It feels a bit surreal to be making notes on our Disney trip, with the park closed for who knows how long. Hopefully, our combined efforts to take this seriously early will be sufficient to keep our health care system from being completely overwhelmed. Our schools are closed until 4/20 (for now), so we have quite a bit of distancing ahead of us. At least we can read trip reports to kill time, right?
August Day Two: Hollywood Studios and Date Night (conclusion)
That face you make when you’re getting ready for a date night in Disney World
It was 4:20pm and our first order of business was quick showers and cleaning up the room a little bit. After several hours out in the August heat, that shower and change of clothes felt phenomenal. I had packed everyone two outfits per day for this trip because I wasn’t sure how badly we’d want a change of clothes. We didn’t use them every day, but I was glad to have them to start our evening out refreshed and re-energized.
The friends and the girls were headed to DS for exploration and a dinner at Raglan Road. They were using one family set of TS credits and having the kids share meals, so no extra out of pocket expense. While we were cleaning up, they were waiting for a DS bus at 4:37pm.
We were a little behind them, heading back out to HS at 4:57pm. We were in no rush to get sweaty all over again, so we opted to wait for the boat. While we did, it started spitting rain. The ponchos were back at the room in the stroller bag, but we didn’t want to run back for them and possibly miss the boat. Hubby and I weren’t worried about getting a little wet, especially considering it was only an evening trip and not a full day of touring. We were on a boat at 5:14pm and enjoying this view…
… and the kids had arrived at Springs.
While on the water, I was refreshing on mine and FW’s accounts (we had her backup MB in case we wanted to use snack credits) and grabbed at 6:10 FP for Star Tours. That meant we had ST, ToT, and RnR lined up between our 6 bands, plus the SDD rider swaps from earlier. Things were lined up for a pretty fun evening of adult park time. We arrive at HS at 5:31pm...
… while the kids raced their
Lego creations.
It took us all of 3 minutes to get into the park and stop for PP pictures...
… while the girls stopped for a picture of their own.
In case you can’t tell, they had
not opted for the shower or change of clothes.
They had a 5:45 ADR at Raglan Road, so they were then on their way to dinner.
B and C’s FP for RnR were open, so we headed that way first. The rain started to pick up while we walked up Sunset Blvd, but it wasn’t awful and we were on our way to an indoor ride, anyway. We tapped in at 5:38pm and I was able to get 7:15 FP for TSMM for their bands while we waited. We got through the preshow and loaded quickly, but then there was a significant ride delay. We were sitting there looking at the tunnel for a good five minutes. When you’re buckled into a coaster waiting for it to start, five minutes feels like an eternity. I was glad that we got stuck before we were really moving, though, because if we did get kicked off, we wouldn’t be using any creepily steep stairs to evacuate. Soon, they were able to get the ride moving again and we were on our way to the concert.
We were off at 5:59pm and came out to find that it was still lightly raining, but nothing terrible. The sky look somewhat ominous, but storm clouds in Orlando in August are standard issue. Our ToT FPs were open, so that was our next stop. The same CM who was monitoring the FP taps was also issuing
DAS and RSs which was causing a scrum at the FP entrance that briefly made it look like there was a big FP backup. Once we realized what was going on, we were able to tap in at 6:02pm. I immediately started refreshing on those bands (Hubby and A, in case you’re trying to keep track) and was able to pull a 6:20pm SDD. Is 6:01pm a HS drop time? It must have been that night because that’s crazy good luck. We were on our way into the Twilight Zone at 6:14pm.
In case you can’t tell from those grins, we were having a heck of a night. No kids, great FP luck, actually getting to ride with one’s spouse: what more can you ask for? Good weather, apparently. We were off of the ride at 6:21pm which was also when SDD when down for lightening in the area. Those FPS went anytime, which was theoretically a good thing for us. We could wait to head to TSL until our 7:15 TSMM time and then use what was now two sets of anytime SDD FP afterwards. We set out to use our next set of FPs for Star Tours. The rain still wasn’t bad, but the sky was looking worse.
It started properly raining as we got to the ride, which I figured was a good thing. We’d be on the ride for the 15-20 minutes of crazy downpour and be able to enjoy the rest of our night. We tapped in at 6:26pm and I picked up another set of ToT FPs for 6:55pm while we waited to board. I was hoping for AS2 as that would mean we’d FPed every ride in that park that night, but it wasn’t coming up in the short time I had to refresh before we boarded our spacecraft at 6:34pm. We narrowly escaped Darth Vader and got the Rebel Spy safely to Naboo.
We were back on Earth at 6:48pm and the storm had not done us the courtesy of clearing up. The dump shop was a mob of people waiting out the storm, but there was no way Hubby and I were going to waste our date night in a gift shop. We made it to the exit to find this.
