The Huge "let's not burn ourselves out" Orlando Trip Report - Aug/September 2022

[Satanspropaganda]

To preface this, I am writing this on the flight home (September 11th) from what has been the most incredible trip of my life. A few people may remember my trip planning post a month or so ago and if so, I will be covering everything that went right with the plan + the amendments we made for QOL or when we spontaneously decided to do something different. I also found the balance in the itinerary to be okay on the burnout front, we did have one or two later starts than we had envisioned, however apart from that, we did everything we wanted to and more!

Friday August 26th - The longest day

Our alarms woke us up at 6am, we threw on our travel outfits and headed downstairs to spend the last few minutes with Lucifer (our tiny Pomeranian) before our 20 minute journey to the airport. Airport wise all was a breeze and at 9:10am we were sat on the flight facing down a 9.5hr journey to finally do Orlando like we’d planned for years.



Thankfully the flight was uneventful and went by quite quickly, especially the portion when I watched Everything Everywhere All at Once which I loved with every fibre of my being.

We landed in Orlando at 14:10 local time, at this point we’d been awake for a good 13 hours and needed a proper kick to get into gear to enjoy the day. We grabbed a LYFT after our 10 minute rendezvous with security and headed off to Universal’s endless summer resort.


THE MAGICAL FLORIDA WEATHER


After checking in, we looked out the window and the almost guaranteed daily storm was swarming! We were a ten minute drive from Velocicoaster and all of a sudden IOA’s lineup all showed “Delayed for Weather”. Not ones to be deterred, we grabbed our umbrella and headed in anyway for a spot of food and a few other rides.

After heading into IOA we decided to start on a high with Spider-man, still to this day one of the best dark rides I’ve ever experienced! The blending of sets, screens and physical effects was once again such a great combination and a real testament to what Universal can achieve when they think a bit outside the box. We followed this with Forbidden Journey, a similarly brilliant ride that I really loved this time around (last time I didn’t really feel like it all synced for me). Over our days in universal we did Forbidden Journey a few times and both love it so much.

We then followed this with Kong, which I thought relied a tiny bit too much on the screens within the tunnel scene, but overall was a fun ride.

After a spot of food the drizzly storm seemed to finally begin to subside…. Could it be time to ride some coasters? Thankfully the Florida weather was switching back to it’s only other mode and we saw some test cars across the water. We had an hour and a half till closing and at least two coasters to get. As I have covered in previous reports I suffer from a fairly debilitating chronic pain condition and utilise access schemes when I can to allow me to enjoy this hobby while not exacerbating my condition.

We figured based off historical queue times it’d be wise to tackle Hagrids first, so we headed to hogsmeade and experienced our first case of pixie dust for the holiday (is it pixie dust when it’s at universal?), the queue had opened and spiked to 1hr30, I asked for a return time and was told it’d be at park close! However because it’d been down for over five hours, they gave us single use express passes to allow us to ride it immediately. I genuinely was overwhelmed with joy, as covered in the planning thread, I was there on opening day and my ex made me leave the queue before riding it, so over three years later I was finally within those walls.



My god what a fun coaster! I avoided all POVs/spoilers for three years, no matter how hard that was and oh boy was I rewarded for it. The whole thing is paced brilliantly, has so many great interactions with the environment and is just a perfect tour through intamins bag of trickery. Intricately themed throughout and it was so great to see Universal use so man animatronics and physical effects again. I couldn’t stop grinning after stepping off it, it’s truly the best family coaster I’ve ridden.

However we couldn’t sit and bask in the glory of Hagrid’s, there was a rather more intimidating Intamin round the corner and we were heading for a night ride. We both adore Intamin blitz coasters, Taron has sat firmly in my top five ever since my first ride and Velocicoaster had us both giddy with excitement as we walked through the Jurassic Park gates…


I guess I’m just adding my voice to the many in the choir, Velocicoaster is an absolute blast to ride! We stepped off with ear to ear grins wishing that the park could stay open just a few minutes longer so we could step back on for another, the pacing is immaculate, the elements in the second half all pack a huge punch and my personal highlight is the roll over the water, it’s taken so gracefully but still feels incredibly forceful. The view across the park at night from the top hat is such a beautiful extra too.



Day one and my top ten has to be rethought… but it’s time for rest now as we’ve been awake for 21 hours by the time we get to bed.



August 27th - wait we got sun burn on day two?


As the more astute readers may have clocked over previous trip reports, Khloe and I are quite pale and dress in a rather exclusively all black wardrobe, Florida’s entire atmosphere is built to be hostile to us, however we decided to challenge that head on and go Volcano Bay to start our first full day in Orlando.

I won’t do a full write up of Volcano Bay, as with some of the following Disney days, I’m just going to hit the highlights, after all this is coaster force and we have some pretty super coasters to write about on this trip report!

I’m not a huge water park person, but after an amazing evening in Rulantica in 2020, I thought it’d be mighty rude to not visit Volcano Bay for at least a few hours while we stayed on site. We arrived just as our early entry hour kicked in and immediately were floored by the immense scale of the entire park. Having visited Typhoon Lagoon in 2019 I expected something along those lines, instead we were looking out across something I’d almost consider to be a third gate at Universal. We ditched our stuff and headed straight for the Krakatau water coaster before the virtual queues became crazy.



Being launched with LIMs when sitting in what is essentially a slightly suped up raft is a surreal sensation. Feeling the acceleration against your back is very odd and the whole ‘coaster’ is so much fun, we loved it. We then followed this with a tour of all the slides, ending with the truly a little scary body plunge slide that had us drop through a trapdoor from over 150ft and speed down the middle of the volcano! Very little makes me nervous any more, but stood looking at that pod was a little anxiety inducing, thankfully I went ahead with it and the feeling was exhilarating. We ended our adventure at Volcano Bay with a lap in the lazy river, after 11 slides we needed to bob around a bit. We then hopped the bus to the resort to make ourselves more presentable for the afternoons parks.

As a side note, the Tapu-Tapu system works brilliantly and we managed to do a lot in just a few hours! It takes a little prioritisation, but we spent barely any time stood around bored/in queues.

We stepped into Universal Studios around 2:30, just in time for the afternoons drizzle to kick in. So we decided the best option would be to go ride Gringotts, I remembered not being hugely impressed last time when I rode it, however that day was fairly tainted by a few other factors, so I was very excited to try it again and see Khloe’s response to it. As with last time the interior queue was incredible and we were incredibly hyped for the ride as we stepped into the carriage



Sadly luck wasn’t on our side, all was perfect for a few scenes, before half-time the entire ride system failed! Spinning locked up, projectors down, so we had a slow and steady lights on tour through the second half of the ride, which for obvious reasons, kind of spoiled the magic of it for Khloe. Thankfully upon arrival in the station, we were offered an immediate re ride once they had rebooted the projection systems, so we sat in the car for five mins and then off we went for a redo. This time it was perfect, everything synced up so well and it was incredibly immersive. Sadly it isn’t really a great coaster per-se, it feels like a slightly more exciting way to deliver a similar experience as Spider-Man or other screen heavy effects heavy rides.



We then did a few more studios rides such as ET and Men in Black before Rip Ride Rockit came back up and we could get the other major ride. After securing all our belongings, we marched up the stairs chanting ‘706 just one fix’ as our mantra so we remembered the code for the song we wanted. For all the flak this coaster gets (I will admit, it is weirdly profiled), we had a lot of fun! It was running pretty smoothly, the music gimmick is always nice when it’s a band you genuinely like and although it wasn’t anything earth shattering, it got us in for a re ride.



After a short ride on the Hogwarts Express (still such a great idea executed brilliantly), we ended up back in IOA for more night rides, starting with Hagrids, then Hulk, topping it all off with more Velocicoaster. Hulk was tonnes of fun, still a grey out machine if you’re in the front, some lovely intense inversions and the nighttime lighting package is great too. Velocicoaster was hauling all evening too, over a few rides we tried a few spots and found back row to be our personal favourite. A stunning coaster!

