WDW and Universal in 4 days

[Darth_Kedric]

I found this board while planning for our WDW/Universal Trip back in June, my girlfriend and I live in California and visit the DLR regularly, we know it up and down and enjoy it very much, same with Universal Studios. We’ve bought annual passes for both parks for the past 2 years and so we try to go to each park at least once every 2-3 months.

And so this is us (Natalie and Francisco):

I received news in May that I had to go to Minnesota for a family matter in September, and for that reason I was able to take a week off of work, however, I only needed half a day in Minnesota, what to do with the other 5? I joked to my girlfriend that if we found a good enough deal on a multi-city trip with one of the airlines that we would go to Disneyworld to celebrate her birthday as we couldn’t do it properly because of work and other issues, and my own birthday is on Oct. 11 so it would work as a birthday present for the both of us, she laughed because we both knew it sounded way too far fetched at the time.. but won’t you know it, a trip from Los Angeles to Minnesota to Orlando and back to Los Angeles was only 325 per person, keeping in mind of course that we would book 3 months in advance, my heart started racing and so I took out the calculator, I went to the WDW and Universal websites to check out ticket prices, and so all in all it was within our budget! I started checking out prices for hotels and rental cars in both Minnesota and Florida, and at the end we had 800 dollars left in our budget. We booked a Marriot Suites in Minnesota, and The Ramada Maingate West in Orlando. (More on that later and why you should never stay there).

 

[Darth_Kedric]

I surprised my girlfriend the following day with the ticket print outs to both WDW and Universal. She went nuts when she found out she was going to Hogsmeade and visit Hogwarts, more so than Disney because well, we’re also Harry Potter fans (she’s a lot more than I am) and we do have most of the WDW attractions in our own backyard, but she also got excited to visit the Animal Kingdom and Epcot. I started getting a little bit uneasy the next day when I mentioned to some of my coworkers that I was going, as the only thing that would come out of their mouth was ‘You’re only going for 4 days?? dude you’re going to miss on a lot, you need to take at least 6 days to fully enjoy it!’ …so then I started worrying whether we were going to have enough time, etc… so good ol’ Google pointed me into this direction, and after much lurking, reading trip reports, other board members experiences and what the best plan of action was, I grabbed a piece of paper, my trusty Mickey pen and drew out our plan… we would be arriving in Minneapolis on Sept. 26th, the matter that needed to be taken care of would be done on the 27th in the morning, which meant we would have the 27th and morning of the 28th free to do whatever, as our plane to Orlando would leave at 7:00 pm on the 28th we’d be arriving at 10:00 pm and then on the 29th we would visit Islands of Adventure, then on the 30th we would visit The Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. On October 1st we would go back and visit Universal Studios and then on the 2nd Epcot and The Magic Kingdom.

 

[Darth_Kedric]

Of course that I still had my doubts whether tat was a good plan and if crowd levels would prevent us from enjoying the best attractions, but as I read here, most of the crowd levels go down at the end of September, so that was another reason for me to be confident in our plan. Sept. 25th rolled around faster than we expected and we headed to LAX as our plane would be departing early in the morning of the 26th It was 2 in the am when we left, we live in Central California so it takes anywhere from 3 to 3 and a half hours to make the drive to LA, being that it was so early in the morning there was zero traffic on the 101 all the way until we reached Ventura County, there you could start seeing a lot more cars besides us. We reached our long term parking ramp 2 blocks away from LAX, checked in, gave the attendant my car keys and waited for the shuttle to take us into the airport.

Once we checked our bags in and got our boarding passes we were officially excited, we had to go to Minnesota first, but then we’d be in Orlando!! So.. going through security is always a hassle, there were many, many children ahead of us in the line, and their parents weren’t paying attention to what they were doing, so that caused us to get delayed and annoyed, I mean, its pretty easy, get everything out of your pockets, take your shoes and coat off, place it in a bin, push it into the scanner, wak through the metal detector… why is it so difficult for some people? After about 15 minutes we finally go through the gate put our shoes back on, gather our stuff and find our gate.

We had to wait about one hour for our plane, so we decided to take a little nap. The time it took from us boarding the plane to landing in Minnesota was about 4 hours, but it went by so fast! mainly because we were tired, so we slept most of the way, and it felt like a half hour once we reached our destination. Minnesota was amazingly warm, I remember around this time of year we start getting temperatures dropping to the 50's but it was in the 70's the 2 days we spent there. We checked in at our hotel, and for being an airport hotel it was pretty nice. We woke up early in the morning on Monday and went to take care of our business, we were done by 1 in the afternoon and so we decided to go have lunch.

