wait ended up being 30 minutes, not bad for Rise, but not the walk-on that I’ve seen so many people report for the After Hours event.

The great thing though is I got the front row, and had the entire row to myself!

It was closing in on 11 when I got off Rise, and just as I was leaving it started to drizzle.

Since I was nearby, I decided to go check out Oga’s to see if I could get in.

I arrived at Oga’s just as the skies opened up and it started to absolutely pour!

The CMs at the door had me huddle under the tiny overhang with them while I gave them my name to be added to the list.

I then went to the side for about 15 seconds to wait before my name was called!

Oga’s was pretty empty when I arrived, a few booths had people in them and there were maybe 4 people at the bar, but that was it. I was brought to a standing table and my server came over immediately.

I ended up ordering the Gold Squadron lager which is my favorite!

The drink came out quickly and I spent time enjoying the atmosphere.





As I was there the place did start to fill up, guess a lot of other people decided to escape the rain there!

It was funny, while there, three groups were brought to my table to share, and all three of them ended up leaving after taking a look at the menu! Guess a lot of people don’t realize that this is just a bar, there’s not much in the way of food offerings! Also they didn't seem happy to be sharing a table with other groups. It was odd they were putting 10-12 people at the table while the ones next to us stayed empty...

I only had one drink while I was there since I saw the storm was moving off and wanted to get on some rides, so around 11:20 I headed back outside. At this point the rain mostly had stopped, it was just misting.



I decided to head over to Slinky to ride, but when I got there I saw it was broken down. I ended up chatting with a couple who also went to try to ride Slinky and they mentioned how frustrating this evening had been with rides being down they were only able to ride two rides in the first two hours of the event.

I felt bad for them until I realized that I also had only been on two rides since the event started! Yikes, that’s not good! (and technically I got in line for Slinky before the event started)

So yeah, in two hours I had done two rides, had popcorn, a soda, and a beer. Not exactly the ride-a-palooza I’m used to at After Hours events!

Since Slinky was down I decided to ride TSMM. This was basically a walk-on, finally! I think I waited like 3 minutes.

Once again a super fun ride! Although my score was awful this time around!

At this point I decided I needed some sugar to get through the rest of the night, so picked up a Mickey bar and a water and went to sit at a covered/dry table at Woody’s Lunchbox to enjoy. I also was stalking Slinky in case it opened!

Oh! And someone from here saw me in line for the Mickey bar and stopped to say hi! I feel like a total social failure since I was so exhausted I didn’t even think to ask her name, but if you’re reading this hi! It was really nice meeting you! Sorry I was so out of it this night, lack of sleep plus getting late in the night had me hardly functioning at that point!

Ok, back to stalking Slinky. Sadly, Slinky did not open while I was eating, so I headed over to ride AS2.

I was one of two guests riding this at that time! It was actually really eerie back in the queue where it goes near the trees and there was very little light, so I hustled through that section of the queue to get back to where people were!

Once off AS2 Slinky was STILL down, but they had started to run trains, so I hung around the entrance since I had a feeling it would open up soon. Sure enough, a few minutes later right around midnight they were open for business!

I rushed back and was on a train in no time! Wahoo!

The train was juuust pulling out of the station when it came to an abrupt stop. Uh oh.

We sat there for a minute, while the guy next to me made a joke about us being the test dummies for the first train back of the night!

Eventually the ride did go and it was so much fun!



I was off the ride at 12:15, and decided I wanted to grab a popcorn for the road so headed to the cart I knew had some.



Popcorn in hand I started to head out. I did pass Donald and Daisy on Hollywood Blvd as they were going in for the night, and passed Pluto a bit down the road as well, so it looks like they did come out for a bit after the rain stopped.

I was out of HS at 12:25 and decided to walk instead of take the bus. I really wish they ran the boats for After Hours!

It was a pretty quick walk and I was back at the YC at 12:42.

Fortunately at this time the lounge upstairs was quite so I was able to fall asleep!

While it was a fun night at HS, I do definitely prefer the After Hour events at MK. There just seems like so much more to do at MK, snack carts are easier to find with the stuff you want, and it’s really hard to beat getting pictures in front of the castle with no one else in them! So I’m glad I did this, but will be sticking to the MK After Hours. Funny enough, the reason I opted to do the HS one this time was because I figured getting home would be so much easier with the boats and not having to deal with buses. Well, jokes on me, the boats don’t run that late, so planning fail on my part. It wasn’t a bad walk back, but after such a long day my legs and feet weren’t thrilled!

Next up: A Day Dedicated to the Arts!