We then headed out through city walk via Voodoo doughnuts before resting up for Sundays fun. It was at this point we realised, no matter how hard we’d tried, we both ended up with some pretty spectacular sunburn from our time at Volcano Bay, less than 24 hours after arriving in Orlando!

Sunday 28th August - The split stay day
After getting up at a fairly decent time, we headed straight for Islands of Adventure for a few more rides on Hagrids & Velocicoaster before packing our bags and heading to our Disney resort. We grabbed some vegan pizza tots (wtf right?) and butterbeers en route to Hagrids and had a fantastic day ride on it. I do think that it works better at night as the jarring daylight into cave section isn't quite as startling, however it was still an absolute blast to ride.

Sadly though, luck wasn't on our side with Velocicoaster and by the time we were done with Hagrids, it was down due to technical issues! We stood around for a bit, but sadly it seemed it may be a few hours till it was back up. So we decided to make the most of the good weather and ride Dudley Do-Rights Ripsaw Falls!



I'd never ridden this or seen much about it before, however it turned out to be one of the most fun log flumes I've had the pleasure of riding. They also aren't kidding with the "YOU WILL GET WET" signs in the station, we left thoroughly soaked from head to toe! We then went over to do the Raptor Encounter near Velocicoaster (sort of so we could see if they were testing), but we had such a blast. The Raptor is very realistic and the handler making constant sarcastic jokes had us cracking up.



Thankfully we then heard a wonderful familiar sound from nearby not long after the Raptor encounter... So we dashed over for a final few rides on it! We 100% agreed that it's best in the back, however front row in the day was good fun too. It's such a brilliantly designed coaster and the themeing is so much fun in the night and the day.

After a quick pitstop for voodoo doughnuts we popped back into Studios for the final thing off our list, which was the Bourne Stuntacular. I had a few people recommend this and my god they were all spot on, what an incredibly designed stuntshow! So much fun from start to finish and a real incredible use of technology throughout. It really demonstrates the genius Universal is capable of if they put enough behind a project. After the show we headed back to the resort and ordered our LYFT to Disney to check in to French Quarter.

We checked in, grabbed our MagicBand+ from the lobby and freshened up in time for the fireworks at Magic Kingdom.



As I said earlier, I wont go too in-depth about the Disney heavy stuff, but that first sight of the castle flooded me with emotions. We had a bit of time before the fireworks, so we had some dinner and a wander around the park in the dark.



We decided our first WDW ride should be one of the older ones, so Space Mountain was Khloe's first Disney World ride. I forgot how much fun this is considering it's just a heavily themed bobled, but we had a great ride on it. We then had a little wander to grab refreshments before the fireworks started. I was a huge fan of Happily Ever After and although it's a little less emotionally charged, Enchantment is a fantastic nighttime spectacular. So many well timed elements and the addition of the Walt preshow really tied it all together nicely for us.



After the fireworks we popped round to do Seven Dwarves Mine Train (hard to photograph in the night), which was a lot of fun, the swinging of the carts always makes me happy. It's a great family coaster and I always try to ride it a few times. Following this, we went over to Haunted Mansion, my personal favourite ride, which was as always, just perfect.

We ended the night with a quick one on Big Thunder Mountain and then headed to bed, ready for a day in a Galaxy Far Far away the next day...

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Monday 29th August - A perfect day in a Galaxy far far away

We had a fairly decent night sleep after our hectic Sunday and upon waking, I managed to snag us an Oga’s Cantina reservation for park close at Hollywood Studios, meaning we could get to wander around in the dark after a cocktail. We had our obligatory (plant-based) Mickey Waffles, to which Khloe had their first real gripe with Orlando/America, the insistence on mixing Savoury and Sweet in any dish possible.

We then excitedly grabbed the bus over to Hollywood Studios and chatted over our hopes and expectations for Galaxy’s edge. For context, Khloe adores Star Wars in every way, they love all the films and all the content/worldbuilding, so Galaxy’s edge had to be our first proper destination when we got to WDW.



Upon arrival, we grabbed a DAS time for Rise of the Resistance and walked over to Galaxy’s edge via the Toy Story entrance so we had the more gradual change in terrain.
I so wish I had a photo of the look on Khloe’s face when we stepped through into the land, I’m sure mine was one of awe, but I seriously couldn’t begin to describe the sense of splendour they were displaying. The area is absolutely stunning, immersive from top to bottom and bustling with activity. I suppose it helps we were there on a quiet week as well, so when Stormtroopers/Characters wandered by, they weren’t mobbed, it felt more like we were actually in Black Spire Outpost than I could have imagined. We took a straight hour to just walk around and take it all in, taking photos, looking at details and Khloe taking great joy in explaining how elements in the land are from various elements of the Star Wars Universe (I do like Star Wars, but I am more of a casual fan).



We grabbed the obligatory Thermal Detonators after a bit, did a few photo pass spots and then headed over to Rise of the Resistance for our DAS reservation. Somehow, both of us managed, even through Covid, to not watch a single POV, ride breakdown or read a single article about it. We both wanted to go in blind, I’ve found every time I do this with a Disney ride, I enjoy it so much more, it often feels like a real adventure.

Over twenty minutes later we stepped off ROTR in a state of absolute disbelief. I don’t want to write any ride spoilers, as if anyone is waiting to go or has a trip planned, I implore you to leave it unspoiled and go in blind. However this ride is in a league of its own, Disney somehow used every single technology they’ve spent years perfecting and melded them all into one incredible experience. It is hands down the best dark ride I have ever experienced and I honestly don’t know if anyone would be capable of beating it anytime in the next ten years. At many points during the ride, Khloe and I looked at each other with just pure joy. It truly feels like you’re on an adventure in space in a way no-one else has managed to capture before.

After this we headed over to Smuggler’s run, which in hindsight, we should have done first. We both got tingles stepping onto the falcon, which was about the absolute highlight for this ride on it. The ride 100% pivots on your pilots and sadly, our pilots were abysmal. We did give them the benefit of the doubt and considered that piloting may be very tricky, however we went back to ride as pilots and absolutely aced it on our first try, two tiny collisions and that was it! The simulator is fantastic and once again a marked improvement from the likes of Star Tours (which we adore still), however it is best done as a group of 4-6 so you can communicate effectively to make it more of a group experience.

Still, sitting in the falcon’s cockpit was absolutely amazing!



After a solid three hours of Star Wars fantasy life, we headed out for a quick change of pace and wandered over to Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. I was very excited for this ride as I’m a huge fan of the new Mickey shorts and the pictures I’d seen of the design style for the ride and it was perfect!
I knew it was trackless, however that’s all I knew or had seen. Khloe didn’t know a thing about it, which made me so happy when Khloe was astounded that the train wasn’t actually a linked train!
Once again I will try to avoid ride spoilers, however this ride is just joyous. It’s so well designed and is made for rerides, even the preshow had us stumped on first ride, it’s all so well designed and thought out. Every ride we had a different sequence in some way and more little details for us to fawn over. I never got to ride the Great Movie Ride, however this is a wonderful use of the Chinese Theatre facade and a really fitting first Mickey & Minnie themed ride for Disneyworld.

We grabbed a snack and then it was back to Galaxy’s edge for our one big treat, we had a reservation at Savi’s Workshop! We didn’t have huge souvenir budgets, but this was both of our “must-have” souvenir from the trip, so we both prioritised it.
Savi’s is kind of tucked away and in the lore of Black Spire Outpost, it’s kept a guarded secret. We were just excited to build our lightsabers, not realising what we were going in for was an incredibly detailed and interactive experience that left us both stunned. The whole experience felt very personal and really special. In the end, we both made very different hilts, however we both chose red crystals!