 

[Darth_Kedric]

It was then that we remembered about Matt’s Bar in St. Paul!

The TV show Man vs. Food in The Travel Channel had a little spot about it and their famous Jucy Lucy, a burger with the cheese inside the patty, rather than on top, and so we had to find it and try it out!

I got my handy dandy nexus one phone out and we had our location within seconds, we were there in about 18 minutes and waited for our burger for about 20 minutes. It is an amazing burger, and very filling too! We finished eating at about 3 o’clock and so we had plenty of time in our day, but what to do?

My girlfriend has never been to Minnesota before, and so I was thinking of places where we could go that she might enjoy, but what else is there besides lakes and scrapbooking stores? Of course! The Mall of America, I didn’t even tell her where we were going, but as soon as she saw the sign outside of Macy’s her Jaw dropped, ‘That’s right! The mall of America is in Minnesota!’ as soon as we went in the first thing she saw when we reached the center was the park, she was completely amazed at the fact that they fit an entire Theme Park inside the mall, she was even more impressed when I told her that they even had a huge aquarium there as well.

We might have spent a good hour and half just at the park itself, but that’s because we also found a tent where they kept a bunch of butterflies that roamed free, where you can touch them, and see how they interact with each other, as well as to see how the caterpillars come out of their cocoon and become butterflies.

She was ecstatic, and mentioned how the smell reminded her of Disneyland, and so that got her even more excited at the thought that we would be visiting Disneyworld in just 3 days.

 

[Darth_Kedric]

We had dinner at Bubba Gump’s and headed back to our hotel around 8 pm, we took a little swim in the pool and called it a night, the next day we had breakfast, as it was complementary, and checked out around 10:30. Our plane wasn’t leaving until 6:30 pm so we had time to kill, so what did we do? We went back to the mall since we didn’t see all of it the previous night, we found a flight simulator, and tried that, pretty fun, but too much money for so little time, then we rode 2 of the rides at the park, had lunch at the food court, and bought some legos at the Lego store, she got Harry Potter, and I got Toy Story.

It was 4:00 pm so we decided to be in our way, as we still had to fill up the rental and return it to the terminal, and so there we were again, security at MSP is a lot smoother, and that could be because there’s a lot less traffic than LAX, so that was a nice perk, once we found our gate we each read a book, and waited for our plane to board.

 

[Darth_Kedric]

Our plane arrived in Orlando at around 9:30 we grabbed our luggage, located our rental car company and we were on our way! We arrived to Kissimmee around 10:30 and our hotel was pretty easy to spot, now, I booked the hotel way ahead of time before reading all the bad comments about how dirty it was, stories about the bed bugs, and how unfriendly and unprofessional their staff was.. Exactly about one week before leaving for our trip is when I heard all the negative remarks, I was hoping it was all just random cases of bad luck, but boy was I wrong….

The Ramada Maingate West is located within only a few miles of Walt Disney World, and there’s no doubt that the proximity to the parks is very convenient, but as soon as we got into the lobby, the first thing you notice walking in is the very strong smell of chlorine, it goes up all the way into your nostrils and hits you like a heavy rock on the face. We checked in, and the clerk at the front desk was the only friendly face we saw during our entire stay. The hotel only has 1 set of elevators, and it is quite big for only one location, our room was located to the very back, and it took anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to make our way from the lobby to our room, which would have been cut in half if only they had a second set of elevators. Once we hit our room the first thing we noticed where the huge stains on the floor carpet, I went into the bathroom and the toilet was dirty, the comforter on the beds seemed to be taken out straight from the 70’s, or maybe because they never replaced them since the hotel open. After the second night of our stay I woke up with a rash on my chest, I later discovered that it was a spider bite, the third night my girlfriend had about 6 or 7 bug bites around her ankles... we switched rooms but not without a fight, even after I showed the bug bite marks to the front desk clerk, they still didn’t want to accommodate us, it wasn’t up until I threatened to leave and cancel the credit card transaction for the remainder of our stay that they decided to give us a better room.. Sure it was better than the first one, but I’ve stayed at Super 8 Motels better than this joke of a hotel. What baffles me is that they still charge you a 10 dollar ‘Resort Fee’ for every day you stay with them, why can’t they better themselves then? They’re charging people extra fees to stay with them, yet they have crappy service and crappy rooms. The indoor pool was nice, the buffet was good, and the location is great. But don’t fool yourselves, all the horror stories are true and I would stay faaaar away from there if I were you.

