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Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
  • Alex Murphy
  • Dan Bowen

Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

A 18-day adventure by Alex & Dan Read more
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  • Trip start
    February 21, 2020
  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Orlando international, Magical express

    February 21, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Arrives nearly an hour late in Orlando, and took a while to get through immigration - got the magical express (but a yellow replacement bus, instead of one with Disney music).

    Looking a bit grey outside, are we in the right place?Read more

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    Art of Annimation

    February 21, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 10 °C

    When we arrived it turned out that changes to their refurbishment schedue meant they had booked more Little Mermaid rooms than they had available. They asked if we wouldn't find it inconvenient to be upgraded to a suite in the Cars area instead... after some deliberation, we decided that a suite instead of a standard room would be acceptable :oRead more

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    California Grill

    February 21, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 9 °C

    We kicked the trip off properly with dinner and fireworks at the California Grill, but not before ducking into the Magic Kingdom for (possibly) Alex's first ride on the Jungle Cruise.

    The food was amazing, but we were too tired to enjoy it fully (it being 02:00 in our home time zone by the time we finished), They were kind enough to wrap us up some coffee cashew cheese cake to take away with us :-)Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Epcot - Skyliner station

    February 22, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    Saturday we found we hadn't quite adjusted to the time-zone, so we took an early 'flight' on the Disney Skyliner which we had previously seen under construction in 2018. The Skyliner offers some great views; the station at our hotel is built in the middle of a lake (to connect into a pre-existing foot-bridge). Whilst mostly a smooth ride, its an interesting sensation accelerating out of the station over open water.Read more

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    Epcot - Future World

    February 22, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    Epcot has a few things closed and a lot of construction going on, but as a pleasant surprise we caught the the tail end of the Epcot Festival of the Arts, which we had thought would end before our trip started.

    We kicked off by heading straight for the Odyssey Centre to check out an exhibit previwing the new changes that are underway. We spent the rest of the morning checking out some art festival stands with pieces that included some amazing Doctor Who paper art, and checking out the rides in the northern (Future World) seciton ofthe park,    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Epcot

    February 22, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Most of the afternoon we spent looping around the southern (World Showcase) part of Epcot starting in the Mexico 'night time' market - being sure to checking out the menu of every snack stand and bakery as we went.

    Snack highlights included plantbased bratwurst at the refreshment outpost and a gorgeous maple popcorn from Canada. We also saw the American Adventure show (a first time for Alex).

    Having started early, we didn't quite last to the Fireworks. We finished the day at Epcot with Space Ship Earth and a trip to the Seas (with Nemo & Friends) - remember fish are friends, not food!    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney Hollywood Studios

    February 23, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Sunday morning we woke early again, so we decided to try and jump in the virtual queue for the new Rise of the Resistance attraction in the Hollywood Studios park. Via the Skyliner, It took a little under 30 minutes from leaving our hotel building to being inside the park, despite a hefty morning rush and queuing up for a real stickler at the bag check.

    That had us arriving a few minutes after the park opened (you can join the virtual queue from opening time, as long as you are inside). That landed us in the 124th boarding group; they only guarantee to get through 64 groups in a day, so we weren't hopeful. We decided to checkout the new Galaxy's Edge (aka Blackspire Outpost) anyway.

    On arriving, we were pretty bowled over by the detail in the theming - we actually spent time gawping at the bins and lamposts at the entrance. We spent a good chunk of the morning checking out the shops and food offerings, as well as the Blackspire outpost quests on the Play Disney app (which can trigger certain sound effects around the outpost).    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney Springs

    February 23, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We had been planning a water park day, but decided it wasn't quite warm enough (although it did later become warm enough). Instead we took a stroll around the Carribean Beach resort where we made our first pin trades of the trip, and then spent the afternoon at Disney Springs.

    We grabbed food at blaze pizza, shopped a lot and then raided the vegan bakery to make sure we would have snacks on hand for the next few days.    Read more

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    Rise of the Resistance

    February 23, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Despite our earlier misgivings, boarding group 124 had rolled around by the late afternoon, so we headed back to Galaxy's Edge to ride. It was inredible - huge sets, dozens of cast members in character and full costume. The hologram effects were particularly impressive.