We then went for a little wander to take pics with our sabers before heading back into the main area of the park for some classics. We firstly did Tower of Terror, which was, as always, just so great. We’ve ridden the Paris one so much I’d almost forgotten how much better the WDW version is. The hallway scene is just such a nice addition to the ride and the drop sequences we experienced were all so much fun. It’s such an odd feeling being automatically carted around in that elevator compartment and it really adds to the spooky feeling of the ride.

Next up was Rock ’n Rollercoaster, which I had kind of written off a bit mentally, I can’t remember why. However it was surprisingly really smooth and although the cutouts inside are a bit cartoony, really starkly showed how sparse/disappointing the theming for Flight Force ended up being.

As we exited Rock ’n Rollercoaster we were then faced with the daily storm, so we went over to meet Mickey & Minnie, which I always love. We then headed over to watch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show which I had missed last time, I didn’t know a thing about it and the whole bait and switch hit perfectly. It was a lot of fun and thankfully different enough to the Bourne Stuntacular that we weren’t disappointed with it.

We then headed out to our dinner reservation at Sanaa. When I booked this trip I wanted to make sure we ate at a lot of varied and nice places as we both love interesting food and Disney have really upped their vegan game in the last few years. The food at Sanaa was fantastic, however the star was the bread service, they even were now able to make a vegan version of the yoghurt dip that they always used to have to swap out. We left thoroughly stuffed and ready for a little more Hollywood Studios before bed.

We decided to take it easy for the evening as we’d had a full on few days, so we rode Toy Story Mania before heading back into Galaxy’s edge to end the day. TSM is a great example of a simple ride that everyone can build, but just done to that little extra Disney standard, tonnes of fun and we got fiercely competitive quickly!



We decided it was time for some night shots with our lightsabers, then we headed for our Oga’s reservation to have a drink before heading back. I cannot overstate how much fun it was to end the day in Oga’s Cantina, it was packed, the atmosphere was so fun and the interior of the bar is just immaculately themed. From the weird frog like creatures that lay the eggs (boba balls) for the drinks, to the glassware and of course, DJ Rex himself! We had so much fun, thankfully the cocktails were also delicious, considering the price, we’d hoped they would be.




We then headed out to the hotel, not without taking a few night shots of Galaxy’s edge before we went though. It was just such a great day!

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Tuesday 30th August - Mickey may not be scary, but he sure puts on a great Halloween event

We woke up a bit later on account of the late night we had ahead, we headed straight to Animal Kingdom to get the day started.



Upon arrival we saw that Expedition Everest was on a five minute wait, so we went round for a few rides! I love this ride so much and it was just as fun as I remembered. Although I wish they could fix the yeti, he is still absolutely terrifying in stature and I forgot how intimidating it is when you realise how close to the car he is. It was such a good start to the day and reminded me why I love this coaster so much.



We then wandered round to Pandora and took in the sights of the park. The character “cruises” add so much life to the park and it was so much fun to walk through the park and randomly spot a boat full of characters, or the drummers!



Once we’d had a few moments to take in Pandora (it’s still absolutely stunning), we grabbed a late breakfast/early lunch at Sat’uli Canteen, one of the absolute best quick service options to exist in any park. We both got the tofu bowls and my god they were delicious! I also tried a green beer that was brewed for the park that turned out to be quite nice, bit of an odd flavour profile but not a bad one by any means and worked nicely as a breakfast beer.

We then headed over to Flight of Passage which I was so excited for again. I loved it so much last trip and couldn’t wait for Khloe to experience it. The walk through to the attraction is also so great as it really feels like you venture far from the surface into a bunker. Sadly it seems FOP is having a few issues with wear and tear right now, a lot of double vision that kind of pulls you out of the immersion! It was still superb, but I felt bad that Khloe didn’t have quite as stunning a first time on it as I did a few years ago, they still left amazed, but it’s sadly in need of a little TLC.

After a pleasant ride on N’avi River Journey, we headed out, stopping by the Mickey & Minnie meet for another fun pic and then to the resort to get ready for MNSSHP.



I ran to Disney Springs to go get our free gift card while Khloe got ready at the hotel, then we met at the Magic Kingdom MNSSHP wristband exchange ready for the evenings festivities. I’d prepared a rough timetable for our evening with our main priorities up first and show timings to make sure we didn’t miss a thing.

We made a beeline for Jack & Sally as our first priority to be told it was a 2.5hr wait already! Thankfully we were informed they had just begun to allow DAS for this meet & the one for halloween Mickey, which was a godsend as my joints & other issues just can’t hack that long a wait anymore. We got a return time and then wandered off to do a little exploring in the daylight. We ended up meeting Merida, Tiana and Rapunzel just due to walking past when the queues were less than 10 mins for each of them. Merida was so much fun to meet and her area was really cool.



After our adventure, we wandered over to our reservation at Tony’s, which had an amazing vegan meatball main that we both enjoyed immensely. This had the added bonus of being right next to the Jack and Sally meet, so once we finished, we headed straight to our our DAS time for it. For the rest of the TR for tonight, I’ll gloss over details of meets as I know it isn’t super exciting reading, but I have to say, the Jack and Sally meet was just incredible. The build up with the scenery in the rooms leading to the meet is fantastic, then when they emerged round the corner to bring us in, it felt so magical. Both Jack and Sally were perfect, it felt like we were stood inside the film. Khloe had hand sewn a Sally corset & skirt for the party and Sally loved it so much. The whole interaction with them both was just amazing.



We then did a string of the Halloween meets, including Mickey, Minnie, Donald & Daisy. Following this, we went on a trick or treating mission! After all, it is a Halloween party, why not load up on candy? As a pair of vegans also with intolerancies, we had the allergy bags, however we also loaded up on skittles at each station as a lot of Cast Members kept a separate bag of them for vegans! We exchanged our allergy tokens for treats over in liberty square and though, while we’re in the area, why not ride our favourite ride? So we went for a quick ride on Haunted Mansion to catch the MNSSHP extras, the characters in the graveyard were great fun! However sadly upon getting to the loading station, the ride broke down and everyone was evacuated.



We’d missed out on the time for a ride as it took a while at Haunted Mansion, so we went and got ourselves a spot for the Halloween Fireworks. I absolutely love the nighttime shows at Disney and this was the absolute best of them in my opinion. The storyline was really fun, it being hosted by Jack Skellington was fantastic fun and then well… for a spectacular, they really did make sure it was spectacular. For this alone I wish we’d booked a second night of MNSSHP because it blew us both away.

We quickly went to meet Belle and Gaston, primarily for all the fun things Gaston says and it was totally worth it. Then it was nearly the end of our evening! We went to grab some refreshments for the parade, before getting front row spots for the second “Boo to you” parade. Sadly we were not quite in the right spot to get Powerline Max, however we had an incredible view for the parade.



My only Disney Halloween experiences are with Paris, who do a great Halloween event, however this parade blew it out the water. It felt like it would never end in the absolute best of ways. Every time a float came by and had us captivated, we’d turn and something even more amazing would be following it up. My absolute highlight however (slight spoiler so avoid reading if you’re not into that), is the Hitch-hiking ghosts float! I couldn’t stop grinning when I saw it come into view, the co-ordinated dancing between them was fantastic. The Gravediggers, Oogie Boogie dancing down the street, the pirate ship and all the Disney lot in their costumes were all also major highlights!



Once the parade finished, we only had fifteen minutes till the Hocus Pocus show at midnight, so we got great spots and sat down to let our feet rest. Considering what we’d already done this trip, I think we should have been more exhausted, even so, we were beginning to feel the effects of the long day pretty strongly by now.