It is incredibly hard to capture a rainstorm in a photograph, but this was a doozy. It was coming down in buckets, there were massive puddles forming in the walkways, and the trees were swaying like mad. After checking the radar, we saw that this wouldn’t be clearing out any time soon. I was regretting that choice not to go back for the ponchos but, honestly nothing short of a full wet suit was going to protect us. Hubby and I decided to be nuts and just go for it. We were both pretty hungry, so we were going to make a break for Tune-In Lounge to try their famed PB&J milkshake. Also in it’s favor was the relative proximity and the fact that we’d have to go that way to get to our ToT FP anyway.
We ran for it at 6:50pm and, at first, it seemed like it wasn’t going to be awful. Sure, we were getting wet, but we were only going to be out in it for a few moments before we made it to our destination. Then, I felt my foot hit a nasty puddle and dropped an expletive at the same time as Hubby. We both officially had soaked sneakers. Boo! I honestly don’t mind wet clothes all that much but wet shoes suck!!
A couple minutes later, we burst into a very fully lounge. Everyone who had finished their meals in the past thirty minutes appeared to have made it to the lounge and just stopped. People were sitting in every chair and on the coffee tables with kids sitting in their laps, the bar was full, and there was barely room to lean against a wall. Hubby headed to the bathroom while I put in an order at the bar for my milkshake. A family just behind me got called into their ADR so I managed to snag a seat while I waited. The milkshake was as delicious as everyone says, although I would have liked it better if I could have it while casually strolling through the park. We sat a bit just enjoying our drink, hoping that the rain would have the decency to wrap it up already.
I also took a turn in the bathroom, which was a funny experience in an of itself. On the one hand, there were several of us impersonating drowned rats who were doing our best to use the paper towels to sop up the worst of it. Then, there were the families who had obviously been in Hollywood and Vine for the length of the storm and had no idea what was waiting for them. One mom, with toddler in tow, took one look at me and said, “Wow, it must be really bad out there.” Gee, thanks! The towels were at least enough to get the worst of the water out of my shoes so that I wasn’t feeling a gush with each step. Every little bit helps, right? At 7:20 the radar still wasn’t looking good, so Hubby and I braced ourselves once again and ran for our ToT FPs.
While we were having our fun, the friends and the kids were having a miserable meal at Raglan Road. An hour after they were seated, they still hadn’t been served food and the kids weren’t having it. They eventually ate quickly and asked for their desserts to go. Of course, since the meal took so long, they also got caught in the crazy rain.
We made it to ToT at 7:25pm where our FP was entirely unnecessary. There was no one coming to the ride and maybe a dozen people total in the preshow room with us. Apparently, Hubby and I were the only nutcases who were traversing the park in the storm.
Ok, so it wasn’t that empty, they mostly filled our elevator, but there was no wait in the boiler room. All of us came out of the preshow and were immediately lined up for the next elevator. We were off the ride at 7:36pm and the storm had finally chilled out enough to just be a steady rain. We debated staying there and riding again, but the park was closing at 8:30pm and we wanted our chance to see TSL at night. While we headed over, I put everyone on Fantasmic FPs, save the two holding TSMM at 7:15pm. Announcements were being made over the loudspeaker the opening of the theater was delayed and I knew, if they full on cancelled the show, that would mean an anytime FP valid the next day. On the way to TSMM, we stopped for a rainbow selfie.
The rainbow seemed like a good sign. The rain was dying down, hopefully they’d have SDD back running soon, and in the meantime we were actually going to get to compete against each other on TSMM. When we got there, the ride was down. We hadn’t gotten a notification on our FPs yet, so I figured it must have just happened. We headed in the direction of the saucers, but they also weren’t running. With all of TSL shut down, we decided to just go back and see if the lines for RnR were as short as ToT had been. Before we could make the turn for the coaster, we saw everyone walking out of that queue, too. We heard snippets of conversation around us that ToT was down as well, so essentially the whole park was shuttered. I found out later that the friends and the kids had just missed a power failure in Disney Springs, too. They were on the bus back to the resort when the driver heard on the radio that DS didn’t have power. Their plan for night swimming was obviously toast, but FW had some card games that they played until bed.
At this point in our evening it was 8pm, so there were 30 minutes left of regular park operations. A small crowd had formed around a CM on Sunset, so we went to see what information he had. It turns out a lightning strike had caused a power failure in the park, which was why everything was shut down. He said they were hoping to have everything back online in about fifteen minutes but clearly wasn’t making any promises. Hubby and I decided to head back to TSL. If things did get back up and running in time for one last ride, we wanted that ride to be on SDD. There wasn’t a PP photographer out so groups were helping each other grab photos at the entrance to the land.