    We capped off the day with some food at ABC Commissary, catching the Fantasmic show and then the other new Star Wars ride: Millenium Falcon, smuggler's run. Again the theming is great, a full scale YT-1300 Corellian light freighter sits outside, and you could absoltely believe you were climbing inside and piloting it.

    Unfortunately for our fellow riders we got the pilot's positions. We came pretty much as close as possible to failing the mission, without actually doing so - getting away with a handful of loot and most of our ship. Sending the ship into lightspeed was pretty amazing.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney Animal Kingdom

    February 24, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    We kicked off the day at Animal Kingdom; we had intended to get there early enough to get onto flight of passage without a huge wait. Sadly we were a little slow, so went on Navi River journey instead (a new one for me).

    The plan had been to get on a couple of rides before swooping over to the Polynesian villiage resort for a late breakfast, but the wait times ratcheted up quite quickly, Every time we approached an attraction we found its wait time had lept 20 to 30 minutes longer since we set off on the 5minute walk to get there.

    In the event we had a good walk round, bought a few trading pins and then headed out just as the park was opening to non-Disney resort guests to head to breakfast.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney's Polynesian Villiage

    February 24, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    We arrived with nearly an hour in hand at the Polynesian, so we shopped for clothes for the Star Trek Cruise's Risan Festival of the Moon party in 'Boutiki' the resort shop. We took a wander round and a walk along the beach at the edge of the lagoon, rounded off with meeting Polynesian Pluto!

    The breakfast was great, we got a vegan version of the tonga toast (its an off menu option, but they were very accomodating) which came with a jug of hot maple syrup a strawberry and coconut cream drizzle. Alex had a side of vegan egg, Dan had vegan sausage. We also got a french press of coffee from a Hawaiian coffee plantation, where they rotate the crops between coffee and pineapple; it had quite a delicate flavour (definitely on the yummy side).

    The tonga toast is huge and filling, at the end of breakfast we were asked if we wanted anything to take away (coffee etc) - I think we might physically have burst if we had... high time to ride some rollercoasters.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney's Magic Kingdom

    February 24, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    For a February, Magic Kingdom was absolutely heaving. There were huge wait times for most rides, so we stuck mostly to our fastpasses, shows and the parade. We did take advantage of a short line to see Mary Poppins, who gave some very good advice on the importance of having a good chimney sweep and the inadvisability of running.

    With the major attractions so busy, we spent a lot more time enjoying the park's theming than we would have otherwise. We checked out the display models of the lightcycles from the upcoming Tron ride and played the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, which takes you on quests around Frontier Land, Liberty Square, Main Street USA and Fantasy Land.

    We also played a few of the pirate treasure games, which take you on quests around Adventure land. Once you discover enough pirate treasure you're rewarded with a fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean, so it was a good way of getting on another ride. The cast member at the exit of Pirates was doing such a good pirate voice we thought at first it was part of a recorded performance; as Alex passed by with her blue hair he covered his ears and cried "mermaid!".

    Having seen the fireworks on our first evening, we carried on riding as they went on walking around fantasy land as they exploded loudly above us. We stayed beyond the fireworks and left during the 'kiss goodnight' show which projects a story onto the castle.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney Animal Kingdom

    February 25, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Tuesday was our Animal Kingdom day. We kicked off with a fastpass for Filight of Passage, a fantastic ride that always attracts big crowds and long lines. We followed that up with snacks (we are waaaay behind the curve on using our pre-paid snack credits on our dining plan) and a bit of shopping before our second FP at Expedition Everest.

    The crowds and queues were still huge, to the point that it was difficult to even move about through the throngs, we think as a result of the Run Disney event that had happened at the weekend. To avoid endless lines we decided to concentrat mostly on non-ride activites, other than those we had fastpasses for.

    We headed to Dinoland USA where a special character event was on. We met the richest duck in the World - Scrouge McDuck himself, along with his trusty chaufer/pilot Launchpad McQuack. We also managed to grab a picture with some 'dinosaurs' who looked suspiciously familar. We capped off our time in Dinoland with our fastpass for the Dinosaur ride.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney Animal Kingdom, Discovery Island

    February 25, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    We took a late lunch by a pond with beautiful local birds looking on; being after the lunch rush, the resteraunt seating area seemed like an oasis of calm after the crowds on the main thoroughfares. Guests are asked not to feed the birds, so we must attribute the fact that more and more birds came to sit by Alex during our meal to her distinctive plumage (which did match a few of the more colourful feathers around).