Thankfully the Sanderson sisters were there to keep us awake! Keeping in the theme of every component of the night being my favourite of it’s type at a Disney park, this show was probably my favourite in park show I’ve seen. The Cast Members embodied every character perfectly and the writing was hilarious, as mega fans of Hocus Pocus, it was already everything we’d hoped for. Then out came the villains to assist the sisters and we were floored. Dr Facilier was so brilliantly cast, he felt like he’d be transplanted right out of the movie onto the stage, not to then mention the appearance of a dancing, singing, Oogie Boogie? The whole thing was a delight! I just so wish we'd managed to see it earlier in the night so we could have watched it twice as I was so stunned at moments I didn't take it all in.

With the finale pyrotechnics coming to a close, our evening at Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party came to an end. We wearily headed off to get the bus back to the resort for some much needed sleep having had, yet again, one of the most fun days we could have ever hoped for.

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Wednesday 31st August - Escaping the Disney bubble to find some fellow alternative folk

Unfortunately one of the downsides of Disney, is the dining reservations. We had a wishlist of reservations and some of them were not possible on the days we’d hoped, so we had to place them in slightly more inconvenient slots. In this instance, we were up and in a LYFT to the Polynesian at 8:30am after getting to bed around 1am, but it was the only day we could get an Ohana reservation! Thankfully the food was fantastic and woke us both up nicely (the sugar in the waffles and syrup probably helped).





The main plan for the day was a little light on structure, just to go back to Hollywood Studios to cross off a few more things and enjoy more Galaxy’s edge time. So we took our time getting ready after breakfast and headed into the park around 11. Our first port of call was Star Wars Launch Bay to meet the characters in there, which was great fun. It took around 20 minutes and we met Chewbacca, Darth Vader and BB-8. Whoever said wookie hugs are the best was 100% correct!





We only had a few remaining things to do in the park after Monday’s long day there, so we did a few re-rides, including ROTR, which had us floored yet again. Each time, we spotted more and more details that just added to the richness of the ride. This was also the day we got our chance at pilot on the Millennium Falcon and secured our place in the Galactic hall of fame next to Han and Chewie.

We decided to check out the Frozen sing along spectacular on recommendation of a good friend, not because of the show as a whole, but because of a particularly great cast member. Thankfully my friend was right on the day and that cast member more than made the show for us! The overall show was a little lacking for us, but this cast member (I believe his name was Justin) was hilarious, in fact the whole cast were great, just that the show is more geared towards families, rather than two adults in their mid twenties.



We also finally got chance to ride Slinky Dog Dash. I’d remembered loving it in 2019, so coming back to ride it 140+ coasters later, including many multi-launch coasters, was always going to be interesting. I am not sure of the general coaster community consensus on it, but once again I ended up loving it. It’s a perfect family thrill coaster for Disney, with all the theming around it plus Slinky talking during the ride, it’s just tonnes of fun all around. It’s obviously no Helix, however it’s still a great ride and I see why it’s so popular.





This day was one of the fabled 20 or so SLOW days at Disney World, which we thankfully planned our trip over the majority of. This allowed us to get solo photos with the Millennium Falcon and have some very entertaining interactions with Storm Troopers (including Khloe trying to pass off a used UK rail ticket as identification and getting in Galactic hot water). The queues across the park were very short (40 mins for ROTR), so we just wandered doing whatever took our fancy! Tower of Terror was obviously a must do, so was Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Star Tours and plenty of others. We also met Pluto somewhere along the way.

Dinner wise we went to the Sci-Fi Drive in Diner for one of the best burgers we’ve ever had (it had cashew cheese, portobello mushrooms and plenty of other goodies on it) in a really fun restaurant. They even did vegan shakes, so we had a proper diner meal in our little car booth!

It was then time for our evening plans, to hightail it to Orlando and see HEALTH and Pertubator on their US co-headline tour. HEALTH are one of Khloe’s favourite bands, so when this was announced for during our trip, it was a bit of a no brainer that we had to go!





We grabbed a LYFT there and upon arrival, we were surrounded by TOOL shirts, ripped clothing and new rocks, it felt a bit like home for us. The gig was absolutely fantastic and Khloe even got a signed vinyl from HEALTH! Overall a hugely successful evening in Orlando, plus it was nice to buy a few $5 drinks as I’d become so accustomed to Disney prices…

We headed the nearby 7/11 to stock up our resort fridge and then hailed a LYFT back to the resort to get a much needed longer nights rest.

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Thursday 1st September - Finally exploring Magic Kingdom


We truly didn’t have a schedule this day, so a lie in was more than needed. By the time we’d grabbed breakfast and headed into MK, it was around 11am and the park was… mostly dead!
The queues all hovered around 15-30 minutes apart from the usual two offenders, Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Peter Pan’s flight.

We started our day by heading to Pirates of the Caribbean, only to be sidetracked by a rather unoccupied Captain Jack stood nearby. After a fascinating conversation with him, a few fun pictures and a stern lesson on how to be a good captain, we headed onto the ride in fantastic spirits. I could barely remember a thing about the WDW version of the ride and absolutely loved it. Although Paris has a tiny bit more “wow” factor to some of the scenes, the story is a lot more obvious in the WDW one and the fact that they themed the ceiling made it a whole lot more immersive than the one in Paris.





We then were just in time to finally catch the normal Festival of Fantasy parade! A tip for anyone visiting Magic Kingdom wanting to see the parade, head through to Frontierland and wait near/opposite country bears, it’s less shaded, but you can get a front row spot without camping out for it. As expected, the parade was magical.



We then spent the day enjoying character meets and rides across Magic Kingdom, we caught a few character cavalcades as well! The whole afternoon flew by and before we knew it, it was time for dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. This was a bit of a must do for us, so although it was expensive, we found a way to make it work and had a lovely meal. The vegan menu wasn’t the most impressive compared to others we’d had on property, but it was still very tasty and the whole experience of dining in the castle was very cool.



I had decided as an absolute MUST, that I would get a Galactic Hero sticker from Buzz at Magic Kingdom. So we had a few rides on that and I finally got the fabled 999,999! It’s a lot easier to achieve on the WDW version than in Paris, but I still feel an unreasonable level of achievement.



We then continued on with rides & general fun into the evening before ending our fantastic day with another viewing of Enchantment. We headed back to the resort for benieghs and cocktails before bed.


Friday 2nd September - Epic times in Epcot

After another hearty Mickey Waffle breakfast, we finally headed to the last of the four WDW parks to ride the two newest attractions. We’d snagged a boarding group for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind at 7am and our time was going to be around 10:30am, so we were starting the day with a lot of excitement!



As we were a tad bit early for our boarding group, we decided to hop on Test Track to wake ourselves up before GOTG. We designed a moderately sensible vehicle as a duo and headed to test it out. I’d forgotten how fun Test Track is as a whole experience, the indoor bits have some really fun forces… however the launch was what got me! It feels so forceful, probably aided by the assault of the Orlando sun as you speed out into the open air, it had us both grinning from ear to ear.

Then it was time for Cosmic Rewind! I’ve followed the GOTG construction for a very long time and being stood in front of it felt a little surreal. Last time I visited the Gravity Building still had panels missing & some launch track visible!



We scanned in with our magic bands and headed up into the Wonders of Xandar pavilion, which is a really great way to theme/introduce the pre-show while keeping an Epcot/educational angle to it. The actual pre-show that it leads to blew us away. It’s a perfect combination of Imagineer magic making combined with a very fun IP/story.

Obviously the pre-show isn’t the reason we were there, but we had a lot of time to take it in as the ride broke down just when we went to leave the second pre-show room. I had a few moments during the trip where imagineers had me amazed, but the “transition” in the pre-show completely took me aback. Once again avoiding all spoilers more than paid off!



