First Park Day Wrap-up

As I ponder consuming all of my key lime pie from the Rain Forest Cafe, I figured it would be a good chance to sit, and reflect on the day now that we have returned to the hotel for the night.

I think overall, it was a great day!! The crowd levels are far higher than originally projected, but by working the system, we were able to get done pretty much everything that we wanted.

I certainly have some extra respect for Kara as I really understand how well she did in getting our Fast Passes ahead of time and how tricky the process can be.

Each day, you get 3 fast passes. You want to get them for the best rides available and as early as possible, as when you finish off those three, you can start getting new ones, one at a time.

Problem is, they get gobbled up quick, so they become unavailable.

Well, if you keep checking during random times, there will be some chances that something will appear. Such was our luck today. After our first three were gone, there wasn't anything to get. Did eventually take a pass for It's tough to be a bug, which wasn't a wait anyway, but got lucky when a Nemo show popped up, and one for the River of Light. Turns out when you get one for a show, you get to sit in way better seats. So, it can make a big difference.

Doing the Avatar Flight of Passage ride straight away was an excellent idea, and everyone had that same idea. We did wind up waiting about an hour, but most of the time it felt like we were moving somewhat quickly. The ride is fantastic and is it worth an hour? Oh boy yes!!! Is it worth 3 hours? Not to me it isn't. We have a fast pass for it already for our last day, so that's pretty cool.

For those of you that know Soaring, it's sort of a thrill ride version of that, mashed together with a single rider version of Star Tours. What makes the ride so incredible is (sorry, spoilers ahead) is the extra touches to details. It is a 3D simulator, but it includes splashes of water, rushing wind, lots of scene appropriate smells, and of course the Banshee that's you're riding is alive and you can feel it breathing below you.

The simulator portion keeps me from wanting to ride it too often due to motion sickness issues (so glad I took some meds in the morning) but am totally looking forward to riding it again before we go.

Front row of Everest really is the way to go. Doesn't hurt to ask, and it increased our wait time by about 3 minutes was all. The ride is quite fun, but it's almost too much for me, so it took a bit to recover after that one. Not sure if we will ride it again on our last day or not . . .

The other Pandora ride (Na'vi River) was a super gentle nice ride. Lots of eye candy, and a great way to relax.

Dinosaur was down a fair amount of the day, so we will seek that one out on our other Animal day to see if we can get it crossed off the list.

WiFi can be tricky at the park. Seemed to be rather spotty in areas and always would cut out at the worst times.

I think we could do better seeking out the Pro pictures. You can find the spots listed in the App, so we will try and take more advantage of them, since we have the Memory Maker package, there's no reason to not get as many as we can get :-)

I think, unless we have a reservation already, we will just select places that have a Moble Order feature.

Brenda's Aunt and Uncle visited us at the park and we were able to test out the speed of the App vs. the speed of the line. She got in line while the rest of us tried to find a table. We secured one and Brenda and I stayed at the table. I fired up the app, and we ordered what we wanted (even with customizations :-) The app gave us the status and when it was ready, I went to a special window and picked it right up. We came out several minutes ahead, and we were able to stay with the table the entire time. Was super easy, and pretty relaxing at the same time.

Once the big rides were out of the way, we slowed down quite a bit. The walking tours that Brenda's Family shared with us were really good and it was nice to stroll around, see some critters and get some nice pictures.

The shows were honestly, better than I expected. The Nemo show was cute and the River of Lights show was fantastic. Brenda captured some pretty good images.

Plus, other than the Bug show for me, EVERYTHING was new to both of us!! Looking forward to a similar experience tomorrow!! Of which, it's going to be both our super early park day (park opens at 7am) and our super late day (Extra Evening Hours 8pm to 10pm). Best wrap things up and go to sleep!

Thanks for those that are following. Hope all is well with you and looking forward to sharing more soon!

DavidRead more