Orlando Visit - January 2020

Here we go again - another Orlando trip with Delray Beach tacked on at the end. Who said Disney World is to be vistited once in a lifetime? We have almost lost count of all the fun visits we have had.

After Orlando, JR and Alexis returned home to Ottawa while Rob and Hild went on to visit Kristin and Alvaro in Delray Beach. Photos from the rest of the Florida holiday: CLICK HERE

The intrepid travellers: Rob, JR, Hild and Alexis - almost floating away from Magic Kingdom, Disney World.

A special note about Star Wars: After all we were in Orlando specifically to try the new Star Wars rides.
* Rise of the Resistance: All the energy and early mornings spent trying to get boarding passes to this ride were absolutely worth it! The surprise factor during that ride meant that the second ride was not as thrilling. First time was the best, second time was still tonnes of fun to observe more of the details.
* Smugglers Run: In this ride one is very busy with performing ones assigned tasks and that makes it fun to fly the Millennium Falcon every time. Listen carefully to instructions from the staff on how to use the buttons and levers to steer, shoot, and grab things.
* Star Tours: Amazingly this relatively old ride has been updated with scenes directly from the latest Star Wars movie - from just weeks earlier!! Amazing - so we did the ride multiple times.

A special note about getting virtual boarding pass for "Rise of the Resistance". Download the Disney-app and make sure your family and friends are connected/listed in the app. Board a buss from your resort to be at the Hollywood Studios park gates at about 6:15 am. Join the long line-up and make it inside the gate (tap your wristband) before 7 am park opening. They opened up the gates for us at about 6:30 am. Everyone in your boarding party (friends/family list) must be inside gates several minutes before 7 am to be registered in the system. Have your Disney-app ready and reload/refresh the app many times leading up to 7 am. Be ready on the "Rise of the Resistance" app-page. When the "Join Boarding Group" button becomes active at 7 am, everyone in our group tried to get a pass. As soon as one is successful the others must stop trying (or there will be error messages). Select all your family/friends from the list to book a boarding pass together. Good luck!

A special note about food at Disney and Universal: If available, always use the park Apps to mobile-order food. It is so much quicker to pay with your credit card on the App and then just skip the line and go to the pick-up counter. The best dining places are:
* Satu'li Canteen in Pandora - try building your own bowl in the mobile App.
* Tokyo Dining in Epcot - great food and if you time it right, you can order your food then step out onto their spacious balcony area to watch fireworks and return to your dinner afterwards.
* Woody's Lunch Box in Toy Story Land - try the Gilled Three-Cheese Sandwich with tomato-basil soup on the side.
* Oga's Cantina in Galaxy's Edge - although more for the noise and ambiance because the food is really only space-looking snacks

A summary of rides: If all you want to know is how we liked the different rides ranked by thrill factor (we've had requests for this information) then here is a table to look at. If you want to see some photos.... keep scrolling!

(zzz, ok, yeah, wet, aaargh, puke scared)	Rob's view			Hild's view			Thrill 10 = aaargh!
Ride	Before	During	After	Before	During	After	Thrill 10 = aaargh!
E.T. Adventure		...	...				1
Muppet Vision 3D							1
Kilimanjaro Safari							1
Spaceship Earth							1
Pirates of the Caribbean							2
Na'vi River Journey							2
The Simpsons Ride		...	...				3
Despicable Me Minions Mayhem							4
Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges							4
Toy Story Mania							4
Soarin'							4
Men in Black Alien Attack							4
Mission: SPACE							4
Slinky Dog Dash							5
Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls					...	...	5
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance							6
Flight of Passage (Avatar ride)							6
Star Wars: Smugglers Run							6
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey							6
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror					---	---	6
Star Wars: Star Tours							7
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts							7
Revenge of the Mummy							7
Hagrid's Motobike Adventure					---	---	9
Expedition Everest					---	---	9
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit					---	---	9
The Incredible Hulk Coaster					---	---	9
Snoring and Puking Smiley: These Photos by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

Travel by "Air" - Disney's new Skyliner gondola. We found this new alternative transportation to Disney's busses.

Travel by "Sea" - Crossing the lake in Epcot by boat. And we found this alternative to complete the set.

Rainforest Cafe - outside Animal Kingdom. We ate here the first night stocking up on energy for the days ahead.

All Star Movies Resort. We stayed here and Hild found some puppies.

Pandora - The World of Avatar. Watch out for flying Banshees!