We finally got to step onto the station platform and Khloe immediately noticed how similar the track & car setup was to those on F.L.Y. Next thing we knew we were fastened in and off on our journey into the galaxy. I don’t want to spoil the ride for anyone, but it’s actually a fantastic coaster, not just a good one for Disney. Although theming wise inside I had hoped for it to be a bit more animatronic/setpiece based, I actually don’t think it’d make much of a difference. The way you speed through the “Galaxy” with rock music blaring is just so much fun, the forces are fairly full on for Disney, nothing super intense but quite sustained forces in some of the helixes. As for it being a “story coaster”, it does tell a story effectively without it stalling the pace of the ride like Gringotts.

In short, we loved it!

We then went on a wander round World Showcase, with very little planned for the day other than dinner we were able to just enjoy everything. Starting with the Three Caballeros in Mexico, I can totally see why people are wishing for a retheme as it is a bit quaint and heavily TV screen based, however it was really cute.

We then popped along to Norway for Frozen Ever After, which was really fun! It does feel obviously like a ride that got rethemed, but it’s well done and I love the interior of the station so much, the animatronics are really good too! Although being one of the earlier implementations of the projected faces, they’re more glowy/illuminated than the more recent ones. We then popped in to visit the Princesses themselves in their dedicated meet area, which was absolutely impeccably themed! It was a great meet and it was a lot of fun.



Ratatouille was about as wonderful as ever, maybe a bit more fun than the Paris version as all the effects all were working perfectly so it was the ride at 100%. We popped in for meets throughout the day meeting different princesses & characters while we wandered. We were so lucky to wander past one of the random Epcot character spots, which apparently only just started happening again the week before... which resulted in one of my all time facourite pics from this trip, when I got to meet Wendell!



Around 4pm the heavens opened, so we hopped onto Living with the Land for a little more classic Epcot in our life, before getting the bus to Wilderness Lodge for one of our most anticipated meals. We grabbed a drink at the bar and waited for our table at Storybook Dining. I don’t normally do Character dining, but we love The Evil Queen and the vegan menu they serve looked amazing, so we thought we’d treat ourselves to it. It was honestly such a wonderful experience, the theming to the restaurant, the fun meets and great food made it one of our absolute favourite meals/evenings we had on the trip.



After a drink or two, we headed back to Epcot to catch Harmonious… to see the heavens open, a hell of a downpour to start and watched the crowds flood out the park. We realised we may have mis-planned our Harmonious evening, as it approached 9pm, the “this evenings performance has been delayed” messages started getting played, while lightning and thunder moved ominously closer to Epcot.



Thankfully it started clearing and we saw the sight of Mickey’s Spooktacular starting in the distance (we were so thankful we chose a different night for MNSSHP). The “this evenings performance will start in just a few minutes” announcements kicked off and we had a front row view for Harmonious. We adored it, although the barges are an eyesore in the day, the actual show was a spectacle. We spent ages just aghast at the amount of fireworks stored in the arms of the barges, let alone the rest of the elements. The reimagined music was fantastically done and we left with a really lovely afterglow feeling from it. Another (almost) perfect day.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

We had no idea about the pre show, and it completely blew us away with that transition!!!

Not knowing it happened meant we weren’t aware of how it was done, nor were we looking for how it was done, (until the second ride) so we genuinely just had no idea and were left gobsmacked!!!

I still maintain that sith life suits you!!!

Also, how’d you manage to navigate Disney, and keep notes for such an excellent report, or is your memory just that good?

 

[Howie]

Great reporting fella, sounds like a fab trip.
I was particularly intrigued by this sentence:

This day was one of the fabled 20 or so SLOW days at Disney World

Tell me, kind sir, where would I find a list of these Disney World slow days? The one thing that always puts me off visiting the House of Mouse is the prospect of all those hideous crowds and all that faffy ride-reservation nonsense. You just wanna rock up and ride stuff, innit.

 

[Nicky Borrill]

Great reporting fella, sounds like a fab trip.
I was particularly intrigued by this sentence:



Tell me, kind sir, where would I find a list of these Disney World slow days? The one thing that always puts me off visiting the House of Mouse is the prospect of all those hideous crowds and all that faffy ride-reservation nonsense. You just wanna rock up and ride stuff, innit.

I think you'd have been fine to do that in any park on any day during our trip in Sept. We decided to do the genie+ so that we could generally get the parks done in a few hours, and take things at a slower more 'shoppy' and 'eaty' pace... We were never there for rope drop, ever... And we generally left the parks early (where we didn't want to hang around for shows / MNSS.)

If you're happy to rope drop a big ride and stay the full day it would be an absolute BREEZE, with time to spare for 'other stuff' like eating and shows... Even rise was less than an hour at times.

The usual summer holiday, and pent up, demand, had definitely died off by the time we landed. I was surprised with how short queue times were. And on top of that, for the rides we did queue for, the stated queue times were way over estimated!

 

[Howie]

Thanks man.
I was kinda gutted I couldn't get there last month, this trip has been on the cards for a couple of years now, and still isn't even booked.
Sad times.

 

[Satanspropaganda]

We had no idea about the pre show, and it completely blew us away with that transition!!!

Not knowing it happened meant we weren’t aware of how it was done, nor were we looking for how it was done, (until the second ride) so we genuinely just had no idea and were left gobsmacked!!!

I still maintain that sith life suits you!!!

Also, how’d you manage to navigate Disney, and keep notes for such an excellent report, or is your memory just that good?

Oh yeah it absolutely blew us away too. I refused to read into it and we were just aghast when it happened. One of those moments where you really realise how Imagineering really are the best in the business.

In all honesty, I started ADHD meds a few months ago and when they're in my system, I have unusually good memory. I also took a few notes as I knew a TR of 17 days would be a long process and I had some things I wanted to put in there. Then I use the pictures in photopass/my google drive to put it in chronological order

Great reporting fella, sounds like a fab trip.
I was particularly intrigued by this sentence:



Tell me, kind sir, where would I find a list of these Disney World slow days? The one thing that always puts me off visiting the House of Mouse is the prospect of all those hideous crowds and all that faffy ride-reservation nonsense. You just wanna rock up and ride stuff, innit.

Thank you! I am currently writing up the two days that are very CoasterForcey (lots of creds), so they'll go up soon, so I am glad people are liking the reporting!

As Nicky also said, the last week of August + first week or so of September are the sweet spot. Last few British families finishing up, but nearly everywhere is back to school and people don't quite want to commit to Halloween trips just yet. It did begin to busy up again around the 10th or so, but still nowhere near the crowds like when I went in June 2019.

Obviously my report is from the perspective of a disabled person using DAS, however if we hadn't had DAS, the main difference would have been maybe one or two less rerides on Rise of the Resistance and Seven Dwarves? A lot of the time we had between when waiting on a DAS reservation, was spent on benches or managing my pain levels. I think with Genie+ & no pain condition we would have had a very similar if not even more jam packed experience!

 

[Satanspropaganda]

The usual summer holiday, and pent up, demand, had definitely died off by the time we landed. I was surprised with how short queue times were. And on top of that, for the rides we did queue for, the stated queue times were way over estimated!

THIS too! Disney queue times are almost always 15-20% over-estimated so people feel like they won when they queue less than they'd expected to. It's fantastic, we were just at Disneyland Paris this weekend and as usual, a 15min queue meant pretty much a walk on. So when crowds are low and things hover around 20 - 40mins max all day, it'd be rare to ever do over 30 mins queue.

 

[Satanspropaganda]

I promise further updates are coming to this. My health has been a bit rough so I have had finger joint issues, however I will keep the report going when I can

 

[Nicky Borrill]

I promise further updates are coming to this. My health has been a bit rough so I have had finger joint issues, however I will keep the report going when I can

Oh no Benny, hope you're ok. That's not great considering your job, you still able to work? Albeit more slowly...

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Oh no Benny, hope you're ok. That's not great considering your job, you still able to work? Albeit more slowly...