At 8:15, we heard SDD saying it was initiating a launch sequence and there were CMs walking around clearly performing whatever startup procedures were required. There was a group of maybe 50 of us in front of the ride entrance, just milling around and hoping. AS2 started running, but Hubby and I agreed we would be pissed if going over there to ride meant that we didn’t make it back to SDD before park close. At 8:20, a test car ran and everyone waiting cheered. At 8:23pm, they opened the line and Hubby and I were able to use the FP side to head straight to the front. They held us at the merge until they got the final all-clear and we were on a car at 8:25pm.
While we were listening to Wheezy serenade us, it was 8:28pm. Hubby and I agreed we were going to make a run for it and see if we could hop back in line before park close. Run we did, the CMs had to tell us to slow down, but we made it through at 8:29 and were downright giddy about it.
We got off at 8:38pm after official park close. We were on our way to grab a spot for the 9pm fireworks when we saw CMs directing folks into the SDD and TSMM lines. After the extended downtime, Disney was keeping the rides operating late! After briefly discussing a third ride on SDD, we decided to go battle it out on TSMM instead. We walked straight through to the loading platform and were ready to go at 8:43pm.
I won! Best date night ever!
We were off at 8:48pm and CMs were still waiving people into both rides. We briefly considered a third ride on SDD but we didn’t want to be late. The Galactic Spectacular was the only nighttime show we missed in the winter and Hubby in particular adores a good fireworks show. There were a couple of dozen people waiting for the show so we were easily able to grab a great spot directly between the two projection towers. We weren’t getting the full experience because the stage was still blocking our view of the Chinese Theater. I’m assuming the weather never cleared up enough for the CMs to move it, so we would only be able to see the projections on the top part of the theater.
While we were waiting, it started spitting rain again. Someone in the crowd jokingly called out to just get on with it already and got a lightning strike in response. I was worried that they would have to cancel with the weather, but the show went on. I don’t hear a lot about this show on the boards, but I thought it was outstanding. I love fireworks that are well choreographed with the music and you can’t ask for a better score. When the music hit a major crescendo and the fireworks joined in, it gave me goosebumps. Even more incredible, there were two major moments in the show where the pyro peaked and lightning struck right through the middle of the fireworks. I had never seen that before and it was gorgeous. What a way to end an evening in the park!
The friendship boats weren’t running, so Hubby and I were able to catch a bus back to Yacht Club. Normally, I’d prefer a nice walk in the evening, but I was worried that the wet shoes and clothes would land me with blisters or chafing to contend with the rest of the trip. I double checked and the eight Fantasmic FPs had converted to anytimes that would be valid the next day, too. We were doing
MNSSHP the next day and I already had plans for them.
When we got back to the hotel, we were looking forward to a late dinner at Crew’s Cup, the lounge attached to Yachtsmen. It was hopping at 9pm but we grabbed a table just as another couple was heading out. We had seen great reviews about a few of their offerings and wanted to try them for ourselves. Sitting down was the signal our bodies needed to let us know just how thirsty, hungry, and tired we were. I think I drank half of my water in three gulps. The service was slow, but the crowd was obviously at least double what they were staffed for. The prime rib sliders came out first and they were amazing, but we were both too hungry to even think of getting a picture before we devoured them. I did remember to take a picture of the star of the meal, though.
That is a warm, fresh everything pretzel served with a yummy mustard that would have been memorable if not for the incredible cheese dip, the stuff of late-night snack dreams. I honestly don’t think the picture properly demonstrates the sheer size of it: it was huge! We did our very best to do it justice, but even as hungry as we were, we just couldn’t finish it.
I actually texted the second pic to FW, who was happy to make it her own late night snack, too. We were back in our room, handing off our leftovers and saying goodbyes at 10:30pm. I managed to stay awake long enough to climb into dry PJs and brush my teeth, but I promptly crashed after another long day.
This park day wasn’t in our original version of the trip. We were just going to have hotel pool time, maybe visit monorail resorts or DS, and have one evening at MNSSHP. It wasn’t until EEMH were announced that we added regular tickets and thank goodness we did! Obviously, things weren’t perfect, what with the various morning delays, the insane storm, and the power outage, but it was also so much fun! The girls got to meet new characters, see new shows, and enjoy some of their favorite rides with their friends. Hubby and I had an amazing date night that we’ll never forget. Getting soaked didn’t seem ideal in the moment, but it was fun to run recklessly through the rain, laughing at the ridiculousness of it all as we went. I mean, whose date night at Disney gets waylaid by a full park power outage? This girl right here, apparently, and I’m so glad for it.
this is amazing!
