Welcome to Disney! Actually welcome to Disney at night!
Our new campground, Sherwood Forest RV, is the closest to Disney out of all the campgrounds we've stayed at so far! Only 11 minutes to Hollywood Studios and 13 minutes to Epcot. The other places we've stayed are at least 20 minutes, with some being closer to 30 minutes!
That makes it very easy for us to just "pop over" to Disney whenever we want to. Since we've got an annual pass, it's not a problem to waste a day at Disney staying just a few hours.
One such night, we chose to start our night in Hollywood Studios. There was disagreement over which ride to start with. Ian wanted to go on the Tower of Terror, while Alli wanted to go on Toy Story Midway Mania. I know what to do! Let's split up!
Finally, 70 minutes after they got in line, they got to board.
Someone has the best score in the vehicle, and the best score this hour.
It's Theresa! Good job T!
Once we got together again, we chose to ride together on the Alien Swirling Saucers.
How should we end our night? Alli was jealous that we got to ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster earlier, so she wanted to ride that before we call it.
Let's go!
Are you ready to rock? Always!
A few days later, after wrapping up dinner at home, we were right back at Hollywood Studios, planning to close out the park. Lines don't usually start dropping until 90 minutes before park closing, but Theresa happened to see that Mickey's Runaway Railway had just come back up from being closed, so instead of the 90+ minute waits we were seeing in the app all day, we were in line for only 20 minutes!
After we exited, the wait time had jumped up again to 50+ minutes. Good call Theresa!
Looking around for short lines, there actually aren't all that many rides at Hollywood Studios. Our choices are usually the Swirling Saucers or Star Tours. Theresa gets motion sick on Star Tours, so the swirling saucers are our go-to.
The kids favorite coaster in any of the parks is the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Alli asks to know how to hold her hands
Ooh! Hercules merchandise? I love it! I might need some of it.
The park closes at 9pm, but we have just a little bit of time to squeeze something in before we get our final ride in. At 8:48pm we were just getting off the Swirling Saucers.
So that at 8:50pm we could get in line for the Slinky Dog Coaster! Don't mind that 60 minute wait on the sign.
Because just 20 minutes later, we were on board Slinky! I like that this coaster actually has a pretty decent ride-time. It's 120 seconds, compared to just 82 seconds on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. And it's tame enough that Theresa joins us on it too.
A few days later, wow, what a gorgeous sunset.
Let's go explore a little bit of Epcot. I know we still have a few weeks before we leave Florida for the season, but Theresa decided to it would be good to write down a list of the rides we want to focus on, instead of doing "filler" rides.
Test Track is high on our list of rides to make sure we don't miss, but for some reason, the last few times we have gone to ride it, it has closed at 6:30pm. We'll need to eat dinner a little earlier to make it here in time.
Club Cool is a quick stop, and a good choice, every time.
A ride on my list is Mission Space. Theresa will even join us on the Green training mission.
Usually we're in a rush to get to the next ride. Tonight, we're just taking it easy. The kids always beg to play on the indoor space themed playground. Sure, why not? They crawled their way around the three different levels, even making their way into the spaceship in the center.
They're so high up there! They loved the bouncing tunnel, the countdown launch buttons, and playing hide and seek.
One more time, but this time we'll ride the Orange training. I love it! I'm happy that the kids do too!
Based on the timing of everything, we knew it was going to be close, but as soon as the ride finished, we hustled down the exit and back to the entrance. With 2 minutes to spare, we jumped in line for a second time riding Remy tonight!
And fifteen minutes later, we were back in Gusteau's restaurant in Paris, shrunk to the size of a rat, and getting into all sorts of trouble.
When we walked out, the firework show had ended and people were making their way out. The park is starting to clear out. We could join the masses and walk from France through Britain, Canada, and out of the park, or we could take the long way around. Yeah, let's go the long way.
At Epcot, all of us have chosen our focus rides. Each of us got to pick 2 rides to focus on and surprisingly between the four of us, there's just 3 attractions we picked. Test Track, Mission Space, and Remy. Well since Test Track is already closed, and we just went on Mission Space twice, let's go over to Remy!
At 8:20pm we hopped in a line that said it would take 60 minutes. But would it really?
The line was constantly moving and at 8:51pm we were seated. The kids still haven't gotten to ride a Remy colored rat.
The kids took the front seat, while Theresa and I were alone in the back. The cast member told us to enjoy our date night.
The music from Harmonious is still playing and it's got a fun dancing beat. The kids took off ahead of us and danced their way around the World Showcase. Get that energy out!
Disney at night is pretty awesome! We can ride a lot of big rides without a lot of wait!
That's pretty neat that you're close enough to the parks to just spend a few evening hours there, treating it like a regular park down the street in a neighborhood. Everyone gets to enjoy some good walking exercise after dinner, and do it in a fun, engaging environment (it's also a little game to see how many attractions you can do just before park closing!) There's also the beautiful sunsets to enjoy upon entering the park. Wonder if any new Hercules merchandise will show up on someone in future posts :-) Yes, take in the parks as much as you all can before hitting the road again. EOM
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