Stats:

Steps: 25,620

Miles: 11.08

Broken Things: Genie+, Remy, Rise, Slinky​

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Sorry you didn't get as many rides as you'd envisioned and that the weather was not fully cooperative but it still sounds like a fun evening. I've actually never done an after hours event -- between being an early to bed and early to rise kind of person and also usually being a day guest with an hour ride home it just hasn't worked out. I was just thinking that I need a return trip to Oga's. I got to experience it that empty back when Rise first opened and it was so fun. There's so much in background noise/narration that you miss when it's packed. And while I've had some fun conversations with people I don't totally love the sharing tables thing -- especially b/c they try to really pack you in. I wish that we had the food options that they do in CA. Not sure why we don't - maybe just the overall volume of business.

 

[Araminta18]

The line here tonight was super long. I really dislike the way they set this queue up, so much of it is after the LL/standby merge point that even with the LL the wait can be so long. This evening it was about a 45 minute wait in the LL (even though it was posted at 20 minutes for standby)!

One billion percent agree! And then it's like at 15 minute wait after the preshow, goodness gracious.

It was a nice break. While eating I checked the ride times, which hadn’t really dropped much at that point, most in the 20-30 minute range. This was surprising for an after hours event!

Right? There's an Epcot After Hours event going on during our planned trip in August and I'm on the fence, because I would want to go to ride Guardians over and over again and I assume the vast majority would be doing the same thing, and I'd be upset to pay that much money for 30 minute waits. Blargh.

While it was a fun night at HS, I do definitely prefer the After Hour events at MK. There just seems like so much more to do at MK, snack carts are easier to find with the stuff you want, and it’s really hard to beat getting pictures in front of the castle with no one else in them! So I’m glad I did this, but will be sticking to the MK After Hours. Funny enough, the reason I opted to do the HS one this time was because I figured getting home would be so much easier with the boats and not having to deal with buses. Well, jokes on me, the boats don’t run that late, so planning fail on my part. It wasn’t a bad walk back, but after such a long day my legs and feet weren’t thrilled!

Having done both as well (though my HS After Hours event was Feb 2019, so pre-Star Wars land), I would agree. I think they've started selling more tickets for these events than they should, and while MK can absorb more guests with all the rides that they have, at HS there just aren't that many. And even worse when rides are down! That's the worst.

Also really the boats had stopped running?! That surprises me. Bummer.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Disney needs to do something about the LL wait times taking as long as the standby lines. It seems as if the LL wait times are longer than the fastpast lines used to be.

You had good timing during your Oga visit. It feels like a big "win" to dodge a downpour like you did.

The one time we were caught at HS during a storm that stopped the boats, it was worthless to try to catch a bus back to the BC. The bus stop at that time was uncovered and we would have gotten just as wet waiting for the bus to show up as we would get by walking back to the resort in the rain.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Disney needs to do something about the LL wait times taking as long as the standby lines. It seems as if the LL wait times are longer than the fastpast lines used to be.

I think part of the problem is that some rides are going down so frequently and then everyone in line (both lightning lane and standby) get a return LL and they just get overwhelmed and never quite recover. I'm not sure what the answer is but it's super frustrating. We've "noped" out of a few seemingly extra-long LL queues. Although I will say that sometimes the length of the line can be deceiving as it can move fairly quickly. But "lightning" has certainly seemed to be a misnomer lately, more often than not.

 

[jdd]

Oh! And someone from here saw me in line for the Mickey bar and stopped to say hi! I feel like a total social failure since I was so exhausted I didn’t even think to ask her name, but if you’re reading this hi! It was really nice meeting you! Sorry I was so out of it this night, lack of sleep plus getting late in the night had me hardly functioning at that point!

Hi!! That was me I was so excited to see someone I recognized from the boards - it's like meeting a celebrity! And I'd also eaten too much ice cream so I apologize if I seemed a little frantic. (I was there with my 18-year old, and he was a bit embarrassed for me!)

We actually had an amazing night! We rode 11 rides in total (2 Rise, 2 MFSR, 2 ToT, RnR, Slinky, MMRR, TSMM, Alien SS) and that was just during the after hours part. We got there early and they let us in at 6:45 (tickets say 7:00, so that was a little bonus). We did Star Tours, MFSR single rider and ate at Docking Bay before the official start of AH. Also did a bit of shopping on Batuu.

There were definitely fewer snack stations than MK, but we did get bottled pop and water at the stand on Sunset Blvd. The snack line by Slinky was crazy long.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write your trip reports - I really enjoy them! And if I see you in the future, I promise to be calmer