    We caught Finding Nemo, the Musical at one of the park's theaters; Dan preferrs its predecessor 'Tarzan Rocks' but Alex is a big fan of the show. We finished our time at Animal Kingdom with a 'night blossom' slushy drink from the Pongu Pongu kiosque in Pandora.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Sanna, Animal Kingdom lodge

    February 25, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    We escaped the bustle of the theme park to Sanna, a resteraunt at Disney's Animal Kingdom lodge. We had their renouned bread service, and a selection of vegan curried vegetables.

    To get back 'home' we decided to transfer to the skyliner at Epcot, which means walking through the park during its evening 'extra magic' hours. We took the opportunity to grab some good pictures and a quick ride on Test Track (which had opened a day early from its refurbishment). We seemed to attract a few glitches as our touch screen in the pre-ride car design area of Test Track and the speaker in our car (#32) was cutting out.Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Slinky dog dash

    February 26, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We were keen to have another go at Rise of the Resistance, but decided against facing the early start and scrum of people trying to get in at park opening that day (an essential requirement to get a chance). Instead we kicked off our Wednesday at the Disney Hollywood Studios Park with a leisurely, late-morning coffee and Pretzel on 'Hollywood boulevard' before heading to our fast pass bookings.

    Although it had been attracting hours long queues throughout our stay, we hadn't expected much from the new Slinky Dog Dash coaster. At a glance it looks like a fairly run of the mill, out door steel coaster; whilst that is mostly true there are some cool details in the theming. The mechanism itself also seemed a little unusual, with the lift hills acting in a 'launch' style, rather than the conventional slow drag to the top, like a gentle version of rock'n' roller-coaster or the French Space Mountain.    Read more

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    "Get your elbows off the table! "

    February 26, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    For the afternoon we headed to the First Time in Forever, Frozen sing along show. It's good fun, but we had one eye on our watches because of our 14:00 reservation at the 50s Primetime Cafe, just across the square. We got out of the show a few minutes late, which raised our stress levels a little, but we none the less arrived right in the middle of our 10minute check-in window.

    The Cafe was running behind on its reservations, so it was a 'hurry up and wait' situation, but the bar area (themed on a 50s dinner/kitchen) was pretty cool. The cast in the resteraunt role-play aunts/cousins in the 50s so it was made very clear we were expected to clear our plates; some less well behaved guests at an adjacent table recieved a yell of 'get your elbows off my table'. Forutnately we had been tipped-off about that house rule ahead of time and emerged with stickers to show our membership of the "official clean plates club" (although Alex completely cheated by covering the remains of her meal with her napkin!).

    By the time we emerged from the Prime Time Cafe a fairly heavy rain had started, further cooling the unseasonably chilly day. The wait times at Epcot looked much more favourable, so decided to head over there; Dan was keen to take the 'friendship' boat, whilst Alex wanted the Skyliner, so naturally we took the Skyliner. We were treated to a substantial roll and frequent announcements that the service may be terminated at any time due to the strong winds.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Epcot Forever!

    February 26, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    As we arrived at Epcot in towards the end of the afternoon, it was already noticeably quiet compared to other days of our trip, with more people heading out as we ere heading in (presumably to escape the rain).

    We headed straight to Imagination with Figment, which we were able to board directly… only for it to promptly break down whilst we were in the room with the bad smell effect. As it happened the couple sharing the car with us were from the Rhondda; we had a pleasant chat with them about how Americans struggle with Welsh accents. Sadly in the other cards people were a little cross and weren’t very pleasant to the cast members. The ride did eventually move on, but with the sound track synchronisation messed up so we experienced a lot of in strange silence - but we were all given an extra fast-pass to make up at the end of the ride.

    After that we we hit basically all of the attractions in ‘Future world’ with out much in the way of waits. We stumbled across a Mickey meet-and-greet with no wait, got onto Soarin’, the Land, The Seas and Spaceship Earth all in a few hours. We happened to visit the seas whilst one of the back-stage SCUBA tours was going on, so we got to see a dozen or so very unusual ‘fish’ in the aquarium tank.