Thank you Nicky I've had a few sick days, now on new medication and got finger joint supports, just got to go slow. It's difficult as I have a lot I want to do (including this TR) and I am being forced to not do it and I can't even just sit and doomscroll because of the pain!

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Saturday 3rd September - Oh boy, it’s too hot to do four parks in a day right?

This was one of the more Coasterforcey days of our trip, after a long time debating whether we go Seaworld or not, we ended up being swayed thanks to the kindness of Nitefly, which meant we didn’t actually pay a penny to Seaworld parks for the privilege. I also made a rather hefty donation to a marine life charity after our visit. I was also on track for my 200th coaster this day and wanted it to pack a punch, which by all accounts I’d heard Mako would be a worthy 200th. Also apparently this day I didn't take many photos, this may be down to the fact it hovered around 42ºc realfeel temperature and we were cooking alive... either way I will put all the pics I can find in!

We woke up at a rather luxurious time compared to usual, threw on basic outfits and makeup, then grabbed resort breakfast. We dressed up most days, however we knew the stupidity we had in store this day. We had planned to visit Fun Spot Orlando back when we stayed on resort at Universal, however due to tiredness, we decided it’d have to be slotted in later into the trip. I’m not one for replanning so heavily when in the swing of the trip, but we also then had seen that the Mummy was testing with public riders at random times, since Khloe hadn’t ridden it yet we hatched a plan. We’d do SWO, then pop out to Universal for the Mummy, visit Fun Spot Orlando and then pop via Fun Spot Kissimmee on our way back to Disney. It was not well thought out, it involved a hefty amount of LYFTs, but we figured if anyone is dumb enough to do this, we were.

We got our LYFT to Seaworld just in time for the gates to open and immediately felt deflated, having spent 9 straight days in Disney & Universal parks, we were used to a certain level of service, operations and atmosphere. Seaworld lacked in all these departments, although we arrived excited for the coaster lineup, the actual feel to the park was truly a downer. You could tell that they’re currently figuring out their identity between marine park & thrill park, alongside the general wear and tear across the park, it just felt badly put together and reminded us of Thorpe’s current state with regards to paintwork/scenery. Anyhow, we decided we’d try to make the most of it, it’s not often you get a cluster of such solid B&M coasters so close together, so we tried to remain positive.



First up, Manta! B&M flyer wise, we’ve both only had the chance to ride Galactica so far, so it was exciting to finally be trying another. We popped our stuff in the locker and hopped in the “5 min” queue, to realise that the queue was not at all 5 minutes as it was moving around 6 people every 5 mins. We had gotten my accessibility stuff sorted on arrival thankfully and upon stepping out and enquiring, found out that the short queue inside was in-fact 55 mins and that they would update the queue time "sometime soon". So we decided to tackle that one using accessibility and wander round to Kraken which was at a 0 minute wait. Thankfully this was far more accurate! After a rather lengthy battle with the locker system, we were finally about to step onto a coaster.

Kraken was so much fun! It was smooth, forceful and had a great layout. Just a great B&M, not top 10 worthy, but the kind of coaster I could easily ride again and again. Which is what we did, we hopped back on for a second! We did however here see where the issues with the queue times may be stemming from, the ops were insanely slow, averaging over two minutes a train. As a bit of a nerd I do love the fact that they have screens showing the dispatch speed, but it really did highlight how slow they were. What we weren’t ready for was how Kraken was the second most efficient ops we’d see in the park…

We headed back to Manta and entered with our pass to find out that even with the accessibility (which put us through quick queue after waiting the queue time), the wait was still 25 minutes in the station. Each train was taking over four and often five minutes to unload then load, before finally being sent out. This also of course meant that a train of people was stuck out on the brake run in the baking heat with no shade for three to four minutes.
Thankfully the ride experience was fantastic, as much as I adore FLY, there is something quite alien that I love about the feeling of the seats tilting up into the chassis on the B&M flyers. After a four or so minute experience of baking alive on the brake run, we stepped off Manta having had an amazing ride. Unlike Galactica, it had some actually strong forces, the whole layout flowed perfectly and we would have hopped right back on for a reride if that didn’t mean signing up for the longest station wait known to humanity.

We decided it best to go tackle Ice-Breaker next, which involved a long walk across the park but we figured it’d be right to ride the big new shiny ride while it was on 5mins queue. The walk through the park took us through so much ill-maintained scenery and cheap looking areas, it truly was a bit of a sad sight and that’s without taking into account the animals in captivity.



Ice Breaker was… not enjoyable. The layout was great, the forces on it were more intense than I had anticipated, but my god the restraints were awful. I was actively in pain from start to finish and it threw my hips out for the rest of the day, just a real shame they used such a terrible restraint design for it as it's a really well designed coaster in every other aspect.

After Ice Breaker we had just one proper coaster left (journey to Atlantis was completely down all day), however we thought we may as well wander into the sesame street area while over that way and be shameful cred-whores by riding Grover's Box Car Derby, by doing this we secured Mako as my 200th. So it was a necessary evil, even if we felt filthy sat onboard the kiddie cred.



After a little break to refuel/bask in our own shame for riding a kiddie cred again, we headed over to see what Mako was all about. Mako was on 10 mins queue, which actually just meant no queue and just a tonne of stairs! Within 5 mins we were onboard and about to ride. The station was filled with yelling teenagers and the ride-op was wearing a blue lives matter badge, but we were finally about to ride another hyper and this time on another continent!

Mako was great. More floatery style airtime than ejector on our few rides, but still sustained enough to give a real sense of weightlessness. It isn’t as forceful as the likes of Shambhala, but still has all the great elements of a B&M hyper that make them so revered. I didn’t think the turnaround was very well designed though, it proved quite forceless and dampened the ride a bit, however the overall ride experience is still fantastic.


(obligatory milestone pic)

After a few re-rides of Mako, we decided we needed out from the park as it was filling up with more and more groups of loud teenagers and for the first time all trip, we were getting nasty stares and some judgey remarks off people. So we hopped a LYFT to our second park, Universal Studios.

Since we’d departed from Universal a few days earlier, the Revenge of the Mummy had been opening for technical rehearsals. We decided to do the sensible thing and run over to ride it while we knew it was up, rather than pray it was up for our HHN a few days later (spoiler alert, it wasn’t). So we hightailed it through Citywalk, stashed our stuff in the lockers and grabbed a ride on the newly re-opened Revenge of the Mummy.

Just wow! It seems the work was mostly on the effects and my god, it was all worth it. The show scenes looked brand new, the fire even more overwhelming than before and the projections looked tonnes better than in 2019. The ride itself was riding very smoothly and provided some great sensations on the inversions, but I was mostly invested in seeing the story again. Khloe, who hadn’t ridden it before, absolutely loved it too! If the queue weren’t so huge, we would have gone round again, but we had a tight timeline and another park to hit up round the corner.

We grabbed a bus from UO to a nearby hotel, then walked to Fun Spot Orlando, our third park for the day. Of the tips I was given in the planning thread, not missing White Lightning was up there in the top three repeated ones, so we made sure we could make this happen. We just paid per-ride as we didn’t want to do a cred-run, so we loaded $40 on our fun-spot card and headed towards the back of the park. Fun-spot feels a lot more like a funfair than a theme park, reminding me a lot of the fair I used to visit in New Brighton as a kid, but with a lot more to do and places serving (cheap for Orlando) beer everywhere.



White Lightning looks out of place, dominating the top left corner of the park and by far being the least busy ride there this Saturday afternoon. We wandered over and paid our $10 each to ride, strapped ourselves in and hoped that GCI would deliver with this one (our last new GCI was Heidi and we weren’t all that impressed).

