Just before leaving I discovered that the toilet in our room was blocked good and proper. Not good to deal with at any time alone here on holiday and when you are trying to go out for the day. The North American plumbing systems do leave a lot to be desired and this is not the first time I have had to deal with whatever Karen tries to flush away down the toilet. The less said about the previous ‘Toronto’ incident the better, other than it still provokes rows over who caused it and bad memories of the embarrassment and damage it caused.
I couldn’t shift the ‘problem’ and made the decision to leave it for now on the desperate hope that it would clear itself whilst we were out.
Although we were heading to Epcot we thought it would be fun to park at Hollywood Studios and get the Skyliner to Epcot. This new Cable Car Transportation system is newly opened and we were keen to try it out. It is all rather jolly, efficient and quick. It took us high over parts of Disney World that we had never seen before and we enjoyed seeing. We then entered Epcot through the International Gateway.
It had been such a while since we looked round the shops in the UK Pavilion that I could not actually recall ever actually going in there before but apparently we had done so. We went in to discover they were selling some strange things that were supposed to be representative of the UK like Jammie Dodgers. Sadly the British Tribute band were not playing today as I do recall enjoying watching them, although at that time they just played Beatles covers.
We then popped into the Appleseed Orchard Lounge in Canada where we sampled the Cheese Platter and Karen tried some of the Cider. The lounge was situated in the Theatre where they normally show the O Canada film which always used to make me laugh despite it bring dated.
Then we headed to Test Track where despite joining the Single Rider queue we all managed to sit together in the same car. I’m not sure how or why but a Brucie bonus.
This was followed by the less intense version of Mission Space. I cannot do ‘spinny’ rides as they seem to make my brain spin at a faster speed than my head. I also prefer the film in this version as it gets rid of that Space nonsense and instead you get a nice film of orbiting the Earth.
Neil then purchased from a stall a healthy almond milk Strawberry smoothie that came with a far less healthy donut plonked on top.
It was then time to go to The Land Pavilion and we rode Living with the Land which only had a minimal wait. This was followed by my favourite ride of the day – Soaring, Not only do I enjoy the film, but the seats are the most comfortable of any ride anywhere. I could have just sat there and rode it again and again. I do think that like some other rides it should have a random element to it so that you are not sure which parts of the World you are going to fly over making it potentially different each time.
From here we went to the Figment Imagination ride before heading back to the Food & Festival hub for Karen & Neil to have some more snacks.
By now I was really fed up with all food from Theme Parks, be it from the normal or specials menu. I was grumpy that it was all over priced and never quite what I fancied. I decided I would rather go hungry than eat something I didn’t really want for the sake of it. This is more evidence of the fact I have officially reached the age of grumpiness.
The plan was then to head to Hollywood Studios via the Skyliner. However this was not now running as there were storms in the vicinity. Instead we hopped onto a boat and took a leisurely ride through the Boardwalk Lake back to Hollywood Studios.
It was getting dark when we arrived and the Studios looked really pretty lit up with all the Christmas decorations. We stopped at Starbucks near the entrance to get Karen a coffee and then thought we would head over to Galaxy’s Edge which is the new Star Wars Land.
The theming was very impressive even if I didn’t have a clue what it all meant or represented. There was air of excitement from everyone else in the land and a sad number of people who had spent either $100 on building their own droid or even worse $200 their own light sabre. Even worse was that the fact that the majority of these were adults who should know better.
The only ride currently open in this land is Smugglers Run. We decided to try this by using the Single Rider queue and were almost immediately on the ride. Karen & Neil got on the same simulator whilst I was on the next one.
In my view it is just an interactive updated version of Star Tours and Mission Space combined. I had the role of Gunner but was not really sure what was happening. Still it was very well done and enjoyable. Undoubtably the best role to have on the ride is that of Pilot which means you sit in the front and get to steer the spaceship (if that is what it is), but to do that you would need to be in the normal queue, so didn’t have that option.
Karen & Neil enjoyed it so much that they choose to ride it again.
We then wandered around the rest of the Land and in particular the themed shopping mall which was really well done.
By now I was really hungry and succumbed to a toasted cheese sandwich from Toy Story Land. It was very nice for a theme park albeit still expensive for what it was.
From here we went and rode Rock n Roller Coaster with our Fastpass. Whilst the ‘back story’ with Aerosmith maybe getting tired, the ride itself is still terrific. We did have a good ride attendant who was answering back to the Aerosmith film which was very amusing.
After getting a drink we then went and got into position for the Star Wars Light & Fireworks Show. We had seen it before but it was still good watching it again.
Back at the Villa I was disappointed that the toilet was still blocked and so had to go straight back out again to Walmart to buy a plunger. I got a Super Vortex one which cost $15 which fortunately did the job. With some relief I am able to retire for the night will all plumbing functioning correctly.
