Welcome back to my tales of my first solo trip to the World. Last week, we left off having completed the first two days of my journey through Universal and Disney World. Vito and I had had an exhausting two days, but we were ready for another amazing, Disney-filled day, so let’s jump to it!
We were up and at it early again the third day, making it to Epcot for park opening. We started our day with Test Track because that line always gets busy as the day progresses. Test Track has always been one of my favorite attractions at Walt Disney World, and this time was no exception. It is one of the most unique attractions I have ever ridden, truly a marvel of Imagineering.
Because of the tiered Fastpass system at Epcot, we knew we had to get on some of the bigger rides early in the morning, so we dashed over to Soarin’ afterwards. There are some detractors out there regarding the new Soarin’ film, but I think it looks visually stunning and am a huge fan of it. I had seen it plenty of times over the summer at Disney California Adventure, so I was psyched to see it again in Florida. There aren’t too many differences between the two, except Epcot replaced Disneyland at the end of the film, an awesome change to help make each version of the attraction unique.
Then, we jumped over to Spaceship Earth because that attraction is one of the most amazing attractions in the entire world. Traveling through the history of writing and the world, this ride features so many audio-animatronics and a trip through the giant geodesic weenie that it is hard not to love. Ok, it may not sound that exciting, but the entire scope of it is just so overwhelming that I cannot ride the attraction enough.
Now I have to premise this part of the article by saying that I have a very interesting taste in attractions, with some of my favorite attractions being ones that most people don’t like. With that in mind, after Spaceship Earth, it was time for Living with the Land and Journey into Imagination with Figment. I truly believe these attractions don’t get their fair share of love, but that’s fine because it means I get to ride them over and over, relishing every second of them. They are honestly some of my favorite attractions at Walt Disney World, ones that I have to do every time I am there.
After the high of those attractions, it was finally time for one of Vito and I’s most anticipated attractions, Frozen Ever After. We had seen the opening day lines of five hours, and as we monitored the attraction line before we arrived, we never saw the line below 90 minutes. With that in mind, we made that Fastpass our top priority when planning our trip.
I have to admit that I am a big Frozen fan (I think mainly because it is not as popular nowadays). That being said, I may have loved Frozen Ever After more than most because I got to see some of my favorite characters come to life. And come to life they did, because the Audio-Animatronics in this attraction are simply fantastic, utilizing the same technology as the dwarfs in the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. My mouth dropped a few times, so I believe that this attraction deserves all the hype and cannot recommend it enough.
We ended our time in Epcot with a trip on Ellen’s Energy Adventure.With all of the rumors saying it will be closing soon, we felt we had to take the time to visit it one final time. Neither of us had ridden this attraction in years, and I have to say that it really isn’t particularly exciting. It was nice to have the final chance to experience it, but I’m excited to see what will replace it. (The most common rumor is that it will be a Marvel attraction, either Guardians of the Galaxy or Dr. Strange.)
After ending our time at Epcot, it was time to stop by the hotel to change into our costumes for Mickey’s-Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. We wanted to have a true buddy look, so we decided on Wilbur and Cornelius Robinson (sans the hair). Fully garbed, we jumped on a bus to the Magic Kingdom for our meal at the Skipper Canteen.
I have mixed thoughts about the Skipper Canteen. To start, I enjoyed the food much more than I thought I would (though I did order a steak and hadn’t had one in months so any steak was going to be amazing), especially because I’m a picky eater and there weren’t many options for me. But on the other hand, I am a huge Jungle Cruise fan, and while it looked like the attraction, it definitely did not feel the same. The waiters and waitresses simply didn’t create the same atmosphere of the attraction, so I left a bit disappointed in that respect, but super happy with my meal and the service otherwise.
After our meal, we decided to simply wander around throughout the park, looking for short waits before the Halloween Party began.
At 7 PM, the festivities began, and it was time to go on attractions and get candy galore. Having only been to the party in California, I was a little confused at first because the candy stations were not like I remembered them. In California, they have five or six people giving out candy scattered throughout each station, and you can’t help but get massive amounts of candy. On the other hand, in Walt Disney World, there were only two people giving out candy at each station, and the lines were super long for them at the beginning of the night (though they did get progressively shorter).
Now I stopped taking pictures that night for some reason, so I don’t remember the order of what we did. So what I’ll do is run you through the Halloween stuff we did, and then just some thoughts about attractions that I remember.
To start with the Halloween festivities, we saw the Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular Show. Hocus Pocus is one of Vito’s favorite movies, so he really enjoyed it, but I was not quite as impressed. I thought the beginning lagged a little bit, but the end was definitely much more exciting and helped make up for the first half.
Right after the show, we were in a perfect position to enjoy the Boo to You parade, so we stuck around for that. What I really loved about the parade was that it included so many lesser-known Disney characters like the Country Bears and Clarabelle Cow. It pulled out all the stops to represent as many characters as it possibly could, and I really respect Disney for doing that.
One thing we were a little disappointed by was that fact that Celebrate the Magic did not have a special Halloween version of the show. But there was HalloWishes, which I especially liked because it reminded me of Halloween Screams, the fireworks from Disneyland’s Party. However, I again wished that they would do more projections on the castle during the fireworks because I believe that it really adds to the experience.
Ok now onto the notable attractions we did, and how I personally think they compare to the ones in Disneyland. To start, we rode Splash Mountain, which I prefer in Disneyland, I would have to say. I think the double seating works much better in Disney World, but I wish there were more lights on throughout the attraction. A lot of the characters were barely visible throughout the attraction, and I’m sure that wasn’t by design, but it definitely impeded my enjoyment.
We also got on Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, which is literally almost identically to the one in California, but the queue is much better in Florida. It’s always a fun attraction, and I can’t help singing along throughout.
While in Fantasyland, we also rode it’s a small world, which I definitely prefer in California. It felt so condensed in Florida, starting with the facade and moving through the entire attraction. But I did prefer the finale room in Florida because of the carnival type of atmosphere, which adds a lot to the overall experience.
The other Fantasyland attraction that we got on was The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh. This is going to be a running theme, but I actually prefer this attraction in Disneyland, as well. The primary reason for this decision is because I love the Heffalumps and Woosles scene, and it is done much better in California.
Along our travels, we accidentally ran into our nemesis, Bowler Hat Guy, along with his sidekick Doris. It was such a surreal moment to run into other people dressed as characters from Meet the Robinsons, so we took some time to chat and revel in the moment.
So after riding all those attractions in that nonlinear fashion, I do remember that we ended the night with Pirates of the Caribbean. That trip on Pirates was probably my biggest disappointment of the entire trip because it just doesn’t even compare to the one in California. I hadn’t ridden it in Florida in years, but it has slowly become one of my three favorite attractions at Disneyland (along with Indiana Jones and Buzz Lightyear in case you were wondering). I knew that it was shorter in Walt Disney World, but I did not realize that it was quite literally half of the length. I was shocked when the end came so soon. I have taken to calling it Pirates Lite because it shows a lot of parts from the original Pirates of the Caribbean, but you have to go to California to get the full thing.
So after that shocking attraction, the night had come to an end, and it was back to the room before we went back to the Magic Kingdom bright and early the next morning.
So that brings the second part of this mega article to a close. I hope you enjoyed and check back in next week for the thrilling conclusion. Have a magical day!