Fest 2 of 4 done! A Salute to All Holidays but Mostly Christmas, Day 3
After a cozy evening in, the next two days were going to be bangin'. This morning would take me park hopping, exploring, and enjoying extended hours in a very empty EPCOT. But it would start with a frustrating Genie+ experience, that was mostly my fault. Mostly.
I got up before 7 and checked the price of G+. I hadn't initially been planning to buy Genie+ at all this trip, but I noticed the prices were pretty low all week and while wait times haven't been outrageous, G+ would likely help me hit more highlights between Hollywood Studios and EPCOT. It was $25 for the park hopper so I went ahead and bought it and at 6:59:59 a.m. I hit refresh to try and get a Slinky Dog Dash LL with an early return time. Well, it took a bit longer to refresh than usual and my window was 11:05 to 12:05, which is actually quite good, all things considered. But I wasn't satisfied. Oh no, my G+ expertise knew I needed a return time earlier than 11 to get the most bang for my buck and get more LL's in Studios. My hubris got the better of me. I refreshed a few times and saw a 9:25 a.m. pop up and when I tried to grab it my fingers worked quicker than my brain because I hit "confirm" too quickly to notice the return window was not, in fact, 9:25 a.m. anymore it was 5:30 p.m. Oh no, this was not going to work because I had no intention to be in Studios past noon. I refreshed again and again but to no success. So I had to make a decision. I checked over in EPCOT for the Remy return times because I knew that one would be the next to sell out. Return times were already at 4:15 p.m. so I snagged one of those and hoped I could get something in HS at 11 a.m. I was so frustrated with myself, and the Genie. Oh well, I could still rope drop! I also bought Guardians for later that evening.
I made it to Studios for early entry rope drop where the CM's at the front of the park were announcing Rise was on delayed opening. It didn't impact my plans since I didn't want to buy or ride Rise this trip anyway, but it meant everyone else was lining up for Slink, which also opened slightly later than 8:30. I joined the Slinky standby line that stretched all the way back to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid building, I kid you not! I started my timer at 8:32. The posted wait was 45 minutes and I was on Slinky at 9:10 a.m. so fairly accurate. While in line I mobile ordered a hot chocolate lunchbox tart at Woody's and my favorite quick service meal of all time, a morning Ronto Wrap. I picked up my food and ate breakfast at Ronto Roasters. Rise hadn't come back up and standby for Smuggler's was 35 minutes so I went in the single rider line. By some miracle, I was on in 7 minutes as a Pilot!!! Even the CM sorting us was like "oh wow, that's rare." I know! I really enjoy Smuggler's, but I know it's awkward as a solo person crashing some family's vacation but when you're the pilot it feels better than lurking in the back as the Engineer. I loitered around Galaxy's Edge a little to see if Rise would come back up at the right time for me to jump in standby with minimal wait, but no dice. It ended up coming back up late in the day, so I was very glad I didn't buy it. I did get to see Mando and Grogu though, which was really special. I love that baby.
I wanted to see Beauty and the Beast at 11, so I made my way out of GE by way of MuppetVision 3D (an old favorite) and then got to B&B for the first show. I had my eye on Tower for my next ride and got a LL for 11:50, which worked beautifully. I hadn't seen B&B in probably 15 years, and I was NOT prepared to hear the movie actors' voices and nearly had a breakdown when Angela Lansbury's voice hit my ears. B&B is one of my favorite animated films of all time. As a classic movie fan, I've seen most of her films from Gaslight to The Court Jester and The Manchurian Candidate, and of course watched countless episodes of Murder, She Wrote. I never saw her perform on Broadway but I've listened to the original cast recordings of Sweeney, Mame, and A Little Night Music my entire life. I mourned her death. It was a bittersweet delight to hear her voice again, and Jerry Orbach's for that matter.
After unexpected emotional wreckage at B&B, Tower of Terror was just the ticket to shake that off. I scanned in and the LL was a little backed up, and there was a second LL touchpoint that took about 8 minutes to get to, and I anxiously kept refreshing G+ so I could get my next one. Once I scanned in, I took a look at Frozen Ever After and got lucky with a 6:05 return. I refreshed a few times so see if I could get anything a little earlier and then the availability disappeared so I wasn't about to tempt fate a second time that day. I made my way out of Studios, stopping at Starbucks on the way, around noon and hit the EPCOT resort boat. I had nearly 2 hours before I could hop to EPCOT and I wanted to tour the EPCOT resorts to see the Christmas decor and displays. Everything was beautiful and I'm so glad I took a nice long break to relax.
I scanned into EPCOT through the International Gateway at 1:45 and noticed the Guardians Virtual Queue was still available so I snagged a spot that would align with my LL return time. Excellent. I booked it to the American Adventure so I could get a prime spot to hear Voices of Liberty. VOL are my favorite and I've never caught their Holiday set. They were incredible as always. I adore a capella. After that I snacked my way back around to France. I hit up some festival booths and bars, did the B&B sing-a-long in France (there's Angela and my tears again), soothed my feelings with a macaroon ice cream sandwich, rode Remy, got a Snakebite and the Pub as offering to the Column (IYKYK), caught the end of Joyful's set (amazing performers who took us all to church and the Black energy and excellence in that area of the park makes me so happy).
I had more time to soak up all the Holiday vibes in the park and kept going around through Mexico, got a marg at Cava del Tequila, more festival booths, Rio del Tiempo, and saw the Christmas storytellers in Norway. The sun had set and World Showcase had come alive with lights and sounds. I love the parks at night, and this was just on a completely different level. I used my Frozen LL and then got another one for Soarin'. From Norway I went toward the front of the park to ride Guardians using my LL and VQ. I had to call Husband to chat for a bit and when I arrived at Guardians I scanned in through the LL and knew immediately something was wrong. The LL line was all the way back to the bottom of the ramp and no one in the LL or VQ lines was moving. Not long after the announcement our transports were delayed came on. I decided to wait it out, finished my call with Hubs, and about 12 minutes or so we were moving again. It took a few minutes for the ride to catch back up with the queue, but I was on in about 35 minutes total. It was worth the wait because I got September, which was the first time for me! It's a really fun song for that ride, no doubt that's why it's so popular. I had enough time to bop over to The Land and ride the Glimmering Greenhouses, and then bounce back over to Guardians for round 2. It took about 30 minutes to get through the VQ and I got One Way or Another, which I have had once before.
Timing worked out great for me to get from Guardians to Mexico with 15 minutes to spare before Luminous. It had just debuted the week before and I had avoided all my favorite internet creators' pages and social media so I could see it fresh and uninformed. It's absolutely beautiful, like they took the best parts of Harmonious (which I didn't hate but felt kind of "meh" about) and IllumiNations (which I adored) and put them together with just the right amount of original music and IP to really tug at your heartstrings. They also used Walt's voice as the very last "Welcome" at the end of the introduction and it almost broke me after an already emotional day. You can get a great view of the show from anywhere in the WS, it really uses the space well. But there are effects on Spaceship Earth I didn't see from Mexico, so if you'd like to have that I'd go back to Italy, America, Japan, or Morocco.
After Luminous, I got empanadas and Sangria from Cantina de San Angel and ate while the rest of the non-deluxe guests exited the park. I then enjoyed an empty Future World (I will not call it anything else) for extended hours. There was no line for Soarin' and I had completely forgotten I booked a LL for it earlier that I never used! Walked through Journey of Water by myself and got to enjoy it free of crowds and rowdy children splashing around, hopped aboard Test Track, and ended with Spaceship Earth before dragging my tired self back to the bus.