 

[Darth_Kedric]

Surprisingly enough the hotel didn’t bother us that much, we were there for only 4 days and we were on a mission to have fun! We were only at the hotel to shower and to sleep, we spent our entire days (from 8 to 10) outside at the parks and that would have been why we were able to stay, although we have no plans whatsoever to book it ever again.

Wednesday came around and so our first day was spent at Islands of Adventure, the park opened at 9 and we were there at 8:30 waiting for the gates to open, once inside we had only one thing in mind, Hogsmeade. We followed the signs, we went through Dr. Seuss Landing, and then The Lost Continent without stopping even once, and then there it was in all its glory.

We had heard it before from many people who had been there before us, and it was true, once you’re standing at the entrance and see the snowy buildings in the distance you feel like you’re transported to that fictional world that’s pretty much real as soon as you see the Hogwarts Express to your right.

The shops are very well represented, and every single product is accurate to what the books and movies have portrayed, we didn’t know what to do first, my finger was stuck to the camera button and I must’ve taken 1000 pictures, my girlfriend did the same! and so then we went inside of Zonko’s and Honeydukes.

We found the every flavor beans, the chocolate frogs, the pumpkin juice! Which reminded us that we had to go get some butterbeer as well!

But then we both looked at each other and said Hogwarts! So we rushed uphill and saw The Three Broomsticks to our left, Ollivander’s to our right, but it didn’t matter.

Hogwarts was the ultimate goal and then we saw it.. And I can’t describe how the pictures and video I’ve seen before did not do it justice. It is truly amazing when you see it with your own eyes.

We looked at the waiting time for the Forbidden Journey and it was only 10 minutes, but we took our time letting people go ahead of us, we were so taken by the detailed walls, and scenery, it really felt like we were in the actual Hogwarts, we loved how the paintings were moving, just like the movies and they looked like actual paintings! There was no easy way to tell that it was just video or a projection, it felt magic! The ride itself is pretty amazing, is part simulator, part rollercoaster and they did a great job at making it seamless. The gift shop was just right there, but we had a schedule and plan to follow, play first, and buy merchandise the last day! We then went and rode the flight of the hippogriff, the ride itself reminded me of Gadget’s Go Coaster at DLR both for how simple it is and of course because of how short it was, but it was still cool, we got to see Buckbeak and Hagrid’s Hut.

We made a little pit stop to go to the bathroom, and won’t you know it! Moaning Myrtle talks to you while you’re in there!

It was then our turn to ride the Dragon Challenge, but my girlfriend is a little uneasy when it comes to hardcore roller coasters… She does get on California Screamin’ everytime we go to DCA so I tricked her and told her it felt just like it, she was so excited that she didn’t care, she wanted to do it and was taken on all the scenery along the way in the queue.

we rode the Hungarian Horntail first and as soon as we got off she discovered that it was indeed amazing, the adrenaline kicked in and she demanded more! So we went back in line to ride the Chinese Fireball and that ride may have made her a rollercoaster junkie!

We cut for lunch and we went to the Three Broomsticks, I ordered the chicken and ribs, my girlfriend got the fish and chips, and we both got a butterbeer of course! For being a counter service style restaurant I must say I was thoroughly impressed! The food tasted amazing and the butterbeer became an instant favorite! It tastes sort of like cream soda, and we both love cream soda!

After lunch we took a little break from Potter and went on to explore the rest of the park, we went to the 8th voyage of Sinbad show and loved it, not what we were expecting at all, but very entertaining, then Poseidon’s Fury, again we weren’t sure what to expect but it was amazing as well.

We worked our way down to Seuss’ Landing and rode The High in the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride, boy is that a mouthful! On our way out we got into The Cat in the Hat ride and it reminded us of the classic Disney rides, which we were going to be able to ride the following day!

We reached Marvel Super Hero Island and rode the spider-man ride and the Hulk, no complains, and no concerns from her this time, she had the adrenaline rush and she wanted more!

We went up to Jurassic Park and rode the River Adventure, exactly the same as our ride back in California, minus the falling truck just before you start climbing up inside the building.

As soon as we got out we spotted the Pteranodon Flyers and went for it, waited about 20 minutes just to find out that it was a kid’s ride once we were almost next in line, the attendants said we could ride if we had a kid with us, so we asked the people behind us if they had an extra kid we could use, luckily enough! They did! They had 2 kids that were planning on riding together, but they couldn’t because they needed an adult with them and so we had our ticket to ride!