Na'vi River Journey. This is the quiet ride to relax after the thrill of the Flight of Passage where you fly through Pandora on the back of a Banshee.

Kilimanjaro Safari. In addition to the wild animals we found a pretty bird, or did it find us?

Lion King. We weren't in the movie, but don't you think we could have been?!

Everest Ride. Only for the most brave among us (Rob and Alexis). Rob had to do this again after his experience the last time... (Rob in 2014: "It went backwards - IN THE DARK!")

Tree of Life. We got stalked by yet another magic animal.

Norway Pavillion Epcot. We enjoyed some yummy treats at the bakery and Olaf from Frozen popped by. Brrrr!

Britain Pavillion Epcot. Look! We found the only Brit there at Epcot that morning.

Japan Pavillion Epcot. Dinner and fireworks at Tokyo Dining - and Rob found a new kimono. Suddenly the Child appeared!

Hollywood Studios. It is still Christmas and Frozen Olaf kept following us around.

Rise of the Resistance: Lining up with thousands of other people at 6:15 am looking for a virtual boarding pass for the new Star Wars Rise of the Resistance ride.

Important advice: Make sure you are inside the gates before 7 am!! Refresh your Disney-app many times until success.

Hooray!!! We got group 75 and were able to ride at 12:30 pm. The next day we got group 85 and rode at 5:30 pm! Patience really is a virtue and a necessity.

Rise of the Resistance - SPOILER ALERT: We were captured and interrogated by the First Order! Security was high. Hild and Rob look worried as we are taken for interrogation. No smiling allowed or you got shouted at!

Posing with the Millennium Falcon - using the Force.

Smugglers Run: Here we are lounging in the Millennium Falcon at the famous chess table. Then JR took a photo of us in the cockpit of the Falcon! On our first Smugglers Run ride Rob and JR were pilots and Alexis and Hild were gunners. On our second ride we switched. For some reason the second ride was much smoother. Tonnes of fun!! Other people were engineers so we don't know quite what that was like.

Enjoying Galaxy's Edge - and practicing our Force-stance.

Life at Galaxy's Edge. Maybe the famous hangar door on the moon of Endor? The little droid that was tortured by the Jawa's. And Kylo Ren's ship - at least Rob is scared!

Galaxy's Edge: Blue or green/yellow milk with or without tequila and rum. We prefer the blue one.

An urn of Porgs!! Aaaaaah!

Porgs. Some interactions with Porgs. Not so scary after all.

Pretending to be Leia and Han - "I Love You.... I Know".

Oga's Cantina. Enjoying the drinks, snacks and buzzing life. Beware - expect standing room only.

Toy Story Land. We caught up with Woody and Bo Peep.

Slinky Dog Dash. Hild toughened up and did the ride even if you can't see her on the photo! Woohoo!! During the ride Rob even had time to catch somebody's fly-away baseball cap. Youtube-worthy if only we had had a camera.

Buzz Lightyear! As could be expected Rob and Alexis got the highest scores.

Pirates of the Caribbean. We got to enjoy the ride - and embarassingly Rob even dressed up and behaved as a pirate.

Magic Kingdom castle - all lit up.

Magic Kingdom has a lot of fun - Dole whip even if it was hollow, Seven Dwarfs ride, and Haunted Mansion

Hogsmead. We made it to Hogsmead. While Hild was too much of a whimp, Rob and Alexis did the Hagrid's Motobike ride. Looked great in their Gryffindor school uniform outfits!

Waiting to board Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 3/4, Kings Cross Station

Diagon Alley. Hogwarts students outside the Leaky Cauldron. Rob "Harry" Potter fixing his wand with sticky-tape. The dragon sitting on top of Gringotts Bank.

Butterbeer and Christmas ornaments in Diagon Alley

Visiting Gringotts Bank on our way to the ride

Our hotel near Universal: We were very (too?) excited to find that we got room 1002 at Holiday Inn Express near Universal Studios. "Why" you ask? That is our neighbours', Sara and Banaf's, apartment back in Ottawa! Big excitement over small events! Breakfast was also exciting with Blues Brothers copies present.

Jurassic Park. Sadly most of the Jurassic Park section was closed (what is InGen up to now?). We did have dinner at the Jurassic Park restaurant which also included a gigantic banana cream pie. Photo after it was eaten does look like a squirrel ran through the pie! ... or maybe it was a Porg's doing - not a squirrel? (Porg-suggestion proposed by our Australian readership and missing travel companions. Thanks Mynd!)

January 2020

Back | Top of page | Forward