    By the evening things were still cold, but the rain had mostly cleared up. We headed to World Showcase, where we intended to ride the Mexico Three Calliberos ride, but found it closed, so we headed to ‘Morocco’ for a quick service meal. The food in the Tangerine cafe is good (lots of tasty hummus) but Dan was suitably appalled when asked if he wanted his mint tea iced :o. After dinner we headed to Frozen Ever After, and were able to get on after a short wait (a queue which had been 90mins to two hours most of our trip) and were out in time to get to the fastpass viewing area for the "Epcot Forever" fireworks show.

    The show is 10 minutes of great fireworks, lasers, clever use of kites and unapologetic fan service, with call backs to some past Epcot favourites like horizons, the universe of energy and the tapestry of nations parade. Most of the show is set to a version of ‘one little spark’ from Journey into the Imagination. It was a great and memorable end to a day that had been really fun, despite the rain.

    We shared a Skyliner gondola home with some Disney super-fans who told us about a new documentary series on Disney+. One of them was a huge fan of Rattatoulie, and was a bit dissapointed the new ride wasn't open yet in Epcot's France pavillion, so Dan gave them a pin from the Disneyland Paris version.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Disney’s Boardwalk

    February 27, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Thursday was a beautiful, bright day in contrast to the rain of Wednesday with great views from the Skyliner as we headed back to Epcot. Alex rocked her new Sally dress bought at Disney Springs the previous Sunday and we sipped root-beer as we travelled back to ’Norway’ for another go on Frozen Ever After.

    We used our Frozen Fast Pass, visited the Gods of the Vikings exhibit for brain food and then the Kringla bakery for food food. We then left Epcot again, for a stroll out onto the Boardwalk for coffee and to checkout the shops. After that we headed on to Magic Kingdom, passing back through Epcot to reach the monorail station pausing to snatch up a maple popcorn in ‘Canada’ because its too good to do only once in a trip.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Skipper Canteen

    February 27, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    We headed straight to our lunch reservation at the Jungle Navigation Company - Skipper Canteen, pausing only to catch a couple of songs by the Dapper Dans (the barber’s shop quartet in residence on main-street). The skipper canteen is where the Jungle Cruise skippers get their lunch; it is operated by skippers not currently steering their boats through the rivers of the world. We we were seated in the Society of Explorers and Adventurers room, which is hidden behind a book-case at the back of the canteen.

    Our table was in a booth with a collection of butterflies mounted on the wall. The food was really good, by the end of meal Dan’s plate was completely clean. As we left our skipper suggested that “if at first you don’t succeed, lion taming isn’t for you”. It seems his brother tried it, and got his entire left side eaten - but he’s all right now. At home they now call him I-lean, but they’re not super close as he’s a half-brother.

    We finished out this visit to the Magic Kingdom with a fastpass to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, then caught the Move it shake it dance party and stopped by the Art of Disney shop on the way out. The last float in the dance party had Goofy and Max, matching Dan’s Goofy Movie magic band. The Art of Disney shop had some beautiful work, including a book of characters you can request to be sketched by the in house artists that included Gismo Duck, the Rescue Rangers, the crew from Talespin, Phineas & Ferb as well as Agent P; sadly Tron was absent.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Polynesian Village Resort

    February 27, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    We took the monorail over to the Pollynesian Village resort, our second visit this trip. We headed straight to Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, a speak easy hidden behind a nondescript door. There was a wait for a Table, so ignoring that the night was already becoming pretty cold, we headed to Pineapple Lanai so Dan could get a Dolewhip (a Pineapple soft-serve known for Disney). We walked along the beach to get a look at the lagoon at night.

    When our pager buzzed to summon us back to Trader Sam’s, the remainder of the Dolewhip had to be wolfed down. The bar is dimly lit, looks out through ‘windows’ onto a volcanic mountain at night and is decorated with various artefacts from the adventures of Trader Sam and his friends. We took a seat by the ‘window’, and ordered a Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Rum for Alex and a Polynesian punch for Dan.

    Not long after a couple of Canadians (that work in New York) waked in, they were looking for a seat and we invited them to share our table. We had a lovely conversation about their trips to Disney over the years (they were Disney Vacation Club members). Many of the drinks on the Trader Sam’s menu have been cursed by the Tiki gods, so our discussion was punctuated by volcanic eruptions and instructions from the bar staff to swim for our lives as various disasters befell the bar when customers ordered them.

