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Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020

February - March 2020
A 18-day adventure by Alex & Dan Read more
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  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
    Day 7

    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
    Day 7

    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
    Day 8

    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
    Day 8

    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
    Day 8

    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

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
    Day 9

    Topelino’s Terrace

    February 29, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    On our last morning in Disney, Dan finally got out or a brief run around hourglass lake. Obviously that was a stupid idea, because you always have less time than you think on your last morning anywhere. We left our luggage with the hotel and headed out for our breakfast.

    We had decided to finish our time at Disney with breakfast at the new Topelino’s Terrace restaurant, on the top level of the recently completed Rivera resort. The restaurant has large picture windows and a terrace; being high up and on the Eastern edge of Disney World, it offers views of many of the major landmarks. To the south can be seen our hotel (Art of Animation) and Caribbean Beach; to the south west Hollywood Studios’ tower of terror is clearly visible; west south west the Animal Kingdom tree of life and expedition Everest can be seen. Looking further north the Swan & Dolphin and yact/beach club resorts can be seen; directly to the north west Epcot’s world showcase and most of future world can be seen (although Space Ship Earth is obscured by the opposite wing of Rivierra).

    The meal is a beautify themed breakfast with Mickey, Mini, Donald and Daisy who are each practicing different forms of art in the Riviera. It begins with a bowl of pastries, the bowl is designed to look like a paint pot, with breadsticks shaped to look like paintbrushes sticking out from the top (sadly the pastries are not plants). The vegan breakfast is a wild mushroom scramble (which is more like an omelette in appearance) with a tasty vegan sausage, potatoes and a house bend of fruit juices.

    Mickey provided a great finish: he spotted Baymax on Alex’s t-shirt and performed the robot’s trademark ‘blahlalala’ fist bump. A final ‘flight’ back to Art on the Skyliner to collect our luggage marked the final end of our time in Disney.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
    Day 9

    The Silver Meteor

    February 29, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    There were a few complications with checkout, and a mixup between the wait staff at the restaurant had delayed our departure, so we were running fairly late by the time we arrived at the Kissimmee Amtrak railway station. Fortunately although we were technically past the posted deadline, we were allowed to check-in our luggage (which we weren’t allowed to carry on ourselves). The station is very unlike those in Europe, with no raised platform - just a concrete pathway with some shelters and an office beside the tracks.

    Train departures are a bit more of an all hands on deck affair on the US national railway, with only two departures in each direction per day. Well before the train arrived, the platform staff directed the dozen or so passengers joining the train to a point on the platform which the train crew had let them know had seats available, tickets were inspected as passengers boarded and we were told which seat number to take. Although not significantly bigger than a British train, climbing up from ground rather than platform level made it seem quite imposing and strange.

    The train was rolling almost before we had found our seats, leaving at 13:30 (4mins late); despite the fact that its one of only 4 trains a day it was dispatched quicker than most British trains which have hundreds of passengers getting on an off in a relatively disorganised throng. The train runs all the way from Boston, and takes more than 24 hours to complete its journey, in consequence the seating is spacious with lots of legroom for the benefit of those sleeping onboard (there also sleeping berths in other cars). There was a buffet car onboard, but with small chance of a decent vegan offering, we had used the last of our Disney dining plan credits to get some hummus and vegetable boxes from the marketplace fridges at Art of Animation.