We then went to the Discovery Center and played around for a bit with their dino-egg identifier and DNA-Mixer scanner thingy.

We made our way back to Toon Lagoon and rode Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls such a Splash Mountain clone, but fun nonetheless! After getting dry a little we made our way across the island to visit a bit of Universal Studios before they closed for the day and made our way to E.T. I couldn’t believe they still had it here! That was one of my favorite rides growing up in California, but they replaced it with Revenge of the Mummy in 2004, my girlfriend never got a chance to experience it and so there we were! She thought it was weird, the flower creatures at the end threw her off, and it just reminded her of Peter Pan’s flight, but at least she got to experience it!

It was getting close to closing time and we made our way to ride the Simpsons which is identical to the one in California, minus the part where Krusty takes you picture at the end, we kept walking and found the Men in Black Alien attack, we both love Men in Black so this was perfect! We went in to find out it was just like Buzz Lightyears’ Astro Blasters, we love this ride and this one was a good one as well, she beat me by like a thousand points. Once we got out we found out that the park was closing, so we walked around the Amity section keeping our eyes open to what we were going to do when we went back on Friday, we saw the San Francisco section and were very surprised to see how similar it was to the actual thing! We walked through New York and saw The Revenge of the Mummy ride; we loved how they made it look like a Museum!! So much better than ours! And then we made our way outside the park, we called it a night and went to the hotel to take a quick shower and go out to find some dinner!

 

[Darth_Kedric]

The next day we got up early in the morning because we were going to visit Disney! Our first assignment was The Animal Kingdom, the drive only took 10 minutes from the hotel and then we saw it, the Walt Disney World sign! We were so excited to be finally there!

I already mentioned that we go to Disneyland on a very regular basis; we sort of have our route mapped every time we go, and although we know the parks by heart, we’re very surprised that every time we go we find something new, be it at Main St, the castle, or the rides! But this time it was different, we were submerging inside strange territory, we go to the booth to get our tickets, and the cast member was so nice! She gave us a few pointers on how to maximize our enjoyment since we were there for only 4 days, she told us to avoid Epcot that day since the wine and food festival was kicking off that day and to instead go to Hollywood Studios since they would be closing at 9:30pm and we could enjoy Fantasmic as well. That was originally our plan anyway, but we were very glad to know the Cast members are always so helpful!

First in the Agenda was The Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Since we heard it from many sources here that early morning was the best time to go check out the animals, and we were so glad we did! We must’ve seen at least 10 different animals so close to the truck it was insane! The Lions were not so visible, but what do you expect, they’re cats they like to sleep a lot, once the safari tour was done we proceeded to follow the Pangani exploration trail and we were highly satisfied with it! We got a rare chance, according to the cast members, to see the gorillas being very active! They would put their hands against the glass so you would do the same! And they would stare at people’s hands up and down and then looking at us straight in the face! The cast members pointed out that they rarely do that, for the most part they try to avoid humans and show their back instead.

We were very glad to have done that and then we kept going as it was almost time for the festival of the Lion King! I admit neither of us knew what to expect out of the show but it was the Lion King! I must say it was one of the best show’s I’ve ever seen, the performers were superb! They sang amazingly!

After clearing out a few tears we looked at our watch to find out that The Finding Nemo musical was starting in only 10 minutes! Would we be able to run across to be there in time? We didn’t stop to think if we would! We took off and maneuvering through the seas of people, zig-zagging through strollers and loose little kids we made it! The Musical is very Broadway, we both enjoy that production style and Finding Nemo is a favorite of ours as well! win-win situation if you ask me! The performers were so good! The puppets were giving out emotion just the same as the people holding them! We were on cloud 9 for sure.

Once the show was over we decided to visit DinoLand and the first thing that caught our eye was the Primeval Whirl! We both love the Mulholland Madness rollercoaster at California Adventure, and this ride seemed pretty close to it.. so wait time was 5 minutes, we went in!

It was indeed just like the Mulholland Madness, with the added feature of spinning! We had a blast, then it was time for Dinosaur, we were on our way and we happened to see Goofy and Pluto taking pictures, with a very short waiting line, so hey! We got a photo pass, might as well use it! The pictures turned out amazing, and once I get the PhotoCD I’ll be posting them as well. Finally! Dinosaur was within feet, and it was our first ride with a line, 30 minute wait, and we thought about a fast pass, but we were only planning on going to Expedition Everest and the Kali River Rapids before taking off to Hollywood Studios, so we decided to wait it out, the queue was a bit entertaining, and it was kind of cool how they made it seem like a Museum, and before we knew it we were about to board! It only took 20 mins. or so, and then we saw the carts, pretty familiar, where have we seen those before??