Thankfully White Lightning is only like Heidi in stature, force wise it surpassed Heidi on every front and rode brilliantly. A little rattle helped make it exciting, but it was overall very smooth, with great laterals on the banked turns and nice floater airtime on the hills. It was a little short, however it did a lot with the track footprint it had and we stepped off the ride very happy that we made the trek out to FSO. After a bit more time in the park, we headed to get our LYFT to our fourth and final park of the day.



Fun Spot Kissimmee! I remember reading about Mine Blower just as I got back from Orlando in 2019 and kicking myself for not making the short journey over to ride it. Sadly as we stepped out the LYFT, the daily rainfall hit and we ended up stood in a very empty and mostly closed theme park. Thankfully they also served $4 beers and had a classic car meet-up on next door in old-town, so we grabbed drinks and had a wander through the vast display of beautiful classic cars. This actually proved to be a lovely way to spend twenty or so mins while we waited for the rain to pass. Thankfully it passed as quickly as usual and we heard the faint sound of a chain lift in the distance, so we made our way back into the park.

Mine Blower is an intimidating looking rollercoaster, it gives off the air of a RCT3 build, especially with the long drawn out inversion over the station, which also happened to be where the on-ride camera was positioned! We necked the last of our drinks, emptied the last of our fun-spot card and took our seats on Mine Blower.



Ouch, if I hadn’t been aware that it’d undergone work lately, I would not have guessed it in a million years. It’s an exhilarating ride for sure, but so rough that at some points it went above the fun level of rough and became actively a bit uncomfortable. However overall it was still a nice adrenaline rush and a unique coaster to have had the chance to ride, so we enjoyed it for what it is, however if it were a tad smoother it’d be so much better. Since riding, it’s been suggested by a friend that it may be the train, as they have two trains and one is reported to be a lot rougher than the other, but whatever the reason is, it could do with being addressed!



Our madcap Orlando park tour had come to an end and we headed back to Disney property. We left via the arcade, we had $5 bonus credit to spend and wanted to play around with toy guns before we got our LYFT over to beach club for our dinner reservation. As I am covering every aspect of our trip, our meal at Cape May was sadly lacklustre, they usually have a fantastic specialist chef for vegans/allergy requirements, however he was on holiday and the chef who was catering for us forgot we were there, which left us without food for a very long time. It was a bum note to end a very exciting day, however it being the one annoying situation we faced all holiday is a very lucky position to be in!

We headed back the resort for some well earned rest before a distinctly more Disney day the next day.

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Sunday 4th September - Back in the bubble

I don’t have tonnes to write about this day that would make good reading! We spent the day in Magic Kingdom enjoying all the usual favourite rides, parades, cavalcades and shows. It was a wonderful day and needed after our chaotic Friday.



We did get to see Mickey’s Very Magical Friendship Faire on the castle stage which was just delightful. I’m a sucker for these Disney park shows where they pull in characters from different franchises and this made me grin from ear to ear.



Evening wise, we headed back over to the stunning grounds of Wilderness Lodge, this time by boat, to enjoy dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe. I’m sometimes easily embarrassed and Khloe revelled in asking for ketchup, to then watch me slither down my seat as bottle after bottle of ketchup arrived at our table! The meal was great though and we were loving having a relaxed evening.

We then followed this with drinks at the Polynesian and further cocktails in Disney Springs! We had a rather chill day for a very good reason… we had a very exciting day the next day and needed to be well rested.

 

[Satanspropaganda]

Monday 5th September - Tampa Bay on Memorial Day


It felt like a gamble booking it for a national holiday, but we were off to Busch Gardens Tampa for the day and we couldn’t have been more excited. As non-drivers, we were at the mercy of the Busch Gardens shuttle bus for our Tampa adventure and as such, had to get up bright and early to LYFT to our chosen pickup spot. Once again this is a day where I didn't take as many photos as I usually would just due to sheer excitement, so apologies in advance for the wall of text.



Our pickup spot was Old-Town, which was really useful as we’d been there by accident Saturday, so we knew roughly where we were and what we were looking for. The bus stop is outside the gates of Old Town, just a small standalone sign from Busch Gardens to indicate where we should wait. Thankfully upon arrival, we found a lovely Irish family who were also making the trek to BGT and we all waited together. The coach was a tad late and involved a change of vehicle after 20 mins, but it turned out to be a really easy way to do BGT. Especially when we had such lovely company on the coach, the journey disappeared in a flash and before we knew it we were in Tampa following the road signs to the park. We pulled into the car park at 10:35am, only 35 mins after opening!

After going through the turnstiles, we did the sensible thing and ran straight to Iron Gwazi to unfortunately see the queue on the app (10mins) was very inaccurate and it was actually sat at 50 mins. Unfortunately that’s too much for my joints even with braces on, so we had to use our access pass to request a return time and start our day elsewhere. Luckily we weren’t too far from SheiKra! After a brisk walk round to SheiKra, we were now ready for our first ride of the day.



Wow. I do like B&M Dive Machines, however other than Valkyria I’ve found they don’t really do much past the drop and although they’re fun, the drops have never quite gotten me like Oblivion did when I was 10. Thankfully in comes SheiKra, not just doing a lot after the drop, but giving us a second drop? It was so much fun! It felt disorientating, forceful and even slightly intimidating when ascending the lift hill. Just a really great coaster all round. I do love the splashdown too, although like usual it didn’t do much for us on the ride, but off the ride it does give a fun sense of interactivity to spectating.



We decided then to keep heading north in the park, next up was Tigris as it was basically right in front of us and had no queue. It was, as with other premier sky rockets, just fine. It had some fun forces, but it really feels like a filler piece in this coaster lineup. Anyway, what’s that we see on the map, another B&M on our walk north?

I think I’ve seen a thousand pictures of Kumba before, it seems to be the go-to stock coaster, so it was fun to walk through towards it with an eerie feeling of familiarity. Being nearly thirty years old, we braced ourselves for some serious roughness and were very pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t the smoothest coaster, with a few jerky moments, but overall it was just a great ride. We refilled our water bottles, took a breather and then realised it was time to head over and ride Iron Gwazi!



Even with my joints in the state they were this deep into the trip I pretty much skipped all the way back to Iron Gwazi out of sheer excitement. We took our seats in the second to back row and were off on our first lap on Iron Gwazi for the day.
The verdict? It’s just excellent. It hit every checkbox I could have for a coaster. The sheer ferocity with which we were flung out our seats element after element is unmatched by anything else I’ve ridden. The stall hits at just the right time to be disorienting, but sadly doesn’t quite have the same impact as Zadra’s stall, however the airtime on Iron Gwazi was relentless. I still think Zadra just beats it for my number one spot, simply due to the spectacular pacing of Zadra combined with the length of the ride, but it’s a very very close call.

We immediately went round again for another as we barely had time to make heads or tails of it all on the first lap due to being stunned. Just once again it was perfect. It’s just short enough to leave you wanting more while still being intense enough to really make an impression. Once again, it’s cliched, but RMC gets their praises sung for a good reason. I feel bad for Universal, they had the best coaster in Orlando for a matter of months, but Velocicoaster just can’t stack up to Iron Gwazi.

With such low queue times we had to do a few more laps, our fears about Memorial Day were more than unfounded, at least at BGT (a quick check of the WDW app showed others may not be having as easy a day as us), it felt like we were being spoiled. We decided we had to try the other offerings in the park, so decided to head to the other side of the park, just as we stepped onto Month, the daily storm began to settle in and rather than continuing our successful cred run, we had to take shelter in a bar and enjoy some of the lovely craft beers they had on… what a hard life!

We also took the storm break as a chance to peruse the merch shops across the park. Which leads to one thing I wasn’t impressed with at BGT, the merchandise on offer, I was stood with card in hand ready to throw silly money at souvenirs and sadly couldn’t find much worth buying. They had no pin badges, none of the nano coasters and very few t-shirts in stock. We did get an on-ride photo from our front row ride on Iron Gwazi though which is still nice.
As a bit of a shock, BGT was also the first time we saw some of the more "colourful" right-wing shirts in the wild, including racist slogans, MAGA stuff and just some fairly nasty stuff, which kind of felt a bit weird to see in person for the first time! Having spent time in both Orlando parks and the city, the area seems to be a bit shielded from that side of Florida's reputation, so it was jarring to see it this deep into the trip and on a fair scale.