    We headed back to the Magic Kingdom for a bus, with hindsight much earlier than we needed to; the line for the bus back to Art of Animation was long and the night had gotten surprisingly cold but we got ‘home’ in the end.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Hollywood Studios

    February 28, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    Friday was our last full day at Disney, so we made an earlier start in the hope of getting another opportunity go at Rise of the Resistance. Irritatingly, when we arrived we found the Skyliner wouldn’t open for nearly half an hour, and a long queue had already formed. The Skyliner opened at 08:30, by the time we had boarded, lined up again for our connecting ‘flight’ from Caribbean Beach and gotten through bag check it was after nine and the park had been open several minutes, allowing us to join only the 123rd boarding group. Only the first 64 groups are guaranteed to be accommodated, but we managed to get in previously as part of the 124th group, so we weren’t too disheartened.

    Having gotten into the park, we decided to queue up for Rock ’n’ Rollercoaster. We played the Toy Story games on the Disney parks app whilst we waited, by the time we boarded we had waited 1hr 15mins (easily the longest time we had waited) and people joining the queue were expected to wait about two hours. Despite being a ‘low’ season at Disney, this had been typical of the kinds of waits and this was one of the few times we lined up without a fastpass for a major attraction.

    We finished the morning with coffee and fastpass attractions and some shopping and trading for pins, allowing Dan to complete a set of pins for the very first time as well as picking up some pins with designs related to significant events or attractions from this trip.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Oga's Cantina

    February 28, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    For lunch we walked up to the Sci-fi Dine-in Theatre restaurant and managed to grab the very last table for lunch (although we had to sit at the back, rather in one of the cool cars). The plant based options included a burger which seemed to use the impossible burger (as opposed to the beyond burgers we had found at other spots) and an oreo milk shake with vegan whipped cream.

    After lunch, we stopped in at the Voyage of the little mermaid show (which has great puppetry) and Star Tours before heading to Galaxy’s edge where we had a reservation at Oga’s Cantina. Whilst we were waiting Kylo Ran passed by, inteorrogating people he suspected of being members of the resistance.

    Inside the cantina, recently reprogrammed pilot dried R3X was adjusting to his new programming, only occasionally believing he was making a light speed jump to Endor. We were at a standing table, a little way from the heavily themed bar which we shared with another pair of Disney Vacation club members. It was super themed, so we got some tasty cocktails/mocktails and spent soaked in the details.

    By the time we left we got a notification that our boarding group wouldn’t be called that day (through put had obviously been lower than the other day we visited). With no chance of getting onto rise of the resistance and nearly three hours queue length for smugger’s run, we decided to head over to Magic Kingdom.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

    Magic Kingdom

    February 28, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    The timing of our journey meant we were on the Skyliner at sunset, which was very pretty. We stopped off at the room to drop off our bag and then headed to Magic Kingdom by Disney bus. We chatted to a gentleman who was headed to the Villains after hours party that was going on that evening.


    We had only a couple of hours before the park closed, but we managed to get through a decent crop of attractions, including several we hadn’t gotten around to this trip. We rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority People Mover, and got a rare look at Space Mountain with the lights on (as it was temporarily stopped for a fault). We took a picture with the Tron light cycles lit up for night.

    As fireworks time came around we headed to the newly reopened Splash Mountain, which we were able to get on almost right away, we even managed to see quite a lot of the fireworks from the ride. We followed that up with Jungle Cruise (on which we had particularly good skipper) and Pirates of the Caribbean.

    To finish out the night we had a rushed dinner of plant based sloppy joes and strawberry/lemonade slashies that gave us brain freeze at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (sadly Ray himself was not in, as his show is on temporary hiatus). We chose Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin as our last ride and slipped in at a few minutes to park close.

    We made our way out slowly, and caught a distant glimpse of some of the special Villains after hours entertainment (which we might have considered grabbing tickets for if we weren’t so tired). We decided it looked cool enough that we would probably want to do it on a future trip. As a final little surprise, we were directed into an area that is (technically) backstage to exit the park, bypassing mainstream USA through a staging area for parades.    Read more

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