    From Kissimmee, the track runs south as far as the town of Sebring, where it turns to the south east passing through huge areas of Florida’s famous orange groves towards the Atalntic coast. From West Palm Beach the track turns again, this time due south to complete the journey to Miami through the essentially continuous conurbation that follows this part of the coast. The service arrived nearly an hour early, pulling into the Miami station just as the sun was settling low to the westward horizon.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
    Day 9

    Miami

    February 29, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Due to a series of mess-ups with the taxi company, between collecting our baggage and waiting for our taxi we were hanging around the station for about two hours. It took about 40minutes to reach Miami’s South Beach, passing first through slightly ramshackle looking suburbs and then the imposing skyline of Miami’s down town. Finally we crossed the bridge to south beach, which is across the water from Miami’s cruise port

    We had booked a night at the Beacon hotel, one of the art deco style hotels South Beach is known for. The hotel’s name is illuminated in neon and a live Jazz set was being performed on the porch. The room was fairly spacious and well appointed, but still felt small after our suite at Disney, leaving us a little apprehensive as to how we would do in the smaller cruise ship state room. Quickly though we were heading out to walk along ocean drive and see more of the art deco architecture it is know for.

    Ocean Drive on a Saturday night is a loud party scene; live jazz and loud, bass-y DJ sets blare from various bars merging with the growl of Americian muscle cars crawling along in the traffic. Each venue’s music is distinct only as you pass directly by, blending into the bewildering cacophony of sound. The tourists out to see the buildings were juxtaposed oddly against bar patrons in their club/dance attire.

    Back in the room the noise from our ocean facing window was considerable, so we watched an episode of Picard until we felt sleepy enough that the noise no longer mattered (and as a bonus we were now only one episode behind).    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
    1
    Day 10

    Beacon Hotel, Miami South Beach

    March 1, 2020 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    We we woke before dawn to a much quieter hotel. We took advantage of our ocean view room by watching the sunrise over the beach before getting up to date with Picard (a necessary precaution as we’re confident nowhere on the planet could be more dangerous in terms of encountering plot spoilers). We packed and watched a little of the running event going on on Ocean Drive that morning, before heading out for coffee.

    South beach is known for the Cuban-style espresso coffee, popularised by the large community of Cuban emigres that settled in the area following Fidel Castro’s rise to power. We headed to a small Cuban cafe near the hotel. Entering was like stepping back in time; the most striking anachronism (to a British person) was the wooden rack of branded cigarette packets prominently displayed behind the counter, followed closely by the old mechanical cash register. The cuban-style coffee did not disappoint; it was strong, but relatively delicate for an espresso coffee.

    Ere long, we were back at the hotel waiting on the porch for a taxi as patrons of the hotel restaurant ate breakfast and birds played on the parasols. The taxi ride As we he gentleman driving pointed out landmarks as we went, indicating homes of celebrities and the sites of events in the city’s history. A sea plane swooped low over the bridge as we were crossing from South Beach to downtown Miami.    Read more

  • Disney & Star Trek Trip 2020
    Day 10

    Port of Miami

    March 1, 2020 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    When we arrived at the pier the dockside was all bustle and confusion, with luggage piled everywhere and ragged lines of tourists were stretched out everywhere with no immediately apparent purpose to them. The still and imposing shapes of the row of cruise ships in the port stood in contrast to the maelstrom of people on the quayside. More interesting though was the array of amazing t-shirt slogans, luggage and props making Star Trek in-jokes, leaving no doubt about whether we were int he right place.

    The lines to board were long, and to be honest seemed unnecessary (as there was no use of any virtual queue system) but a mere couple of hours after arriving at the port we were closing the gang plank to board Explorer of the Seas. As we started to look around the lower few decks to find our cabin we were delighted by the various bits of theming - Qua’ plagh (the Klingon pub), Quark’s Casino and pictures of Jean Luc Picard in a napoleonic naval uniform on the walls. Soon we had added to this by placing our custom sign on our stateroom door; it showed our names and the compartment number for our stateroom which I had worked out by looking at deck plans and applying the TNG tech manual.

    The numbers in the sign are 14 because its the 14th deck counting from the top (ventral) most deck; 5 because it is in a long section (as opposed to a saucer, neck or nacelle), another 5 because it is in the 5th of 9 equally sized sections along the length of the vessel (starting at the bow) and 18 because it is the 18th compartment in the section (which I counted as even to port side, odd to starboard).    Read more

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