After the storm began to clear, we paced up and down waiting for a sign of life from any of the coasters, thankfully Cobra’s Curse seemed to be springing back to life, so we popped our stuff in the lockers nearby and hopped aboard. Just from the off-ride impression we didn’t expect huge thrills, but it was perfectly fun for a family ride. Some really fun spinning action in the second half of the ride and the theming was unusually extra for BGT. A nice ride, but not one we felt like re-riding when it stands between multiple B&Ms and an RMC.

We finally got to board Montu again and this time our restraints locked in, we were off on a sprawling inverted adventure. This is hands down the most fun I’ve had on a B&M invert, at least forces wise. The elements packed much larger punches than I’ve experienced with any other layout, especially in the second half of the ride. The ride length as well was just so surprising, Khloe and I had an aghast glance at each other after we both had mild grey-outs on the batwing. Although it lacks the incredible near-miss filled terrain that makes Nemesis or Black Mamba such a thrill, it more than makes up for it in overall ride experience. Nemesis is still more dear to my heart, but the giddiness with which we ran back in for an immediate re-ride on Montu was not what we had expected when we first set eyes on it.



We then decided to tackle Cheetah Hunt, it was going up and down due to the inclement weather and seemed to be twinned with Iron Gwazi for how quickly they shut the ride with the faintest sign within 5 miles. So naturally, as we got to boarding, the ride was closed down again. We decided to wait it out rather than exit and start again. Thankfully it only took fifteen minutes before they sent out a few test cars and we got to board.

We’ve ridden plenty of launched coasters now and this was just very fun. The weird initial infinity-element directly after the first launch makes for fantastic off-ride visuals, however it really didn’t offer much in the way of forces. Thankfully what we hadn’t seen yet, was how much ride awaited us once we dropped out of the strange knot thingy and we loved speeding through the sprawling layout. The way the track hugs the ground so closely created a very visceral sense of speed and although it doesn’t do anything spectacular element wise, the ride does indeed create a feeling of pacing through the grass like a Cheetah very successfully!

We headed back for another few on Iron Gwazi before heading round to ride Scorpion. There’s not much to say about Scorpion, it’s a well maintained Schwarzkopf coaster and it was a nice little thrill, but it does feel like it’s biding it’s time till they replace it in the next few years.



Unfortunately then our day was rounding to a close, our shuttle back from the park was at quarter to seven (fifteen mins before park close), so we hightailed it back to Iron Gwazi to round out our fantastic day. We tried both back row and front row, both offering fairly different sensations. For sheer forcefulness back row is definitely best, however the initial drop is incredible in front row and the sensation of speeding up as the train crests elements was a great rush. I wore my Wilfire shirt as I thought it'd be fun to go full goon for a day and it sparked a few really fun conversations with other enthusiasts, especially one of the ride-ops on IG who kept enthusiastically asking our opinion of different rows and about European coasters between our laps.

Sadly we then had to get our shuttle bus home. Thankfully the drive back involved catching up with the lovely Irish family and discussing our vastly different but great days at Busch Gardens, which extended the collective excitement we all felt. We then grabbed our LYFT from Old Town to Disney Springs, ending the day with great vegan pizza at Blaze Pizza and a little retail therapy at World of Disney. We were both understandably a bit exhausted, but it was one of the best days we could have imagined.

Tuesday 6th September - We may have mis-calculated our timings, but damn it we can drink round the world in 5 hours right?

We decided we needed a lie in after our thoroughly thrilling Monday, so treated ourselves to a late wakeup before heading to breakfast and then onwards to Typhoon Lagoon. Upon arrival at the park we realised we were in for a very easy morning as when the gates opened there was maybe twenty of us in total?



Typhoon Lagoon felt a little quaint after Volcano Bay a week and a bit earlier, but it is still immaculately themed and we had a lovely two hours wandering between the slides and then ending it in the lazy river for a nice bob around.



We did every slide in the park except the three taller body slides, primarily because I had a graze on my back from the body slides at Volcano Bay not playing well with my swim shorts as I’ve lost weight and they weren’t fitting right. The multi-person raft rides were our favourite by far as it’s always so much fun watching your partner unsuspectingly speed backwards towards a waterfall! After multiple re-slides, we felt like we had more than had our fill and headed out.

One of my only operational gripes with our time at Disney was the removal of any direct buses between the Water Parks and resorts, I wholly understand why they did it, but it pushes what could be a ten minute journey up to a forty or so minute journey. After a fairly lengthy journey, we arrived back at French Quarter and snagged a Guardians virtual queue spot ready for our afternoon in Epcot.

We got the bus to Epcot around 3:30, just in time for our Guardians boarding group, but around an hour later than we’d hoped to be heading in. By this point I’d already made an error that’d come back to sting me, while Khloe took a while getting ready after Typhoon Lagoon, I enjoyed a few of the 6-8% cans I had in the hotel fridge from the 7/11. Not a wise start to our boozy adventure…



There is an upside to this, Guardians was even more fun a little tipsy! We got a different song and even knew where the camera was this time, we also didn’t suffer any downtime while waiting, so it was altogether a much more fun experience this time round. It’s such a fantastic addition to WDW and although I understand the purist argument that adding IPs to Epcot diminishes the park’s original message, I still think it’s a great addition to the park. We couldn’t help but dance and sing along One Way or Another as we span around the ride.



Then it was time to take on the completely irresponsible challenge of Drinking Round the World. Having done it before I knew roughly what I was in for and was already a little worried we didn’t have enough time to do it and enjoy it without ending up slaughtered. However Khloe and I, being consummate professionals, decided to double down and stick to the plan. We would drink a minimum of 250ml of water between each drink and start in Mexico. With frozen margaritas in hand, our adventure started with a delicious, but brain-freezey kickoff.



I’ll spare everyone the step by step rundown of our speedy undoing, however I think it’d be amiss to not detail some of the delicious drinks we sampled during our descent. First off, the frozen mango margarita is to die for, just perfect on a hot Floridian day, it packed a fair punch, but was super refreshing. Schofferhoffer grapefruit was also a lovely lighter choice for us both, it’s a staple summer drink for me when I’m out in Germany and it was even more refreshing in the Orlando humidity. The orange champagne slushy was also a huge winner for us, by this point I’d stopped recording the names of the drinks and just wrote “orange drink, it was absolutely delicious. Then finally the Maple Syrup beer was a very sweet finisher to watch Harmonious with and a fantastic choice.



Around halfway through, we realised the timings weren’t working in our favour and had to speed up if we wanted to complete the challenge. I know we could come back on the Thursday to do the last few, but that was a morning visit to Epcot and it felt wrong to not try to finish the circuit. This obviously then culminated in a madcap dash across the last few pavilions and us dual wielding on our way through Canada, but we completed it and had so much fun! As a bonus, staying hydrated really helped, we were fairly drunk, but remembered everything and had a great time. Harmonious was a perfect ending to the adventure, then we headed back to our resort for some much needed food. I was a fair bit drunker than Khloe on account of the extra few beers plus finishing a few of the more spirit heavy concoctions, but nothing sobers you up like the mad dash to get a bus back to your resort after the fireworks!

We had intended to eat around the world alongside the drinks, however apart from the vegan chilli Mac & Cheese as a base, we got too distracted by rides, shows and cute shops in the pavilions to remember to eat. So we romantically finished our day by drunkenly eating burgers in bed while watching She-Hulk’s latest episode. It couldn’t have been a better or more us day.