Friday 28th October - EPCOT and Hollywood Studios
Another late morning after grabbing some pastries for breakfast at the food court and then we were off to EPCOT. We didn't have much planned for the morning there, just to go on the last few bits we hadn't done yet, and maybe the possibility of seeing what the queues were like for Test Track and Soarin'. Chelly wanted to go back to the gift shop in Mexico to get the crystal ornaments so that was the plan.
When we got there, the fastpasses for Test Track and Soarin' were much later in the day and by that point, we would be heading over to Hollywood Studios so we gave those a miss. I didn't mind too much as we had already done them, but it would have been good to do them again.
Up first then was Spaceship Earth as we hadn't been on that yet. It was very interesting to do as I hadn't been on the re-imagined version but not too much to write home about.
Afterwards we headed over to Mission Space as we hadn't done that either. I was a bit apprehensive as I hadn't been on it before, and had heard lots of stories about the green and orange versions. It wasn't the centrifuge that would have bothered me, it was the claustrophobic factor that they kept going on about. I thought I best give it a go, I'm sure if all the small kids in front of me would go on it, then so could I!
We opted for the green version to start off with, and we were all given our jobs. It was very cleverly done, but I was still feeling very nervous about the whole small spaces aspect of it. When we finally got on the ride, it was more spacious than I thought it would be so that relaxed me a bit, and I loved it all! I probably would've gone on the orange version if we had had more time but I was happy that I had tried it at all
We then wandered round to Mexico so Chelly could pick up some gifts for people and then we decided that we had probably done all we had wanted to do here, and that there was more to do in Hollywood Studios that we wanted to do, so decided to go over earlier than anticipated.
We tried to start using up all of our loose change in the vending machines at the bus stops by getting some snacks and drinks for our lunch, and there was a little wait for a bus to Hollywood Studios.
Once we got HS, we thought we would see if there was any fastpasses for Toy Story left (long shot!) but there wasn't. We kept an eye on the queue times all afternoon but they were very high that day (approx 80 mins at one point) so this is one we only ever did the once on our first day - it would have been good to do it again, but very glad we got to try it at all
Next on the list was to get a fastpass for Rock n Roller Coaster and by this point, it had started to rain. The queue time for this wasn't that long, so we decided just to wait this one out - I think it was something like 20 or 30 mins. Well they got this very wrong! We were waiting a lot longer and the time passed very slowly which wasn't so great but we were out of the rain. It was good riding this one again though even if it did take forever!
The next one we wanted to do again was Star Tours and the queue time for this was much shorter than it said, so not sure what was going on with the queue times that day! We had another version of the ride than the first day (can't remember which one unfortunately) but it was good to have a different experience.
After this, we decided to get a drink and sit down for a bit at Backlot Express while we had a think about what we wanted to do. By this point, the rain was really starting to come down which didn't really bother us.
We remembered that we had wanted our piccys taken with Phineas and Ferb, and that on the first day, the queue to see them was very long so we said we would come back. We thought if the weather wasn't great, the queues would be shorter. This wasn't the case! They had moved them inside a theatre nearby to their photopoint and there was quite a queue. This was something that we had all wanted to do, and as long as the weather was rubbish, we were quite happy to wait with all the children in the dry!
It was finally our turn for the 4 grown ups to have their piccys taken with Phineas and Ferb! They were really great at interacting and both gave me big hugs!
Ferb took me by the arm for our photos and we had a great time
My favourite character interaction of the trip!
The weather was still a bit rubbish so we decided that as we had done all the rides we had wanted to do (apart from Toy Story that still had a crazy waiting time) we would do a bit of shopping to get some gifts and bits for ourselves.
I went into the giant Sorceror's Hat shop to get some more pins...
It wasn't long before it was time for our ADR at the Sci Fi Dine in. This was a meal I was really looking forward to as I am a bit of a 50s retro geek so I couldn't wait.
We went in and were told that the big screen wasn't working (boooo) so we could change our minds about our meal if we wanted to, but this wasn't going to put me off, so we waited around for only about 10 mins and then we got called.
We walked around the back of the set and into the drive in area and I must have wowed out loud! It was amazing in there! All these cars all lined up in the dark - I thought it was amazing!! We were shown to our 'car' - Chelly and Si were in the front, and Andrew and I were in the back. The waiter came over shortly and said as the big screen wasn't working, they were giving everyone free milkshakes (result!) so that was great. He was another really great waiter - we had such a great interaction with him. He took loads of piccys with my camera and was such a laugh trying to get us to pose for the photos - he was a really great guy
I had a vanilla shake, Andrew had a Chocolate, I think Chelly had chocolate too and Si had the Oreo. Then for food, I had the Angus Chuck Burger as did Chelly I think, and I think the boys had the picnic burger or something similar. We were all too full up for puddings so we got the bill and headed out.
It had stopped raining and was a little chilly so we headed back into the shops to get a few last minute gifts including these awesome little tumblers I got for myself in
Pixar Place (matches my Rex Christmas Tree ornament!)...
I got some taffy for work and some other gifts for people, and the park was closing at 8 tonight - we had done all we had wanted to do so we headed back to the hotel and watched some more halloween movies on the telly.
We had arranged to the do VH check in at Downtown Disney in the morning and we had to be out of the room before 11 so I started to pack up a few things that I wouldn't need in the morning. It was very sad to be packing up already as it felt like we had only just got there, but I felt so glad that we had managed to cram in so much into a week! I felt absolutely knackered but very happy
we weren't long off to bed so we weren't up too late the next day...