The ride was pretty shaky, but fun! And then that’s when we realized it was just like the temple of the Forbidden Eye! I still think Indy’s better but Dinosaur did not disappoint. So it was close to lunch time and we decided to go find Expedition Everest and see how long the wait was, if it was too long we would fast pass it and cut for lunch, but what do you know! 5 minute wait! We walked through the Queue just glancing at the artifacts and pictures about the Yeti and before we knew it ‘How many in your party?’ I love hearing that phrase, because it means you’re about to ride!

The ride itself is amazing! But I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to see an animatronic depicting the Yeti, yes the moving shadow towards the end is cool, but I was expecting a big furry monster to jump at as and scare our socks off!

It was hungry time and we decided on the Yak & Yeti, since it was very close by and we were already submerged in the theme.

I had the stir-fried beef and broccoli and Natalie went with the Shaoxing Steak & Shrimp. The food was so good and tasty! The Restaurant’s theme and decoration was equally as good, for a moment there we thought we weren’t even at Disney anymore, but in some Asian country. I just love how good Disney is to transport you to different lands. Once we had our food we decided to ride the Kali River Rapids and since it was so darn hot we thought it was a good idea to get a little wet to refresh ourselves, the ride it self is just like a replica of the Grizzly River run all the way to the spinning boarding platform, I couldn’t tell what the differences were because is been a while since I rode the one in California, but to my knowledge they could be twins.

And so it was time to go to Hollywood Studios, but how to get there? We found a cast member and asked how we could get there, she told us about the bus, but then asked if we drove to the AK, she then told us that our parking ticket was valid for all parks on that day, that way we could take our car with us and not worry about coming back to AK to pick it up. Disney is pure genius!

 

[Darth_Kedric]

Arriving at Hollywood Studios the first thing we noticed was how easy it was to feel you were transported back to the 50’s! the entrance, the scenery, the music, the entire feel of the park was like a way back machine to a time where movies and glamour were an everyday theme.

First thing we did of course was find a photo pass photographer to get our picture in front of the hat, once accomplished we looked at our options and so our first option was the Indiana Jones stunt show, but we had 45 minutes until the next one started, so we walked towards Star Tours.

Even though it was closed, I was very curious to see the AT-AT at the attraction, and oh boy was I impressed! I love the detail on it, and the foot print on the floor! As well as the whole ‘Endor’ Feel to it!

I was very disappointed it was closed, but then remembered is only temporary, I will miss Rex though, that little guy always cracked me up.

We spotted a photo pass photographer by the speeder bike, and so we took a few pictures on it as well, we still had 30 minutes until the Indiana Jones show started so we looked over at the Muppets show and it was only a 5 minute wait so we went in, pretty entertaining as always! Pretty much the same to the one in California Adventure. Once we got out it was time for our Indiana Jones fix, the show was pretty entertaining, and I was very impressed with how realistic it was, the stunt actors do a great job, and I thoroughly recommend this show to anyone that visits the park. We then walked over to the Lights, Motor, Action Stunt show since we both heard so much about, and holly mouse! That show is hands down THE best live show I’ve ever seen! I’m not even going to describe it because if you haven’t seen it you need to experience it on your own!

