Geeky Pastimes
Mega Poster
Not going to do a full report as we were there for 7 days. But thought I'd share some of the interesting bits about being in Orlando over Christmas.
1. Rise of the Resistance was insane, easily my favourite dark ride now and I think it sets a new bar for how dark rides will be judged. We got to the park at 6.15 (stayed at Beach Club so we could just walk over) and got in at 6.50 and then got our boarding group of 65 at 7.01. Annoyingly we didn't realise until later that when your group is called you have two hours to return, so we stayed in the park way too long. The new Star Tours scenes were great, and Slinky and Tower of terror are always fun. Really good going on Rock n Rollercoaster now I've done Platform 13 on the Coasterforce Live, that ride is so much less boring in the dark.
We took the skyliner about and explored the new ugly Riviera resort and popped to Epcot for some food, then our group was finally called at about 2pm. From there we only had to queue about 40 minutes, the queue isn't that great but the pre show and ride are crazy. I won't post spoilers in this thread but it's incredible for a Star Wars fan.
2. The AMC cinema in Disney Springs is awesome. On our first morning there we went over to watch Star Wars on the day it came out and the cinema had massive reclining seats and a huge screen and was about 8 quid a ticket.
3. Universal at Christmas is crap. They really don't do much at all other than a few decorations and a parade that was cancelled due to a light rain. The park was heaving (although we got back on Hagrid with a 45 min queue advertised as 90) but there just wasn't much going on in the way of entertainment or special food, it was just a normal busy day. We had fun getting on some rides (the Fast and Furious pre show is surprisingly fun even though the ride is awful) but it wouldn't be worth a special trip.
4. Sea World at Christmas is pretty good. They had loads of festive food, a festive market, all the rides were walk on and the park generally had a great atmosphere. Getting walk on rides on Mako was great.
5. Disney parks are great over the Christmas period but Christmas day isn't any different. For us Christmas Eve was the busiest day, with some queues getting up to 5 hours (Flight of Passage) but Christmas Day wasn't too bad. They did some cool stuff after the 22nd when the Christmas parties ended, like putting snow on Main Street every night and having lots of characters about, but Christmas Day didn't have anything special. We went to all four parks and while we had a great day, it was all just the usual festive period things. Maybe they don't want people to feel like they have to go to the parks on the day for fear of missing out.
The parks were busy but nothing too crazy and with the fastpass system we got plenty of rides in all four parks. Festive Space Mountain was great because it was like having all the lights on, you could clearly see the whole track. Jingle Cruise was less amazing, just a few decorations and a different joke or two, but maybe our guide wasn't the best.
6. Epcot is a mess. There's so much construction going on, the main bit of Epcot is essentially closed now. There's a great hidden little room showing all the things that are being built, but with the refurb not expected to be finished until 2022, it's in a pretty tough state. The World Showcase is still amazing, especially if you're ok the dining plan.
7. Orlando airport was curiously quiet. We flew from Norwich via Amsterdam to avoid the Gatwick drive and for the first time ever, we didn't have to wait at Orlando at all. Straight through immigration and no delays on the way back. We normally hate that airport and on TV they'd said it was the busiest 6 days of the year for them but everything went so smoothly for us we were really impressed.
So that's it for the report. But if you have any questions or are thinking about doing it in future, please let me know!
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
1. Rise of the Resistance was insane, easily my favourite dark ride now and I think it sets a new bar for how dark rides will be judged. We got to the park at 6.15 (stayed at Beach Club so we could just walk over) and got in at 6.50 and then got our boarding group of 65 at 7.01. Annoyingly we didn't realise until later that when your group is called you have two hours to return, so we stayed in the park way too long. The new Star Tours scenes were great, and Slinky and Tower of terror are always fun. Really good going on Rock n Rollercoaster now I've done Platform 13 on the Coasterforce Live, that ride is so much less boring in the dark.
We took the skyliner about and explored the new ugly Riviera resort and popped to Epcot for some food, then our group was finally called at about 2pm. From there we only had to queue about 40 minutes, the queue isn't that great but the pre show and ride are crazy. I won't post spoilers in this thread but it's incredible for a Star Wars fan.
2. The AMC cinema in Disney Springs is awesome. On our first morning there we went over to watch Star Wars on the day it came out and the cinema had massive reclining seats and a huge screen and was about 8 quid a ticket.
3. Universal at Christmas is crap. They really don't do much at all other than a few decorations and a parade that was cancelled due to a light rain. The park was heaving (although we got back on Hagrid with a 45 min queue advertised as 90) but there just wasn't much going on in the way of entertainment or special food, it was just a normal busy day. We had fun getting on some rides (the Fast and Furious pre show is surprisingly fun even though the ride is awful) but it wouldn't be worth a special trip.
4. Sea World at Christmas is pretty good. They had loads of festive food, a festive market, all the rides were walk on and the park generally had a great atmosphere. Getting walk on rides on Mako was great.
5. Disney parks are great over the Christmas period but Christmas day isn't any different. For us Christmas Eve was the busiest day, with some queues getting up to 5 hours (Flight of Passage) but Christmas Day wasn't too bad. They did some cool stuff after the 22nd when the Christmas parties ended, like putting snow on Main Street every night and having lots of characters about, but Christmas Day didn't have anything special. We went to all four parks and while we had a great day, it was all just the usual festive period things. Maybe they don't want people to feel like they have to go to the parks on the day for fear of missing out.
The parks were busy but nothing too crazy and with the fastpass system we got plenty of rides in all four parks. Festive Space Mountain was great because it was like having all the lights on, you could clearly see the whole track. Jingle Cruise was less amazing, just a few decorations and a different joke or two, but maybe our guide wasn't the best.
6. Epcot is a mess. There's so much construction going on, the main bit of Epcot is essentially closed now. There's a great hidden little room showing all the things that are being built, but with the refurb not expected to be finished until 2022, it's in a pretty tough state. The World Showcase is still amazing, especially if you're ok the dining plan.
7. Orlando airport was curiously quiet. We flew from Norwich via Amsterdam to avoid the Gatwick drive and for the first time ever, we didn't have to wait at Orlando at all. Straight through immigration and no delays on the way back. We normally hate that airport and on TV they'd said it was the busiest 6 days of the year for them but everything went so smoothly for us we were really impressed.
So that's it for the report. But if you have any questions or are thinking about doing it in future, please let me know!
Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
