We are staying in multiple resorts during our stay and today was our first change. We did a bit of packing last night but still had more to do today. We needed to be out of the room by 11am but wanted to make the most of early hours in the parks so we decided to head to the park first and then come back to move.
Park booking for today was Epcot so we were on the app at 7am to get another boarding group for Guardians. Success! Group 9 🙂
So we got on the bus to get to Epcot for early hours and by the time our boarding group was called just after we arrived. On our way to the ride we stopped at ‘Gateway Gifts’ which is one of the shops just when you enter the park. Today was the launch of the new Magic Bands – Magic Band+. My son wanted to buy one of these and they were being sold at one shop in each park. When Disney releases a new product lines can be huge so we wanted to be there early. We were lucky in that there was actually hardly any queue (my son heard later on that the queues at Magic Kingdom had been insane!). Magic band purchased we headed over to Guardians but little did we know that this was NOT going to be a regular ride!
All went well at first. We walked through the queue as it wasn’t very busy. We got into the first pre-show room and then into the second, all as usual. Even got onto the ride as usual. The way the ride works is that the cars head off around a corner and then there is a short climb up to the start of the ride. We started the clim and then stopped. Okay, most likely no problem. If there were issues unloading at the end of the ride (maybe a wheelchair transfer) then often the ride is held so that there isn’t a backing up of cars. Usually lasts less than a minute. This didn’t. 5 mins later the lights all went on! Now for most Disney parks fans the one thing they dream of is an evac (a ride evacuation), especially on a dark ride where they will have to put the lights on and you see things you don’t normally see – Haunted Mansion is the dream evac for this reason. But with this one we hadn’t really gone anywhere so it would be a pretty boring evac.
There were lots of regular announcements telling us to remain seated and after about another 5 mins the lights went off and we started again. It wasn’t really an issue as the ride proper hadn’t really started so it didn’t interrupt the experience. However, when we got to the end there was a cast member there and as everyone got off he was scanning our bands. Turns out that they were giving us all an free lightning lane to ride it again due to the interruption – result!
We didn’t have time to ride it then but knew we were going to go back this afternoon so that would work out great. So having done the ride we had a ride on Test Track (my son’s favourite ride) and then it was back to the resort to check out.
Then it was a quick drive over to Beach Club. This is our DVC home resort (where we own points) and it is lovely. The theming is great, and it is a 5 min walk to Epcot which is a BIG plus. It also has one of the best pools on property. The only downside is that there is a distinct lack of quick service options. The Market Place (the resort shop) has some things, but what we really miss is an actual restaurant to sit in to eat the meals.
Anyway, our room is lovely. It’s a deluxe studio (the smallest type of DVC room) and has a mini kitchen which we didn’t have in Port Orleans. One good thing about this resort is there is a drop down bed (Murphy bed) under the TV so it technically sleeps 5 (double bed, double sofa bed, and single Murphy bed). This is great for us as the children don’t want to share a bed at their age so the air bed we used at Port Orleans is not needed now!
We got to the resort but the room wasn’t ready (as expected, check in is not technically till 4pm) so we left most of the luggage in the car and took a few things that we didn’t want to leave there in the heat – we did that one year with one of my daughter’s American Girl dolls and its face became very squidgy! – to bell services and then headed back to Epcot.
Earlier on in the day we had booked a lightning lane for Ratatouille and we also had the lightning lane we had been given for Guardians. However, when we checked we saw that the Guardians one was actually an any experience lightning lane. This meant that the first ride we checked into would use that one. Our plan had been to do Ratatouille first as it is right next to the International Gateway entrance which is where you come in when walking from the resort. But we obviously didn’t want to miss out on our extra Guardians ride – which is at the opposite end of the park – so we headed over to do that again.
Remember how I said on Monday that there are six songs for the ride and you get given one at random? Well, this was our third ride and for the third time we got ‘September’ – think I will always associate that with the ride now.
Everyone else then decided to go and do Mission Space. This is one a WON’T do as I felt so ill the first time I did it. So whilst they did that I went off and did Spaceship Earth.
We then checked the app and our room had been allocated at the resort which meant it was ready. So we headed back to unpack
We did a bit of unpacking and sorting and had a bit of a rethink over our upcoming plans. See, we really like Guardians. And the only reliable way to get a ride (apart from paying) is to get a boarding group a 7am. Only, to do that you have to have a park reservation at Epcot. We had spread our park reservations out across the different parks. The way the system works is that you reserve a park and then after 2pm you can park hop to a different park. So we decided to change some reservations. We have switched a lot of them to Epcot and then are going to rely on park hopping to go to different parks for the afternoon/evening. Did I mention that Guardians is the best ride ever? 😉
It was now late afternoon so it was time to park hop and we headed to Magic Kingdom for rides and fireworks. We did Pirates of the Caribbean and Seven Dwarves with the DAS and then got a good spot for the fireworks. I struggle a lot with crowds and we were told about a Disabled section that we could enter with our DAS but we were also told that you need to be there really early! So instead we decided to watch it from the end of Main Street. This was partly because it would be less crowded but also we could then keep to one side out of the way of the crowds before we headed back up into the park to do some rides.
The firework show – ‘Enchantment’ – is a new one since we were last here. It has been specially done for the 50th. Like ‘Happily Ever After’ it uses a mixture of projections on the castle and fireworks.
Verdict? It was good. But it was definitely no ‘Happily Ever After’. Nor ‘Wishes’. I don’t know what it was, but something didn’t feel the same. Though they still have Tinker bell flying from the Castle down to Tomorrowland – and yes that bit still made me cry.
We hung back by City Hall as the crowds poured down Main Street. Although the park doesn’t close after the fireworks people with small children tend to leave then. Once it had calmed down we headed back up into the park and rode Big Thunder Mountain in the dark – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time 🙂
Finally – photo time in front of the castle!