Since we were right next door we walked over to the Studio Backlot Tour, which reminded us a lot of the Studio Tour at Universal back in California, same idea, same feel to it, it was good nonetheless. We went on our way towards Pixar Place and I must admit I loved the way they decorated this area, with the toys, the barrel of monkeys, everything was really neat, and so we wanted to ride the Toy Story Midway Mania, but it was a 60 minute way and the Fast Pass was gone, oh well, there’s always California Adventure. On our way down the Animation Courtyard we spotted the Journey into Narnia, it was a 10 minute wait so it seemed like a no brainer… holly waste of time!! That attraction is nothing but a recap of the Prince Caspian movie! I don’t understand why Disney is wasting precious space with a DVD showing? I mean, the broken stone in the center is cool.. but what if you haven’t seen the movie? that’s a huge spoiler! Needless to say we were very disappointed, next we wanted to go into One Man’s Dream, but it was closed.. By this time it was close to 7:00 pm and a show of Fantasmic was due to be shown at 7:30.. what to do? Fantasmic, or the Rock’n’Roller Coaster? Keep in mind that Natalie is still a bit uneasy with roller coasters, so she chose Fantasmic, but the line was so big! And by the time we reached the end of it Cast Members were telling us that the show was already at capacity, we were disappointed, but at the same time amazed that they were able to keep count how many people are waiting in line! There was another showing at 9:30 so we were ok with it, we walked over to the Rock’n’Roller, much to Natalie’s nervousness about it, and when we were finally there.. 120 minute wait!!!?? And of course no Fast Pass, darn it! Natalie does a happy dance and some mumbling about how it wasn’t meant to be blah blah blah.. so then I say, ‘Tower of Terror it is then’ her face went completely blank, see, I have never rode it before because it only opened in California in 2004, at that time I was going to School in Minnesota and went back to California in 2007, that’s when I met Natalie but she refused to ride any roller coasters until I convinced her to ride the California Screamin’ sometime in 2008. The Tower of Terror was a different story, I always wanted to ride it, but she wouldn’t go with me, and out of respect to her I didn’t go on my own either, she rode the tower when it first opened with some of her friends back in ‘04, but she had never experienced any rollercoaster prior to that, and she didn’t know what it was about, of course the free falling feeling, combined with her phobia for high places kicked in and she never let go of the bar during the duration of the ride, I think that makes it worse. I always say that to fully enjoy that ride you need to put your hands up in the air, you get the feeling of weightlessness and the ride is not scary at all but fun. After many ‘come on’s’ she agreed to ride it, but just because we were in freaking WDW and that was the original, and as she put it, she was doing it because of me, I couldn’t believe it! She was actually gonna face her worse fear and ride the Tower! I didn’t hesitate at all and we were in our way! Once we went through the Hotel Lobby I told her it was ok if she didn’t want to ride, but she was determined and went on forward! But once we were at the service elevator and they started grouping us into the numbers her fear started taking over and she started clinching onto my arm, that’s when I started feeling a little uneasy myself, was it really that bad? she was so scared of the ride that I started getting a little scared, but we were there already! The elevator came down and so we began boarding, we were on the very front with 2 other girls, and as the elevator started rising Natalie politely asked the girl next to her if she allowed her to hold onto the bar, she responded that it was fine, that she put her arms up in the air anyway, and so then started asking her if it was her first time, etc, Natalie then told her that it was actually her second one, but she hated the ride, the girl told her to not hold onto the rail because that made the feeling worse, and so once we were about to drop she put her arms up, I didn’t know what was going on because I was in a trance looking at the stars, the ghosts, the lightning out the window, listening to the narration, this ride is amazing!.. and so the fall came up as a surprise to me, and my arms went up on their own because of the force the elevator falls down with, once it started coming back up I felt the weightlessness and it was amazing! then down again, and up and the shutters open to let us see outside, and I suspect to confirm us that we were indeed falling down every time, and not just a simulation. Once we got down Natalie was so excited, she was so happy she got on it, because it wasn’t at all the feeling of terror she remembered, it was an adrenaline rush and she loved it! She attributed her newfound love for the Tower to the fact that she has been riding a lot more roller coasters, and her body was used to it now.. And so she was ready to ride the Rock’n’Roller! We went back but the wait time was still 60 minutes.. what?? It hasn’t moved! It was already 8:00 and we still had to go back to Star Tours to buy some merch, so we decided to do that instead.

I bought a Star Speeder 3000 with working lights and sounds, and most of Rex’s dialog from the actual ride, I figured that the original ride was now gone, so what a better way for a keepsake, at only 25 bucks it was a deal I couldn’t pass on, I also bought a Bobba Fett helmet, just in case I want to be him for Halloween, and 30 dollars wasn’t bad either, Natalie got a Jedi Mickey shirt and light saber chopsticks, as well as one of those mini figure packets for 5 bucks, she got Darth Vader, a Clone Trooper and what do you know, the Star Speeder 3000! Amazing. With our merch in hand we decided it was time to eat, so we went to see if the Sci-Fi Dine-In was taking walk-ins, and of course not, so it was close to 8:30 and we decided to go over to Sunset Boulevard and find something there so we could be close to stand in line once they started forming for the 9:30 Fantasmic show.
We both got a pizza at Catalina Eddie’s and so we stood in line for the show for about 20 minutes before we started going inside. We had seen the show at DLR before but somehow it felt different here, maybe because it is a bigger space here? It was 10:30 by the time we reached the parking lot and our feet were killing us! We decided it was time for bed.